Asia Books

This is the second CD I have purchased from this company and I am amazed with the quality products they produce. As a "self proclaimed" history buff I have learned so much about Jaipur in so little time. The CD was full of interesting facts about the history of Jaipur and its forts, palaces, and surrounded buildings. From the water palace, to the palace of winds, to the mirror palace, to the many forts, to the resevoir with buried treasure, exploring Jaipur is a history buffs dream. The CD also highlights the detailed artwork that went into building such elaborate palaces. That alone is worth seeing this video. Also of interest was the influence of astronomy and the building of huge time instruments and seeing the local craftmen at work.

When I ordered this CD, I was not sure if it would add anything to the travel guide I bought earlier. I was extremely pleased that I did, because not only does it give all the travel related info on shopping, transportation, phrases etc., but also the incredible quality of video and photos actually made me realize how incredible these palaces are and I can't wait to go there. Plus viewing these places on my computer helped me decide on which points of interest to focus my time there. The alluring background music completes the illusion, and I was able to print all the info including color pictures that I will take with me on my trip and later add to my scrapbook. I would recommend this CD to anyone looking to learn more about India or visting the exotic/mystic city of Jaipur.

I am planning to visit India later this year and a friend of mine couldn't stop raving about these CDs and recommended that I buy them before my trip. Hats off to the developers of this product. The video, pictures and exotic Indian music in the background just enthralled my girlfriend and I. The best part is that now we know exactly which places to see and what to do during our trip. I am looking forward to the New Delhi CD to be released. Totally worth it!

The cover says it all in terms of rich and bright colors. The pictures are incredible and the film-roll photo viwer is really fun to play with. Travel info on the CD will be very useful for my trip to India and I was able to print everything to take with me. Although the CD has a list of hotels, restaurants, etc. but I wish that they had a list of preferred travel service providers who I could call to book sighseeing tours with and get a good deal. Also, I have an older B&W printer, so was unable to print pictures. Interactive map is really cool too.

I found My Japanese War Bride to be very enlightening. It shows how the right combination of two people can overcome any adversity and come out stronger. It takes us through Mike and Tsuchino's struggle to go from nothing to being able to have anything they want, and I found myself rooting for them against the military and both their families. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to sit down and just be entertained by two peoples faith and hope.

I found the book to be entertaining and humerous. It brought to mind memories of post-world war II attitudes and bureaucratic obfuscation that will be familiar to anyone who served in the military or worked for the government. Both Mike and Tsuchino come across as likeable, intelligent and determined people.

I enjoyed the book. Very easy read . I learned a few things about bureaucracy in the military that were disturbing.... dare to question and you pay for it, even if you are right.
The author by his life shows how to succeed by hard work , by giving 110% and by being well prepared so when an opportunity arose he was able to jump at it. Tsuchino is his perfect mate; expecting him to so his best always and willing to back him and follow him wherever his path led. A very inspiring love story .

There is little literature available about Japanese War Brides and this book gives an excellent first-person accounting of a husband and wife's strengths and devotion. I read the book in efforts to gain information for research, but found that I could not put it down, not because of my interests, but because it is a true story of overcoming the odds and finding success/happiness in love and marriage!

Michael Forrester has a provided his life story in an easy to follow, chronological manner that gives one a sense of understanding of the time and events. It is real, interesting, humorous and most of all heartwarming! I would suggest this book to all readers.

Love to look at pictures of this misterious culture and enjoy imagining their lives before the English arrival. Highly recommend it.

A truly enchanting book. After reading it I was on the Internet for hours, researching all the various people whose pictures were in it. Highly, highly recommended.

..from a surreal era of Indian history. It was a totally ostentatious and absolutely over the top lifestyle. The pockets of the sub-continent that were these states of princely India were to a degree remnants of the Mughal Empire. It truly must have been a painstaking process to put together all the photographs. But what a collection! Going through this book really takes you back in time, some superb rarely seen photographs. Some of the photographs are from private collections and national archives.

This is an extraordinary book, with fantastic pictures, some very famous, other belonging to princely familly collections, never seen before.Much better than most of the others on the same subject.

I highly recomend it for anyone interested on Imperial India and the maharajas

Revealing look at an Indian in America. Funny stories about cultural differences. This would be a good book for school summer reading because it teaches the value of hard work and good humor.

Similar to J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and Manhattan Project, Dr. Gill was unique in that he transcended the continuum of leadership from leadership within a specific academic domain to a macro, international recognition. This should not be surprising because of Dr. Gill's close association with the likes of Dr. Oppenheimer and Dr. E. Fermi, the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1938. Dr. Oppenheimer asked Dr. Gill to present a paper at the California Institute of Technology at a symposium organized to celebrate the 80th birthday of Prof. R.A. Millikan, winner of the 1928 Physics Nobel Prize. The parallels between Dr. Gill and Dr. Oppenheimer do not stop at academia; both men were instrumental in nuclear consulting with their respective chief of states. Pandit Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and a close friend of Dr. Gill, called upon Dr. Gill for nuclear arms advice.

Piara Singh Gill or "Pi," his nickname, has written a nicely detailed book in which he elucidates his struggles as a boy, his journey to America, and his work with the field of cosmic ray physics. Dr. Gill studied and worked under eminent professors such as Professor Compton. Dr. Gill was a nobel-caliber physicist, and this would have been realized by the masses had he have stayed in America, however, he returned to India to help his mother country.

Dr. Gill was a key figure during the middle of the 20th century enmeshed in Indian political and scientific dynamics. Prime Minister Nehru frequently asked Dr. Gill for advice; they used to have breakfast together. Science in India is synonymous with this father of Indian Science: Professor Gill.

I recommend this book because it shows that hard work certainly pays off! A must read for all immigrants and all people who believe in the American Dream!

It is a very nice biography of someone growing up in rural India and making a success of their life as a scientist. Dr. Gill gave back to his country a place in academic excellence in Physics. He had to constantly push against the odd forces of newly independent India, but achieved recognition for his efforts.

i certainly cannot improve on the review done by the man from Camp Lejeune, so be sure to read that review. I have not read Stanley Karnow's book on Vietnam although I found his Pulitzer-Prize-winning book In Our Image, on the Phillipines exceptionally good. My only complaint about this book is that it is hard to read straight through since the sidebars don't end on the same page and so sometimes one is reading a sidebar and when finishing it has to go back and find out where one left on in the main text. But if one wants a balanced view of the conflict--probably more critical of the war than some enthusiasts for it--this is the book to read.

When I was in 11th grade (1987), somehow I came across a copy of this book. At that time I wasn't an avid reader (or a lover or history), but this book made me one. It was extremely engaging and a worthwhile read. Boettcher hits it on the head, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

An indispensable book that effectively and efficiently covers the entirety of the Vietnam conflict, from its roots in French colonialism to the aftermath of the war up to, and including, the time of the book's publication (1983). Although Mr. Boettcher provides some very interesting, informative, and moving original material concerning the experiences and insights of some junior officers who actually served in Vietnam, most of the information presented in the book has previously been published in the many books he cites. Each of those works, however long each may be, looks at a fairly limited topic (e.g., Bernard Fall's work on Dien Bien Phu, Hell in a Very Small Place) or time period (e.g., David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, which focuses primarily on the early to mid-60s). Mr. Boettcher used the best sources available to assemble a coherent picture of the roots, growth, and aftermath of the conflict. The author does an outstanding job of distilling each work to its essence and using it in the way that best contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the issues. Having read a majority of the sources he cites, I was impressed how faithful he was to not only the content of those sources, but also to their context.

Content-wise, the most similar book I have seen is Stanley Karnow's Vietnam. One of the biggest differences between the two books, however, is Mr. Boettcher's extensive use of photo illustrations and sidebars. These devices make the book more accessible to those who have not read extensively on the matter. But the extra material is not there merely for entertainment or diversion, it serves like highly informative and readable footnotes. The sidebars add another layer to the story and the author's judicious use of photos proves the adage about each picture being worth a thousand words.
Unlike most of the other prominent historians of the war, the author has a rare perspective, having served in Vietnam as a young air force officer during 1968 and 1969. At the hands of another writer, that background could have been a constraint, turning the book into a love song to himself or a hate letter to those he felt let him down, but Mr. Boettcher is largely invisible throughout the book. My feeling was that Mr. Boettcher did not write this book about himself, but he may have written it for himself. Like many of his generation, he entered a service academy in the early 1960s with the calls to service of JFK ringing in his ears. The world was very different when he reported to Vietnam four years later after much of the U.S. had turned against the war. Rather than the enthusiastic volunteers who had fought in the early years (such as the troopers in LGen Hal Moore's We Were Soldiers Once, and Young), the war was increasingly being fought by conscripts who questioned the Johnson and Nixon administrations' conduct of the war and whose primary focus was understandably on self-preservation. This book goes a long way towards answering questions that veterans such as Mr. Boettcher must have had upon their return, e.g., why were we there, how did we get there, what went wrong, and how can we avoid the same mistakes in the future?

Despite his personal involvement with the conflict, the author never demonstrates any personal agenda. Unlike the approach of others, Mr. Boettcher does not overly demonize or glorify anyone. He demonstrates a notable respect for the parties involved and an understanding of the forces that affected them. The result is an unusually nuanced picture. We are not given a drama of heroes and villains, but a tragedy of generally decent, intelligent, and well-intentioned people making choices that are only clearly bad here in hindsight. In many respects, that is the most unfortunate aspect of the whole matter; based on the people involved, their strongly-held beliefs, the assumptions they made, and the constraints they operated under, it was almost inevitable that events would play out as they did. Hopefully, Mr. Boettcher's book can help us identify when, in the future, we are making similar errors of thought and action.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone and everyone, regardless whether this is their first or fiftieth book on Vietnam. The book is well-researched and exceedingly well-written. I enjoyed this author's work very much. I read that his other book (on the U.S. military from 1945-53) will soon be republished under the title Harry Truman and the Military: How the Early Cold War Years and Korea Reshaped the U.S. Military, and I look forward to getting a copy of it.

Those who intend to read only one book about Vietnam should read this one. The author covers this disaster with a unique insight into the flawed decision-making processes of otherwise intelligent bureaucrats who failed to understand the complexity of the situation. War games prior to our massive air campaign had predicted the eventual tragic outcome, yet the results were completely ignored. A combat commander (which I was) usually sees a war from an entirely different perspective than that of government-employed theorists. The theorists may dismiss their mistakes as an investment in the learning process about a problem. The commander is left to count his dead, and write the letters to their families.

General Flanagan's memoir of his time in Vietnam is one of the most personal and sorrowful accounts of that American tragedy yet.

The Kirkus review tells us, "you will not find the meaning" of the Vietnam War in this book. And that's true. John F. Flanagan didn't go to Vietnam to do that. He went as a Warrior and the nature of that war weighed heavily upon him. It does to this day.

In a way I would classify this personal history with E.B. Sledge's masterpiece WITH THE OLD BREED. The times and perspective are different, but seeing the elephant remains the same. When all the grandstanding and speeches are over, all the flag waving and parades, ultimately men risk their lives for their friends. These men are usually too preoccupied with the task at hand to "figure it all out".

Sledge saw war and was horrified by it's spector, it's indifferent carnage and filth. He had the rectitude though of having returned a 'winner'. All those boys were killed, but their death had some purpose. John Flanagan couldn't feel that. He just knew that the friends he lost and saw die, died vainly. No matter how good these men were, how much moral certitude they had, their deaths were without purpose. John Flanagan is a man of purpose.

General Flanagan reflects great dignity upon those men and to their families. He's a man of quiet dignity himself and can take pride in knowing that he did all he could when he could. As a Soldier that's what's known as trust.

My best wishes go out to General Flanagan, his family and friends.

This book is the most realistic book I have read about the Vietnam war to date. Genreal Flanagan certainly keeps you attention throughout the entire book. He leaves nothing to the imagination, exactly how it should be. There was too much controversey about the wat, this book gives, in detail, an insite on just how horrid it was for our soldiers.

An added comment, this book was written by a "real person". I work for General Flanagan every day. The book put some detail and realism into the "stories" that we talk about

It brought back all the fear, sadness and frustration of that december day in 1966. I was a 19 year old doorgunner on one of those gunships that day with the 281st ahc in Khe Sanh. I am 51 now and to this day it still haunts me.I was fortunate to be on several mission with Flanagan and the guy always came through.

The author's view of the role of a FAC is very similiar to those held by the FACs of today (ALOs and ETACs). It is a very insightful look into the beginnings of the Close Air Support role-from the ground observers point of view. Few books even mention the CAS role in Vietnam.

Have you ever listened to any war stories from a family member, or friend? I have, and I have a few of my own. This book is a collect of war stories from the various members of the Green Berets, in their own words. All of the stories were from the Vietnam war during the 60s and early 70s. Some of these stories were very sad, but at the same time, very heroic. A lot of the stores were scary, especially during some of the patrols these guys had to do. There's also a quite a few funny stories that will make you smile, especially if you were in the service. I really liked the stories that were kind of spooky, there was one story that involved a SF patrol that bed down for the night. During the night, it was so dark an enemy patrol had mistaken the SF patrol for one of their own, and decided to bed down in the same area as the SF patrol! Crazy stuff! This is a book dedicated to the men of the Green Berets.

I grew up during the Viet Nam war, in a military family. I joined the Army immediately after college and was the first woman commissioned at my University, in 1975. While I never served in combat, I knew many who did. I read this book to try and understand what it must have been like for the men who served, without having to read through the filters of the liberal media, or the continuing lies of our government.

Being from a military family, I understand what duty, honor and country means, and to me, the Green Berets are some of last, true defenders of those ideals. This book did not disappoint me.

It is a wonderful book, with all the elements of life, both precious and horrible, woven through it.

My favorite story was of the POV and how his faith in God was restored by a fir tree and some fire-flies. He does work in mysterious ways!

To my brothers-in-arms--my heartfelt thanks for sharing parts of your souls with the rest of us.

To those who are stil! l unaccounted for--forgive us. I, for one, shall never forget you.

As a fellow Green Beret, I found Hans Halbertstadt's book very refreshing. It is free of the bravado and hype found in most books regarding Special Forces. What it shows is the real face of war a told by the unique and courageous men who fought it. You'll laugh out loud after reading one page and cry after reading the next. I highly recommend it!

As a former Special Forces medic in Viet Nam I could not put this book down until I had finished it. I got out of the Army in 1966 and didn't look back, but I could never get Viet Nam and Special Forces out of my blood. It was truely a calling that I failed to hear.

I was surprised to read about many people that I had long forgotten, but there they were again, as big and true to life as if it was yesterday.

There was even a story about the little sleepy camp, Polie Kleng, that I had helped build in 1966 (A-241), and of course there were lots of stories about Dak To, Kontum, Pleiku, Na Trang, Saigon and other places I had been.

I have always wondered what my life would have been like if I had made a career of Special Forces. Now I know. There is a good chance I would have gotten zapped, but it sure would have been an exciting life while it lasted, and I would have had an endless supply of the greatest friends in the world. I have never had those kinds of truely great friends since getting out of Special Forces.

This book tells it all, just as it was. Get ready for a lot of flash backs. Every word of it is true. Even the lies are true!

ITMB maps are excellent. We have purchased ITMB maps on several previous occasions for various countries... and have never been disappointed in their accuracy and ease of reading. I look forward to getting to use my India map this summer!

I brought this map mainly to put it up on the wall - but its not designed for that. The map is on both sides of the paper - divided by regions. Its water-proof and does not tear easily - so its great if you want to use it as a driving guide.

i WAS IN iNDIA WITH A GROUP IN APRIL OF THIS YEAR AND I WANTED TO MAP OUT JUST WHARE WE WERE DURING THE TRIP.
THE MAP WAS VERY USEFUL IN HELPING ME SEE JUST HOW FAR AND HOW MANY MILES WE TRAVELED IN 15 DAYS.
THE MAP IS CLEAR AND VERY WELL LAID OUT
KEN

This map is great because it can be stuffed into a backpack and sweat and rain will not damage it. The detail is good, and the information helpful.

When I was a very little girl, we lived in Indonesia and were in Japanese concentration camps during WWII.
I was interested in reading this book, because my brother was taken away at 11 and sent to a men's camp all by himself. I wanted to know what he had gone through.
This book will tell you a little of what we all went through in those years. It is written from a young boys view point and that was helpful to keep it less of a heavy read.
I think very few people know how many of us suffered hunger and illness in POW camps under the Japanese. It is history and hopefully we won't have to re-live this.

A decided to read this book after I heard the news that a movie based on it staring Jane Seymour will be filming next year. I read it only to better understand the movie, and was extremely surprised at what an excellent story I found it to be. It is told from the perspective of a little boy, about his struggles and triumphs, and the little things that help him cope with life in a concentration camp run by Japanese. If you think this is your typical "WW II survivor story", guess again. As I was reading I forgot the book was about a concentration camp. It became the story of a ordinary boy and his mother, and their day-to-day life amidst a horrific background. The harsh reality is it is a true story. I hope the movie does it justice. This book is extremely under-rated. It is up to par with Oprah's book club books. Please read it, and I think you will be surprised. If anyone knows how I can contact the author, please let me know.

The story is beyond an ugliness of human nature.How any one dare to challenge "How about Hiroshima ?" The boy is above all these and almost religius. The Japanese Emperor and the Governmentaologized for the undue cruelities inflickted on the internees, but the most interesting thing is that they did no do so to their own people who were victims themselves under the Japanese Military systems.

i am 16 years old and read this book for the first time last year. i truly enjoyed reading the book. i am not into books which have a difficult plot or a lot of long words but anyone can undersatnd this book. i cant imagine what the boy would have went through and had to keep on reminding myself that this actually happened. i definitely do not think that this book is given the credit in which it is worth. reading the book makes you realise what a good life you have compared to what the boy went through. so go out and read the book now. p.s. have a box of tissues ready!!!

Jac Weller continues his admiration of Sir Arthur Wesley (later Wellsley and Duke of Wellington). Here we take a step back in time to Wesley's earlier career in India. For many this will have little known territory. Those who have read the Sharpe novels may have some idea of the period in question, and they will certainly get the historical background for those novels here.

Wesley certainly learned his trade in India. Much of what he learned here in terms of supply, organization and diplomacy would stand him in well in the campaigns of Spain and Portugal, and of course Waterloo. In terms of tactics readers might see some differences. In the sub-continent our hero aspired to an aggressive stance. The trick to defeating large cavalry type armies whether Mysore or Mahratta was aggression. Wesley always believed that these unweildy masses should be attacked whenever possible with the smaller, disciplined and more maneaverable Anglo-Indian forces. This is a different form of generalship than what we would see in the Peninsular and Waterloo. Again, Wesley was a supurb tactician, and adaptable. He was always learning and researching better methods of supply, intelligence, etc. This combined with his brilliance and coolness under fire certainly made him one of the best generals of the Napoleanic period.

One tactic which the reader will see employed later was his distribution of artillery among his infantry units. The guns were never massed as the Mahrattas preferred, or indeed the French. One marvels how at Assaye the 78th Highlanders were able to frontally attack all those guns. The key was speed and elan, combined with excellent and flexible generalship. India would see Wesley's ability to be everywhere on the battlefield. Because of Orrick's mistake at Assaye he would never truly trust others to carry out his orders. It was here where he developed that personal mega-detail style of generalship that won all his later battles. He was also fortunate never to receive any wounds, even though at Assaye he had two horses shot out from under him! Also, his steady horsemanship and ability to conduct extensive recces on his own or with a small staff was something many generals of the period never took too seriously.

Jac Weller describes how the Wellsely's, Arthur and his two brothers, vastly improved the British position in India. In fact they did too good a job as the conservative East India Company grew tired of their rapid advances with additional expenses. The Wesley's introduced a notion of good government over the growing empire in India, an idea that had profound influence in that nation's future development under British rule. Jac Weller may come across to some as a colonialist, but many of his arguments make sense within the concept of the time. India's peasants were no doubt better off under the British than their own petty and often murderous rulers. Mysore and the Mahratta kingdoms were certainly not about improving the lot of their own people, and there was no notion of a greater India at that time. The work of the Wellsleys would play no small part in developing a greater nationalist outlook in India.

Be warned, Jac Weller is very pro-British. The Iron Duke is his hero, and there is little that he can do wrong. Judgeing from what was accomplished here one tends to agree with that. Still, this is a fine work with many fascinating details, and wonderful tactical descriptions of battle. No one describes Napoleanic warfare better than Weller. Though an older book, no one has come out with anything better since so I strongly recommend this work, especially if you have read his other two works on Wellington in the Peninsular and of course at Waterloo. All that he later accomplished there was first worked out in India. There are also good maps and an appendix on the army's and weapons. A classic work.

Jac Weller's "Wellington in India" is a highly readable study of Arthur Wellesley's formative military experiences in India, and one of remarkably few books devoted to the topic. The book in battlefield level detail sketches the future Duke's 1797-1805 campaigning against a variety of native opponents. The battlefield narratives are closely informed by Weller's understanding the terrain, based on having walked all the principal battlefields. In addition, Weller lays out the complex political environment in which the young Wellesley operated. What emerges from this portrait is a young, ambitious, and professional officer who operates with increasing confidence and success in a challenging battlefield and political environment. From his experiences in India comes the future Duke's understanding of the importance of logistics, intelligence, planning, and the careful deployment of well-trained troops on the battlefield. Wellesley's long apprenticeship in India and later in the Peninsular War of 1808-1814 made him a master of battlefield tactics and operational-level planning, skills that would serve him well in the decisive battle of Waterloo in 1815 against Napoleon. This book is highly recommended to the serious student of Wellington's military career and of the Napoleonic era.

Jac Weller's Wellington in India is a truly excellent book. It is very readable and flows extremely well. It is one of the few books of its kind that I've read literally cover-to-cover - forward, preface, body, and appendixes - everything. The detail of the book is also exceptional. He tells the reader why and how Wellington achieved his successes not just when.

When Wellington's name is mentioned, people tend to think first of Waterloo, then of the Peninsulars Wars. It is easy to forget that he got his start in India, and that is the period which Jac Weller covers so well in this book. This was a completely different kind of warfare than that fought in Europe, and Wellington (or Wellesley, as he was then) had to contend not only with far superior forces, but also with the climate, which caused Europeans to die like flies. Two things above all should be remembered: first, that when Wellington was asked what his greatest victory was, he said not Waterloo, but Assaye; and second, Weller's three books about Wellington's campaigns were named by Bernard Cornwell as the best source material for his Sharpe series.