Bonds Books

I really enjoyed this book and I hope it will help me on my Project.

This is an excellent book by a Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. 'International History Review' said of the first edition that it was "far superior in its factual coverage and balance to its various competitors in the field. .. He has told the story as completely and as impartially as we are liable to get." Cohen gives a brief history of Yugoslavia in the first chapter. The rest of the book gives a detailed account of Yugoslavia's breakup and the war.

Yugoslavia existed as a state from 1918 to 1991. Under Tito it had a devolved and federal constitution. This gave parity representation to each of the six republics in the Yugoslav federation, even though Serbia was by far the biggest. Tito selected people for jobs by 'ethnic arithmetic' and rotated top officials annually. But these policies signally failed to unify Yugoslavia. The constitution encouraged those who wanted to split the country. They had a two-track strategy. They aimed to move from federation to confederation as a step towards independence; at the same time they formed separate institutions designed for complete independence.

Outside forces seized on these internal failings. In January 1991 the US and German Ambassadors pressed the Yugoslav National Army not to intervene to keep Croatia in Yugoslavia. In early 1991 Germany and other countries sold arms to Croatia and Slovenia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia and Slovenia unilaterally declared their independence. The Croats were desperate for foreign intervention: "The Tudjman government believed that immediate internationalization of the Yugoslav crisis was absolutely crucial."

When the Yugoslav Government deployed the National Army to hold the country together, the EC secretly threatened to cut off all aid to Yugoslavia. On 4 October 1991, the opening day of the EC Conference, its chairman Lord Carrington presented an agenda "premised on the assumption that Yugoslavia no longer existed." The EC announced that all the Yugoslav republics "are sovereign and independent with international identity". As Cohen wrote, "the EC had apparently made a political decision to dismember the Yugoslav federation." Hurd warned in December 1991 that recognising Croatia and Slovenia would escalate the war. Carrington warned that recognition would weaken diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a settlement, and would also spread the war to Bosnia. Despite, or because of, all these good reasons, the EC, including Britain, recognised Croatia and Slovenia in January. The UN did too, despite its "internal divisions about the propriety of intervention in a sovereign state's domestic disputes."

The war did spread to Bosnia. In July 1991 the Moslem Bosnian Organization tried to negotiate a Moslem-Serb accord to prevent war in Bosnia and to preserve Bosnia's territorial integrity. Karadzic accepted this for the Bosnian Serbs, but Izetbegovic, the leader of the Bosnian Muslims, rejected it. Izetbegovic is a member of the fundamentalist 'Fida'iyane Islam', which wants to turn Bosnia into an Islamic Republic, although Muslims are only a third of the population. Bosnia's Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic tried to justify the composition of his government by saying "It is a fact that Moslems make up 99% of the Bosnian defense forces so it is natural that they form the government." In so doing he gave the lie to the nonsense that Bosnia is some form of multicultural democracy. These armed forces have been "strengthened with thousands of volunteers from various Islamic countries" and by illegal arms shipments, often through Slovenia, especially from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

In his 1970 Islamic Declaration, which he reprinted in 1990, Izetbegovic wrote, "The Islamic movement must and can take power not only to destroy the non-Islamic power but to build up a new Islamic one." Cohen noted "the more militant and religiously nationalistic majority in the party led by Alija Izetbegovic (who had spent eight years in jail under the communists for his Islamic fundamentalist beliefs)." Cohen analysed "the role of traditional religions in generating ethnic conflicts" in Yugoslavia.

Again, in February 1992 Izetbegovic sabotaged the Lisbon Agreement for Moslem-Serb-Croat power-sharing. He "later conceded that Bosnia might have avoided a violent war if it had stayed together with Serbia and Montenegro in a reconfigured Yugoslavia." In early 1992 his dash for Bosnian independence was "prompted by the opportunity for quick recognition by the EC." Even the US Ambassador to Yugoslavia called his decision 'disastrous'. Cohen pointed out that "the lack of a political settlement among the major ethnic groups within Bosnia-Herzegovina actually justified postponing recognition of that republic as another new state in April 1992." But the EC and the UN went ahead with recognition. In the autumn of 1993 Bosnian Moslem government forces killed "thousands of civilian Croats in central Bosnia".

The United States has throughout the war campaigned for US intervention. As Cohen pointed out, it used hyperbolic calls of genocide to try to justify intervention. It has vilified the Serbs and whitewashed the Bosnian Moslems and the Croats. To defeat the Serbs, "the United States, though not ostensibly taking sides in the war, had effectively engineered the Moslem-Croat agreement." Cohen showed how "behind the scenes, Washington was gradually expanding its military support for the Moslems and Croats". Clinton approved the initiative of a group of former US military officers to assist Croatia's armed forces.

Cohen finished by writing hopefully, "The imperatives of economic survival and reconstruction, as well as geographic proximity and other earlier interdependencies, suggested that such cooperation would eventually resume despite the recent episodes of terrible, ethnic, religious, and political violence." But there is no chance of this vital peaceful reconstruction happening with 60,000 foreign troops in the country. Their presence will prolong the war in Yugoslavia, and also runs a high risk of spreading it to other countries. It will certainly worsen the tension between the NATO powers and Russia. Bulgaria and Greece will not appreciate the presence of so many NATO troops so near to them.

i had to write a paper for a geography class and figured why not do it on yugoslavia. while researching, i came across this book, and thought it was a marvelous read. it is a fascinating look at the decline of yugoslavia from Tito, who ran the country remarkably well and who had a miraculously peaceful tenure as "Emperor." then Milosevic showed up and [messed] it all up. the thing i find very excellent about this book is that it describes very well how milosevic got that power. he used nationalism to his advantage to get the serbs behind him. this nationalism lead to the bloody split-up of croatia, slovenia, bosnia-herzegovina, macedonia, and finally kosovo. this book shows one of the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) examples of nationalism and the effects of nationalism. it is especially good to observe what happened to Milosevic in light of recent events throughout europe, with the hard-right gaining popularity, in such places as Romania, Hungary, and even in more tolerant France and the Netherlands. it is a worthwhile read to observe similarities between what milosevic said and did and what these new right-wing leaders are saying and doing.

"BUZZ" truly takes off!! The authors of this wonderful new book offer one a unique excursion to an insectoid universe paralleling our own...The photographs are astounding, revealing the beautiful and the bizarre in incredible, illuminating detail- insect images that continually astound, beguile and startle.
The book also presents a fascinating accompanying text that is compelling in its vast sweep and variety - literary, historical, cultural,scientific- a rich compendium of insect lives, loves and lore, both serious and whimsical.
I would highly recommend this book to readers of all ages who are curious about the world we share with the insects that creep, crawl and cavort around us!

This book reminds us we needn't invent science ficiton aliens to horrify and delight the human imagination. Every page of BUZZ provides that "sweet sensation of horror," that "shivery fascination with monsters" that so delights the likes of sociobiologist E.O. Wilson, who has made his famous career studying ants. And ants are in here, as well as flies, spiders, beetles, wasps and scores of other impossibly strange, fascinating invertebrates. They are grouped in this book because this "alien" universe is our own. All of these creatures live around, and sometimes right ON us.
For which we should rejoice, as the author, Discover editor Josie Glausiusz, eloquently reminds us. Without many of these insects, our beautiful green world would be impossible for us to inhabit. Insects pollinate our crops, feed everyone from birds to fish (and even us), recycle the bodies of the dead and the excreta of the living. They give us honey, beeswax, silk, and the stunning delights of butterfly wings and cricket song. And they have stirred human imaginations for millennia, the muse inspiring great works in every sort of art, from Biblical passages on mosquitoes and ants to Rimsky-Korsakov's dazzling "The Flight of the Bumblebee."
Bugs are good. Of the estimated 9 million species, we learn, only perhaps 1.5 percent of them cause us any problems. Granted, that small percentage includes some that can be seriously annoying--lice, mosquitoes, bed bugs. They're in here, too--but even they can seem pretty enchanting, when illuminated by Glausiusz's lively, fact-packed prose and the electron miscrope that yields the book's breathtaking photographs.
This is the sort of book you'll often read aloud to anyone else in the room--and if no one is there you'll have to call someone up. "Hey--did you know that the Colorado potato beetle was once the focus of a failed German plot to target Britain with bug-bombs?" Need a recipe for locusts, or presentation ideas for serving Superworm larvae? That's in here, too. On these pages, you'll meet bugs who eat skin flakes (house dust mites), bugs who cure skin ulcers (the maggots of the green blowfly) and bugs who kick footballs, draw chariots and turn carousels (fleas.)
Some of these critters are downright cute. Take the drugstore beetle on page 47, hiding coyly behind a breadcrumb. (Its Latin name, we learn, means "hidden.") The Indian meal moth looks positively pensive in its portrait atop a raisin. Nearly every page features a stunning portrait by Munich-base photogrpaher Volker Steger. But most of them, taken with a scanning electron microscope and computer-colorized to distinguish the insects' features, portray a wierd majesty that outshines even that of the dinosaurs. For unlike those extinct giants, these minaitures live among us daily, a source of deep and thrilling mystery near at hand.

Absolutely fabulous book -- constantly amazed me at the myriad strange interactions between us humans & insects. It seemed as though every page reveals something new, entirely unexpected, and jaw-dropping. The writing is extremely clear, and makes for a very easy read, but doesn't spare those juicy little tidbits & details that really make it fun. I went back & picked up an extra copy for a nephew -- great gift suggestion.

I have read Stephanie Bond before, so when I saw this book sitting in a thrift store, I just had to grab it. And all I can say is Wow.

I think this is one of Ms. Bond's best works. It's funny, sexy, and - most importantly - character and emotionally driven. She's tended to veer away from this in her latest works, so I was relieved to find it in this book.

It's a take a break, change your life, do what you gotta do feel good book. Frankie is a stressed exec who is so dedicated to her job she takes her work on vacation with her. Randy is a beach bum whose main goal in life is to avoid responsibility of any kind. These two get together and manage to teach each other something about living life to the fullest and being true to yourself. The real joy of this book though was the ending. Ms. Bond didn't take the easy way out, she took both of her characters and made them grow as people, beyond the relationship. I would definitely recommoned this book to the romance reader who is tired of heavy angst and social issues and just wants to have fun. This is a great light-hearted romantic read, perfect for summer or any vacation.

Having a bad day...purse snatched...missed the cruise ship? But it's not all bad. Frankie is on Key West about to be saved from the rat race. Once again Stephanie Bond creates a story filled with laughter, heart and a lot of wicked touching!!

I am ready to fly down to Key West--NOW!

Create Money Now is a great book on investing! It was very easy to read and understand. The author uses new material and a different approach to investing.It's a can't miss! If you follow his lead you can't help but make money!

This book makes understanding investing simple! A format unlike any other book of its kind, the Author explains investing using characters and actually entertains the reader while teaching at the same time. I read it in one shot and will continue to use it as a reference when the need arises! This book will continue to pay for itself over and over again...A MUST BUY!!!!!!

This book is different than other investment books. It used a story line that I could follow easily. I learned things that I have not found elsewhere. The book paid for itself allready!!!

I have had bouts of intense pain for a period of 11 years. I have gone screaming into emergency rooms, screaming into my doctor's office. I was told I need colonoscopies, hysterectomies, laparocscopic surgery. You name it, I have successfully avoided all of those. I just kept pressing for,"Isn't there something I can do with my diet?" The answer always came back that I could eat whatever I want. The pain I had was at my right side near my pelvic region. I knew it was digestive because of how the pain came on. I was told for years it was endometriosis. Then I went to Dr. Rita Stec, a renowned doctor in Palm Desert, Ca. I saw Deadly Harvest in her office. I started to read the book, finished the book, it worked. I have been pain free for weeks, which is a milestone. I completely believe that what the book says is true. I have researched enough with my Master's Degree to know a lot, Geoff Bond knows a lot more! READ THE BOOK.

Other books have discussed the so-called Paleo or Stone-Age diet, but none with the depth of research and insight found in this book. Bond looks at how our human ancestors ate, because that is the diet that our bodies were designed for. He then maps out how we have veered from that way of eating, with disastrous consequences for our health. He then offers a plan for approximating the encestral diet in the modern world. All of this is backed up with thorough research. A fascinating read!

Following on from 'Natural Eating', 'Deadly Harvest' builds on a very broad range of food/lifestle issues, and adds other important concepts including the specific history of changes in food supply/demand over the ages. It also provides references to more detailed reading on particular topics. It's all kept in perspective though and related to the bigger picture, without overshaddowing it, and whilst cleverly illustraing that the nuritional devil is often in the detail.

Further, it goes beyond the first book by examining the lifestyles of our ancient anscestors and how our current lifestyle, for good or for worse, can be in contrast to those hard-wired behaviours practiced for so long.

The funny thing is, as left-field as its thesis may sound to a 'Joe-blo', the content combines anthropology and contemporary 'main stream' science. There is nothing 'whacky' about it. I'm an engineer, and although I by no means hold my profession in paticularly high esteem, generally speaking my personal moral/intellectual compass for decisions and actions is guided by logic, reasoning, intuition and evidence, not dogma, status quo, fear and tradition. So its right up my alley.

The recommendations in this book are on another tangent to modern western nutritional science in spite of them being based on anthropological evidence, modern medical studies, anecdotal evidence, and joining the dots of history. As such, and due to the incredible compexity and lack of understanding of the human body, many issues (as with modern western nutritional science) are arguably 'uncertain' and can possibly never be 'proven'. But, even if your God came down today and told us that 'only 80% of the book is right', if you put it's principles into practice, then I believe you would still be light years healthier than 99.99% than anyone else on this planet, including just about everyone that tells me 'oh I eat pretty well'. How would you know? Unlike many things in life that you read about (finance, theolgy etc.), the main thing is here that you can put things into practice immediately and watch your health probems drift into another distant self.

The book can be as little as an insightful and concerning read for the converted, all the way to a life-changing, mind-changing book for the rest of us, that shows us the elephants in the room.

I hope others can use the insight within it to fight the dogma and challenge the status quo from grass roots level.

But a warining: You'll need courage, motivation and dedication. Unlike anything else I've read it makes no glamorous claims to the process and the lifestyle that it advocates. There are no easy answers, no silver bullets, and it's hard work because, to the disappointment of most, the food criteria of 'tasting good', 'being filling' and 'being cheap' must be a distant second to its basic principles if you want to obtain good health. But there is pleny of guidance in this book and his others about relating the first principles to modern day living and food supply, and the steps to sucess.

If you like Michael Connelly, you'll enjoy Raymond Benson's Evil Hours. Unresolved questions about her mother's murder lead Shannon Reece to explore the seamy secrets of her home town. Along the way, Shannon must come to terms with her personal demons as she questions just how much she really needs to know.

Raymond Benson is known for writing the continuation James Bond novels, so when I picked up this, his first non-Bond book, I expected a tightly crafted fast moving mystery thriller. I wasn't disappointed. But what did surprise me was how darkly moving EVIL HOURS was as a neo-noir crime drama. I've heard other reviewers liken this book to Twin Peaks, and while I do see similarities, I think that's selling this book a bit short. I was reminded more of intense real-life crime dramas like The Onion Field and The Thin Blue Line. Benson's masterful use of detail makes the book so believable that, by the end, it has evolved from a mystery thriller into something that's very tragic and profound. And darn right creepy in a "this-only-happens-in-real-life" sort of way. The emotional reality of the book is what sets it apart from other thrillers by better-known authors, and what makes it surpasses even Benson's Bond books as a work of fiction (suggesting a bright future for Benson after Bond). By the end of this book -- with the ultimate revelation and CHILLING reenactment of the crime -- I found myself creeped-out and moved at the same time. Wild. This book was a real experience and one I would recommend highly, especially if you're a fan of character driven true-life crime. It would also make a terrific film.

Raymond Benson, author of the recent James Bond novels, has given us something completely different: a novel that reminds me of that movie "Lone Star" or similar-- it takes place in a small Texas town and is the story about a murder, or a mystery of a murder, and how one woman searches for the truth about what happened. The narrative is interesting, moving back and forth from the present to the past, and slowly revelations are unravelled. I found it to be haunting, moody, and compelling.

This book was amazing. Not only was it a great read (I couldn't put it down) but I learned more about derivatives and muni bonds in this book than i could have in any classroom or read in any other book on bonds.

This book was amazing. Not only was it a great read (I couldn't put it down) but it was also very informative. I learned more about derivatives in this book than I could have in any classroom or any other book on bonds.

After a few years in waiting, I am glad to see that the Bond Market Association has released the 5th addition of The Fundamentals of Municiple Bonds. The author of this book did a great job capturing the signifigance of the municiple bond, and exaplining it clearly with graphs and charts. I highly recomend this book and give it a 5 star rating.

The publishers seem to have forgotten there are differences between periods and commas and when to use either.

Five stars for giving me a new favorite author.

The cozy world of England before, during, and after World War II is explored with a sure hand by Angela Thirkell.That interesting, amusing, and safe world makes the reader feel good about our turbulent world.
All's right with Thirkell's English world!!

It is good to see Angela Thirkell's light novels once more receiving attention, especially in the USA. "High Rising" is one of her first novels, dating from 1933. There were many English novelists in the 1930s who mined the traditionally English vein of gentle parody, graceful writing, mild absurdity, and class distinction. Much handsomer than most of them, and exhibiting the influence of Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope, Angela Thirkell peopled her novels with descendants of characters found in the latter's Barsetshire novels.

If that gives an idea of the flavor and style that might be enjoyed in her books, I can add that this one chronicles the dizzy doings of Laura Morland, a novelists, who juggles the demands of four sons, her publisher, her secretary, her formidable maid Stoker, and a friend George Knox whom most think should be more than a friend to her. The custom of "coming to tea" sets them all interacting. Watch for the number of verbs Angela Thirkell can employ - from plunge, to insinuate - to describe how characters can enter a room.

The divine Angela Thirkell, to my mind a latter-day Jane Austen, wrote her simply wonderful novels about upper-class village life in pre-war England, in a series of 40 or so novels that are simply irresistable. Her plots captured a time, a mind-set, and a way of life that is long gone, and in fact, her later novels, set just after the war, already reflected a desperate nostalgia for a never-to-return past.

Never mind, though, because "High Rising," one of the earliest of Thirkell's series, is a delight you won't soon forget. The plot centers, as always, on a blithering author whose high-piled hair is continually in disarray, often spewing hairpins at the most inappropriate of times. A widow, she has raised several strapping sons, and is now engaged in trying to educate her youngest, the irrepressible and impossibly boring 8-year-old, Tony. To do so, she must churn out novels, and to that end, she employs a secretary named Anne Todd. And so the plot begins.

Anne is a selfless creature who uncomplainingly cares for her ailing elderly mother, a task that is draining her almost to illness. But plucky pre-war Britishers of a certain class never complained, and neither does Anne. The plot thickens when a truly horrid gold-digger appears to become secretary to another author, and proceeds to wreak terrible havoc on this close-knit society. She is truly an "incubus," which becomes her secret nickname.

So. What will become of the incubus? Will she succeed in her nefarious plot to marry wealthy Geoffrey, a scholarly author who doesn't have a clue? If so, what of Geoffrey's teenaged daughter? Who will mind the dogs? Will High Rising (Tony's prep school) survive yet another class of noxious boys? Will the good village doctor, besotted by Anne, be successful in his gentlemanly courtship?

And most of all...can anyone resist this book??

I often buy bulk copies of this wonderful book to give away to young kids who attend my 5-Day hands-on learning camp, aptly entitled 'Science & The Art of Discovery.' My principal objective is to teach young kids how to think scientifically, inventively & productively.

The two authors have done a great job in producing this excellent piece of work. Although it has only 44 pages, the contents are comprehensively rich. It is also very well-illustrated with a simple story format & systematically organised as follows:

How do you answer questions?
Using the scientific method
What do you want to know?
What do you think?

If you want to get your young kids to understand & appreciate the scientific method or simply 'how to think like a scientist', go for this book!

I was very excited to find this book in my local library when I was starting out a "science week" with my kids during their spring break. It is simply wonderful! It explains the scientific method in such simple, logical terms and it was not at all difficult for my six year old to understand. It was entertaining as well as helpful in teaching my kids how to think like a scientist. The last chapter includes some ideas for children to apply the scientific method, in order to answer questions they are curious about. It is a nice ending to this book. Needless to say, I was discouraged when I saw the publication date, thinking this book would be out of print (I really wanted my own copy). I was delighted to find it here on Amazon. I am buying a copy as soon as I'm done with this review!

While the bubble gum pink cover of Stephen Kramer's "How To Think Like A Scientist" may inspire you to reach for something else, pick up anyway! Between the cotton candy covers, lies a charming book which uses humor to express thought provoking ideas and to teach your child to think about science in a systematic manner.

One of the best ways to get the attention of a child is by telling a story and Kramer capitalizes on this idea. My son and I were both engaged by the stories and the lessons which flowed naturally from them.

Your child will not only learn the scientific method -- the process for exploring scientific ideas -- but also will learn the language of experimentation on which to base a lifetime of scientific study.

If I could have written a book about my grieving process, this would have been it. Insightful, honest, heartfelt...this book touched on every aspect of going through the motions of life after someone close to you has passed over. I was surprised and comforted to read that I was not the only person in the world that thought "I just want to get an email from the other side....why can't we just email each other??".
The dialog of "real-life", dreams and thoughts is expertly woven together, and each chapter includes meaningful quotes from other authors. Many thanks to the author for her honesty.

Like the author, I'm very impatient New Age ideas, and have been agnostic much of my life. But after having watched two people I love die I was surprised by the sense they weren't gone, the feeling that, after their deaths, something was happening that was undeniable, yet not accessible through our usual sensory channels. I ordered this book because it looked interesting. It arrived at a time when (because of my profession) I had at least a thousand pages of manuscript to read and edit. And I opened this book at the post office the day it arrivved, read the first paragraph, and finished it that night. It's ironic and heartfelt at the same time--an amazing balance of belief in the unseen, also wariness about our vulnerability to too-easy beliefs and snake-oil cures.

Dear Ms. Picardie,
I listened to you on the radio program "Coast To Coast" with Barbara Simpson the other night-- Lovely! My nineteen year old son, Joshua, died in a motorcycle accident last year... Your description of your grieving process, your feelings, your thoughts, your "journey"-- all were spot-on and incredibly insightful. Now, no more words. Best wishes always, Jeffrey Bell-Zekas, Susanville, California USA======================