Asia Books

Truly one of the most inspirational books I have read in awhile.

The beginning of this book is a little slow, focusing on Greg Mortenson's climbing expeditions that eventually leads him to find the people of Korphe, and promising them a school. After coming back to the states and scrounging up funds from philanthropists, Mortenson goes back and builds many schools in various regions through Pakistan/Afghanistan/Waziristan. And the story of his determination and the struggles he goes through are extremely inspirational. There is no other words for it other than that. It is no wonder this book has been sitting at the top of the best sellers list for awhile. You will walk away feeling like any struggles you encounter can be overcome, the same way Dr. Greg overcame his.

Great book, highly recommended to anybody looking for something well-written and uplifiting.

After reading this book, I purchased 10 more and passed them to friends upon the condition that they pass it on as well. When considering bringing destruction in another country, it would be important to be able to look the citizens of that nation in the eye. This book may be the closest any of us come to doing that in Afghanistan. It is about compassion, respect for differences, autonomy, and ultimately a passion for learning innate in all children. It is a fascinating and necessary read. Mortensen's drive is contagious.

Sadly, I recommended this title for our book club to read. I went off all the rave reviews and thought it would be great. I really wanted to love it. But ended up closer to hating it. Here's a few thoughts on why I don't like this book or the story that's boringly told in it:

- Greg Mortenson is made out to be some kind of hero in this book. In my opinion he is not at all. The only "hero" here if there is one would be Jean Hoerni, who donated over a million dollars to build all the schools. Greg is a man who loved climbing, the mountains, and traveling. He didn't like to settle down and commit to anything, so going back to Pakistan over and over fueled those passions.

- Reading this book I feel like Greg hates America. I don't understand why he kept coming back to sleep in the hallway floor and struggle so much. Why didn't he stay living in Pakistan, where he seemed to like it so much better?

- He cared/cares more about those people in Pakistan than he does his own family. He spends months on end with those children, all the while abandoning his own. He leaves his wife and kids alone to make other people's lives "better" while not giving of himself to his family, that really matter. They ask nothing in return, while the Pakistani's prove greedy in asking for more, more, more. How good of a father and husband is he to his family considering he's gone for months on end and to top it off half the time doesn't haven the decency to even call to keep in touch.

- Throughout the book he badmouths rich people, yet his very existence of what he is doing relies upon them. He is literally biting the hand that feeds him.

- He was SO irresponsible with the money! Case in point: Hoerni left a million dollars for the foundation. Each school costs $12,000 to build. At one point in the book he had built 22 schools and they said he was financially struggling and down to $100k! The numbers don't add up. What was he doing with all the money? Case in point number two: Jean Hoerni's wife left the foundation board because she felt he was so irresponsible. That said A LOT because it was her husband's money. She saw what I see and what so many other people who give this book five star reviews don't see! He wanted to be on "Greg time" and not account for his time. That's because he was probably off spending foundation money on traveling! He was irresponsible.

- Another waste of money is one point when one of his library assistants hops a plane to drive with him to a destination in Pakistan. Huh? How much was that? I can't see that was needed. Someone wanted to take a trip!

- It took three years to build the first school (and almost that long to read the first half of the book it's so drawn out and boring). Three years? Give me a break! I'm not buying it. There's no way it takes three years to build a five-room school house - even in Pakistan!

- His belief that you build schools to end terrorism is faulty. Unless you can control what is being taught behind those walls it does not tackle the problem. Hate and terrorism could be taught in there, just because they have a building doesn't mean they are teaching love and respect. Plus, it's bribery if you ask me. Back in grade school do you remember the big kid that would want your desert to not pick on you or be your friend? Same concept. You don't buy off bullies so they like you - whether it's with cookies or by building schools.

- He built more than schools, he build women's sewing centers (calling them vocational centers), places for men, etc. The Pakistani's took advantage of the kindness of building one school and then pestered for everything else. Greed!

- People do not need a school house to learn. This book makes it seem as though you put up a building and all problems are solved. Not true. You don't need a building to learn. You could meet indoors/outdoors each day somewhere, even alternating the place each day and still get a good education. The school does not make for an education. What teaches people are having people willing to provide an education and students willing to learn, the building is a secondary item that does not make or break an education.

- I got sick of the "especially for girls" part. Whenever they talk about building schools they like to say they build them for children, "especially for girls." Nonsense. He says that to play on people's heart strings and get them to open their wallets. It's gender bias as well. The schools were for all children. Don't play into the sales pitch designed to get wallets open faster by saying "especially for girls."

- Which brings me to my next point. He respects girls/women so much that on page 290 he makes a "run of the mill" Republican comment about Ms. Bono and how her looks have helped her along. What was that? Totally uncalled for and degrading.

- Is there nothing we could do in America to make it a better place? Why is it that when people want to help they always want to help other countries and not America? Just a thought...

- Guess what was at the end of the book? You got it - a plea for money! Of course, Greg needs to keep taking trips over to Pakistan. He probably plans to re-build their entire country and at our expense, the country he seems to not care for. Needless to say, he won't be getting a check from me. My only regret is having purchased the book, which will give him money.

So for all those reasons I get this book a big thumbs down. I really wanted to like it, but wound up not liking it at all. I think people have a follow the herd mentality giving it five star feedback. I can't see why so many people have rated it so highly. They probably haven't even read it or thought about it.

This book changed so many of my views on the middle east.

Greg Morrenson should win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

I just finished this beautiful book. I found this book to be inspiring and touching. Sometimes there is a feeling that just one person can't make a difference, that all the world's problems are just too great but Greg Mortensen challenges that idea. With just a small idea that grew into a huge project that has helped so many, Greg has inspired so many. I love also that he doesn't just show all the positive aspects of his projects but shares realistic accounts of his failures and achievements. He is not someone whom he thought could be doing this but the path just kept unfolding in front of him. Also, the photographs in the book really bring humanity to the story. I found myself choked up while reading this book sometimes. I wonder if sometime we may hear this man's name again when it comes time to award the Nobel Peace Prize. I hope so because I know he will use the prize money well.

There are so many reasons to pan a book like this, writting, viewpoint, historical accuracy, but this book gets 5 stars in all catagories. So true, so full of action, so sad, so much to say. My true interest lies on the Eastern Front between Germany and Russia, but this was so good it is my favorite of WW2 in spite of the subject matter. Wow.

I have told people that war is the Second worse thing that could happen to a human. The first? Slavery - which is the battlefront against Hitler's National Socialists and the Imperial Japan in World War II.

That's where this story takes place. I have read few books that convey the realism and horror of war so well, without reservation. This is one.

Eugene B. Sledge, an Alabama boy, heads into War in the Pacific as a member of the U.S. Marines. He lands with the famous 1st Marine Division - 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. His training was concentrated and intense - but still nothing prepares one for the onslaught of Pelilieu. He was a vet when he hit Okinawa where the fighting got even tougher. The image that sticks with me about Okinawa is a Marine who has to head back to get ammo. He slips in the mud and slides down the hill, rising to discover that he was covered in the maggots uncovered by his slid that were gnawing away at the dead bodies in the mud. This Marine, inured to death and destruction, is rattled badly. That image has stayed with me to understand the horror of this generation's sacrifice and their quiet acceptance of Duty.

By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic.

I can't go into detail since I didn't read it myself, but my dad enjoyed it a lot.

I have wanted this book for some time. The seller gave a fair price and good service. I received the book in good shape, as advertized.

I was very satisfied with the level of customer service that I received from Amazon.com. As a college student I am always looking for cheaper books, so this has become one of my new favorite websites.

This book was suggested to me by the mother of a Marine. I was going to say ex-Marine but there is no such thing. She said it was as close to the real thing as you could get. Her son was in Iraq three times but I don't think he told her the real thing. This book is good and it has it's moments. Enough so that I wouldn't want to trade places with any of these American hero's. I haven't finished the book yet but it tracks with my worst imaginings of what Iraq must be like. God bless our armed forces!
John

I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I read it on the Kindle. Life took a backseat while I read it.

Fallujah now I know better than I ever thought I'd know it.

I laughed, too. The description of the Iraqi soldiers dancing together a la Shakira is hilarious. The description of war is immediate and pressing it truly is as if the reader participates in the hell of combat, where human will often decides who wins and loses.

There's a scene reminiscent of the brutal "Saving Private Ryan" scene where the fighting literally become tooth, claw, and knife.

War truly is hell, and this book shows that soldiers die for each other out of love. Not for the big, noble causes, but to be there for his comrade.

This book is similar to Black Hawk Down and almost as good.

The only bone of contention I have is, as an English teacher, the spelling of "all right" not acceptable as "alright." It makes my skin crawl.

I hope Americans realize he tremendous sacrifices that soldiers and Marines have made in the Iraqi and Afghani campaigns. This book is so effective for being so evocative and as a labor of love. David Bellavia is so effective for writing from the heart, laying it all bare.

Great job, Sarge. Thanks for your service. Hoo-yah!

This is worth every minute of reading time. I read it through without stopping, it was so compelling and real. Thanks for the snapshot of that world, and for your service, Sargeant.

The many reviews alrady posted about this book already to a good job summing-up its content and subject matter. Therefore, I'll simply say this is absolutely the single best memoir yet written about the Iraq War, specifically from the perspective of an Infantry NCO. I eagerly devoured this book within a 24 hour period and was enthralled by Bellavia's story on every page. Highly recommended and should be required reading for soldiers, politicians, journalists (especially journalists), and, hell, the general public.

Mr. Bellavia, words cannot possibly thank you and your fellow veterans enough for what you have done for this country.

After trying to understand for years even a small fraction of what is actually going on in Iraq and what happened in Fallujah, this book is a blessing. Not only is a it a great account to the things we all must know before we turn on CNN for the guide to our lives, it's also a great story in general.. It will steal you heart, if you have one. It's very easy to read and holds your attention throughout the whole book without any long boring gaps. So for those of you with limited attention span (like me), reading it should not take long or pose any problems.

This book may also help you question and find out things about your own self. I hope it can do for many what it did for me. I felt more emotion that I have felt from any movie or book for many many years.

I would like to thank SSG David Bellavia for doing the incredible things that you did and writing to tell us about it without holding back what most people would never share. You are and all of the men and women you served with are now more than ever my heroes! God bless you!

The accolades for this book you find here are extremely well deserved. I will add to the cheerleading only by saying that this book is without a doubt, the single best book I have ever read concerning any aspect of the war in the Pacific. And I've read a LOT of it. It is literally impossible to put this book down once the action starts. Too bad more of naval history isn't written by this author. I have read many books on the Battle of Leyte Gulf that left me scratching my head in frustration as the author utterly fails in his attempt to relate to the reader a complex and disjointed narrative of one of the most complicated battles in U.S. Naval history. Not so with this Last Stand. BTW, I have been trying to plow through Lundstrum's "First Team" for what seems like forever. Talk about a great story ruined by a guy who has no flair for writting. But back on topic and in conclusion I will say that this won't be the last time I read Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. As far as Lundtrum's book, well, I'm really looking forward to finishing it and making a paper weight out of it.

Being a voracious reader of world war ii novels,This is quite simply one of the most exciting and heart rending novels of naval warfare I have ever read.What make's it all the more interesting is my late grandfather served on a destroyer escort and even though he told a few tales himself reading this novel I truly almost felt I could smell the cordite and feel the deck as the Samuel b Robert's charged at the Japanese fleet.Next time you see a vet shake his hand and thank him.They deserve it!

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors chronicles "The Battle off Samar", possibly the most lopsided battle ever fought by the US Navy. Due to an inexplicable decision by the legendary Admiral Halsey, on October 25, 1944 a small flotilla of Escort Carriers and their escorting squadron of "Tin Cans" (Destroyers, and their little cousins, Destroyer Escorts, the smallest ships in the blue water fleet) were the only thing standing between a powerful fleet of Japanese battleships and the US invasion force sent to liberate the Philippines.

For the Americans, trying to stand up against the heavily armed and armored Japanese behemoths with the minimal forces at their disposal was suicidal. Still they were the only ships available to prevent the Japanese steaming into Leyte Gulf and slaughtering the soldiers and Marines still on the beach, so stand up against them is what they did. Incredibly, the Japanese retreated...but only after blasting two Destroyers a Destroyer Escort and one of the Escort Carriers into oblivion.

It was once said (by William Manchester, I believe) that military history often focuses on battles because, once so much blood has been shed we humans seem compelled to justify all the loss and pain by giving the event meaning. By the time the Battle off Samar took place, the Japanese empire was certainly beaten. Win, lose or draw, on that day in October they were not going to significantly alter the course of the war. And yet the willingness of the outnumbered and out gunned American squadron to stand and fight when they should have had no chance of winning does elevate 3 hours of explosive action to that point where stories and poems will be written about it for decades.

James D. Hornfischer's book captures both the events and emotions of the men who made what they knew would be a suicidal last stand vividly. It is well worth reading for anyone interested in World War II history.

This is an incredible story of true courage by the men of the U.S. Navy fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Words are not equal to the valor shown by the Tin Can Sailors who battled the best ships of the Japanese Navy and turned certain destruction into an unbelieveable victory. I dread to think that our nation may one day forget the courage and sacrifice of these men. The Tin Can Sailors are a shining examples of this nation's best. Highly recommend this book.

A couple of years ago, I read "Shattered Sword" (about the Battle of Midway) and proclaimed it the best WWII account of Pacific Theatre Naval history to date. I now have to say THE LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS by James Hornfischer ranks right beside it.

This is a brilliantly presented accounting of Halsey's folly when he let his enormous ego get in the way of following orders. The result is the death of some of the Navy's finest tin can sailors and the birth of legends in Naval history. Had Halsey been in position with the 3rd Fleet to guard San Bernardino Straits, it is quite possible that even more American lives would have been lost in the ensuing battle, but it is also quite probably that the Japanese Center Force would have also been dismantled piecemeal just as the Japanese Southern Force had been destroyed the day before.

But, as history has shown, Halsey couldn't contain his ego and went chasing after his own legacy, leaving the Straits to be guarded by the "little guys" a tiny group of escort carriers and accompanying destroyers and destroyer escorts. Hornfischer deftly tells the tale of the men of these greatly overmatched tin cans who faced down the Imperial giants. Many of them eventually paid the ultimate sacrifice.

This incredibly well researched story will have you glued to every page. The details are accurate to a flaw and riveting like no other account I have ever read. This is superbly written and also includes several pages of photos as well as maps of ship positioning during the battle. This is one of the best Naval warfare history books you will ever read.

Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully have put together a complete revision of the Battle of Midway. Using many Japanese sources we find out the underlying truth of this battle.
I have not read Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway and I cannot comment on his errors or omissions. However, in reading Shattered Sword, I learned a great deal of the mindset of the Imperial Navy of Japan in 1942. It is a fact that Japan's hubris made for the unexplained lack of professionalism in their actions of their offensive on Midway. Yamamoto's battle plan was flawed, he assumed the Americans were mentally beaten at this point in time.
As pointed out in this book and which is widely known even before the writing of Shattered Sword is that the United States had broken the Japanese code. It is fact that they knew the location of the Japanese attack.
However the battle was not won on this fact alone. What Parshall and Tully have done is to examine the points of the Japanese failures and they were many. They sent out their reconnaissance planes much too late to spot American carrier activities. They also made the cardinal sin of sending out all their planes and leaving their carriers unprotected.
At this time the Japanese were in command and were pushing forward to deal the decisive blow. They indeed failed. Japan in fact seemed to think of themselves as infallible. Even in their training exercises they created predictable scenarios in which their school solutions were indeed winners.
In fact Midway never became the ultimate solution. As Midway faded into American victory, the sun was beginning to set on the land of the rising sun.
As Parshall and Tully concluded, in reality even if America did lose Midway, it would have been unlikely that Japan would have prevailed. In conclusion the industrial might of America would have won out. All destroyed carriers and planes would have been replaced. America's fate was indeed to win the war in the Pacific. That was obvious to a real student of history even on December 7, 1941.
Great read, thoroughly researched with great photographs and diagrams. Five Stars, no problem!!

Haven't finished its reading yet, this book is a superb job about the battle of Midway. With every data carefully referenced and a lot of research in the JPN archives, most of them ignored so far in western bibliography, this book torpedoes a lot of myths that have risen around the famous naval battle over the years.
Reflects, in my opinion, the real "fog of war" that both navies had to fight with those days.
It is mainly focused in the Japanese side, giving credible answers to questions that had been ignored over the years by all history books that I have read.

I was rather surprised that the authors make no mention of the actual prime source for the Battle of Midway that most Americans carry around in their heads: the 1976 film, "Midway." With familiar names like Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook and Charlton Heston, the film reinforces the popular wisdom that an under gunned American Naval task force, on June 5, 1942, surprised the main fleet of Japanese carriers bearing fighter planes helplessly exposed on the decks. Certainly I had never heard the names Yamamoto, Nagumo and Genda prior to seeing the film one rainy summer afternoon. After reading Parshall's and Tully's masterful study of the battle, I was even more surprised to learn that this enduring version of the Midway encounter came not from the understandable pride of American historians, but from the pen of Fuchida Mitsuo and Okumiya Masatake, whose "Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan" [1955] served as a template for historians, school books, and even Hollywood.

Since Japanese historiography has shaped the Midway story for over six decades, Parshall and Tully decided to address their gripping minute-by-minute account of the battle through the eyes of Japanese experience and intentions in order to restore a sense of perspective. In truth, much of Mitsuo's narrative and interpretation is not as much defective as it is deficient. Midway was the product of complicated forces; its individual tactical events at many turns had lives of their own. Thus, only by breaking the battle into dozens of microcosmic signatures could Parshall arrive at something resembling a true chronology of the encounter, though war is such a hellish psychological event that exactitude is its first victim.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was for the US the beginning of the beginning. For Japan it was the beginning of the end. It may not have been clear to Americans in 1941, but Japan's eastward expansion to Hawaii was something of a Pickett's Charge moment save that Japanese efforts had, for a time, a more favorable psychological outcome. Parshall's map [20-21] makes the Japanese problem crystal clear: advancing across the Pacific meant investment north and south as well as east. Japan at this point had been at war since at least 1937, first with China and then throughout Southeast Asia.

In these circumstances the Midway situation takes on a whole new look. The Empire's interest in seizing the Island had little to do with westward expansion, and much to do with protecting its holdings. Possession of Midway would allow the Japanese to cut US supply lines to Australia. Achievement of the goal was certainly within capability, given the limitations of the US Pacific Fleet, had not the ambitious Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku overreacted to recent US sorties with a complicated plan of his own for Midway. Yamamoto violated a basic tenet of war--massed force--to execute simultaneous action toward Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians. Parshall is careful to note that this Aleutian action was not a feint, as is popularly believed, though Dutch Harbor had questionable value in any strategic equation.

With two carriers off to the cold north, Yamamoto proceeded to Midway with four carriers instead of six, and just a one carrier advantage over Halsey's three. [Bill Halsey, of course, would be hospitalized with shingles and replaced by Ray Spruance for the Midway expedition.] The result is basic history, with the US destroying all four Japanese carriers with the loss of only the Yorktown. Parshall certainly does not diminish the accomplishment, nor do he and his colleague entirely deny the element of luck. More often, he takes the dramatic edge off of events, reminding his readers that in war the best schedules go awry, runways get congested, radios break, intelligence gets manhandled, and weather conditions change.

Parshall believes that that US Pacific fleet was not quite the crippled eagle it is often portrayed to be. Between the Pearl Harbor and Midway encounters the Lexington and the Yorktown had embarrassed Yamamoto on several occasions in his back yard. The US Navy had learned quite a bit about aerial warfare despite the fact that at Midway its planes were somewhat inferior. Vice Admiral Nagumo, commander of the strike force, found himself repeatedly surprised by the Americans' tactics and capabilities, though admittedly some of these tactics--with tragic and needless loss of life--were as much a surprise and shock to the Americans' own commanders.

Parshall observes that American forces did enjoy an overall edge in technology, planes notwithstanding. Photographs of the late Soryu, Kaga, Hiryu and Akagi carriers throughout the book reveal tinker-toy vessels of another generation, which in some cases were actually Gerry rigged when designers changed schemes. US carriers enjoyed greater simplicity and a much more efficient deck technology, particularly in the design of elevators which allowed for rapid turnover of planes for duty. Most notably, American carriers enjoyed much safer and more efficient fire control systems, which gave the Yorktown an added essential day. From a humanitarian standpoint, Parshall brings home the terrible suffering of Japanese sailors primarily from fires resulting from poor ship design. As a rule the rank and file of the Japanese Navy manifested an amazing courage and devotion to duty; Parshall's account puts the responsibility for their plight in the appropriate places.

Parshall's decision to write from the Japanese perspective was quite daring and very successful. As befits a military work, nearly one-third of this book is composed of maps, photos, and an exhaustive bibliography. It is hard to imagine how the author could have been more helpful with his illustrations of ship movements and time lines. And yet this is a work with a gripping story line. The revised truth about Midway is still a captivating tale, about commanders coping with strain and sailors loyal to their comrades. For all its technical information, Parshall's work can best be described as eminently human.

"Fantastic" is not enough to describe this book. The research which has gone into it and the amount of details presented is absolutely unbelievable.
In the wake of this book, I don't think there will be any further need for continued discussion over the relative action of the US and IJN fleets and what really happened near Midway on that fateful day.
The explanation of Japanese tactical and strategical thought which lead to their demise is clearly spelled out and it finally lets the reader understand the how and why of the action Adm. Nagumo took at the time.
Altogether, I could not have asked for a better book on the subject.

Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully is simply breathtaking, the most thoroughly researched and lucidly thought out history of an event that I have ever read. Setting out to tell the story of Midway primarily from the Japanese side they have created the new standard of that crucial battle in the dark days of 1942 that shines as an example of scholarly effort without parallel.

First these authors clearly did their homework, and to say that they explore the battle in the utmost would be an understatement. Setting the stage for the battle with germane explanations of the geopolitical, then strategic, and then operational backdrops that led up to 4-5 June 1942 the authors then delve into the battle wielding an awesome array of salient information ranging from the psychological makeup of the senior Japanese commanders on the scene, to Japanese naval doctrine of the time, to the naval architecture of the four Japanese flat tops, to how many bomb carts each carrier had (and are thus able to derive such details as the quickest possible practical TIME, down to the minute, it could have taken to re-arm waiting dive bombers and torpedo planes in the hangar bay) to even the names of individual Japanese pilots in the CAP and when they were launched. What emerges is a picture of the battle in toto, grounded in a thorough understanding of the pacific campaign and the entire war itself, aided by a completely fresh and unbiased look (which subsequently shatters many myths about the battle) and delivers not just the most accurate picture of what happened and why during the fighting, but also what it meant in the larger scheme of how the rest of the war was fought and ultimately won (or lost by the Japanese). This is truly the stuff history is supposed to be about.

What is better yet is that the book, in a surprising cut against the grain for pieces written by more than one author, reads both like an erudite intellectual analysis and Tom Clancy-esque action thriller. Throughout the book you are taken from the strategic and coolly logical minds of senior commanders, to white knuckle seventy degree dives in the cockpits of cascading American SBD's flying through walls of flak and marauding Japanese zeros. Later you are privy to the acts of desperate survival of Japanese engineers sweating in the asphyxiating air of the engine rooms in their carriers as the ceilings above them start literally glowing red from the heat of uncontrollable fires ravaging above and blocking their only route of possible escape.

After setting the stage of the history of the Japanese naval war in the Pacific up until the time of the battle and explaining the strategies, doctrines, and technical features (i.e. carrier air wing make up, command organizations, etc.) of both the American and Japanese navies the authors place you onboard the ships of the Kido Butai for a minute by minute account. This in depth and detailed account takes you from the moment they sortie from Hashirajima bay to their ignominous retreat mere weeks later. The writing is crisp, fast paced, and clear, conveying information, tension, emotion, and action all at the same time without compromising any of those features. Told primarily from the Japanese side it is taut and disciplined, delivering information to the readers as it came in real time to Nagumo and the staff of the Kido Butai on the cramped bridge of the Akagi and under fire, instead of giving the reader a truly "God's Eye View" of the battle. There is just enough delving into the worlds and actions of Nimitz in Pearl Harbor, Flether onboard the Yorktown, Spruance onboard the Enterprise, and several other American forces to give appropriate context and understanding, but the reader is basically experiencing what the Japanese commanders were going through. This allows the reader to truly appreciate the Clausewitzian "friction" that plagues any battle, and to understand the decisions the commanders made at the time. After the fact everything is tied together by the authors to deliver a true picture of exactly what happened each minute of the battle. The scope of the battle and the author's telling of it is enormous, covering not just the more familiar strike on Midway istelf and ensuring carrier duel, but the ordeal of survivors from each carrier as they attempted, futilely, to save their ships then abandoned them, to the harried Japanese retreat and the less familiar American attacks on the Mogami and Mikuma which ultimately led to the latter's destruction.

The book sets the record straight on many things, of which I cannot mention all. When the American dauntlesses rained down upon the Japanese carriers at 1020 however it is clear that their decks were NOT full of a strike package just moments from launching to crush TF 17, this was a myth that was propagated by Mitsuo Fuchida after the war's end for self serving purposes as well as dramatic flair. VT-8's heroic and fatally doomed torpedo attack did not draw down the Japanese CAP, instead it was just one of a series of hurried and poorly organized American attacks that virtuously threw the Japanese into confusion and left them reacting to conditions rather than shaping them. The Americans were not so outmatched as is commonly believed, but still won a glorious victory ableit against a deeply flawed plan developed by the actually bullying and overbearing Yamamoto (who was restricted from leaving Kure Naval Harbor while in Japan to visit Naval General HQ in Tokyo on fear that other resentful officers there would literally kill him.)

The lessons the authors draw from this battle are applicable even today. The Japanese primarily lost the battle, and the entire war for that matter (although for the entire war the relative industrial might of the US played a far more important role than it obviously could have in this single, early on confrontation), due to an operational rigidity born of national culture and character. This rigidity left it unable to correctly learn lessons from its past operations, anticipate future operations as well as enemy capabilities and reactions to such, and, most critically, to adapt to real world circumstances when their overly elaborate plans inevitably began to unravel against determined and unpredicted enemy actions. (The Japanese expected to face a cowed, fearful, and largely reactionary and passive US Navy at Midway, and not the aggressive and ably commanded force that Nimitz actually sortied to meet them and that guided itself on the flexible principle of calculated risk rather than dogmatic devotion to operational planning.)

I simply can not say enough good about this book. It is useful to anyone with an interest in history as an example of the heights that that discipline can reach and the edifying fruits it can bear when practiced properly, to those in the military who seek a better understanding of how war actually is fought and can be fought best, to someone who wants to read about a real world battle written with the excitement and drama of a great fiction author.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Caputo's account as a combat officer is the best book on direct experience in Nam. It ranks up there with Normen Mailer's The Naked and fhe Dead and Audie Murphy's WW2 account of his combat experience in To Hell and Back superbley written--gripping. Maurice

I thought this book was the best book on Vietnam that I have ever read. Its a facinating look into life as a line officer in a front line Marine Infantry batallion during the early part of the war. Caputo holds nothing back when it comes to describing life on the front line and what goes through the minds of these young, too young Marines who fought on the front line. An excellent read and I highly reccomend it.

Its a page turner from start to finish. A very unique view of the war.

I assigned this book to my college students for a closer glimpse of the Vietnam Conflict. I had not read it before, but had done research and study on the subject. I found Caputo's book to be insightful, controversial and thought provoking. He doesn't glamorize the war but explains how it effected soldiers and one of the many reasons it was such a mess. Throughout the book, Caputo shows how the conditions changed the average American teenager into a robotic killer and how their experiences stayed with them. In the end, he speaks against the war, but not in the normal Jane Fonda version of bashing the military and labeling them rapists and baby killer. Caputo talks about how the government was at fault and created the situations that lead to PTSD and other issues for returning soldiers.

A must read to understand the war and its effects on our soldiers.

Caputo wasn't much of a marine. He started complaining about Vietnam before he arrived. Every page is filled with criticism, cynicism, griping, complaining, and self-serving tripe. He wanted to be a hero, but he didn't have what it took to be anything but a whining wimp. Certainly he writes well. But writing well and living well are entirely different. He doesn't understand honor or duty. Sure the war was politicized, but so is every war. Sure the rules of engagement were stupid, but a soldier serves. Caputo did not serve; rather he whined. Many of us who served in Vietnam believed there were many things that made no sense. But we didn't turn tail and run. We served. For those who want to understand what is was like to be a soldier in Vietnam, read "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" or "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts". If you want to know what is was like to be useless in Vietnam, read this book.

Best I have read. Must follow up and read the Robert Mason's,
Back to the World. Life After Vietnam.

I should have read this book years ago! American Huey 369 (Americanhuey369.com) stimulated my interest in wanting to know more about the courages soldiers who went to Vietnam and flew helicopters.

I have read this book 3 times. After the first I had it stolen so bought it again. I am fascinated by the history of Vietnam and it's struggles it has much to teach us for the present. I'm not a helicopter pilot, never will be although I too like Mason wanted to fly. Some will have differing recollections of events particularly this one, but that's okay. I was able to lose myself in the story that is expertly told. Having been in close quarter combat I understood where he was coming from. I continue to study and have read some good accounts but this will always remain one of my favourites.

Don't read this book if you're looking for an over the top Rambo/Braddock conquer S.E. Asia single-handedly comic strip. If you want to learn a little bit about what it was like to fly a Huey in a strange land during an incomprehensible time, read this book. Read it then give it to someone else to read.

I finished reading Chickenhawk last night just a few minutes after midnight, July 4, 2008. I feel like I oughta apologize to its author, Bob Mason, for taking 25 years to "discover" his excellent account of one man's horrific wartime experiences in Vietnam over 40 years ago. Sam Hynes, author of the equally excellent WWII pilot's memoir, Flights of Passage, once told me that one of the most important ingredients in a memoir is that the narrator be likeable. Chickenhawk has that most vital element, for Bob Mason is as likeable a guy as you'll find in the literature of war, and his prose is absolutely real and riveting as he tells of his whirling descent into the madness that was Vietnam. His final chapter summarizes the kind of confusing nightmare his life became upon his return home, as he struggled to understand and survive this thing now commonly known as PTSD. I like this guy. In fact I like him well enough that I will try to find a copy of his out-of-print sequel to Chickenhawk. It may take a while, but I'll be back to comment on that one too. In the meantime, I urge anyone who enjoys good writing of any kind to read this book. It's the real deal. - Tim Bazzett, author of SoldierBoy: At Play in the ASA (RatholeBooks.com)

This was a good book, very simple to read, but the story was intense the whole time.

I live in a well developed suburb in northern Texas with my family. I awake and sleep with the sound of laughing children playing a game of tag or basketball outside my window. I work and make well over enough to pay for my bills with extra spending for my material wants. I gossip and laugh with my mother and sisters every morning and night, and end the day knowing i will see them tomorrow. Yet i protest about my room being too small, my closet too barren, criticize my childhood being too cruel, my friends too superficial. All my complaints didn't occur to be so inconsequential until i read 'Sold'
I have wasted valuable time and breath on myself when we have half a million Nepal girls being sold my their families into Indian brothels. No longer will they sleep in their own clean bed, enjoy a game of tag or a laugh with their sister. Most likely they will never laugh again. If self-centered Americans can open their eyes to the world as i have, then what a better place the world would be. I recommend 'Sold' to any and everyone!

African hill girl sold into prostatution. Sold was a book about this same 13 year old girl. She was innoccent and all that she wanted to do was earn her family a little extra money when without warning she was swept into the shameful life of of a prostatute. I thought that this book was okay. It had a great plot line but was a bit dull in the middle and kind of ended abruptly. I would reccommend this book to any girl interested in a quick easy read. Although it was a little boring, I think that this was a good book over all.
Kari Longstaff

My son bought this book for a College Course at Purdue Calumet. The day it came I started reading it, It was a very good read,very heartbreaking that a child lived this way. It took me one night to complete, I had such a hard time trying to put it down. My son had a hard time getting into the whole story, until I told him to look at this girl as if she were a relative or friend. That's when it captured his 18 year old heart. It makes you think about what a Cruel world we live in. This book will break your heart, especially if your a mother.

Sold, by Patricia McCormick, is a riveting tale of a thirteen-year-old, Nepalese girl who is sold into prostitution. It is historical fiction and incorporates many details of the constant trade of women and girls worldwide that is still occurring today.
McCormick herself traveled to India and Nepal to trace the steps that the main character in her novel would take, and was even able to interview women in Calcutta's red-light district who shared their heart-wrenching stories with her. McCormick took away from this experience the idea that these stories needed to be shared because these innocent women and girls were being forced into horrendous situations that they had no control whatsoever over. McCormick lent a voice to these women who had never been able to speak up for themselves, and in the process educated the world on the issue of sex slavery.
While a few of the main themes in this novel are fear, loneliness, and cruelty, McCormick also made a point to highlight the main character's immense hope and perseverance, and the strength and self-discovery that came along with that. Even in the face of ultimate defeat, the main character says, "I will be with them all. Any man, every man... I will do whatever it takes to get out of here." (227) McCormick presented her as an innocent bystander who must find a way to deal with a new, harrowing life and this was incredibly moving. It also helped that the book was extremely well-written.
Therefore, I would definitely recommend this book. The writing style was poetic and never overwhelming, and McCormick crafted an extremely complex and likable character. This book is especially good for teenagers to read because it makes us appreciate what we have and the things that we take for granted every single day. Another reader also commented that "this book will also show you things that are so painful that most of the world likes to pretend that they don't exist" and I also completely agree with that statement.
Overall, Sold was an extremely good, yet harrowing book that opened my eyes to the hardships that other girls my age are facing around the world.

I first saw this book at an airport bookstore. After reading the summary I instantly purchased this book to read on the plane. The moment I start reading it kept me moving to the next page, next page, next page.
The story is moving! Great book. Another suggestion is The Dream - a self-made entreprenur who made millions during his teenage life. Very inspiring! Refreshing to mind too.

Enjoy reading.

Sarala
email: sarala1jan@yahoo.com

As another reviewer said, this is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. If you are in a job that is not that fulfilling, but you're afraid of making the leap, Wood's journey from Microsoft to the non-profit sector will be educational. If you are happy with your job, but just want to make your job inspiring, Wood's lessons from Microsoft that he applied to Room To Read will show you ways to do that, too. Thank you, John, for writing such a heartfelt memoir of your emotional journey.

This book is a must have, I have recommended to all my friends and family. Kudos to the Author for publishing such a wonderful book.

Namaste John. Kasto Cha??

You have made all Nepalese indebted with your incomparable deeds. You are true hero in our hearts. Yes, we salute you from the core of our heart.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. John Wood does what all of us dreamers out there imagine we could do: quits his excellent job at Microsoft to do his part in saving the world. Wood's style of writing is so smooth and easy to read, he never bores you. If you're at all familiar with the inside workings of the Microsoft company (my boyfriend interned there, so I am), you'll get a good laugh here and there when he talks about someone like Steve Ballmer and some other inside jokes. I highly recommend you read this book if you have any interests at all in poverty alleviation and humanitarian aid.

Great book, with great photos. Vladislav Tamarov writes in a simple style, but conveys the inner-thoughts, comraderie, fear and terror that a foreign soldier experiences in a war in Afghanistan. Despite being on different sides of the Cold War, and fighting for two totally different Afghan governments, I can identify with Tamarov's experience. A great book if you want a better understanding of a soldier's life in Afghanistan, with no in-depth analysis of the strategic or operational side of the Soviet-Afghan War.

I don't think anybody really supported the Soviets when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979-1980. Most Westerners thought the Soviet action was barbaric. Tamarov in his picture book makes us aware of the human side with the Russian soldiers. Most were following their duty and doing their "international duty". Many were killed in the low grade guerilla war that followed the invasion. Tarmarov was a mine sweeper, and he was constantly exposed to danger. Several of his friends paid the price of their occupation. One wonders about the similarities with American verterans of the Vietnam War. In fact, Tamarov meets some of these verterans at the end of the book, and they have a lot in common.

There is some writing in this large picture book. The writing did not flow smoothly, but the pictures were great. They show the guerrilla war in Afghanistan from the Russian perspective.

An excellent book! Lots of powerful pictures. Purchased the book from Amazon while serving in Afghanistan. Lots of flash backs/forwards in the story line, which I could have done without. But all together it's a well written, interesting book, which depicts a Soviet Solders tour of duty in Afghanistan.

This is the most amazing book I have read all year! It's not just a story, in his own words, from a young Russian soldier in that terrible place, but it is a photo book full of the most beautiful but tragic black and white photos. You see the haunted faces of Vladimir Tamarov (the author and photographer) and his brother soldiers, many of which did not make it back. And as you read his haunted words, how he came back and could not ever be the same, how his friends who died there visit him in his dreams. They were eighteen and nineteen but they look sixteen. The title "Soviet Vietnam" is quite haunting. I believe if I met the author now I would be reminded of our own boys who were damaged by Vietnam. They also were just draftees (conscripts) in a place where they did not want to be. As for our soldiers who are now in Afghanistan, it's true they are fighting the same vicious enemy as Vladimir did! But, don't our men look ever so much better fed, and organized, and equipped, and trained, then those poor Soviet conscripts? I reccommend this book so highly, I would personally buy a copy for all my friends.

As a paratrooper currently serving my second tour in Afghanistan (and third in the desert overall), I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Soviet conflict of the 1980s. The photographs provide insight into Afghanistan's terrain and climate, and I used this book to illustrate several points to my subordinates as we were preparing for this deployment. The author's writing is heartfelt.