Columbia Books

This book exudes a zest for living I've seldom come across. Written by an outdoorsman/professional guide/hunter/trapper/rancher, the quality of writing is surprisingly good, in fact,superb. I don't recall any dull pages in this book. It is brim-full of tales of the wilderness and all the denizens thereof; ranchers, trappers ,Indians ,horses ,grizzlies and more. There are lavish descriptions of the wilderness itself. The depiction of growing up in this unspoiled(at that time) wilderness was very refreshing. Five stars because it is the best of its kind I have read.

Trails Of A Wilderness Wanderer are true stories from the West blending the autobiography of an outdoorsman with accounts of living in the wild places of the Rockies, following old trails and meeting hunters and explorers. An absorbing outdoorsman's diary filled with nature and observations of the wild.

Good book. Would like to see a complete set of his works as well as a biography written by one of his cronies, or an outdoor-life chronicler.

Mr. Russell takes you back to the early days when only Indians and bears roamed the land, through his youth and adulthood as an outdoorsman in the wilds of early Canada. He tells of living a life we can only dream of now. The people he writes of were real and made Canada what it is today. I have reread this book almost yearly since it came out in 1971. You will feel as if you have walked his trails with him and love the life he led. An excellent gift for the city-bound outdoorsman!!!

I don't usually write book reviews, but as I came across this book for sale on Amazon, it brought back wonderful memories. I purchased this book back in 1973. I loved it then and I love it now. I re-read it for maybe the fifth time. I decided to write this reveiw.
I am not well educated or well traveled, but I know adventure when I read it and this book is of a great adventure. It is a group of short stories written by Andy Russell, who was born in 1915, more importantly at the foot of the Great Rockies mountains in southwestern Alberta Canada.
He describes his childhood growing up on a farm there, where he learned very young how to take care of himself. Fishing, hunting and trapping in a country of great beauty, that he describes as no one else could. Some stories are of breaking, riding and training horses. This is a book for someone who loves animals and the great outdoors, and especially for someone who loves adventure. His travels take him from the farms of the great plains to the beautiful mountains of the west and north to the cold of the frozen tunda. It is also about animals small and large, from weasels and minks to bears and elk, as well as fishing, the kind of which is very hard to find these days. There are stories told around camp fires, of cowboys and of the English Remittance men. Thrills vary from forest fires to the stalking of a trophy elk.
He went on to become a great guide of the Rockies, both for hunting and for those who hunt with a camera. This is a great adventure and a must read. If you read this book you should also read another book by him called "Grizzly Country". It is said by many to be one of the best books ever written about bears, both from the scientific point of view and by someone who was a conservationalist and a naturalist. I love bears and I loved that book also. I loved them both. I hope to read other by him. Enjoy and thank you Andy Russell.

Gill Scott-Heron once said "the revolution will not be televised" - so Peniel E. Joseph wrote about it instead. In his provocative book, "Waiting `Til The Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America," the young Brandeis University professor/social activist chronicles the highlights and lowlights of the people and the ideas that made up organized black radicalism in the United States over the last century. While the seeds of black power bore their roots in Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association, the book really takes off during the burgeoning civil rights movement in the 1960s, when black militants like Stokley Carmichael and Malcolm X began to question Dr. Martin Luther King's peaceful resistance tactics to address racism. Joseph does a good job of giving comprehensive biographies of not only the well-known key players like Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin and Angela Davis, the author also pays homage to long-forgotten names, such as renegade journalist William Worthy who befriended Communist leaders in Viet Nam and Cuba during the height of Sen. Joe McCarthy's witch trials. Joseph also points out the failures of some black power groups, most notably the Black Panthers, the militant, Oakland-based cadre that fell from national prominence due to internal conflicts and the vices of the Party's leadership (Huey Newton's drug addiction and Eldridge Cleaver's misogyny and conversion to conservatism). The black power movement left an indelible mark in American history, as can be seen in today's social movements and particularly the rise of hip hop in the 1980s. The black power movement also provided an opportunity for African Americans to see themselves on the international level and unite with other blacks worldwide in the name of Pan-Africanism. With the high amount of support for Sen. Barack Obama's Presidential aspirations from the African Diaspora, its seems like black power may have come full circle. It only begs the question - what would Marcus Garvey have thought of Obama if he lived today?

Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour has something for everybody. For the casual reader who has a layman's interest in American history it's a very accessible view into an often overlooked yet thrilling part of our national chronicle. For the more serious minded it skillfully presents Black Power as a deliberate, complex and multifaceted movement worthy of considered treatment. Like a good drama the cast of characters includes not only spectacular icons like Malcom X and the Black Panthers but also lesser stars like Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and a host of obscure yet significant figures in supporting roles. To top it all off, the scenery shifts from Harlem to Havana to Oakland with even more exotic stops in between.

This book is outstanding! I don't know what I was expecting. I thought, perhaps, that it was going to be an apologia regarding the Panthers. Or, if not that, it would be a polemic detailing how the Panthers "messed everything up". You see, there is a generally accepted narrative regarding the struggle for African-American equality in this country. The narrative goes like this: for a number of complicated reasons, Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation. Eventually, this was followed by Jim Crow segregation and "separate but equal". Various African-Americans engaged in a heroic civil-rights struggle, and they were aided in this struggle by whites (Communist and otherwise) and other sympathetic ethnic groups. The Civil-Rights Era coincided with and/or encompassed an age of general period of civil disobedience which included Vietnam War protests, Labor Union unrest and a continuing feminism movement. A number of solid victories came from the Civil Rights Era, namely, Brown v. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act. Also, a number of iconic figures, and moments, emerged from this era, namely, Rosa Parks (and the Montgomery Bus Boycott), and Martin Luther King Jr. (and the March on Washington). Then these craaaaaaaazy kids came along, toting guns in San Francisco and following around cops in Oakland. Stokely Carmichael shouted "Black Power!!" at a March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966. Olympic Medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave Black Power salutes on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics. In the 60 Minutes special, "The Hate That Hate Produced", Mike Wallace told America that a huge group of angry, angry, angry Muslims were proliferating in New York, and Malcolm X was the head nut. All of a sudden, crazy radicals replaced the politics of integration, non-violent protest and collaboration with that of aggressive "black self-esteem" and incendiary revolutionary rhetoric. As a result, these excesses dragged everything down, precipitating a Civil Rights decline. This, coupled with a conservative backlash, continues negatively to affect the lives of African-Americans today. That's the general narrative.

What Dr. Joseph's book does is blow up this narrative by examining the Black Power Movement as a legitimate movement separate and distinct from the Civil Rights Movement. His book illuminates the import and continuing influence of Black Power, while remaining cognizant of the flaws of its leaders. The book places Black Power within a global context, showing that Black Power was about more than the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. (He writes about 1955 Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung and Catros's trip to New York in 1960, when he made a point of meeting with Malcolm X.) Of course, the book DOES scrutinize the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam as well. Dr. Joseph highlights the stars of this period: Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and Stokely Carmichael. In fact, this book makes clear that Stokely Carmichael is such a seminal figure that he's worthy of having a separate book devoted entirely to him. But Dr. Joseph also tells the stories of lesser known figures such as William Worthy, Robert Williams, Albert Cleage, Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez. He argues persuasively that Lorraine Hansberry's, "A Raisin In the Sun" is actually a radical play. He identifies the radical roots of King and he eloquently disseminates what Baraka meant in his essay, "Black Is A Country".

When you look in the back of this book, you see that it has a 22-page bibliography. Sources include interviews and oral histories, as well as extensive archival material. It's clear Dr. Joseph has done his homework. Yet, when you read it, the book does not come off as an inaccessible ivory tower product full of incomprehensible jargon. He presents the story of Black Power as a gripping narrative. He shows the reader that, in a nutshell, the Black Power Movement provides lessons for today's generation of activists. When I read this book, I couldn't believe that no one thought to write such a book before now- a book that treats Black Power as seriously as "Bearing The Cross", "Parting The Waters", "Pillar Of Fire" and "At Canaan's Edge" treat the Civil Rights Era. If you want insight into the humanity of iconic Black Power figures and a clearer picture of the struggle that continues today, this book is the place to start.

'Waiting' is an ode to the Civil Rights era and it's easily one of the best ever written about this period. It feels like a play, characters come in and out of scenes and each one gets his or her due. Joseph is an excellent writer and reveals a number of things that are generally unknown. Everyone should have this one on their shelves for generations to come. Ignorance is killing Black people.

This book is about more than politics. It's about people, people who are indeed political creatures, but are red-blooded people, with loves, and creativity, and petty rivalries, and regional differences.

Peniel Joseph has really served the public here. I hope this book is picked up by people (like myself) born after this narrative's conclusion. By moving beyond the waters of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver, and looking into the arts, and cultural developments like Kwanzaa, and religion, he was actually able to bring focus to the narrative.

It was very refreshing to see Martin Luther King as more than a teddy-bear on the one hand, and more than a broken record on the other. He was in the first instance a minister--meaning a person of faith who worked with people, in all their humanity. King changed his mind about realities, and grew, and related to people with a flexibility not shared by, say, philosophers.

Joseph leaves us with the stories of men and women, not always heroes, and not too unlike ourselves in their daily lives.

My only regret is the book's ending in 1974. It would have been nice to understand black power's interface with early hip hop, and such.

This is a brilliant, concise gem of a book that brings certain sights of Kyoto to life unlike any travel guide. When I visited many of the places described here, I'd no idea that any of this remarkable history had occurred.

I think this book is an essential addition to any serious Japan library, and as it is a slim text - I think it'd be a welcome and portable companion on a reader's visit to Kyoto.

Keene's study of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who many historians call the worst shogun in Japanese history, is remarkable for its central theme: that this man was actually one of the greatest Japanese persons ever.

Keene does a decent job of recounting the historical context of Yoshimasa's life: it was an era of unending war and brutality when famine and sickness ravaged the peasantry and rich aristocrats vied for power in the most brutal fashion - beheadings, suicide and betrayal were commonplace. These same aristocrats also lead lives of dissipation - spending their lives drinking and "sporting" while the masses suffered and Kyoto was razed time after time.

But where Keene shows his brilliance is in his interpretation of the life of this failed shogun who embraced religion and the arts as an escape for the 'impure world' and in the process invented many Japanese cultural forms.

When Yoshimasa fumbles the choosing of his successor and a civil war is unleashed, he decides then and there to leave his shogun's life behind and build a mountain retreat - the so called 'silver pavilion' - where he spent his days contemplating the arts.

It is clear that an aesthete such as Yoshimasa was incapable of leading the Japanese nation in war. But Keene shows in this book that Yoshimasa's peculiar taste in art - simple unadorned wood, sliding screen doors, rustic tea utensils, and gardens filled with rare trees and stones, poetry, Chinese calligraphy, flower arrangements, No theatre and so on - served as the template for future Japanese cultural expression.

Yoshimasa's silver pavilion was thus an incubator for 'the soul of Japan,' and a location where visitors can still see the building almost exactly as it looked a half millennium ago. Now I want to visit Kyoto again with newly aware eyes.

This book's only shortcoming is its lack of explanation as to how the culture born at the silver pavilion spread throughout Japan. Yet that might require a lengthy tome, and one of the nice aspects of this history is that it can be read leisurely in a couple of days. It also features some nice color photos. Highly recommended.

This book was given to me by a friend. Frankly, I wouldn't have bought it based on the back flap. Yet, Donald Keene wrote a great book explaining the importance of possibly the worst Shogun in Japanese history, Ashikaga Yoshimasa. He was a terrible military strategist and his government (especially during the Onin war) was one of the weakest in Japan's history. On the other hand, Yoshimasa was of vital importance to the Arts; calligraphy, Waka and other poetry, the cha-no-yu ceremony and painting all were sponsored by Yoshimasa. He also left the beautiful Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, for posterity. Yoshimasa's impact on Japanese culture and the arts is undeniable, even in modern day Japan.

Donald Keene, who probably has done more to make Japanese literature understandable to Americans now turns his attention to the state of Japan during the days of Yoshimasa, one of the Ashikaga shoguns. Like other families to rule Japan in the name of the emperor, the founder of the family generally tended to be a fairly dynamic figure, followed by persons of varying competance before sinking into dynastic decadance.

This book presents a portrait of one of the least competant persons to ever become shogun, but managed to have a positive influence just the same. Keene argues rather convincingly that Yoshimasa, though a weak ruler, was an influental patron of the arts. It is Yoshimasa's aesthetic which eventually prevailed in the Japanese imagination and that is the lasting contribution of both him and the Silver Pavilion.

I thought the book was consistent with the overall general high level of scholarship that characterizes Keene's works in general. However, while I am willing to give this work my highest possible recommendation, I am not sure if I can totally support all of the claims made for Yoshimasa. My main concern is that even though I am ready to concede that he does have an aesthetic legacy, I am not sure (and for that matter no one ever really can be) that he can claim to have originated all of the artistic innovations (though patronage) that Keene claims. My reason for doubt is that many buildings that date back to Yoshimasa's period were themselves destroyed during the Onin war (a war brought about by Yoshimasa's politic ineptness). Lacking anything really to compare the Silver Pavilion to, makes it difficult to determine just exactly how great an influence this building actually had at the time. The fact that it survives at all probably ensures that it has had and continues to have an impact on other generations. I am just not sure on what influence it might have had at the time that it was built.

The title of the book is "the soul of Japan" which means the Silver Pavilion built by Ashikaga Yoshimasa the 8th shogun of the Muromachi period.

Chapter 1 Ashikaga Yoshinori the 7th shogun, a tyrant killed by one of daimoys
Chapter 2 Childhood of Yoshimasa, his wife Shigeko and his "favorite mistress" Imamairi
Chapter 3 Weakness of the shogunate, preparation of Onin war
Chapter 4 Onin war, the relationship between Japan and Ming dynasty of China
Chapter 5 Japanese Renaissance, Eastern Mountain culture
Chapter 6 Yoshimasa as a patron of Cha-no-yu, his interest in Chinese painting
Chapter 7 Poetry at that time: renga and waka
Chapter 8 The Silver Pavilion, the garden and the architects Zenami and Soami
Chapter 9 Cha-no yu
Chapter 10 Religions of Yoshimasa, art of the no theater

The division of the chapters and the description of their content are very rough because the author usually puts many different topics in one chapter. This informal writing style seems like that the author has no clear plan and he just writes down something when he remembers something. Reading the book from cover to cover may not be the best way to appreciate it. The character I most like is the index of the book. It is complete and interesting. Just choose a word from the index, and read something about the word in the book. For example you can just read the paragraphs about the eccentric Zen monk Ikkyu and his poems. After you finish all the words in the index, you are able to construct a whole story in your mind. It is the post-modern style of V. Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire".

Judging from the book, the author is just a good story-teller not a good historian. Actually he is good at Japanese literature. This book just contains much facts and details which I don't think important. The author does not see the essence of Japanese culture and does not explain why Japanese culture is special. It is not easy to understand the essence of Japanese culture for most Western scholars. Usually they just emphasize bizarre events, strange imaginations or explain things from the Western piont of view. In my opinion, the soul of Japan is the Bushido and Zen. These two topics are not treated deeply in this book. If you are interted in Japanese culture I will recomment to you the other books:
Bushido: the soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
Zen culture by Thomas Hoover
Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn

By the way, I like this little book. It is beautiful with its poetic language. It is a pleasant experience reading the book on the train passing through Appalachia Mountain in the summer.

Donald Keene's latest contribution to the field of Japan studies is a masterpiece on the development of Japanese aesthetics and kokoro (heart, soul, mind), much of which evolved during the Higashiyama Period at the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) under the leadership of Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Shogun at the time of Onin War (1467-1477), which destroyed nearly all of Kyoto, Yoshimasa was a hapless leader who devoted himself instead to the pursuit of beauty. In this Period, Noh and ink painting flourished, the tea ceremony "originated in a small room at Ginakaku-ji where Yoshimasa offered tea to his friends," and with it the Japanese art of flower arrangement was born. Keene acknowledges the judgment of most historians-that Yoshimasa was weak, extravagant, incompetent in affairs of state, and unable to end a meaningless war and its incumbent famine and suffering-yet posits that he has yet to be recognized for his contribution to Japanese arts and taste. In the midst of wholesale destruction, Yoshimasa precipitated a Japanese renaissance.
Though respecting his grandfather Yoshimitsu, the builder of the Golden Pavilion (kinkakuji), he had no interest in emulating either his life or works. Yoshimasa's Silver Pavilion stands in stark contrast to his grandfather's Golden Pavilion, the later coated in gold leaf, the former the epitome of Kyoto cool wabi sabi understatement. "The simplicity and reliance on suggestion of the buildings and gardens at Higashiyama may indicate that a man who had earlier exhausted the pleasures of extravagance had at last achieved a kind of enlightenment," writes Keene.
This concise work is a complex web of murder, chaos, and endless war that destroys everything in its wake. And, simultaneously-amazingly, ironically, unbelievably-the Period gave birth to some of Japan's best-known art forms. As an insight into medieval Kyoto, there is no better place to begin.

This book gives an insight into the private lives of the first families. We learn about their extended families, hobbies, illnesses, preparations for leaving the White House when their terms are completed, etc. The pictures are what really makes this book great. We see Lyndon Johnson in bed with his wife watching tv and we see the older George Bush in bed too (can you imagine Nixon or Clinton letting down his guard like this?). We see Gerald Ford in his bathrobe. If you always wanted to see such a sight, there is a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt in a bathing suit and a rare photo of Franklin in shorts with his polio ravaged legs exposed to the camera. We see painful personal moments such as the famous photo of Nixon hugging his daughter Julie when he made the decision to resign. In short this is, at times, a very rare personal and intimate glimpse into the lives of the first families. I enjoyed it and recommend it highly.

I have been fortunate enough to read Mr. Anthony's brilliant "First Ladies" mini-opuses, and highly looked forward to this epic on the lives of our First Families. I sat for three hours stright with an almost constant smile on my face as I ran through the pages. What an amazing acheivement Mr. Anthony has pulled together! I can only imagine the painstaking research needed to find out the tidbits sprinkled throughout. There is so much information in this novel that it almost boggles the mind at times and is a bit overwhelming. I wondered if everything was sinking in, when I saw Mr. Anthony speak at the Richard Nixon library on CSPAN one night recounting the tales found here. Every story he told was instantly recalled and sentences finished before explaining. The sheer knowledge that one can gain from reading this novel is tremendous. (Where else can you find a list of President's favorite movies? By Reagan selecting Rambo, it does nothing but prove what a complete and utter moron we had occupying the White House under his reign).....Point proven further....When listing President's favorite reading options, Mr Anthony lays out beautiful examples of this. President Clinton enjoys biographies of his predecessors, Eisenhower military biographies and TR, anything he could get his hands on. Reagan? Newspaper comics.....I shall leave my review at that.

This is a fascinating book. It is a wonderful compendium of trivia, probably not available in any other volume. It contains a wonderful assortment of pictures of First Families, some of which have never before been published. The book is well organized into chapters detailing various aspects of the Presidential families' lives and activities. for me, one of its prime attractions is that it does not include the politics or issues of the President's era.
At times, it is a little confusing, because the author skips from one family to another rather abruptly, so it requires a little getting used to in order to follow the narrative.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the social and "human" aspects of the White House families.

I purchased this book yesterday and I can't put it down. It is filled with great pictures and stories of the forty-one famlies who lived in the White House. This is a great source of presidential trivia and provides a human element to the most famous family in America. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the lives of the presidents.

Usamah calls his book "Kitab al-Itibar" or "The Book of Instructive Example." True to its title, there is much to learn from this book, but what I found very interesting were perhaps things other than what Usamah wanted us to learn. For example, it was interesting to note the Arab perception of Franks, the relationship between Arabs and Franks during the first of two centuries of crusades on the Eastern Mediterranean, and aspects of the life of a prince and some commoners as well. The stories about hunts are numerous and tend to get boring, but they tell us of a rich fauna that is now largely extinct (lions, leopards, etc.). Usamah's talk of old age provides a sobering philosophical view of life.

What an excellent job by Philip Hitti who translated the manuscript from Arabic! Considering that the manuscript was lacking in things such diacritical marks (dots on Arabic letters), punctuation, etc. it is truly an amazing that he was able to pull this book together in the manner its stands. Thanks to Philip Hitti we can enjoy Usamah's book: it is truly a delightful read!

Unlike any other history book, this is a first hand account, day to day life of an Arab Syrian prince in the time of the crusades; He talks about his advantures, feelings and thoughts, it's just like going back in time almost 1000 years. If you like history and especially the crusades, this book is a must. I go back and read this book every once in a while, it's entertaining and informative.

We in the Western world all too rarely take the time to perceive and understand our modern society through anything other than Western eyes. So it is as well with that wondrously tragic period of our history known as the Crusades. While there are many contemperary histories of this era incorporating Western eye-witness accounts, there are but few with the perspectives of the invaded Orientals (i.e. Arabs, etc.). So the uniqueness of an account written by a period-contemporary 'Arab-Syrian Gentleman' will not be lost on the reader. "The Memoirs" are essentially just that: an autobiography of a twelfth-century Arab Muslim and the experiences of his long and eventful life. From his earliest memories in Syria before the First Crusade to his twilight days in Egypt and Damascus, Munqidh shares his vast knowledge with the reader, imparting as well his personal, ingrained biases. It is this latter which assists the reader in understanding the mind of the Crusading-era Muslim, even now oft-considered the enemy of Western "Christendom". Indeed, some scholars argue that the key to understanding the Middle Easterner's distrustful eye to the West lies in the very heart of the Crusades. Munqidh writes in the learned style one might expect of the educated nobility of his period, and though exquisitely detailed, he is neither long-winded nor boring. So whether the avid scholar or simply the interested amateur, "The Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh" is truly a worthy read

A great read as well as a solid historical source for the period.

What i really enjoyed about this source where the unsual, little storie's scattered throughout it's pages. Beautifuly described little detail's that help the reader get a more colourful picture of the Usamah's times.

For instance there is a description of a dual between a Mounted Frankish Knight and a Mounted Muslim Cavalier. The story recite's how Usamah saw them both kill each other on their first charge, but how their warhorse's continued to fight for a long time after.

Unlike many other Chronicler's of the time, Usamah is relativley unbiased. He recognise's the Franks valour in battle, the Christian's piety (saying that he has never seen a Frankish Christian genuinely convert to Islam).

It is also a Medevial travel diary, documenting Usamas extensive travels.

It is full of the usual curse's and insults everytime the Christians or Jews name's are mentioned, like all the Medieval Islamic Chronicles. However, if you can see beyond the propogandist protocol of the day, you will be entertained by Usamahs amusing antidotes and tales.

A must for anyone intrested in either Islamic or Crusader history.

My only reservation from giving this book five stars was that i became slightly bored torwards the end, when the book is describing Usamah's many hunting exploits. I sometimes felt that had Usamah killed as many human foes as he had Lions, the Franks would of been expelled from Jerusalem far earlier than they actually where!!!!!

This book is an excellent summary of the holocaust and the controversies which have arisen around it in the past years. Everybody who has ever had any doubts about the holocaust should read this book to realize how dangerous is to deny a historical event for the collective memory of the people. Vidal-Naquet is brilliant in his sociological-discoursive method. A first-class historical treatise.

This book is an excellent summary of the holocaust and the controversies which have arisen around it in the past years. Everybody who has ever had any doubts about the holocaust should read this book to realize how dangerous is to deny a historical event for the collective memory of the people. Vidal-Naquet is brilliant in his sociological-discoursive method. A first-class historical treatise.

Great insights on the truth about the Holocaust

This is a commentary on our age as much as it is a series of essays about the people Vidal-Naquet calls assassins of memory. And a sad commentary it is. For it features some of our greatest minds and some of our most revered institutions.

Here is Chomsky, proudly proclaiming that "It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies"... shortly before penning a preface to Robert Faurisson's book--a book that denied the Holocaust. (Chomsky later realized what he had done and frantically called the publisher to omit his preface).

Here is an institute that finances revisionis activities offering $50,000 to anyone who could prove the existence of a gas chamber. A gentleman who had seen his entire family murdered accepted only to find that the conditions of "proof" were set so high that only a person who HAD been gassed could, in fact, prove the existence of a gas chamber.

Here is Jean-Paul Sartre's report on genocide--a report which omits the Armenian genocide so as not to offend the Pakistani and Turkish authorities.

Here is the origin of the book's title for those who would deny the Holocaust, "chose their target well: they are intent at striking a community in the thousand painful fibers that continue to link itself to its own past."

Here is the French Court struggling with the concept of "crimes against humanity" on December 20, 1985.

And here is the state of the French libraries. "Neither at the Sorbonne nor at the Bibliotheque Nationale can one find fundamental documentation concerning Auschwitz, which has to be consulted, for the most part, at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaire, which itself is far from possessing all that it should."

It seems Vidal-Naquet is amply justified in concluding "Will the truth have the last word? How one would like to be sure of it....."

Professor Peter C. Doherty was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Swiss colleague, Rolf Zingerngel, in 1996 for discovering `the nature of the cellular immune defence', and was also recognised as Australian of the Year in 1997.

Brief history of Noble Prize/s and autobiography of his childhood. Technical in places on immunology. A very informative read.

In 1996 author Peter Doherty found himself receiving the Nobel Price for Physiology or Medicine from the king of Sweden - an unlikely event for a boy who grew up in an Australian working neighborhood where his schoolmates ended up working in the local slaughterhouse. His journey from Australia, his evolving interest in immunology, and his eventual award-winning work are revealed in a memoir which surveys the life of a research scientist, discussing how scientific projects are selected, funded and organized. This approach makes this more than just a memoir of a prize-winner - and important to any aspiring scientist.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

It is not a How-To book to get the Super Prize, it is a journey of a Nobel Prize winner from his childhood to manage to get a nobel prize.

I really like it

This book is part memoir, part autobiography, part philosophy, and part several other things, and the result is a delightful read. The title needs to be taken just a bit in jest as no body can tell you how to win the big one. In science that's the Nobel, in sports its the Superbowl or World Series, in acting a Tony or Emmy.

What the book can tell you is how the big one changes your life around. When the Nobel committee called to inform him that he was a winner they said, 'I'm going to give you ten minutes to call your families and friends before I release it to the press. After that expect the phone to be continuously busy.' In the case of the Nobel, a surprising number of people can't get back to the life of research they previously did, they are too busy making speeches and the like.

Another part of the book is on the conflict between science and religion. Back in Galileo's day the Church had decreed that everything went around the Earth, the center of God's perfect universe. Looking through his home made telescope, Galileo saw that moons went around Jupiter. He was shown the instruments of torture and kept under house arrest for the remainder of his life. After this, astronomical research moved to areas not under the tight control of the church.

Now it seems to be the time for biology to be held in contempt. There exists the possibility that religion will stop biology, at least in the United States, substituting faith in the Bible to replace observable facts. This is pretty scary in view of AIDS, bird flu, and other possible pandemics.

Finally there is a section on What's Next. There are too many thoughts here that I can't even begin to do justice to them in a list. Lets just say that there are tremendous problems, tremendous opportunities.

If you have looked for great muffin, coffee cake, cobbler recipes, this book has them. I'm pretty picky about recipes but I have found some great ones in here. I made the blueberry coffee cake and it was so easy and delicious. The banana bread was great and I can't wait to try others. I'm going to check out her other one!

This cookbook is awesome! I have had it for about 8 years now and have tried quite a few of the recipes and have yet to find one I haven't loved. The recipes are easy to follow and contain ingredients that are usually in my kitchen already or are easy to find at the grocery store. Although everything I've sampled is super-good, my favorites are "Yogurt Coconut Coffee Cake" and "French Breakfast Puffs". Several of the recipes call for 'melted butter or margarine', but I found I can substitute healthier canola oil and the recipes come out great! I highly recommended this cookbook!

So far all the recipes I have tried have been a huge success. The organization is simple, as are most of the recipes, so it is fairly easy to turn out a tasy breakfast with little effort. Like another reader, I am looking forward to checking out the author's other B&B cookbook for more great recipes! Make sure to check out the apple cider syrup in this one, it smells fabulous and tastes even better!

Carol Frieberg continues to find the most delicious, and easy to prepare, breakfasts in town. There are so many good recipes, this book makes it easy to celebrate the morning! I cannot wait until Carol's next B&B adventure.

The work of Michael Pillsbury has been almost as popular in Chinese military circles as it is in the United States. His previous report on Chinese views of future warfare was noted enthusiastically by Chinese military scholars, although there was some concern over his liberal reference to high ranking Chinese sources.

Nevertheless, Pillsbury was able to return to drink from the same well in preparing China Debates the Future Security Environment. His sources are highly placed and respected members of China's security apparatus, and include members of leading think tanks, such as the China Institute for International Studies, as well as People's Liberation Army leadership.

The great value of the work is that between its covers Pillsbury shows a comprehensive picture of Chinese perspectives on a variety of topics relating to future security environments. He explains contemporary Chinese Communist Party rationale for viewing the future based on an amalagam of ancient Chinese statecraft (views drawn from the Warring States Era, which many Chinese use to draw comparisons with today's single superpower system) and current methodology for calculating the comprehensive national power (CNP) of modern states. The CNP of the United States will decline in the future, the Chinese are required to believe, and their calculations go to some lengths to show this pattern in various ways.

Most interesting to me was a discussion of China's three views of future threats and how these relate to special interest groups inside the PLA. People's War traditionalists are still the most powerful bloc and control most budget decisions. Their future posits a large enemy, such as the United States, Russia, India or a resurgent Japan. Power projection advocates see the future differently in terms of local wars around China's periphery. They advocate modernization, smaller and more professional forces. The revolution in military affairs (RMA) enthusiasts see no immediate major threat for a number of years, time, they say, to transform key parts of the military force to be technologically competitive with the West.

There is a fourth future, explained in Unrestricted Warfare, a book by two senior colonels in the PLA published last year. It advocates removing all rules and restrictions in the conduct of war to enable the "inferior to defeat the superior." Available too late for Pillsbury to consider in this work, Unrestricted Warfare may represent a synthesis of views on the future way of war from a Chinese perpective, even though it "does not represent official doctrine."

I commend Pillsbury's work to both the serious and casual student of Chinese military affairs. He has done a service for those on both sides of the Pacific.

Pillsbury's excellent work reminds Americans of the danger of expecting other nations to mirror our notions, objectives and policies. Fascinating Chinese foreign policy insights throughout the book. Some of the translated policy proposals/commentaries were really quite shocking. It should be required reading for all presidential (and Congressional) candidates. A "serious" book -- but very "readable", and definitely NOT just for policy "wonks." Availability may be troublesome as it is published by the National Defense University (NDU) and available through the Government Printing Office (GPO)[sorry Amazon ;-) ].

I have learned that perceptions are sometimes more important than facts and in the case of the Chinese viewpoint of the world situation, this holds true. This book describes in an interesting fashion, the Chinese perception of the motives, strengths and weaknesses of the world powers.

The Chinese use an interesting method of determining a nation's relative power using a quasi-mathematical formula to determine the Comprehensive National Power (CNP) of any given nation. They use this also to project the future CNP of given nations.

This interesting process is described in detail and the varying uses of this CNP are described. The Chinese show the most interest in the United States, Russia, Europe (mainly Germany, France and the United Kingdom), Japan, India and China. These calculations are focused through the lens of Chinese perception. This is based on Chinese history including ancient Chinese history, Marxism, Mao thought and the writings of Deng tso Peng. This is the most fascinating portion of the book.

For example, some factions in this debate feel that Japan is becoming militaristic and will want power in Asia. Most feel that Russia will become their friend in the coming struggles. The optomists feel that there will be a multipolar power sharing between China, Europe, Russia, the United States and Japan in a atmosphere of cooperation.

You may or may not disagree with the Chinese conclusions but the reality is, they believe that the world operates the way they see it and will react to world events accordingly.

Beyond ranking this fantastic work, there isn't much I can add that previous reviewers haven't admirably covered. It is necessary for our country to understand the needs that motivates the calculations Pillsbury illustrates in his book. It is essential for the American debate about our relationship with China to include texts such as these, which highlight important concerns for Americans, but transcend the current dichotomy of right-wing paranoia and left-wing romanticism toward China.

While Pillsbury's book is devoted to a very specific topic, the tone and quality of his work helps illustrate China's foreign policy communities in ways that are absent in the sterotyped visions of China usually constructed. Instead of having to fall in with one or the other viewpoint that is more an argument about domestic ideology than about China, we ought to remember that it is the clarity of our vision that is the most important technique for ensuring American security. Public relations gestures of saber-rattling or apologia accomplish just the obvious. That is why careful attention paid to work such as Pillsbury's book makes us better off in the long run.

Christmas in Paris is an exquisite study of Joseph Steiner's sublime slide into mid-life. Set in the period after 9/11 but before the Iraq invasion, Steiner faces the quiet bubbling of resentment simmering in Europe while wrestling with the redefining of his own identity. The book produces wonderful moments of originality, humor and psychological revelation that describe a parallel shifting of the main character's interior landscape with the geo-political upheaval around him. The book ends with refreshing clarity, that only traveling outside of the country can bring.

Ronald Fried's newest book is an insightful, beautifully written tale of a self doubting mid-life soul, told against the joys, memories and frustrations of a classic American in Paris holiday. Like his favorite author Balzac - some of whose 19th century characters provide leitmotifs for this 21st century tale - Fried has a wonderful eye for behavioral details: be it for overbearing journalists, competitive friends, knee-jerk French anti-Americans, a genteely nagging wife, forcefuly polite French shop clerks or perfectly charming French children. Fried weaves all into a delightful and moving read. Bravo !

CHRISTMAS IN PARIS: 2002 begins with a taxi ride from Charles de Gaulle airport to Paris. I've taken that taxi --- if you travel to Paris regularly, it's like a trip through your past, rushing you by hotels you've stayed in, reminding you of the person you used to be.

So it is for Joseph Steiner, a New Yorker who first came to Paris thirty years earlier. Now he's married, living in Manhattan, with a 20-year-old son off at college. Steiner may not be a star, but he has good connections --- he and his wife are staying in the apartment of married friends who are, like him, in the TV news business. (One was "in a place where there'd just been a war." The other was "on her way to a place where war was coming soon.")

The war that everyone knows is coming is a large presence in this book; it's a bookend to 9/11 and to the general question of American heroism. Steiner's wife, Mary, runs a small publishing imprint and has commissioned a book about Islamic radicalism. It's been selling briskly --- Mary is savvy and quite successful. Steiner is less so; he's just lost his job.

That gloomy fact looms even larger for Steiner than the drumbeats announcing impending war in Iraq. He has some money saved, but the loss of a vocational identity is a body blow --- and it isn't helped, in the borrowed Paris apartment, when he plucks some books from a shelf and discovers they're signed by the authors. There's also a framed picture of the cast of a popular TV show. Everybody's somebody. But, Steiner has to wonder, who is he?

The Steiners go to dinner with friends. The conversation is a deadly accurate portrait of accomplished people talking shop. Later, they pause in front of a store with a display for Karl Lagerfeld's new diet book. Steiner is astonished by the designer's weight loss; Mary wonders if the book has an American publisher. Not large events. But the right ones --- hey, the Steiners are on vacation.

Which means we spend a fair amount of time in Joseph Steiner's head. Reliving the experience of being fired. Thinking about Balzac, his favorite writer, who reminds him that "money became more important as you got older; it cushioned you from the world." And musing about Paris, a city he's visited as often as possible, because going there "was a bit like cheating on your wife without the burdens of deception or the pleasures of young flesh."

Paris is a theme park, a stage set --- a spread-out shopping mall for people who hate real malls. Mary springs for a leather jacket. (In a book of small incidents, this has the effect of a gun going off.) Steiner, though unemployed, does his share of shopping. "If Fitzgerald was correct and character was action, Steiner was in big trouble: he'd done almost nothing. But if shopping was character, then Steiner was a Hemingway hero."

You could easily conclude that this is a book about a small man and a shaky marriage. Wrong. It's the story of a real man in a real marriage --- it's like journalism tricked up to read like fiction. Because Steiner does "know" a few things. "He knew that his wife was beautiful and Lord knows she always tried to speak the truth....And there was still something beautiful within America, though darkness was falling all around."

These are not the exciting truths of the young. They're the home truths of middle age. They acknowledge loss but not defeat --- they're the guiding principles of people who lead middle-management lives. Put another way, they're the truths that power the lives of people we know --- of the people we are.

Reading Ron Fried, I began to think he could read my mind. He doesn't miss a beat --- he's terrific at describing worry and pride and vanity. He can do bitterness. He can recreate sadness. And in what looks like a little book about a ho-hum week in Paris, he can deliver a rich, satisfying portrait of two people who will make you think in a whole new way about yourself and your choices.


--- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth

this is an intense stream of concousness novel that defines the ambiguity that americans felt in a foreign land in the run-up to the united states invasion of iraq. this is seen through a middle-aged american who has returned to paris,where he had lived as acollege student.
this is a literary novel that enthralls with its references to balzac and other french writers of the 19th century, but most of it makes yoou think in broader terms about america and its place in the world and and how the perception that america may be falling from grace as the worlds leading hegemeny to the role of an agressor.
the narrator offers us incitful perceptions of paris and also the counryside nad rememberence of things past in relationship to the ambiguous future