Eastern University Books

In his telling of his experience in some of the most intense battles of WWII in the Pacific, Eugene Sledge takes you into the foxhole for an incredible journey through two battles fought by US Marines. Between the equatorial heat, cement hard coral landscape, intense relentless enemy fire, dead and rotting enemy bodies baking in the sun, bad K rations for food that is made worse by the smell of gunpowder, sweat, human waste and rotting bodies, and the 75% chance you will either be killed or wounded, you somehow can't leave his side as the reader or it would somehow be dishonorable. Through Sledge's storytelling you grasp a real sense of what "team", "core" and "band of brothers" mean to a Marine. It is the absolute best recount of war that I have ever read. We as the next generation of "free" Americans owe it to the men and women who fought for our freedom to read this book.

As a WWII history buff I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to see combat from a combat Marines perspective. GREAT!

I really can't say anything better than has already been said in the previous reviews. This is a horrific, and at the same time, fascinating read. Sledge tells it like it was and holds nothing back. The descriptions of the blasted battlefields full of dead is something you won't forget. His descriptions of the fighting conditions will make you thankful for dry clothes, hot coffee and fresh socks every day after reading this. Should be required reading in schools today - an important gift from someone who lived in the horror of war.

I recently read this book for the second time. As others have noted, this is by far the best American memoir of the Pacific Theater. While Sledge's narrative style is straightforward and plain, there is a sensitivity to the work that is not found in other American war memoirs. Sledge was a good Marine, and understood that Japanese brutality had to be answered in kind: he had absolutely no compunction about killing the Japanese and often expresses an extreme hatred towards them. His descriptions of what he witnessed are often horrific--the picture he paints of "Maggot Ridge" on Okinawa is nothing short of a hellscape. And yet a central theme in the book is that in the midst of all the brutality of Peleliu and Okinawa, one had to try to maintain at least a modicum of sensitivity and human compassion. That, I believe, is what makes this such a remarkable record of the war.
I had the privilege of talking to Dr. Sledge about a decade ago, and he was a true gentleman--courteous, kind, and very generous with his time. Indeed, my overwhelming impression was that he was a very gentle person. Perhaps that is why his memoir is so haunting.

Having seen Ken Burns films on WWII and his mention of this book, I decided
to read it. I was not disappointed. Ordinarily I don't like works like this
but Sledge handled his on-the-ground experiences in the Pacific with simplicity
but with elequence. I was very impressed with the book, moved and sometimes
shattered by the bravery and determination of our troups. It makes for
exciting reading, if you're inclined to know what war was like then, and
probably what war is still like for men and women on the ground now. Read it!
You won't be disappointed.

This is a very good description of Luftwaffe Operations on the Eastern Front. It has good background information speciffically about the economic side of it. Decisions made based on oil supply's rather than military objectives. Very interesting material.
The only bad thing about this book is that the editing comes across as very sloppy. German names are often misspelled or incorrect. It is not Manstein, but von Manstein, not Bock, but von Bock, not Kluge, but von Kluge.
Also it is not Count von Sponneck but Graf von Sponneck. If you overlook those issues, it is a very good book

Very thoroughly researched book. Could have explained infantry operations in a little more detail after all most of the movements of the Luftwaffe happened in direct support of infantry movement. Could have given a little bit more weightage to characteristic traits of leaders involved in action. But all in all a very lucidly written book a definite buy for anyone interested in eastern theater of WWII

This book is a treasure. Saying it deals with just the Luftwaffe effort does not really address the scope of the book. In addition to the author's fabulous treatment of air operations, it has some great stuff on naval operations in the Crimea. This book is an absolute MUST for your WWII library. This guy is a lecturer at some college in New Zealand. Get him to some University in the USA!!

Anthony Beevor's wife and publisher (the well-connected Hon. Artemis Cooper, no less) had her publicity machine whip his good book on Stalingrad into a huge international best-seller. That's perfectly okay. I liked Beevor's book very much, and do commend it to readers. But Beevor's isn't the most authoritative and analytical book on Stalingrad, that frightful, turning-point battle. Joel Hayward's book is! I'm pleased that, while it has never sold as many copies, Hayward's uniquely-conceived book has earned fantastic reviews and been quoted and acknowledged as highly-influential (and mandatory reading) by almost every subsequent writer on the eastern front, including Glantz, Erickson etc.

Hayward's book masterfully explains why, strategically, Hitler planned a major campaign in 1942 after not winning in the east during the previous year. It superbly elucidates why, even though the city of Stalingrad was never one of that major campaign's goals, Hitler then became distracted by it, to the point whereby its capture mattered more than the Caucasus oilfields he was originally, and very rationally, committed to seizing and exploiting.

Hayward's book also analyses air power and joint-service matters but always relates these in a seamless way to ground battles and operations. His book is therefore strikingly-different to all previous, army-focused books on Stalingrad (including Beevor's) which barely mentioned air power despite it dominating all successful battles during 1942, in and around Stalingrad itself, and during the air-lift.

Hayward's analysis of that increasingly-futile and tragic air-lift, and its highly skilful defeat by the Red Air force and Red Army, is by far the most original, complete, meticulously-researched (all from unpublished archival sources) and informative ever written.

I cannot recommend this original, insightful book highly enough. Buy Beevor's journalistic book, of course. But you must buy this volume if you want a thorough, analytical, scholarly work that explains why things happened and what it all meant.

This is one of the very best book on the Luftwaffe by serious, academic historian, and possibly the only one to date to give credit and recognition to one of the best tactical minds of he Luftwaffe, GFM von Richtofen.


While justifiably lambasting the Luftwaffe (and Hitler too) on its short sightedness in forgoing the development of a strategic, heavy bomber in favour of tactical, short range fighters and light payload bombers, Hayward does remind us the indispensable role of the Luftwaffe as the Heer's flying artillery and its role in her battlefield successes.

The fact that the Luftwaffe was staffed mainly by transferees from the Heer may be a determining factor in shaping its mission as a tactical, close support airforce, and its reluctance to develop, acqueisce or sustain a naval air arm for the tonnage battle in the Atlantic (same can be said of Raeder's and Dönitz's strategic shortcomings, both concentrating on their respective favourites, battleships and U-boats, while paying little heed to the crucial role of air cover for naval actions) may stem from the tradtional rivalry during the Kaiser's times between the senior service, Army and the Kaiser's favourite, the Kriegsmarine, which in the Great War proved to be a less than war winning tool, and a dtermining factor (with her mutinies) in the dissolution of the Reich.

It is amazing that nobody in the top echelons of the Luftwaffe had articulated a strategic vision for the role of the service in war. Same with the Krigesmarine with its focus and fetish on battleships and U boats.

Bearing in mind that Germany was flanked by her traditional enemies in Europe, and the need for the avoidance of the nightmarish 2 front war like the last war, which stretched Germany to her limits as a middling power battling the superpowers (Britain, Russia and USA), the much vaunted General Staff as well as OKW, OKH. OKM. OKL had not seen the need for a strategic airforce of long range fighters and high altitude heavy bombers (plus aircraft carriers for the inevitable last fight with the US after mastery of Europe) that will serve as a deterrent in any enforced peace with Britain and USSR, or as an indisepnsable deep penetrating tool for crippling her enemies' military-political-industrial complexes, the cross-Channel invasion of Britain, the strangling of trans-Atlantic trade between Britian and her Dminions as well as her banker, the US.

Inter-service rivalry will see the Luftwaffe refusing to build up a naval air arm, or let the Kriegamrine to have one, nor did the latter, with its uni-dimensional focus on the war at sea, see the need for aircover and aircraft carriers ( all because of the myopic expedient that for the same amount of steel, you can build 20 U boats in a shorter time) for her naval units. This led to the loss of aircover over her bases, and drove the U boats underwater (thus limiting her striking power as they fought on the surface!) and her surface units immobilised in hideouts in France and Norway.

Without a strategic airforce, and with the loss of air supremacy at home and above the battelfields, Germany suffred from the vicious cycle of loss of aircover, then devastated industries, then even less aircrafts, arms and munitions to fight off her enemies on all fronts,and so on. In the end, the Luftwaffe was no more than the Heer's last mobile artiller and machine gun battalions (most of the Heer's artillery was horse drawn) and the Kreigsmarine an impotent coast guard.

It would be interesting to see if, like the Generalstab, most of the Heer transferees were artillerists ( the most technical proficient branch and thus uniquely suited to the technically most demanding service), who with their mindset would predisposed them to a tactical, close support vision of the Luftwaffe

I would strongly recommend each person in India to read this amazing story about a person who is passionate about technology, knowledge and patriotic along with, how one can go forward only with "Indian" in mind and can bring almost a biggest scientific evolution, Believe in Team work, worship work and people working on it. This can be compared with all great personalities in the world. Thanks to author who simplified the scientic complications in simple language, never felt boring anyhwere.

One of the best autobiograpy I have read so far. No Indian has contributed more than Dr. Abdul Kalam in making the India a self-reliant nation and nuclear power.

I would recommend atleast every Indian to read this autobiography and be proud of him.

I am halfway through reading the Urdu translation of this book (and just ordered the English version so I could read it in author's own words). As a part-time PhD student at a leading U.S. university who have recently experienced the unexplainable satisfaction one can achieve by doing research, and manager of a large technology team, I can testify by heart that Dr. Kalam shared his deep, and true experiences with his readers.

You will learn that merit is the most powerful thing in the world. If combined with optimism, and strong believe in God (or whatever you believe in), a nobody from a minority can uncover his or her full potential and break all barriers, even in a narrow-minded society like India.

You will learn that human mind can do wonders. And that one should not take anything for granted.

You will learn that leadership is all about trust, and about allowing your people to work freely and to achieve goals their way. You will understand that one does not become an extraordinary manager by being "hard" or by micro-managing his or her team.

You will also read various words of wisdom that only a true scientist (who have "been there"....) can share. And (hopefully) understand why one should not lose heart because of failures.

You will learn interesting facts about the relationship between research and development, and how they strengthen each other. You will also learn the difference between ideal and rational decisions (for an example, see the last paragraph of part 7).

To summarize, its an autobiography of an extraordinary achiever, and a must read for anyone who would like more reasons on believe on himself or herself, or to become a great manager.

This book sums up how APJ Abdul Kalam went through various stages
in his life starting from his childhood in Rameswaram to the stage prior to
his ascent to Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi.
It depicts various projects he was associated with in the areas of aeronautics,
space research and defence development like Hovercraft Nandi, RATO, SLV and
Missile program and both the agonizing moments and the ecstatic moments
he went through in that process.

It conveys the message how a person's patriotic commitment to the development of
indigenous technology motivates a person to spend long hours and sustain hurdles,
despite being perturbed by the deaths of close family members one by one.

It proves the point that how motivating mentors/managers/leaders like
Dr.Vikram Sarabhai and Dr.Brahm Prakash can mold a young engineer like APJ
into a highly accomplished technocrat and make him bounce back to action
with a redoubled enthusiasm after heart-breaking personal and career setbacks.

It talks about how APJ was an effective project manager who projected his team
members more to the higher hierarchy than himself.

It mentions his elder sister's love toward him who mortgaged her gold ornaments
to pay for his admission to Madras Institute of Technology(MIT) which is so
typical for any middle-class Indian.

The following consoling words by Swami Sivananda to APJ after he fails in his
first job interview in Indian Air Force are notable:
" Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become
an Air Force pilot. What you are destined to become is not revealed now
but it is predetermined. Forget this failure, as it was essential
to lead you to your destined path. Search instead, for the true purpose of
your existence. Become one with yourself, my son !
Surrender yourself to the wish of God"

Those words proved right as his life progressed.

Credit goes to Arun Tiwari who asked APJ about his memoirs
and helped him in coming out with this book.

This is a book worth gifting to any child or youth ( 12 and above ) to make them
gain a good perspective on the evolution of India into a technological power.

I picked up a book in Dhaka recently entitled, "Wings of Fire' by Abdul Kalam. It is a fascinating book which unfortunately I didn't see in the UK.

It is about the biography of Abdul Kalam, who headed the Indian Space, Missile and Nuclear Programme, thus transforming India from a dependent nation to a technology superpower. He talks about the hardships he encountered and how he overcame them. He also draws valubale lessons from his father and his mentors as well as a deep faith in God, that enabled him to carry out his work and build up a home grown space and missile programme.

It has a lot of good suggestions on goal-setting, teamwork, managerial techniques, creating visions and dealing with set-backs. It is a lesson for all Muslims and anyone from the third world. The book is both readable and inspirational.

Hasan Ali Imam

This is one of the most unbelievable stories I've ever read. It's written with superb simplicity, making it a rapid and engrossing page turner. What a great gift Bardach has given us in writing this book about his horrific and heroic experiences. This is the best account of any world war 2 camp survivor, period. He clearly illustrates that the Soviet Union was about as horrible a place to be as Europe at the time. The book is as well written as the story is interesting. Fantastic. Thank you, Janusz!

I read this after reading The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. This book may be bleak and shocking, but remember, the author survived! It is an amazing, gripping, shocking story about humanity. I loved it.

I can't really say anything that hasn't been mentioned already, and I think that it would be inappropriate to give away any of the plot.

This is simply the most fascinating story of survival of any that I have ever seen. It is incredible as well as inspiring. It teaches you to value your life, and the relationships that you have with the people you care about most. There were so many instances when he could have resigned to his fate and accepted death, but instead he kept going. Millions of people died in prison camps during the war, and unfortunately all of their stories cannot be told. But to understand what they had to go through in their fight for survival, nothing beats this book. Besides telling his story, it examines the history and psychology behind what happened to him. And overall I believe that it is a valuable read for anyone interested in Russian Gulags or prison camps in general during WW2.

difficult to use words like "i couldn't put this book down" when the subject matter is so depressing but that was my reaction. reading about the soviet gulags and the human sufferring they caused educated me that it was not only the nazi regime that was the cause of so much sufferring.

Janusz Bardach, who became a plastic surgeon in Iowa City, Iowa in 1972, recounts his experiences in the Gulag in this bleak tale of survival reminiscent of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. A secular Jewish man and supporter of Stalin and communism living in Poland In 1939, he and his family fear their future as Germany's military forces are set up along the border. He is eventually drafted into the Red Army, but when he inadvertently gets his new tank stuck in a river, he's arrested and given a sentence of 10 years of hard labor. He, like the other prisoners, spends most of his time working to meet ridiculously high work quotas, while in a constant state of starvation. He travels from camp to camp during his six years in captivity working in various work situations including a mine, the forest felling trees, and as a medical assistant working with tuberculosis patients (which he eventually contracts). Once he recovers, he's sent to work in a psych ward, where the main focus is exposing the "fakers," those trying to get out of work. His job is to inject them with a seizure-inducing drug, which he does reluctantly. With a little help from his one surviving family member, Polish army officer brother, he is eventually released and finds out the fate of his grandparents, parents, sister and girlfriend. They were all executed.

I never knew there were so many different kinds of caterpillars. The book has wonder color pictures and great information on each species. One of my favorite moths is the hummingbird moth. I now know that its lava is a horn caterpillar, the kind I would automatically kill when found. Not any more!!
This book will be on my porch for quick reference every time I go into the garden.It is really great.

Caterpillars of Eastern North America is easily the best book on the subject in general publication today. It is an amazing book with incredible insights into the habits and lifecycle of this neglected stage in Lepidoptera metamorphosis. You will not be disappointed if you buy this fascinating guide.

A great book on ID of caterpillers!! I was able to find the IO Moth caterpiller with this book in hand. Very in depth info pack in this book. I would highly recommend this book, especially if one finds caterpillers they've never seen before, which was my case. Check out my photos!

Super. Beautiful photos and very detailed, and the photo of the adult is also very helpful. My only complaint would be trying to locate a specific caterpiller, some sort of indexing based upon size, color, spines, hairs, etc would be helpful (I'm thinking something along the lines of what is done in "Weeds of the Northeast" (Comstock Books)). Overall an exceptional book.

I've waited a long time for a book like this! The photos and descriptions have great detail. Identification is easy enough to be used by a young person and scientific enough to satisfy a professor.
Guides to butterflies and moths seldom contain pictures of the caterpillars of the adult stage insect. This book has pictures of both.
I think having a book like this (are there any others?) is essential for someone who spends time in the garden, or any natural environment.
Now I can know what is living in my garden and eating my plants before I decide to squash or not to squash it.

Scared for your life in the midst of a civil war. Then put into a Sudanese refugee camp, disconnected from your father but left with your terrified mother and siblings. After a while, you are reunited with your father, and your entire family is together. Then in America, where you must start over in an alien place, where you get most of your possessions from dumpsters. This was the childhood experience that Mawi Asgedom underwent.
The book "Of Beetles & Angels" shows the extraordinary experiences throughout Mawi Asgedom's young life, which led him to America and to graduate from Harvard University. His amazing story shows the hardships, as well as the joyful occasions, as he discovers American culture and starts an American life. I thoroughly enjoyed his book and believe that I caught a glimpse at just how hard his childhood was.
The chapters within the book are separated into different stories and times of Mawi's life. This way, the reader truly gets to see how wonderful and cruel our country can be to those who are starting over in a new place, and how Mawi and his family start in a new and foreign place. The book also shows Mawi's experiences viewing racism, biased brutality, and what it is like to be noticeably different from most others around you. " Most of our classmates treated us nicely, others ignored us, and the rest -- well, we could only wish that they would ignore us. We may not have understood their words, but we always understood the meaning behind their laughter. `African boodie-scratcher! Scratch that boodie!' `Black donkey! You're so ugly!' `Why don't you go back to Africa where you came from?' We were just two, and they were often many. But they had grown up in a wealthy American suburb, and we had grown up in a Sudanese refugee camp. We were accustomed to fighting almost daily, using sticks, stones, wood chips, and whatever else we could get our hands on. So it was usually no contest, especially when the two of us double-teamed them, as we had done so many times in Sudan. The cruelty of brutal beatings and the name calling left Mawi and his older brother scared and unsure about their new found home America.
Mawi Asgedom's parents dreamed that their children would do well in school. The primary values that they taught their kids were that education was most important, knowledge was power, and that if all of the children within their family studied hard, they could earn scholarships and become smart and powerful leaders within their new country. Mawi kept his parents' values close and fulfilled them all. "I graduated from Harvard one year ago and have since thought much about my parents' dream. By earning my scholarship and graduating, I have fulfilled it. But along the way, I have found greater value in other dreams. And while Harvard University taught me well, my true education has come from less-likely sources. As I look back to the angels, the Charlenes and the Beth Raneys; as I look back to God's servants, dressed as beggrs and as beetles; as I look back to my inspirations, to the Mamas and Tewoldes, I see true guidance staring back at me. True power comes from focusing on what we can give, not what we can take." Mawi learned so much throughout his life and not only made his parents' dreams come true, but also made his own dreams come true.
This book, with all of its extraordinary detail and description, probably cannot entirely summarize all of the struggles, hardships, and rewards Mawi and his family endured from their journey to America and once in America. However, throughout the pages and dialogue of the story "Of Beetles & Angels", the book does an exceptional job of showing how unique Mawi Asgedom's life was as a child. I absolutely recommend this book.

Beginning in 2001 I worked with two refugee families from Liberia. I wish I had read this book first, because it would have helped me to understand better the sorts of things these families might have experienced before they arrived in our country. While experiences of war, persecution and homelessness vary among people arriving in the USA, the feeling of confusion (even when you speak English, like 'my' families did) and dependence mixed with utter relief of finally getting here seem to be common among all. "My" families knew basic things, but our housing, food and school systems were totally overwhelming even for these educated people. And the police, which we're taught to depend upon, strike fear into every refugee I've ever met. Most of them have had bad experiences with police.
So when I read this book I could relate to some things, I cried over others, and I put others in the back of my mind to remember for when I'm working again with refugee immigrants, especially in these days of heated debates about immigrants.
Personally I think this book should be a must-read in every high school curriculum and for every teacher, not only because it's such a compelling story, but it helps us to see others through another lens and it is ultimately a story of hope.
From a strictly literature point of view there are better books out there, but this one tugs at the heart. And it's also a fast read if you want it to be.

Of Beetles and Angles is the remarkable non-fiction account of Mawi Asgedom's jouney as an African war refugee to America and the obstacles that he and his family had to overcome. In his own words he describes his inspiring transformation into a man with traditional values and principles mixed in with the demands of everyday life in a new society. Influenced by his older brother and father, Mawi sets out to experience the American dream and more importantly, look upon each and every person as angels sent to test the will of our hearts.

This book told me one thing: everyone can be an angel. No matter in what form, that thing could be an angel.
From this story, a boy named Mawi was a refugee. His homeland had been involved in a war. His father decided the family would flee to Amerikha, as they called it. It was a place of peace, which was something that didnt exist in Eritrea, their homeland.
Many perils were made in America. Mawi needed to go to school, with his brothers and sister. He survived through prejudice and violence at school. His dream was to be welcomed with a scholarship into a special university. He worked very hard to achieve his goal.
How did it happen? Just read the book and find out!

I won't take a lot of space stating what the book is about. Just get it and read it, everyone from middle school through adults. You'll be glad you did.

This is an absolutely wonderful cookbook that provides a wide range of authentic, workable recipes that make use of healthful and readily available ingredients. Both the text and illustrations are fascinating, the glossary alone is worth the purchase price, and there are also valuable menu and serving suggestions. Highly recommended!

A gastronomic find, especially for those who evaluate the quality of their lives in terms of what they eat. Uvezian's dedication to excellence is apparent on every page. Impressively authentic recipes and outstanding culinary background information make this richly illustrated volume enormously useful to both professional chefs and home cooks.

Another great cookbook by this author is "The Cuisine of Armenia."

While I haven't cooked a tremedous amount of food out of this book yet, it is probably the first cookbook that I have read more than once. It is some wonderful information on the people, history and food of the Levant. It goes through how the different groups in the Middle East serve and prepare food. Talks about the influence of foreign powers on the food and culture. I really enjoyed this book. It's only flaw if that it is long and difficult to wade through if you just in the mood to cook a simple Middle Eastern dish. One of the strengths is the spice mixes. I keep the prepared spice mixes in my cupbard within easy reach and use them a lot.

`Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen' by Sonia Uvezian, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, and a leading culinary journalist on Middle Eastern cuisines, is both a personal and scholarly account of food history and modern practice from the Arab (and other) traditions of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

The very best thing about the book is the mix of scholarly history, personal observations, and culinary content. While the scholarly aspect is firmly grounded in copious footnotes and a five page bibliography, mostly of 19th and early 20th century travelogues and histories, it is neatly tucked away, below the level of our stream of consciousness read of the excellent prose. The personal observations have all the richness of an upper class native, whose family could afford a country house up in the mountains east of Beirut, and also afford all of the best ingredients, and were familiar with the full range of the cuisine of the Levant.

All this makes the book very different from the long-standing authority on cooking of the Levant, Paula Wolfert's celebrated `The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean'. Not only is the approach different, but Ms. Uvezian does not even cite Ms. Wolfert, even though Wolfert's well-known book was published five years before Ms. Uvezian's volume. Ms. Uvezian also does not cite the other great writer on eastern Mediterranean cooking, Claudia Roden, with her `The New Book of Middle Eastern Food'. I point this out not as a criticism, but as an indication that Ms. Uvezian has much of her own thing to say and does not need references to other modern culinary writers. I compared Ms. Uvezian's recipes with those from Mme. Wolfert, and was surprised to find little overlap there, even in the very well defined realm of breads. All this adds up to the conclusion that if you have an interest in Arab cooking of the Levant, you would do well to get both books (although if your interest is strictly culinary, Ms. Wolfert has a slight edge, as she is the better writer, and has an extremely good eye for describing recipes, even if they were not learned at her mother's knee.)

Ms. Uvezian gives us a lucid description of the history the culinary history and landscape of Arab, Turkish, Druse, Persian, and French influences on the cooking of the Levant. It should be no surprise that in spite of the presence of Israel smack dab in the middle of this region, ancient Hebrew and modern Jewish food traditions are not covered, although there are shelves of other books dedicated to this subject.

This cuisine is part of the greater Mediterranean world of food, with some very important differences from the western (European) Mediterranean of Spain, France, and Italy. First, there is no charcuterie to speak of, since there is the prohibition against eating pork. Thus, there is also no cooking with lard; however, the rich sources of olive oil and nut oils make this absence virtually unnoticed. And, butter is more important than in pig-rich Spain and southern Italy. Next, there is no cooking with wine, due to the Muslim prohibition against alcoholic beverages. And, cheese (especially hard aged cheese) is largely replaced by yoghurt (The primary hard cheeses mentioned are kashkawan, imported from Turkey or Rumania and the famous Italian Parmesan). On the positive side, there is far more cooking with sugar and other sweet products such as dried fruit. While the Italians give little thought to sweet desserts, the Arabs of the Levant love sweet desserts and pastries. They also make much heavier use of spice mixtures, based on their being closer to the source, and somewhat under the influence of the great Indian tradition of spice mixtures. Where the great French cuisine can muster but two named spice mixtures, the Levant has a dozen or more.

While the book is subtitled `A culinary journey through Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan', the direction of the text is oriented more toward a historical rather than a geographical perspective, with each chapter giving an historical overview of how various food lines evolved.

One of the great surprises, given the absence of a tradition of bars, taverns, or other alcoholic dispensers, is the tradition of Mazza, virtually identical in social and culinary function as the tapas of Spain, the merende of Italy, and the mezze of Greece and Turkey. The typical mazza spread looks remarkably like all those other traditions, with ample portions of olives, spiced nuts, fresh fruits and bread-based bites, but without the salamis and hams and wide variety of cheeses. In the place of cheese there is the rich variety of seed and eggplant-based dips plus yoghurt preparations.

Like the very best studies of Italian, Spanish, and French regional cooking, the book includes chapters on virtually every corner of the culinary landscape, including chapters on Appetizers; Salads; Soups; Dairy Products and Dishes; Egg Dishes; Fish and Shellfish; Poultry and Game Birds; Meat; Kibbeh; Stuffed Vegetables and Fruits; Grains and Pasta; Vegetables and Fruits; Sauces Marinades, Garnishes, and Stuffings; Pickles and Preserves; Breads and Savory Pastries; Desserts; and Beverages.

The book includes a list of middle-Eastern food markets from practically every state; however, these are only in major cities, and there are no Internet sources. If your family is from this region, this book is satisfying oasis of great culinary history, lore, and recipes. For all others, it's a great supplement to Ms. Wolfert's famous volume.

I was thoroughly disgusted to read the baseless criticisms of this superb cookbook. It is precisely to obtain an accurate account of the cookery of this region along with first-rate recipes that one needs to own "Recipes and Remembrances." Although Claudia Roden's "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food" is better than Paula Wolfert's "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean," when it comes to recipes and text neither can approach "Recipes and Remembrances" in quality. I have cooked extensively from many Middle Eastern cookbooks, including these three, and I can honestly say that Uvezian's book upholds the highest standards of eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cooking and is in a class by itself.

I think this is perhaps the best memoir I've read by someone who survived the infamous Chinese Cultural Revolution. Many other authors have tried to capture the chaos and pain it has caused them, but Fan Shen outdoes them all. I'm glad he told his story, or other people would never know how horrible things really were at that time. Each chapter in this book is captivating, and its hard to put it down. It is also extremely sad, and at the end of the book you wish you knew Fan Shen so you could at least talk with him and give him a hug. :(

A fascinating look inside the chinese mindset. A must read for anyone who wants to know about the crazy history of the Red Guard, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Also provides a great insight into how the chinese operate today. Fan Shen tells a story that will stick with you as you purchase your next "made in China" item.

I spent about 8 months reading Dr. Shen's book -- not because it bored me, and not because it was overly long. This is just one of those books that needs to be savored in order to be properly enjoyed. It's also one of those books that you really don't want to finish.

Savor it. :)

This is the story of a boy who, from a revolutionary family, eagerly joins the Red Guards at the outset of the Cultural Revolution. As Fan Shen comes of age, he realizes that the Cultural Revolution is a disaster and this book is the story of his attempt to find a way to achieve an acceptable life.

It is readily apparent that Fan is a very clever fellow as well as an intellectually gifted individual. The tales that he recounts are alternatively horrifying, sad, depressing and humorous. As he tells of his experiences, the reader can only imagine the horrors of the Cultural Revolution when you multiply his experiences by the 800 million or so others who lived through the same era.

Fan is a wonderful author and can tell a story exceedingly well. At times, however, the reader is left wondering whether we are actually getting an accurate recounting of Fan's earlier years. The stories he tells are truly beyond belief and, at times, seem to be a bit self-serving. Whether or not this is the case, the book deserves a read by anyone interested in China today or in recent Chinese history.

Dr. Shen is a teacher at the college in MN I attended. It was amazing to read about the life of one of the smartest, kindest people you will ever meet. He isn't an easy teacher, but when you finish your master's degree in a year and a half and your PHD in five years what else would you expect. If you want to read a true story that will leave you in amazed this is book that you will want to pick up. But don't just take my word for it, read it for yourself.

An extremely rich series of tableaus of a fascinating cvilization in all its past glorious history. The author is a superb writer. And this book is a treasure...almost all the vital aspects of Sumer are depicted with bright colors:...religion...culture, way of life...society..ideology...history and fascinating stories..It is rich rich rich. No library on history and civilizations is complete without this book! Really a rare gem!!

Kramer provides a brief survey of the history of ancient Sumer. Even though this book is listed as archeology, he gleans most of his narrative from literary sources. It includes a history of the area from early dynastic times down to the time of Hammurabi, as well essays on Sumerian literature, education, religion, and so forth. Kramer writes very elegantly and includes a large collection of primary sources, making this book, despite its age, one of the best on its subject. On the other hand, it is a rather old book, and there are some subjects where Kramer's interpretations do not seem to have been accepted by more recent scholars, for instance his theories about Magan, Meluhha, and Dilmun. Despite this, his book is a good introduction to the history of Sumer, worthy of a read by anyone who is or thinks they might be interested in the subject.

The Sumerians is a very interesting book about ancient Mesopotamia and Sumerian civilisation.
One of biggest mysteries of the world is development of human culture and civilisation, for many decades scholars believed that first writing system was invented in Egypt but excavation in Mesopotamia showed a different picture and tablets found in that area dated back to 3000 BC and recent excavation in Iran revealed tablets(proto Elamit found in Jiroft area) dated 200 years before Sumerian tablets.
The book gives a good insight to Sumerian daily life, Sumerian law,religion and Sumerian gods, mathematical school tablets(dated 2500 BC) which includes multiplications, squares, square roots, cubes
And many other amazing information about medicine(prescriptions to make herbal medicine) .
This is a very good book with lots of information and easy to read and good value for money.

Kramer, one time the world's leading Sumerian epigrapher, does a remarkable job here of clearly explaining concepts and developments to a nonspecialized reading audience. In this regard, I found much in this book about both the general mechanisms of writing as well as the actual inscriptions themselves to be extremely useful when I wrote my own book (Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq). It is a rare academic who can move between the writing of technical journal articles and of books for the educated lay public, something in which Kramer, regardless of how dated specialists may now find his work, excelled at.

The Sumerians is a very interesting book about ancient Mesopotamia and Sumerian civilisation.
One of biggest mysteries of the world is the development of human culture and civilisation, for many decades scholars believed that first writing system was invented in Egypt but excavation in Mesopotamia showed a different picture and tablets found in that area dated back to 3000 BC and recent excavation in Iran revealed tablets(proto Elamit found in Jiroft area) dated 200 years before Sumerian tablets.
The book gives a good insight to Sumerian daily life, Sumerian law,religion and Sumerian gods, mathematical school tablets(dated 2500 BC) which includes multiplications, squares, square roots, cubes
And many other amazing information about medicine(prescriptions to make herbal medicine) .
This is a very good book with lots of information and easy to read and
good value for money.

Detailed analysis of U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia
American foreign policy exists simultaneously at several levels. Talk radio and TV pundits occupy the surface level, while foreign policy professionals understand increasingly deeper layers of information, history and interpretation. Rachel Bronson uses a scholarly approach for this in-depth discussion of America's complex relationship with Saudi Arabia. Linked by their animosity toward communism, and a fundamental supplier-customer relationship based on oil, the Saudis and Americans were allies throughout the Cold War. Then, they worked clandestinely to thwart the Soviets. But in the post-Cold War environment, conditions changed. The Saudis faced a major threat from other Islamic nations over their monarchy and their close relations with the U.S. Bronson densely packs her book with historical events in diplomatic, military, religious and cultural frameworks. Much of this material was classified and unavailable previously, so Bronson has fresh information. We consider this essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the vital, evolving relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Rachel Bronson, who works at a prestigious New York City think tank dedicated to Foreign Affairs, has written an excellent book on the history of the relationship between the governments of the United States of America and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The thesis of her book is that contrary to what some say, this friendship has been based on more than oil, that is also on shared antagonisms of Communism and Colonialism, and mutual strategic benefits. If you're a diplomat or political scientist, this well researched and meticulously documented book, which includes little tidbits that are rarely discussed, such as Mussolini's bombing the Dhahran oil installations at the beginning of the Second World War, will prove immensely useful to you.

But if you approach this history as a history buff, sociologist, or interested citizen, Bronson's almost pedantic focus on the political aspects of this long relationship and her emphasis on brevity are such that this book probably won't meet your needs. In distilling the history of this relationship to its bare bones, Bronson elides fascinating historical details that greatly help to understand the history. Bronson, for example, mentions that after they had helped him conquer his kingdom, King Abdul Aziz fell out with his Islamic shock-troops, the Ikhwan, who were only subdued with British help. Had she written that one of the straws that broke the camel's back was King Abdul Aziz's use of the radio, which the Ikhwan took as proof of that their King was an "idolater" and hence illegitimate, and the British Royal Air Force had to be called in to restore order, this book would have more local color.

I agree completely with Bronson that the Saudis were rightfully wary of allying themselves with the British, who at the time wielded an inordinate amount of influence in the region, and that an alliance with the Soviet Union was inconceivable; hence the alliance with the US. But I think she omits one of the reasons why this partnership worked so well for so long: strong cultural similarities between many of the Americans who worked in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis themselves. Texas was one of the hubs, if not the hub, of the American oil industry, and a disproportionate number of the American expatriates in Saudi Arabia were Texan. The Texas of the 1940s shared much more history, topography and culture with Saudi Arabia than Britain or any other European country keen on good relations with Saudi Arabia: many Texan preachers and Saudi mullahs were equally fond of alcohol and (often) intellectuals; both societies had had large populations with a nomadic tradition, Bedouins and Cowboys, a history of gunfights, a patriarchal and clan-based culture, a history of racial inequality (Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery at about the same time the United States ditched their Jim Crow laws, etc.) Neither Odessa, Texas nor large swathes of Saudi Arabia are quite as verdant and lush as the Garden of Eden was.

These similarities and tensions even played off of each other. Abdullah Al-Tariki, a Saudi petroleum minister, studied at the University of Texas, and was said to have left Austin with a chip on his shoulder because as a student he had been denied entry into some Austin bars by bouncers who thought he was of Mexican origin. When he returned to Saudi Arabia, he set out to found a Saudi equivalent of the Texas Railroad Commission, which the world came to know as OPEC.

To sum up, as a concise and heavily documented summary of the relationship between the American and Saudi governments this book is easily worth five stars. It is not, nor was it meant to be, a deeper, wider, and more thoughtful look at the shared history between these two nations.

The painstaking research undertaken by Rachel Bronson is formidable. She remained objective, except for the conclusions drawn at the book's end. There was a point at which everything finally seemed clear. I eagerly await her next endeavor.

Rachel Bronson's book is an exceptional accomplishment. She uses a vast number of authoritative sources and weaves a compelling and readable account of complex geopolitical relationships. Marshall Lilly's recent (August 6, 2006) review is right on target. Thomas G. O'Brien III, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

I honestly find this book very hard to criticize and give "only" a 4 star rating to. As far as a work of history goes this is pretty impressive. The author clearly researched the living heck out of her subject and has more than ample footnotes to prove it. There's no reason to doubt any of her facts as anything but 100% true, and mostly comprehensive. She has a dispassionate writing style letting the facts she has uncovered speak for themselves, untempered by either leftist or rightist interpretation. And although her topic itself can be a bit dry at times, she writes quite well and the book is not a chore to finish. All of these things are like rare sparkling gems in most works of history geared towards popular audiences (i.e. as opposed to textbooks . . . in which case the above traits would probably be even more precious.)

You will learn some good information in this book. It has a brief review of Saudi Arabia's history, but the focus of the book is really on the relationship between the US government and the Saudi government so it doesn't really start until the '20's or '30's where America first begins exploring for oil in the peninsula, and doesn't get meaty until the '40's when official government relations are upgraded to embassy level and FDR and Abdel Aziz met onboard the USS Quincy. True to her title the US Saudi relationship has been about more than oil, and has taken on an air of surprising friendship in many cases, where both sides really are genuinely helping themselves out by helping out each other. On the oil front Saudi Arabia has used it as a weapon against America far less so than it's neighbors and other OPEC nations, being a reliable source to counterbalance what OPEC is doing, and covertly supplying the US military even during periods of embargo. On the geographic front they are key to American access to the gulf, and have generally been more reliable than is reported in allowing military operations from or through their territory. On the economic front Saudi Arabia has invested largely in America, and on the political front we were true allies in fighting communism. However, with the end of the Cold War this anti-communist bond dissolved, and as many know the infrastructure built to channel radical islamist fighters into Afghanistan didn't, setting much of the stage for 9/11 and our current war on terror. The info in this book regarding these events is very good.

Where this book falls short is that it seems to be missing the forest for the trees. It's so focused on the intergovernmental relationships and on presenting mostly a chronolog of what's happened, that as you read you feel there's an 800 lb guerilla in the room that no one's talking about: mainly Saudi society and the population at large. Because much of this book is sort of chronolog, there's very little satisfying analysis of why the things she's reporting are happening, and little attempt to understand this. A happens, then B happens, then C happens, and that's about it. Many would argue this is a good thing since it lets the reader make up their minds, but I would counterargue that because Saudi society (as well as practically any mention of American society) is mostly left out there's not enough comprehensive information for readers to make a truly well grounded opinion. Much allusion is made to the house of Saud's fear of being deposed and that it can't alienate its population too much, but what really IS the Saudi population like? What are the major camps of political and religious thought? Just how radical or pragmatic are they? What do they believe? How educated are they? How much grassroots support for terror is there, and how much can the government really feasibly curtail local "charitable" giving? Unfortunately you won't get much on the above type of questions.

Ultimately the author believes, and says so early on in the book, that the world is practically driven by government policies and the world's problems can thus be solved with government policies. Thus the nearly singular focus on governmental relationships without delving into the makeup of Saudi Arabian society seems natural, but just as much to be tragically missing the overall big picture. Last her "solutions" to the strains on current Saudi-US interactions sound like a UN debate on what to do about Darfur, and about as effective. We need a more "nuanced" this to "promote stability", a "smarter" policy that to "reduce radicalism", a "laser-like focus" on this issue. But it's all very non-specific and general, with little analysis on whether a US governmental change of tract can actually change Saudi popular behavoir. When she does mention specifics of policies they're incredibly weak. She lauds, for example, how great a $100,000 grant is to a Women's university in Jeddah is to help them work with Duke university, and how this was some huge public relations victory in the kingdom. But I highly doubt anyone in the kingdom even knows about the program, or in what appears to be a very fundamentalist Islamic nation barely cares even if they did hear. WTO membership is another one of her big solutions. Again I find it hard to believe that those supporting the terrorist (who rarely seem to be in it for economic gain as far as I can tell) will throw in the towel when they see that the US has paved the way for Saudi participation in a complicated worldwide uber-bureaucratic entity which may or may not make the general Sauid population a little bit richer.

There's good info in here, its meticulously researched and completely fair, it just seems a bit too myopic to be as useful as it could have been.