Asia Books

This is a good read notwithstanding the sometimes academic treatment of the topic which at best is boring and long winded. Having said as much, the author does a pretty through job of addressing the various aspects of Pathan history which departs quite significantly from the common understanding of the average Pathan of himself and his heritage.

I for one was quite amazed to see the argument posed by the author and the facts laid therein to substantiate his proposition. However, by and large it is a book worth reading given the subject of Pathan history is something that can not be fully understood from a single read.

If you are not a Sindi, Punjabi, Hazara, Tajik or other enemies of the Afghans/Pakhtoon, this is a must reading for you.

This book is an extremely useful work for historical reference, perhaps the only one in its category extant. It can be called a magnum opus. The narrative of its writer is, of course, tinted heavily with his own emotion--and he has pointed this out to the reader himself when describing the nature of his book--therefore this aspect of the book may also be taken as a "historical reference", to its VIP author's attitudes, but otherwise has no value and is sincere, but very harmfully misleading to the unacquainted reader, about the true nature of the evil Pathan society and its ways, in the present time especially. The Pathans/Pakhtuns/Afghans were always a backward, turbulent society with a criminal culture, but they have changed drastically for the worse in the 44 years since this book was first written, mostly in the last 20 years or so.

This is one of the most comprehensive books on the subject of the Pathans (Pukhtoon or Pushtoon. Written by the last British Governor of the North West Frontier Province, this book traces the geneaology of this unusual race. Recently the Readers Digest (July 2000) wrote a story on the connection with Alexander the Great. This is a scholary work so if you are looking for light reading this is not for you. At one time Afghan and Pathan or Pukhtoon/Pushtoon were synonymous. It was the fear of the Pathans of Pakistan joining with the Pathans of Afghanistan that led Pakistan to deny naming the province "Pashtunistan" (Land of the Pashtuns)for fear of lending legitimacy to their desire for independence. Winston Churchill fought here. So did Sherlock Holmes' friend Dr. Watson. The general fascination with this area can be gauged by the number of National Geographic articles about it. This book brings these people to life and gives them the honorable treatment they have earned. I should know, I am a Pukhtoon of the Yousafzai (Joseph's Children) tribe.

Brilliant in every way, David Kidd's carefully weaved tale of the end of Old China, as seen through the eyes of an upper class family, is profoundly personal and endearing. As it wavers between fact and fiction its underlining message becomes abundantly clear: the Old China is gone and never to be forgotten, even as those who lived it fall into the abyss of time. A moving,humorous, delightful, and sorrowful read. Simply brilliant.

Memoirs of the surviving privileged classes who lost everything in twentieth-century revolutions can often seem terribly materialistic and self-pitying: when displaced aristocrats wail and wail for their lost tiaras or smashed porcelain, without a jot of sympathy for why they were asked to leave in the first place, you can begin perversely to develop sympathy for the cadres who called these people class parasites and threw them out. David Kidd's memoir of marrying into an ancient and wealthy Chinese family in 1948 shows every sign of such a work, but it's far better than it starts out to be (given his adoration for lives of privilege and his almost willfuil refusal to see the point of view of why anyone would support the Communists in 1949 in the first place). The superb descriptions of the Yu family's rotting but beautiful manor are done with great humor and artistry as well as with melancholy, and the very memorable portrait of the phlegmatic and wry Yus themselves seems to bring additional perspective and depth to the material. What emerges in the end is (despite the book's brevity) a very artful and moving snapshot of a world in transition

Beautifully, lyrically rendered in the author's inimitable voice, full of haunting descriptions of a world that is gone forever yet never to be forgotten. David Kidd was truly one of a kind, unique in every way.

This book haunts..it stays with you as a most intimate portrait of those special and tender people caught in the transition between the old China and the Revolution in 1948. No account has ever brought more tears and love for those real people who saw and felt their world change almost beyond their understanding.

I was struck by the creative use of the Chinese characters in the drawings themselves which were very fresh and alive. A Chinese/American friend of mine also read the book and said that these characters must be rather new. She didn't think that her father would recognize them. I think the book would be compelling for both children and adults.

I bought this book as a present and had to read it first for myself. The book's illustrations help you understand the Chinese characters and bring the story together. After one look through, i was already testing myself on which characters I had learned. You'll be surprised at how fast you can pick up on it. I definitely recommend this book for you, your child or as an awesome present!

I am a director of a Preschool and we teach the Mandarin Language here. I ordered this book to add to our collection of story telling and was pleasantly surprised! This is a great book to start teaching the Chinese written characters and the children love love love this story! They even now can pick out the written characters in other written materials because of this book. The story is memorable. Author uses the Chinese character strokes over the pictures. Pictures are cute and story is entertaining.Highly recommend this book!!!

I love this book! It is a large format so my son has a lot to look at and does not get as easily distracted as he does with smaller books. The pictures are also high contrast. I enjoy the illustration a great deal myself. And did I mention the clever integration of the Chinese characters into the illustration. I'm not sure yet how much my son has learned but it has taught me a lot. Great book!

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Japanese pirates. It provides enough details to make one feel like one learned something interesting but does not overwhelm with boring details.
The "further readings" section has a lot of useful references (though I don't think I have time to dig into all of them...)

Basically, the early Japanese pirates were thugs, or 'terrorists', who engaged in rape, murder, theft, kidnapping and arson etc. They terrorized the coasts of Korea and China. These violent pirates later became 'navy' during the 'warring period' and the 'Imjin War (invasion of Korea)'. While now we can read with amusement (just like the pirates of the Carrabeans), they were one of the 'axis of evil' at that time.

Giving five star does not mean it is above my criticism. The 'pirate ships' section is a little shakey in my humble opinion.
As the author acknowledged, there is no remnant of the ships, nor is there any detailed drawing to tell us conclusively the size or compartment of the pirate ships. So, stating that the Atakebune (large battleships) manned 80 oarsmen and 60 fighting men (140 men crew) can be misleading if not inaccurate. I tried to find where this 140 men number came about, but couldn't find it. There are documents that describe much larger battleships built by daimyos such as Oda Nobunaga (200 oars battleship) and Kuki, not to mention Hideyoshi, who preferred large battleships. As the warring period intensified in Japan, many diamyos who teamed up with pirates pushed for larger Atake ships.

There was by no means a unified version of Atakebune. This was a very different situation from Korea, where the design/size of the Korean battleships were standardized under one Court.

In other books the author has mentioned the piratical activities of the Wako, or Japanese pirates. This book is a good expansion on those mentions, and a good summary of wako activities. Illustrations are good. I feel, however, that the format of the book limited the information to be had. I would have liked to see more on the Portuguese pirates that joined the late-era Wako, for example, as well as more detail on the campaigns and life-styles of the pirates. The title, incidentally, is misleading, implying that the Chinese and Malay pirates, who were long-standing menaces to the Far East, would also be included. All in all, a good book, but not enough pages. This could be the basis for a larger, much better book.

I never knew there were pirates of this nature. Brutal and bold. I loved this book and will reread.

I remember when I first saw this title advertized earlier this year. 'Pirate of the Far East 811-1639? What the heck?' This had to be the most obscure title yet published by Osprey! Nonetheless, as a fan of both Samurai Warfare and Stephen Turnbull, I went ahead and bought it. I was not disappointed.

To sum it up, Turnbull examines 800 years of raids on the civilizations of China, Korea, and of course Japan by bands of cutthroats, mercenaries, lordless Samurai, and plain scum, and the wars of revenge fought against them both on land and at sea. These fierce and unruly warriors, known for their cruelty and complete lack of respect for any ruler or religion, had the ragtag appearance one would expect, but many managed to acquire Samurai weaponry and armor. In fact, one of their greatest leaders, the 'pirate-king' Murakami Takeyoshi, was of an illustrious Samurai clan.

Turnbull opens his book with a summary of the history of these fearsome seamen, and goes on to describe their culture and outline their history. He then examines their physical appearance, clothing, armor, weapons, and ships, and then looks at their daily life, chain of command, and the various types of raid they made. Then he examines their tactics and the battle experience of individual pirates. He closes the title with sections on museums, sites, and further reading. As with another recent warrior title, the plates and plate commentary are spread out throughout the book, rather than being grouped together at the center and back.

Overall, despite their exotic location and appearance, these pirates were just that-typical pirates whose lifestyle and tactics were not overly different from the contemporary Vikings and European mercenary bands, and the classical buccaneer and Caribbean-type pirates still to come. As he already has with the warrior-monks, ashigaru, and ninja, Turnbull does these hard-fighting and murderous raiders a service by revealing to the modern English-speaking world just how vital a role they played in the the politics and wars of contemporary China, Japan, and Korea, and does so in a manner than is exciting and readable, and leaves the reader stunned at the chilling cruelty of these pitiless mercenaries.

I never had an interest to go to China. It just seemed like some distant fantasy. But when I was required to pick a book from my high school book report, I picked Postcards From China. I must admit that I partly picked it because it was written by my Aunt, but it was no mistake. This book journies through the lives of a family trying to survive in a country where the language is foreign and the culture is out of the box. As I finished the book I realized how badly I want to go to China. I want to experience being in a different culture, and being with different people. More than that, I want to go to China show the love of Jesus to the people who are suffering there. The pain of the people that is expressed through this book opened my eyes to see how lost this world is. This is an amazing book, and it is worth your time to read it. I am a sophomore who is not a big fan of reading, but I am telling you, it is amazing.

The Postcards came from Xiamen, China's incomparable "garden city". I received Sandy's Postcards one by one, as they were written, and I was one of the people who urged her to publish them in book form so that others could also enjoy Megan, Larry, Sandy, and Xiamen. Sandy's writing is just like her voice---she is a great communicator. I was worried that her editor might tamper with her writing, thereby obscuring her inimitable style, but thankfully, this did not happen. The editor had the good sense to leave her excellent writing intact.
The story is a charming and compelling one, but is Xiamen and its people really like Sandy has described, or is this fiction masquerading as non-fiction? Well, I was so enchanted with what I was hearing about Xiamen that I went and visited the Slavins twice, for a total of ten weeks. The Xiamen you will read about is truly the Xiamen I experienced first hand.
Do something nice for yourself---read this book!

The most impressive part of the story was when the Slavins moved to China so their adopted daughter can reconnect with her country of birth. Their open hearts and eyes made the book a joy to read. I liked its down-to-earth view of life in China that any American can understand. Even though China is westernizing at a dizzying pace, their daily adjustments to life in China reminded me of the many conveniences we take for granted in the U.S. Their spirit of adventure was inspiring. A fun read!

Sandra Slavin relates their family's China experience with an astute eye. She paints pictures with charm, wit and a insight and portrays a culture that eventually impacted their lives in unforeseen ways.

This book is a nice look at some prefab residences. The images are high quality and come from a nice selection of projects. It's a good book to add to your library and pull out when in need of a little inspiration.

A Luscious book - with inspirational photos, in both quality and selection. A valuable book for educating those new to this trend in building, so they can abandon old ideas of prefab and look at the hot creative and even green possibilities.

PreFab Now

For me, this was a pleasure to look through. The variety of homes covered in the book are extensive; and the photography captured the Pre-Fab installations beautifully. I plan on building a Pre-Fab in the future and I found this book to be a great source of inspiration and visual information.

PreFabNow, $26.37 Amazon.com, is a two hundred page square-format book from author James Grayson Trulove. His recent hardbacks include 25 Apartments and Lofts Under 2500 Square Feet, New Sustainable Homes, and The Modern Townhouse. This volume highlights prime examples of striking prefabricated homes on the market today - and examines facets such as cost, durability, and sustainability. The book also includes drawings, plans, renderings, and sumptuous full-page color photography from various architects and photographers.

Resolution: 4 Architecture envisioned the Mountain Retreat that occupies 18 of the first 30 pages appearing after the Contents and Foreword. This 1,800-square-foot home was assembled in a factory before being erected on-site in the Catskills. Once the prefabricated bars were raised, exterior sheathing of cedar board and cementitious panels were applied; a deck for entertaining was also added. My favorite element on this house is the butterfly roof with clerestory windows.

English countryside homes like Cedar House - designed by Hudson Architects - are enviable. This 3,450-square-foot home (utilizing off-site construction) was erected in just one week. Timber-panel floors, roofing, and walls allowed for easy installation; 15,000 untreated cedar shingles complete the exterior. Because the roof structure was lightweight, roof beams were not required - therefore the residence has soaring ceilings and vast open spaces. My favorite feature on this structure is the cantilevered corner window in aluminum-frame.

Flexibility and portability are found in the Portable House from Office of Mobile Design. This California dwelling has ample living and sleeping spaces divided by a kitchen and bath. Once the 12-by-60-foot steel frame is trucked to its site and set on a foundation, the exterior is fitted with metal siding and translucent polycarbonate panels that serve as windows. My favorite detail here is the bamboo flooring, since bamboo is a sustainable hardwood.

Another home designed by Resolution: 4 Architecture is in rural Virginia. The Country Retreat is a 2,600-square-foot house with communal areas on the lower level and private areas on the upper level. Once its prefabricated bars were raised, exteriors of horizontal cedar siding and cement-board accents were applied; a ground-level stone courtyard conceals a swimming pool. My favorite attribute of this retreat is the view from the dining/living area onto the aforementioned courtyard.

Besides the Mountain Retreat, my favorite residence in PreFabNow, is the Red Cabin designed by Alchemy Architects. Perched in the Minnesota woods, a 750-square-foot house with two bedrooms and a galley kitchen evokes the image of a tugboat stranded atop a hill. Configured from two pre-built modules, the home appears spacious due to ground level and rooftop decks. Clad in rough-sawn siding, the house is painted firehouse red to mimic nearby cabins.

Next I'll discuss the X 1 which is part of the X-Line from Hive Modular. This 2,300-square-foot modular home - also located in Minnesota - has 15 foot ceilings in the dining, kitchen, living, master and second bedroom, and study area. Its exterior is covered with maintenance-free fiber-cement and metal siding, and the windows are all black-clad aluminum. I'd say the architects at Hive Modular are fans of the artist Mondrian, based on this prototype.

Of the houses featured here, I especially like the Mod3 Riverview. This green home was designed by Studio 804 of Lawrence, Kansas. All its ceiling, floor and wall cavities are filled with recycled cellulose instead of fiberglass insulation. The exterior is home grown Douglas fir used to reduce fuel consumption associated with shipping materials from overseas. Floor to ceiling windows utilized here also insure ample natural light, reducing the need for artificial light.

While I can't imagine living in a Mobile Dwelling Unit - designed by Lot-Ek - it does possess a certain post-Millennial charm. This unit is built from recycled shipping containers. Its interior and sub-volumes are fabricated from fixtures, plywood, and plastic-coated plywood. When all the sub-volumes are extended, the square footage of the dwelling increases by ten percent. Overall, I'd say this is an excellent coffee table book for anyone that's contemplating buying a prefab home.

I really like this book for a first course in topology. It has the right level and balance of subjects. The book has been very hard to find for a number of years but has now been republished by Thomson Learning in Singapore. The new ISBN is 981-243-288-4.

I was very disappointed to see that this text is out of print. I would like to use this text for our topology topics course at USAFA. It pitches the subject at just the right level for the beginner in topolgy! Fabulous First Text! Does anyone know how I could get my hands on about 30 copies. OR know of one similar to this text which is still in print?

I taught a one semester course on basic point set topology out of this book. The emphasis in the first half is on metric spaces, which provide the most natural class of examples for the basic principles of point set topology that any student taking a course in topology must know about. There is little extraneous material, and I found that the students thought the book was very good. This was a group of students at a regional campus of a large state university, and I would recommend the book for a beginning course at a comparable campus. Those teaching at research institutions will want more.

As many math educators agree, there are many textbooks not written for beginners. This textbook is outstanding for any level of beginner. I wish it can be picked up by Dover. I highly recommend it to any reader who wants to know the subject: Topology.

This is an excellent first hand account. It is rather well done, more so than several others I have read. I do wish we had more like this one. Very inspiring. I felt it gave even a greater insight to the war in the Pacific. Recommend you add this one to your collection.

William Berry has written a well-detailed, although brief, look at his attempted escape and captivity after the fall of Correigdor. While not a scholarly look at these events, the author gives a good account of his capture, escape and trek through the jungle, recapture and liberation by American servicemen from Bilibid prison in Manila. He painfully recounts the agony these men went through as they were crammed, up to 13 men at one time, into a 10 by 10 cell and forced to sit, without flinching, and stare at the wall all day.

As a recaptured prisoner, Berry and his two comrades somehow survive the war, as the usual penalty for escape is execution. They were sent to the maximum security prison in Manila for "special prisoners", and many prisoners stopped here only long enough to be sentenced and shot. Berry, who was a fledgling lawyer before enlisting in the Navy, saw these skills save his life and the lives of his friends when being sentenced, not so much his arguments, of course, but rather how he shaped it to fit his audience (A Japanese tribunal)

This book does not take long to read, but it is an interesting tale, and well worth the time invested. But, if you want greater scope and detail of Americans in Japanese captivity, read "Prisoners of the Japanese" by Gavan Daws, an extremely informative and well-written look at the horrors these men had to endure daily.

The author of this book is my grandfather. I found this book to be inspiring as I am also a soldier. I am in the Army and found this book to give me a greater appreciation of my profession as well as bring a greater understanding of my grandfather's life and why he is so proud. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand what POWs in the Philippines went through. I have lent my copy of his book to several of my friends and they all gave it great reviews as well.

One of the few true to life books written by a WWII POW. As a history buff I find the first hand accounts in this book of the authors experiances and the others he came in contact a first rate story of America's darkest time. A must for all those who want to know more about POW's of the Japanese.

Having been stationed in the Philippines and traveled to Battan and Corrigidor it brought the meaning of those visits a little sharper in focus.

This touchingly illustrated book normalizes the adoption path toward building a Jewish family. The author describes the process of adding a Vietnamese-born child to a Jewish family. The text resonnates with its simplicity. Even though it is filled with warm emotions, it is never corny and respects the diversity that it added to a family in a multi-cultural adoption as an addition of greater wealth of identities. This book would appeal to children as young as 3 and up to about 8.

Hear an interview with Rebecca's Journey Home author Brynn Olenberg Sugarman on The Book of Life podcast's September 2007 episode "Seeing Through New Eyes," at www.bookoflifepodcast.com! Brynn talks about the book's creation, and the inspiration for adopting her own daughter, Rachel.

Mrs. Stein is eager to adopt a new baby girl to add to her family, consisting of herself and Mr. Stein, along with Jacob (age 8), and Gabe (age 4). As she tells her family," There were so many babies and children in the world whose parents had loved them, but could not take care of them". The story follows familiar territory- over a period of a year, Mrs. Stein gets ready for the big day; she needs to fill out documents, answer questions, and attend meetings until she is finally told there is a baby waiting for her in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, she patiently waits for permission to take the baby home and spends her time shopping and emailing her family who can't wait to meet baby Rebecca. Back in the United States, the focus is on Rebecca's Judaism; on Shabbat, a special blessing is made for her. When she is almost one; Rebecca is taken to the mikvah and given the Hebrew name, Rivka Shoshanah. As her mother proudly states, " She is now Vietnamese, American, and Jewish!".
This endearing picture book perfectly captures the growing trend of international adoption among the American Jewish community. Warm, stylized pastel double-spread illustrations complement the text and make this a great book for sharing aloud. The author, a mom with an adopted Vietnamese baby, draws on her own experiences, to realistically portray the excitement and joy of having a new family member. For all families, this title would be especially useful in a Jewish preschool or temple library.
Ages 4-8.
Reviewed by Debby Gold

A picture book portraying a Jewish-American family adopting a child from overseas is long overdue and Rebecca's Journey Home handles the subject with sensitivity and warmth. The beautifully written text explains how the Stein family, with two biological children, wish to build their family and share their home with one of the many children in the world "whose parents had loved them but could not take care of them." Each Shabbat since the beginning of their adoption process the family blesses their two boys and includes a blessing for their new daughter in Vietnam. They explain to their sons that while their new sister Rebecca will always be Vietnamese, she will also be American and Jewish. The story ends with Rebecca's trip to the mikveh where she receives her Hebrew name. This book will especially appeal to families with adopted children and libraries who wish to celebrate the diversity of the Jewish community.

Jim Rohwer could not have known how right he was.

The blistering pace of economic growth in China has really accelerated in the couple of years since this book came out. China is now firing on all cylinders, delivering a phenomenal performance which combines high GDP growth with low inflation, unlike in the first decade of reform, which suffered from rampant inflation. FDI into China is now at an all time high, projected to exceed $60 billion in 2004. In 2003, electricity production is up 14% (the average in the preceding 10 years was 7.8%). Industrial production is up something like 15%, while oil consumption is up at least 30%. GDP growth for all of 2003 was revised upwards to 9.1%, and the 4th quarter of 2003 was up 9.9% year on year, meaning the economy speeded up in 2003. Western estimates, made by Morgan Stanley, CSFB, Goldman Sachs, and others, are beginning to believe that the Chinese government's official data are now UNDER-estimating real GDP growth, which, based on a broad basket of economic indicators, should be in the double-digits.

Thus, China is growing at two-and-a-half times America's rate of 4%. Maybe more. In the next decade this amazing performance may not be able to sustain itself. But China can still hope to grow at twice America's rate on avereage until 2020 or 2025, which is what Jim Rohwer expected.

By then, China's economy will be the world's third largest, and if the yuan rises in value in the meantime, China's nominal GDP will be bigger than Japan's and thus the second largest in the world. In PPP, however, China will be larger than America. Overall, China is going to be the second largest economy in the world in 20 years' time.

China could never get there unless its methods are "remade in America."

Rohwer said China was on the verge of a boom, and America a slowdown. He said this when all of Asia (minus Japan) seemed mired in the Asian financial crisis, while America was prospering and its stockmarket at dizzy heights. Well, how right he was. And Rohwer, who died shortly before 9-11, could not have foreseen all the reasons why he would be proven prophetic. My guess is, even he would have been surprised by his own amazing fortune telling abilities (about international economics anyway). This book is a gem.

Jim Rohwer does a wonderful job explaining the complexities of the 1997-98 Asian economic crises and what the future holds for the region in this era of globalization. Using a unique style, he tells the stories of Asian nations - how the `90s crises affected their economies and populations, what they've done in response and how they are positioned for the future. This is done with a striking lack of hard numbers, which might diminish the credibility of some observations, but certainly helps them go down a little easier. We from getAbstract recommend this book to all readers with an intellectual or business interest in Asia.

Rohwer's academic credentials are sterling. No ivory tower academic, he had a lot of first-hand field experience, in addition to sharp writing skills. Rohwer also spent a good deal of time in China, so he saw "frontline" duty too. Rohwer had a unique combination of qualifications - perfect for writing this book. I would give him 6 stars if I could. If he was right, then clearly China is on course to become an economic superpower. He also predicted America's slowdown, writing at the height of the Clinton boom years. The sad postscript about this book is that there won't be a second edition. Rohwer died in an accident in France in Sept., 2001.

I recommend this book and his previous book as antidote to Bill Emmott's "20:21". Both worked at the Economist, coming to different conclusions about China. If you haven't read either book, I'd only point out that not only did Rohwer have a much better resume, he was far more articulate and realistic in his facts, figures, and views than the contrarian Emmott, who seems to have forgotten Henri Poincare's admonition: "To be credulous and cynical about everything are both wrong - they dispense with the need to think."