This harrowing book recounts the stories of individual Kuwaitis who suffered horribly in the days just after the Iraqi invasion in 1990. The focus on individuals makes the book all the more moving; the author's knowledge of and sympathy for the subject country comes through clearly. One can't knock the stories of the Kuwaitis; I was a little disappointed in the author (mention is made of the Kuwaiti government's lack of democracy, which she rationalizes by resorting to the old "a nation's internal policies are no one else's business" excuse, also used by none other than Saddam Hussein). For this, I was forced to deduct a star from the rating.

This was clearly a quickly written book, but gave good details. The suffering endured by the Kuwaitis reminds me to be relieved that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power! But, what caught my interest the most was the author's knack for traveling alone throughout the Middle East. It's not unusual for tough male reporters to do that, but for a southern female, someone who is not even a reporter, to travel with such abandon is simply amazing. I was struck more than once by her bravery. Not only that, Jean Sasson seemed to be able to interview whomever she pleased, from the highest ranking Kuwaiti official to the ordinary citizens. I'd like to read this author's personal story myself. Is there such a book? If so, I would buy it.

I know this author, Jean Sasson, from her PRINCESS Trilogy, and from her last book, ESTER'S CHILD. I had a difficult time finding this book, but was not disappointed with a second-hand copy. Although the book is obviously written in a hurry due to the situation at the time, and certainly not up to the quality writing of her last 4 books, you can tell that Jean Sasson cares passionately about these human beings and wants their stories to be told. I was surprised at her ability to interview so many high-ranking government officials but after reading her bio and seeing that she lived for 12 years in Arabia, I realized that she probably knows the "ins and outs" of the area. For certain, she is one brave lady and does not seem to concern herself with her own safety. Admittedly, she does seem to try and please everyone just a tad much, but I wonder if that is her Southern background--friendly and warm.
At any rate, I do admire this author and I think it was a story that needing telling by someone who obviously liked the Arabs being interviewed. The author seems to have a knack to not judge, and to try and get to the heart of the matter.
I recommend this book in light of the ongoing situation with Iraq. Who knows when Saddam will decide to go back to Kuwait? This author tells the truth of that invasion straight from the mouths of the people who survived a very brutal day. Let's just hope a second book about a second invasion is not in our future!

Shortly after the American Civil War, John Muir, a 29-year-old budding naturalist, set out on an epic journey across the eastern United States. Starting in Louisville, Kentucky on September 2, 1867, he walked southward through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, where he was delayed in Savannah. After crossing through Florida he finally reached the Gulf, but, unfortunately, his desire to continue on toward South America was hindered by an illness. Not fully recovered, he eventually made for Cuba, but went no further. Muir returned home only to set out for California a short while later. During his journey, he kept a journal in which he recorded his experiences and observations of the flora and fauna he came across. This journal, along with an article written in 1872 and a letter that he wrote while in California, constitute A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, which was originally published in 1916, two years following Muir's death. Although there are a few instances when the author reveals himself to be a man of his times, his observations of a natural world which in many instances have long since been destroyed, are priceless.

As the human population expands the natural world around us disappears. This is a fact we mostly ignore as we go about our daily life. One day, you wake up, and discover that within your own lifetime things have been permanently altered.

When John Muir made his "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" the U.S. was not as heavily populated as it is today, although much had changed from the time when European settlers first moved through the area he explored -- a path that stretched from Indianapolis Indiana to the Gulf just north of what is Tampa Florida today.

Muir moved South in the aftermath of the Civil War, so he encountered much unrest, unhappiness, and destruction along the way. He describes not only the flora and fauna he found but the condition of humans as they struggled to rebuild their lives.

He says, "My plan was to simply to push on in a general southward direction by the wildest leafiest, and least trodden way I could find, promising the greatest extent of virgin forest." To a great extent, he was able to do that, however, he could not escape some of the realities of the world around him. For example, in Georgia, he encountered the graves of the dead, whom he says lay under a "common single roof, supported on four posts as the cover of a well, as if rain and sunshine were not regarded as blessings." A bit further he says, "I wandered wearily from dune to dune sinking ankle deep in the sand, searching for a place to sleep beneath the tall flowers, free from the insects and snakes, and above all my fellow man."

Muir wonders at the teachings of those who call themselves God's emissaries, who fail to ask about God's intentions for nature. He says, "It never seems to occur to these far-seeing teachers that Natures's object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them, not the creation of all for the happiness of one. Why should man value himself as more that a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of the unit--the cosmos?"

Partly as a result of his writing, and the writing of other Naturalists, the National Park System came into being, and today, more trees grow on the East coast than grew in the late 1700s (American Revolution). The fight is not over, however, it has only begun. Many of those trees are "harvested" every year. Sometimes, even within National Forests they are all felled at the same time through a process called clear cutting. The lovely large oaks that Muir beheld are mostly long gone and have been replaced by Pine.

This is one of John Muir's best books (the other being _First Summer in the Sierra_). It's Muir's slightly-edited diary of his 1000-mile trip through the Southern U.S. to Florida, then Cuba. He traveled on foot observing nature and the people. The book holds your interest as it's written on the spot through the enthusistic eyes of a young man. It reminds me a little of Mark Twain's book _Roughin' It_, another story through the eye's of a young man latter to become famous (about working on antebellum riverboats).

I've long respected Walter Cronkite, loved history and geography, and been remarkably queasy about being out on a boat. Despite my fear of sailing, I truly enjoyed this book. Cronkite is, no surprise, a wonderful storyteller. As he meanders the upper and lower stretches of the Atlantic Seaboard, followed, more cursorily, by the Gulf and Pacific coasts, he tells stories about the history and geography of our coasts. In many ways, despite our vast interior stretches, America is an ocean country and Cronkite revels in sharing his insights and loves. Particularly poignant now, though unintentionally, are his discourses about Manhattan and the general New York City area. Although he but mentions the World Trade Center in passing, one can only imagine the changed skyline from a small boat and what Mr. Cronkite might say about that. All in all, a delightful tour of our magnificent coastline. And if you actualy enjoy sailing, this would have to be a perfect book!

Living on Martha's Vineyard, he's our neighbor. And what a treat. "The Most Trusted Man in America," and an intrepid sailor, came to Block Island to autograph this spellbinding book. In it, he calls Block Island "a delightfully wild place of steep hills and flower-covered moors dotted with the homes of summer residents. It rises in the south to drop suddenly into the Atlantic, the two-hundred-foot-high bluffs reminding the approaching sailor of the cliffs of Dover." And all the other places and people he encounters along the USA's coastline make this book a MUST-read for sailors and armchair sailors...and certainly anyone who loves Block Island.

Scales' book holds very true to it's title: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War. The contributions of other services are analyzed (and criticized) only in relation to their support of the US Army. I think anyone studying the Gulf War should read this book, but should also supplement it with other works.

This book is on the HQDA Recommended Reading list! Enjoy!

Gaffen shows our guys serving in each other's armed forces from the War of Northern Agression, through the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf.

Gaffen begins each section with a history of the conflict.The first part brings to us the lives of Canadians who served in the Federal Army, including several Medal of Honour winners, and details how Canada was a tacit ally of the Confederate States of America. This part also tells the stories of several Americans who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during 1914-1918, including author Raymond Chandler and several Victoria Cross winners. The 1939-45 section begins with Americans in the RAF and RCAF, and goes on to the accounts of several Americans and Canadians serving in each other's militaries, including the only member of the US Coast Guard to win the Medal of Honour. The Korea part is shorter, but does briefly mention one American from New Jersey who was KIA while serving with the Royal Canadian Regiment. The Vietnam chapter is patterned after Gaffen's previous book <>, and includes two of Canada's greatest heros, Fidele Joseph Bastarache, and Michael John "Bat" Masterson. The Gulf section discusses two Canadians who served in the US military during that war. The appendices on Canadian Medal of Honour recipients (including some from the Indian Campaigns, the Spanish American War, The Mexican capaign against Pancho Villa and others in between), Canadian casualties of Vietnam, Medal of Honour recipients buried in Canada, and American recipients of the Victoria Cross are informative and inspiring.

The only thing Gaffen missed was the death of US Special Forces Sergeant Robert Deeks, killed by a landmine on 2, March 1993, while serving with the Canadian Airborne Regiment in Somalia. However, this can hardly be a fault or a flaw in the book, as Gaffen was probably doing the research or writing during that time frame.

This is a very heartwarming and inspiring book. In an era when Canadian politicians and wrestlers, and Canadian and American sports fans work very hard to foment enmity between our people, Gaffen's book reminds us that we have a lot more in common than a border and a language. Gaffen also shows he truly cares about the people of which he writes, expressing his personal support for the cause of Canadian Vietnam Veterans. Given that Gaffen works for the Government (the Canadian War Museum), this took guts.

A very informative and touching tome. I would make it required reading in high school history classes on both sides of the border.

Canadian military historian Fred Gaffen's book Cross Border Warriors attempts to fill in the gaps in Canadian and American military history. He shares detailed anecdotes of the Americans who fought in the Royal Canadian Forces and the Canadians who fought for the American military, while grounding their stories deep in a macro-historical analysis of the conflicts and cooperation between the two nations. He recognizes both the strong anti-American sentiment in Canada and the occasional fear of Americans that Canada was about to attack the U.S. Ultimately, he wants to tell the stories of the 60,000 American and Canadian citizens who served in each other's armed forces since 1812.

Gaffen begins with the American Civil War, which is commonly thought of as an American only conflict, but it had a definite impact on Canada as well, not only because many Canadians served in the American Union and Confederate armies, but because the civil war was the backdrop for Canadian confederation. As skeptical as Canada's founding fathers were of the civil unrest in the United States, many Canadians "with a taste for adventure " enlisted in the American forces both North and South. Many Canadians also fell prey to crimpers from the States who enticed them under false pretenses or even drugs and alcohol to join the war in the States, usually taking the place of someone rich enough to buy his way out of service.

Crimping occurred on both sides of the border, however, and in World War I before the U.S. joined the war, Americans were crimped into duty for the Canadians. The American Foreign Enlistment Act of 1818 was supposed to prevent such abuses in recruiting, and it was finally enforced and the crimping came to a halt. Canada joined WWI in 1914, two and a half years before the U.S., and since the U.S. was officially neutral, it could not compel or explicitly let its men fight for the Canadians.

However, Canadian minister of defense Sam Hughes assembled a brigade of Americans living in Canada to fight overseas, and then when America joined the war, an agreement was reached that Canada, the U.S., and Britain could all draft each other's citizens into any of their armed forces. Many Americans chose to join the British Air Force for the chance to fly.

It is interesting to note that despite this seemingly open cooperation and trust between the two countries during WWI, the U.S. and Canada both had contingency plans in case of attack or invasion by the other or by Britain before World War II. When Canada entered WWII, many Americans crossed the border to join the Canadian Air Force Special Reserve, which they could do without losing their citizenship. They would take an oath of obedience to the Canadian army, but not an oath of allegiance, and therefore retain their American citizenship. However, when the U.S. entered the war in 1941, many Americans returned to the U.S. forces because of national pride and better compensation.

Canada also had the Clayton Knight committee dedicated to recruiting American pilots to fly for the Royal Canadian Air Force, which many Americans joined because of the more relaxed education and training requirements.

Canadian participation in American conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf was much less pronounced, mostly because of the smaller scale of these wars and less need for foreign soldiers. Canada did send a brigade of its own to fight in Korea, but most Canadians who fought in that war did so under U.S. command. Generally, Canadian Korea veterans had a much more positive experience than Canadian Vietnam veterans. Many Canadians went to fight for the U.S. in Vietnam seeking glory and adventure, but they were sadly disappointed, and most felt "used and abandoned by the American government." More Canadian veterans than American suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the horrors of Vietnam and they receive less public support. Canadian Vietnam veterans face considerable hostility from the Canadian public, and they are treated even more as outcasts than American Vietnam veterans in the U.S. Canadian involvement in the Persian Gulf war was limited mostly to Canadians already living in the U.S. or special forces assigned to help with the battle.

Through detailed historical facts and personal anecdotes, Fred Gaffen makes an important contribution to the often neglected soldiers who fought across borders in the past two centuries. He provides the recognition that these brave men and women deserve and have often not received. He emphasizes the important and lasting ties that veterans from Canada and the United States keep to this day, and hopes that the two countries will continue their friendly relations and willingness to help a neighbor in times of crisis.

This book is full of line drawings, photos and other images to supplement information on the A-10, a popular ground support and attack aircraft.

This is an excellent book that I reccomend to everyone who likes Warthogs. The book shows development of the A-10, and the A-9 competition. Great pics and text to go along with it.

This book is easy to use, informative and quite helpful to the texas fossil hunter. The pictures cover a very broad range of texas fossils, and though not always in color, are very helpful in identification.

I have used this book to refer to numerous times.
It gives a very good perspective of the diversity of the geography of Texas.
Good book, thanks for writing it, Chuck.
Jessy Boedeker
The Texas Fossil Collector

Simpson's field guide is a comprehensive encyclopedic guide to trees "naturally" occuring in Texas. For each species, it provides a shaded map of its counties of occurrence, as well as one page summary of the tree's characteristics and habitats. The color plates (one for each species)are helpful but small. My only complaint is that the omitted general illustrations of the leaf, silhouette, flowers, and fruits of the various trees would have been of great usefullness to the amateur naturalist. Thus, this book must be paired with another to be of maximum utility in the field.

I am having losing 5 large Post Oaks Trees.I have had local Horticultist come by and look at my trees at our residence lot. I was told that construction around my 3 yr old house and fungus and may some hot dry summers may contribute.I know that I do not apply posion,lack of water or to much.I wish science to really what killed my large tall 60-75 ft.trees.

The Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico is the first of a planned two-volume set. Volume 1 covers the orders Myxiformes to Gasterosteiformes (40 orders). Volume 2 will cover the remaining 4 orders; Scorpaeniformes, Perciformes, Pleuronectiformes, and Tetraodontiformes. This book is intended to be a single source for identification and description of fishes that are known to occur in the Gulf of Mexico. It is comprehensive and scholarly in nature and would be of great use to researchers and students.

The book is arranged phylogenetically and includes a dichotomous key to the 44 orders of fishes, which occur in the Gulf of Mexico. For each order there is a key to families and then a key to species within each family. The species entries describe each fish and distinguish it from other species within the family. Nearly all entries include an illustration, most drawn from museum specimens. The distribution of each species within the Gulf and worldwide is provided. All entries include references for further study. The authors have gone to great depth in describing the families and species in the hopes that the book will be self-contained. The book also includes a glossary of terms, a bibliography of references cited and an index to scientific names.

The Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico is an excellent publication and belongs in libraries with an interest in either this geographical region or area of research. It would also be appropriate for researchers, naturalists, and students working in this area.

In every field of study there is a book that is regarded as "the bible". For the identification and description of the fish fauna of the Gulf of Mexico this two-volume book will certainly be it. It distills into one reference work the information that was (until now) scattered in a wide body of literature dealing with various parts of the Gulf. Volume 1 begins with a key to the 44 orders that are known to occur in the region, and then proceeds to describe the families and species in 40 of those orders (Volume 2 will deal with the remaining 4). The physical descriptions are very precise and detailed, accompanied by outstanding gray-scale illustrations, and supported by numerous references. Very much in the style of Bohlke and Chaplin's classic, "Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters", its scope and content will appeal primarily to scientists, ichthyology students, professional fishermen, and others (fishwatchers, underwater photographers,...) with a strong interest in learning about and identifying the species of this region. Its massive size (1112 pages), however, makes it a rather unlikely take-along for your next scuba vacation. But you'll certainly want to use it when you get back.

I am a sixteen year old junior at Abraxas high school and I needed to review a book such as this for my world history class. Enjoying this book was no problem. My father, Col. Allan R. Bacon Jr, read it and his opinion of books counts more to me than my own. Molly Moore acepted and oportunity, and this book was her product. A Woman at War : Storming Kuwait With the U.S. Marines, a great read.

Not a bad account of the ground war - main reason I comment here is because I am the "young captain" and "young intelligence officer" and participated in the events as described on pages 233-235, 239-241, and 245-248. Stumbled across this book and was pleasantly surprised that a "ground level" view of the ground campaign was presented. Dave Dilegge

Ms. Moore has provided a gripping account of her experiences as a reporter covering America's permier fighting force, the U.S. Marine Corps, during Desert Shield/Storm. She is the first woman reporter to have operated in such a capacity. Her accounts of wartime preparations and operations is insightful. Of particular significance is her chronological reporting of the command and staff planning actions by General Boomer and his staff. The personal narratives provided by the combat troops is fast-paced and gives great insight into the human side of the modern battlefield.