This book is either Anti-Israeli or is still following the Arab boycott of Israel. This book makes almost no mention of the country of Israel except in the fine print where the information is essential such as arrival information at Ben Gurion Airport in the back of the book. None of the maps mention Israel although Epypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are labeled. I could never trust such a biased book. Admittedly the book is very well illustrated like all the Knopf travel books. I found Frommer's "Israel 2nd Edition" to be more informative, trustworthy, objective and helpful. It is the Frommer's book that I am purchasing from Amazon and taking on my upcoming trip to Israel. The Knopf book I am returning to the library.

This guide is beautiful, complete, and truly in-depth. For example, there is a fold out section showing the route Jesus followed carrying his cross. It notes all of the details including where he fell, where certain icons are -- everything you could want to know. The Knopf Guide also will make a great souvenir of your trip.

Contrary to what another writer has said here, this book certainly recognizes Israel. As the Lonely Planet guide points out, there is much in dispute about this area, and it's easy to offend one group or the other. Any attempt to present a balanced view of history and of the three religions which center their faith here must tread carefully with names and facts. The Knopf Guide excels in this area.

I'd recommend picking up the Lonely Planet guide for details of accomodation and travel facts, but for the history, architecture, birds, animals, fish, sacredness, and gradeur of the area, this is definitely the book to get!

This book is so good that when it was taken away from me at the Syrian border (for having Hebrew in it) I ordered another copy. The Holy Land is a wonderfully literate and detailed little book that could form the basis of a course at Oxford.

You might also want to bring another guide that deals more with pedestrian, but very important, things like where to eat, shop and stay. The Knopf guide is what you want when you go to the Dome of the Rock.

When in Jerusalem I recommend the American Colony Hotel (an Oasis).

Hi, This book is full of amazing facts and figures.It could as well take the place of the chronicle on the affairs of the world bank. But the major draw back of this work is its lack of clear cut theoretical framework that could weave the whole work into an unitary whole. There are only scattered but orderly examples of the failures of world bank, but not the deep going reasons for such a pathetic performance on the part of the bank. This book could help the researchers on world bank history and its projects, but not a serious reader looking forward for comprehendable reasons underlying the whole phenomenon.

The World Bank has not lived up to its own goals and expectations. It had many lofty and laudable goals, but it also had differing directives in its history. The Bank existed on its principles of expectation and intention, not on reality, not on seeing things the way they really were (255-6.)

"The Bank's founders envisioned a rosy picture of a future in which its loans would bring economic growth to its borrowers, making their citizens prosperous and increasing world trade, thus reinforcing global prosperity, strengthening the bonds between nations, and creating the climate for a lasting peace. That this picture has not materializes is due both to the false assumptions on which the Bank was established and to the structure of the Bank itself. Perhaps the key assumption underlying the Bank's creation was that there was a condition called underdevelopment and that virtually every country in Asia, Africa and Latin America suffered from it" (333.)

The World Bank seems always to have been an organization that looks good on paper; but is quite bad in practice (25.) Many of the World Bank's calculations and plans have been overly optimistic and not investigated thoroughly enough (17.) The World Bank has not been an innovator, but has instead been trying to move along with the status quo (234-5.) In fact the World Bank has been a highly bureaucratic organization, full of red tape, some public embarrassment, and many misguided steps. As said, The World Bank appears highly effective on paper and in plans; in practice, the World Bank leaves a lot to be desired. Basically the World bank has suffered from its slow start as an organization and a lack of continuity in Bank policy. It has also suffered because it bends rules, is susceptible to despots (206-12), and has fallen prey to lending to nations with corrupt governments. Whatever the stated mission of the Bank, poverty is more widespread; the gap between rich and poor is greater. Where the Bank has intervened, in many cases, the quality of life and environment have been compromised. The Bank historically has encountered problems learning from its own mistakes. The Bank's central focus has been based on a set of assumptions it has made about poor countries. "The Bank was assuming that poor countries cannot modernize without money from abroad." This unresearched assumption has led directly to the accumulation of debt and loss of sovereignty for many of the poor nations in the world. Development was a key concept in the founding of the World Bank and the IMF. In hindsight, however, it is easy to ask, "What kind of development?" When the Bank was founded, development consisted largely of dams and other high scale projects that were thought to technologically advance nations and benefit nations overall with easier and cheaper access to electricity, irrigation, regulation of flood waters... meanwhile, there were social and environmental impacts to consider. The World Bank did not employ an environmental factors office until the 1970s. Even then, projects were funded which did not demonstrate plans to account for people displaced from their homes or for sometimes catastrophic, adverse environmental impacts. This is reminiscent of the book Northwest Passage in which the author describes the damming of the Columbia River. At first it provided economic prosperity, cheap and abundant electricity and jobs in a time when jobs were needed. In time, the environmental and social impacts were felt. Native American tribes who had centered their lives, cultures and livelihoods around the river were left with nothing; the river itself was a shadow of what it was; the salmon population rapidly died out because they could not make it back upstream to spawn, and Hanford Nuclear Site is also along the river and could potentially contaminate the river. The river has been important to commerce, but at what cost? Is this truly development? (Especially in the "Third World"?) Some would argue, of course, that this was exploitation of a poor nation for the benefit of the industrialized rich nations. At the expense of the impoverished people the World Bank had concluded it would protect. As well, the expense to the overall quality of the environment would merely deplete resources and affect the entire world adversely (eventually.) These considerations were not usually even secondary or even tertiary concerns in reality. Once the Bank funded a project, they did not conduct follow-up studies to see how the funds were used, if the planned reforms or projects had been implemented, or how appropriately the funds had been applied. They simply loaned the money. It seems that "development" had multiple meanings; none of them necessarily positive. In the early days of the Bank, all projects' feasibility was closely examined; however, in time, in the McNamara era, the emphasis was placed on making loans. In what seems like a fast-food approach to lending, McNamara urged the Bank to loan as much as possible. He felt that the more money was loaned, the better off the poor nations would be; the better able they would be to deal with their poverty problems. Of course, his theories were proven wrong, and ultimately the Bank failed not only in alleviating poverty in the nations that borrowed. Instead, the Bank set a precedent of loaning unprecedented amounts of money without even researching the feasibility of the programs they were supposed to study. Granted, the Bank has faced several problems with attracting suitable borrowers, so they have been forced to bend their conditions somewhat in order to accommodate more borrowers as well as to justify their own existence as an organization (92,98-101.) McNamara particularly violated the restrictions of the Articles of Agreement, loaning more and more money, even to socialist nations. These facts were a major departure from previous Bank policy. This striking departure from the norm broke the status quo on the lending side, but did it do anything to expand the development of poor countries? Did it do anything to alleviate poverty? These were McNamara's stated goals; ultimately these were supposed to be the goals of the Bank as well, but in fact, these were just the goals of the director of the Bank at the time. Before McNamara, several directors were to oversee operations of the Bank; each with his own policies. Another way in which the Bank has deviated from its original goal is that it has not helped the people who live with poverty everyday. Eugene Black, the Bank's first long-term president, stated that the Bank is not biased, merely there to help. The Bank often claims to be apolitical, but this could not be further from the truth. The Bank feels it has the right and the responsibility to influence the domestic affairs of its borrowers; this somehow guarantees the money they have lent, perhaps (193.) However, it has been said that the Bank has been too involved in the structural, internal problems of countries (60.) The Bank was distrustful of local knowledge, "It was an article of faith to Bank staffers that only highly educated specialists has the skills and the knowledge needed to guide developing countries into the future. The trial-and-error method, the common wisdom that had worked for centuries in the backwaters of Africa and Asia, would not suffice in the postwar world. By translating complex and messy real-life problems into numerical terms that could be broken down and analyzed, the Bank's Washington experts could formulate solutions to problems in countries they hardly knew" (61.) This is a key notion. How can the World Bank administer programs and make decisions for the economies and programs of countries of which they have little or no knowledge? This has a great deal to do with bureaucratic and political problems. Who is hired and who conducts the Bank's affairs is a matter of politics, in fact. In the World Bank people are hired and appointed because of their connections or because of their impressive educational backgrounds. By impressive educational backgrounds, this does not, of course, entail international studies or development studies. Appointees are finance or economics majors; usually people appointed to study or oversee projects pertaining to specific countries have had no experience with that particular country or language...The mission of the World Bank has shifted over time; how can it adhere to its original mission (299)? Times changes; issues change. "Poverty alleviation, at first seen merely as a desirable side effect of the Bank's lending, is now the central object of its existence" (2.) The Bank lends money but also ultimately decides how it will be spent. "It requ

This book is indeed the result of a very thorough research, while written in a language anybody can understand. The way facts are presented makes this book very interesting to read. Most people from developing countries have a wrong idea, if any, of what the international finance institutions are, the role they play in world economy, and how much they influence our daily lives through structural adjustment programs. With her book, Ms. Caufield unveils the many mysteries of the World Bank. I consider it a valuable tool in our organization's fight for more environmentally and socially adequate World Bank-financed projects. I really recommend you all to read this book very carefully, with the same interest of one who follows a criminal trial closely. You will feel annoyed or even sad by the weight of evidence, and amazed by how disastrously planned and implemented a project can be. After reading this book, you'll feel less eager to avoid your duties as a citizen. In summary, it's definitely worth it!

Whereas the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex dispute, with each side having legitimate claims and grievances, this is about the most unbalanced book on the topic I have ever seen. All of the Palestinian's worst propaganda relating to Israeli intentions and actions are regurgitated uncritically. There is no discussion of the corroding influence of the rabid anti-Semitism taught in Palestinian schools. There is little if any reference to Palestinian rejection of all Jewish claims in Israel before 1967, as if the conflict (and Palestinian violence) emerged solely after the Six Day War. Nor is there any mention of the Hamas charter, which unapologetically calls for the genocide of all Jews, not just those living in the Occupied Territories.
This is not to say that Israel isn't guilty of some excesses and abuses in the West Bank and Gaza, but that they are treated entirely uncritically. Although this book was no doubt written with the best of intentions in bringing to light an important and often overlooked dimension of the Middle East conflict, it seldom rises above the level of apologist tripe.

Pearlman's book excellently captures the true "voices" of Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. I have been a student of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for a number of years and spent four years living and working inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including during the current Intifada. In all of my reading on the conflict I have never previously come across a book that I felt captured the reality of the stuggles faced by Palestinians in their daily life in the way that this book does. For those standing outside of the conflict and wishing to gain a fuller understanding of its underlying causes this book should be seen as a rare gift. I cannot recommend the book enough.

Traveling throughout the Occupied Territories Pearlman does a good job of capturing a diversity of opinions from a large cross section of society. The human faces of the people living in the Occupied Territories are allowed to come out, and the rehtoric that often obscures the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is cut away. The pains, joys, anger, and happiness of Palestinians are not edited or modified for the audience. They are allowed to speak for themselves and should be heard by all.

Pearlman's deeply affecting book is a must for all who are trying to make sense of this most complex and enduring of conflicts. Sympathetic, deeply affecting, and above all informed by the sophisticated intelligence of a scholar of international relations, Occupied Voices allows the reader to make his/her own decisions about this ugly confrontation. It is above all a human story, and not yet another tiresome polemic about "roadmaps" and "ceasefires". The powerful and striking photography alone is worth the modest cover price. Read this book to get behind the headlines and glimpse a world whose tragedy has yet to receive a sympathetic ear in the American press.

This book was ok at first but then it became a really boring book. Nothing really exciting happened. Except when Patrick fell and broke his arm. The author needs to be more excitng about things that have happend.Instead of finding a cashbox Omri should have found another action figure, like Buzz Lightyear and started using the cupboard way sooner.

Have you ever read the book The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks ?
Omri moves into a new house, that was an old relatives, because he died.He finds his great great great aunt Jessica Charlotties note book.Omri learns about Jessica Charlottie's whole life until she gets sick and dies.Omri thinks that his mothers key will fit in the cashbox he found.I think it's a good story about life.I think this is a good book to learn about elders and history.I think that this book would be a great gift. The book is very interesting. I would recommend this book to everyone.

I can remember buying and reading this book when it was first released, and that is was incredible. The story wraps up and utilizes so many aspects of Omri's life - from his relationship with his family to his friendship with Patrick - that it is the perfect ending to the "Indian in the Cupboard" series. A lot of the subject matter is much more serious than the previous books, especially in regards to the parts concerning Jessica Charlotte. It is these parts that make the book so incredible, as most readers will not be familiar with late 18th-century lifestyles. The romantic nature and thrill of Charlotte's story will captivate any young person who reads the book. I definitely reccomend "The Mystery of the Cupboard" and still hope that there will be another installment in the series one day.

Chilling portrayal of Yorkshire winter weather. I shivered throughout, from the meteorological descriptions, not the plot. This is an OK British dullsville police procedural of the Greeneland lite school, with a who-cares plot and at least 100 pages of padding. The one who dun it stood out like a sore thumb at first introduction. I give it three instead of two stars because it is literate and the dialogue works. Some interesting asides on twentieth century classical music. I find it difficult to believe that British police can get away with so much drinking on the job. But maybe they can. Maybe that's why it takes them those extra 100 pages to see what's in front of their nose.

Peter Robinson always produces a solid, interesting mystery. His main character, Alan Banks, is a complex, compassionate police inspector with problems of his own. A thoughtful man with a love of classical music, Banks does not have the literary knowledge of Shakespeare or contemporary myster writers of his author. (I thought it amusing that one of the characters makes a flip comment comparing Banks to a P.D. James detective which goes completely over Banks' head.)

Robinson cleverly weaves elements of Shakespeare, classical liturgical music, and sexual identity into a complex psychological mystery. As always, Robinson portrays Yorkshire in a convincing, vivid way.

A satisfying read, this book is not quite up to the standards of his later works. That doesn't take anything away from this book, but simply reflects how much Robinson grew as an author in later books. "In a Dry Season" is my favorite of his works, and one of the best recreations of 1940s and contemporary Yorkshire in print.

"Past Reason Hated," by Peter Robinson, differs from the run-of-the-mill murder mystery. Inspector Banks, who is the sleuth in this series, is always fascinating. He is a chain smoker who enjoys drinking. He loves classical music, although he is not overly intellectual. Banks truly shines in his ability to communicate with suspects in a murder investigation. Banks is the best interviewer in the business. He has unerring intuition when it comes to spotting lies and evasions, and he has a way of getting people to reveal a great deal of themselves. Most of all, he cares about seeing justice done, no matter how long it takes and no matter whom it may hurt. In this novel, a young amateur actress named Caroline Hartley is found brutally murdered. She has had a tumultuous life, and any number of people might have had reason to kill her. Banks interviews those who knew Caroline years ago, as well as those who were closely involved with her shortly before her death. "Past Reason Hated" deals with such themes as struggling to come to terms with one's sexuality, the fears that cause people to commit irrational acts and the complicated and inexplicable nature of human relationships. "Past Reason Hated" is an engrossing and satisfying psychological mystery.

That's what it's all about especially now that the i-banking field has contracted so much. Still, getting the grades, the right recommendations, landing the right internships, going out for a bunch of different extracurricular activities and then finally preparing as much as possible for the interviews are all key to getting the job you want. At least that's what i've found. I used this guide as part of the preparation process, having been recommended it by a college counselor. Best advice I ever got. Good stuff. Very thorough. I've received exactly the offer I wanted. All my work and research has paid off.

This guide provided excellent preparation material. It covered everything from the pre-interview cocktail session to the follow-up after the interview. The information provided in the guide was clear and easy to follow, so that flipping through for review of specific information was a breeze. My copy is all dog-eared from nervously flipping throught it again and again during my plane ride to perform my interviews. But my nervousness proved unfounded. When I felt stuck during the interviews, I just thought back to what I had read in the guide, and everything went smoothly. I even got to choose among a few of the firms I was really interested in. I recommend this to anyone who wants to be an analyst on Wall Street, but feels like they need a little help getting through the interviews.

This guide is so compact that you can quickly get up to speed on I-Banking interviews in one night, if you had to. It truly covers only the essentials, without the clutter and filler that clogs other similar guides. If you can only afford one and you need a crash course, this is the one to go for.

I was the struggling not to fall asleep the whole time. Terrible, dry language. Not a single practical piece of advice. I was bored to tears.

I was slightly intimidated because the previous reviewer (anonymous) gave it such a scathing review (stating it was boring and useless) - but I ordered it from Amazon nevertheless since it is so highly rated and a (according to a friend) best seller on the subject. OK, so it isn't the most exciting read on the planet, but useless? Hardly! I found that when I applied the information with the other standard books on offshore that it was extremely useful as a selection tool. There is a lot of information contained in the 300 pages. I suggest that if readers seek excitement that they go see a film. If someone wants a book about choosing an offshore tax haven (even if boring), this is worth the price.

I have never used an Offshore as I thought it too difficult and complicated. After reading other published material on the topic, I still did not know enough to proceed. However, after reading Dr. Grosh's book, I believe it is something that I can make use of.

I would like to thank Dr. Grosh for writing such an easy to read and understand book on such a complicated subject. The advice and guidance provided are proving invaluable to me.

I purchased a copy for my financial advisor so we can work together on this.

Those parts of the book that deal with Schacht himself are OK. Those parts dealing with the bigger picture are poorly written and contain errors.

Afraid to say that Weitz's book is littered with errors as regards basic facts of the Nazi era and the inter-war period in general. This won't matter to those who have a good knowledge of the times, but students fresh to the subject should beware. The heavy reliance on US news reports of the time suggests a certain thinness of research. Even so, the picture of Schacht that emerges is reasonably well-balanced and so the book is worth a try.

As a biographical note:

John Weitz the author of this book, is the same John Weitz that was a popular US clothing desinger in the second half of the 20th century. He was also an intelligence agent for the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA during and immediately after WWII. Ian Fleming mentioned Weitz as the prototype of his character, James Bond.

Weitz is also the father of Paul and Chris Weitz, the directors of "American Pie", and "About A Boy", and admirably not "American Pie II".

I found this very disappointing ... It was filled with very crude language, and the plot seemed ridiculously contrived. The character was very interesting, and this could be the beginning of a great series if the language were not so foul, and the plot were a little more believable.

When you read Maid in the Shade you'll feel like Ruby is a real person. Her observations, feelings and reactions make perfect sense. There is nothing artificial about this character (including a few mild curse words that are appropriate for the their context) and I can't wait for Jacqueline Turner Banks to write a sequel. More Ruby please!

This book is a must read. I love Ruby's humor and can hardly wait for her next mystery. It was my pleasure to meet Ms. Banks at the Detroit Poet & Writer's Conference and receive an autographed copy of "Maid In The Shade."

I bought this book because i thought it would give me an acdemic explanation and analysis about Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
It turns out to be a total flop and worthless; there is no analyses, no explanations, and no deep research, all the author does is mention names, dates, locations, and press releases.
I was so upset to spend such a huge sum of money on it, and frankly i dont advise buying the book.
You can get the same information by either clicking the website of the two organistions, or going to a newspaper archive and looking into the folders.

"The forces of Imperialism in both the Capitalist West and the Communist East support the enemy with all their might, in material and human terms, taking turns between themselves. When Islam appears, all the forces of Unbelief unite to confront it, because the Community of Unbelief is one." (p 62, from Article 22 of the Charter of the Hamas)

Also according to Article 22, "the forces of Unbelief" control huge material wealth, and have used that to take control of the world media, press, broadcasting, etc, supported the French and Commie revolutions, and created secret societies like the Freemasons, Rotary, Lions Club, B'nai B'rith, etc. Gee, guess who they're talking about. Hamas, like the PLO and Islamic Jihad, continue the Nazi agenda, and like Nazis everywhere believe the Jews control the world through conspiracies.

If US and European journalists (and alleged journalists) were required to read this book before writing, editing, and publishing about the Middle East, there'd be fewer problems with spin in their stories.

The book gives the reader a great reference work on religious terrorism. The inclusion of hard-to-find materials in very helpful, especially for journalists such as me.