Unlike the standard travel guide chock full of the helpful practical information on hotels and sights, this book provides the traveller something very different, and also very satisfying.

This book is a compendium of short stories and poems by authors of ten Southeast Asian countries - most of them translated into English from the original Asian language. There are also very userful biographical notes on the authors, additional bibliography for each country, and useful historical and social information.

For the traveller who is interested in the literary life of these countries, this book is a marvelous collection from novelists, poets, and travel writers who have seen these countries through different eyes than those of most hurried tourists. One short poem from Indonesia brought back my own memories of hitchiking days as a teenager spent in a fishing village on the island of Samosir in Lake Toba in Sumatra. The author, Sitor Situmorang, speaks of a young man who returns to his native village after many years in Europe: "The lost child is now back...not a single person he knows anymore..how many harvests have there been...whatever has happened?"

This series has other similar books on Japan, Africa, Latin America, and other regions. I look forward to seeing this genre flourish as travellers' interests in different lands continue to multiply and go beyond just the cursory view of the sights.

D.R. SarDesai's work is a great introduction to the history of Southeast Asia. He manages to weave history of a region laden with ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity into a relatively seamless whole.

His approach deliniates the history of the region into three phases: precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial. This becomes a common theme in the book, especially when the implications of the effects of Europeans and Americans in the region are considered.

Some people may be turned off by SarDesai's perspective, which is profoundly and explicitly critical of American foreign policy. However, while I disagreed with many of his arguments, I found SarDesai's approach quite refreshing.

On the whole, this introduction to Southeast Asia is indespensible to anyone with no prior knowlege of the region.

This book will be most appreciated by anyone who has been to the tropics. Although we are used to viewing European colonialists in a negative light, it is hard not to sympathize with them when you read about their trials and tribulations in Southeast Asia -- dealing with the stiffling heat, the insects, disease, new languages and customs -- most of them didn't even know how to use the bathroom when they initially arrived! This book is full of entertaining stories about such adventures. It's interesting to compare the way that different individuals reacted to their circumstances. I gained a new respect, for example, for Margaret Brooke, who seemed to have preferred the local population to her snobbish English peers.

This is essentially a grammar, but it leaves out the simple basics and continues where a school grammar would stop. It assumes that you master the hiragana and katagana alphabets, but for the kanji there is almost always a pronounciation guide. It takes time to read, as the text is concentrated, but it's not difficult, and one gladly reads one chapter after the other. Generally it's both interesting and useful.

As a person who lived in Laos recently I was very disappointed by this book. The broad bawdy humor of the Lao and their unique balanced view of life is not in this book. The Lao laugh. They enjoy life. This book depresses.

Although I do not mean to underestimate the pain of a Chinese youth losing his home in Laos, the author does not seem to realize how comparatively lucky he was (or he and his character were) to have a (Chinese) network in Thailand to help get out and get restarted. Ethnical Laotians suffered more than unexpressed desires! Still, he writes effectively about some of the Pathet Lao depredations of the family business and disruption of education.
The fantasy of the Laotian American is puerile in the worst sense and the attempt to do a Southeast Asian _Like Water for Chocolate_ fails.Writing about a wimp doesn't have to be wimpy!

This book is a literary gem. It chronicles the life of an immigrant from Laos to America and vividly paints an accurate picture of the tragedy of the communist takeover of Laos. Symbols crafted by angst are interwoven into a realistic story of the loss of culture and homeland. Complicated by the fact that Fong Mun, the main character is gay, a complex and nostalic look at his past is colorfully revealed to the reader. This a wonderful human story and is poetically crafted. Huo's first book is a beautiful and passionate book about survival and the human spirit. I hope he continues writing.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a Teach Yourself Tagalog book was finally offered to the public. Upon opening the book, however, it was clear that the book would not do its job. The authors, for one thing, neglected to write stress marking on the Tagalog words so whoever uses this book and tries to pronounce will end up sounding like a blundering idiot. They had a lot of Tagalog literature at their disposal to help them with their explanations that it appears they didn't use. Whoever buys this book will have to ask a native to write the stress marking on each word so they can really learn to speak the Tagalog language. What a shame they published it in its current state!

This book has a story which starts from their arrival at the airport. You will see dialogs of conversation. I am a local who is very familiar with Tagalog. I bought this for my European wife who wishes to learn. One thing we found is that the translations is around 98% correct. But the format is enough for one to learn the language. The approach is practical. We don't have the accompanying tape and I didn't know it had one as an option. So I would do the talking for my wife to get the proper pronunciation. I don't know how foreigners would read this book but I assume they are likely to get the wrong pronunciation without help. The phrases have no indication how you would pronouce them but I think it might be a distraction.

I found that the best way for a foreigner to learn is to be exposed to it by speaking it and being spoken to in Tagalog, or listening to an actual conversation. If this isn't available to you, then this book is close enough. I assume the tape would be a bonus if you can get it.

You can also join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagalog-e/ Here you can learn with others how to speak it or write it.

At last! A Tagalog course I can use! And tapes to go with it!

The Tagalog language has been long-neglected by publishers of language materials. This fine course helps make up for the deficiency. The lessons are very well-designed, the explanations of a grammar very different from our own are not difficult to follow, and there is a lot of interesting material about Filipino culture. Also, the tape I purchased with the book is excellent and an invaluable help in picking up the pronunciation.

Much has been made of the lack of accent marking in the text. I for one don't see why accents are not marked in the vocabulary lists for each lesson- that is the usual practice in texts on other languages with unpredictable accentuation- Russian, for instance- so that if the reader forgets the stress in the main body of the text, she can always refer back to the vocabulary. The book does have all entries in the back marked with accents, however it is a nuisance to have to consult the glossary to learn the stress of each new word, if you don't have the tape right at hand. That's a minor fault, however.

And I'm so happy to have a usable Tagalog course at last that I don't even mind.

This is a good phrasebook... but really not for the phrases itself. The best part is the cultural tidbits that are sprinkled throughout the English/Vietnamese section. The book gives such helpful tips as "Don't kiss your partner in public" and "Riding on pedicabs is dangerous."

The words selected were very basic and the approximated pronunciation spellings were inaccurate.

Also be warned of a page marked "Colloquialisms", in other words, profanity. I had the misfortune of trying these out and my listener, though a close friend, was very offended.

Not a bad buy for the money, but I wouldn't pay any more for it.

The book is a travlers phrase book and mini dictionary. Small enough to fit in the pocket.I think it's much better than the Lonely Planet Vietnamese phrase book and it costs a dollar less too! There are "cuss words" titled Coloquialism on page 142. I can't imagine why anyone would want to use them on a trip (i.e., don't do it). So forget that page, and enjoy the rest of the book. Plenty of tips for travelers, like using mosquito repellent after dark because of the possibility of Malaria.A very useful little book.

I would definately recommend this book to anyone traveling to Vietnam and wanting to converse with the locals. I took this book on my first trip to Vietnam, knowing only basic Vietnamese. I was able to have conversations with the people I met. The book is very easy to read, and the dictionary is English/Vietnamese & Vietnamese/English. The English/Vietnamese dictionary gives helpful phrases for each of the words too. There's also a pronounciation guide to help you say the words correctly. A must have!

I have a real love-hate relationship with this book. On the positive side, it is a pleasure to appreciate Coulson's obvious love for the language and its esthetics: just read his Introduction and groove on his lusty and generous enthusiasm. Also note the fullness with which he covers (in Chapter 15) two very essential topics which are usually omitted from primers: how to use Sanskrit commentaries, and how to recite and enjoy Sanskrit verse (with examples of the different meters). All this is wonderful and removed lots of scales from my eyes.

The negatives, and they're major, are: (1) he constantly and infuriatingly interrupts his task of language teaching in order to go on disquistions about conparative indo-european phonetics and other linguistic issues; (2) he not only transliterates everything, making it much too easy for the student to be lazy about learning the script, but incredibly he stops using the script altogether, halfway through the book, relying on transliteration alone; (3) most unconscionably, he unnecessarily enhances the reputation of Sanskrit as a difficult language by (a) using a convoluted system of diacritics and punctuation in order to analyze compounds to death, and (b) making incredible statements like "The devanagari script is complicated, and most students need several weeks, even months, to read it with complete fluency." Bless your heart, the script is quite regular and logical, and every Sanskrit student I've talked to finds it quite simple once it's tackled.

It's a real pleasure to note Coulson's devotion to Sanskrit drama. He's absolutely right when he says the drama is attractive and accessible. But why in sam hill does he have to draw ALL THE SENTENCES IN HIS EXCERCISES verbatim from the drama, and delay treating the past tenses until the final chapter just because his beloved Sanskrit drama doesn't use them much? What if the student is more interested in Sanskrit epic, in which those tenses are used all the time? Without doubt, Sanskrit students need a lot more training in the past tenses than they get from Coulson.

Want my advice? Xerox Coulson's introduction, his sandhi grids, and his chapter on commentaries and verse forms, and use them with a straightforward, un-eccentric text like that of Walter Harding Maurer.

i read the reviews and then purchased this book, and so far i'm extremely happy with it. but i'm perhaps close to the "ideal" audience for the book -- i have experience with latin and linguistics. [in fact, i very much appreciate the linguistic explanations, which annoyed another reviewer so much, as it has helped me make sense of a lot of otherwise very confusing aspects of sanskrit. if you don't like the info, you can always ignore it.]

you have to know how to use a book like this. it's dense and assumes some general linguistic knowledge, so you may need to skip back and forth as particular aspects become clear. [the author in fact expects you to do this -- in order to keep related info together, he often includes advanced info, denoted with parentheses, that you are not expected to tackle until you handle later chapters.] you definitely need to keep referring to grammatical and sandhi tables. but the fact is, sanskrit is *not* an easy language by any means. if you haven't already learned another language, you really shouldn't be starting with sanskrit. this book does a remarkably good job of covering the essentials of sanksrit given its size -- something that would not be possible if it had to spend a lot of time on detailed explanations of basic linguistic concepts.

imo, this book does a lot of things right:

[1] it does not force devanagari down your throat. i have nothing against devanagari, but having to learn even a simple language while dealing with an unfamiliar alphabet makes it orders of magnitude more difficult. i speak from abundant experience here. e.g. recently i also tried tackling ancient greek, and soon gave up because of this -- and the greek alphabet is far easier than devanagari. [for one, you're already familiar with it; and it lacks the complex ligatures and variant letter shapes of devanagari.]

[2] the explanations are clear and concise, but do not omit essential details in a misguided attempt to "simplify" aspects of grammar that are inherently complex.

[3] compounds and sandhi forms are carefully analyzed into their components. [one reviewer actually complained about this; but imo it's far better to have this info and not want it than vice-versa -- you can always ignore the extra diacritics.]

[4] there are many useful tables.

my main complaints are [1] the cheap binding; [2] i'd like more reading passages, not just sentences; [3] i'd like to see more systematic presentation of vocabulary, esp. in groups of related items -- basic adjectives [good/bad, big/small, etc.]; basic verbs; kinship terms; the 100/200/500 most common vocabulary items by frequency; etc. [unfortunately, very few language books of any sort do this well, and i simply don't understand why.]

Teach Yourself Sanskrit by Michael Coulson is, in my opinion, a thoroughly excellent method to learn sanskrit. From the beginning of the book to the end, information was presented in a straightforward manner and provided relevant information about Indo-European history and linguistics. The biggest problems that I had with this book was the sheer amount of information presented per unit: in order to complete the exercises, one must first spent quite a long time with the material contained within that respecive unit. This book is not for everyone, however, as it assumes that its students already will have quite a large background in linguistics. Its language and method of presentation would be, I think, unintelligable without prior studies in Latin or Ancient Greek. Altogether, this book is an excellent book if you are already moderately accomplished in this or related fields. It is definitely not for the beginner.

I am a Pakistani who loves his country and I have studied the history of my country at greater depths.

Gen Niazi, Bhutto, Yahya and lots of others were greatly involved in the separation of East Pakistan and responsible for what happened.

Pakistani army killed and raped millions in East Pakistan of their own country men and women (mostly muslim) quite shamelessly and put the two-nation theory in serious trouble that is the very reason for Pakistan's existence. The feudal lords in government of the west Pakistan did always treat East Pakistan as third class citizens.

Gen Niazi was as involved in the whole mess as any one else and has made a very cowardly attempt to gain some dignity by writing this book.

Shame on Niazi, Bhutto and Yahya and shame on Pakistani army who killed and raped Pakistani citizens.

May your ashes burn in hell if there is such a thing.

From the heart of a Pakistani

Interesting if not a very well written book. I was hoping for an analysis of the reasons for Pakistan's debacle in 1971. Instead, the book focuses on a narration of events as seen through (mostly colored) eyes of Gen Niazi. The focus of the book is on defending and explaining Niazi's actions rather than what led to the debacle. Interestingly, in the whole narration he refuses to give a single credit to anyone else other than himself or people that he liked. The Indian defense forces are shown to be losing every battle they fight but then he never explains why he had to pull back his forces from all the places and how the Indian forces got to Dacca. Similarily he pays no attention to all the atrocities that were commited by Pakistani Soldiers that led to the whole debacle. Overall an interesting insight into the people who run the Pakistan Army and of course, now the country

Betrayal of East Pakistan by Gen. Niazi is a narrative book that sheds some light on the subsequent events that led to the shameful surrender of Pakistani troops. There is no doubt that the fall of Dhaka was a conspiracy by leaders like "Bhutto Shaheed", and "Gen. Yayah Khan" etc. These are the leaders who have raped this great country over and over again and for some reason we Pakistani still celebrates their birthdays. Generals in Pakistan are "King Makers," and Gen. Niazi, being a senior officer, was surely in a position to influence the thought process of GHQ. He was also in the position, from his own narration, to prolong the war or even conduct guerrilla warfare til "the last man, last bullet". However, he chose to obey the very same people those were drunkards and corrupts. Niazi quotes Erwin Romell and other great generals but forgot the motto of a soldier, i.e. "Death before disgrace". We not only lost East Pakistan but also lost the dignity and pride as a nation. In conclusion, I agree with Niazi that he was made a scapegoat and a persona of disgrace, but to some degree he was liable for what had transpired in East Pakistan and is inexcusable by any account.