This book was excellent! I read it in just a couple of days. Since I first started I couldn't take my eyes of what I was reading. The story is shocking and rude, yet interesting and mind-opening. It explicitly tells the struggles of growing up in a foreign country with everything against you and yet find the way to a new world full of possibilities. Excellent for tenagers, parents, and students.

THIS WAS ONE THAT COULD NOT BE PUT DOWN FOR LONG.I DO NOT READ ALOT BUT I TOOK A GLANCE AT THIS AND CONTINUED READING TILL THE END. IT WAS REALLY SOMETHING GREAT TO READ.MY EYES COULDNT GET ENOUGH.

As a classroom teacher of a high school level field biology/ecology/limnology class I just purchased this book as a classroom text to use! As someone else said, it has some beautiful, awe-inspiring pictures, but the content is what sets it apart. The pictures allow you to feel the moment, but the word allow you to smell it, touch it and feel it.

After reading Lake Superior: Story and Spirit.., we visited and interviewed the authors and publishers John and Ann Mahan and were overwhelmed with the research behind the development and eventual publishing of this outstanding book on the greatest of the great lakes! We rec. this book to anyone who seriously wants a dynamic combination of beauty AND content. The romance and reality of Lake Superior are wonderfully combined and shared with the reader.

A masterpiece that descruibes the historical context and the motivations of the different groups that participated in the Lebanese civil war. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Lebanon, its 15year civil war, and some of the background behind the conflict in the Middle East.

The author describes the life and culture of lebanese people in a hystorical review. Objective book that explains the political situation in depth.

If you are planning to gaze upon the Pyramids, climb Mount Sinai, sail the Nile or explore the catacombs of Alexandria your first step is to pick up a copy of "Let's Go Egypt". If you go by yourself or better still treat yourself to a package tour complete with a Nile cruise you will find this volume helpful and insightful. Egypt is a amazing destination and on every trip there I have experienced a warm welcome from the people. While bustling Cairo is what most tourists first see don't miss the smaller towns along the Nile in the "Upper Kingdom" between Aswan and Luxor. The sprawling temple of Karnak and the smaller but still impressive temple of Luxor are situated at Luxor, Egypt. The Temple of the Sun at Abu Simbel is a very short plane ride from Aswan, Egypt. At Aswan don't miss the Temple of Isis on Philae and do return some evening for the Sound and Light show. Let's Go will serve as a detailed guide to these and many other wonders. I was amazed at the level of detail and how up to date the book was. I believe Egypt is still a safe destination and found security for tourists to be a top priority. Following the common sense advice found in Let's Go will ensure a safe, happy and memorable trip. Don't miss it!

I enjoyed "Let's go Egypt" and found it to be an invaluable guide. This is the second edition I have owned, which I received as a gift for my lastest jaunt to Egypt during March-April 2002. If you are taking a guided tour as I did complete with Nile Cruise or simply going it on your own the book is a tremendous resource. The National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo is probably the most famous museum on Earth. It has a far greater collection than any other museum I have ever seen in the United States or Europe. The book breaks down each room and serves as an accurate guide. "Lets go" is extremely up to date and they send their observers in every year to accurately judge hotels, restaurants, resorts you name it. From flea-bag to modest to Five Star and Ultra deluxe many hotels and restaurants and stores are described and rated fairly. Every major tourist spot and attraction, from the fabulous Sound and Light show in Cairo to the Valley of the Kings at Luxor and the Temple of Rameses at Abu Simbel, are described and the book tells you how to get there, what to expect and pay and how to find your way around. Having been to Egypt numerous times now I would continue to recommend it as a memorable and amazing vacation. I continue to feel that Egypt is a safe and welcoming place, something I and my fellow travelers cannot say of every country. I would, however, recommend a guided tour with Nile Cruise (I have done three) especially for the first timer and even for seasoned travelers. You get a great deal on wonderful accomodations often with meals, helpful escorts and transportation that save you lots of hassle, knowlegable guides that illuminate the past and, most of the time, new friends to share it with. On my most recent trip I found the locals over-joyed to see us and bending over backwards to make sure we had a good time. Nearly one fourth of the Egyptian economy is supported by the tourist trade and they need jobs and work just like we do here. The "Let's go guide" is filled with information on staying healthy and safe and helpful in having a good time whatever traveling option you choose. Thanks and Best Wishes, CAL

I was recently introduced to this work by a friend who took a curious interest in my decision to leave a career in securities and investments for a position with the humanitarian arm of the military. More than any military or political aspects of the book, I was profoundly impressed with the maturity, strength, and convictions of Mr. Netanyahu as an individual. His wisdom and fortitude and pride for his country are outweighed only by the depth of love for his family. What a fresh perspective juxtaposed with the persona of contemporary Western adolescents!

I read this book about 20 years ago. Back then I wanted to buy a few copies to give to my relatives and could not find it. I am glad it is printed again.
Jonathan lived a short but tremendous life. He died for his people and his ideas. It is amazing to see a young man, when he was a teenager, and being so patriotic.
This should be a required reading in schools across America. May be his role model will instill in the young (and old) love for their country and sacrifice.

A. Jay Cristol obviously knows his facts; and his use of de-classified material displays that the "support" behind the conspiracy theories regarding the Libert Incident are completely false. Cristol employs hard facts to expose the lies of blatant anti-Semites and anti-Israel slanderers.
There were a few things in this book that really allowed me to understand the true nature behind this "controversy." First of all, the fact that the interpreters aboard the Liberty only spoke Russian and Arabic blatantly reveals that the conspiracy theorists' argument that the Liberty was there to moniter Israeli communications. It makes the lies behind these conspiracy theorists look absolutely ridiculous: how could they be there to mointer Israeli communications if they don't even speak Hebrew?
Crsitol also exposes that there is no way that the IDF would knowingly fire upon a US ship. Historically noted, the US had agreed with the United Nations that no ships would enter the "war zone." Therefore, when a ship that was not visibly marked enterd the war zone, the IDF had no way of knowing it was an ally and justly assumed that it was an enemy ship.
This book had recently been proven correct on a much larger scale: it is now public knowledge that the Liberty incident was a mistake; and anyone who makes up false and illogical conspiaracy theories obviously doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. This was an excellent book!

Recent American military history is replete with accidents, each of which cost dozens of lives. In May 1987, an Iraqi Entendard jet fired Exocet missiles into the destroyer Stark, killing 37 U.S. Navy men. Other disasters included the 1968 Pueblo, 1969 U.S. Navy EC-131 and 1975 Mayaguez incidents--and of course the Black Hawk in 1994. In each case, the U.S. was at peace. These incidents were mostly soon forgotten.

But for 35 years, the USS Liberty has been a festering wound. More than 100 books were written about the incident, which still routinely figures in news and magazine articles.

In 1986, a professor suggested to A. Jay Cristol that his U.S. Navy, international law and judicial backgrounds uniquely qualified him to examine the facts of the case. He then began an investigation that spanned 14 years.

A retired U.S. Navy Captain A. Jay Cristol, accessed every living and written source he could locate, including more than 500 witnesses he interviewed in four nations. He reviewed five television productions, more than 100 books, hundreds of articles, and more than 3,087 documents--including all those from at least ten official U.S. investigations and three official Israeli ones.

Throughout, Cristol focused on the one (right) question--whether the attacking Israelis knew that their target was an U.S. ship. In 1986, Cristol did not know the answer. Nor did he, like many discredited conspiracy theorists, assume that Israel maliciously premeditated the attack against a vessel they knew to be American.

Every official investigation had concluded that while intentional, the attack was also clearly a case of mistaken identity. After conducting the most extensive research ever on this topic--Cristol agreed. Several Israeli and American mistakes caused Israeli forces to mistake the USS Liberty for an Egyptian vessel.

Cristol admirably establishes the peak Cold War context in which the incident occurred. Only five years earlier, the U.S. had humiliated the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis, forcing it with the threat of superior nuclear and naval power to back down. Nikita Khrushchev, who was deposed in 1964, consequently had accelerated warship construction to try to gain Soviet command of the high seas.

Superpower naval confrontations naturally followed. Soviet vessels would follow U.S. warships and intentionally interfere with their operations, particularly in the Mediterranean. Often, Soviet or U.S. destroyers would steer on a collision course for their adversaries in high-stakes naval games of "chicken." Ships bumped in many instances. The escalation eventually led to the 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement, but in 1967, incidents still occurred regularly.

The Vietnam conflict was also in full swing. In fact on June 2, 1967, U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers accidentally attacked the Soviet merchant ship Turkestan in Cam Pha Harbor in North Vietnam--just when Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin's was set to arrive to deliver a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The rapidly deteriorating situation described at length in Michael Oren's new book, Six Days of War , became full-scale war on June 5, 1967 when Israel sent its entire airforce to destroy Egypt's Air Force in less than 80 minutes. Many Arab leaders vocally (and falsely) charged the U.S. and Britain with supplying the attack aircraft to Israel, even when they knew otherwise.

Within the Israeli forces there were frictions as well. When the war broke out, Israel's Air Force had 76 state-of-the-art Mirage fighter jets, plus Super Mystere B-2s, Mystere IV's and a cadre of well-trained pilots. By contrast, the Israeli Navy had only three obsolete destroyers, nine motor torpedo boats (three then deployed in the Red Sea) and some miscellaneous small craft. Israeli inter-service rivalries were palpable.

On May 23, the Liberty, an U.S. National Security Agency intelligence vessel, was ordered to take a position 13 miles off Port Said, Egypt. Such ships often sailed off various coasts to listen, record signal emissions, chart their sources' locations, and gather any data of political or military use in the Cold War. NSA civilian employee Frank Raven protested sending the Liberty into a potential war zone. But his lone voice of dissension was overruled.

On May 24, when the Liberty began steaming 3,000 nautical miles from the Ivory Coast to the Straits of Gibraltar, the Cairo newspapers reported that Egypt had mined the Straits of Tiran.

On May 27, U.S. Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. ordered U.S. Sixth Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Martin not to operate aircraft within 100 nautical miles of Egypt's coast. When the Liberty arrived in Rota, Spain, linguists trained in Arabic and Russian reported aboard. None assigned to the ship spoke Hebrew.

On June 6, Israel destroyed more than 150 Egyptian tanks in the Sinai and captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. Nasser broke diplomatic relations with the U.S. and closed the Suez Canal. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for a cease-fire. Among the warring nations of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Israel, Jordan alone accepted it. Six Israeli demolition team divers were captured in Port Alexandria. Syria shelled a number of communities on Israel's northern border.

Into this active war zone sailed the Liberty , not knowing that on June 7, the NSA and Joint Chiefs of Staff had ordered the ship to withdraw 100 miles off the Sinai coast. The orders had been cabled--but all five messages were sent via the Philippines and arrived the day after the attack.

Cristol spells out precisely how and why the Liberty was mistaken. The attack was not pre-planned or covered up. None of the seamen aboard the USS Liberty could have known all the facts surrounding the case.

He also shows that, had Israel and the U.S. played up their extensive investigations, they could have long since silenced false charges of a conspiracy and cover-up.

For all reasonable human beings, this superb piece of investigative reportage and scholarship should resolve the myriad mysteries of this sad event once and for all.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

Chaim Herzog will always be remembered in my heart as the man who defended Israel's rights on and against the world's stage; the United Nations. I would like to transcribe for you a direct quote from his speech on October 17, 1975, when the UN was about to formally vote on institutionalizing the notion of "Zionism is racism":

__________

"We have listened to the most unbelievable nonsense on the issue of Zionism and from whom? From countries who are the archetypes of racism.

...How dare you talk of racism to us, we who suffered more than any other nation in the world from racist theories and practices, a nation which has suffered the most terrifying holocaust in the history of mankind.

...This is a sad day for the United Nations. The Jewish people will not forget this scene nor this vote.

We are a small people with a proud history. We have lived through much in our history.

We shall survive this shameful exhibition, . . . and I thank the delegations who have expressed themselves against this pernicious resolution. We shall not forget those who voted to attack our religion and our faith. We shall never forget."

__________

Of course, his entire memoir is not written out as angry as he was when his role was as Israel's ambassador to the UN, but his writings are just as passionate.

For anyone interested in the history of the modern state of Israel, this is a must read. He was there at just about every important turn and twist; (British intelligence officer in) World War II, Israel's War of Independence, at David Ben-Gurion's side, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, the "Zionism is Racism" debate, and as the president of Israel for ten years -- through a national unity government and the Intifada.

Simply an amazing life.

I met Chaim Herzog in 1996, after the publication of his book and just before his death. I knew that he was one of Israel's formost warriors/statesmen, but of his life in between, well, I realized that I knew nothing indeed about him until I began to read his memoir.

The title "Living History" is perfect in all its sense. It's a fascinating account of his and modern Israel's story.

... This is an informative and enjoyable book, and lets you delve into Hong Kong culture and eating culture in a way the other books don't. The inside cover has a quick reference of several Cantonese terms in English and Chinese characters, including counting numbers and the very important "ngoh5 hei6 sou3 xig6 ge3" (I am a vegetarian). The book closes with over 50 pages of Cantonese phrases (including "I am ill", "I am pissed", "I want to throw up", and "Thank you, that was delicious"; a glossary of foods and terms; and a Hong Kong culinary dictionary (explains the main ingredients and cooking method). Each transliterated word is coded with the proper intonation, distilled into 6 basic tones. There are 200 beautifully photographed pages of places to eat (from concept to neon to mobile dai pai dong, to street restaurants); a discussion of the banquet; and analyses of staples, such as soups and noodles, rices and meats, and sauces. There are sections on shopping, picnics, utensils, medicinal foods, and "chinese table rules" (no vertical chopsticks please).

Back in 1991 I set off for a twelve-month global journey. With me I had a few essentials, money, clothes, my wife and a collection of Lonely Planet Travel Guide Books. After a few weeks in India we found that the books were as essential to our survival as food and water. We went on to use the Lonely Plant Guide Books (or the LP as we termed them) though out Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, North American, Canada and Mexico. Sometimes our travels would be so fast and furious that we would not read about our next destination until we had arrived the town's bus depot. We grew to love and trust the LP - it never let us down. As you might imagine I was therefore thrilled to receive their latest departure in to travel writing "World Food Hong Kong ". Furiously I dived in to its pages. When I saw that pocket size book was written by Richard Sterling a guy who would - quote " go anywhere and court any danger for the sake of a good meal" I new I would be in for an interesting literary adventure.
Richard Sterling's other titles include; Dining With Headhunters; The Fearless Dinner; and the award wining Travelers' Tale. His much-applauded writing has won him praise from The James Beard Foundation and kudos from the Lowell Thomas awards.
The book 's contents are broken down fourteen chapters -
World Food Hong Kong starts with the essential aspect of understanding the domains cuisine culture. Sterling enlightens us on the island's history, flavors and influences. My learning began. It would seem that Hong Kong's cuisine is a melting pot of the nations tastes with the addition European influences; olive oil, ketchup and asparagus all worked themselves in to the fabric of the island's "local" cooking.
Staples and specialties are next; rice, noodles, tofu, meat, sauces flavorings - the list continues as do the lessons. We all know that in 1295 Marco Polo introduced the noodle to Italy but did you know he made his mark on the Chinese too; he introduced the kiss? The content continues with Drinks, Home Cooking, and Celebrating with Food. Food as Medicine is where I must pause to narrate. Sterling reminds us that the Chinese believe that "food, medicine and health are all part of the same continuum. This is derived from the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, which applies as much to human health as it does to the cosmos. When all in the universe is in its proper balance, harmony reigns. But in a condition of imbalance, we risk ill health, misfortune violence and destruction. Lesson: Seek balance!" If you are seeking balance try the Yin Yang soup or if you are feeling peaky there is always the Lizard soup chicken and cloud fungus.
Seeking knowledge of unusual foods? Then move to the next chapter "The Bold Palate". These are foods for the brave. How about preserved eggs, snake or baby mouse wine? That is right the wine is made by preserving still-suckling baby mice in rice wine. Apparently this is jolly good for rejuvenating the body's organs. For those who have survived the journey thus far normality is ahead. Shopping and Markets, where to Eat and Drink, Understanding the Menu and a modest Recipe Section are all a great read. The where to eat chapter covers the complete dining gambit from the very upmarket Peninsular to low down street food and must try dim sum.
For the gourmet traveler the book finishes with a handy English to Cantonese culinary dictionary a must have for those who want to appear to know their jellyfish from their junk food.
As I close I am relived to say the Lonely Planet does it again, a captivating unpretentious little book, nit just physically but also financially suited for anyone's pocket. - Written By Jeremy Emmerson GobalChefs

As Pres. Bush tries to talk everyone into supporting an attack on Iraq, this is a wonderful book for getting a little background on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. It doesn't give too much detail over his chemical weapons program, except how the use of Nerve and Mustard gas on the front was the tool that gave Saddam the ability to push the Iranians out of Iraq(and influence Iran's ability to recruit for the frontlines). The book uses GDP and other economic indicators throughout the middle east repeatedly to tell how the war was affecting the populaces involved. A very interesting read.

Lasting eight years, and at a cost of over a trillion dollars and a million casualties, this savage conflict (which featured chemical weapons and genocide against the Kurds), largely unknown to most Westerners, is far from over.
Hiro, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, traces the ancient animosities and territorial aspirations which animated the slaughter, describes in detail the actual fighting, and connects the war to the Great Powers which covertly aided the belligerents.
Finally, in his Epilogue, he notes the "no war, no peace" status of the region and warns of an arms-race between Iran and Iraq, which bodes ill for the stability of an area which contains most of the world's crude oil reserves.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

An unparalleled accomplishment. Nina Barragan combines abundant research with an artistic panache ... producing a thorough and vivid narrative of the relocation of Russian Jews to Argentina at the turn of the century. This is a remarkable, powerful story, historical fiction at it's best. Told primarily through the diary of Rifke Schulman, a fictional yet deceptively 'authentic' immigrant, the story unfolds leaving an imprint of this heroic woman's life forever in our memories. A beautifully crafted book.

The format is striking and gripping in itself. An imaginary journal of a remarkable, strong willed, independent woman is interspersed with short stories. The stories are poignant, contemporary portraits of Americans, each of whom has some tenuous link to the journal. The grandeur of this vision and the urgency of the details, make it difficult for the reader to put the book down. In the journal, the dramatic politics and cultural events of the early twentieth century come alive through unforgetable characters from the white slave trade to the striking unions. In the short stories we frequently come to know wonderful, engaging personalities who share a common reality: there are some things they just don't get. An unforgetable book!