This absoloute Civil War site traveler book is fantastic in helping you locate and enjoy virtually every Civil war site in Virginia. Robertson smartly divides VA. into geographic regions
where he maps out the locations of famous CW sites with not only directions but brief description sof the events. With this book I found the famous Drewry's Bluff defense site located above the James river 7 miles below Richmond where the Confederates stopped the monitor and it's fleet and in 1864 played a key role in stoping the Union advance to take Petersburg and Richmond. A remote and beautiful earthwork over the river. Obviously, the great sites of Manasas and Richmond are noted but
off the beaten path locations are best. The site of Turner Ashby's death putside of Harrisonburg off a dirt road into the woods, the site of the Rifle pits and trenches of the North Anna campaign, the star shaped eathern fort in Smithfield, the remote twin on the opposite side of the James in Fort Eustis Army Base, Fort Early an earthwork in Lynchburg, the huge trenches in Newport News City Park, the Jackson valley Campaign and on. A great road trip book and I hope he will have an updated edition with more off road sites.

This concise and lucidly written book deals with a series of key events in 1918-23 which conditioned the rise of modern Turkey and decided the fate of the Cauacsus. By using new data Gokay subjects them to a new and well-integrated analysis that provides a clearer perspective about the policies of all the forces involved in the struggle for the Caucasus and Anatolia. Convincingly an coherently, he demonstrates how the Bolshevik ideology endangered new strategic realignments and turned Russia and Great Britain into enemies. Gokay uses pactically all the existing literature in Turkish and Western languages and a variety of primary sources. In fact, he is one of the first scholars to make use of the Russian sources and thus bring forth new information on Russo-Turkish relations, including the activities of Enver Pasha, one of the Young Turks' leaders. The result is a balanced, objective, informative, and truly scholarly first-rate work - in fact, the best available succinct study of the subject.

Clash Within civilizations is an important book to read for those seeking to better understandhow non-Western civilizations are dealing with modernity. IT deals with things such as how traditional Chinese Philosophy in influening China today and how religions like Buddhism and Hinduism are trying to cope with the moderin world. The book also contians a chapter called 'the quest for innovation: Islam and the Challenges of plurism' which is a good resource to better understand the changes in Islamic countries an important thing considering Islam is and perceived to be on the world stage

This book (a reprint, it was originally published in 1968) is a critical introduction to the "classic" Chinese novels. Specifically, it has chapters on _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_, _The Water Margin_, _Journey to the West_, _Chin P'ing Mei_, _The Scholars_, and _Dream of the Red Chamber_. There is also an appendix on "Society and Self in the Chinese Story" and bibliographies of translations and other works about each novel.

I found this to be a very clear, informative, and insightful introduction to these great works of Chinese literature. Hsia provides the context necessary to understand the origin of each novel, as well as a discussion of some of the most important interpretive issues raised by each book. I found that I could appreciate these novels much better with some help from Hsia. Part of the reason for this, I think is that Hsia's style of writing is pleasantly "pre-postmodern" (that is, clear and unpretentious).

There are good English translations of all the novels Hsia discusses except for _The Water Margin_. Several of them are quite long, so you would not be a total wimp for reading a condensed version. Moss Roberts has both a complete and a selected translation of _Three Kingdoms_ (a heroic war story). Arthur Waley's _Monkey_ is the most widely read selected translation of _Journey to the West_ (a funny and fantastic story of a religious pilgrimage). David Roy's _The Plum in the Golden Vase_ is a partial translation of the erotic novel, _Chin P'ing Mei_. _The Story of the Stone_ is the alternative title of _Dream of the Red Chamber_ a sort of romance/Buddhist parable, that has been translated in five (gulp!) volumes by David Hawkes. _The Story of the Stone_ is supposed to be the greatest Chinese novel, and it certainly has some very great parts, but overall I found it too slow moving. My own favorite of the classic Chinese novels is _The Scholars_, a satire of hypocrisy and immorality among Confucian literati, available in a handsome translation by Hsien-I Yang and Gladys Yang.

So buy this book, along with a good translation of one of the novels that Hsia discusses, and sit down for a great read!

For college students that do not have much time to read, this book offers the basics on the major ethical positions from around the world -- not just from the west! There are nice biographical pieces and the position summaries are broken up nicely. For a short introductory ethics course this or the Clark and Poortenga seem to be targeting our contemporary students well.

Although this book could benefit from even more detailed maps and pictures, it is so useful it became our traveling itinerary. After arriving in Smyrna (Izmir) from Istanbul we began to use this book for info about each site. After the next few sites, Pergamon, Ephesus (Efes), Kusadasi, & Halicarnassus (Bodrum) we realized that this book was more consise and informative than any other and that we could simply follow it in order all the way along the coast, South and then East, to Antalya, Perge, Aspendos, & Side. Along the way, it was the only one to guide us to many small gems (it even includes some driving directions.) Take the major commercial guides for broad cultural and commercial info; use this book for your classical itinerary and reference.

As a basic fisher.......person? (What's PC these days, anyway?) Anyhoo - as a beginning angler, I found this book to be great - it really describes most of northern Ohio, and will keep me busy for some time. Barbo tells you where the fish are and how to get there - with enough information to keep you from getting lost if you've never been there before. Barbo also has a enjoyable writing style - easy to read, and humorous, and he sounds like a great person to go fishing with (So - John, if you read this - drop me an e-mail, and maybe we can hook up together....sorry - no pun intended :)

If you fish in the Cleveland area, buy this book!

This book is great. It has showed me many new areas of the city to explore. And I have lived here all my life!! Hikes are rated from easy to very difficult making it a good book for everyone... regardless of their fitness level. If you live in the area BUY IT!!!

"Coasting" is a great little guide of the beautiful Northern Gulf Coast from Appalachicola, FL. to Bay Saint Louis, MS. The author, a native of Fairhope, AL, gives great tips on finding the essence of this scenic area and its rich culture.If tourist traps are your bag, leave this book alone--you will not find them here! Instead, you will visit a home-owned and operated candy kitchen in Point Clear, AL; go on a quest for the region's best oyster Po Boy; find great bargains in shops and galleries off the beaten track. You will meet local artists, find the best beaches for bathing and shelling, and eat freshly caught Gulf seafood in dives and hole -in-the-wall bars. You will even find out about the best places to catch your own! So give "Coasting" and America's Third Coast a try. You will not be sorry!