I thought this book was a real sleeper. I bought it as a used paperback and based on its title and cover, I expected a "pulpy" style blood and guts novel. Once I looked at it closer, I realized it was a true story. And once I read it, I realized it was an exceptionally well-conceived and well-written book.

The book is in two parts - the first part being about the tour of duty in Vietnam for an infantryman and the second nominally being about "The World". I thought the first part did a fine job of describing the physical and mental hardships imposed on the grunts by the climate, the terrain and the unpredictable boredom/terror nature of the conflict. Following that, Part Two takes the reader through what I believe is the material that really distinguishes this book as one that anyone who studies the Vietnam war should read. Anderson presents a thoughtful and straightforward discussion about the attitudes of Americans who served and those who did not and the forces that shaped those attitudes. He does a great job of relating these to the struggles the servicemen faced in reentering civilian life and to the struggles they faced in dealing with Vietnamese society and their own combat leaders. Placing the veterans' homecoming adjustments, atrocities and fraggings in this context was what moved this book from the very good to the extraordinary class.

Easy to read, hard to put down. Read it - you'll enjoy it and you'll learn some interesting things.

I served with "Andy" in Vietnam in 1969 in the First Battalion Third Marines. He was a friend to everyone and paid very close attention to things around him knowing he would write this book. Many of the stories in the book are based on actual happenings. The pallet of mortar rounds exploding really happened and it was a wonder more Marines weren't killed. This book ranks along with Jim Web's "Fields of Fire" as two of the most realistic Vietnam combat accounts. A friend of mine served under Jim Web and lost his right arm just below the shoulder. He and Mr. Web still stay in touch and continue the bond that can only be formed in combat. Don't waste you money on all those Vietnam war novels until you have read "The Grunts" and "Fields of Fire".

Anderson's book has got to be the next best thing to "being there". I am envious of his talent for "detailing" the ordinary. He is absolutely "right on" in describing just how wonderful plain old ordinary water can taste. I read Anderson's book before I joined the Corps. Since then I've read all the big names in this genre; Sassoon, Graves, Owen, Mailer, Jones, Caputo, O'brien, Webb. I guess I tend to identify more with Caputo's, Webb's, and Anderson's books since they're Marines. It really doesn't matter because they were all good and they all sent a message that has never been heeded. I wish someone would tell a story about us and all the silly c**p that went on in Somalia.

The day I received this cookbook I was so inspired I went out and bought all of the ingredients for and then prepared the "Thai Curry" recipe. It was excellent. I've made several other recipes from this book since and have yet to be disappointed. My family has become big fans of Asian food primarily because of my love of this book.

Be prepared to find what many inexperienced cooks may find as exotic ingredients. We're lucky to live by a huge Asian grocery store, so finding things like jasmine extract, kilfer lime leaves, fresh lemongrass, and other interesting-sounding bottled or dried flavorings was not difficult, but could potentially be.

I appreciate the sumptuous photos supplied with each recipe. Obviously there was a hefty budget for food stylists and photo shoots, but it really helps when you're trying to envision the finished product and the presentation.

We don't go out for Southeast Asian food since starting our cooking adventure through James McNair's beautifully laid out book. This book is a pleasure to peruse as the layout and photography are beautiful. But most importantly, the recipes are right on! I've made the pork with garlic sauce, various thai currys, and the lemongrass chicken and all have turned out restaurant quality - if you are in Thailand, much better than restaurant quality if you have the misfortune as myself to be currently living in the midwest. My next attempt will be the shrimp and pineapple yellow curry - I'm sure that it will also be fantastic.

After I got my wife hooked on Thai food she bought me a cookbook that was loosely translated from Chinese. Didn't work too well. I picked up James McNair's Southeast Asian book and love it. Like all of the other McNair volumes I own, I can start off with an easier recipe and work up to harder ones as my particular skills and confidences increase. You can't go wrong with this or any of McNair's books!

As a person, I find the story depicted here very lifelike and some times scary.....As a fellow L.R.R.P.(69-71),i find it truthfull...sometimes too truthful...brings back old memories best left forgotten. BUT, it is the best way to deal with some of the ghosts still lurking.....

As a fellow writer about life in the military, this is the first time I have enjoyed such colorful yet exacting descriptions. Camper gives the reader all the sights, sounds and smells of this conflict without bitterness or false heroics. After having read Robert Hemphill's "Platoon, Bravo Company", one man's account of the war behind the lines with no color, Dennis Marvicsin's "Maverick" co-written by Jerold Greenfield, a bad mix of WAR and ROSES, this is the best written work by a front liner. Camper's graphic depiction is the story of a young boy who becomes a Vet in a short time. His pictures are exciting without being poetic, thrilling without being melodramatic and personal without being elitist. Unlike Tim O'Brien's "If I Die in a Combat Zone", LRRP chronicles a soldier's life with clarity about his thoughts without the drudgery of the everyday minutiae. And unlike O'Brien, Camper tells a home coming that leaves you wanting to read the next book instead of glad that you finished this one.

A must have for those interested in infantry combat skills. Camper breaks up his accounts into one and two page diary entries that make for quick and easy reading.

Lonely Planet always publishes great phrasebooks, and this one's no different. Luckily, they provide the original cyrillic script alongside of the phonetic transcriptions, so you can actually read things while inside the country (unlike their Central Asian phrasebook, which was entirely in phonetic transcription). I haven't been to Mongolia yet, but this book is definatly coming with me when I go! Its content is very similar to their Russian phrasebook, which I found extremely useful while in Russia.

I took this phrase book to Mongolia with me in the summer of 2001 and foud it to be extremely helpful. While there is a phrase section in Lonely Planet's main book on Mongolia (which I HIGHLY recommend as an essential if travelling to Mongolia), this book was much more comprehensive. I found it very useful when trying to communicate with our non-english speaking driver when out in the middle of the Gobi desert. Even if you are unable to pronounce the words correctly, you can at least show whoever you're trying to communicate with the word you are trying to say. Mongolia is a travel experience far different from anywhere else in the world. Communication is a vital part of making that experience more enriching. For that, I recommend this phrase book.

Wherever you travel in the world, the Lonely Planet guides are the most helpful, the most lucid, and the most fun to read. After struggling with Mongolian-English dictionaries, this book was a breath of fresh air. Their phonetic transcriptions of the Cyrillic are by far the easiest and least technical that I've found. And on top of that it is convenient and pocket-sized!

Meet one of the most gallant warriors of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This biography depicts ARVN Major General Hieu under different facets: his personal life, his military career, his military exploits, and his unjust death. It reveals General Hieu as an unsung hero, whose tactical and strategic skills put him among the best soldiers of modern times, at par with General Rommel of Germany, Patton of the United States, Montgomery of England and Leclerc of France.

The Internet format of this biography has received wide acceptance from its readers with more than 20,000 visitors the first year. One reader comments, "Besides its military historical value, it has room for deep, emotional feelings," and another reader writes, "Of all the military stories I have read, yours is the most touching. What a fine officer General Hieu must have been, so very much an all around person. I did not know him. But I am sure glad I have read about him; it seems as if he comes alive again through your stories, and once again he is an inspiring figure, as his modesty transcends the years," Vietnam War Veterans have found it "fascinating", "incredibly factual," "exceptionally superior," and something that "may well be required reading in high schools, military college..."

Containing first hand military documents pertaining to operational orders, it provides a rare presentation for ordinary people; one is allowed to see how a divisional commanding general plans and executes his battles. The story of an individual life, this biography offers an illuminating insight of the ARVN and provides a unique perspective of the Vietnam War.

This book gives answers to the following questions:

- The NVA has General Vo Nguyen Giap. Does the ARVN have someone comparable?

- How did General Hieu score next to General John Norton, Jr of the US 1st Cavalry Division?

- How did General Hieu score next to General Albert Milloy of the US 1st Infantry Division?

- What did General Dennis McAuliffe of the US Big Red One Division think about General Hieu?

- How did Colonel John Hayes, Senior Advisor of ARVN 5th Division, evaluate General Hieu?

- How did the ARVN 22nd Division score next to the US 1st Cavalry Division?

- How did the ARVN 5th Division score next to the US 1st Infantry Division?

- What role did General Hieu play in the Ia Drang Valley Battle (US 1st Cavalry Division), Pershing Operation (US 1st Cavalry Division), Dong Tien Operations (US 1st Infantry Division), Total Victory 46 Operation (US 1st Cavalry Division)?

- How did the ARVN Airborne Division score next to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and the US 101st Airborne Division?

- etc...

This biography, a reader would notice at the outset, is not written by a historian, an investigative reporter, or a professional biographer. It originates instead from the pen of a younger sibling seeking to resolve the mystery surrounding his brother's untimely death. This legitimate curiosity has evolved into a collection of articles depicting General Nguyen van Hieu as a family man, a patriot, a military strategist, and a man of integrity. This collection of articles authored by siblings, friends, and fellow military men unexpectedly converges to project a dynamic image of an intelligent soldier and brilliant strategist engaged in the twofold quixotic task of overcoming a corrupted military hierarchy and fighting the invading North Vietnamese communist army. The book presents the reader with glimpses of a man living the yin aspect of the Vietnamese society (egalitarian, flexible, spiritual, congenial) and, at the same time, confronting the yang aspect of the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy (male dominant, rigid, self-serving, elitist, concerned with face and status). Without any claim to being systematic or thorough in his research, the author has nevertheless gathered a number of revealing personal anecdotes, testimonies from living witnesses, declassified documents from the National Archives, letters from former military academy classmates, phone interviews, excerpts from books, and so forth. From this cacophony of voices emerges the image of a virtuous man, caring father, loving spouse, and competent general respected by Vietnamese and American military personnel of all ranks. The reader would no doubt be surprised to discover this unsung hero in the stark background of negative memories of the Vietnam War and betrayal of the Vietnamese people by the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy. Though modest in its presentation, the book manages to do justice to a dedicated soldier and competent general, who is mostly unknown to both the Vietnamese and the American public. After reading this fascinating biography, the reader comes away wondering what might have been had this uncommon general, who epitomized the true Vietnamese people, been allowed to fully exercise his military competence.END

This biography, a reader would notice at the outset, is not written by a historian, an investigative reporter, or a professional biographer. It originated instead from the pen of a younger sibling seeking to resolve the mystery surrounding his brother's untimely death. This legitimate curiosity has evolved into a collection of articles depicting General Nguyen van Hieu as a family man, a patriot, a military strategist, and a man of integrity.

This collection of articles authored by siblings, friends, and fellow military men unexpectedly converges to project a dynamic image of an intelligent soldier and brilliant strategist engaged in the twofold unenviable task of overcoming a corrupted military hierarchy and fighting the invading North Vietnamese communist army.

The book presents the reader with glimpses of a man living the yin aspect of the Vietnamese society (egalitarian, flexible, spiritual, congenial) and, at the same time, confronting the yang aspect of the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy (male dominant, rigid, self-serving, elitist, concerned with face and status).

Without any claim to being systematic or thorough in his research, the author has nevertheless gathered a number of revealing personal anecdotes, testimonies from living witnesses, declassified documents from the National Archives, letters from former military academy classmates, phone interviews, excerpts from books, and so forth. From this cacophony of voices emerges the image of a virtuous man, caring father, loving spouse, and competent general respected by Vietnamese and American military personnel of all ranks. The reader would no doubt be surprised to discover this unsung hero in the stark background of negative memories of the Vietnam War and betrayal of the Vietnamese people by the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy.

Though modest in its presentation, the book manages to do justice to a dedicated soldier and competent general, who is mostly unknown to both the Vietnamese and the American public. After reading this fascinating biography, the reader comes away wondering what might have been had this uncommon general, who epitomized the true Vietnamese people, been allowed to fully exercise his military competence.

(P.S. Please use this book review instead of the earlier version I sent to Amazon.com this morning. Thank you. Tri V. Nguyen)

I enjoyed reading this book. I bought it for my husband as a gift, but I read it before he did. The photographs and stories were about at least one family from each North and South American country. Wide range of lifestyles, from tribal Amazonians, peasants in Mexico, poor and rich of Brazil, single mother families in West Indies, farmers in Canada, and urban folks from Chicago. The book covers their diligences and futilities in this world as a family unit.

This type of book should never be allowed to go out of print. It should be available for all to read and learn from. In it, Helene Tremblay offers a fascinating insight into the ordinary lives of various people from The Americas and The Caribbean by spending a typical day with a typical family. In a beautifully illustrated book, sensitively written, Ms Tremblay gently pushes opens a window into their different worlds, eating, resting and working with the families. There is no feeling of intrusion, just an unspoken respect for their way of life. It is at once humbling, honest, moving and utterly compelling. It is a book I refer to many times and can highly recommend.

I've already given a review for the first book which is on this page for some reason... so I wholeheartedly agree that the book on Asia and the Pacific is just as spectacular as the book on the Americas... It was out of print and I was amazed when Amazon.Com came through with a used copy that was in beautiful condition! I was very pleased and impressed and am delighted to have this book in my collection... I was very intrigued by the families in Asia and the exotic Pacific! Very much worth the wait!

This is a neat little package that gives a wealth of info about slugs. It was a little less technical than I had hoped. If you're looking to answer specific biology questions or have the hopes of a key, this is not the answer.

What on earth am I doing reviewing a book about slugs? Because I live in Slugland & I want to know more about those slithery slimers who mug my lettuces & ravish my sprouts. This little book is a gem, a must for anyone living among gastropods. This book inspired me to write a poem about these critters who have been around far longer than we! Still don't like 'em, I'll tolerate them because David George Gordon has written a funny, informative, charming book about a subject most would rather stomp on! So there!

I found this book to be a concise, thorough discussion of the subject of garden slugs. Every gardener has had to deal with them in some form or another and this little book is the perfect addition to your gardening library on the subject. Excellent artwork and drawings, also.

As a life-long student and instructor of languages, the Pimsleur method offers a unique learning experience for those who find traditional language study or classes difficult. The Pimsleur method is especially good for extremely active people, as it teaches the language through listening and spoken repetition rather than on any written text. The tapes are easily usable when working out, in the car, etc.

I own and have experience with a number of the different Pimsleur sets. In terms of this abridged volume, it is the approximate equivalent of the basic language skills necessary to travel to Indonesia. However, after completing the 10-lesson set, the user has the equivalent knowledge of an Indonesian 101 student after the first week of class. The lessons are fantastic for teaching basa-basi (small talk that is very different from "Western" small talk and much more culturally necessary), but are also extremely oriented to the male traveler.

The lessons begin with a man striking up a conversation with an Indonesian woman seated next to him on the plane. As the conversation progresses, more vocabulary and syntax structures are introduced. After the man arrives, he goes around Jakarta asking directions to different jalan (streets), thus teaching the user how to inquire after directions. The lessons do transition fairly well, but do not cover a lot of material on the whole.

Upon completing the course, the user has basic essential travel vocabulary that will truly ease a trip to Indonesia. These same scenarios are less applicable to meeting orang Indonesia in different situations, but this can be overlooked by someone just wanting the basics. There are very few decent Indonesian language courses or materials, so Pimsleur definately provides a decent start. But user beware--the tapes include very few cultural notes, so be sure to read up on Indonesian cultural norms prior to heading over there.

In sum, 4 stars is very generous for this course. Being that there are very few available, it is a good place to start. However, you can learn just as much by finding an international student or immigrant who wants to tutor. In one lesson you are likely to cover more material--focused on your needs--than in the entire 10-lesson set.

Language aquisition doesn't happen easily for me. The Pimsleur tapes patiently taught me a foundation of words and phrases in spoken Bahasa Indonesia which were immediately at my disposal when I arrived in Java. This is amazing - I promise you. The language "vapor-lock" was greatly diminished because of the Pimsleur method of teaching and my pronounciation ability had a leg-up on many expats who had lived here a long time. Those with better brains for language may find it tedious. Okay, where's Vol 2?

This is the first Pimsleur program I have ever tried, and I am impressed. You learn a small but highly functional vocabulary and you learn to use the words in ordinary conversation. The native Indonesian speakers are very clear and understandable. Also included is a small booklet, however the "readings" are little more than learning to pronounce the written word. I would suggest getting a book for additional vocabulary, and you will be amazed at the sentences you can form! It really is a springboard for further learning.

The book can provide an insight of Burma under military rule.
The author has learned much about real concerns and issues in the country. The interesting is that the author was able to inform the rarely known rituals of the Junta. Many interviews were done and good and first-hand informations can be seen on the book.

Cristina Fink's book Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule is a hard-hitting examination of what life was (and perhaps still is) like under the repressive rule of the Burmese military. Using an extensive set of interviews, and the underground writings of dissidents, Fink outlines and looks at the real psychological consequences of years of repression. Perhaps the closest real world example of what Michel Foucault would call a "carceral society". Fink brings the Panopticon to life. My understanding of the issues in Burma was greatly enhanced by reading this book and I recommend it highly.

Miguel Llora

This book takes one to a country that is "a world apart" in a multitude of ways from what we know here in America. A fascinating read that is sure to captivate and enrich the reader with newfound knowledge and awareness. A brilliant debut by an author I hope we'll see much more of in years to come.

I am about to travel to Thailand 5th time and I have found this book usefull in most everyday situations. Explanations of Thai speech and writing are good and easy to follow. English-Thai section is brilliant for its size and Thai-English is useful after getting basics strait. Translating Thai text to English is bit labour intensive.

I am sent by my company to work in Bangkok for a year or maybe two. Bangkok is a wonderful place and the people are very hospitable. However, the most difficult thing is communication. Most Thais I meet on the streets can hardly speak any English. What I need is a book that is handy and can get me to speak basic Thai immediately. This is the book that I needed all along. You can only imagine how much I enjoy practicing Thai with Thais. My Thai has improved tremendously ever since I bought this book. I would say that if you are conscientious in studying this book, you will speak reasonable Thai within a month. This book is a must buy for all expatriates working in Thailand.

I lived in Thailand for six months and had no previous Thai language training. This is the book I found the most helpful. The first thing a beginner should do is study the pronunciation guide in the front of the book. Once you have that down you're set! You can use this book to look up a particular word or look up the key word in a common phrase, and chances are the phrase you want to say will be listed under that word. Very intuitive (for me anyway).