Goodden's book is truly an outstanding resource for those interested in the recent history and geography of Northern Thailand. The accounts of his travels through Lan-na are both amusing and informative. The level of detail provided is mostly unavailable in other formats. This book is well worth reading. Equally as good, if not better, is Goodden's first book, Three Pagoda's, get it if you can find it.

You won't find the information you get in "Sacred War" in many other books. Whereas most Vietnam literature concentrates on American decision-making, this book reminds us that there was another side to the Vietnam War. A very detailed account of Vietminh and Viet Cong thinking and insightful as into why we didn't win the war.

On the subject of guidebooks, here's one that's tough to beat. Bob Newman has divided North America's Southeast Coast into a series of discrete areas, like images on a strip of film, and then tells what you need to know to fish each area. Excellent maps will help you find your way. If it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then these maps must be worth 10,000 words each. Newman also provides lists of accommodations, restaurants, fly and tackle shops, marinas, guides and other services. After dissecting North Carolina, he does the same for South Carolina and Georgia, describing the fishing in similar detail for each state. Then comes Offshore Action, a chapter on "green-water" and "blue-water" species, including tackle requirements and tactics, and another chapter on trip planning, with tips on how to arrange hotel, air or rental car reservations and how to choose a guide. Newman writes in a straightforward, breezy style and tosses in just enough anecdotes to keep things lively. As the subtitle indicates, this guide covers "light-tackle" as well as fly fishing, but the emphasis seems more on the latter. A good index helps make the book user-friendly. Kudos to Newman for a thoroughly written and professional job. With this book in hand you'll run like a train, jump like a tarpon, charge for your boat, swear to catch fish, and pull out your fly rod-Yowza! Steve Raymond

You can't take your eyes off of the pictures. The photos are beautiful and rich. It's not just a cookbook. Of all the cookbooks on Southeast Asian cooking that we received for Christmas, I wish we had received this one. It's a great price. Other stores sell it for full price. The book gives wonderful details about the culture of various countries in the region. The recipes are very easy to follow and the food photography is sumptuous. All the food looks so tasty. I don't really like to cook, but I shall start trying the recipes as soon as I get the book.

Small book, which leads to fast reading and wide coverage. If entirely new to SEA, provides a quick study on their major concerns. If an old "China" hand, then a good source for references and summary information.

I have taken three different Indoensian language classes, and this book is unequivocally the best.

This collection is a monument to its pieces, smaller works of which Mary McCarthy herself could rightly complain, "One of my friends tried to get it that summer when she was in Idaho (the home state of war critic Senator Frank Church) visiting relations ~ no luck. When she passed through New York in the fall, same story." On a personal level, this is a complaint by someone of immense popularity that her own views on the war wouldn't sell, or weren't being sold. The highest irony of this book is its final sentence, at the end of a review of a very explicit book by David Halberstam, "In career terms, which in my view interest Halberstam excessively, how dead is 'dead'?" Please be assured that I feel the same way whenever a representative of my government calls me and asks where I am working, and then wonders why I would mention Richard Nixon. I only mention this book the way dubious achievements might be associated with Nixon and the question, "Why is this dead man laughing?" I promise that this book is easier to understand than the death of Homer, a famous Greek poet who was so blind he couldn't tell what two boys were doing when they said, "That which we see and catch, we leave behind, but what we neither see nor catch, we carry with us." McCarthy mentions Homer on page 235 to support the idea that "at the front, war itself appears senseless, a confused butchery that only the gods can understand." On page 268, she is more explicitly into Homeric epithets, comparing his use of the godly phrase "cloud-gathering Zeus" to "the air pirates," (one of "the set phrases of North Vietnamese diction.") Never again should we try to go to war without our Homer, whoever that might be. My vote for the Homer of Nam would be Bernard Fall, a smiling fellow in the picture of the author on the back of the jacket for this book. The picture might be more famous than the book. The caption under the picture says, "Mary McCarthy in Vietnam with Bernard Fall, February, 1967 (Fall was killed under fire shortly afterward.) Newsweek, Francoise Sully copyright 1967." It is a bit late to read this book now, but the calculation of the number of people who haven't read this book can only go one way, up, and it is going to do that forever, as sure as Homer is dead.

Truong examines the sex industry through a transnational lens, using South-east Asia as his site. The book begins with a careful examination of existing theories of prostitution and meticulously builds a map of "the social processes through which female sexuality is incorporated as labour into the sphere of production" (p. 192). Heavily influenced by Marx, Truong is not a light read, but is very rewarding for those seeking to know more about how the international sex trade operates.

This book provides a systematic description and analysis of the factors that shaped Malaysia, bringing together studies on the country's geological origins and mineral resources, flora, fauna, peoples and cultures, political change, economy and society, environment and eco-tourism. It explicates Malaysia's current economic and political development by considering it in the light of these natural and human resources. Besides taking a comparative view of such changes in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, it highlights Malaysia's incorporation into the wider global economy.

Offering an integrated perspective on Malaysia by focusing on its natural and human resource endowments, it also goes on to explore how they have changed over time. This book makes an important contribution to a greater understanding of present-day Malaysia by providing the background to essential elements in the evolution of the country's modern economy and society.

A collection of papers from those presented at a colloquium on 'Research on Malaysia-Recent Advances' at the University of New England, Australia on October 1995, this book is therefore not exhaustive and some issues are dealt with more fully than others. For example, the chapter on fauna is devoted mostly to the orang utan, neglecting other endangered species such as the Sumatran rhinoceros and tiger.

Formerly associate professor in the History Department of the University of Malaya, Amarjit Kaur is now associate professor and head of the Department of Economic History at the University of New England, New South Wales, Australia. Formerly lecturer and senior lecturer in the Geology Departments of the University of Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Ian Metcalfe is currently associate professor in the Division of Earth Sciences, School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of New England.

For a newcomer to Laos, Dr. Evans's volume would seem an excellent introduction to its history, politics and culture. For someone like myself, who had his own intense introduction to Laos in the late 60s and looks forward to a return, the book is an insightful refresher and update. It has helped me put my own experience in context and rethink the Laos I once thought I knew. This short history is thoughtful, well-written, and largely devoid of moral judgments.

The subtitle "The Land in Between" sums up an unfortunate reality -- for much of its history Laos has been caught between more powerful neighbors and sometimes their even more powerful patrons. But Evans does not stop with such a facile explanation of the Laos that has emerged. I particularly appreciate his continuing emphasis on the deep and enduring cultural roots of the peoples who inhabit Laos -- and the interplay among them.

With so many Western writers and readers still caught up in the battles that we fought in Laos in the 60s and 70s, Evans's book is a refreshing reminder that Laos merits attention -- indeed fascination -- in its own right.