"In Search of Conrad" is a travel book about the world of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) who worked on sailing boats in the Malayan archipelago between 1887 and 1889. Almost one hundred years later, Gavin Young visited the same places as Conrad. He tracked down the remaining traces of the people who became the inspiration for Conrad's protagonists in his novels. Young visited Jakarta, Borneo and Celebes Island in Indonesia, traveled on a cargo-ship from Singapore to Bangkok, and saw both cities with the eyes of Conrad.

Young's account is rich in detail and local atmosphere. His narrative moves leisurely, and his observations of the present merge gently with Conrad's world of the end of the 19th century. Young knows how to evoke the atmosphere of South East Asian cities - here, for example, the waiting-hall in Jakarta harbor: "I doubt if there was a square yard of empty floor-space. Standing, sitting, squatting, some lying full-length, propped against hillocks of bags, boxes and baskets of woven leaves, they chatted and laughed, ceaselessly offering each other small, thin cigarettes that filled the thick, humid air with sweet, clove-scented smoke." And every once in a while he shares some arcane but interesting facts with the reader: "Makassar [a town on the island of Celebes, Indonesia] profited greatly from Singapore's rise in importance as the halfway trading station between West and East. Trade boomed in every island commodity from pearls and sea slugs to copra, sandalwood and the famous macassar oil which Victorian gentlemen plastered on their hair, obliging their wives to protect the backs of their armchairs with white cloths called antimacassars."

Unfortunately, Penguin Books used the smallest font size I have ever encountered in a pocket book to squeeze the narrative on 300 pages. I found the reading extremely tiring.

The book will send me back to re-read "Almayer's Folly" and to give "Lord Jim" and Joseph Conrad's early stories a try. However, I'm hesitant to recommend "In Search of Conrad" to readers who have not read Conrad before, or who have not been to South East Asia. To a large extent, it is a book for readers who are already somewhat familiar with Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia; and for readers who share Gavin Young's interest in maritime things.

"In Search of Conrad" is part of the "Essential Asia" Series of Penguin Books and available from amazon.co.uk.

This book was written for young children (maybe first, second grade). It is very simple and does not go into a lot of details about the demise of many of the Indian tribes in Louisiana. It is a good introduction however.

I read this book and some of it seemed very dated. It is full of information. However, there are times in the book when I would think - 'well, that is not how we would say it now'.

On a positive note, the author does talk about the tribes as if they are seperate, rather than lump them together as Indians, as many books do.

Great introduction book for young children just beginning to learn about Louisiana.

The Asian Meltdown of 97/98 has yielded complicated results for Indonesia. Economic implosion spawned anti-Chinese rioting and the downfall of Suharto.

In its wake we have seen serious efforts by the country's political elite to develop viable and legitimate institutions, but political instability and executive incompetence has impaired the psot-Suharto transition. The military has attempted to play a background role, yet it is still vastly influential in civilian politics; the eruptions in Aceh and Borneo, as well as inter-religious and ethnic strife, will make the military more central to the stability of the country as a whole.

This RAND report starts with two generalized scenarios for Indonesia's possible future: 1) Successful transition; 2) Centrifugal disintegration.

Right off the bat, the study correctly identifies the implications for longterm US policymaking: the stability of the Southeast Asian region will directly impact the extension of China, and consequently impact the meaning of US-China relations. Thus, Indonesia's future not only has vital implications for a huge, disparate country with lots of resources and a huge population, but also implications for geopolitical relations among two great power for years to come.

The study gives a brief historical sketch of the political (mis)rule of Wahid, et al; a study of individual separatist movements; possible futures for Indonesia and the consequences for the future of the region as a whole. A brief section on militant separatist movements in Thailand and the Philippines is also included; which is very intelligent since ethnic and religious identities transcend national borders.

The book ends with the implication for US policy, and the necessity for US-Indonesian military relations. This is somewhat inadequate, both for the two-dimensionality of the political recommendations, and RAND's institutional habit of considering Air Force concerns first, and the concerns for defense policy as tertiary to this. The involvement of US Army special forces in the country -and the political implications of that- as well as the extreme importance of the US Navy as the Great Balancer in Asian geopolitics, is not treated.

Thus study's background work is typical RAND: incisive, concise, and useful. Their recomendations are typically rote and two-dimensional as well.

On many occasions the word I was searching was not in this dictionary. However, it is a handy guide and includes many of the words with their prefixes. I found the central area which is divided into categories next to useless. This section would be more useful for travelers than translators.

Despite the hateful reputation the Marcoses received from some vindictive people and the successful campaign thrown against them, Beth Day Romulo wrote a very objective stand about the Marcoses. Because of Day's professional background as a journalist, her diary of the Philippine palace and the family who occupied it provided a small opening of truth to the readers of her book and the Marcoses themselves. At least, there is a semblance of sanity and truth for the Ferdinand and Imelda. Some authorities in the Philippines may have revised the history book to fit their own agendas, but "Inside the Palace" will provide you with the most accurate and objective details regarding the Marcoses.

Insight Guides are useful as both travel guides and picture books.The info is short but concise and the wonderful color pics give you a really nice idea about what the destination spot looks like ( or looked like,as the books are also good for memory/photo albums). This volume is very useful for the traveler to the little known countries of Laos and Cambodia as it covers all areas of both countries and not just the big cities and main attractions. I especially found the info on coastal Cambodia interesting as it's hard to find detail on this beautiful place in other travel books. A must for the Asia traveler....

Insight's City Guides combine stunning photography with literate text and a smattering of basic travel information. The Insight Venice guide is worth adding to your bookshelf, but its practical advice is getting a bit long in the tooth and its heft makes it less than ideal as a take-along guide. - Durant Imboden, Venice for Visitors, http://govenice.miningco.co

This book is an excellent book that gets down to the point.

Insight Pocket Guides, Sabah Borneo, is a great book for the traveler who plans on going to Sabah. The author, Wendy Hutton put together a very compact travel guide with lots of useful information. One of the best parts of the book, is that it includes a very good map of Sabah with the different excursions and day trips highlighted. The traveler who likes to organize their trips in advance will like the ideas that are Ms. Hutton has given. It allows a person to see all aspects of Sabah and to get into the culture and history of the state. In the back of the book is several pages of practical information including places to stay. For the nature lover, the book is full of wonderful ideas to see the flora and fauna. Anyone traveling to Sabah should look at this book and some of the recomended by the author, especially on the history of the area.

This is one of the best Japanese Grammar books I have bought. The best feature, in my opinion, is the fact that the books does not restrict itself to Romanji (Romanized Japanese writing) or Kana (the phonetic Japanese writing). Instead, all the expressions and vocabulary given is written in both Kanji and Romanji from lesson 1. And there are quite a few lessons (about 40)! So by the end of the book you will be reading page long passages in Japanese!. This may be a bit rough in the beggining (since reading Kanji is hard because each character can be read in *MANY* different ways), and that is why I suggest another book, like Eleanor Harz Jorden's "Reading Japanese", since it has many reading drills and will make you more confortable with reading more quickly. The combination of these two books makes the reader very familiar with common Japanese sentence structures and day-to-day Kanji characters. Definetly a great buy!