Amazon.com
It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.
We wanted to spread the word on the book as widely, and as soon, as we could. See below for an exclusive excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns and early reviews of the book from some of our top customer reviewers.--The Editors
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An Exclusive Excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns |
We have arranged with the publisher to make an exclusive excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns available on Amazon.com. Click here to read a scene from the novel. It's not the opening scene, but rather one from a crucial moment later in the book when Mariam, one of the novel's two main characters, steps into a new role.
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Early Buzz from Amazon.com Top Reviewers |
We queried our top 100 customer reviewers as of March 6, 2007, and asked them to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and share their thoughts. We've included these early reviews below in the order they were received. For the sake of space, we've only included a brief excerpt of each reviewer's response, but each review is available for reading in its entirety by clicking the "Read the review" link.
Joanna Daneman:
"His style is deceptively simple and clear, the characters drawn deftly and swiftly, his themes elemental and huge. This is a brilliant writer and I look forward to more of his work." Read Joanna Daneman's review
Seth J. Frantzman:
"Khaled Hosseini has done it again with 'A Thousand Splendid Sons', presenting a new, dashing and dark tale of two generations of women trapped in a loveless marriage, bracketed by great events." Read Seth J. Frantzman's review
Donald Mitchell:
"Khaled Hosseini has succeeded in capturing many important historical and contemporary themes in a way that will make your heart ache again and again. Why will your reaction be so strong? It's because you'll identify closely with the suffering of almost all the characters, a reaction that's very rare to a modern novel." Read Donald Mitchell's review
Lawrance M. Bernabo:
"All things considered, following up on a successful first novel is probably harder than coming up with the original effort and Hosseini could have rested on his laurels in the manner of Harper Lee, but as "A Thousand Splendid Suns" amply proves, this native of Kabul has more stories to tell about the land of Afghanistan." Read Lawrance M. Bernabo's review
Amanda Richards:
"There are parts of this book that will have grown men surreptitiously blotting the tears that are on the verge of overflowing their ducts, and by the time you get to the middle, you won't be able to put it down. Hosseini's simple but richly descriptive prose makes for an engrossing read, and in my opinion, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is among the best I have ever read. This is definitely not one to be missed." Read Amanda Richards's review
N. Durham:
"All that being said, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a bit more enjoyable than Hosseini's previous "The Kite Runner", and once again he manages to give we readers another glimpse of a world that we know little about but frequently condemn and discard. However, if you were one of the many that for some reason absolutely loved "The Kite Runner", chances are that you'll love this as well." Read N. Durham's review
John Kwok:
"Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a genuine instant literary classic, and one destined to be remembered as one of 2007's best novels. It should be compared favorably to such legendary Russian novels like "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago"." Read John Kwok's review
Thomas Duff:
"Normally I'm more of an action-adventure type reader when it comes to novels and recreational reading. But I was given the chance to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner), so I decided to try something out of my normal genre. I am *so* glad I did. This is a stunning and moving novel of life and love in Afghanistan over a 30 year period." Read Thomas Duff's review
Charles Ashbacher:
"This book manages to simultaneously capture the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years and how women are treated in conservative Islamic societies.... In many ways it is a sad book, your heart goes out to these two women in their hopeless struggle to have a decent life with a brutal man in an unforgiving, intolerant society." Read Charles Ashbacher's review
W. Boudville:
"Hosseini presents a piognant view into the recent tortured decades of the Afghan experience. From the 1970s, under a king, to the Soviet takeover, to the years of resistance. And then the rise and fall of the Taliban. An American reader will recognise many of the main political events. But to many Americans, Afghanistan and its peoples and religion remain an opaque and troubling mystery." Read W. Boudville's review
Mark Baker:
"I tend to read plot heavy books, so this character study was a definite change of pace for me. I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet. I couldn't think of a better way to end it." Read Mark Baker's review
Grady Harp:
"Hosseini takes us behind those walls for forty some years of Afghanistan's bloody history and while he does not spare us any of the descriptions of the terror that continues to besiege that country, he does offer us a story that speaks so tenderly about the fragile beauty of love and devotion and lasting impression people make on people." Read Grady Harp's review
Robert P. Beveridge:
"When I was actively reading it, the pages kept turning, and more than once I found myself foregoing food or sleep temporarily to get in just one more chapter. When I had put it down, however, I felt no particular compulsion to pick it back up again. It's a good book, and a relatively well-written one, but it's not a great book. Enjoyable without leaving a lasting impression." Read Robert P. Beveridge's review
B. Marold:
"While the events in Afghanistan and the wider world create a familiar framework for the stories of these two women, it is nothing more than a framework. The warp and weft of everyday life, and the interaction of the two women and their close relatives is the heartbeat of the story." Read B. Marold's review
Daniel Jolley:
"Khaled Hosseini has written a majestic, sweeping, emotionally powerful story that provides the reader with a most telling window into Afghan society over the past thirty-odd years. It's also a moving story of friendship and sacrifice, giving Western readers a rare glimpse into the suffering and mistreatment of Afghan women that began long before the Taliban came to power." Read Daniel Jolley's review
Book Description
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
Customer Reviews:
A vibrant, intense, and emotionally wrenching book.......2007-10-09
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a gripping novel that left me with a profound respect for women who struggle and flourish under restrictive regimes and repressive religions. I could almost feel the pain, fear, anger, frustration, hope and courage these women endure each and every day. The author faithfully delivers an emotionally taut epic that will strike a chord with many. I hated and loved this story all at the same time.
Tragic Journey of Love.......2007-10-08
A Thousand Splendid Suns is an absolutely wonderful story about the things that keep us going, even when our world falls apart. You will find yourself pulled into this tragic story, unable to put the book down. This book will touch your heart on a very real level. I can't wait to read it again.
terrific book, but left with some mixed feelings.......2007-10-08
I just finished this audiobook in a straight 10-hour period while I listened to my iPod as I refinished my deck. This book certainly does not leave your emotions untouched and most certainly gets you involved intimately with the characters that Hosseini develops. It is difficult at this point to catalog the full range of emotions that I felt while reading this book. Righteous indignation may be the main emotion I can recall from most of the pages. How much I, as a man, wanted to swoop in and solve away all of their problems with my western life of abundance. On examining this particular desire, perhaps the true message of this book comes out. It is written completely and totally in a worldview that is very different from us Western readers. The themes of survival, fate, endurance, are not ones that come to the fore in our minds. Concepts so important to us in this part of the world such as ambition, achievement, and discovery of dreams keep a place in the forefront of our minds.
This is particularly pointed in my mind, since I had just visited DisneyWorld days before reading this book. Their theme is that every girl wants to be a princess and at one point they had the audience chant that "Dreams come true" and remarked how every boy wants to be a pirate and every girl a princess. The interesting thing is what our dreams are. They are not the dream shared by the characters in the novel of independence, a motherhood, and freedom from fear. This disney dream is the idea that we will be exalted above our peers, that our extreme abundance will be greater than the extreme abundance of those around us. That our difference, our individuality will give us significance, only possible at the expense of others.
This is perhaps why the novel hit me as such an unfamiliar, foreign thing. I was depressed by how everything seemed to go bad for the characters on how there was not a hero -- not a constant juxtaposition of good and bad, of hope and disappointment, that is such a similar genre or phrase used in our modern stories. Eventually as the story waged on, it seemed that surely the scars created in the characters must be too deep, too unrecoverable for there to be a happy, Disney style ending. So at some point in reading this book I became very frustrated with the seeming desolateness of the emotional landscape, the lack of a knight in shining armor that I wanted to project myself in to the story.
In the end, however, I found that redemption was there. When Lila thought of Miriam as a young girl and I thought of the hopes and dreams of a young girl and how tragically shattered they were, this touched deep inside me and created a desire to be a father who nurtured and protected the sanctity of his child's dreams. Not dreams to be a princess, but dreams to be a mother themselves dreams to be free from fear and dreams to hope and a future. I closed the book resolute to make these dreams a reality for all daughters.
Strong but disturbing.......2007-10-07
After The Kite Runner, I looked forward to Hosseini's next book. From a literary standpoint, A Thousand Splendid Suns certainly did not disappoint. He weaved personal stories into the social and historic framework of Afghanistan, and the result was wonderful. This is a very sad book, though. Also, while the character of Mariam was strong and endearing, I couldn't feel quite as strongly about Laila.
Afghanistan history.......2007-10-07
A great story of Afghanistan's recent history and how Islam has affected this history. Eva-Christ
Book Description
Get the book that shows you not only what to study, but how to study. The only classroom-based integrated study system for professional certification gives you complete coverage of all objectives for the Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 exam, hundreds of practice exam questions, and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full practice exam software plus an adaptive test engine.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic book.......2007-10-06
You'll have a better understanding of the compiler/environment and you'll pass the test. This book and questions busts your butt harder then the real test, so you'll be more then adequately prepared. This is a book you want to keep around you long after you take your test.
Excellent book.......2007-09-17
I have passed my SCJP exam! The book was really helpful to either extend my java knowledge and helped me to passed the exam. I have spent about two months to prepare the exam and read this book about 3 times. Make sure you understand all the questions from inside out at the end of each chapter. I only used this book as my studying material (you would think that's risky, isn't it?) But it did work, although I did grabbed a few mock up exam from internet. But I didn't have much time to do those mock-ups, otherwise i may can do better in the exam. I got 88%.
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Average customer rating:
- Alatriste is Getting Stale
- Contemporary Commentary?
- This sun never rises over Breda
- "We Spanish have fewer tears than reasons to weep"
- Five-part series becalmed amid the middle-act blahs
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The Sun Over Breda
Arturo Perez-Reverte
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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ASIN: 0399153837
Release Date: 2006-12-28 |
Book Description
Arturo Pérez-Reverte has enthralled readers and critics around the globe with his Captain Alatriste series. Having sold four and a half million copies to date in the Spanish-speaking world, the series has made Pérez-Reverte a literary superstar and his fictional seventeenth-century mercenary a national icon. And the appeal of Pérez-Reverte's adventurer and his exploits continues to grow, as evidenced by the extraordinary reception for the first two translated volumes in the series-Captain Alatriste and Purity of Blood.
And now, in The Sun over Breda, Pérez-Reverte continues his thrilling chronicle of the swordsman-for-hire, as Captain Alatriste takes up his blade and rejoins his elite Cartagena regiment as they take part in the battles and siege of Breda. Fifteen-year-old Íñigo Balboa enlists to serve as his master's aide, and narrates their further adventures of swordplay and skirmishes, of mutiny and wartime honor. And, back in Spain, Alatriste's nemesis Luis de Alquézar grows more powerful, as Íñigo's mysterious friend Angélica hints at some plans upon his return
Customer Reviews:
Alatriste is Getting Stale.......2007-09-16
I was rather disappointed with this one, having read the first two of the series and being a fan of Perez-Reverte for his brilliant The Fencing Master which I rate one of my all time favorites.
The first two of the Alatriste series (of which this is the third) were periodically compelling and generally thoughtful tales combining the panache of swashbuckling derring-do with a world weary realism and the ethos of 17th century Spain on the cusp of collapse. You can feel the rot within working its way out.
This one, picking up in the midst of a Spanish campaign against the rebellious Dutch (a rebellion which ultimately took Holland out of the Spanish orbit and presaged the crumbling of Spain's imperial state) takes us out of the streets of Madrid and Toledo, the settings of the earlier books, and plops us down on the battlefield in the midst of war. The experiences of Captain Alatriste's young ward, Inigo Balboa, are faithfully recounted by that same young man in this adventure as they were in the first two. But here, Inigo barely give us a story at all.
The events are largely disjointed and plotless as Captain Alatriste (never really a "captain" except, perhaps, in spirit and capability!) participates as a simple soldier, led by his "betters," in a number of engagements. Balboa gets himself into a scrape and Alatriste gets him out. Alatriste gets offered an opportunity to undertake a duel for the honor of Spain and demurs, and the Spanish press their siege of Breda while despoiling the country as only an army can. Not much happens though we get to see a few battles up close from the point of view of young Inigo.
Truthfully, I had trouble finishing this one. The first two in the series have their share of narrative soft spots, of course, and I found Perez-Reverte's penchant for separating sentences in a conversation by lengthy digressions that sometimes go for pages (something he did to varying degrees in all three books) particularly annoying. Nor have I always been a fan of his inclusion of large amounts of poetry in the composition of these tales, though they are apparently there to add to the ambience and the sense that the book is being written by a seventeenth century man. And they do that well enough.
Still, the first two in the series, despite their dry spots worked. This one just didn't. I am not sure I'll read those that follow despite my enthusiasm for the author.
SWM
Contemporary Commentary?.......2007-07-21
Having just finished The Sun Over Breda and having also just read the preceeding reviews, I agree with the others that this book is less a swashbuckler and more a sober commentary on the soldiers who fight wars, and those who send them into battle.
As we know the author was formerly a war correspondant, and that Spain entered the current Iraqi war as a US ally but famously left the field, is it too far fetched to read The Sun Over Breda as one man's rant against the Bush administration? The book comments quite negatively on those who wage from afar. cf page 162-163 "...He who kills from afar is a knave who commends to others the dirty and terrible task that is his own..."
The entire book can be read in that way: one man's diatribe against the people who send others to be killed for them, and then in the end try to take the glory for themselves (as in the Velazquez painting "The Surrender at Breda"). We are all quite aware of the current Mr. Bush's failure to serve in Vietnam as contrasted with his current willingness to send courageous men to die in a conflict that has ceased to have meaning for anyone but the current President. Mr Perez Reverte may be drawing our attention to that using his literary skills.
This sun never rises over Breda.......2007-07-12
I've not read any other books in this series developed by author Arturo Perez-Reverte. The theme of his previous two books has been Captain Diego Alatriste, a real soldier of 17th century Spain. In The Sun Over Breda, the story is told from the perspective of a 14 year old "page," or soldier's assistant.
This is a book that focuses on detail... the garments worn, the weapons used, the curses uttered, the food eaten, and the people involved. It reminds me of the Master and Commander series of books by Patrick O'Brian, rich in detail and salt spray. However, it drifts from that work because, frankly, the story is not engaging. Battle, win, battle, win, siege, hold, duel, win, et cetera. The detail IS the strength of this book. It just misses the grab-your-attention threshold for an engaging yarn.
As far as the detail, the slashes, cuts, and jabs, as well as the injuries, are vividly described:
"I was showered with a spray of pikeman's blood as he fell atop me, invoking the Madre de Deus in Portuguese. I slipped from beneath him, freed myself from his lance, which was caught between my legs, only to find myself jostled in the ebb and flow of the battle, immersed in smells of rough, grimy clothing, sweat, powder, and blood" (p. 141).
This novel should be attractive to the reader who requires historical accuracy and is interested in pre-modern European warfare.
"We Spanish have fewer tears than reasons to weep".......2007-06-30
I am a great admirer of Pérez-Reverte's writing in general and the Captain Alatriste series in particular. That said, I must confess to feeling a mite concerned about a third of the way into The Sun Over Breda.
You see, not much was happening.
This is no criticism, but for all its manifold merits, this series is, at core, swashbuckling. So as our narrator, Íñigo Balboa, gives us page after page of exposition (however historically accurate and well wrought), you too may worry.
Never fear. Once Pérez-Reverte properly establishes that we're in Netherlands during the Thirty Years War as opposed to his customary Spain, he lets loose the hounds of war. One particularly chilling episode has to do with a subterranean battle between sappers taking place near a graveyard. (Keep in mind the soldiers are underground).
Yet despite its bloody present, The Sun Over Breda refers so much to what has gone before and what is yet to come, it does feel a bit like a placeholder. And although Captain Alatriste plays a surprisingly small role in the matter, a magnificent Iberian placeholder it is.
Five-part series becalmed amid the middle-act blahs.......2007-06-29
This is a novel about the siege of the Town of Breda, an event in the Dutch Wars that took place in 1624-25. The conceit of the book is that it is a translation of the memoirs of a participant, Inigo Balboa, who was about fourteen during the siege. Balboa, then, was born in 1610. We are informed that his public career ended around 1660, so it may be assumed that these memoirs were the retirement project of a well-off old soldier who was looking back from the age of fifty.
It so happens that Inigo Balboa has some interesting real-world contemporaries. Hercule Sevanien Cyrano de Bergerac was born in 1619, fought in wars on the French side against the very armies in which Balboa might have been found, and died in 1655, under ambiguous circumstances. Like Balboa, Cyrano had a literary bent, a considerably more successful one. Less bookish, but more successful as a soldier and courtier was Compte D'Artagnan (yes, he actually existed!) He was born in 1611. He joined the King's Musketeers in 1632, eventually became their commander, and got himself involved in all manner of goings-on at the Court of the Sun King. In 1673, he died during the course of yet another siege.
Balboa, then, has a career that runs parallel to those of his illustrious--and, indeed, fascinating--contemporaries. He differs from them, however by being a pompous, portentous bore. Considering that he is supposedly writing old soldier's tales featuring himself as a feral, homicidal urchin/monster who serves in a hard-as-nails army of unpaid, starving, honor-mad, scarecrow-like, merciless, pillaging raveners, and who fought what amounted to a no-quarter war amid a distant and implacably hostile land, that endless boredom is quite a literary achievement! A pointless one, of course, but an achievement, nevertheless.
The attitude of the narrator is bad enough, but things are made even less palatable by his habit of relentlessly serving up historical commentary in largely undigested lumps. This book is supposed to be a personal memoir, not a chronicle of the age. It is characteristic of real memoirs that memorists tend to slide over large-scale background events on the perfectly reasonable assumption that their readers will be younger contemporaries who already know or should know all that stuff. That is why modern academic editions of old memoirs swim in footnotes for the benefit of readers never imagined by the original authors.
The fact that Balboa, his hero Captain Alatriste, and author Perez-Riverte, himself, appear to be utterly devoid of wit, humor or irony is not in itself a fatal flaw. But it doesn't help very much, either.
Balboa's frame of mind is that of someone of our own time looking back over centuries of inglorious gloom to the last times in which Spain could honestly claim to be a major and indeed dominating military presence in the world. He sees failure and decay everywhere about him and he has no hope for renewal or even change. I don't buy it. I don't think that any Spaniard writing around 1660 would have so thoroughly written off his own country--especially in the light of the pig-mess the crazy, heretic Englishmen had just made of their cold, northerly country.
The two earlier books in this series have been highly praised. They seem, if the reviews are to be believed, to have an entirely different texture, setting and plot structure. I have not yet stumbled on those books, but it would seem reasonable to regard this series as a five-act play which starts off with a bang, becomes stuck in the middle-act doldrums and picks up again as it comes to an end.
Three becalmed stars.
Book Description
Imagine a world without eBay...unthinkable! How would you get that Farrah Fawcett poster, retired Beanie Baby, or first-edition pet rock? Handling over a gazillion (OK, we exaggerate--it's actually only 1 billion) page views each day, server-side Java makes eBay work.
Isn't it time you learned the latest (J2EE 1.4) versions of Servlets & JSPs? This book will get you way up to speed on the technology you'll know it so well, in fact, that you can pass the Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) 1.4 exam. If that's what you want to do, that is. Maybe you don't care about the exam, but need to use Servlets & JSPs in your next project. You're working on a deadline. You're over the legal limit for caffeine. You can't waste your time with a book that makes sense only AFTER you're an expert (or worse one that puts you to sleep).
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Learn to write servlets and JSPs, what makes the Container tick (and what ticks it off), how to use the new JSP Expression Language (EL), what you should NOT write in a JSP, how to write deployment descriptors, secure applications, and even use some server-side design patterns. Can't talk about Struts at a cocktail party? That'll change. You won't just pass the exam, you will truly understand this stuff, and you'll be able to put it to work right away.
This new exam is tough--much tougher than the previous version of the SCWCD. The authors of Head First Servlets and JSP know: they created it. (Not that it EVER occurred to them that if they made the exam really hard you'd have to buy a study guide to pass it.) The least they could do is give you a stimulating, fun way to pass the thing. If you're one of the thousands who used Head First EJB to pass the SCWCD exam, you know what to expect!
Customer Reviews:
This book is very exciting.......2007-10-06
This book is really very exciting. This book is very easy do read and to learn. I'm waiting to new version of this book and to new topics.
Trust me, just buy it!! .......2007-09-22
I referred religiously to only this book for my study. It makes for a very interesting read. Most of the questions were based on this book. And I am happy to say that I scored 85% after just studying for a couple of hours for one month.
If you want to refer to just one book, this is it.
Best book for SCWCD.......2007-09-13
This book is just too good. I had thought of writing this review as soon I had cleared my exam this July with 92%. My apologies for this delay.
If you would like to brush up your servlet/jsp/ tag libraries and appear for the SCWCD exam, then look no further. This is the book.
With Head First's unique style of presentation, I just loved reading this book.
I would say the book can improve more on examples and exercises. But whatever it has it really drives it in and makes your fundamentals solid.
The exams after each chapter are solid with good answers and very less errors or typos as found in other books of the same genre.
However the final exam in the book is much much tougher than the real one.
Enjoy
-Arijit
Wonderful Book.......2007-09-04
I started reading and i couldn't stop more. I'm a little suspect to say anything about this book because I'm really fan of this series.
What can i say about it ? If you really want pass the exam and don't want spend money with courses, use this book.
ps: sorry if i did some mistake, I'm Brazilian and my English is not the best thing i got.
Very pleased!.......2007-08-31
I learned something in the first chapter. This is leading me by the hand, which is refreshing in a sea of new information. I am not even studying for the exam, but I chose this one over a couple of others and I'm glad I did!
Book Description
The bountiful cuisine of the Mediterranean evokes thoughts of luscious grains, pasta, vegetables, fruits, and, of course, olive oil. But did you know that current research also indicates that people who reside in these regions have the lowest rates of chronic diseases and one of the highest life expectancies in the world?
In The Everything® Mediterranean Cookbook, Culinary Institute of America graduate Dawn Altomari-Rathjen teams up with registered dietician Jennifer M. Bendelius to provide you with 300 of the most sumptuous—and healthy—recipes that the Mediterranean has to offer.
From Roasted Garlic Served on Crostini and Oven-Dried Tomatoes to Mushroom Ravioli with Walnut Parsley Pesto, The Everything® Mediterranean Cookbook helps chefs of all levels bring the Mediterranean into the comforts of their own home.
Featuring:
·Acorn Squash Bake
·Frittata
·Red Lentil Lasagna
·Stuffed Grape Leaves
·Braised Okra with Tomato
·Vegetable Samosas
Whether you're cooking for one or having a full dinner party, The Everything® Mediterranean Cookbook will have your guests begging you for the secret recipe!
Customer Reviews:
Fantastically Healthy Recipes..........2007-06-27
Great cookbook...wonderful for those who are looking for ways to cook Mediterranean or for the experts who want to add this book to their collection. I love it !!!! :)
Work up front.......2007-05-12
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet because most of them require the prior preparation of a stock or sauce (recipes are also provided for these)in order to prepare the main recipe. The recipes sound good and flavorful, but I need to make the time to prepare the sauces/stocks and put them in the freezer so I can make these recipes on a moments notice. So if you're looking for a cookbook that you can just pick up and instantly make the recipe, this is not the one for you.
My Least Favorite Cookbook.......2007-02-06
Nothing to talk about. Just a very plain average cookbook with little or no originality. Very disappointing
The Everything Mediterranean Cookbook.......2006-02-17
This book (in general)contains a basically half dozen base recipies, such as stock, to which various ingredients are added.
Not authentic, but good.......2006-01-11
I like mediterranean food but this cookbook seems tailored for Americans. It's not authentic. But don't let me spoil your appetite.
Book Description
This Special Edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu presents this timeless classic in two forms:
Section I contains the complete thirteen chapters of Sun Tzu's masterpiece in Chinese together with the English translation of Lionel Giles without notes or commentary. This presentation avoids the objection that commentary tends to clutter and obscure the clarity of thought of the ancient military genius.
Section II contains the complete translation by Lionel Giles including his extensive introduction and the fully annotated text with explanatory notes and critical commentary. His Introduction includes an historical account of Sun Tzu's work, evaluations by and of early Chinese commentators, an essay examining the traditional Chinese attitudes toward war and a bibliography that details Giles' source materials. The text in this section includes critical commentary and notes by both the Chinese historians as well as by Giles himself.
Lionel Giles, as the Keeper of the Department of Oriental printed Books and Manuscripts of the British Museum, was uniquely qualified to translate and explain this great classic Chinese work to Western readers. First published in 1910, Giles' translation is widely considered to be the definitive English version.
Other Special Editions in this series which deal with the subject of warfare and strategy include:
The Art of War By Mao Tse-tung - Special Edition
The Art of War By Baron De Jomini - Special Edition
The Art of War & The Prince By Machiavelli - Special Edition
Customer Reviews:
The Best !!!.......2007-07-12
This is the best edition of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" I have ever seen. It solves all the problems of reading this classic masterpiece in translation. If you wish, you can just read the first part, the straight translation, which is decorated with the Chinese characters at the beginning of each chapter. Or, if you really want to understand what Sun Tzu wrote, in context, you can read the second part that contains Giles' annotation and comments by several ancient Chinese scholars.
There is no doubt that Sun Tzu was a military genius and that his book has a well-earned reputation as the best (in addition to being the first) treatise on warfare ever written. This book is so important; in terms of its historical relevance, philosophic world-view, strategy instructions and what it has to say about human nature; that I feel it ranks among the dozen or so best books in the world.
The Art of War.......2007-07-12
The Art Of War is one of the oldest books ever written, yet it is still used today.The Art of War is one of the most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military planning, business tactics, and beyond. The book had possibly influenced Napoleon and even the planning of Operation Desert Storm. it has 13 very interesting chapters.
The Art of War helps focus problems in such a way they can be solved sistematically. It is important to keep in mind that it's better to beat the enemy without fighting.
It is an amazing book. Try it!
Excellent Edition - A Masterpiece.......2007-07-12
This particular edition of Sun Tzu's Masterpiece is excellent. It presents the Chinese text together with the plain translation and then it presents the full Giles translation, with the complete set of notes and annotation. It doesn't get any better than this.
Over the years, Sun Tzu's book has received a great deal of attention for a reason: Sun Tzu was a military genius. His rational approach to warfare has been a model that has been applied to all manner of activities and, simply because it is rational, it has generally been helpful. But, make no mistake, the real subject is warfare.
From the outset, Sun Tzu's message is that war is too serious to treat lightly. It is destructive and costly to all involved. A good general, according to Sun Tzu, is one who can win by peaceful diplomacy, and intimidation if necessary, but who minimizes the inevitable casualties and destruction by applying force only when and where it will accomplish the objective. Sun Tzu makes a great deal out of obtaining and using intelligence, spies, and every available resource to the best advantage - which is invariably to bend the enemy to your will without unnecessary death and destruction.
This particular edition, with its full set of explanatory notes tucked away in the second part of the book, provides a better feel for Sun Tzu's message than any of the plain, unexplained versions. It provides the background necessary for understanding the full extent of Sun Tzu's genius. After you think have mastered the message and begin to re-read the plain translation in the front of the book, you will appreciate having the insight of the scholarly Lionel Giles just a few pages away.
Excellent Edition !!!.......2007-07-11
This particular edition of Sun Tzu's Art of War is really excellent. It contains three separate copies of Sun Tzu's book:
1. The original Chinese text (in modern simplified Chinese characters),
2. A facing version of Lionel Giles' superb translation into English (without notes or comments) and
3. The complete Giles Translation with an extensive introduction and notes throughout the text that provides detailed insight into the meaning and intentions of the text.
Lionel Giles's translation is the gold standard for Sun Tzu. His deep understanding of ancient Chinese culture and his own roots in Western culture gave him a unique opportunity to bridge the gap and present native English speakers the opportunity to really understand and appreciate the mindset of this voice from antiquity.
Of all the versions of Sun Tzu's book on the market, this one is undoubtedly the best. The scholarship and detail to attention of this edition pays the respect and gives the credit to the great work that it deserves. Other, abbreviated, versions of Sun Tzu's book have their place, but not for those who actually want to understand the lessons of history that have been passed down through the centuries. The meaning of the text, after 25 centuries, requires the perspective of an oriental scholar with Giles' credentials. It is unlikely that the bare English translation, without notes or commentary, can convey to a modern reader the real meaning and intentions of a 2,000 year old Chinese genius.
This edition has both impact and insight.......2007-07-11
Of the several available editions of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, the Giles translation is clearly the best. This edition, which contains two separate versions of the Giles translation, one with and one without commentary, resolves the main sticking point with other editions. They either just give the stripped down version or the fully annotated version.
When I first discovered "The Art of War", it was the full Giles translation. As most students of philosophy do, I found it fascinating. After reading it several times, and appreciating the explanations in the running commentary, I began to think that I really understood what Sun Tzu was saying and began to feel that the commentary had become cumbersome. Consequently, I obtained a different translation, with no notes or commentary - a booklet really - which simply didn't have the flavor of the Giles Translation. Finally I found a copy of the Giles translation, without the notes and commentary, which I could read and enjoy without being put off by the interspersed commentary that I had begun to find distracting.
Needless to say, I ultimately found it difficult to read the uncommented version without feeling a need to refer to Giles' notes in the full version, which I had given away. When I discovered this edition, I immediately understood that I wasn't the only one who appreciated not only Giles' scholarly translation but also his insight.
This version: The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition; is the one you want. Otherwise, you will be missing out on the impact of the unadorned translation or the insight of one of the world's great oriental scholars.
Average customer rating:
- Good Book!
- The little book G.W. should have read
- beautiful little book!
- The Art of War for Lilliputians......
- Too Small
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The Art of War: (Miniature book)
Sun-Tzu
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The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition
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The Art of War (Shambhala Classics)
ASIN: 0762415983
Release Date: 2003-07-29 |
Book Description
The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu is universally recognized as the greatest military strategist in history, a master of warfare interpretation. This condensed version of his influential classic imparts the knowledge and skills to overcome every adversary in war, at the office, or in everyday life.
Download Description
The art of war is an excellent reference for anyone who commands a military force and needs guidance.Perhaps a buisiness owner or manager would find similar qualities between the book and their situation.
Customer Reviews:
Good Book!.......2007-08-10
The book arrived in the mail very quickly and in great condition. The book was a lot smaller than I thought it be, but that is ok.
Thank you
The little book G.W. should have read.......2007-05-14
Wisdom in a little book, what more can I say. Required reading at any military Academy,worth a damn {G.W. AWOL} Oh well. It translates thur the technological advances.
beautiful little book!.......2007-04-10
a must-have classic sent in great conditions! a collectable item without a doubt!
The Art of War for Lilliputians.............2007-03-19
I'm sure the text is fin, however wha I received was a 3" x 3" micro book that's all but unreadable. What's worse is there was no indication in it's listing that I could find that said it was a book for munchkins.
Not happy.
Too Small.......2007-03-10
Alot of the important writings were left out of this book. It was a bad idea not to read the review before buying.
Book Description
Denys Finch Hatton was adored by women and idolized by men. A champion of Africa, legendary for his good looks, his charm, and his prowess as a soldier, lover, and hunter, Finch Hatton inspired Karen Blixen to write the unforgettable stories in Out of Africa. Now esteemed British biographer Sara Wheeler tells the truth about this extraordinarily charismatic adventurer.
Born to an old aristocratic family that had gambled away most of its fortune, Finch Hatton grew up in a world of effortless elegance and boundless power. Tall and graceful, with the soul of a poet and an athlete’s relaxed masculinity, he became a hero without trying at Eton and Oxford. In 1910, searching for novelty and danger, Finch Hatton arrived in British East Africa and fell in love–with a continent, with a landscape, with a way of life that was about to change forever.
Wheeler brilliantly conjures the mystical beauty of Kenya at a time when teeming herds of wild animals roamed unmolested across pristine savannah. No one was more deeply attuned to this beauty than Finch Hatton–and no one more bitterly mourned its passing when the outbreak of World War I engulfed the region in a protracted, bloody guerrilla conflict. Finch Hatton was serving as a captain in the Allied forces when he met Karen Blixen in Nairobi and embarked on one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.
With delicacy and grace, Wheeler teases out truth from fiction in the liaison that Blixen herself immortalized in Out of Africa. Intellectual equals, bound by their love for the continent and their inimitable sense of style, Finch Hatton and Blixen were genuine pioneers in a land that was quickly being transformed by violence, greed, and bigotry.
Ever restless, Finch Hatton wandered into a career as a big-game hunter and became an expert bush pilot; his passion that led to his affair with the notoriously unconventional aviatrix Beryl Markham. But Markham was no more able to hold him than Blixen had been. Mesmerized all his life by the allure of freedom and danger, Finch Hatton was, writes Wheeler, “the open road made flesh.”
In painting a portrait of an irresistible man, Sara Wheeler has beautifully captured the heady glamour of the vanished paradise of colonial East Africa. In Too Close to the Sun she has crafted a book that is as ravishing as its subject.
Customer Reviews:
Lackluster.......2007-08-24
This book contained no new information but simply rehashed and quoted extensively from previous books. The writing is lackluster, repetitive, and very awkward in some places; it did not receive proper copyediting. Extremely disappointing.
a life changer.......2007-08-22
Why some books win prizes and others do not eludes me; this one is a prize winner.
Too Close to the Sun has set me on a worthy adventure to understand the Victorian/Edwardian cusp especially in British Africa and for this I am thankful because those were glory days.
Through Ms. Wheeler I have met persons Much More Interesting than me and my friends. Her dogged research has invigorated my life. For her reader's delight, the author darns together memories, letters, and written data concerning a self-effacing gentleman, Denys Finch Hatton. Luckily for us we may now tag along in the glow of his charisma and be voyeurs of his well-born and lively acquaintances. We may celebrate with African settlers as they host a wilderness New Year's dinner 'comme il faut', we may sit in our a.c. as British soldiers portage battleships across a brutal continent during WWI, we may brush dust off our jackets after cavalierly shooting two charging lions with a double-barreled shotgun, we may politely manoevre and entertain a persnickity Prince of Wales.
I thank Ms. Wheeler for her Fascination of What's Difficult, to paraphrase Mr. Yeats, because pulling together a three-dimensional picture of This Time using only carefully chosen evidence is difficult and more honest than throwing together hearsay and calling it a book.
Her talent as a lover of language is evident as she brings us the scents, sounds, atmosphere, gossip, innuendo, mores, jokes, custom, and emotion that enliven her facts and put feet in Finch Hatton's footsteps. Ms. Wheeler's pages rebuild that World before the Wars that we 21st centuriers can't understand and most often wrongly judge.
I sprinted to the bookstore for more news of the largely-lived lives mentioned throughout Too Close To The Sun. I'm now hooked on the soap opera of the Blixens (the 2nd Mrs.,too), Lord Delamere, the Masai, Lord Carberry, various British Generals, the younger Mr. Roosevelt.... I can't think of any group more instructive to learn about!
Beryl Markham's West With the Night was my next read. What a woman, and how fascinating to get to know her from her own writing, so different than her appearance in TCTTS. I have ordered Bror Blixen's African Hunter, to catch his and Dr. Turvey's viewpoint on the Kenyan crowd. I plan to read Elspeth Huxley's book about growing up on a coffee plantation. Like craning to hear the whispered name of someone you love, I want to hear again the names that Ms. Wheeler has called forth.
A good background on Finch Hatton and Africa of the times.......2007-07-30
While the early phases of Finch Hatton's life is a bit dry, and the author makes reference to a lot of different friends/relatives of Finch Hatton's--which is a bit tedious and difficult to follow--she does a great job of providing the historical context to his life and that of his friends, including Blix and Dinesen. Overall, it's a very well written historical biography... makes me want to go back and watch "Out of Africa" again.
Snapshot of the unique society of British East Africa.......2007-06-08
Ever since I saw the movie "Out of Africa" I have been captivated with the lives of Karen Blixen, Beryl Markham and Denys Finch Hatton. "Too Close to the Sun" focuses on the unique life of Denys and tries to explain how and why he lived his life according to his own rules.
The book also describes the history of British East Africa or Kenya as we now know it.
This biography was a facinating read and hard to put down!!!
"Too Close to the Sun"- Denys Finch Hatton.......2007-06-02
This account reads like a novel. All the facts are backed up adequately. I would rate it highly for telling the love story and presenting the exotic background of Africa with this man acting out his life's dream.
Average customer rating:
- War master piece.
- The Ultimate Version of the Art of War
- Sun Tzu: Cleary vs Giles
- Comprehensive Translation of One of the Most Popular Chinese Classics
- Well Worth the Small Price
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The Art of War
Sun Tzu
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Art of War: (Miniature book)
ASIN: 1590302257
Release Date: 2005-01-11 |
Book Description
Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honorably, victoriously, is already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.
Customer Reviews:
War master piece........2007-09-16
This book is used as the war tactics by Napoleon Bonaparte, need I say more?
Buy this book will change your view of life. It is philosophy, strategy, battle, combat, science, classic, history, politics, military strategy.
The Ultimate Version of the Art of War.......2007-08-23
The Art of War is a timeless masterpiece of interaction of power and politics. It is about war and not war. This version is the one you want if you are interested in the simple, yet profound wisdom of Sun Tzu. I have tried several other versions edited and commented on, thoughts and ideas spun left and spun right by other authors. There is no spin here simple staright forward thought and principles.
Sun Tzu: Cleary vs Giles.......2007-08-18
I like Cleary's translation better because I think that his chosen dialogue is closer to the written Chinese text. His translation shows discipline in military strategy and calls attention from the reader while Giles' translation seems to circulate in a much more personal and poetic interpretation that although is easier to read does not execute command from Sun Tzu. Giles' interpretation is scholarly but Cleary's interpretation gets the reader to think deeper word for word into ones' psyche.
Comprehensive Translation of One of the Most Popular Chinese Classics.......2007-08-12
The Art of War is a must-read book by anyone who love The Romance of Three Kingdoms, popular chivalry story based on the history of 3rd century China.
I think it is a wise idea to read this Chinese classic from Thomas Cleary Translation. Had I encountered this from Archaic worded Japanese version I might not get so immersed into it. Cleary translation is really understandable even to non-native English speaker like me. Also it is great idea that the interpretation of notables including Cao Cao comes after the Master Sun's text. Comparing interpretation is really a fun.
What I am impressed most about this book is it says that if you can avoid the war better not to fight. And its idea of how to manage an army is really close to modern idea of organizing groups particularly business corporations.
Verdict: Nice gateway to Chinese classics
Rating: 90 out of 100
Recommended for wide variety of Chinese literature and classic books fans.
Well Worth the Small Price.......2007-07-24
I recently purchased a copy of this version of The Art of War to compare to my new Hardcover copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition (Hardcover) and was pleased to find that it is actually pretty good. To be honest, I don't think that Cleary's translation is as good as the Giles Translation, but it has some good points.
For example, in this edition Cleary presents Sun Tzu's lessons as a series of dialogues rather than as straight exposition as with the Giles translation. It casts a different light on the maxims of Sun Tzu. Even just a minor re-wording of the text can and does help reveal some points which might otherwise escape notice. Perhaps this edition's best feature is Cleary's introduction. I think it is worth the small price of this book by itself.
However, if I could only have one copy of this great Chinese classic, it would have to be the special edition that gives you two copies of the Giles translation, one without commentary and another that is fully annotated with extensive commentary. Perhaps I am prejudiced, but even from the first sentence, on comparing the different translations:
(Cleary's) "Master Sun: Military action is important to the nation - it is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is imperative to examine it."
(Giles') "Sun Tzu said: `The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.'"
I find that the Giles translation flows rather than bumps along. It seems to resonate with a more of an ancient Chinese tone that allows me to mentally time travel closer to the heart of the matters at hand. Although the Giles translation, even in Paperback [The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition (Paperback)] is more expensive that this edition, I think it is money well spent. If you have to read any classic in translation, it really should be the best translation available.
Product Description
How many different ways can a great technical book stand out from the pack? That s the question you ll be able to answer in spades, once you ve gone through
Cameron McKenzie s, SCJA Certification Study Guide.
Everyone one that puts their hands on the SCJA Certification Guide from www.scja.com comments on two things right away: 1) how entertaining the book is, and 2) how easy it is to read.
I couldn t believe it! I read through the first three chapters in one sitting, and those three chapters made me want to read three more! Those are the types of comments we are flooded with when people finally get their hands on their SCJA Certification Guide.
And there are very good reasons as to why this Java book is so readable, and so enjoyable, not the least of which is the fact that the entire book was written, from start to finish, by one, and only one, author. The one-author-book is a rarity in the technical world these days, but its significance can t be understated. From start to finish, the author makes the objective of this book clear to get the reader certified,
fast. With one, single, focused, author penning the pages, this book reads like a single, clear and contiguous thought. The fragmentation seen in so many books written by multiple authors is nowhere to be seen in this logical and free-flowing certification guide.
But not only is the book entertaining and easy to read, but it approaches Java, and the whole issue of approaching Java certification, from an entirely new perspective. Most people penning a book on Java would start the book by discussing syntax and code. But Cameron McKenzie refuses to fall into that old trap, instead, turning the SCJA Exam objectives on their head, by starting off with an in depth discussion the big picture issues, getting the reader excited about Java, and
enthusiastic about learning how the language works.
Customer Reviews:
This helped me pass the SCJA exam...Now to focus on SCJP!!!.......2007-09-12
I wrote a review for the Question book by the same author, SCJA Sun Certified Java Associate Exam Questions Guide by Cameron McKenzie Passing Exam CX-310-019so for more detail about why I wrote the SCJA exam, and what I thought about it, check my review there.
As for this book, it totally delivered to me what I needed to know to pass the exam. I had a bit of programming knowledge, but very little OOA and OOD knowledge. I also came from a C background, and my knowledge of Java related technologies, such as JSPs and J2EE, was nil. This book did the best job at helping you understand the big picture of Java, along with explaining the intricacies of OOA and OOD with Java. Actually, this had probalby the best overview of object oriented analysis and design that I've ever read. I highly recommend it, even if you're not taking the exam.
I might improve the Java syntax section. The book doesn't go overly in depth into Java coding, although neither does the exam, so I guess it makes sense.
Otherwise, this was a great book about Java, J2EE and OOA&D. These books were all I used to get certified, and if you want to pass as well, I'm pretty sure they're all you'll need too.
Good luck! It's a tough exam!
The BEST and an UNIQUE study guide for SCJA certification--------It's an EXCELLENT book!!!!.......2007-06-27
Iam new to java. I studied this book and became from zero to SCJA certified and it's more than enough to become certified in SCJA even with zero experience in Java. It's so informative and exam oriented book which made the exam easy. Author Cameron explained the concepts, exam objectives in a very simple, interesting manner such that we can grasp and remember the concepts easily even with little knowledge in Java. The great thing about this book is even complex J2EE objectives were framed in a simple manner so that a beginner can able to understand and get good scores. All question models for the exam were covered in the book. With the experience of this exam I would like to suggest that, This the best book to buy for SCJA exam and newcomers of Java should write this SCJA exam to get overview of complete java like what is java? What are the different technologies present in java? Where we use these java technologies? and basics of java.
It's the unique exam guide I ever suggest.
My Best wishes for all those who are going to take SCJA exam!!!
This book SHINES. Far and away the best Java or technology book I've ever read........2007-06-21
As a certification guide, this book is excellent. It covers all of the objectives, teaches you everything you need to know for the SCJA exam, and does it efficiently and fast, without wasting any time on superfluous topics.
As a preparation guide, there are hundreds of questions in here to give you a good idea of what to expect on the exam. The three fifteen questions were almost exactly the same as the actual exam I aced last week. I would suggest getting the SCJA Questions Book SCJA - The Exam Questions Simulated
from the same author though if you really want to be prepared for the exam. Doing questions over and over again really is the best final preparation you can do.
As far as being just an all around awesome book about Java and technology, that's where this book shines. It's funny, it's interesting, and it covers an incredibly amount of information about Java and modern day development, in a funny, refreshing, and often opinionated manner that really makes you think.
I usually re-sell my books on amazon after I'm done with them, but that won't happen here. I'm keeping this one, because I know I'm going to come back to it again
far and away the best coverage of OOA and OOD I've ever read. Great Java Book - More Than a Cert Guide!.......2007-06-15
I am totally passionate about recommending this book to people. It's more than just a certification guide - it's a great book about Java, J2EE, object oriented programming, and Java design.
I never really got interfaces before getting this book. I understood the basics of object oriented design, but didn't really understand the why, and more importantly, the why nots. Now I really undestand about the importance of interfaces, the dangers of inheritance, and the benefits of abstraction. The chapters on object design and UML are far and away the best I've ever read.
This book, along with the SCJA questions book were the only two resources I used to pass the exam, and they really are the only two resources you need. Totally worth it!
For loads of practice questions that are very similar to the exam, even more so than Sun's online exams, you should get this book:
SCJA - The Exam Questions Simulated - Hundreds of Mock Exam Questions and Expert Answers for the Sun Certified Java Associate Exam, from ExamScam.com - SCJA - The New, Pre - SCJP Certification
the best investment of time and money if you want to get Java certified.......2007-05-14
I'm still amazed at how much information was packed into this book. Not only did it cover every SCJA objective in detail, but it provides hundreds of mock exam questions to test you on how well you are retaining knowledge.
The book was incredibly easy to read, moreso than any other technical book I've ever read, and I've read lots! The book was also filled with opinion, and the occassional cynical comment that made you chuckle.
The mock exam at the end of the book, along with the three, fifteen question mock exams, were exactly like the actual exam, and gave me a better idea on what to expect than any other prep material I looked at.
There are lots of questions on the SCJA exam about client and server technologies. I recommend anyone attempting to take the SCJA exam to go over the first three chapters on client and server technologies, over and over again. Every question I got on the exam about client and server technologies was covered, in one way or another, in those sections. If you know those sections, you'll completely ace those sections of the exam, which covers about 40% of the test. With that much under your belt, you can afford to get a few wrong on the other sections, and still pass with an awesome score.
I also used the Exam Questions Book from the same publisher. It was extremely helpful. After doing about 500 sample questions, I was not only ready for the exam, but also somewhat numb as well.
Five stars!
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