At the Stroke of Midnight
Karen Michelle Nutt
Lulu.com
9780615237862 $10.95 http://www.lulu.com/content/3091803
Amy J. Ramsey "Trinagon"
Reviewer
Tricia Lancaster is a reporter working for her small town newspaper. She has received an opportunity covering a story documenting the memorial service, marking the anniversary of Dean McCloud's death. Dean McCloud was known for being an American icon in the 70's; he starred in a western series called "The Long Trail". Dean was working towards obtaining a thriving career as a celebrity movie star; until he committed suicide.
There was a diversity of theory in the manner of which Dean died. Some people suspected he was murdered, while others believed it was an accident. Now every year, on New Years Eve, thousands of people gather around his house (now recognized as a museum) bearing flowers and gifts, waiting for the precise moment of his death, a stroke of midnight.
Tricia is transported back in time and finds herself face to face with her obsession, Dean McCloud. She is mystified that he is no longer a figment of a dream, but is tangible. Dean is not only gorgeous, but is perceived as a philanderer; women can't resist his charm. Tricia strives to convince Dean that she is from the future and he will commit suicide in three days. She is determined to save Dean from killing himself, but when certain events in history are changed, she begins to question his intentions of suicide. Is it possible someone is out to kill him?
Now, Tricia has to delve further into the past of the once American Icon and uncover the truth behind his death. The clock is ticking and the future is waiting. Tricia wonders what her connection to Dean is and why fate chose her. Will she be able to solve the mystery of how Dean died? Could it have been suicide or murder? If it was murder, then who would have done it and why?
At the Stroke of Midnight is a fabulous read that will take the reader on a fascinating and delightful journey back in time. Karen Michelle Nutt is a remarkable writer, who will impress any reader, by creating such vivid and lively characters, which compliments a cleverly designed plot. I would absolutely recommend this short tale to anyone interested in romantic time-travel genre.
For more information and upcoming releases on Karen Michelle Nutt, visit her web site at www.kmnbooks.com.
Shaping a Life: Reconstructing My First Thirty-five Years
Wm. F. Powers, PhD.
Infinity Press
1094 New DeHaven St. Suite 100, West Conshohocken, Pa. 19428-2713
074144805X $16.95
Bernadine Fawcett
Reviewer
In an interesting twist "Shaping a Life" by Wm. Powers answers the question "How do we eliminate terrorism permanently? In an attempt to discover his own subliminal indoctrination which led him to accept priestly vows unquestioningly due to his tight, narrow ethnic Irish American culture that focused only on God, loyalty, & family which in turn limited his world view into "cloistered" pockets of narrow perspectives that metaphorically highlights the avenue of exploration to prevent the "births" of terrorism. Just as Dr. Powers breathed fresh viewpoints into his life which radically changed his opinions and behaviors; his book nudges us into realizing that we must invade the third world with broader concepts so that their stereotypical and prejudicial thoughts are washed away. Freeing the terrorists mind as it is forming will bring peace to the world.
Wm. Powers, Phd. was my sociologist professor years ago and it is serendipitous that both he and I have approached terrorism from different angles. My book, Missing Links to the Culper Spy Ring? allows the reader to explore the mentality of America through personal accounts of the Revolutionary war letters while we were trying to extricate ourselves from perceived tyranny, but choose to use legal means backed by a declared war.
S.O.A.R.[Registered Trademark] Study Skills: A Simple and Efficient System for Earning Better Grades in Less Time
Susan Woodcock Kruger, M.Ed.
Grand Lighthouse Publishers
Grand Blanc, MI
9780977428007 $24.99 http://www.soarstudyskills.com
Bonnie Jo Davis
Reviewer
When my son was growing up he spent most of his time during the school year struggling with homework assignments and studying for tests. Study skills were not taught in school so he had to struggle on his own with only my help. According to the author of S.O.A.R.[Registered Trademark] Study Skills, Susan Kruger, this is an all too common occurrence. She experienced the same issues until she entered college where she discovered study strategies that eliminated her frustration and made studying more efficient.
Susan went on to become a Certified Teacher with a Master's Degree and is a Reading/Learning Specialist. She developed her own, unique study skills system that includes live and web based classes, educator training, this book and a CD set based on the acronym:
(S)oar
(O)rganize
(A)sk Questions
(R)ecord Your Progress
The S.O.A.R.[Registered Trademark] Study Skills soft cover book is beautifully designed, easy to use and filled with illustrations and photographs. There are separate introductions for parents, students, educators and students with ADD/ADHD. Family involvement is very much part of the S.O.A.R.[Registered Trademark] Study Skills program and the author invites parents to read the book with their children.[LOHS1]
Readers will learn about task-management, organizing at home & school, prioritizing, goal-setting, note-taking strategies, paper organization, test-taking strategies, homework/project planning, communication & effective skills[LOHS2] , reading skills and writing strategies.
The goal of the book is to help students of all ages get better grades in less time. The amount of homework assigned to students is overwhelming but this book can help reduce the time and frustration involved. Unlike other study skills systems I have researched[LOHS3] the techniques in this book are meant to be simple and easily implemented.
I was impressed with the quizzes, charts and forms to record goals and accomplishments. These features make the book truly interactive and involve the reader in not only learning but exploring their own learning styles while developing a set of goals for eliminating homework hassles and improving grades.
There is much focus in this book on helping students both at home and at school and I really enjoyed the chapter on interacting with teachers. Students are encouraged to ask questions of their teachers and there is even a clever graphic included in this chapter that shows readers the best place to sit in a classroom!
This is a book that needs to be given to every student of any age and it needs to be a tool that every teacher uses in the classroom. I found the book to be fun and easy to read and I learned organizational skills that I can use in my office today. I only wish that this book had been available when I was in school so many years ago! You can purchase the S.O.A.R.[Registered Trademark] Study Skills book at http://www.soarstudyskills.com
Hot Issues Cool Choices – Facing Bullies, Peer Pressure, Popularity, and Put-Downs
Sandra McLeod Humphrey
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, N.Y. 14228
9781591025696 $13.95
Christina Francine, Reviewer
http://www.CFrancine.bizland.com
Maybe the first step in not leaving a child behind is to address the social climate of school. Schools have always had bullies, been a place where labels are placed, and have held groups who exclude others. More than ever before, this is a problem today. School is a nightmare for many children socially. Add that to the rising need to meet scholastic standards, and school morphs into a place of terror. Children do not learn in this kind of environment. The only thing they think about is a way out, a way to stop the pain. Adults need to step in and help. That is just what Sandra McLeod Humphrey, retired clinical psychologist, did. She is a writer and consultant for the Heroes & Dreams Foundation, which provides character education materials to grades K-8 throughout North America. Her book, Hot Issues Cool Choices: Facing Bullies, Peer Pressure, Popularity, and Put-Downs provides numerous real-life situations that will generate discussions for children, tweens, and teens. First, the main character presents their problem, they set the scene, and then they ask questions to readers. "What do you think I should do? More questions present themselves and finally a "Trading Places" questions is asked: "Have you ever felt like Kevin?" "Why do you think Alyssa still remembers Tyrone's harassment almost a whole year later?" At the back of the book, Humphrey provides alarming statistics, website references, and a sobering note for adults.
An indispensable resource for educators, parents, counselors, and for children. Its power lies in that it asks children for solutions and strategies. This is a much needed book and I highly recommend it. After all, learning cannot take place when children worry over their safety. They then get left behind.
A Portable God: The Origin of Judaism and Christianity
Risa Levitt Kohn and Rebecca Moore
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham
9780742544659 $22.95
Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
Reviewer
History shows that Christianity and Judaism have generally been antagonistic towards each other. Christians viewed Israelites as a faithless people who contend with God and are consequently punished. They say that God promised a messiah to usher in a time of love; and that that messiah is Jesus Christ. Jews declare that God made an irrevocable covenant; granting them the land of Israel and His benevolence. They also assert that the Christians have misinterpreted the Torah: the Five Books of Moses, the books of the Prophets and the sacred writings; the messiah has yet to come.
Because of this enmity, their common roots are often overlooked. In A Portable God: The Origin of Judaism and Christianity, authors Kohn and Moore argue that these two great religions are much more interdependent than independent of each other because Christianity emerged from the same religious traditions as Judaism. In fact, Christians were not the only religious group to declare that they are the sole inheritors of the Jewish traditions. Many Jewish sects existed between 200 B.C.E. and 200 C.E., including the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Christians, the Essences and Diaspora Judaism. Each of them put forward the legitimacy of their rituals and beliefs based on their unique interpretations of the Old Testament texts.
The division of Judaism into sects arguably began soon after the Babylonian Captivity, which occurred in the sixth century B.C.E. The few Jews (meaning the Hebrews from Judea) remaining in the land of Israel mourned the loss of the temple and the days of glory, while the Jews in exile found themselves believing in a God who has no fixed place for Him to appear. This was unique to Judaism. From the time of the Exodus through the life of King David, God appears in a fixed location. First in a tabernacle between the Cherubim that flank the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, then from the time of King Solomon to the Captivity, God appears above the Ark in the temple's Holy of Holies. With the destruction of the temple and exile, Jews conclude that God is portable – He is wherever they are; He needs no fixed dwelling place.
Seventy years after the obliteration of King Solomon's Temple, King Cyrus allowed the Persian Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. Since, only a remnant of Jews returned under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, two centers of Jewish life developed, Babylonia and Judea. The former was wealthy; the latter poor. It was during this period that the first Jewish sects emerge – the Sadducees, who believe in a fundamentalist interpretation of the Torah and the centrality of the Second Temple and the Pharisees who follow the teaching of the scribes who interpreted the Torah according to the needs of Babylonian Jewry.
Kohn and Moore draw on the many primary-source materials, such as the Old and New Testaments, the Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature and the work of contemporary writers, including Josephus and Philo to present their point-of-view. They employ these works to examine the legacy of biblical Judaism, the effect of Hellenism on Jewish beliefs, the Roman conquest of Judea and the rise of apocalyptical thinking. A Portable God also describes in some detail how the various Jewish sects extant at the time of Jesus differ in their understanding of historical events; giving rise to diverse ceremonies and convictions through interpretation of biblical sources.
The Babylonian captivity exposed Judaism to Zoroastrian ideas, including its assertion that there are two gods; one good and the other evil. By the time the Jewish exiles return home, a nondescript angel, Satan, becomes a source of evil. Centuries later, Christianity extended the realm of Satan and made him a demigod. After the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great, Judaism became Hellenized. Jewish scholars and sages were exposed to Greek philosophies, such as Platonism and Aristotlianism, which greatly influenced the religion's development. Hellenism gave rise to Philo's allegorical interpretation of the Bible as well as the Schools of Hillel and Shammai. Roman rule was a bitter pill for Jews to swallow. The crackdown against Judaism and their lust for blood sports were too much for some to bear. The Essenes, rejecting the Roman world and Roman rule, withdrew to the desert city of Quamran and developed a narrow, apocalyptical view of the future; believing in an ultimate war between the sons of light and darkness that will usher in a time of peace under the rule of God. In contrast, when Paul was caught in a debate over the practices of Christianity, he chose the global culture of Hellenism over the parochial beliefs of the Torah.
A Portable God is a well-written summary of a college course Kohn and Moore teach at San Diego State University. The authors also provide an ample glossary of terms, which the lay reader will find useful and succeed in showing the common roots of Judaism and Christianity; leaving for others the history of their divergence. The book's conclusions are and will continue to be debated in theology schools for a long time. None the less, the book is worthy of reading alone just for the historical information that it provides to the reader.
Transcendence of the Western Mind
Samuel Avery
Compari
308 Madison Place, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-2516
0974197602 $12.00
Stephen J. Hage
Reviewer
The book is only 170 pages including endnotes but its sweep is vast, its subject matter epic in scope and its conclusions breathtaking.
What Samuel Avery accomplishes is to provide a glimpse, under the veil, to reveal how the universe works. What makes his conclusions so satisfying is that they are firmly grounded in well established scientific and philosophical principles. You'll find no dancing here just lucid and carefully crafted explanations which flow smoothly from the page onto your image screen and into observational consciousness.
Neither he, nor the book, is intellectually faint of heart. He unflinchingly tackles difficult problems like "why do space and time shrink and curve and blend into each other?" Einstein showed unequivocally that this is so but Samuel Avery is the first author, in my experience, who explains why with metaphysical answers firmly grounded in physics. He never throws the physics away thus forcing the reader to give serious consideration to what he has to say. And, at the same time, he never resorts to or burdens the reader with mathematics.
In his earlier book, The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness, he introduces the concepts of the photon screen, the quantum screen, and the image screen. In this one, he expands on those explanations making them more clear and easier to understand. Another explanatory device he uses helped me understand what he means when he talks about orthogonal rotation of the axis of one dimension around the axis of another; using examples of things we do every day, all the time.
He deals with light, which is so enigmatic physicists still do not understand it. He explains why light is not in space-time but rather, space-time is in light.
His explanations of consciousness, its dimensional structure, and how it is related to individuals and the world cut a wide swath through particularly thorny issues like the "hard problem" (is consciousness something that happens in the brain or is it something extra that happens outside of what's going on in any individual's head?). And most satisfying, he deals with the abyss of solipsism not by banishing it but by putting it where it belongs; within the Dimensional Structure of Consciousness he has created.
I found the book almost impossible to put down. I'm looking forward to reading it again and again. If you are interested in the topics discussed in this review; if you're ready to gain deep understanding of how the universe works; read Transcendence of the Western Mind and be prepared to have your own mind blown to smithereens
My Mother, Your Mother
McCullough, M.D.
HarperCollins Publishers
New York, NY
9780061243028 $25.95
JoAn W. Martin
Reviewer
Dr. Dennis McCullough suffered an illness that changed him from an experienced caregiver to a care-receiver. This situation offered new insights into the disability of elderly patients. He attempts to convince caregivers to face the fact that after age eighty, the caregiver must search for ways to bring comfort and offer quality of life to a person's later years. The child and the parent have reversed roles.
"Fast Medicine" creates over scheduled doctors and nurses. Modern medicine is hospital based, medication obsessed, with high-tech procedures that may hurt more than heal. Doctors have been trained to solve and fix. They have the best of intentions but are they considering the whole? There is no time for listening enough to get to know the Elders. Dr. McCullough's mission is to find ways to empower Elders' families to create high quality care. "The polar distances between the technologies of modern medicine and the age-old practice of caring for the whole person can be overcome." There has been an erosion of head and heart care. In our desperate desire to protect our Elders, we allow doctors and the drug industry to medicate beyond reality.
"Slow Medicine" is a commitment with specific strategies for making life better for Elders and their families. The aim is not to restore youthful vitality. Late-life Elders do not move or think as clearly. Families need to focus on capacities. Whether home-based or institutional care, beware of a quick decision to relocate your parent. Most Elders recognize that life must come to its natural end. If a family has practiced slow medicine by being engaged in it through all stations, both the Elder and the supportive friends and family are better prepared for closing the circle of life
The eight stations of late life that Dr. McCullough identifies begin with the loved one continuing to take care of herself – the calm before the storm. This is a quiet time of blessed STABILITY. COMPROMISE comes next, which is an occasion to assess their medication, their activity levels, then a CRISIS looms. RECOVERY occurs slowly. Generally speaking, everything will not get back to where it was before the crisis. After the crisis be sure she is with a compatible roommate if that is the decision for the recovery stage. We would like for her to go on living forever, but eventually this is followed by DECLINE, which is a slow drift down a widening river. This is when the health care system doesn't perform well. Checking in is a vital thread. A period will come when there is nothing more the caretaker can do. A lengthy decline is a prelude to death. and the grieving of those left behind.
When does the family contact hospice? The hospice provider enhances the life of the patient and allows her to live as comfortably as possible. Most families will admit they wish they'd called hospice sooner. Anyone can make a hospice referral. It should not be viewed as giving up.
Kindness is the most fundamental position to maintain, especially when the days are so long and difficult. This existence requires patience in performing an endless cycle of chores. The goal of aging well is to extend quality living as far as possible before disability eventually and inevitably arrives. How much energy does the patient have to endure medical treatments? None of them wants to spend his remaining time being stuck, poked, prodded and screened. Should an Elder be encouraged to embark on a course of therapy for a worsening health problem? Is the cure worse than the disease?
Chilling and comforting in equal measure, My Mother ,Your Mother can help us cope with the balance between quality of life and further fast medical treatments. Less can be more for elderly patients.
Mosquito
Alex Lemon
Tin House Books
2601 NW Thurman St., Portland, OR 97210
0977312747 $10.95
Kristina Marie Darling
Reviewer
When introducing Mosquito, Alex Lemon's first collection of poetry, author Mark Doty describes the book as "something larger than any narration of personal experience," preparing readers for a memorable debut. In describing his journey as a patient before and after brain surgery, Lemon takes on the physical body as his subject, alternating between the grotesque and the humorous throughout the book. While exploring the role of the physicality in illness, love, and everyday life, Lemon often invokes the lofty alongside the everyday, raising fascinating questions about the way individuals experience pain, as well as the manner in which this often leads to art. Structured as a brief, four-part collection of interrelated poems, Mosquito introduces readers to a dynamic new poet, whose work proves compelling in a small narrative space.
Particularly impressive in his juxtaposition of the worldly with the religious, Lemon often communicates physical experiences in spiritual terms, suggesting an affinity between the two. This trend proves particularly apparent in the poem "The Pleasure Notebooks," in which Lemon narrates the pleasures and pains of a love affair. He writes, for example:
I need breath thick with fire, syrup spilled from a swollen heart
I need bites promising grace. Luminous, a tongue that prays for wounds (27)
By conflating grace and prayer with pain inflicted on the body, Lemon imbues sensory experience with otherworldly significance, suggesting that a spiritual aspect exists to physicality. Exemplified by his depiction of the poem's speaker praying for tangible pain while experiencing emotional turmoil, Lemon's pairing of spirituality with the physical often lends sensory events new significance, an idea that he conveys in an exuberant narrative voice.
Although many poets working today treat the physical alongside the metaphysical—Kerrie Webster's We Do Not Eat Our Hearts Alone and Brenda Shaughnessey's Interior with Sudden Delight are a few recent examples—Lemon's book offers a keen analysis of these themes in medical settings, a novel contribution to the poetry landscape.
Exemplified by his poem "MRI," Lemon's explorations of the sensations of surgery often take the form of tercets and couplets, suggesting the restraint with which Lemon's speaker must experience pain in a hospital setting. He writes in Mosquito:
…The machine worse
than any death—the powerlessness
of a shaved and strapped-down body.
Even in the purgatory you can wear earrings
& though the music might crack a spine,
at least in that torture, the tears from your arm's
needle marks are mouth wateringly sweet. (4-5)
This poem, like many of the others in Mosquito, juxtaposes the stylized with the fervent, creating thought-provoking incongruities between form and content. Lemon's use of tercets in conveying intense physical experience, as well as his breaking the form with a two line stanza near the end of the poem, mirrors the strict decorum of hospitals that Lemon describes, as well as the unrestrained pain that often inhabits such places, which often overpowers such codes of conduct. A thoughtful execution of provocative subject matter, Lemon's "MRI," like many of the poems in Mosquito, embodies the contradictions that it narrates, conveying its message through an ironic use of form.
Mosquito is an enigmatic, engaging read. Ideal for those who enjoy formal and experimental poetry alike, Alex Lemon's book is a truly remarkable debut.
Webster's New World Grant Writing Handbook
Sara Deming Wason
Wiley
Hoboken, NJ
9780764559129 $16.99
Mary Paruszkiewicz
Reviewer
Webster's New World Grant Writing Handbook is a source of information on how to write a grant. The author, Sara Deming Wason, has a master's degree in nonprofit management from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is currently the Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Syracuse University. She has experience in nonprofit administration and higher education development.
Giving trends and philanthropy have changed due to the economic downturn, grants have become more competitive. Grant writers need to be more innovative and more creative in selling their projects to organizations offering grants. This book guides you through the process of researching the grants you need for a particular project, writing a proposal and defining the need for your project. It helps you fine tune your project, write a mission statement and determine if your goals match that of the organizations that will fund your project.
Many foundations and organizations along with federal and state government organizations offering grants have cut back dramatically on their staff. Many grant applications have become available on the internet through their website. This book helps you understand how to fill out such applications, who to submit them to, and the importance of being concise and to the point about your project, when applying electronically. Webster's New World Grant Writing Book gives you instructions on how to write a concept paper, the length of each segment and the level of detail you need or don't need for the paper. Throughout the book samples for various parts of the grant writing process are given to show you their format. This book explains the best practice to use when approaching a prospective donor, how to present yourself and your organization along with advice on how to be prepared.
This book was a required book for a grant writing course that I was taking. While it offers a lot of information, I found this book to be very dry and boring. I had to force myself to read it and found myself re-reading some of it because it lost my interest. For the novice grant writer such as me, this book lacks a lot of information. It uses grant writing terms that are not listed in the glossary. This makes it very confusing for the reader and they need to refer to other sources for the definitions of these terms. Instead of having the reader flip back and forth to the glossary to look up terms that may or may not be there the book should have sidebar notations for the definitions of the terms used including the terms that were not in the glossary.
Throughout the whole book the author repeats the same points over and over again sometimes verbatim. In part 2 the author talked about scandal and fraud and how it has lead to the Sarbones-Oxely (SOX) Act of 2002. She then brought it up again in part 3 where she discussed measurements, accountability and scandal. Parts 2 and 3 could have been revised and combined into one chapter. In part 7, the same material on endowments is presented as in part 1 (see pp. 191 and 9). Information previously covered in part 6, Organizing the Proposal was again covered in part 7. In part 8 Proposal Review and Follow Up the author again repeats previously discussed topics. Pages 149 and 245 are the same subject on how to handle rejection.
This book also assumes the grant writer works for a non-profit organization and does not mention that individuals can apply for grants. I would have found a discussion on this topic very helpful. The author does give good points on what the proposal outline should contain and goes into detail what should be included and how these aspects of the proposal should follow one another.
Overall the book needs a major revision, combining chapters and synthesizing information that is repeated. A format and style that keeps the readers interested and maintains a consistent flow that doesn't confuse the reader would be appreciated. The author's intended audience is for experienced professionals, as well as for novice grant writers, but the manner in which the book was written does not target the inexperienced or independent grant writer.
Acheron
Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Ave, New York, N.Y. 10010
9780312362157 24.95
Mindy K. Paige
Reviewer
I think the first place to start is how long all of Kenyon's fans have been waiting for this book- not as long as she has been waiting to write it. Acheron is actually two books in one about the same character who the book is named after. I will have to admit that I, along with countless others out there, was breathless with anticipation waiting to see if the book could live up to our expectations.
It not only lived up to my expectations, it blew them straight out of the water. Kenyon is a dependable paranormal writer who has given the genre a new face, but with this book she just upped the bar again.
Acheron sucks you into Kenyon's world and keeps you there from the first page until the last. Then makes you want to read all seven hundred and twenty two pages again.
I can't wait for more from Kenyon!
The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Simon Winchester
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
9780060884598 $27.95
Reed Stevens
Reviewer
China's 'Attitude': The Old Key to China's Humiliation
Discussing "Dreams of My Father" in July at a Santa Clara County Book Club Meet Up, the group gave the book a thorough investigation, winding up with a discussion of minority experiences. Then a Chinese woman spoke up for the first time to announce in a soft voice that she was, in her words, "a racist".
"I believe the Chinese people are inferior to Westerners," she said very clearly. Then she explained that since she had come to the U.S. in 1989, she has seen how advanced this country is compared to China.
We were quite taken aback. As she spoke I thought, all we hear about China is Tiananmen Square, the Cultural Revolution and political repression.
Spurred by her confession, humiliation, perhaps, I plowed through Simon Winchester's "The Man Who Loved China", the biography of a China scholar, hoping to find some consolation for her bitterness. Joseph Needham produced several highly regarded volumes on every aspect of China's history. Yet nothing in this biography of an obsessed Oxford don would make that Chinese woman feel proud of China.
But in the epilogue I hit pay dirt. China's 'attitude' of isolated superiority, of not needing anything from the west, is only a mask for saving face. Disguising humiliation. Just like the rest of us, the Chinese always felt and still do believe they are superior.
Winchester says that isolated attitude was only a minor pause in the development of oldest civilization on earth. Apparently much has changed just since 1989. Good-bye Chinese inferiority, hello Number ONE: at the Games and in technology, manufacturing, art and science.
The appendix lists China's astonishing inventions, the compass, gunpowder and the printing press, even an airplane in the thirteen century. Today ChinaMobile has more than half a billion cell phone subscribers. The West is only beginning to feel the power of this brilliant people as they shape themselves and the rest of us into our common future.
Simon Winchester's other works include "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" and "River at the Center of the World, Revised: A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time."
Twilight Son
Nina R. Schluntz
Llumina Press
7915 W. McNab Road, Tamarac, FL 33321, USA
9781595269270 $12.95
Dr. Tami Brady
Reviewer
The greatest biological weapon the universe has ever seen is a who not a what. Simply called Dee, this man of sorts carries a deadly Decompose Plague within him. At full strength, it kills whole populations. However, Dee can also torture his victims by turning them into cannibals. For 500 years, Dee has been kept heavily sedated, a trick that is accomplished with large quantities of chemicals and the blood of a Queen Dragon.
Unfortunately, dragons are becoming quite rare so scientists have been experimenting with synthetic versions to keep the monster comatose. Thus begins a chain of mistakes that proves to be quite deadly. Dee escapes.
Twilight Son is the third book in the Twilight series, yet I found the book fully self contained. The thing that I most enjoyed about this work was the characters. The author had a group of rather unique individuals whose interacted in interesting ways. Ironically, Dee was a particularly pleasant individual, despite his deadly abilities.
Empire of Humiliation
James Brusseau
Overflow
4646 South Prairie Street, 3S, Chicago, IL 60653
9780980056785 $15.95 http://www.overflowbooks.com
Empire of Humiliation is the intelligent and rewarding debut novel by James Brusseau. Set in Mexico City, a pair of Americans—Anderson and Marina-- find themselves blamed for a string of disconcerting and ultimately fatal events. To save themselves, they have to discover who's really behind the scenes and why. Answering exposes them to an elegant manipulator of personal humiliation, as well as the dangers of a third-world megacity, and the fierce resentment of the locals. There is a way out of their predicament, but they have to discover how everything happening around them actually fits into a stunning and broad experiment in imperialism. And, finally, they'll have to decide whether American empire is good, bad or just an opportunity to get rich.
The author holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and has taught at universities in several nations, currently in Mexico. He has authored two scholarly books before writing his first novel...
The strengths of this book include it's very strong and complicated female protagonist, and an adversary who manages to be elegant, funny and terrifying at the same time. The depiction of Mexico City is spot-on, down to the most remote details. The pacing is fast, and the human-angle of the story intriguing. In most of these basic ways the novel stands in line with an expertly-written contemporary thriller. What sets it apart, however, are the keen insights into how humiliation, shame and inferiority really work on people. This book is almost Russian in that sense, in its psychological depth, but it has none of that heaviness or European depression. Also, there's a lot here about the international scene, and as a foreigner living in America, I can tell you that Brusseau understands the dynamic and captures it perfectly.
Readers Theatre For African American History
Jeff and Nancy I. Sanders
Teacher's Idea Press
88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
9781591586937 $30.00
Terrilyn Fleming
Reviewer
Approximately 1/3 of all American students are minorities. The census bureau has estimated that by 2025 half of all students will fit into this category. Jeff and Nancy Sanders have crafted a Readers Theatre book covering African American history from before the slave trade to modern-day events. The book is appropriate for every color of middle-school students.
The readers theatre format encourages the shy as well as the class clown to participate. It improves reading skills and increases vocabulary while using cooperative learning. A preface to the book provides teachers with information on how best to prepare for, perform, and evaluate the scripts with students.
The Sanders's include a number of possible extension activities to go along with each script providing a whole unit to study. Background on the story, ideas for projects, and references to books for additional information are provided for each script. Also included in an appendix are a list of books for teachers and students to more fully review different eras of African American history.
Some of the scripts have only a few characters and others could involve an entire classroom of students. Most of the scripts are very short, just a few pages. There are a few long character speeches, but most of the character parts are weighted equally so no one performer will lose focus before he is "on" again. While most of the dialogue is clear, some characters seem to just spew facts and dates which may be boring to some children. The Sanders' style is definitely more toward telling than showing.
Though the title explicitly states it is readers theatre for African American history, all colors of American students should be exposed to the stories contained in this volume. It would be an appropriate buy for any middle school library, speech or drama classroom, or any classroom that studies history or storytelling.
Antics: Passionate Stories About Folks in the Antiques Trade
Carol Berge
Regent Press/AWAREing Press
2747 Regent Street, Berkeley, CA 94705
1587900882 $25.00 www.carolberge.com 510-845-1196
Richard Tretheway
Reviewer
As a recovering collectibles dealer and an avid fan of both Antiques Roadshows and, of course, the British television series Lovejoy, I couldn't resist this title. And I was truly gratified for my effort. Ms. Berge spins many tales of the slightly shady world of antiques, with the hustlers, crooks, and characters; she differentiates them by environment. From posh shops to flea markets, she creates characters with feeling and substance, and a passion for the trade and the rewards it can bring.
Finn
Jon Clinch
The Random House Publishing Group
New York
9780812977141 $14.00 www.randomhousereaderscircle.com
Wanda Maynard
Reviewer
The characterization was remarkable! Jon Clinch, the winner of the Athenaeum Literary Award, took "Finn" to a whole new level by putting a fascinating suspense-filled new-fangled twist on an old story, which, to this reader, made it a more interesting murder mystery. That element of surprise which hooks and keeps the bookworm dangling was there, along with the gruesome aspects of what happened throughout the story, and kept this reader busy turning the pages.
What talent! What voice! Thoughts were stimulated as to the outcome. As soon as the story opens the secrecy begins. My imagination ran wild the moment I was drawn into the spellbinding tale of untamed horrifying acts. Suddenly a body is clearly seen floating lazily along the Mississippi. How and why did the corpse find its way to the river? Who is the victim? Who did such a dastardly deed?
Amin's Bookshelf
Military Control in Pakistan: The Parallel State
Mazhar Aziz, Editor
Routledge
9780415437431 $150.00
Mazhar Aziz's book on military and politics in Pakistan is a new addition to books dealing with civil military relations in Pakistan.
Mazhar Aziz Mazhar Aziz (PhD, University of Nottingham, 2006) is a former Pakistani civil servant and an independent scholar with research interests in democracy and political representation, civil-military relations and foreign policy.
He is an outsider to the Pakistani military having observed it as a civil servant who at times are junior partners in the civil military nexus in Pakistan barring few exceptions like the old fox Ghulam Ishaq or the half military half civilian Iskandar Mirza.
Aziz in words of a reviewer "introduces the concept of institutional path dependency. According to him, the institutional innovations of the formative years of Pakistan's history (1947-54) created a form of path dependency that has been responsible for thwarted democratisation, military intervention and post-military withdrawal crises. " Aziz however fails to define this concept of " Institutional Path" precisely and also fails to connect it with the negative British colonial military legacy particularly the British Imperial policy in Punjab from 1849-1947.
Under the British the Punjab the preferred British recruiting area for the army from 1857 till 1947 had a special status. It was a non regulation province where the deputy commissioner was far more powerful than in any British province and most of the initial deputy commissioners were ex army. It was a province where the feudals and the British had a special relationship. It was a province where the vast bulk of British intelligence resources were employed as its location was the most strategic in entire British India. It was a province which had the closest link and the largest contribution to the British war effort as far as 1857, First World War and Second World War were concerned.
While the Indian Army and notably the Punjabis, and most particularly the Punjabi Muslims were the closest collaborators of the British immediately after partition the Pakistani Army particularly its pro British generals were the most valuable political asset of the British. The Pakistani generals led by Ayub Khan soon out of personal ambition became the self styled guardians of Pakistans territorial and ideological boundaries. Ayub Khan with open support of civil servants like Ghulam Mohammad and the military cum civil servant Iskandar Mirza on his own started negotiating with USA and boasted that the US Director CIA was his best friend. At this point in time Ayub was propelled to do so by personal ambition and by the declared intention of safeguarding Pakistan and the army's institutional interests on the pretext of acquiring US weapons. In this case he was however not alone. The initial move for US aid was made by Mr Jinnah and later by Liaquat Ali Khan and Ghulam Mohammad. From 1954 onwards however Ayub was picked out by USA as USA's best bet. India was too large to be manipulated and India's Congress too formidable a party to be messed with. In Pakistan however manipulation was simpler because of the pre partition feudal military civil service connection. Thus in case of Ayub the mafia was not military alone but civil military West Pakistani feudal with Punjabis in lead and all conspiring to reduce the Dravidian Bengalis politically. What followed was a joint conspiracy by the army with a linguistically Punjabi chief in league with Punjabi feudals and civil servants to snatch legitimate political power from the Bengalis. Mazhar Aziz misses this point or has practiced selective distortion.
The Yahya takeover of 1969 was the most credible intervention by the army done out of national interests. General Yahya did make an honest attempt to introduce direct franchise and provincial autonomy. Unfortunately he failed because all of Pakistan's rulers starting from Jinnah had mishandled the Bengalis and the situation became unmanageable.
Zia on the other hand acted out of personal motives because he feared that Bhutto wanted to sack him and the top army generals feared Bhutto who was a popular leader. Again a case of class interests rather than institutional interests.
Aziz misses the point that the army or its top clique was used by the USA to achieve its geopolitical ends in Pakistan. Every military takeover in Pakistan had some link with USA or became a servile instrument to further US geopolitical objectives.
Aziz also fails to note that initial military takeovers were more personality oriented while starting from Zia the army's generals very correctly called the trade union of generals acted out of class interests. After 1977 it became the stated objective of the Pakistan Army's top generals and its intelligence agencies to destroy all independent political leadership in Pakistan. Thus every political party was penetrated and every effort made to destroy independent political leadership. The Punjab again was the centre of these efforts and the emergence of Nawaz Sharif in 1988 was the high point of these covert efforts.
General Zia's successor General Beg did hold the elections of 1988 but failed to control the ISI pursuing a parallel policy or simply ignored what it was doing thus destabilisng and removing the first PPP government in 1990. In 1990 Mr Nawaz Sharif was the best choice of the army's ruling clique but he was removed in 1993. In this case again the matter was not entirely or even 50 % institutional but a collusion of a Pashtun president and a Pashtun army chief to remove a Punjabi PM who was becoming too assertive. Their natural choice was a Sindhi lady . This move again was unconstitutional and motivated by personal and ethnic motivation rather than institutional motivation.
In 1999 the Musharraf coup was again motivated by personal considerations rather than any institutional considerations. Many generals supported Musharraf because they had been fired by Nawaz Sharif notably General Mahmud Corps Commander Rawalpindi.
After 2001 however Musharraf got a great opportunity to play the role of USA's best collaborator. Again a continuation of the Punjab loyalty to British of 1857 and Ayub loyalty to USA in the Cold War or Zia loyalty to USA in 1979-1988.
It would be more correct to describe the army in Pakistan as a mixture of institutional and class loyalty with personal motivation and ambition of the army chief as the main catalyst. The army is divided into many classes and the real culprits are the top 150 or 200 generals around the chief. Their ambition distorts the whole scenario and their selfish actions cannot be called institutional interests.
Unless there is total defeat as happened to the Russian Army in 1917 the hegemony of the army signified by these top 150-200 windbag generals would continue come what may!
Now how to bell the cat. Only defeat in war can reduce the army's role in Pakistan. The same happened in Russia in 1905 and 1917. In Turkey in 1918. In Japan in 1945, Alone the Pakistani politicians cannot do it. They are the test tube babies of many army intelligence agencies.
It appears that change is round the corner. The army is facing internal fractures. Its lower ranks for the first time in its history were involved in at least two major assassination attempts against the army chief and these included many soldiers from Musharraf's own SSG commandos. The army is being challenged by Islamists and its credibility is being reduced. Conventional war is out but the secret war at covert levels continues. India intelligence knows that the war never ended and so does the Pakistani intelligence. For the first time in West Pakistan's hopeless history the army is being challenged in NWFP and Balochistan and the threat has not been contained. This is an ethnic war as it's a Punjabi Army with junior Pashtun auxiliaries like the Yusufzais and Khattaks fighting the Baloch and tribals .
The army is trying to sell itself to USA as its best bet but it appears that the USA has decided that some structural changes are needed in the Pakistan Army.
The bottom line however is not the Pakistani generals but US policy, at least at the Defence Department, State Department, CIA and DIA level. They want the Pakistani generals. They do not trust the Pakistani politicians and that's the main reason why the Pakistani generals and only the top 20 are guarding their class interests . A small class by numbers but very influential and destructive.
Only defeat in war or Balkanisation will reduce the role of Pakistani generals. Mazhar misses this point.
To conclude Aziz fails to present a comprehensive case for the Instutional path theory although he makes many repetitions in the core 100 pages of his book.
A History of the Pakistan Army
Brian Cloughley
Oxford University Press
Pakistan
9780195473346 $29. 95
Brian Cloughley's book on the Pakistan Army is a welcome addition to the extremely limited number of books on the Pakistan Army. The fact that such a book was not written by a Pakistani soldier or a civilian scholar does not paint a very bright picture about the state of history writing, or to be more specific military history writing in Pakistan. Brian Cloughley has the singular advantage of having served for a relatively long period in Pakistan as a UN Official and as a military attache. In addition he is also a soldier and thus his perception of military affairs is different from a scholar who is a civilian and thus suffers from certain limitations which can only be overcome by extraordinary analytical ability and painstaking hard research. Brian Cloughley has made an honest attempt to present things as they are or as he perceived them to be with whatever facts he could lay hands to and the result is a relatively significant work on Pakistani military history with reference to on ground military performance of the Pakistan Army in three Indo Pak wars.
On the whole Cloughley's account is fairly balanced and the layman reader can form a fairly continuous picture of the progress of the Pakistan Army from 1947 to date. The initial history of the Pakistan Army however is given a broad brush treatment and the British Indian Colonial social and military legacy is totally ignored. This leaves the reader with an impression that the Pakistan Army was an entity created in 1947 and all that it did from 1947 onwards had little connection with the pre 1947 British Colonial policy and the military experience of the Indian Army in the two world wars. The 1947-48 Kashmir War where the Pakistan Army got its baptism of fire as the independent army of a sovereign country is hardly discussed. Thus important military controversies like the Operation Venus Controversy etc are not discussed at all. The conduct of Kashmir War by the Pakistani civilian leadership and its resultant impact on the army's perception of the civilian leadership is not discussed. The British recruitment policy and their irrational advocacy of the "Martial Races Theory" is not discussed at all. The impact of the conservative British military heritage on the intellectual development of the post 1947 Pakistani military leadership is totally ignored. The Ayub period has been given a relatively more detailed treatment and the conduct of 1965 war is reasonably detailed and the analysis of military operations is objective, critical and thought provoking. No serious effort is however made to explain why the Pakistan Army failed to achieve any decisive breakthrough despite having technically superior equipment as well as numerical superiority in tanks. The 1971 war which was more of a one sided show and a war in which Indian victory in the Eastern Theatre in words of Field Marshal Mankekshaw was a "foregone conclusion" keeping in view the overwhelming Indian numerical superiority1, has been discussed in much greater detail than 1965 war. This is a serious draw back since 1965 deserved more space because it had more lessons keeping in view the fact that both sides employed their strategic reserves. The post 1971 history of the army has been given a better treatment and enables the layman reader to understand many aspects of the present state of confrontation in the Sub Continent.
There are many factual and analytical errors in the book which were entirely avoidable and were not beyond the author or the publishers control. The publisher shares a major responsibility in ensuring accuracy of facts while analytical errors or analytical drawbacks are more within an authors sphere of responsibility. 15 Lancers was not raised in 1948-50 but in 19552. Iskandar Mirza was not from the ICS (Indian Civil Service) but the Indian Political Service3. The author has asserted that Ayub Khan was "gallant in combat" 4but there is no record of it in terms of gallantry awards or mention in despatches. On the contrary Ayub was accused of tactical timidity in Burma5. Akhnur has been mentioned as the only road link to Kashmir6 whereas Akhnur, as a matter of fact was the only road link to Poonch Valley only. The Indian 50 Para Brigade was not moved on 7th September to relieve the 54 Brigade as asserted on page-87 but made its appearance in the 15 Division area only on 10th September and that too in the Hudiara Drain area7. On page-96 the author states that 13 Dogra in 4 Indian Mountain Division area captured Bedian but was driven out by 7 Punjab's counter attack the next day. In reality 13 Dogra never attacked Bedian, nor was Bedian defended by 7 Punjab. Bedian was defended by 7 Baluch and attacked by 17 Rajput. Further Bedian was not attacked by a unit from the 4 Mountain Division but by a unit of 7 Indian Division which failed to capture it in the first place8. Jassar was not defended by a Pakistani Tank Troop as written on page-110 but by the whole 33 Tank Delivery Unit9. The Jassar operation did not result in release of a whole Indian tank regiment but release of two infantry battalions and a squadron minus10. 4 FF was not part of 6 Armoured Division as stated on page-117. The whole "Order of Battle" of the Pakistan Army on the Western Front as given on page-225 is incorrect. Formations of the I Corps have thus been shown as formations of 11 Corps and vice versa. 8 Armoured Brigade which was a part of 1 Corps has been shown as part of 4 Corps. Rahimuddin Khan has been promoted to Zia's son in law on page-275 whereas Ejaz ul Haq was Rahim's son in law. Aziz Ahmad the famous civil servant has been described as Aziz Alia. The order of battle of the Pakistan Army on page-284 has also some factual errors; e.g. Pakistan Army does not have any mechanised infantry divisions whereas the author has shown two divisions as mechanised divisions. One tank unit allotted to Pakistan in 1947 i.e. the 19 Lancers has not been listed at all in the list of armoured units allotted to Pakistan10.
The author rightly wonders why some military commanders guilty of timidity in Khem Karan were not immediately sacked! But he fails to mention that one of them was promoted to the rank of major general few years after the war. His analysis of the Khem Karan operations is considerably thought provoking. But the major reason for failure of the Khem Karan offensive ie poor initial planning which led to traffic congestion and poor engineers effort and delayed the concentration of the Pakistani 1st Armoured Division has not been discussed at all. The author however rightly points out that failure to carry out thorough reconnaissance was one of the major reasons of failure of the Pakistani armoured thrusts failure in Khem Karan. However his assertion that the Indians had considerable reserves to contain Pakistan Army even if it had achieved a breakthrough is not based on material facts. India did have its 23 Mountain Division, but this formation was nowhere near Khem Karan when the Pakistani offensive was launched. In any case a Mountain Infantry division could have been of little value against the Pakistani 1 Armoured Division.
The analysis of the tank battles in Sialkot is not comprehensive and lacks depth. The authors assertion on page-120 that the ad hoc force under direct command of the I Pakistani Corps forced the Indians back to the border is not correct. The 24 Brigade which did so was a part of the 15 Division and 25 Cavalry the tank unit which in the words of Indians stopped them acted on orders of its commanding officer alone and 1 Corps Headquarter had little idea of what 25 Cavalry did in stopping the Indians till the evening of 8th September. The author has not mentioned 25 Cavalry at all which in words of the Indian Armoured Corps's historian; was the unit whose " performance was certainly creditable because it alone stood between the Indian 1st Armoured Division and its objective, the MRL Canal 11a" and stopped the 1st Indian Armoured Division on 8th September, all by itself. The authors reproduction of the Indian writer Verghese's views that the Indian 1st Armoured Division dashed forward rashly is not based on facts. The Indian advance was fairly balanced and it was halted on 8th September not because the Indians had completely committed their armour but because the Commander 1st Armoured Brigade lost his nerve because of false and unsubstantiated reports of his flanks being under counter attack at a time when both the advancing Indian tank regiments had committed a total of only three squadrons with three squadrons uncommitted and the Indian 1st Armoured Division had a third tank regiment totally fresh and in a position to easily outflank the Pakistani armour in Gadgor area12. The author has also not discussed at all the Indian armours total lack of activity on 9th and 10th September. This inactivity at a time when there was just one tank regiment to oppose five Indian tank regiments was the main reason for the Indian main attack's failure in Sialkot Sector.
The treatment of the 1971 war is far more detailed than 1965 war. All the emphasis is however on the Eastern Theatre where the Indian victory in words of the Indian Chief was a foregone conclusion. The author has highlighted actions of bravery at small unit level and has shown that the Pakistan Army put up a good show in East Pakistan as far as the junior leadership was concerned. The battles on the Western Theatre have however been largely ignored and the battle of Chhamb which was described by the Indians as "the most serious reverse suffered in the 1971 war 13" has not been discussed in much detail. Major General Eftikhar was the finest commander at the operational level as far as the Pakistan Army is conerned and any history of Pakistan Army is incomplete without discussing Eftikhar's brilliant opearational leadership in Chhamb. Eftikhar was one of the only two Pakistani senior commanders praised by the Indian military historians. One Indian military historian described him as one who "showed skill and determination in carrying out his mission" . 14
The analysis of the Bhutto period is quite comprehensive and the personality of Mr Bhutto and his attitude towards the army has been described quite correctly. The sycophantic personality of Zia has however been given a generous treatment and many of Zia's well known antics to please Mr Bhutto like orders to all officers of Multan Garrison to line up their wives to greet Mr Bhutto's cavalcade passing through the Fort Colony have not been discussed at all. No Mard i Momin except one solitary EME officer Major Kausar had the moral courage to disobey this illegal order and Zia immediately got him dismissed from the army.
The intelligence and operational failure in Siachen on part of the ISI and the formation responsible for the defence of Siachen as a result of which the Indians were able to infiltrate 35 miles inside Pakistani territory have not been discussed at all. On the contary General Pirdad who was the formation commander during the Siachen debacle has been praised as an admirable officer15. The authors assertion that English language was neglected during the Zia era is not based on facts. I was a cadet in Zia's tenure at the Pakistan Military Academy. Any cadet who failed in English was not promoted to the next term and English teaching and examination standards were very tough. The crux of the problem was the overall deteriorating English standards in Pakistan following Bhuttos nationalisation of educational institutions and the relatively poor material joining the army in the post 1971 era. The post Zia era has been covered in a very incisive manner. The authors assertion that the "Director infantry" was a post that any infantry officer would welcome is incorrect. Mahor General Zahir Ul Islam Abbasi was posted as Director Infantry following a disastrous Charge of the light Brigade type attack in Siachen which he had ordered without prior approval of his next senior operational headquarter. in which one of the Pakistani units suffered unnecessarily high casualties including the death of a brigade commander. The authors criticism of the ISI is forthright, accurate and thought provoking. In this regard he has shown courage in criticising a top heavy agency whose much trumpeted reputaion is not matched by actual on ground performance and which suffers from a tendency to embark on private wars.
Brian Cloughley has done a remarkable job in writing a fairly critical history of the Pakistan Army. Most of the factual errors were avoidable but something which should have been taken care of by the publishers who knew that the author was a foreigner and did not have the time to cross check or recheck all the facts because of not permanently residing in Pakistan. The author appears to be too much of a gentleman to critically analyse many of the Quixotic blunders of Indo Pak military history. Nevertheless Brian Cloughley's book has filled a void in Indo Pak military history by at least constructing a continuous and fairly comprehensive picture of one of third worlds important armies. Regardless of the fact whether any one may agree or disagree with Cloughley's analysis, the book by and large retains the position of a book which is compulsory for any layman or foreigner doing research on the Pakistan Army.
Behind the Scenes
Major General Joginder Singh (Retired)
Lancer International
New Delhi
1897829205 $42.00
When I saw this books short description on LANCER BOOKS promotional leaflet I immediately ordered one through Bharat Verma's London UK office. I was very excited and thought very seriously that this book would be a really fine magnum bonum type of an effort on the Indian Army.
At that time I was writing my book Pakistan Army till 1965 and hoped that this book would be a tremendous help.
Following are my personal observations written in late 1999.
"Behind the Scenes", setting aside other factors discussed in the succeeding paragraphs still is a welcome addition to the limited number of books available on the Indo Pak wars. Major General Joginder Singh possesses the distinction of being an insider in the higher Indian command and staff echelons in the period 1958-65 and his analysis carries the weight of authority of a man who saw how various operational and higher command decisions were taken from close quarters.
Major General Joginder Singh the author was commissioned in the 5th Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment more popularly known as " Ali Baba's (its commanding officers designation) Forty Thieves" British Indian Army in 1937 after having joined the army through the "Y Cadet Scheme".
Joginder saw military action in the British operations against the Frontier tribes in the late 1930s. He attended the 1945 Army Staff Course at Quetta, served in various command and staff appointments including a stint at the Indian Ministry of Defence, command of an Infantry Battalion (7 Punjab), Commander 80 Brigade-Nowshera Sector), Deputy Commandant Infantry School, Brigadier General Staff 15 Corps during the Sino-Indian War, GOC 5 Infantry Division and Chief of Staff of the Western Command under three successive GOC in chiefs. The last assignment included 1965 War after which Joginder finally retired in 1967.
The book is divided into five parts and covers the entire modern post-1947 Indian military history with maximum space devoted to the 1965 conflict while smaller tracts are devoted to the 1971 War, Interwar years followed by a small section dealing with the more recent developments.
The first part dealing with "National Strategy" feels that strategic insight is sadly lacking in India's higher decision making echelons. He feels that politicians leading India are short-sighted and self-centred and feels that Indian higher leadership lacks the qualities necessary to attain India's position of natural leadership in Asia.
Joginder discusses in considerable detail his experiences as 80 Infantry Brigade Commander where he first advanced the possibility that Akhnur bridge by virtue of being the sole link to Poonch Valley and the fact that it was defended by the weak 191 Infantry Brigade defending Chamb Sector represented a serious imbalance in Indian defensive posture in South Kashmir and that it was most likely that Pakistan Army in case of war may capture it with ease using a force of an armoured brigade infantry division.
Joginder states that a divisional exercise was held based on this scenario in April-May 1956 but the only outcome was that "GOC 26 Division was asked to proceed on pension" (Page-28) while no other changes were made in operational plans or organisational structure till 1965. The layman readers may note that shortly before the September 1965 War the Indian High Command did agree to upgrade the Chamb Brigade to a Divison in August 1965 but at the time of Grand Slam Chamb was defended only by an infantry brigade and a squadron of light tanks.
Joginder devotes a small chapter to his experiences as Brigadier General Staff 15 Corps responsible for Indian Occupied Kashmir and discusses his recommendations which included creation of an infantry division to defend Chamb, construction of a bridge on Chenab at Riasi as an alternative to Akhnur bridge stationing of an independent armoured brigade in Jammu area and stationing of an infantry division size force as 15 Corps Reserve. None of the recommendations were followed by Joginders bosses!
The author's discussion of Sino-Indian War is not much different from the other much known discussions in various well circulated books, so it is pointless to burden the readers with repetition of much discussed issues.
The most valuable albeit controversial part of the book is the one dealing with the authors experiences as Chief of Staff of the Western Command before and during 1965 war.
The author had a high opinion of his first GOC Western Command who died in a helicopter crash in 1963 along with four general officers and an airforce air vice marshal. Joginder also had a very high opinion about his second GOC Manekshaw.
It was during this period as the author discusses that the Western Command carried out a detailed appreciation dealing with a future Indo-Pak conflict and recommended an offensive posture with attack aimed at isolating Lahore (going for Balloki Headwork's) and Sialkot (from Jammu-Samba area) and against the Mangla Dam-Mirpur area were planned. It was during this period that the Western Command's proposals for opening a second front across the international border Joginder states that the Army Chief Chaudhry accepted the idea of opening a second front in case of war across the international border. Joginder, however, noted that by 1964 Nehru incapable of taking any decisions due to bad health and indifferent mental state while defence held a very low priority with Nehru's successor Shaastri. Thus the 1964 memorandum prepared by the Western Command was simply filed away. Joginder felt that General Chaudhri was not assertive in presenting the Indian political leadership with the true defence requirements.
The controversial part of the book begins once Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh enters the scene as the third boss of the author as GOC Western Command in November 1964. It appears that there was a personality clash between Joginder and Harbaksh while Harbaksh's book "War Despatches" published before Joginder's book indicates that Harbaksh did not have a very high opinion about Joginder.
Joginder states that Harbaksh wanted to base India's main defence on River Bias while abandoning the entire territory from the international border till Beas. While it is impossible to confirm or deny this assertion it seems highly improbable that Harbaksh could hold such an opinion whether one takes Harbaksh as an Indian or a Sikh.
Joginder states that at a conference held in May 1965 the GOC of 1st Indian Armoured Division advanced the thesis that the most likely axis of Pakistani main attack was Patti-Harike -Beas Bridge. It was this conference that the Indian Chief as per the author agreed to deploy an armoured brigade in Khem Karan area to meet the Pakistani armoured threat emanating from Kasur area. Harbaksh Singh as per the author thought otherwise giving a higher priority to a Pakistani frontal threat in the Ravi-Sutlej Corridor. Harbaksh Singh on the other hand states in his book that he had appreciated before the war that a Pakistani armour threat from Kasur towards the Beas bridge was most likely. There is no way in which Joginder's assertions can be proved or disproved.
Joginder's approach towards Harbaksh Singh while discussing almost all aspects of the 1965 war is hostile to the point of being irrational. Thus he defends Major General Nirinjan Prasad who was sacked for exhibiting timidity and cowardice by Harbaksh Singh. Joginder thinks that Niranjan was sacked not because he was irresolute but because he was a difficult subordinate. Again it is not possible to agree or disagree with Joginder about this assertion. However, Niranjan's sacking was even justified by very neutral and dispassionate Indian military historians like Major Praval. There is one fact which stands out in 15 Division's conduct on 6th, 7th and 8th September, i. e its conduct keeping in view its numerical superiority in infantry and the degree of surprise that it had achieved on 6th of September was not commensurate with the overwhelming advantages that it enjoyed. As a matter of fact many Pakistani defenders of Lahore who were interviewed by this scribe were surprised at the lack of initiative exhibited by the 15 Division in its operations on the 6th of September 1965. No one can deny the fact that two infantry brigades of this division bolted away in face of Pakistani counterattacks and that this led to a serious operational crisis on the 8/9 September once the 96 Brigade was brought forward to check the conditions of near rout.
I am not implying that the Indians were non- Martial as many Pakistanis earnestly believe since it is a fact that a Pakistani unit from the Punjab Regiment opposite Barki also bolted away. What I am merely trying to point out is the fact that there was something seriously wrong with 15 Indian Division at divisional as well as brigade level. However, Joginder denies it and sees Niranjan as an angel of a man since Harbaksh sacked him. Niranjan was also called Dhoti Parshad in Indian Army.
Joginder asserts that he gave a suggestion that the BRB should be crossed at Barki, after the main Indian attacks against Lahore had failed on 6-9th September, but does not explain how it could have been successfully done, keeping in view the net performance of all Indian brigades of 7 and 15 Division tasked to contact the BRB, was pathetic by all definitions. He asserts that he also suggested that the 26 Indian Division should bypass Sialkot and capture Sambrial west of Sialkot but does not explain how an infantry division would do so when an armoured division supported by two infantry divisions had failed to capture even Chawinda which was hardly 11 miles from the border.
The author asserts that Harbaksh Singh took no interest in the main Indian attack i.e. the 1 Corps operations opposite Chawinda but does not explain why it was so. Was it due to some inter arm rivalry or because Harbaksh was not interested that India should win the war?
The author's conclusion that there was no worthwhile higher direction in 1965 war as far as the Indian Army is concerned stands out as one of the most credible conclusions of the book. His assertion that the 1965 War was a show of some "20 Lieutenant Colonel and their units and about seven regiments of the armoured corps. . . . " is valid for both the armies conduct in 1965.
Joginder flatly denies that General Chaudhri ever asked Harbaksh Singh to withdraw to the Beas River. General Kaul whose book was published many years before Harbaksh Singh's "War Despatches" had also made a similar accusation (i.e. that such a withdrawal was suggested by Chaudhri).
I came across a similar assertion in another book by an Indian Colonel H. C Karr's book. It appears that Chaudhri did discuss something with Harbaksh about re-adjusting his position but since there is nothing on record, therefore, only a Prophet or a Jinn may ever know about what exactly happened. The possibility that Joginder dismisses this incident since Harbaksh Singh had written that it occurred cannot be denied since "opposition for opposition's sake" is one of the cardinal attributes of the Sub Continental psyche.
The author agrees that the main failure at Chawinda occurred in the handling of 1st Indian Armoured Brigade on the 8th September 1965 but has spent far more energy in painting Harbaksh Singh as the main reason for the Indian failure all over the book. In this regard it appears that the book had the support of the Indian military establishment who were outraged by Harbaksh very frank and forthright remarks about the mishandling of Indian Army at various levels in the 1965 War. In this regard the book stands out as more of a "Rejoinder" to Harbaksh's "War Despatches" than a study carried out in a detached manner with the aim of correctly analysing the 1965 War.
The author gives no explanation why the Indians wasted two complete days doing nothing following their failure at Gadgor on the 8th of September. This was the most critical phase of war for the Pakistanis when they were off balance and it was possible for the Indian armour to regain its freedom of manoeuvre by outflanking the Pakistani force opposite them.
The situation after 10/11 September when the Pakistani 1st Armoured Division started reinforcing the 6th Armoured Division was totally transformed. The major Indian failure occurred on 8th 9th and 10th September and was entirely because of indecisiveness and lack of resolution in pressing forward on behalf of the Indian 1 Corps/1 Armoured Division/1st Armoured Brigade Commander.
The author has also discussed 1971 War in brief but here his criticism is very mild about the higher direction in the war. Indian Western Command Chief Candeth has acknowledged in his book that had the Pakistanis attacked in late October 1971 all Indian plans to attack East Pakistan would have been blown into winds. This proves that the plans to invade East Pakistan were not as sound as they appeared and that the Indian plan was only carried out successfully since Yahya was irresolute enough not to launch a counteroffensive in the Western Front as had been planned before 1971 War.
Joginder does not explain how establishment of the Bangladesh strategically helped India in the long run since Bangladesh is militarily stronger than the old East Pakistan and is not an Indian satellite as Indians had envisaged.
Even Indian thinkers are divided about the strategic success of the 1971 War! Was it fought to add another feather to the Durga Devis cap or to liberate the Bengalis! Indira's conduct after the 1971 War does not paint a very bright picture about her motivation to start the 1971 War. Even if the aim was to help the Bengalis it failed since major killings by the Pakistan Army whatever their quantum took place in April-June 1971 and by November 1971 the situation was far different from that of June 1971. Genocide was committed but the Indians came not with a missionary's motive to help the oppressed but for other reasons.
Wars are not fought for missionary purposes alone and 1971's only enduring legacies are "a more aggressive and militarily viable Pakistan eager to vindicate its honour" and the creation of a smaller ethnic state which proves that after a decade or two all provinces of present day Indo Pak are tomorrow's full time members of the UNO! In this regard the 1971 war as far as India was concerned was a strategic failure and only a symbolic success! It would have been a success only if India had the resolution to overrun West Pakistan or to at least recapture Pakistan held Kashmir.
Joginder has not discussed anywhere the relative failure of the Indian command system especially with reference to the Western Command. A dispassionate glance at the conduct of 1965 and 1971 wars proves that the Indian command system is too unwieldy and keeping in view the frontage, location of formations and their number it is very difficult for any man whether it is Harbaksh or Manekshaw to effectively command anything like the Western Command as it is and as it was in 1965 and 1971 wars. Joginder's hero Manekshaw had nothing to do with actual operational command of any corps division or command in any of the three Indo Pak wars.
The Indian failure at Chamb in 1971 which was criticised by Joginder definitely had a connection with the confusion in the Indian GHQ as the narratives of Candeth and Gurcharan Singh prove. Joginder does not explain why Chamb, which was adequately defended in 1971, lost to Pakistan in 1971. It was a command failure and had a deeper connection with the divisional commanders personality and handling of armour than with anything at brigade or unit level where the Indian 191 Brigade was brilliantly led and managed to hold three infantry brigades supported by three tank regiments for more than two days.
An interesting revelation of the book is the fact that Ayub Khan commanded the Chamar Regiment and was under fire in WW Two and seen as not fit to command a battalion of his parent regiment Punjab Regiment.
How should we analyse the Indian Army's failure in 1965 or how should I put it as a Pakistani? Joginder sees the hand of Harbaksh Singh in all Indian failures in 1965! This, however, is too simplistic an approach.
There were deeper reasons for the Indian (as well as the Pakistani) failure to function as dynamic entities beyond unit level in 1965.
The Indian Army of 1965 was like the Austrian Army of 1809. It consisted of perhaps equally brave junior leaders but was severely handicapped since rapid expansion since the Sino-Indian war of 1962, despite being impressive on paper had not made the Indian military machine really effective because of poor training at divisional and brigade level. It was numerically strong but organisationally ineffective having dashing young leaders but tactically and operationally inept brigade divisional and corps commanders from the older pre- 1947 commissioned generation whom were initially supposed not to go beyond company level, had the transfer of power not taken place in 1947. The strike corps was a new concept and the Indian 1 Corps which was shortly created before the 1965 war was a newly raised formation whose corps commander and armoured divisional commanders were about to retire in 1965 when war broke out. The Indian commanders beyond unit level, as was the case with Pakistan Army, consisted of men who had experience of infantry biased operations in WW Two and did not understand the real essence of armoured warfare. It was this lack of understanding that led to the failures in achieving a decisive armour breakthrough in both sides. It was a failure of command as well as staff system where even the staff officers on both sides were too slow for armoured warfare and worked on yards and furlongs rather than miles. Their orientation was position oriented rather than mobility oriented and their idea of a battlefield was a typical linear battlefield. Their Burma or North African experience where the Japanese and Germans frequently appeared in their rear had made them extra sensitive about their flanks.
These were men who thought in terms of security rather than speed. Conformity rather than unorthodox dynamism, having been trained in the slavish colonial orders oriented British Indian Army was the cardinal script of their life. It was this British system in which every senior commander was more interested in doing the job of those one step junior to him that led to the lack of dash and initiative at brigade and battalion level. They were trained that way and there behaviour as far as the timidity at brigade and divisional level has to be taken in this context. How could one man, an army commander responsible for three corps is made responsible for failures that occurred at battalion brigade and divisional level!
Once I heard about Joginder's book in 1998, I had very high expectations and was convinced that a man who has been the Chief of Staff of the Western Command will be the best judge of 1965 War. In this regard the book was a big disappointment since instead of analysing Indian military history it is more of a proof that Joginder Singh was a very fine staff officer and that Harbaksh Singh was a horrible man! Joginder's book is a welcome addition to the limited number of first hand/direct participant accounts on 1965 War.
The fact that the writer has made some controversial assertions and has made an effort to write a rejoinder to Harbaksh Singh's more famous "War Despatches", however, does not diminish the historical value of the book, at least for the Pakistani readers of military history.
I still maintain that the book thus retains the status of "must be read and indispensable books" on the list of all keen students of Indo Pak military history. However, his anti-Harbaksh bias should be taken with a pinch of salt.
In addition his discussion of what could have been done must be viewed in relation to the relatively pathetic performance of both the armies in all three wars.
The under employment of Pakistan and Indian Armies in all three wars have a deep connection with the conservative British colonial legacy.
Harbaksh and various other actors were a product of that system and were relatively better or perceived to be better than their contemporaries and thus elevated to the higher command ranks. It was the outmoded system that proved to be a failure in all three wars. Individuals were just the tip of the iceberg.
History of The Baloch Regiment 1939-1956
Major General Rafiuddin Ahmad (Retired)
Baloch Regiment Centre
Abbottabad
Printed by Central Army Press Rawalpindi
9781845740948 $35.75
The second volume of Baloch Regiment history is a welcome addition to the extremely limited number of books on Indo-Pak military history. Maximum part of the volume deals with the Second World War.
The author has laid greater stress on the general military history of the Second World War than on Baloch Regiments' role in it. This appears to have been done since limited material was available on the regimental histories of the Baloch units which participated in the war and the fact that the Baloch Regiment was relatively a much smaller regiment than the Punjab or the FF Groups.
The first chapter contains a good description about the organisation of the Baloch Regiment. The details pertaining to units raised during World War Two are sketchy. A casual remark states that "new classes and areas were included" but no specific figures have been given.
The portions dealing with events of Second World War are excellent for the layman readers. The author has also dealt with the political aspects of Indian perceptions about the Second World War, with special stress on the difference between Muslim League and Congress Party positions.
The descriptions about circumstances in which various gallantry awards were won in WW Two are very well written. Yahya Khan's escape is described in a very interesting manner, however, the author has not discussed the Axis Camp Commandant's warning to Yahya about having him shot once he was caught escaping before his final successful escape. This incident has been mentioned in one of Shaukat Riza's books (The 1965 War).
The author made a passing reference to General Messervy's getting captured by the Germans in North Africa while giving his designation but not name. Had he mentioned his name the narrative may have been more interesting since Pakistan Army's first C in C was a German prisoner for some time as a general officer before he escaped (the Germans not knowing that they had captured the British general officer commanding a British armoured division).
The author's treatment of 1947-48 War could have been more extensive. He has once again quoted Fazal Muqeem's criticism of Liaquat about calling off Operation Venus but has not given detailed reasons as to how it may have succeeded when the Indian Army in December was well poised to meet it. Even the Pakistani official account of 1970 written many years later refutes Fazal Muqeem's criticisms. Rafi should have been more critical and should have given a dispassionate and concrete analysis rather than repeating Muqeem's criticism. It should not have been difficult for the author to analyse the detailed pros and cons of the projected operation Venus. This discussion would certainly have added meat to the bones i. e. reproduced judgement of Fazal Muqeem Khan. It is fifty two years now from 1948. One wonders whether the 1948 war would ever be properly analysed or not!
The volume contains some minor factual errors. The German Blitzkrieg struck across Western Europe not in June 1940 (Page-16) but in May 1940. Rajauri was not captured by a brigade group (Page-206) but by a tank squadron of Central India Horse by a surprise attack through a nala. The infantry brigade later joined the tank squadron after Rajauri had been captured.
The book contains extremely elaborate and detailed appendices dealing with various aspects of Baloch regiment history. The research scholars, very rare in Pakistan, will find these particularly useful.
The second volume on the whole is a fine contribution to Pakistani military history. We hope that the book will cover many blanks in Pakistani military history. We hope that General Rafi will be more forthright, critical and blunt in his third volume which covers the 1965, and 1971 wars.
History of The Baloch Regiment 1820-1939
The Colonial Period
Major General Rafiuddin Ahmad (Retired)
Baloch Regiment Centre
Abbottabad
Printed by Central Army Press Rawalpindi
9781843422228 $23.00
The two volumes on the history of the Baloch Regiment are a welcome edition to the extremely short list of books on Pakistani Military History. The first volume covers the period from 1820 to 1939 while the second volume covers the period from 1939 to 1956. Major General Rafiuddin Ahmed took to military writing at an early stage in his military career and came to be regarded as an accomplished military writer by the time he reached colonel rank in the mid early 1970s. This scribe read a bunch of one of his excellent writeups on German Airborne Warfare in 1975-76 at Quetta. These were presented to my father by then Lieutenant Colonel Rafi and as far as I recollect the general was then an instructor at the command and staff college Quetta. The writers father in laws family were active members of Aligarh Old Boys Association Rawalpindi . The readers may note that the most active members of this association included a prominent Baluchi Brigadier Gulzar Ahmad, and most meetings of the association were held at this scribes grandfathers residence in Rawalpindi, which now houses the Darya Abad Girls School. A major qualification of General Rafi is that in essence he is not a member of the "Typical Prototype Generals Trade Union" having been promoted to general rank a little late! Before we proceed further it is important to caution the layman reader about the immense odds that a military writer confronts once he writes a regimental history! Writing a regimental history of an infantry regiment consisting of many battalions which participated in many wars including two world wars spread over an 180 years period is a gigantic undertaking! It is but natural that any such enterprise cannot be perfect or free of factual as well as analytical errors! In addition it must be remembered that Indo Pak and this includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka is not a "History Friendly" Region and "Intellectual Honesty" is the rarest commodity in all official quarters whether civil or military in this entire region of intellectual darkness. Organisations as well as political parties are run on the basis of personal interest rather than national interest and at least two Indo Pak Wars were triggered by individuals who were motivated by egoistic and personal rather than nationalistic motivations disguised in high sounding slogans! The readers must also note that General Rafi's history is one which although not an official history was "officially sponsored" in terms of financial support and thus the general, as happens with all official or officially supported intellectual ventures, even in far more advanced western countries, was allowed to proceed in a certain officially prescribed course which did not allow him to be too critical in conduct of operations of the post 1947 period involving "Sacred Cows" of the Pakistani military establishment. In the first volume however the general has been more critical since those who called the shots then are now patronless skeletons, little more than footnotes of history and their conduct can be criticised. The general has however made an effort to do some critical analysis "in between the lines" which is reasonable! At places he has been uncritical but the first volume is certainly better since history is easier to be written when the actors have long been dead and are in no position to cause any mental or physical discomfiture to the historian in question!
The military history of various battalions of the regiment has been covered in an excellent manner linking the unit's role with the overall military situation. The narrative is most interesting since the author has included various incidents from unit histories involving details of battle actions in which gallantry awards were won or accounts dealing with military personalities. The author does not hesitate from giving his opinion on various historical aspects and this makes the narrative more interesting. The battle accounts are supported by excellent maps although credits for most have not been mentioned in the acknowledgement section. The photographs and paintings are of excellent quality and make the book very interesting to read. The author has taken pains to highlight the role of the Baluchis in various remote campaigns in East Africa in the late 1890s. Many in Pakistan were not aware of these campaigns. The accounts dealing with the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 and the First World War are extremely well done . The analysis integrates the pure military history aspect with the Indo Pak and particularly Indo Muslim point of view. It is a difficult exercise since the Indian Army was a mercenary army and employed to fight against the freedom fighters! The writer has managed to highlight the performance of the Baluch Regiment and has also been symapthetic to the Freedom Fighters. For some reason he did not have any sympathy with the Sindhi Hurs, but this shall be discussed in the next review of volume two.
The strangest part of the work is absence of an introduction or a foreword by any retired or serving Baluchi officer! This perhaps is an indication of the lack of importance that we attach to anything connected with intellectual activity! The emphasis remains on self projection, personal advancement and personal fortune building! We have a large number of so called illustrious retired officers! One visit to 'Pindi, Islamabad or Lahore is enough to prove their existence in terms of material progress! But what is their intellectual contribution to posterity in terms of transferring conceptual and intellectual experiences! Nil! All did exceedingly well on paper but have nothing to pen down! Ayub the longest serving chief wrote a book but that book had little to do with military history! Yahya was held in detention till he died and wrote little or we know little about what he wrote! The breed of Attique, A. I Akram etc is extinct! The lack of three or four pages written by any senior officer, serving or retired, and the Baluch Regiment did produce many generals(!) as opening remarks in General Rafi's history is without doubt an irrefutable proof of our intellectual bankruptcy!
The first volume contains factual errors which were entirely avoidable had the writer relied simply on three or four standard books on Indian Military history. The Safavids were overthrown not by Nadir Shah (Page-8) but by the Ghilzai Pathans from Afghanistan, who were previously Persian subjects and who in turn were overthrown by Nadir Shah in 1726. The Marhattas reached the outskirts of Delhi not in 1738 (Page-9) but in 1737 (Refers-Page-436-Oxford History of India-Percival Spear-1937 and Page-294-Later Mughals-Volume Two-William Irvine-Calcutta-1921-22). The assertion that "An Afghan power arose in Kabul" (Page-Nine and Ten) is also incorrect. Ahmad Shah Abdali was crowned as the first king of Afghanistan at Kandahar in 1748 at the age of 23 and captured Kabul later but kept his capital at Kandahar till his death and is buried in Kandahar. Ahmad Shah did not begin his career as a Mughal adversary (Page-Nine) but as a soldier in Nadir Shah's army and later made his entry into real power politics once he plundered Nadir Shah's treasure in the chaotic situation after Nadir's assasination by his Qizilbash generals. Ahmad Shah Abdali annexed Punjab not in 1754 (Page-10) but in 1751-52 (Refers-Page-434-The Cambridge History of India-Volume Four-The Mughal Period-Edited by Wolsely Haig and Richard Burn). The assertion that Ahmad Shah Abdali won the gratitude of Muslims and Hindus alike for defeating Marathas is also debatable. The target of both the Afghans and the Marathas were the rich and in this regard they did not give anyone a waiver simply because he was a Muslim or a Hindu! As a matter of fact Abdali proclaimed by Iqbal as a great hero mercilessly subjected Muslim Delhi and Muslim Punjab to merciless slaughter, rapine and plunder and his deeds are a frequent subject of even poetical works of Muslim poets like Waris Shah and Mir Taqi Mir! The layman reader may note that the loot that this so called soldier of Islam gathered in 1757 alone from Muslim Delhi was carried from Delhi to Afghanistan by 28, 000 transport animals! (Refers-The Pursuit of Urdu Literature-Ralph Russell-Zed Books-London -1997-Distributed by Vanguard Books-Lahore).
Delhi was captured by Lake not in 1805 (Page-11) but September 1803. The writer has supported 1st Punjab's claim (Page-30) of being the 3rd Battalion of Coastal Sepoys which in reality was the result of Lord Roberts decision to replace Madrasis with Punjabi manpower in the period 1885-1893. It is an indisputable fact that the post 1885 Punjabi manpower had nothing to do with the pre 1885 battle honours of the 2nd, 6th, 16th, 22nd and 24th Madras Native Infantry which to date they claim as their own. The men of 3rd Battalion of Coastal Sepoys were not the ancestors of the post 1885 manpower of 1st Punjab. Technically the First Punjabi claim is right but historically and ethnically no one can deny the fact that some two third of the manpower of the Madras Infantry of pre 1885 was South Indian Hindu. The 1st Punjabis should thank Lord Roberts for getting the pre 1885 Battle Honours won by a regiment which consisted of some two third Madrasi Hindus and one third Muslims of mixed ancestry. Lord Hastings tenure lasted not from 1814-23 (Page-38) but from 1813-1823 having begun from 13th October 1813 (Refers-Page-238-A Popular History of British India-W. Cooke Taylor-1854-Reprinted Mittal Publications-Delhi-1987). The assertion that the "British Government in India tried to salvage its position through swift retaliation "(Page-41) i. e teaching Afghans a lesson is incorrect. The actual happenings were as following. The British Governor General Ellenborough was irresolute and simply wanted to withdraw the Bengal and Bombay Armies from Kandahar and Jalalabad. His generals i.e. Nott and Pollock were more resolute and knew well by their experience of having Jallalabad and Kandahar successfully that the predominantly Hindu sepoys of the Bengal and Madras Armies and a smaller nucleus of British regiments could still teach the Afghans some parting lesson by once again capturing Kabul. It was resolution on part of both these indomitable generals that the British recaptured Kabul once again in Seprember 1842 and then withdrew the Bengal and Bombay Armies via the longer route i. e Kandahar-Ghazni-Kabul-Jalalabad-Khaibar. (Refers-Pages-269 and 270- A History of the British Army-Volume XII-1839-1852-Hon J. W Fortescue-Macmillan and Co Limited-London-1927 and Refers-Page-407-Cooke Taylor-Op Cit). The Governor General had initially given simple orders to withdraw from Afghanistan in May 1842. It was under military pressure that he agreed to a withdrawal after recapturing Kabul! The statement that "In January 1843 Amir Dost Mohammad returned to Kabul" (Page-41) is misleading and implies that this "Amir" was fighting some kind of war of liberation. As a matter of fact this Amir had surrendered to the East India Company's troops on 3rd November 1840 and living a comfortable life as a state prisoner with a large number of wives at Ludhiana . He was released not because of the myth in Afghanistan that he was exchanged for British prisoners (who had a matter of fact been released in 1842 by a British punitive column) but simply because Ellenborough had decided to follow a policy of good will as the Afghans had not harmed the British non combatant hostages. The British losses at Battle of Miani are described as heavy (Page-50) although they were not relatively heavy (about 62 Killed and 194 wounded) once compared to British Indian Battles of that time like Assaye, Chillianwalla etc. The writer states that there were very few all Muslim battalions in Indian Army except the three Baluch Battalions (Page-61). The Bengal Army had six All Muslim infantry Battalions in 1893 i. e the 5th, 12th, 17th, 18th, 33rd and 40th.
I was unable to find footnote one in the main text of chapter six. This probably was a printing error. The spellings of Fortescue are not "Fortesque". Delhi was garrisoned not by six infantry regiments on 11th May 1857 (Page-80) but by three i. e the 38th, 54th, and 74th Bengal Native Infantry. There were no British detachments in Delhi (Page 80) but few British ordnance personnel serving as technical staff in the magazine. Detachment in strict military terminology means a subunit in between an infantry section or platoon. The writer states that there were Bengal Army units in Sindh (Page-81). This is incorrect since there were no Bengal Army units in Sindh in 1857. The two native units i. e 14 and 21 Native Infantry were Bombay Army units. The two Bengal Army units bearing numbers 14 and 21 Bengal Native Infantry were at Peshawar and Jhelum respectively. 14 NI rebelled and was destroyed while 21 NI remained loyal, survived the rebellion and still survives as a unit of the Indian Army. Both the Bombay Army units in Sindh in 1857 however had a large number of Hindustanis and one of them i. e the 21 Native Infantry did rebel . Bengal Army was withdrawn from Sindh after 1850 and the area was a part of Bombay Presidency. Nicholson was not a captain from the British Army (Page-86) but from the private Bengal Army of the English East India Company. The term "Maratha Army" ( Page-95, 104 etc) is misleading. The Gwalior Contingent led by Tantia Topi consisted of Hindustani (Refers -The Revolt in Central India-1857-59-Intelligence Branch-Army Headquarters- Simla-1908. ) troops serving in Gwalior state and hardly had any Marathas. The only other troops that Tantia led consisted of Hindustani regiments of Bengal Army stationed in Central India or the Doab. The Sepoy Rebellion had some Maratha leaders but very few Maratha soldiers since the largely Maratha Bombay Army never rebelled.
It is incorrect that the caste basis was abolished and enrolment of Brahmins was discouraged (Page-112) in the post 1857 reorganisation . As a matter of fact there were no class basis in the companies of the pre 1857 Bengal Army and all classes were mixed in each company . On the other hand companies were recruited strictly on "One Class" or "One Caste" basis in the reorganised post 1857 Bengal Army. After 1857 more loyal than the king loyalists like Sayyid Ahmad Khan became self styled consultants on the policy of divide and rule and suggested to their British masters that the rebellion of 1857 had started because " Government certainly did put the two antagonistic races into the same regiment, but constant intercourse had done its work and the two races in a regiment had almost become one. It is but natural and to be expected, that a feeling of friendship and brotherhood must spring up between the men of a regiment, constantly brought together as they are. They consider themselves as one body and thus it was that the difference which exists between Hindoos and Mahomeddans had, in these regiments, been almost entirely smoothed away. "( Refers- Page-66-Causes of the Indian Revolt-1858-Sayyid Ahmad Khan- Written after 1857 rebellion and presented to Lord Canning the Governor General) As late as 1885 there were "caste companies" as well as companies based on "ethnic classes" or "ethnic class cum religion". Thus there were at least 25 "Hindustani Hindu Brahman Infantry Companies" in the Bengal Army out of total 352 regular infantry companies (Refers-Pages-406 & 407-A Sketch of the Services of the Bengal Army up to year 1895-Lieut F. G Cardew-Office of the Superintendent Government Printing Press-Calcutta-1903).
The assertion that the first contingent consisting of Indian troops west of Suez consisting of 126 Baluchistan Infantry in 1878 (Page-129) is also incorrect. The first Indian troops were employed west of Suez Canal was in 1801 (when the Suez Canal had not been excavated) (Refers-Pages 74 & 75-Lieut F. G Cardew-Op Cit). These consisted of troops of Bengal and Bombay Armies. There is no doubt that the first Indian VC was won by the Baluch Regiment. However the writer should have mentioned that Indians became eligible for this award only from 1911. Lettow Vorbeck complimented 11 Baluch but the odds that Lettow Vorbeck faced were a hundred time greater than any Indian British or South African troops. The readers may note that Lettow Vorbeck with just maximum 3, 500 white troops and maximum 12, 000 native troops kept at bay some 300, 000 British South African Colonial and Indian troops inflicting 15, 000 battle casualties on the allies, some 700, 000 disease casualties, one camp followers are included and a financial loss of 350 Million US Dollars finally withdrawing into Portuguese East Africa . (Refers-Pages-183 & 184-Concise History of WW ONE-Brig Vincent. J. Esposito-Pall Mall Press-London-1965) . Lettow did not surrender till the end and did so only once he heard that Germany had concluded an armistice with the allies!
The assertion that Afghanistan took advantage of the British involvement in the Great War(Page-217) and attacked British India is also incorrect. The Afghans missed the golden period in WW One once India was defended by a total of just 15, 000 British troops (Refers -Page-479-Cambridge History of India-Volume Six ) . Once they attacked the British the war was already over and the British had reinforced India. The most serious drawback of the book is the fact that exact class composition of each battalion in WW One and in the period 1919-39 has not been given.
The readers must note that errors are a natural part of any historical work. The resource starved and intellectually barren Pakistani society is not "Research friendly". Pakistani scholars cannot hire research associates like Churchill could. It is a one man show and once one man does it, it is but natural that more errors will be committed. Nevertheless the writer did a commendable job. His achievements have to be viewed in the relative dimension. What is the contribution of our senior retired officers to military writing? Nominal! In this regard General Rafi's history is a positive contribution! At least he has made a significant attempt to add something to the limited amount of analytical and factual data of Pakistani military history. I remember a letter I received from General Tirmizi in reply to a tactical paper that I had sent him. Tirmizi wrote " I have not studied the concept but I do commend your effort for taking so much pain and coming up with something thought providing". General Rafi's work is thought provoking provided it is read. What he states may not be totally convincing but it will hopefully cause some ripples and perhaps will spur some lazier minds to make another intellectual endeavour! A vain hope, but one which we must entertain! The printing is excellent and the quality of paper excellent. General Rafi has made a landmark effort in military history writing. His work has filled a serious void in Pakistani military history. We wish him best of luck with the third volume and hope he will be more forthright in dealing with Pakistani military history which has been promiscuously mixed with myths and fantasies.
A. H Amin
Reviewer
Bethany's Bookshelf
Boone's Creek
Kathryn Neff Perry
Publish America
P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705
1605631655, $19.95, www.publishamerica.com
A grandmother goes missing, and a long search is needed to find her. "Boone's Creek: Almost Home" is the novel of Jenna's quest to find her grandmother, after a terrible accident strikes her family. Desperate to set things right alongside Nikko, her beloved dog, and Joe, the only man willing to help her, "Boone's Creek" is a story of love and overcoming adversity, sure to please readers looking for some thrills mixed with their romance.
Saratoga Sunset
Charles D. Gray
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 South Parker Road, #515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432725709, $23.95 www.outskirtspress.com 1-888-672-6657
Saratoga Sunset is an original novel told in the form of written letters. Set during the course of the 1900's in glitzy Saratoga Springs, New York - known widely as a health spa and a prime place for gambling long before Las Vegas was fully established - Saratoga Springs follows the Steele family through the generations. An absorbing saga of horses, health spas, and ordinary people driving the life of an extraordinary city, Saratoga Sunset is an exceptionally detailed saga bringing a corner of historic New England to vivid life.
A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles
Joe R. Jesseph
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd – 515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432716738, $21.95, www.outskirtspress.com
What makes some people believe in miracles? "A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles" is a scholarly reference that gives a solid introduction to the thought system used in the 1975 psychology book "A Course in Miracles", which has been translated into eighteen different languages. Accessible to both early psychology students and non-specialist general readers, "A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles" is an informed and informative piece sure to answer many common questions, and a fine choice for community library psychology collections.
Half Girl
Stephanie Dickinson
Spuyten Duyvil
42 St. John's Place (Grdn), Brooklyn, NY 11217
1933132183, $14.00, www.spuytenduyvil.net
Leaving home is never something that goes easy. "Half Girl" follows Angelique as she is left sprung from her childhood home. Her journey is one that leaves her hitchhiking far distances, and must deal with the many twists and turns that come with living this life style as a girl in her late teens. Taking readers on an emotional roller coaster with her, "Half Girl" is a must for anyone seeking moving fiction.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Betty's Bookshelf
Gus and Button
Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Arthur A. Levine Books
557 Broadway New York, NY 10012
9780439110150 $15.95 http://www.arthuralevinebooks.com
Once again, Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers have proven that, if their mothers ever told them not to play with their food, they - happily for us - didn't listen. Gus, a little mushroom boy, and Button, his little mushroom dog, live with Gus's family in a boringly beige and white town made from mushrooms, right on the edge of the Howling Forest. When Gus sees a small green thing blow past the window from the direction of the forest, he decides to take Button and brave the forest, to discover where this brightly-colored thing came from.
After an adventurous trip through the scary forest, they end up in Cornucopia, a huge colorful multi-level town carved from fruits and vegetables and surrounded by fields of exotic flowering plants, also made from vegetables. Gus makes friends with the townspeople and restores the green thing to its proper home. The grateful inhabitants of Cornucopia then take Gus home, laden with flowers for planting, where the townspeople are amazed by their colors and friendly faces.
Freymann and Elffers can see faces in fruit, villains in vegetables, and mansions in mushrooms, and after you've read this book, you may never look at produce the same way again. In the back of the book, Freymann and Elffers tell how they put the pictures together and list all the produce that was photographed to make the scenes and characters throughout the book. Be sure to catch the television, the clock tower, the church bell, and the hot air balloon. This is a must-read for anyone who needs a touch of whimsy in their lives. An amusing note: the copyright for this book was taken out by Play with Your Food, LLC. Told you they didn't listen!
The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell
Kathy-jo Wargin and Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen
Sleeping Bear Press
310 North Main St., Ste 300, Chelsea, MI 48118
9781585361267 $17.95 http://www.sleepingbearpress.com
Author Kathy-jo Wargin had a personal reason to write The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell. Her dad's first cousin, Nolan Church, was the porter on that ill-fated ship, and she remembers clearly how sad her dad was when the news of the ship's sinking came. She manages to express both the excitement of the event and the sorrow of those left behind as she tells the story, making both the shipwreck and the men come alive in the process, especially the captain, Gerald McSorley.
The ship's bell holds pride of place in the story and in the back of the book, Wargin tells of how the original bell was brought up on July 4, 1995, and replaced with a replica, engraved with the names of the lost crewmen, to act as a grave marker. The original bell is now on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan, 17 miles from the location of the shipwreck. She also tells briefly in the front how the Great Lakes were carved out and filled long ago by glaciers.
Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen's oil paintings add atmosphere to the story and show clearly the amount of time he spent roaming around similar ships for inspiration. This book would be a good choice for a classroom or school library and could be used to start a unit on erosion, glaciers, shipping, or the Great Lakes (especially Lake Superior, where the tragedy occurred).
Betty Winslow
Reviewer
Bob's Bookshelf
The Bible of Clay
Julia Navarro
Translated by Andrew Hurley
Bantam Dell Publishing
1745 Broadway, New York, New York 10019
9780385339636 $24.00 www.randomhouse.com
Madrid based novelist Julia Navarro in her latest thriller, "The Bible of Clay" introduces readers to archaeologist Clara Tannenberg as she sets off on the most ambitious international "dig" in modern history.
The goal is to locate the fabled ancient tablets known as the Bible of Clay, which reputedly relates the story of Genesis as first told by the patriarch Abraham. A crack European team of archaeologists, thieves set on plundering the ancient world's treasures, and even a group of international criminals who wish to claim the priceless piece of history themselves make this treasure hunt an "adventure" that will keep readers breathlessly flipping the pages to see what happens next.
Ranging from the deserts of modern Iraq to the storied historical sites of ancient Mesopotamia and the seats of power across the world, "The Bible of Clay" is a tale that recasts the very foundations of modern religion.
The Eye of Jade
A Mei Wang Mystery
Diane Wei Liang
Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
9781416549550 $24.00 www.simonsays.com
"The Eye of Jade" by Diane Wei Liang marks the debut of a new mystery series featuring Mei Wang, the first ever female private detective in China's teeming capital.
The young woman worked at the Ministry of Public Security (China's equivalent of Scotland Yard) before she resigned under circumstances she refuses to discuss. Now, Mei Wang has set herself up as a one woman investigative firm euphemistically known as "an information consultancy".
Her first client turns out to be an old family friend who comes to her office to discuss the whereabouts of a rare piece of white jade. A royal seal from the Han Dynasty went missing from the Luoyang Museum during the Cultural Revolution when so much of the country's heritage and treasures were either destroyed in the name of Maoist zealotry or just disappeared thanks to self-serving looters.
Since another artifact "rescued" from the museum during those bleak times has recently been sold on the black market, Mei Wang's first client believes the jade seal could suffer a similar fate. Now it's up to the fledgling PI to find the missing seal before it, too, is "lost" forever.
Offering a fascinating firsthand glimpse into the three-pronged clash between China's ancient ways, its often dark Communist legacy, and its struggles to embrace free market capitalism, this impressive debut takes the reader to where few mystery writers have gone before and is chock-full of exotic characters and background material. Here's a great pre-Olympic read to set the cultural stage for what you'll soon be viewing in your family TV each evening!
South of Shiloh
Chuck Logan
HarperCollins
10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022-5299
9780061136697 $24.95 www.harpercollins.com
"South of Shiloh" features a mysterious gunman targeting modern-day "soldiers" as they reenact a Civil War battle. When Paul Edin decides to participate in the recreation of the Battle of Kirby Creek, he's not expecting live ammunition nor that a bullet will end his life.
Was the single shot really intended for the Minnesota insurance agent or the Mississippi deputy sheriff standing right next to him? Edin's bereaved wife is convinced the bullet was intended for the lawman and asks an old friend and ex-cop, John Rane, to look into the slaying that was dismissed as a "tragic accident".
Rane quickly realizes he's not welcome in the community where the faux battle took place. But with the assistance of the man he believes was the intended victim, Rane launches an informal investigation that turns up a very interesting land deal and a very determined killer.
Bob Walch
Reviewer
Buhle's Bookshelf
I Know How Hard You Work
Paul Sybert
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
Star Treatment (publicity)
PO Box 133, Beaver Crossing, NE 68813
9780595460793, $13.95, www.iuniverse.com
Strokes can strike at almost any time, which makes them so terrifying. "I Know How Hard You Work: A Journey Through Stroke Recovery" is Paul Sybert's reflection on his own horrifying ordeal when he was faced with an ischemic stroke. He recounts his long road to recovery and hopes to offer readers hope to overcome their own strokes if they are ever unfortunate to experience it. "I Know How Hard You Work" is a must, and a gift to give to anyone who is facing this daunting task of recovery themselves.
Love and Immortality
William Pillow
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403
9780595463176, $21.95, www.iuniverse.com
If we're all destined to die, what's the purpose behind it all? William Pillow's "Love and Immortality: Long Journey of My Heart" is a practical and informative guide to overcoming the fear of death and to living life with zestful enjoyment and acceptance of the natural order. Encouraging people to find their spirit and be happy with their lives or do what it takes to be so, Pillow's message is positive and strong. An inspired and inspiring read, "Love and Immortality" is highly recommended for its encouragement to anyone who is grappling with the realization of their own mortality.
Riddle of the Atlantis Moon
Mike Breslin
Publish America
P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705
Mike Breslin Productions (publicity)
16 Butternut Avenue, Midland Park, NJ 07432
1605632309, $16.95, www.publishamerica.com
The story of Ryan and his memories continues in "Riddle of the Atlantis Moon: A Novel of Sea Adventure, Romance, & Philosophy" is the third book following 'Found at Sea' and 'Mystery of the Fjord Tide'. A story of unraveling the mysteries of Atlantis, with the blend containing rebel Irish Republican army leaders, Jersey mobsters, and more, author Mike Breslin has written a unique tale that is certain to please readers looking for originality. "Riddle of the Atlantis Moon" is a highly recommended tale for personal reading lists and community library collections.
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer
Burroughs' Bookshelf
Unafraid
Jeff Golden
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
9780595471928, $18.95, www.iuniverse.com
What if is a question commonly asked, and "Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible" seeks to answer it. A look back into what history could have been had the assassin of President John F. Kennedy had failed in his mission. With a unique story playing out that uses popular icons of twentieth century politics and using their alternative history to shed new light on them and our world in real history, "Unafraid" is a novel that historical fiction fans in general will enjoy from beginning to end.
Alaskans
Tanyo Ravicz
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
9780595447893, $14.95, www.iuniverse.com
Living in Alaska is, in a great many ways, quite different from living anywhere else in the United States. "Alaskans" is Tanyo Ravicz's collection of short stories telling of the life in the northernmost state. Inner conflicts while facing real conflict, factory accidents, mountain climbing, and more stories throughout bring forth unique and original stories which tell the reader about Alaska as they are entertained. "Alaskans" is a sign that Ravicz is an author to look out for in the future.
One Time in Paris
Wade Stevenson
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
9780595486588, $16.95, www.iuniverse.com
There are times that being in love here in the real world can sometimes trump the stories of romantic fiction. "One Time in Paris: A Memoir of the 1960s" is Wade Stevenson's engaging recollection of his own past and the love he experienced with a woman called Cynthia. Ranging. Ranging from his time in an asylum, to his residence in Berkeley, to his traveling to France, Wade's personal and candid story pulls no punches. Riveting, heartbreaking, and tragic to the end, "One Time in Paris" is highly recommended reading.
Three Flies Up
Kelley Dupuis
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd – 515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432721558, $15.95, www.outskirtspress.com
Just because you love them doesn't mean you have to like them. "Three Flies Up: My Father, Baseball, and Me" is Kelly Dupuis's reflection on his harsh relationship with his father. Baseball was the only thing they had in common and baseball was the only thing they bonded with. He recollects after he left home and returned decades later as his father is in the twilight of his life. "Three Flies Up" is a touching memoir about loving one's father even when you have little to love about them.
Mickey Mantle
Fred Glueckstein
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403
9780595469215, $15.95, www.iuniverse.com
He was a Yankee at the young age of nineteen. "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" is the story baseball legend Mickey Mantle's transformation from a teenager with a serious shyness issue and a bone disorder, through the help of his father. Covering Mantle's legendary career from 1951 onward, "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" tells how he became one of the most beloved players whose names are today synonymous with baseball. A highly recommended sports biography, sure to please Mickey Mantle fans and baseball enthusiasts everywhere.
John Burroughs
Reviewer
Carson's Bookshelf
For the Victims
Roger Grubbs
Privately Published
PO Box 5188, Winter Park, FL 32793
97809816680000, $11.95, www.forthevictimsnovel.com
Greed is the root of many evils in the word. "For the Victims" is the story of several individuals faced with the growing power of corporate America. Faced with the injustice of their disregard for the innocent, Daniel, Maria, Catherine, and Nicole must stand against a corporation for what they believe in. A deftly written novel, "For the Victims" is a classic tale of good and evil, sure to please its readers.
Outer Darkness
Bart Brevik
Privately Published
9780615165370, $21.98
A satanic cult is out to destroy a man of God's life in "Outer Darkness". A spiraling story by author Bart Brevik, this is the suspenseful story Pastor DiMario and his desire to protect his family. When DiMario's daughter is kidnapped, he has no idea what to do and may be forced to do things that his Lord would frown upon to defend the ones he loves from a sadistic group of people who out to destroy him. "Outer Darkness" is a gripping thriller, highly recommended for fans who love to be on the edge of their seat with a 'page turner' of a truly good book.
Ride for Justice
John Harte
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403
Star Treatment (publicity)
PO Box 133, Beaver Crossing, NE 68313
9780595458974, $17.95, www.iuniverse.com
The many participants in the civil war participated for many different reasons. "Ride for Justice" is a telling of these reasons. It follows one Tom, fighting sheerly out of duty and honor. It follows Jamie, one who only wants to gain glory. It follows Jack, who fights for justice. Three stories, different yet similar at the same time outline the novel, making "Ride for Justice" a highly recommended historical and western piece of fiction.
The Extraordinary Pupfish of Calaveras County
Joel Schwartz
iUniverse
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
9780595492602, $15.95, www.iuniverse.com
People are never what they are made out to be. "The Extraordinary Pupfish of Calaveras County" is a story with two unique view points. One follows Jeremy McGinnis, a fifteen-year-old whose reputation is overblown as a hero when he helps an old man suffering from an asthma attack. The other follows Eliza Hewlie, a sixty-five-year-old faced with a decision that could wreak havoc on the town's environment. "The Extraordinary Pupfish of Calaveras County" seems unusual in set up, but the execution is thoroughly entertaining, leading it to a recommendation.
