Subtitled, "A Family's Persecution, Love, and Endurance in Communist China", this is an amazing and horrifiying autobiography of Ningkun Wu and his wife. Wu was attending graduate school in Chicago when he decided to return home to China in 1951.

Hired as a professor by a state university shortly after his arrival home, Wu was soon denounced. Described in heart-renching detail are the 22 years of persecution that followed for him and his family. Despite all that they suffered, there are few words of bitterness expressed here.

This is an excellent companion book to "to the Storm", the autobiography of Yue Daiyun. Ms. Daiyun joined the communists before the end of the civil war. Like Wu, she was hired by one of universities in Bejing, denounced during the Cultural Revolution, and then spent decades in and out of labor camps. Unlike Wu and his wife who eventually settled in America, Ms. Daiyun closes her book by forgiving the party which had tried to crush her.

Neither book could be consided as a complete history of China from the time of the Communists comint to power to the Cultural Revolution and it's aftermath, but they offer insight into how ordinary people suffered during this period.

An excellent account of the people and movements that preceded Al-Qaeda.

Yet another book whose subtitle, "The Reality Behind the Distortions, Myths, Lies, and Illusions of World War II" bears no relationship to the contents of the book. One could say that the largest distortion in the book is it's subtitle.

Armageddon does not approach WW II in the standard timeline that most other histories do. Instead the book reviews the war in different categories, Origins, Neutrals, Mobilization, Technology, Civilians and so forth. This approach gives the reader a different perspective on the events that shaped the war.

The old saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover" might as well have been invented for this book.

Written by an experienced mountaineer, this book is the story of how he came to lead an expedition to climb Nanda Devi, the tallest of the Indian Himalayan Mountains. The book is well written and the story captivating, although I could have done without much of the self-analysis woven into the book.

The dust jacket however leads one to expect a completely different read. The sub-title is "The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War's Most Daring CIA Operation". That, along with the copy on the jacket flap led me to believe that the book would be about a little known CIA operation to place a plutonium-powered listening device, aimed at China, at the top of a Himalayan mountain. While the author does write about that operation, the story he tells is more a journey of self-discovery than it is one of historical research.

Besides misleading readers, the book also suffers from poor editing. There are numerous examples of missing adjectives throughout. At one point, the author quotes an exchange of letters between former Senator Alan Cranston and the CIA. The letter FROM Senator Cranston begins "Dear Sen. Cranston". Obviously this was meant to be included with the letter from the CIA TO the Senator. A small point perhaps, but I've never noticed so many errors before in a book, which is a shame because this is a well written book. The publisher, Thunder's Mouth Press, did not do justice to Mr. Takeda.

Not one of her best, but still better than most murder mysteries. The interplay between the family of Commissario Guido Brunetti is what I find most enjoyable. An enforced 20 hour layover at O'Hare gave me the time to read three of her books in this series; I've been a fan ever since (of Donna Leon, not O'Hare).

Subtitled "Memorirs of a Chechen Surgeon", this autobiography traces the life of Baiev, from a young child growing up in a village outside Grozny to his exile in Massachusetts. During the Chechan wars, he constanly risked his life treating all patients. Condemned by Chechan fighters for treating Russian soldiers, his life hung in the balance on more than one occasion. He was finally forced to flee for his life when the Russians began hunting for the Doctor who "treated terrorists".

He was able to escape from Chechnya under the protection of a member of the Russian Federal Police from Chechnya, who later paid for his life for helping Baiev and others flee.

Baiev's matter-of-fact recounting of his life includes a rare look inside Chechan culture and Chechnya's long struggle for independence. This book is vivid illustration of how the "war on terrorism" can be used as an excuse for the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians.

The story of the Israeli invasion of Bethlehem in April 2002. A Christmas present from da wife.

I bought this book in 1979 while living in Detroit. It's been sitting gathering dust ever since. Turns out to be quite a story. Based on a near meltdown of the Fermi I fastbreeder reactor outside Detroit in 1966, the author details not only the near catastrophe, but also the politics of the  government agencies regulating and promoting nuclear energy.

As many in industry, government and even in the environmental movement lobby for nuclear energy as part of the answer for global warming, this book has once again become relevant.