No comments about Time Warp Trio: Wushu Were Here (Time Warp Trio).

No comments about Insight Guides Southern China & Hong Kong (Insight Guides).

No comments about Spirit of China 2009 Wall Calendar (Calendar).

5 comments about Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China.

1. Just riotously funny. What a fantastic read. So much smarter than most "girl" memoirs. I actually couldn't put this one down.



2. I got this because I'm currently learning Chinese, and thinking about visiting China some day. Rachel is an excellent writer, very observant of detail (her own emotions and others' behaviors), but not drowning the reader in irrelevant and wordy prose. Rachel spent several years in Beijing, really making an effort to be absorbed in the culture, and the experience pays off. I would love to read her experiences if she decides to try living other places as well!



3. I spent many years in China. Trust me, the writer of this book was more or less COMPLETELY unknown there. Idiotically, I still read some of this book.
   
   It's just a self-promoting waste of time and it feeds a million-and-one stereotypes.



4. This is a delightfully humorous memoir, written by a young woman whose first job out of college was at an American firm in Beijing. That led to her being cast as a "foreign babe" [the English translation] in a Chinese soap opera. I read this book weeks before my own trip to Beijing. Though I am a different generation, I found her paragraphs about Chinese views of Americans to be very useful--and accurate--for my own travel.



5. The basic premise of an innocent abroad landing a starring role in a cheesy Chinese soap opera was enough to get me to read the book. And that element of the book doesn't disappoint: it's fun, the dialogue at the end of each chapter is silly, and I enjoyed googling a little bit of video from the program.
   
   However, really this book is not very well written. The soap opera is just a small part of the actual novel, and mostly comes in a big chunk at the beginning. A whole hell of a lot is given to the author talking about the generalities of China, in a very cliched way. Hey, no kidding, it's big, and the pace of change is very quick? It comes off like reading a Wikipedia page. The author also is very quick to give sweeping, shallow opinions on Chinese and American media.
   
   The author also talks about her relations with other characters, there's a girl who likes foreign guys and thinks China is backwards, a guy who is very nationalistic and given to page-long speeches about it, and no it's not interesting.
   
   Really it's a novel written by a 1st person narrator who portrays herself sympathetically, but isn't very sympathetic. This is particularly true towards the end, when she doesn't attend the funeral of a close friend who she was with when he died, because she had to go on vacation.
   
   It's a very sharp contrast to the rest of the novel, in which she depicts herself as a naive but good-hearted innocent abroad. She excuses her own behavior with a shrug, but it feels manipulative and false. There's a movie in pre-production, and really I think the story would be better told in a more objective 3rd person, and with less silly exposition.

1 comments about Passport Korea: Your Pocket Guide to Korean Business, Customs & Etiquette (Passport to the World) (Passport to the World).

1. This is a slim book with excellent information. Absolutely crucial for anyone doing business in Korea. If you're planning to visit Korea - and do plan to visit Korea, it's a great introduction to the culture and the people. Also it's well written and a fast read.

5 comments about Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel (In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel).

1. First, before starting this book, I recommend that you take a look at the authorýs two page guide to pronunciation, to better understand the Hebrew, Mizo, Thado, and Burmese words in the text. Halkin, a well known translator of Hebrew books, posits that a little-known ethnic group living along the Indian-Burmese border is descended from the ancient Jewish tribe of Manasseh. The fate of the ten lost tribes of Israel has haunted Jewish and Christian imaginations throughout the ages. Hillel Halkin has long been intrigued by the subject. And why not? Many American Jews of a certain age dreamed of an aboriginal, strong, warrior Jew, the type who could win fistfights on the way to and from junior high school. And so, Halkin embarked on a journey. In 1998, he accompanied a Jerusalem rabbi and dedicated lost-tribes hunter to China, Thailand, and northeast India, where the rabbi hoped to discover traces of the lost tribes. Halkin went with a very healthy dose of skepticism. Most look at Rabbi Avichail as a well meaning crackpot. Whatever the Rabbi is, he makes for an interesting story, having traveled to Marranos in Portugal, Karens in Burma, Tatars in Dagestan, Kananites in Kerala, and ýIndiansý in Manipur and Mizoram. The book captures your interest from its first paragraph. The Sabbath is approaching as Halkin and the rabbi are searching out the non-Chinese Chiangýs in Western Szechuan. Then the police arrive at their hotel. Youýll have to read the book to find out what happens. After a variety of adventures and misadventures, Halkin returned several times to the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, where 5000 people belive they are a lost tribe of Hebrews. Are these people the victims of a mass cultural delusion, having accepted a myth to promote and reinforce their distinct cultural identity? Or are the actually descendants of some Bnai Menashe? Are these Kuki-Chin-Mizo people, living along the Indian-Burmese border, descended from the ancient biblical tribe of Manasseh. Halkin isnýt a scholar, linguist, or ethnographer, but neither am I, and the story is still fascinating. Why do they have a song about crossing the Red Sea while living in Northeast India, a song they have sung prior to any missionaries showing up and one that contains ancient words? Why do they have a god named Yah(za), a history of brit milah circumcision on the eighth day after birth, a mourning period of 7 days, a Spring festival of unleavened bread (among rice eaters), and the use of the word ýselah.ý There are some who broke away and even started a competing shul (if thatýs not Jewish, what is?) Whatever you decide, the book is an exciting, mysterious and enlightening read. Sign me up for a Bnai Menashe kippah?



2. Hillel Harkin's study of the fabled 10 lost tribes of Israel succeeds because he is not an anthropologist or biblical scholar. Indeed, if one is looking for an in depth study of the lost tribes and their hypothetical present locations, this probably is not the best place to go. However, if you are looking for a story rooted in history, told by a world traveler who writes sweeping narratives and locale descriptions, than this is your best bet.

   The story of the lost tribes is a fascinating one. It is so interesting that thousands of anthropologists and explorers have spent their whole life looking for this group of ancient Jews. The story is as mysterious as it is educational. In the 8th century BC, the Assyrians conquered northern Israel. The ten tribes of Jews that inhabited the area were mostly uprooted and moved, east, to the vast areas of the Assyrian Empire. After that, no one is sure where they ended up. It would be a good guess that wherever they settled, they were assimilated into the native culture, but influenced the natives greatly, possibly with their monotheist religion. This may seem to many as a curious historical footnote, but to some in the Jewish religion, it is one of the most important factors in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The location and return of the 10 northern tribes is an integral part of Jewish tradition, even if many have cast it off as a relic of the past.

   Harkin story follows the travels of one Rabbi Avichail, an eccentric but dedicated Jewish scholar. Avichail firmly believes that the tribes and their culture can still be found, in former Assyrian areas such as India, Central Asia, and China. Now, just years ago, this was deemed almost absurd. However, with recent technological and genetic discoveries, the lineage of some of these groups is no longer hypothetical. Roman genes in China and Greek genes in Afghanistan have been discovered, pointing to ancient connections. Avichail believes that he can find these groups, and return them to the promise land. Harkin is skeptical at first, mainly because the often shaky evidence Avichail provides, and the fruitless tribe search in southern China. However, he, and the reader, soon become fascinated by the Mizo people of northeastern India. They passionately claim lineage to the Manasseh, one of the lost tribes. They share some intriguing similarities, such as one God known as Ya (Yahweh), an old song of the Red Sea, and ritual circumcision. The Mizo are constantly split from within, as Christianity and cultural strife strain the relationship between them and their old ways. Avichail and his party, including Harkin, are quickly wrapped up into this intriguing cultural and religious situation.

   The book benefits from Harkins insightful eye, which look into almost every facet of Avichail, the Mizo, and their claims. The sweeping descriptions of the areas the party visits and the surrounding political situations are vivid and entertaining. It is a remarkable hybrid of a travel, history, and religious narrative that synthesizes very well.

   A fascinating read.




3. "Sabbath River" is well researched and well written, but it suffers from the absence of graphics: maps, timelines, and tables. Halkin would better serve his 21st century audience with visuals. Call me intellectually lazy, but I would have been fully on-board this "great adventure" had the author used graphics. As it was, I read the first half and thumbed through the latter half-unable to trudge through the details that could have been fleshed-out graphically. For example, in the final chapters much is made of various obscure texts, but these are never put into perspective on a graphic that shows their temporal and spatial context. In another case, the author cites a "lost," then "found" will of questionable provenance. I wanted to see the picture of the will-a picture of the will with arrows pointing to all its questionable features. This books is attractive to the curious, but it suffers from an insufficient number of graphics.



4. This is an enormously enjoyable book that is both educational and thrilling. In 1999, Israeli journalist Hillel Halkin accompanied the eccentric Rabbi Avichail to Mizoram (in Northeast India near the Burma border) in order to investigate whether the Mizo people who lived there were indeed the descendants of one of the "Lost Tribes of Israel." Halkin is skeptical and constantly has to challenge Rabbi Avichail's fanatic true-believer mindset. Then Halkin's own investigative methods begin to reveal surprising things. This is a fascinating scientific mystery. Halkin entertainingly gives a clear history of the lost tribes as well as the many theories about what happened to them that have been posited by others over the centuries (including the once popular notion that the Lost Tribes wound up in North America, in which belief the Mormon Church is rooted). The Mizo people believe that they are Jews and want to get back to their true roots. They also want to immigrate to Israel for a better life. As a result they throw themselves into the study of Judaism with the zeal of Holy Rollers at a revival meeting. Rival synagogues are founded that try to incorporate Jesus into Jewish teaching. Rabbi Avichail has his hands full when he tries to explain to them that they cannot do that. The Mizo people had thrown off their indigenous religion in favor of Fundamentalist Christianity at the beginning of the 20th Century. There are very few people among them who remember anything about the former religion. Halkin tries to find out what, if anything, their former religion had in common with Judaism. His efforts are hampered, Halkin realizes, by his third-rate con man translator, who is not above creating phony evidence and altering existing evidence. His investigations hit mostly dead ends until several tantalizing clues and his non-academic approach seemingly solve the mystery in which there were next to no clues. Journalist, linguist and scientist, Halkin is a brilliant man who has written a brilliant book. I found ACROSS THE SABBATH RIVER a very satisfying reading experience. Highly recommended. Five Stars.



5. Hillel Halkin has done a marvelous job of consolidating the knowledge of a lost people and weeded out myth, superstition and misplaced information.
   
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   DON'T READ PAST HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT THE CONCLUSIONS THAT HALKIN CAME TO IN THE END.
   
   On a trip to NorthEast India, Halkin was bit by the "Lost Tribe" bug that has had Jews looking all over the world for the northern tribes of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian Empire in the 7th century b.c.e. Where did they go? Based on this study by Hillel, part of the tribe of Manasseh migrated across central asia, past Tibet and into the Burma/India border area.
   
   He studied the stories told by " the old people " who predated the Kuki-Mizo-Chin migration into the Mizoram/Assam area of northeast India. Once the area was under British protectorship in the late nineteenth century, many of the stories/storytellers were lost because of the proselytizing of Christian missionaries. The missionaries did their best to destroy the old religion, and force people not to teach it or the language of the priesthood to the next generation.
   
   Luckily, Hillel was able to find one man, who himself was quite elderly, who had spent forty years, collecting and documenting the old stories and religious rites. What he was able to prove in the end was that included in the old stories were parts of stories from the Old Testament that had been passed down in families prior to the OT being translated into the indigenous language or taught by the missionaries (many who considered the OT to be too Hebraic and not 'christian' oriented).
   
   Though these families had 'israelite' traditions, they were a hodgepodge of stories that had been enbedded with local history and myth. Halkin was able to establish the authenticity of the stories. But, it need study by Forensic Anthropologists to prove how much of the story was OT and how much was passed on from another (members of a lost tribe?) people.

1 comments about China South Map.

1. This series of maps is the best that I have seen for China for westerners. I suspect that their maps for other areas are just as good!

2 comments about Treasures of China.

1. this book is a must read for all ardent followers of world history. it reveals a lot of priceless heirlooms of mankind which far exceed other world heritage such as the colossus of rhode the library of alexandria and temples of incas. surely a very must buy for all amazon buyers



2. A beautiful book giving concise summaries and photographs of the most astounding sites and national treasures in China. A very helpful book for someone planning a trip and wanting to visit some of the spectacular scenery and sites of China.

3 comments about Culture Shock! Shanghai: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! At Your Door: A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette).

1. I highly reccomend this book to anyone relocating to Shanghai. The chapters on visas, housing & goods relocation offer well written advice that is easily worth the price of the book.
   
   It also provides a great overview on Shanghai's history, Shanghai's people and doing business in Shanghai. While other books cover all of these subjects in much more detail, I find this book offers a great overview for someone who has a billion other things to prepare before any relocation.
   
   The guided walking tours offered in the book were accurate and interesting.
   
   A great airplane read overall.



2. Information covered is broad but shallow. Useful pieces of knowledge are often buried in the middle of long blocks of text instead of being highlighted or placed within easier to find tables. The index is of little help as it is small and cursory. Beware of using contact information as some groups/businesses/locations have changed or no longer exist. Some is just flat out wrong. I tried to pick up a set of the plasticized location flash cards for use with taxis as described on pg 112 from the Am Cham office but they had never heard of them. They even copied the page and book information to tell the publisher that their information was wrong. A far more useful guide for expats moving to Shanghai is Passport Shanghai. It's more difficult to find but it's well worth it.



3. We are planning to move to Shanghai for some years. This book has been excellent (I think. I gues I can really tell by the end of this year). Just what I had been looking for. It's not a travel guide, though it certainly points out places of interest. Information about living areas, things to do, service, expectations, transportation, shopping, etc. Most things I have been "googleing" through on the internet all in one book. Maybe some pictures would have been nice. But I guess that is not in the "nature" of this book.

5 comments about Where the Pavement Ends: One Woman's Bicycle Trip Through Mongolia, China & Vietnam.

1. I found so much interesting firsthand information about Mongolia, China, and VietNam in this interesting book and for that I am grateful to the author.

   I did feel, not far into the book, that she was rather impetuous in her decision to take this 5,000 mile journey and was not very well-prepared at all. Right away, trying to cross the border into Mongolia was an issue for her and something that I thought she should have found out about beforehand. She also made some serious safety mistakes, as when she was accosted by the two young men on horseback in Mongolia. She could have easily lost her life.

   Her writing beautifully captures the natural beauty of the lands through which she traveled and also the basic goodness of the people whom she encountered during her journey.

   A good reading experience.




2. I picked up this book in anticipation of summer travels and was looking to get a woman's perspective on some of the places I will be going. I enjoyed reading about her different adventures, but ultimately was a little annoyed and bored. Her story was inspiring and what she did was amazing, but the way it was written was rather flat. And, I feel that if you are going to include pictures in your book, they should have accurate labels as to who they are of and when they were taken. In all, an okay book but not a stellar read.



3. The good news is, I really liked this book. The bad news is that when I finished it I quit my job, sold the house, drained my IRA and bought a bicycle.

   If you have ever traveled in the third world and experienced the mixed emotions of being a rich American in a poor country you will recognize yourself in this story. From the priceless experiences she has with people who let her into their homes and into their worlds, to those who have had much more experience with wealthy Western travelers and make their livings from them, she captures the two sides of this kind of travel.

   This is a book about a journey, not an expedition. Unlike so many books of this genre, the author parks her ego at the door. While riding a bike, especially as far as she does, is an athletic accomplishment this is not a book about an athlete. She does not try to impress us about how many kilometers she rides a day or how difficult a particular mountain pass was to climb. This is the story of a journey by an intelligent and introspective woman who is interested in getting away from the hippie travel circuit and seeing places she is told not to go and learning about people you will not see from the train or meet in the tourist hotel.

   How wonderful it must be to have all you really need with you on your bike and not really care that you don't know exactly where you are.




4. I enjoyed this book and oftentimes found the narrative absorbing. I was astonished by the contrasts particularly between Mongolia, with its frigid weather, expansive plains, and childlike adults, and Vietnam, with its tropical beaches and aggressive, war-weary toddlers! Attention to detail really enlivened the book. I particularly liked the linguistic asides and descriptions of different foods. I always looked forward to the pictures, although I sorely missed a photo of Beijing. The chapter about the author's trip over a dangerous Chinese mountain on her way to Xiangning was loaded with suspense! But then there was no resolution. After her harrowing experience, we needed to see her actually arrive in Xiangning.
   
   The book needed an epilogue, with the author safely ensconsced in her apartment in Vladivostok or Seattle, observing her surroundings and providing the reader with a final sense of perspective.
   
   And it would've been great to have an index in the back, so the reader could easily look up a word or reference that might've appeared 100 pages hence. I had to stick a post-it on page 42 so I could keep looking up the word "orom"!
   
   I hope the author elects to do this again in a completely different part of the world.



5. Far too often discretion is overthrown in favor of "attitude". How refreshing to read a book that not only reflects thoughtfully on cross cultural respect and understanding, but avoids the self-indulgence that is all-too common in travelogues.
   
   Ms. Warmbrunn is, in a very real sense, an adventurer. Setting out independently to explore countries alien to her, she exposes herself to physical danger, political intrigue, environmental challenges, and emotional reward...all from the seat of Green, her beloved bicycle.
   
   Through her experiences of Mongolian culture, and her reflections on their history, I learned more about that part of the world than through any history book I had previously read.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever wanted to travel ANYWHERE, who has loved riding a bike, has wanted to be the hero in their own story, or who simply loves the skillful execution of a well-turned phrase. Arm-chair and adventurer travellers alike will warm to this book.
   
   In my heart of hearts, I'd like to think Erika and I would become best friends. I'd invite her to tea, or maybe we'd go to the theatre, and then after spinning around a model globe, which would stop when a finger was placed on it, we'd announce "Let's go there!", and then make plans to head out.
   
   Barring that grand experience, I console myself with her presence on my bookshelf, and hope that you, gentle reader, may do the same.