This is Kirwan's city, let him tell you about it
583959
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There is a  bouncing back and forth between gentle songs and rocking beats that is a little jarring, but it seems somehow appropriate in this ode to Kirwan's New York; each song taking on a different aspect of the city, a city
It wouldn't be a Black 47 recording without a little history lesson. This one starts out with a remembrance of the "San Patricio Brigade," immigrant soldiers who joined the Mexican Army when they could no longer tolerate the abuse they suffered in the American army. Not one of the stronger historical reminiscences, this one's a bit of a throwaway. But things kick up into another gear as the title cut, with its commentary on 9/11 as "talking heads are chattering on television" and "the people want answers not patronizing." Leave you with the idea that there is no loss of edge here and with a funky beat to boot. The pain of that fateful day hits again as "Orphan of The Storm" takes another look at what is left behind when you leave the "Old Country," a theme that runs throughout Kirwan's work, this time with a little less longing until 9/11 hits. A number of duets highlight this CD. Roseanne Cash adds an emotional vocal to "Fiona's Song," and then in a shock to the system David Johansen vamps it up with Kirwan on the wonderfully silly "Staten Island Baby." Then in another stunning change of pace, Kirwan unleashes the heart of this piece, his remembrance of Father Mychal Judge, OFM; a song with some of Kirwan's most touching lyrics,
"We all have sorrow, our share of trials
We all are sinners in each other's eyes
Love alone can heal the pain
God bestows love in so many ways"
The rest of the CD works just as well with tales of "Livin' In America" ("Oh Mammy dear we're all mad over here.") and a rap about an uptown girl and a downtown boy that just makes you smile at Kirwan's sense of humor and Rozz Moorehead's saucy vocals.
The band holds things together throughout with occasional flights of fancy with Blythe and Parcells horns and once again you will experience a truly original band when you give this a listen.
1214270
You've got a nice mix of interesting buildings here - including at least one with three stories. These would be great for urban locales that are visited multiple times. Highly recommended.
2365039
The Eastern Bank of the Mediterranean Sea is part of the area where civilization sprang from Hunter Gatherers.  In this book, James A. Michener tells the story of a "tell."  A tell is a mound commonly found in the Middle East that is the result of city being built upon city. It has sloping, conical sides and a flat top.

This tell is the city of Makor.  It is first inhabited by native, Stone Age people who leave their caves and start to develop religion and follows the city through the crusades, where German Crusaders hold out against the Mamluk invaders.  Michener also explores the controversies surrounding the modern state of Israel.

This is a long, and interesting novel, sure to entrap any reader.
3470575
I enjoy learning of Hezekiah's tunnel having  traveled through it while in Israel.
Lynn Austin has a way of placing you inside the old city walls.
4759054
Fin is an Irish journalist living in Cairo who has lost his moorings in life, along with his job. Within a day's time, he is beaten up a few times and resumes his friendship with Farouk, a resident in a historic tourist-trap village near the pyramids. Farouk, it seems, may have the secrets that Fin wants to hear in order to find new meaning in life. Fin will do anything, including being thrown in the polluted Nile, to hear the story of Skinhead Sad.

Rowan Somerville has his finger on the pulse of Cairo, and its perpetual energy. His descriptions of the city are spot on. Even if his transliteration and usage of Arabic words is not perfect, it brings color to his portrayal of a expat's day in the city. This book is some crazy "halwasa," to add another colloquialism to the description.
1454456
I have been to Bishkek, one focal point of the story, and a number of other places mentioned. It was fun to read about these places to get someone else's perspective.
4852958
I ordered Goliath way back in February based on an interview I had seen with the author Max Blumenthal. I received delivery where I live in Morocco around the beginning of October. Thank you, Amazon!

This book's 400 pages may be daunting for some, but since it's divided into short chapters, it is quite accessible.

Truth be told, I'm just about to start chapter 11. I have to say that nearly everything I've read so far I've heard about before from many other authors, and also from my personal experience. It's all well established fact. Max is not just a news reporter but a brilliant investigative journalist. Max writes like he speaks, with a lot of thought, and I know you will find reading Goliath an education to say the least.

In the middle of December of 2000 I landed at Ben Gurion airport on my way to the Faisal hostel in east Jerusalem. I went to participate in a march in support of Palestinians from Bethlehem who wanted to come to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan, against Israeli rules. I was to stay for 2 weeks, but what I witnessed just in east Jerusalem,seeing Arab citizens of Israel attacked by Israeli police on horseback for instance, made me want to learn more. My 2 weeks turned into more than 2 1/2 years, on a 3 month Israeli visa! They were not too happy when they finally deported me at the end of June, 2003. 

Remember that the 2nd Intifada
(uprising) had just started at the end of September 2000. At the time, I wouldn't have known what the word 'intifada' even meant. I do now, and a whole lot more, and I will know much more when I've finished this book.

I went to Nablus in the northern West Bank and was accepted as a volunteer at An-Najah National University in that city, starting work in the Public Relations Department in April 2001.

For a year I lived with Palestinian professors from the university, and another year with a Palestinian student friend. It was during the second year that the Israeli army (IDF) invaded the entire West Bank, and I have vivid memories of everything that happened in Nablus in April 2002. I remember huddling in a corner on the floor in the dark with my friend, afraid that they would come to our door! Bombs going off all night.

You've heard of the Jenin refugee camp massacre? Well, in November of that year, when travel became possible, I went there with my friend to visit his family in the camp. A weekend turned into a week as we were unable to leave. Why? The IDF invaded while we were there!

I have many many stories to tell personally, but I will let Max Blumenthal tell you all about it.

Read this book, and buy it for your adult children as a Christmas gift!

Disregard the negative one-star reviews written by nasty people who don't want you to learn the truth about Israel.

*******

Here I have edited my review to add a review of Goliath by Chris Hedges.
Please feel free to critique it!

[...]
2462087
A guided tour by Benjamin Netanyahu??  What could be better than that?
He knows his stuff about this wonderful country.
1245515
if you're a resident or like me a long time and frequent visitor to nyc you'll enjoy seeing a few ads in the book that you've noticed before, or, noticing some for the first time, now that you've seen them in the book. In any event, it's a great connection to a part of the city that's faded but still there if you know where to look.
4391640
A wonderful little book prepared as a guided tour through the major historical sites in Jerusalem, ranging from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Knesset.  Chronological if only by way of starting at the oldest center of the old city and working forward. But each step is so deeply layered in time.  The book is first and foremost a chronicle of the folly of humanity as embodied by the idiotic wars between the various brands of clergy, and the more bloody affairs related to racial and ethnic riots.  So much of it based on ignorance escalating into endless rounds of reprisal.  You can see so many preposterous legends fabricated out of nothing and being transformed into venerable truths.  The story of Mohammads  midnight ascension from Jerusalem apparently fabricated after the fact, with some assuming that he must have risen from the rock at Jerusalem, and others saying its not possible because no city could be more holy than Karbala  if he ascended to heaven from anywhere, it had to be there.  The heroes of the story are the Victorian Englishmen such as Warren, Storrs, and Ashbee.  The list of improvements made under the British is substantial  sanitation, water supplies, education, and medical care.  In fact, part of the aura of the city seems to stem from the value that outsiders put upon the place as well as the improvements that were made to the infrastructure.  So this is not a complete history, but presents so many hallowed shrines in a very interesting light.  I liked the quote of some anonymous nun that even if the Lithostratus Pavement Stones were late Roman and therefore never trodden trodden by Jesus, they were still holy by way of the many centuries of prayer said over them.  That pretty much tells the story of this particular book.
691232
I don't think this book is appropriately named, but it is an excellent history of conflict betweeb Islam and Zionism. I wonder how many Islamic people believe their own book, the Koran, when it says that land was given by God to Israel?

The Table (The Food) 5:19-21

People of the Book!  Our Apostle has come to you with revelations after an interval during which there were no apostles, lest you say:

'No one has come to give us good news or to warn us.'  Now someone has come to give you good news and to warn you. God has power over all things.  Bear in mind the words of Moses to his people. He said:

'Remember, my people, the favour which God has bestowed upon you.

He has raised up prophets among you, made you kings, and given you that which He has given to no other nation.  Enter, my people, the holy land which God has assigned for you.  Do not turn back or you shall be ruined.'

Jonah (Yunus) 10:93

We settled the Israelites in a blessed land and provided them with good things. Nor did they disagree among themselves until knowledge was given them.  Your Lord will judge their differences on the Day of the Resurrection.

I think everyone should ask themselves, what country would I want to live in if I lived in the middle east? An American would be better off in Israel than in Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia probably anywhere else.

If you were a Christian, it wouldn't matter if you were Arab, Jewish or whatever, you would still be better off in Israel. Let's face it, Islamic countries are mean to people.  I am not saying Israel is perfect, but they are better.

Frankly, I think Moslems are better off in Israel than in Islamic countries.  There is a reason why we are allies with Israel, they deserve it more than others.  I am not a Zionist, and I do not support Israel "right or wrong" anymore than I do my own country or church, but I find it extremely hard to see how anyone can compare the two ideologies and favor an Islamic country over Israel OR America.

I am a Christian, and I don't expect God's blessing on Israel until it repents and turns to Jesus (which is done through the changed heart of individual to idividual through the gentle persuasion and wooing of the Holy Spirit, unlike Islam), anymore than I would expect God's blessing to remain on America if it does not cling to Him.

This book tells it like it is.  I don't hate anyone, but I will not favor them over the truth either.  I think we need to STOP looking the other way and pretending a false image for Islam in order to be politically correct.  There is a war being waged against Christians and Jews and anyone who will not bow the knee to Islam all over the world and it has been going on for a very long time, long before the crusades.

The Spoils 8:39 "Make war on them until idolatry shall cease

and God's religion shall reign supreme."

Repentance 9:123 "Believers, make war on the infidels who

dwell around you.  Deal firmly with them.  Know that God is

with the righteous."

The Spider 29:69 Those who fight for Islam will be guided by

God.

God bless us and open the eyes of the perishing.

Daboniel Hereticus
324007
I was born and I currently live in Palermo. I had the chance to meet the authors and like many citizens I tried to help them to get the best of the city and I hungrily followed their blog posts (like many other palermitans) ending up in one of the stories told by them. As an insider I consider their perspective on this strange city, really fascinating and reliable. Obviously if you expect to read a traditional travel guide book with loads of information about everything, you might be disappointed, like one of the reviewers on this page (by the way, I think that a review can be hard but it should be never offensive), but if you want to get a bit of the real taste of Palermo, if you want to look at the people instead of at the stones only,  this account is still one of the best I have read about Palermo and its people.
4673725
A must if you are interested in what is happening in the near east now and why it should not come as any suprise
541701
Jerusalem is the story of the most famous spiritual city in the world! The tale is told in a large brick o a book by Dr. Simon Sebag-Montefiore. His distinguished Jewish family has done much to build and preserve Jewish buidling in Jerusalem including the famous Montefiore Windmill constructed in the nineteenth century. The author is also famous for his work "Stalin: In the Court of the Red Tsar" The Bill Clinton endorsement of this massive tome resonates with this reviewer. Clinton says that the book "...tells you what the life of the city has been like and why it means so much..."
  How encapsulate all of the sights, sounds, smells, battles, colorful personalities and spiritual leaders who have made the ancient city so important? Here are King David and Muhammed, Jesus and the Sultans; the Crusaders; Mamlukes; Turks; and countless other conquerors and victims who have spilled blood and built buildings in the Zion fortress on Mt. Zion. Here are the Muslim Dome of the Rock built in the seventh century and updated by Suieleman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century; her is the Jewish Western Wall built by Herod the Great and Sacred to the Jews and here is the Via Dolorosa and the hill of Gogotha where Jesus Christ was crucified. Here is the Church of the Holy Sepluchre constructed at the behest of Helena the mother of Constantine the Great and fought over ever since.
  Fascinating figures, colorful anecdotes and well researched and well written history make this book the sine qua non for those persons who wish to know more about Jerusalem. As a Presbyterian pastor I have greatly increased my understanding of Jerusalem by perusing these many pages. The book is well illustrated and the many footnotes are illuminating. Well recommended!
3982451
Shadid shows us a rich, three-dimensional view of his ancestors' town, exploring the fascinating characters he met there as well as his own ambivalent but powerful feelings for that long-neglected and abused area of Lebanon. His goals are quite audacious, though, linking the troubled lives he gets to know in the fading town of Majayoun (and the lives of his own family) with the waves of historical and sociological change that swept over the whole Middle East. Here he is less successful, because he does not attempt a rigorous historical analysis (nor would one want one, in this beautifully lyrical book) but it means that the reader is left with only vague impressions of the forces tearing the country apart. Nor does it become clear why Shadid was so determined to spend his assets and a critical year of his life on the quixotic project of rebuilding on the site of his great-grandfather's house. Nevertheless, the venture seems worth it all.
3035726
When I went to Israel - I was so fortunate to get to spend 10 days with Andre Moubarak - who was born in Jerusalem and grew up in its streets. He began giving "directions" to tourist as a little lad in exchange for chocolates! You can only imagine what he has seen through his life in Israel - and now, you can spend some time "walking with him" as he guides you in places you may never physically get to go.
I am ever grateful God allowed me to place my feet upon His special land and now grateful I can tour it again through Andre's writings. I encourage you - give yourself the gift of a tour that builds your faith and spend a Friday in Jerusalem through his book - you will be so blessed by it!!
And if you can travel to Israel - but sure to contact Twin Tours to arrange your very special trip!
2814179
This is the story of Raja, from abandonment by his mother shortly after his birth, to middle age and grandfatherhood; and of Nilu, the love of his life, and to a lesser extent of Kaki, who took care of him after Bokey Ba found him crying and brought him to her, and Ganga Da and Jamuna Mummy who more or less stole Raja from Kaki, and Raja and Nilu's son Maitreya and daughter Ranjana and granddaughter Kali.  I would guess that Maitreya* was so named for his parents' great hopes for him, and Kali because of her dark complexion. Ganga Da was a man, but I wonder about the connection, if any, with the female Ganga, goddess of the Ganges river.  I suspect that if I were more familiar with Hinduism and its offshoot, Buddhism, I would recognize many more allusions thereto.

The story is told against the background of Kathmandu and its political problems and uphevals in the latter half of the twentieth century, and the author seems to assume the reader is already familiar with that milieu.  Fortunately, I had recently read Johnathan Green's excellent&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Murder-in-the-High-Himalaya-Loyalty-Tragedy-and-Escape-from-Tibet/dp/1586487140/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet</a>, so I at least had a pretty good idea of where Kathmandu is, but when Dr. Upadhyay described it as a small city, I pictured something about the size of Santa Fe, N.M. (62,203), not the 671,876 (like Memphis, Tenn.) Kathmandu was at the end of the 20th century.  I was struck by how greatly the Kathmandu of BUDDHA'S ORPHANS seemed to have much the flavor of small-town America (or that most overgrown of small towns, Memphis).

It would be most helpful if the book included a map showing the major streets and neighborhoods portrayed therein, and an appendix with a chronological outline of the major events in Nepal during the 20th century.  Had it possessed these aids to comprehension, I think it would have justified a fifth star.

watziznayme@gmail.com

* Maitreya, according to tradition, is a bodhisattva who will someday be embodied as a successor to Siddhartha Gautama (the original Buddha)