I read this book long back and do not remember the contents, but I assure you : If you want to get a clear picture what's going on inside that 'damn' thing, buy and READ this THICK volume; it'll be money well spent !

This book details the encounters of Choukri with Jean Genet in Tangier over a short period of time. The prose describing the encounters and the selection of details to include in the description is masterful - in a slim volume one gains both a feeling of Morocco's bureaucrats, of the author's respect for Genet and of Genet himself. There is no hint of "gossip column" or "me with a big shot" - both of which are dangers for this type of writing. This is book is well worth your time.

good for reference if you keep in mind what's going on.

What happened in Iran and why? Mohamed Heikal has managed to bring some understanding into the build up to the Revolution of 1979. This is not a religious book, nor is it totally anti West.

We Christians hear a lot about the horrors of Islam - that is why I read this book. It is not a doctrine on Islam and its teachings, however the roots of the religion are explained and the message comes accross quite clearly why the Ayatollah mannaged to achieve what he did.

The book is well written and translated, the translations from Arabic are understandible. I found it very interesting and read it a second time to be able to more clearly grasp the sequence of events, names and places.

For somebody who wants to understand what happened in Iran in the 70's this book is a good start.

I was most disappointed with this book which promised so much yet failed to deliver.Sierra Leoneans of my generation ( 60 )generally believe that there is no smoke without fire, and Miss Forna tries hard but ultimately fails to re-invent her father as a romantic figure in African politics.The passing of time can often enhance reputations. Not, however in this case.This book with its numerous factual inaccuracies seriously disappoint.

Yours truly

Kelleh Conteh
Freetown

I came across the book by accident, while browsing in a bookstore and I was so ashamed at how little I knew about the political history of neighbouring Sierra Leone, having grown up in Nigeria. This book opened a whole new world for me, it is easy to dismiss the events in the country now as one of Africa's woes, but looking at the events which led to the country's downfall from the point of view of someone from my generation, puts it in another perspective. Forna uses prose so richly to describe the events that formed a nation and also her own immediate family. I recommend that anyone who was born into post-colonial Africa read this, especially if you now choose to live outside of the continent, for reasons best known to you. Well done, Aminatta, the spirit of your father lives on in you.

This is one of the best, if not the best book that I have read in my generation. Aminatta's painstakingly traces of forgotten memories, most revealing, bringing to life, a reincarnation of what had passed and what lead to the mayhem, that once an Athens of Africa, our country Sierra Leone, suffered in the hand of wicked nepotistic and corrupt citizens, leaders and Politicians. Every Sierra Leonean should have a copy of this brilliant book and encourage others to read it. She writes in way that I have not experience in a long time, it is one of those books that you cannot just stop reading until you get to the end. I personally recommend this book be part of reading materials prescribes by schools in Sierra Leone. It answers a lot of question, that it is hard for one not to believe its contents. The evil that men do lives after them.
Extraordinarily Brilliant!

The book had some interesting parts but was overall a dull experience. It did prompt me to take a Namibian safari but overall it was below average.

This is by far the best of the best when it comes to books on Namibia, Africa's most mysterious nation. Tahir's prose is as smooth as silk. Buy it and enjoy!

Lacks conceptual explanation of portals in detail. Most of the content from this book can be read from product documentation that comes with Product. It would have been helpfull if material is focused on developing a full portal application and developing concepts around it than explaining the tool and its features.

From installation of the Oracle9iAS to portal deployment, Mr. El Mallah's step-by-step approach makes the task of developing a portal web presence look almost easy. After plodding through several books about Oracle web development during the past two years, it was a pleasure to encounter this one. Unlike many books about Oracle, this one is actually written specifically for the developer. Not only is it technically accurate, detailed and thorough, it is also well written and logically organized. This book is an essential tool for anyone planning to implement Portal.

Akbar S Ahmed's book undoubtedly will rank amongst the important books written on Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Though I feel that Akbar Ahmed fails to explain adequately the reasons behind Mr.Jinnah's conversion for the 'Best Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity' to an Apostle of Pakistan.

I am further dismayed at the reader (rahul) from MD's comments. Sadly the reader forgot to leave his belligerant nationalism at home. He claims that 9/10 authors will have another view.. I wonder what authors is he talking about. The acclaimed biographies of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, like 'Stanley Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan', 'Bolitho's Jinnah', and even the famed Indian writers' books like Dr.Ajeet's 'Secular And nationalist Jinnah', Raj Mohan Gandhi (Gandhi's Grandson)'s book 8 muslim lives, and Sailesh Kumar Bandopadhaya's 'Quaid e Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah' seem to take the same view.. an Honest upright incorruptible Leader, who fought hard for Hindu-Muslim Unity and a United India but in the end got convinced of Pakistan. I am yet to read an author which divulges from this view. Kindly enlighten us what authors you have been reading Mr.Rahul.

Like Patrick French said 'Jinnah is the most underrated statesman of 20th century, his achievements deserve a much greater place'. Perhaps it time to give credit where its due.

Excellent book! Any fair-minded person cannot deny the fact that Jinnah is one of the greatest political leaders from South Asia. I do realize that India-Pakistan tensions make it very difficult for both sides to accept Jinnah (for Indians) and Gandhi (for Pakistanis) as great leaders but both sides cannot deny these great men their due place in history.

For an American reader, the book presents a fascinating story of a leader who single-handedly changed the course of history by creating a nation and a country in just one lifetime. The author rightly emphasizes the fact that Jinnah was a secular leader and demanded Pakistan on the basis of ground realities. I do agree with Jinnah's vision that a Hindu dominated society, with extreme elements on both sides, would have caused a civil war for decades to come. Hindu fundamentalism is on rise in India and burning of churches / mosques and killings of Christians / Muslims in various parts of India is very common. For example, last year 2000+ Muslims were killed (women raped, properties torched etc.) by Hindu mob (in just 2 days) in Indian state of Gujrat. I think the current sad plight of minorities in India (especially Muslims!) and Hindu fundamentalist BJP government in power clearly indicates that Jinnah was so right in demanding a separate homeland for his people and he did it with great success and got freedom for about 2/3 of Muslims of South Asia (living in Pakistan and Bangladesh).

An excellent book which clearly indicates that how the negative propaganda against Mr. Jinnah has obscured the fact that he is one of the greatest political leader ever produced by sub-continent. The book clearly explains that how Jinnah, once an adovacate of Hindu-Muslim unity, became a Muslim leader due to rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India starting in late 1920s (example: birth of hindu fundamentalist party RSS in late 1920s which also assasinated Mr. Gandhi after partition). Last chapter of the book (Is Jinnah Still Relevant?) is very interesting. The author has done a good job in explaining rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India which coincides with the current realities in India. For example, BJP, which has its roots in RSS (the Hindu Fundamentalist party which arranged the assasination of Mr. Gandhi) is ruling India right now and minorities in India are in great trouble. The very recent example is burning of churches and killing of Christians in various parts of India. Also, the riots against muslims in various parts of India are very common. Kashmir is burning and Muslim majority of Kashmir is facing state sponsored terrorism by Indian security forces. This book is a must read if you belong to subcontinent (India, Pakistan or Bangladesh) and if you read it with open mind, you will really enjoy it.

control is of course a branch of physics. Lately
there is an increased interest in the study of quantum control but classical control theory is much less vigorously study
(unfortunately in many ''physics'' depts today a large percentage of research involves nonphysics topics like biology,astronomy etc at the expense of other hard core physics subjects like classical control).

from the point of view of theoretical physics then, this is a highly dissapointing book. You wont find the insight which usually is the standard practice in theoretical physics. with the exception of the last chapter all other are too much descriptive with minimum insight into the hard core of physics, that is mathematics and with no explicit mechanics analysis.

Perhaps the book is wriiten for engineers which belong to another scientific culture than theoreetical physics. But then why is it published in the m series?

finally I need to congratulate SPRINGER for its ability to produce nice hardbound editions at rational prices. Publishers
like Cambridge for example could not even dream offering hardbound books at thse prices. I only hope that in the future Springer will publish something more fundamental in fluid dynamic control.

This is a decent book- it has a good deal of history and description. I was expecting the photos to be of better quality however. One virtue is that there are photos of a number of places that are far off the beaten path.