I recently read this book to a group of first and second graders to accompany our current unit on plants. The children listened to the story and were in awe of the vibrant illustrations. We were able to discuss not only what we had learned about seeds (in that the cooked one wouldn't grow), but the lesson that the kids pulled from it was probably the most valuable. They talked about how telling the truth was more important than being ashamed of one's "failure"--that those who tell the truth often come out "on top,"and it is those people that we want to associate with. The book also sparked great conversation on what an Emporer was and the important attributes of a great leader. A wonderful story that children will want to pick up and read again and again!

I was introduced to Demi's "The Empty Pot" while visiting an English-speaking elementary school in Hong Kong. It delighted me, and I have used it as a teaching aid for children in my congregation. Teaching honesty to children can be a challenge, but "The Empty Pot" allows a wonderfully illustrated story to do its work. This short book even has a surprise ending which will delight its young readers!

I used this book by reading it aloud to pre-school children who had not yet learned to read. The colorful pictures showing a traditional Chinese culture so different from America generated many questions. We talked about most of pages as we read along in the book. The conclusion is very powerful and offers a unique time to discuss the value of honesty. Religion teachers will find this story to be a good way to segue into discussions about personal religious principles.

This is one of my favorite books to read with my two and three year olds. It is beautifully done, with a wonderful lesson/moral to the story. It is true to the Chinese tradition of story telling to help educate. In a warm embrassing tone, the book moves the reader to understand the importance of truth and honesty in everyday living.

Ani Panchen, the only daughter of a Tibetan Cheiftan was looking forward to a life of contemplation after narrowly escaping an arranged marriage. However, after the invasion of Chinese Communist forces & the death of her father, Ani is compelled to carry on the wishes of her father & help lead rebel Tibetans defending their homeland.

For her involvement in the resistance, Ani spends the next 21 years of her life in prison. Living from day to day with the hope that in time she will meet with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Her courage & spirit to fight & survive are astounding. This is her testimony for all the thousands of political prisoners still being held in Chinese prisons for 'crimes' such as 'waving a Tibetan flag' or shouting for independence.

This book is another blot on China's human rights record. For similar reading try 'Fire under the Snow' by Palden Gyatso.

Sorrow Mountain is both a novel and a woman's life story. As Adelaide Donnelley explains in an afterword, "It is as much narrative as strict biography." Stories of the "life" of Ani Pachen, including her spiritual power to transcend torture and twenty-one years of imprisonment, and to transform destruction into hope, were the BASIS for this remarkable book. Ani Pachen wanted to be a nun, living peacefully and not killing (many Tibetan people have a religious calling); the circumstances of her birth forced her to become a warrior against the Chinese (again, this echoes the history of those of her generation). Captured, imprisoned, and tortured, she preserved her spiritual beliefs and her integrity (again, read the story of many her generation; the difference is that so many did not survive). Ani Pachen survived, made it to Dharamsala, and finally lives a life of meditation and spiritual focus. Thousands of Tibetans have escaped; many of those now live in northern India with His Holiness. The spiritual example they set: certainty of impermanence, compassion, forgiveness, and detachment--works for everyone on the planet. All of this matters.

But there is something more which matters. This book, like the story of its subject, transcends and crosses boundaries: in form, in approach. It is a novel, a spiritual guidebook, a history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. The tone is mythic: "My country was once at the roof of the world, a place where the great spirits lived." The tone is cinematic: "In a darkened corner of my mind, a small patch of green appears. I watch it grow brighter, larger, until a vast green meadow stretches out at my feet. The meadow is dotted with clusters of flowers and is treeless, except for a willow or two." The tone is intensely personal, acutely descriptive: in prison, "The lice were so bad that I could see them crawling all over the heads in front of me. So thick I could sweep them off with my hand and not make a difference in their numbers."

The story is woven of dreams, memories, Buddhist teachings, horrors re-lived or imagined, and above all details that give it taste, sound, texture, and breath. As a work of art, it breaks all prior boundaries and should be studied by all writers who ever consider telling life stories--their own or anyone else's. If there is any drawback to the book, it is only that we cannot know what is Ani Pachen's voice and what is Adelaide Donnelley's. A Buddhist would assure us that the illusion of separation is unimportant, temporary, superficial. A Buddhist would tell us that Ani Pachen's story, and Adelaide Donnelley's storytelling genius, have become one voice for all of us. As the editor of another woman's life story, I come to this book to learn. I look back at my work and see how much trouble I took to leave Mpho Nthunya's voice exactly as it was, to be merely a secretary, taking dictation from her. I tried to keep my white privilege and sensibility out of the way of her African experience and her African ways of seeing. I think that was a good thing to do. But I deeply admire the merging of voices in the Pachen/Donnelley collaboration. It is a miracle to read, to study, to learn from. I am deeply grateful for it.

This story is appealing on many levels, not the least of which is its thoughtful, powerful, flowing prose. The writers bring us the dramatic history and culture of the expansive country of Tibet through the personal oddyssey of the amazing Ani Pachen. An early surprise is learning about the day-to-day life of a Tibetan town and its culture prior to the Chinese invasion. Quite poignant is the Tibetan perspective of the Chinese Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Far from being merely a catalogue of the long string of horrific abuses on the part of her captors, Donnelley sensitively narrates the details of Ani Pachen's 21-year imprisonment and torture by weaving the narrative with the gems of Ani's faith. While it is emotionally-draining, the reader is provided opportunities to regain strength. You cannot avoid being deeply moved by the power of this woman and her fellow Tibetans -- and moved to help save her culture. Read this book!

A wonderful account of life and childhood during the Cultural Revolution. As a college student interested in Chinese history and culture, I have been reading every Chinese memoir I could get my hands on over the past few years. In fact, I am often times more interested in the books these books I'm reading on my own than those assigned to me for class. "Thirty Years in a Red House" was one of the best Chinese memoirs I have read thus far. It was also the first Chinese memoir I have read written by a male author. The way Zhu told his story, of his father, family, and the struggles of everyday life drew me in like few books have. Every time I read someones personal account of the Cultural Revolution, I become even more fascinated and intrigued with how so many people held together over such a difficult time. The "seen through your eyes" style Thirty Years In A Red House was written in enables the reader to view Zhu's childhood and journey through Mao's China as if he or she were following his every step. I also enjoyed how historical and political events were artfully woven into the text. A great read!

Zhu, Xiao Di is a very courageous intelligent writer whose remarkable true story reads like a novel, as it goes to the core of what happened when the noble Chinese cause turns sour and the true believers become victims of the revolution. It is a brilliant memoir that documents, with an insider's fascinating perspective, the painful difficulties faced by the author's family, under Chairman Mao's "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to know and understand more about public history and society past and present in China. --Ed Johnson, Host of "Golden Hours" at the Oregon Public Broadcasting

Having spent two weeks in Beijing preceding and during President Clinton's state visit to China, I returned to the United States with many questions. I was curious to learn more about the Communist government, China's history, its culture, and especially, the conditions under which the Chinese people have lived in the period since Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China. In my quest for knowledge and understanding I came to read Zhu's _Thirty Years in a Red House_. This book offers the reader remarkable insight into the hardships and heartaches of a Chinese family during the years of the Cultural Revolution. While I had been dismayed at other accounts of the injustices dealt to the educated and intellectual citizens and leaders of this time, I was greatly heartened by Zhu's account of his parents' beliefs and practices in spite of the hardships they endured. This book gives one hope that the people of China will one day prevail, and that their leaders, both present and future, will learn from the sacrifices of those who went before.

What makes Hangman's Point such a great read is its skillful blending of colorful and exotic historical details with high drama of love, betrayal and intrigue between the local Chinese and the expatriates of Hong Kong in 1857. Every page teems with action! The courtroom scene full of eccentric characters and outbursts of humor and cunning maneuvers is as engrossing as any found in the best legal thrillers. Highly recommended to anyone looking for an exiting historical novel with elements of mystery and adventure thrown in.

In 1857 China, American Andrew Adams has held several legally questionable jobs and other tasks that clearly stepped beyond the south side of the law. In Hong Kong, the part-time smuggler manages a bar that has patrons that are some of the sleaziest individuals residing in the area. However, this time Andrew goes too far and to avoid prison, must search out the pirates who beheaded foreign sailors.

However, that is only the start of what is turning into a bad new year for Andrew. Soon, the beleaguered anti-hero is involuntarily battling slave traders, escaping from prison after being accused of murder, and ultimately is in a fight to the death with vicious pirates, who will stop at nothing to loot a city.

Anyone who reads this novel will have to have a passport because they will be immediately transferred to the mid-nineteenth century Orient. The story line is filled with Andrew's misadventures even as it provides a rich historical perspective of the era. The support cast feels so genuine as they move the plot forward. HANGMAN'S POINT is a great historical fiction that, if there is any justice, will enable Dean Barrett to become a household name.

Harriet Klausner 11/1/98

In 1857 China, American Andrew Adams has held several legally questionable jobs and other tasks that clearly stepped beyond the south side of the law. In Hong Kong, the part-time smuggler manages a bar that has patrons that are some of the sleaziest individuals residing in the area. However, this time Andrew goes too far and to avoid prison, must search out the pirates who beheaded foreign sailors.

However, that is only the start of what is turning into a bad new year for Andrew. Soon, the beleaguered anti-hero is involuntarily battling slave traders, escaping from prison after being accused of murder, and ultimately is in a fight to the death with vicious pirates, who will stop at nothing to loot a city.

Anyone who reads this novel will have to have a passport because they will be immediately transferred to the mid-nineteenth century Orient. The story line is filled with Andrew's misadventures even as it provides a rich historical perspective of the era. The support cast feels so genuine as they move the plot forward. HANGMAN'S POINT is a great historical fiction that, if there is any justice, will enable Dean Barrett to become a household name.

Harriet Klausner

After reading many books about Mt. Everest, I have finally found one that gets personal. Dr. Kamler does a wonderful job of describing his adventures on Mt Everest. What makes this book stand out is Dr. Kamler himself. He lets us know what he is feeling every step of the way. Many of us cannot imagine climbing Mt. Everest, but Dr. Kamler allows us to climb along side of him. Dr. Kamler gives us a very "human" account of his expeditions to the tallest mountain in the world.

Don't miss this one.

Adventure. Exploration. Human emotion. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Or is it feet? (as in cold and frostbitten) Not to mention broken ankles,concussions,and pulmonary edema.As both climber and M.D.,Kamler offers it all up with unique perspectives.

Kamler takes us on the literal and figurative ups and downs of mountaineering, including the tragic Everest storm of '96 when he was the solo medical person on the mountain. The buck stops with Kamler, who as expedition doctor must make ultimate decisions regarding the well-being of fellow climbers with often limited information and resources. He runs a veritable E.R. at the top of the world.

So,why climb Everest? Because it's there? Judging from this book, the answer is alot more involved and intriguing. Kamler's insights and recollections really drew me in and kept me going to the last page; it's real life drama that reads like fiction. A must read for those who seek adventure, those who long to, and for those who are not quite sure (like me).

I am not a mountain climber, but after hearing a review of this book on NPR I felt it was a book I wanted to read. I found this well written non-fiction book read like a novel, and was a real page turner. Written from the perspective of a medical doctor as well as a climber, Kamler discusses high altitude medicine as well as climbing. This is an intimate account of a variety of attempts by Kamler to climb Mt. Everest, as well as the medical treatments that he administered as the team doctor. This book also deals with the tragedy of the 1996 disaster in which he was valuable in helping some of the survivors. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mountain climbing or medcine.

I enjoyed reading this well-written book until I couldn't put it down. I found the plot very interesting and unbelievable. The way Mr. Liu presented the story is intriguing. I would recommend anyone along the Asia Pacific region to read it. We can definitely learn something from this book.

I admire the Author's vast experience and understanding of the inside of China in particular his indepth knowledge on Chinese communinism and the People Liberty Army. The book was written in a diary manner and the readers can feel the reality of this story in particular when the readers read this book at the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident.

It is hard to imagine this is Mr. Liu's first book. It is obvious he has spent much time in researching his subject from the workings of the Royal Hong Kong Police to the CIA. Athough a work of fiction, Mr. Liu has written the book in such a manner you feel you are right there among the students in Tiananmen Square, with the CIA agents in making their devious plans, and with the Chinese authorities on the crackdown. A very exciting and enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.

W. Laurence Willis' debut novel, Freedom's Menace is an action-packed adventure that pits heroic agent Trevor Brice against evil mastermind An Lolo. This Asian mastermind has secured the title of Chinese premier and wages a war of terror against the United States. The secret of Lolo's power lies hidden in the volcanic fires of Hawaii; Trevor Brice must brave the wrath of Pele the Fire Goddess and many more mundane dangers to uncover the truth and save America. Freedom's Menace is a fast-paced, vivacious read that can confidently be recommended for personal reading lists and community library collections.

This is an excellent summer read, especially if you're going to Hawaii. Freedom's Menace is set on the Big Island and centers around the Kilauea volcano. Not only is this story action packed, I also learned a lot. I like a good mix of reality with my fiction. This is a well constructed, seamless novel.

Highly recommended!

Freedom's Menace was a fast paced, exciting action thriller. This writer kept me up all night reading! The main character, Trevor Brice, was down to earth enough to relate to him, yet bold and smart. The ending didn't drop off into nothing as so many books do these days. This was by far the the best book I've read in years. I can't wait for the next Trevor Brice book to come out.

After plodding through dozens of climbing books, half of them unreadable, this book was a great joy. Not only is it a beautiful volume, with voluminous footnotes and a painstaking attention to detail, but I also believe that Webster is an extraordinarily adept writer. I spent the better portion of two evenings reading "Snow in the Kingdom," and wanted to read it over again once I was finished. There is something uniquely magical about Webster's photographs, his philosophy, and his optimistic nature. The chapters dealing with the climb up the Kangshung face of Everest brought to attention the almost mystical nature of the high altitude experience, sans oxygen. It is easy to believe that after a while, utterly dwarfed by creation and crippled by thin air, man begins to feel a sense of cosmic meaning and purpose on a mountain. In many ways, all of the men on the 1988 Everest Kangshung climb were winning the race against time, drudgery, and (dare I say it) mortality. Perhaps a step into the void is the only way, in this short life, any of us can feel as though victory, however briefly, is at hand. Yes, Webster paid a terrible price in his venture on the ice walls of Everest. This book, however, should be redemption enough for that suffering. It is one of the very best of its kind.

Oh no, not another Everest book! you're thinking, right? But as one of the last in the recent glut of Everest memoirs (written by and about survivors/clients whom would have remained anonymous except for their friends/guides who died in 1996) Snow in the Kingdom may well be the magnum opus of all Everest books.

Herein, you'll find no clients being towed by their guides, no tourist routes, no bottled oxygen, no climber traffic jams, and no Sherpas hauling the author's gear. This book is about the ultimate climb: the hardest route up the highest mountain. Finally, the author and his partners completed the climb for love rather than money.

In Snow in the Kingdom, Ed Webster is a photographer above all else. Like others before him (Lito Tejada-Flores, James Balog, Galen Rowell) Ed knew that publishing his photo-intensive book with a conventional publisher would not allow him to obtain either the clarity or quantity that he needed to properly tell his story So Ed spent a decade rounding up the money, hired the best editors/designers/scanners that money could buy in Colorado (subsequently going into debt), and laboriously began self publishing his own book. We should be thankful that he's been down the road of self publishing before, because this is no amateur's tome. The end result: 150 pages of color photos in five separate signatures! Not counting 582 pages of text¾and even then you can't turn the book more than four pages without being arrested by a new black and white photo! All printed sharply on a 70-pound stock that does the photographer's work justice. If this isn't enough, the author has obtained unpublished photographs of Noel Odell's from Mallory's Everest expeditions, along with a host of pictures taken by other well-known Everest climbers and photographers. If you were to buy such a beautifully laid-out book like this from a conventional photo-book publisher, say Abrams or Chronicle, you'd pay twice as much and get half the text (eg, Bradford Washburn's elegant Mount McKinley opus).

Because Snow in the Kingdom is not just breath-taking photographs of culture and history and real climbing. You will, and I would like to emphasize will, buy this book because Ed Webster gives us his heart and soul on a platter. His is a deeply personal story about loss. The loss of Lauren Husted, a woman he once loved, who died with her head in his lap after their climbing accident in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. Loss of his fingers and toes to Everest. And loss of his ability to climb--a talent that sustained Ed Webster for nearly thirty years. Or to put it in one of his fondest quotes (by Elizabeth Knowlton): "To those men who are born for mountains, the struggle can never end, until their lives end¾to them it holds the very quintessence of living¾the fiery core, after the lesser parts have burned away."

This is also a story about climbing the Kangshung Face of Mount Everest in 1989. The route is menaced by hanging glacier avalanches and technical climbing difficulties (famed alpinists Alex Lowe and David Breashears returned to the Kangshung several years later and found that they could not drag up their wealthy client, who later became famous in Into Thin Air for being dragged up the tourist route) and remains the territory of only world-class alpinists. On the way, the reader is given both an in-depth tour to Ed's emotions and the climbing history of Everest, including two of Ed's earlier attempts on the mountain. Through text and pictures, you meet many of the personalities of Everest and luminaries of climbing: Reinhold Messner, Sir John Hunt, Jim Bridwell, Audrey Saukeld, Peter Athens, rock star Billy Squier (one of Ed's clients), Sir Chris Bonnington, Joe Brown, Roger Marshall, Tenzing Norgay (and his son), Jay Smith, Sir Edmond Hillary, Fritz Wiessner; and Ed's Kangshung teammates: Paul Teare, Robert Anderson, and Stephen Venables.

Of course, by the end, we learn the specific price for the 1989 Kangshung Face Team's boldness. Ed escorts his partners, more dead than alive, back down the face. No one is really unscathed, but Ed in particular will never be the same again. I'm not going to spill the denouement here, so the best I can do is encourage you to read the book and find out for yourself what happens, in the most handsomely crafted Everest book ever produced.

There have been many books written about Mount Everest in recent years. Ed Webster's "Snow In the Kingdom" is head and shoulders above the rest, just like Mount Everest itself. The story is about Webster's three expeditions to the mountain between 1985 to 1988. And while his narrative exquisitely describes each expedition and the Sherpa and Tibetan cultures, Webster is also recounting his personal redemption and growth after the tragic death of his girlfriend in a climbing accident. The book culminates with the successful first ascent of a new route on Everest's remote east side, the Kangshung Face. This expedition in 1988 was one of the greatest acheivements in Himalayan climbing, as it was only a four-man team which used no Sherpas, oxygen, or radios on the climb. They relied solely on their own personal skills and judgement, and unyeilding trust of each other. The team manages to put one climber on the summit, but their real success is surviving the descent, about which Webster writes with suspense and honesty. Webster also conveys his admiration for the Sherpa people, the legendary climbers who have been such a fundamental part of Himilayan mountaineering. He has even documented a revelation about Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who summited Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. Webster's research is meticulous, his photography(there are hundreds of color and black and white pictures) is stunning, and the quality of the paper and binding is first rate. This is a book truly worthy of the highest peak on earth.

The discipline of history is in need of the ethos of the good journalist: objectivity. That is what Mann brings to the history of US/China relations. His account demonstrates a repeating pattern of instability in US China policy. Mann uncovers its cause: the competition between diplomatic institutions and the covert-personal diplomacy of individuals (such as Kissinger and Brzezinski). He also brings to light the positive contribution of individual "team players" (such as James Lilley) that should not be overlooked but often do. This book is well written. On a train ride from Hong Kong to Beijing, I could not put it down.

About Face puts into perspective much of what I have experienced first-hand living in Taiwan and China for the past 20 years. Although no administration comes out with its reputation intact, clearly China, not afraid to use brinkmanship, has been more effective in bending US policy to its advantage. Mr. Mann's objective reporting show that China has come to understand the workings of America's political system, while the US remains ineffective in dealing with China's rulers who continue to mock American ideals of human rights and democracy while at the same time convincing the US to assist in modernizing its armed forces and investing billions of dollars in its economy. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make sense out of US-China relations since Henry Kissinger or concerned about the developing US-China relations. This book will give a better foundation for understanding upcoming WTO and Taiwan arms sales issues, as well as China's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

If you want to know what is wrong with American policy towards China, there is no better place to start than James Mann's superb "About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton."

As a skilled journalist, Mann writes clearly and to the point. But this book is more than a journalistic tour de force. Mann has been following the China story since he was posted by the Los Angeles Times to Beijing in 1984 and his experience has produced a depth of knowledge unmatched by any academic China watcher I have read. That knowledge not only shines through in the main text but it is testified to in a notes section full of sources and corroborating detail.

What I particularly like about this book is its uncommon commonsense. Mann refuses to be swept off his feet by the "romance of China" -- a romance that repeatedly over the last century has discombobulated the thinking of American policy-makers, business executive, scholars and journalists. Stolidly eyeing the authoritarian reality behind all the fine words and sumptuous banquets that Beijing bestows on influential visitors, Mann constantly reminds us how sorry has been China's record on human rights in recent decades -- and how cravenly Washington has sought to sweep that record under the carpet.

This book is important too for its worldly wisdom in repeatedly showing the ease with which the Chinese system can manipulate America's money-driven and short-sighted political system. None of this is particularly surprising to those of us who have been watching U.S.-Japan relations in recent decades -- but it is rare for China experts (and still rarer for Japan experts) to highlight how the East runs rings around our Western democratic institutions.

Essentially this book is characterized throughout by a show-me attitude to the American intellectual community's vapid determinism on East Asia. As Mann repeatedly points out, China is far from being "bound" to converge towards Western values. Quite the reverse, thanks to the comprehensive mismanagement of American trade policy in the last fifteen years, China is now in a stronger position than ever to flaunt its rejection of those values.

First published in 1998, this book has already been around for a while. Don't be put off. "About Face" has no sell-by date. It is a modern classic.

-- Eamonn Fingleton, author of "In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity ."

This is the recounting of a trip Rick Ridgeway made with Asia Wright through the Himalayas enroute to searching for her father's grave. Her father was Jonathon Wright, who was killed in an avalanche on Minya Konka when she was an infant. Throughout the journey he tells her of her father's life as well as of his own past as a mountaineer and adventurer. This was a difficult book for me to get through, and it was some time before I could pick it up without my hands shaking. I didn't think it would have such an emotional impact on me, and I'm bemused to think that Jonathon can still affect people when he's been dead for twenty years. We knew Jonathon, and I remember vividly the shock of returning from a trip and receiving a telegram saying he'd been killed. Certainly we were familiar with death's capaciousness, but it was a classic case of, "Why him, of all people? Where's the meaning in this?" It's a curious experience to read a book twenty years later where someone asks those questions about the same person, but we've all known someone who died too soon.

They're difficult questions and Ridgeway does as credible a job of the philosophical answers as anyone can, with his acceptance of life and death, and change. However, his denouement at the end, that we should live each day as if it were our only one, felt flat. We've heard it before and it's been boiled done to a kitchen plaque cliché that I've always found irritating when it's not further explained. I don't think I'd plan on spending my only day on earth wondering if the roof should be redone this year or next and booking dental cleanings, as I'm doing today. My grudge with the cliché is that it seems to imply that we should regret whatever it is we've been doing up to now, rather than accepting that some days are simply going to be filled with the mundane details of living. It also holds an inherent suggestion that we should seek pleasure. But the kind of pleasure that makes life worth living is an elusive phantom and comes only after we've sought experience. Pain or regret may also result, regardless of our intentions. We have to embrace the experience regardless of outcome; if it's pleasurable, it's a bonus and we've earned it. Jonathon tried to focus on the experience rather than the goal or glory at the end, and I think that's what was meant in the book, but perhaps each of us sees it differently.

But Jonathon's effect on people was the result of more than what he did, it was the result of his personality, and Jonathon simply being Jonathon. We all affect the people we contact each day. Whether it's for good or ill is up to us. Partly because of his own innate goodness and partly because of his efforts, Jonathon had a positive effect on the people who know him. The lesson I would take from his life is that we could all have a similar impact if we made the effort to be nice - and I apologize for the lackluster word, but there it is - nice. The circumstances in which I first met him was one where egos could become inflated, inflamed, or deflated in an instant, and the silly posturing and puffy tempers certainly were a contrast to Jonathon's calmness. It's an odd thing, given that I didn't know him that well and it's been a long time, but I am still influenced by him and try (not always successfully!) to behave in difficult situations as he would have. Our lives do indeed affect others.

The book focuses on personalities, and that gives it a heart and poignancy which are often lacking in adventure stories. As for his journey with Asia Wright, it begins in Nepal, continues on to Mount Kailas, across the Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet, and ends at Asia's father's grave. The book is nicely-written and over-all the description is strong enough, although there were places where it lacked the vitality that would really bring an area to life for me. I will say (and this truly is surprising, since he recounts a fair number of disasters, not to mention numerous other assorted miseries) that Rick Ridgeway managed the impossible - he made mountain-climbing sound appealing even to me.

What a wonderful story this is! Rick Ridgeway writes and reflects with maturity and humility of his initial climb up Minya Konka in China's Sichuan province, the loss of his friend Jonathan in an avalanche during the climb and then his return to the mountain a decade and a half later with Jonathan's now-grown up daughter, China. I read this entire book in two long sittings and as with all great books hated to see it come to an end. The narrative, which weaves together earlier climbs and adventures, growing up and taking risks, along with the trek back to Nepal, Tibet and China is a spiritual as well as a geographical journey. Ridgeway has learned much from his incredible life -- about things that are of consequence and things that are not. His wisdom and common decency, his kindness and his loyalty to friends and to memories, and they way in which he imparts this to his friend's surviving daughter is inspiring and touching. I'll read this book again sometime soon and I'll think about it for a long long time because although it is a story that begins with tragedy and death and concludes with a visit to the site of that tragedy, it is at the same time a superb hymn to a life lived full and well and true.

I bought this book after reading Seven Summits which recounted Rick Ridgeway's involvement with Dick Bass's and Frank Well's attempt to be the first to bag the "seven summits".
This is a moving story of not only the loss of Rick Ridgeway's friend and climbing buddy in an avalanche in the himalayas where he also almost died but an account of his return voyage with the friend's twenty year old daughter to where the avalanche had occurred some 18 years before. It is a travel narrative, mountaineering book, great insights on Nepal and Tibet with interesting sidetrips through his memories, trips to Patagonia, being in a Panamanian jail when he was but twenty and what it taught him...etc. You have got to like this guy! A perfect read for the introspective armchair adventure traveller who loves Asia; which is the name of the twenty year old girl who finds her father's grave and her way in life on this trip.