Jihad: The Secret War in Afghanistan Review

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(More customer reviews)BBC NEWS Wednesday, 14 November, 2001, 18:17 GMT
Author 'lied about SAS membership'
Tom Carew claimed to be a member of the SAS
Claims by bestselling author Tom Carew to have been a member of the elite 22
SAS have been exposed as false by the BBC. Mr Carew's book, Jihad! The
Secret War in Afghanistan, is expected to sell 100,000 copies by Christmas.
The BBC's George Eykyn says he still insists he did serve with the SAS.
Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, Tom Carew has been a regular on
the airwaves and in newspapers, speaking about special forces.
His book is principally a tale of mercenary derring do in Afghanistan when
Mr Carew trained Mujahideen fighters.
But his claims to have served at least 14 years in 22 SAS, the regular
army's elite regiment, have been exposed as false.
Demonstration Troop
Inquiries by the BBC Two's Newsnight programme have established that Tom
Carew's real name is Philip Sessarego.
He tried Selection for 22 SAS in 1973 but failed.
He was allowed to stay on as a non-member in what was called Demonstration
Troop - ordinary soldiers who did jobs for the SAS like play the enemy on
exercises.
Records show Mr Sessarego later tried to join the Territorial Army Reserve
Squadron of the SAS and failed that selection at the end of 1975.
On Wednesday he was challenged over the allegations.
Mr Carew broke off the interview and on his way out punched a BBC camera.
Tom Carew's ghost writer has said he is embarrassed by the revelations, but
stressed that the book was principally a true story about Afghanistan.

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First Footsteps in East Africa or an Exploration of Harar Review

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(More customer reviews)Sir Richard F Burton is one of the most famous of unread authors. Nearly everyone can tell you about his scandalous doings with native women, his marriage to an ultra-Catholic Englishwoman, and the latter's destruction of the author's private papers after his death.
Ever since I read Fawn Brodie's excellent biography, THE DEVIL DRIVES, I have collected some 20 different Burton books and read most of them. If you make allowances for Burton's diabolical thoroughness (involved footnotes, appendices, foreign language quotes, tables, etc.) and his Victorian circumlocutions in dealing with taboo subjects, he is a truly wonderful read.
Although FIRST FOOTSTEPS is not his most famous book, it is probably the best one to start with. The action is not only more focussed, but Burton did feel he needed quite so much of a scholarly carapace to report back to the scholarly organizations back in Britain. And it finishes up with a stirring postscript about an attack on Burton's camp by Somalis in which the author barely escaped with his life.
Perhaps this is a book that Presidents Bush and Clinton should have read before committing U.S. troops to the region: Burton shows us that not much has changed in the region in 150 years. He was in constant danger, and survived only because his knowledge and guts were more than an a match for his enemies.
This is an exciting book and deserves to be better known.

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Subjects: Horn of Africa -- Description and travelNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Sikander Review

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(More customer reviews)If you read the Kite Runner and loved it, you will enjoy this book as well. I loved both, touching and informative. The reader will leave the pages feeling well versed in Middle Eastern thought as well as feel emotional over the characters.
Hard to put down, the pages kept me turning at night ...next to my cup of tea. But each day I felt anticipation of reading further into the story and learning more about this exquisite, difficult, and torn culture as well as the well thought out characters.
Great details, genuine dialogue and one unforgettable story.
SIKANDER is recommended to anyone who loves Middle Eastern thought, wants to learn about the Middle East more, enjoys history, and also for those who love a great story!
Reviewed by Ami Blackwelder, author of The Hunted of 2060
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"SIKANDER is the sweeping tale of the son of a Pakistani middle-class family.It s 1986. Seventeen-year-old Sikander, dreams of studying and living in America, but in a blind rage after a family quarrel, he leaves his Peshawar, Pakistan home. Encountering mujahideen warriors, he joins them in their fight against the occupying Soviets in neighboring Afghanistan.American assistance is stepped up with advanced weapons, like the Stinger missile, and the mujahideen begin prevailing against the Soviets. After just two years following Sikander s arrival, a Soviet withdrawal begins and Sikander returns as a war-wise hero, settling down to build a normal life in Pakistan.Discovering romance, Sikander, becomes a happily married successful entrepreneur in Pakistan, when he finds his life abruptly thrown into turmoil as he s caught up in aftermath of 9/11. He must draw on the lessons from his mujahideen past as he takes on a perilous journey reaching as far as America, changing his life forever.SIKANDER takes us from the pricey suburbs of Peshawar to the primitive war-torn landscape of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, to the placid serenity of Scotland, through the camps of Guantanamo, and finally, corporate America. It is a 21 year journey through freedom and captivity, love and loss, wealth and poverty, dignity and humiliation, and transgression and redemption. A rare glimpse of a non-radical mainstream Muslim s experience of the West, SIKANDER is a journey of growth and self-discovery, and will touch the humanity of its readers.

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The Broken Blade Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a teacher and a parent who is always looking for books which are appropriate and interesting to middle grade students. THE BROKEN BLADE is one of those rare titles that I enjoyed just as much as my students did. The 2,400 mile canoe journey of the main character, Pierre, is described in such a way that the reader actually feels he/she is paddling along with the crew. The landscape, the river, the interaction with the Lake Superior Ojibwe, and Pierre's fellow voyageurs, who are a rowdy and a very real bunch, are vividly depicted, and they all help bring this nineteenth century story to life. My students and I have decided that we want to read more about the voyageur period, and the first book on our list is WINTERING, the companion to this story.

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