My Splendid Concubine8 reviews Lloyd Lofthouse iUniverse, Inc., 2007 China historical fiction's biggest sleeper hit? + Review + One page at a time, Explosive!! + Loved it, loved it, loved it! + Splendid only begins to describe this book             The Crusades Through Arab Eyes78 reviews Amin Maalouf Schocken, 1989 Unusual Historic Perspective, Written in Suspense + Good read + An interesting side + Not as biased as the title suggests. + Great Historical read from 1st person accounts.             Taiping Revolutionary Movement1 review Yu-wen Jen Yale University Press, 1973 revolutionaries, not rebels Around the time of the American Civil War, another much lengthier and bloodier civil war was occurring in China. The Taiping revolutionaries against an entrenched imperialist government. Jen painstakingly researched over decades the surviving records. To reconstruct a detailed account of the ...             God Dies By the Nile4 reviews Nawal El Saadawi Zed Books Ltd., 1999 An Egyptian "Uncle Tom's Cabin" + a poetic description of hopelessness "God Dies by the Nile," a novel by Nawal El Saadawi, focuses on the Egyptian town of Kafr El Teen. As the story opens we meet Zakeya, an agricultural laborer who is working the soil by the Nile River. We soon meet her family of poor peasants, as well as the privileged ruling class of the village; ...             Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race21 reviews Christopher Hale Castle Books, 2007 True life adventure ...and one of history's strangest turns + Himmlers Crusade + Compelling but with distractions History makes strange bedfellows. Here we see the Nazi (or more exactly Himmler's) flirtation with Tibet, and Tibet's aristocracy. A fascinating real world "Indiana Jones" adventure into one of history's strangest chapters. The author also touches on the role of eugenics and physical ...             The Taiping Rebellion 1851-66 (Men-at-Arms) Ian Heath Osprey Publishing, 1994 The Taiping movement began as the Pai Shang-ti Hui (the Society of God-Worshippers), founded in Kwangsi province in 1846 by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. A sickly individual of questionable sanity. Hung had become subject to visions which interpreted as demonstrating that he was Jesus Christ's 'Divine Younger Brother', with God's mandate to govern China. This fascinating work by Ian Heath examines the ...             The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader23 reviews Peter Bergen Free Press, 2006 An Introduction to Bin Laden + A Good Oral History + The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader + Doug M.             The Taiping Vision of a Christian China: 1836-1864 (The Eighteenth Charles Edmondson Historical Lectures) Jonathan D.Spence Markham Press Fund, 1996 58 Pages             When Gods Die: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery8 reviews C.S. Harris NAL Hardcover, 2006 Suspenseful, fun, and historically accurate + another satisfying St. Cyr case + Satisfying + Harris writes a great, fun series. + a good second installment             God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Classics)16 reviews James Weldon Johnson Penguin Classics, 2008 Unfamiliar Harmony + The Hope of God's Trombones + Just Wonderful + Historical Preservation - Community Backbone + God's Trombones: Poems That Galvanize the Soul             Crusades: The Illustrated History2 reviews University of Michigan Press, 2005 Seeing is Perceiving + Beautiful and Informative! "Crusades - The Illustrated History," Thomas F. Madden, Editor, shares all the strengths of Madden's "Concise History of the Crusades." It is a refreshing and positive look at the falable but devoted knights and kings of Christendom who deeply desired to see the holy sites of Christianity ...             Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo3 reviews Ian Reader University of Hawaii Press, 2000 the best portrait of Aum Shinrikyo + An Extraordinary book + Engaging Work Reader's Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan is a masterpiece of solid in-depth research and analysis that should be read by all persons interested in contemporary Japanese society and in modern religious movements. He consulted an amazing array of sources and conducted in-depth interviews ...             God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan24 reviews Jonathan D. Spence W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 good book with bad title + What is a civil war? + Best Taiping history in English is second best available This is a very good book about an unpleasant page in Chinese history dominated by a religious lunatic. It is amazing and surprising how religious thought can stir up the masses. We have other examples in recent history - the Moonies, Jim Jones and the tragedy at Jonestown. I must admit I do ...             Chronicles of the Crusades (Dover Value Editions)7 reviews Geoffrey Villehardouin, Jean de Joinville Dover Publications, 2007 Chronicles of the Crusades + Very readable translation - recommended + The Crusades outlined as the Crusaders wanted them to be remembered. + A must read + The Crusades through European eyes             God Laughs When You Die4 reviews Michael Boatman Dybbuk Press, LLC, 2007 A Wonderful Debut + fast, violent, and unsympathetic + Dark, Skanky, Funky Little Twisted Tales: Performance Art Michael Boatman's debut collection is not one to miss by any means. He blends humor with horror, the strange with the unknown--and I loved it! Reading through the pages, it just slipped right through my fingers, and before I knew it I was done with the book begging for there to be more. This is a ...             The God of Small Things871 reviews Arundhati Roy Harper Perennial, 1998 The Glimmer of An Immense Sea + Star-Crossed Lovers + Great used book + Breathtaking First Novel             I Promised God: A Diary2 reviews Dinny Lawrance Not Avail, 2005 A Mother's Love + A Family Odyssey I love this book. Well written, soulful, and passionate, this is a true story of a beautiful and talented woman and her equally remarkable eldest son as they heroically navigate their way through challenging and devastating family and life dynamics. A love story of the highest order, this is an ...             I Made God Laugh!: Jeremiah 29: 11-12 NAN HOUGH iUniverse, Inc., 2008 Nan Hough shares a wonderful life’s journey filled with her beliefs of John 3:16, stories of family, (3 children, 6 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren) forty years as an educator, European travels, hobbies, standup comedy routines, and passions for cooking and eating. Her vivid description of the French wedding dinner is so real you can almost taste the velvety chicken soup. Personal recipes, ...             The Machine Crusade (Legends of Dune, Book 2)103 reviews Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, 2003 The Legend of Dune Series Continues... + The Machine Crusade As with the other books by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, I believe this book is judged harshly based solely on the fact that Frank Herbert didn't rise from the dead and pen it himself. That aside, this novel is an excellent addition to the dune universe. This novel continues where The ...             The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire Thomas H. Reilly University of Washington Press, 2004 Occupying much of imperial China's Yangzi River heartland and costing over twenty million lives, the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was no ordinary peasant revolt. What most distinguished this dramatic upheaval from earlier rebellions was the Taiping faith of the rebels. Inspired by a Protestant missionary tract, the core of the Taiping faith focused on the belief that Shangdi, the high God of ...