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Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975. In examining these two events, Nagl—the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass—argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency. With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians. (20060328).
Price: $10.58
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Lonely Planet Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei
Discover Malaysia, Singapore & BruneiHave your fortune told by a psychic parrot, then dig into dosa in Singapore’s Little India. Trek in the footsteps of tribal war parties on the Headhunters’ Trail in Gunung Mulu National Park. Travel the length of Peninsular Malaysia, through the world’s oldest rainforest, on the Jungle Railway. Give the turtles plenty of space as they haul their 750kg-bodies up the beaches of Cherating. In This Guide:Top adventure activity coverage – the best hiking, snorkelling, caving, diving or bird-watching info. Five authors and 2731 hours in-country researching this edition. More listings of sustainable businesses, to help you make the right choices for the environment. Find out how you can minimise your impact at lonelyplanet.com.
Price: $14.25
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The Gift of Rain: A Novel
An epic novel nominated for the Man Booker Prize, this extraordinary debut tells the story of a young manÕs perilous journey through the betrayals of war and into manhood Written in lush, evocative prose, The Gift of Rain spans decades as it takes readers from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the mystical temples, bustling cities, and forbidding rain forests of Malaya..
Price: $12.51
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Pacific Modern
Southeast Asia and Oceania are global epicenters of economic growth, and Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines in particular have each enjoyed building booms that include modern houses designed by some of the world's most talented architects. And though these countries feature rich variations in culture, language, and in some cases climate, their contemporary residential architectures share many similar characteristics. Sometimes these are crisp residential designs rendered in the most modern forms, while in other cases architects draw on local cultural or vernacular building materials, such as stone or wood, to create houses that, while still undeniably modern, are very much of their place. But the most ambitious and innovative of these projects all maintain a strong design sensibility that transcends geographic borders. Pacific Modern is a spectacularly illustrated tour of the most exciting examples of residential architecture in these regions. Among the architects whose work is presented are Glenn Murcutt, Sean Godsell, Burley Katon Halliday, Engelen Moore, Kerry Hill, and Fearon Hay..
Price: $24.99
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Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo
Eric Hansen was the first westerner ever to walk across the island of Borneo. Completely cut off from the outside world for seven months, he traveled nearly 1,500 miles with small bands of nomadic hunters known as Penan. Beneath the rain forest canopy, they trekked through a hauntingly beautiful jungle where snakes and frogs fly, pigs climb trees, giant carnivorous plants eat mice, and mushrooms glow at night. At once a modern classic of travel literature and a gripping adventure story, Stranger in the Forest provides a rare and intimate look at the vanishing way of life of one of the last surviving groups of rain forest dwellers. Hansen's absorbing, and often chilling, account of his exploits is tempered with the humor and humanity that prompted the Penan to take him into their world and to share their secrets..
Price: $7.49
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Lonely Planet Kuala Lumpur Melaka & Penang (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) (Regional Guide)
Discover Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, and PenangShop like a local at Kuala Lumpur's Pudu Market before retiring to Jin Bukit Bintang for a Chinese massage Catch a waft of incense as you trundle around Melaka in a kitsch, technicolor trishaw Master the art of noodle-slurping at a hawker stall in Penang In This Guide:Two authors, 700+ hours on the road, 79 cups of teh tarikFood and Drink chapter written by a resident food specialist The only guidebook devoted entirely to Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Penang Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates, and traveler suggestions .
Price: $12.62
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Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance
This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors show that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run..
Price: $14.95
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Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia
The first book to reveal the undiscovered jewels of Southeast Asian cuisine.Just when you thought you knew everything about Asian food, along comes James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor. Oseland has spent two decades exploring the foods of the Spice Islands. Few can introduce us to the birthplace of spice as he does. He brings us the Nyonya dishes of Singapore and Malaysia, the fiery specialties of West Sumatra, and the spicy-aromatic stews of Java. Oseland culled his recipes from twenty years of intimate contact with home cooks and diverse markets. He presents them here in easily made, accessible recipes, perfect for today's home cook. Included is a helpful glossary (illustrated in color in one of the picture sections) of all the ingredients you need to make the dishes and where and how to buy them. With Cradle of Flavor, fans of Javanese Satay, Singaporean Stir-Fried Noodles, and Indonesian curries can finally make them in their own kitchen. 16 pages color photographs; 3 maps..
Price: $17.99
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Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing
• Explores the lifestyle of indigenous peoples of the world who exist in complete harmony with the natural world and with each other.
• Reveals a model of a society built on trust, patience, and joy rather than anxiety, hurry, and acquisition.
• Shows how we can reconnect with the ancient intuitive awareness of the world's original people.
Deep in the mountainous jungle of Malaysia the aboriginal Sng'oi exist on the edge of extinction, though their way of living may ultimately be the kind of existence that will allow us all to survive. The Sng'oi--pre-industrial, pre-agricultural, semi-nomadic--live without cars or cell phones, without clocks or schedules in a lush green place where worry and hurry, competition and suspicion are not known. Yet these indigenous people--as do many other aboriginal groups--possess an acute and uncanny sense of the energies, emotions, and intentions of their place and the living beings who populate it, and trustingly follow this intuition, using it to make decisions about their actions each day.
Psychologist Robert Wolff lived with the Sng'oi, learned their language, shared their food, slept in their huts, and came to love and admire these people who respect silence, trust time to reveal and heal, and live entirely in the present with a sense of joy. Even more, he came to recognize the depth of our alienation from these basic qualities of life. Much more than a document of a disappearing people, Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing holds a mirror to our own existence, allowing us to see how far we have wandered from the ways of the intuitive and trusting Sng'oi, and challenges us, in our fragmented world, to rediscover this humanity within ourselves. .
Price: $8.78
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