As a mystery, there was not much suspense or surprise, but what captivated me about this book was the descriptions of the Himalayas, and the portrayal of the experience in a strange culture at high altitude. It transported me to another world. In all, it was a grand romp through the Himalayas, with tasteful deference to local cultures. It's a fast read; definitely worth the time for those who have never been to that part of the world, or who enjoy reminiscing on the experience.

First of all, I gave this book 4 stars because I would buy it again and read it again if I had the choice. Above anything else, that is (in my opinion) the best way to score a book. Anything that I say below, should be weighed against the fact that I really did enjoy the book.

This book seems to have two audiences. First of all, there are the missionary kids, especially those of us that attended Murree Christian School (the school that the author writes about). I attended MCS for about as long as the author did (1978-87) and I appreciated the first half of the book with the stories of being a kid at MCS. For you MCSers out there, I think that you will appreciate his memories and find how similar they were to yours. However, I can't relate to a few of the things that happened to the author and at the point where he left MCS his life followed a completely different path that I can't even imagine. In the second half of the book, the author describes the hell that his life becomes and how with (maybe too much) self analysis and psycho-babble, he is able to see himself as healed again. To me, it is not clear at the end of the book if he is really healed or if he is just currently at a temporary point of emotional stability. He still seems plenty bitter to me. Anyway, I doubt if the MCS people that I knew would enjoy this much self-centered psycho-analysis. Also, I think that people who follow the religious beliefs that are generally held/taught at MCS would be offended by some of the conclusions that the author comes to in the end.

The second audience for this book will probably be the self-help, new age, "I'm OK, you're OK" types. I don't consider myself to be a member of this group, but I don't know if they will really find it all that inspiring (see above) and it is too bad that they probably won't understand all of the MCS specific stuff that we alumni understand.

Any way, as I said at the top, I did enjoy the book even though the last few chapters were a little hard to get through. I think the author did a good job of capturing some of the good things about MCS, while making it clear that it was not the ideal place that we were led to believe when we attended it.

In the local Natural Foods market yesterday I saw a canned soft drink with the 'Tibetan Root Beer' flavor. If you are the kind of person who would eagerly buy such a drink, then this book is for you. If, however, you have a practical interest in the spritual path, I recommend you read instead "Shambhala, the Sacred Path of the Warrior", by Chogyam Trungp

The author has taken a great deal of trouble to research out what myths lie behind Shambala, and to point in some very interesting directions. However, do not confuse this book as having anything to do with the book by Chogyam Trungpa with a similar title.

There are no coincidences in life. I believe that all we read, we read for a purpose of which we are generally not aware and messages to us are interlaced within. The question becomes, 'Do we recognize the messages?' And if you are blessed with the 'coincidences' that I have experienced in leading up to this book, or decipher the messages there for you, it's rewards can propel you far in your pursuit of the understanding of life and your place in it. As the title suggests, the book is fascinating. And if you believe in or have a fascination with Eastern philosophy and/or religion, this book will heighten that fascination. For me it has been an amazing personal and life-altering journey. This isn't to say that everyone will experience the same. But I can only hope that all who read it have a comparable experience. Shambhala does indeed exist and the sooner 'society' realizes it, the sooner we can all change the disasterous course that the world seems headed towards.

It's worth picking up in a library, but I was disappointed after paying the hardcover price following a favorable review in Outside magazine. It's really two books in one, as another reviewer said - a book about the author's search for the Yeti of myth, and a few chapters about an obscure kind of bear. Apparently the author thinks that the Yeti stories are basically Tibetan legens about the bear; that's a great theory, but I'm not sure it's worthy of the sensationalistic title/cover that this book has.

The title is probably a lot more descriptive than you think. When I noticed this book on the shelf, I saw the word YETI in large letters and took it to be another book with a cryptozoological bent. That isn't what the book is about though. It is about his quest for an answer to his question of the Yeti's origin.

This is a quick read. Primarily, this is because his descriptions of the territory and his travels throughout the mountains are fascinating. Just hearing about how he goes from culture to culture and lets us know what Tibet is becoming was interesting.

Not until the very end of the book are we sure what Messner thinks of the Yeti. Of course, from his narrative, he doesn't know what he thinks until the end. He has the hypothesis that the yeti is pure myth with a basis in reality. He believes that the local bear, the chemo, is the basis for these myths. Myths are real in that they shape the local beliefs and culture.

Obviously Messner is intelligent. He is able to speak many languages. Unfortunately, I found his jumping from term to term concerning the yeti to be confusing. After reflecting on the book, I think that is pretty indicative of the whole yeti myth (which Messner may be trying to tell us). No one can agree on the terminology or characteristics of the yeti. This is part of the myth. The characteristics and name will change from culture to culture.

If you are wanting to read a book on the yeti. This would be a nice change of pace from the average X-Files type of story about the yeti. As a general travel book, this is a fairly entertaining read.

I bought this book with some high hopes. I have read Messners mountaineering books and enjoyed them. Too bad this wasn't as well written.

He spends a lot of time contradicting himself and trying to convince the reader that evidence that obviously does not conform to bear sightings, does in fact, prove that the Yeti is some form of rarely sighted bear. In addition he drops in many smug and to my mind, conceited asides on the inadequacies of every investigator before his exalted self.

The photos of tracks he includes ARE obviously bear tracks - so the conclusion I would draw is that he saw a bear and not a Yeti, and probably should have written a book about being scared of a Tibetan bear.

He seems utterly convinced though, all evidence to the contrary, that he has solved the mystery.

So, it is a quick read, not particularly well written and more concerned with bragging about his adventures sneaking around in Chinese controlled areas illegally than it is a serious book about solving the Yeti enigma.

I loved the first 100 pages of this reading. It dealt mostly with the geography and mystical aspects of the region. After that it became a repetitive series of pages involving a look at the superstition of the mythical kingdom. I would only suggest this book to the advanced reader with a real passion for the stories of the ancient aspects of the search for the kingdom.

First published in 1980, this classic by ur-Shambhalist Edwin Bernbaum is now thankfully back in print. In the first couple of chapters Bernbaum covers the background of the Legend of Shambhala without the sensationalism and dubious scholarship which hovers like a miasma around many other Shambhalists. Some may object, however, when he goes on to equate the journey to Shambhala with an interior mental road of self-discovery. As another noted Shambhalist, John Newman, has pointed out, "Bernbaum's analysis of the journey to Shambhala in terms of three levels of consciousness - surface consciousness, subconscious, and superconsciousness - seems to owe more to Freudian psychoanalysis than to Buddhism." Also, despite what is said in perhaps a dozen other books, Bernbaum does not, repeat does not, include here extensive excerpts from the Third Panchen Lama's "Guidebook to Shambhala"; what he does include is a translation of the Kalapavatara, another guidebook to Shambhala on which the Panchen Lama's book is based, and also translations of excerpts from several other Tibetan guidebooks to the storied kingdom, all of which will be of extreme interest to dedicated Shambhalists. This book deserves a place alongside Andrade's "Novo Descobrimento do gram Cathayo, ou Reinos de Tibet, pello Padre Antonio de Andrade da Companhia de Jesu, Portuguez, no anno de 1626" on the shelf of any armchair Shambhalist's library, or in the portmanteau of any Shambhalic sojourner.

Poor old Father Moran would turn in his grave if he knew that State Mutual Book & Periodical Services Ldt. had illegally published his memoirs under ISBN 0785574387! The legal publisher is Orchid Press in Bangkok, and we trust amazon.com customers will buy the Orchid Press edition of the book, at less than half the price of this pirate edition! H K Kuloy, editor and publisher, Orchid Press

I knew Father Moran in Kathmandu and the author does a wonderful job of accurately portraying this colorful character and his significant achievements in Nepal and influence world wide.

Readers should only buy the edition by Orchid Press, the original publisher. The other edition with greatly inflated price is an unauthorized edition by well-known publishing pirates. Please avoid and buy the Orchid Press edition only.

What can I say, as author - that State Mutual Book & Periodical Services Ltd. has illegally published my book! I am not flattered. Indeed (as reviewer/editor/publisher H.K. Kuloy has said), Fr Moran "would turn in his grave" in the garden of Godavari School, Kathmandu!... I, too, trust that buyers will pick the legal publication from Orchid Press, Bangkok. ISBN 9748299724.

The first stories written bu Jeff Greenwald I had chance to read in the wonderful book Traveler's Tales - Hong Kong, where he happened to be one of the contributors. So when I saw the book written by Greenwald himself, I could not resist but test his writing again. If you are looking for the enlightments or truly literary achievement, do not waste your time. This book will not give you that. However, if you are looking into exploring in 200 pages or less adventures of California man in search of perfect Buddha statue in Nepal, then go for it. The book will give you another perspective of expatriates abroad who are trying to make ends meet, but at the same time are genuinely drawn to the mysticism of the Far East. Mr. Greenwald is not pretending to be the one who will bring Buddhism closer to Western world's. Rather, in his own way he brings us to HIS story of the way(s) of finding perfect Buddha statue. Light read, lots of fun. And you can always give this book to a friend for fun read after you are finished yourself...

Greenwald offers to readers an introspective look at his visits to Nepal, and his desire to acquire the perfect Buddha statue. Intermingled with his discussions of his shopping expeditions are stories and analogies about Buddhist Gods and the Buddhist and Hindu religions. He also provides an historical look at Nepalese government, and the current (1990) state of the Kingdom.

Greenwald's writing is a bit scattered, yet it was easy to read and enjoy. I have a friend who reads quite a lot of travel books and I recommended this to him quite highly.

So if you are interested in world religions, politics and travel, this would be a light hearted treat.

My spouse, who is on her way to India and Nepal insisted I read this book. Greenwald's search for the perfect statue of the Buddha in Nepal left me alternately laughing and crying. Laced with Buddhist stories and insights into magical Katmandu, along with incisive commentary on corruption, repression, and drug dealing by the royal family in the Hindu kingdom, he turns the comical aspects of his own quest into a confrontation with reality. For those of us who are just a little too serious, it could help to lighten up a bit.

I read this, because I am an Asian Studies major and know who Prof. Schell is. I wrote a Masters Thesis for my MA from Seton Hall in 1982, called Chinese Communism and Its Impact on Tibet. I am basing this review on reading the book and some of the other comments I've seen in the reviews. It is true, we have always had an fascination with Tibet, because of Lost Horizon, Seven Years in Tibet, etc. I cannot see in the book where Prof. Schell played down Chinese heavyhandedness. He also states (rightly so) that no Western Govt. backs the idea of an independent Tibet. They do back the Tibetans not being maltreated. Face it, in the modern world, Tibet does not have the resources to survive as an independent country. If anything, Dr. Schell showed just how silly, many of the Hollywood folks jumping on this bandwagon are. This is just the latest fad for them. Movies about Tibet look great on the silver screen. The same cannot be said for Kosovo, or Sudan. I gave it four stars. Hollywood Tibet would have been a better title. Tinseltown Tibet? I am glad this was written to bring it to the American people. Another drawback with this book is, how many people reading it are just reading it for the stars listed and don't understand ALL the issues. I hope this will spur Americans to read more about China as well. I want to know how far the Hollywood circuit wants to go with this. Are they going to go to Tibet themselves? Be with anti-Chinese fighters. No folks, as much as I respect the Dalai Lama, his best hope for seeing his homeland again in his lifetime is to work out a deal with the Chinese. Religious freedom for dropping independence claims. Yes, there is no more Berlin Wall. Tibet cannot make it on its own. Read the book, and as an American, gain your understanding. Want to help Tibet. Help to educate Hollywood folks in both sides of this issue. Prof. Schell shows, it is more complicated than many would like to think.

As a Christian, I have always been curious as to why Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism provoke such passion and interest in those people around me. Instead of seeing this book as an incomplete history of that country, or as Hollywood gossip, I saw the book as a discussion on spirituality. Why do people yearn for the Other, the pure and, often, unattainable that will make our lives meaningful? What are the spiritual dangers of using what we perceive as the exotic to attain spiritual peace and fulfillment? I think that Schell writes movingly on the West's attempts to "use" Tibet as a spiritual shortcut instead of looking into itself and practicing Buddhism or Christianity with awarness and personal insight. P.S. The sections on Hollywood, especially regarding certain action movie actors are also very funny.

Orville Schell's works have always been exquisite. Written in a crisp style, penetrating in analysis, his books have never failed to breathe life into their subjects and leave the reader more informed than before. Expecting the same tour de force as found in Mandate of Heaven and Discos and Democracy, I was not disappointed with Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood. Schell tackles a topic that receives plenty of discussion and fanfare, but has experienced precious little objective study in recent years. Tibet has labored under the political and cultural repression of the People's Republic of China since 1951. Many believe that China is slowly committing cultural genocide through its repression of Tibetan religious and cultural customs and by encouraging vast numbers of Han Chinese to settle in Tibet. With the help of a charismatic Dalai Lama and throngs of Hollywood stars, the Tibetan issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention relative to its importance in world events. Whereas one struggles to find "Free East Timor" bumper stickers on cars, "Free Tibet" stickers are far more ubiquitous. The strong point of Schell's work is his analysis of Hollywood's fascination with Tibet. He interviews many of the most visible promoters of the Tibetan cause and also provides fly-on- the-wall accounts of numerous "Free Tibet" Hollywood functions and the making of the movies Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet. Through his interviews and observations, Schell largely confirms what I have suspected for years. Hollywood's promotion of the Tibetan cause has less to do with its relative merits than it does with the fact that it has become a fashionable issue in which to be associated. The Tibetan cause has become a virtual Rohrsach test in which Hollywood supporters can use to feel better about what ails them spiritually and politically. Schell's works demonstrate an uncanny ability of meeting all the right people and convincing them to reveal their true feelings. Instead of Communist Party officials or Chinese gangsters as in his previous works, Schell is somehow able to elicit revealing quotes from otherwise elusive individuals such as Steven Seagal and Brad Pitt. Although nobody has complained about being misquoted to my knowledge, I hope this reflects Schell's skill as an interviewer. It would be a shame if a writer and journalist of Schell's quality needed to embellish his subject's words for better copy. Schell succeeds in making the subject of Tibetan history more entertaining for the general reader without sacrificing content. Schell's Virtual Tibet is an informative and well-rounded work, lifting much of the mystique from an esoteric, yet prominent subject. While Schell sympathizes with their cause, he is able to remove the veil of motivation from Hollywood's Tibetan supporters. Many readers may have expected Schell to delve deeper into the issues surrounding China and Tibet, but this would have required Schell to tread over already well- traveled terrain. In deciding to leave the debate over the relative merits of Chinese policies toward Tibet aside, Schell has produced an original and thoughtful work of journalism. Schell's portrayal of the main protagonists for the Tibetan cause are unflattering and bound to upset many people. This is the hallmark of a fine journalist.

"Alone at the Summit" is an enjoyable read. The first 1/3 is a little slow, but I was totally drawn in as Venables and his team mates move up the mountain. Venables includes a history of Himalayan climbing at the back. The history is interesting and provides good perspective for understanding both the philosophy behind this 1988 expedition and its historical context.

If you like to read climbing expedition books, I recommend that you read "Alone at the Summit."

"Alone at the Summit" is a fantastic book about a team of four climbers on the tallest mountain in the world. Against all odds, this team pioneered a route that was one of the last "frontiers" of mountaineering. Much has been said and written about the author's actions and the way he describes the events on Everest. First of all, read the book and you will be pleased to find that Venables WAS NOT rescued at the summit of Everest-the ending has not been spoiled. Second, he and the other members of his team overcame a great deal of adversity on this climb-including Venables' bivouac that has kiled a great number of people on Everest. Lastly, everyone involved in mountaineering (climbers, rescuers, etc.) is aware of the great risk involved in the activity. Individuals make a concsious decision to strap on their crampons and head up the mountain. There is no excuse for adding unneccesary risk in this sport, nor is there much room for hubris. "Alone at the Summit" fulfills these requirements. Venables has the right mix of self-responsibility, humor and frustration to make this a balanced book. This one of a few books I recommend for dealing with the power of determination in overcoming adversity.

Many of the reviews of this book berate it because the author got injured and had to be rescued from the base of the mountain. Well, I assume many of these people havn't done much mountain climbing.

The whole lure of mountain climbing is the risk involved. If nothing could ever go wrong when climbing a mountain, then what's the point of doing it? It's the thrill of danger and the challenge of staying a live that makes it so attractive. Stephen Venables met this challenge head on. He had to fight through injuries, exhaustion and the elements to get down the mountain alive and so did his friends. That's nothing to put down, that is what happens when mountaineering. And this was down the East face, the hardest part of Everest to climb.

I thought this was a great book. The author really shows what pushing yourself to the limits in life threatening conditions feels like. This book will go on the shelf with my other top adventure books.

I must add that the author was not rescued at the top of the mountain as people seem to be saying. He was rescued at the base of the mountain in the valley, after climbing down the mountain himself. There's a big big difference there.

"Extreme", "lantern jawed", "boulders the size of buildings". Mix these three cliches, stir in an almost incomprehensible mix of first names and some [partial] biographies and you have the essence of Todd Balf's The Last River - The Tragic Race of Shangri-La. Ostensibly the tale of a river exploration by kayak gone awry it's focus is continuously blurred by disorganized snippets of arcana and personal information about the participants and (too many) peripheral players in this tale of a grand scheme gone bad. The real tragedy of this story seems to be the fact that Balf is the self- appointed chronicler of it. Balf continuously mires the reader in minutiae that is scattered seemingly hodge-podge throughout the story. The timeline of the book wavers between serpentine and non-existent and further clouds an already confusing tale. The story itself, the story of a group of experienced paddlers seeking the ultimate challenge on one of the mightiest rivers in the far east, has unlimited potential to be engaging. Instead, Balf scrawls such a circuitous, hackneyed missive, that the weakly developed principal characters rush down a river of unpredictable, choppy and confusing prose long before they reach the river that shares those qualities. In the Author's Note Balf writes of his struggle to give shape to an original article about the topic of his book. The reader is predisposed to think that Balf underwent the same struggle with the book..and lost. Balf seems overwhelmed by the topic at hand: too much information, too much forced drama and too many characters have resulted in an unruly pastiche of a story. In the end it is the story that suffers: the clarity of the participant's vision has been lost, the essence of the experience that beckoned them left unexplored. For [the money] CAN there are more entrancing journeys for the reader to take.

This is a good book. Not great; not horrible. Just a good, solid read. Yes, the author does provide some superfluous background material. Yes, the author does tend to jump around some in his narrative. No, the author does not necessarily keep you riveted with sensationalistic prose. However, anyone who can read this book and find either the book itself, or the story for which it serves as a medium, "boring" is apparently the type of reader who tends be dissapointed because there aren't any pictures to look at. This is no "Into Thin Air", but then again not many stories of survival or loss in the wilderness, no matter how interesting, quite carry the epic weight of that ill-fated occurence (and thank god they don't).

This author sets out simply to convey the details connected with this particular expedition, much as if he were writing an article for Outside magazine (go figure) and the resulting story is both informative and, for those interested in the subject matter, well worth reading.

The essence of this book is its characters. If you want the typical second-by-second action, the literary equivalent of "slow-motion" - tense faces, surging muscles, tall waves bearing down, and all that - then this isn't your book. I mean, the river scenes are there, but they aren't the essence. If you want a cheap thrill, read something else.

For Balf, this expedition wasn't like that. It wasn't about cheap, take-home, made-for-tv summiting. Sure, they called it "The Everest of Whitewater," but these were no twenty-something testosterone freaks selling an image. These were middle age guys, Harvard and Yale grads, writers, chemists, intellectuals. They all had wives and kids. Yet, at the same time, they were unmatched paddlers - pioneers and legends. Roger Zbel is famous for running the big Eastern rivers in flood when all the young dudes were scared off, and he has dominated extreme kayak racing for 15 years, ever since he and his buddies pretty much invented it, along with the whole new discipline and culture of squirt boating. Tom McEwan was the first big waterfall runner, and he has first descents in many countries. He's considered untouchable in a boat, and he runs his own kayak school nowadays. Jamie McEwan was an two-time Olympian paddler, and a Bronze medalist, the only American male to win a medal in whitewater solo craft. And on the river Doug Gordon was the best of them all . . .

Balf knows that. He knows that Tom McEwan could drop off a thirty-foot falls without much thought, that Roger Zbel could run class V in his sleep, that all these guys had been near death on the river.

But what Balf gets at in this book is the characters themselves -- what made these intelligent, middle age fathers and husbands leave their daily lives to paddle a river that left many of the world's great kayakers shaking in their spray skirts?

He looks at them from many different angles, and it's great stuff. For example, there is a great part about Tom McEwan's paddling camps - Balf calls it an "Outward Bound-meets Bad News Bears" approach to travel, or a "Charlie Chaplin approach" to camping by the river -- a kid would be told to dig a ditch, but he wouldn't have a shovel. So he'd be directed toward a shed. But it would be locked. Next, he'd be sent to the neighbor's for wire-cutters . . . And then, after he gets back from the Tsangpo, McEwan is right back out there again, leading paddling trips in his way -- guiding clients expertly, infectiously down harrowing rivers by day, camping out with his four clients on someone's porch by night. "Why does it seem, the older I get, the more stuff I accumulate, but the older Tom gets, the less stuff he accumulates?" asks one of his clients. While most clubs are having a nice lunch, Tom's wealthy DC-area clients are being led through the noise and trubulence of a waterfall curtain, up into a secret room behind the falls, and not even thinking about lunch. And again, he's not just some insane guy. He dropped out of Yale with one semester to go, and then he lived out of his kayak for a year in a Florida swamp, training for the Olympics. I found this kind of thing fascinating, and it's much deeper and more interesting that my little summary, of course.

What I took from this book was the characters -- interesting, complex guys -- brillant, highly talented men who found something in paddling that wouldn't let them go -- some challenge -- that led them to a river that everyone called insane. Certainly, what happened was tragic, but that's the nature of paddling whitewater, and right up to his last breath Doug Gordon was excercising the personal judgement that he valued so greatly.

Any claims that Balf is a poor writer are unfounded. And anyone who claims that Balf doesn't get to the point is clearly looking for something different than I am. I found some of the most interesting characters I have ever come across, written about clearly, and with vigor. It's a book about brothers, friends, family, and a trip that was years in the making. Balf called it a "Celebration of Life." Dispute their judgement all you want, but this book shows you the men themselves -- and they are some of the most fascinating men I've ever read about.