I have used this book a few time and it has been wonderful nice breakdown of foods from 4 different regions; Spain, France, Italy, and Greece, wonderfully breaks down fat content calories and nutrient content per serving, easy to follow instructions and great results

I bought this book on a discount rack at my local bookstore just because I thought it would be interesting and I liked that it has the nutritional breakdown of all the recipes. I use this book constantly. I absolutely love it. If you like ethnic fare and want healthy recipes, you must get this book. You won't regret it. I didn't.

Many of the recipes in this cookbook are okay, but when I ordered it I failed to notice that it contains a "Forward by Dean Ornish, M.D." That would have been the tip-off.

We all know that too much fat is bad for us, and like many Americans my husband and I eat "light" nowadays--nonfat dairy products; very little beef, lamb or pork; no butter or margerine; skinless chicken and turkey. But much has changed in the dietary world since Shulman's book was first published in 1989. We now know that there are "good" fats as well as bad ones, and that an EXTREMELY low fat diet can be almost as unhealthy as a high-fat one.

If you are vegetarian, this book will probably be useful to you. However, it contains only nine recipes that contain chicken (note that most are not truly "chicken dishes"). Few recipes contain cheese or dairy products of any kind, and most disturbing is her insistance on reducing the olive oil content of most dishes to a miniscule amount. She even includes a recipe for a traditional provencal onion pissaladiere (pizza) which always includes olives: she writes she "left out the olives . . .for the diet version"!

There are many, many excellent mediterranean cookbooks on the market without going to the extreme of Shulman's. Dr. Atkins and Dr. Ornish are at the opposite extremes of the twenty-year- long fat versus carb controversy. Try an alternative mediterranean cookbook and find yourself a satisfying middle ground. I suggest The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook or any of Paula Wolfert's cookbooks. Another, unfortunately out of print, is Mediterranean Cooking the Healthful Way by Marilyn Spieler--my personal favorite. Go ahead: drizzle, don't dump, olive oil on your food and pop a couple of kalamata olives in your mouth. It's okay!

I wrote in April of 2000 that I had lost 50 lbs. I've lost another 20 lbs - 70 in all and maintain that loss now for almost 4 years using this cookbook. I have given it to many friends and relatives. It has changed my eating style for the better for life. Every time there's a news story about the best way to eat it mirrors what Ms Shulman teaches in her books. It's no chore eating this way. I love it.

My rule of thumb is, if you get three recipes that you cook regularly out of a cookbook, and you otherwise enjoy it, it has earned its selling price. Let's see: I use the recipes for hummus, white bean and tuna salad, tabouleh, semolina bread, that thing with chard and fish . . . and there's lots more. The author explains how to do it all from scratch, which is always good to know, but I've saved some time substituting already cooked beans and, when I don't have any I've made myself, I've used commercially produced, fat-reduced chicken stock. Nutritional data is provided for each dish.

I have read three of these new Modern Library Chronicle books so far and this one has been the least enjoyable. I think the subject matter is too much for a small book like this. The author may have bitten off a little more than he can chew here. We're talking 3000 years of conquests covered in less than 200 pages. Way too much for one book. Pagden does a very good job in parts. I especially enjoyed the section on the Byzantine Empire. He explains quit well how Rome fell apart, but simplifies a little too much at times. The later hegemony of the Americas was a section that was way oversimplified for example. One advantage is the book is so easy to read. I think it has something to do with the type font the Modern Library publishers use. You can really fly through the pages. Unlike the other Modern Library books I've read this one does not cover its subject matter completely. This material could be better presented in separate volumes like the Roman Empire, The British Empire, and so on. All of them in one small volume is just too much material to try and cover.

In contrast to many books that cover similar territory, this concise volume says a lot in a relatively short space It presents a view of global history from the perspective of empires and the people they ruled. It does so from the vantage point of European migration, exploration, and conquest, and as the author admits, does not cover empires of diverse peoples in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. As such, it is basically a history of Western civilization with a central theme--the means by which empires were organized so as to unify peoples with different traditions and origins. It follows the traditional chronology of historical surveys. Classical history is represented by Alexander's empire and the Roman Empire; medieval history by the unity that the universal church imposed on much of Europe. The bulk of the book, however, is devoted to the methods by which European empires spread across the globe after 1500. Pagden examines the rationale and how non-European peoples were subjugated, concluding by discussing the end of empire and its lasting heritage. General and academic collections.

I don't know about the other readers, but my high school world history teacher was the swim coach. Let's just say I know a lot about the fortunes of a certain swim team from Connecticut circa 1967. If PEOPLES AND EMPIRES has achieved little else, it has plugged the gaping holes in my education and pulled three ensuing decades of idiosyncratic, untutored reading into context. For that it gets the 5 stars.

The Modern Library Chronicles are intended to be short works to serve as general introductions or refresher courses. When covering more than two millennia in less than 200 pages (it is 167 pages plus introduction and addenda), choices have to be made in what to keep, what to skip. Pagden's focus is the concept of empire and how it was adapted and revised over time to shape European civilization as it gradually circled the globe, then ebbed. There are entire wars, events and personalities that are left out because they do not directly relate to the conceptual development of empire. You will not find the Crusades in this text (though noted in the chronology) nor the Spanish Armada. You will find a detailed, charged discussion of slavery and its role in empire development. Likewise, you will find an energetic account of the conquistadors. Pagden's prose is always lucid and level, but in those chapters he shines.

This is the second Chronicles volume I've read. The series editor displays a knack for identifying authors who infuse their topics with voice, vision and heart. The books are well documented with indexes, chronologies and bibliographies. While seasoned historians may debate their perspective or find the content too general, it is just what a mainstream reader needs.

Don't get me wrong - I think a Mediterranean diet can be very healthy. But Vigilante and Flynn have packaged a traditional weight loss diet as something brand new - and this book surely isn't new. Additionally, too much of what is added to "the usual" is contradictory. For example, on page 24 they describe a study which shows that a high-fat breakfast is more satieting than a low-fat one and tends to prolong the time until the next meal. However, reading on, we find that almost all the breakfasts they propose are very low in fat!

I did an analysis of one of their 1500 calorie meal days (which they recommend for all women except for those who are "extremely hungry" AND are losing weight rapidly). It's 20% fat, high carb, and 45 gm protein. (The protein RDA for any woman over 125 lbs is higher than this.) It's a basic low-fat/high carb diet with a little less protein than it should have.

Ironically, the authors spend a good portion of the book trashing almost all the diets on the market, from very low fat to very low carb, when the diet they propose is basically Ornish sprinkled with olive oil.

I give it two stars because it does have some good information in it, but there are other books which talk about the Mediterranean diet which give much more sound advice and present the information more plainly and with less rhetoric. A good example is "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" by Walter Willett.

In short, your dollars would be much better spent elsewhere.

Kudos to Dr. Vigilante and Dr. Flynn for writing the best book on health and nutrition that I've ever read! If you are looking for guidance to not only lose weight, but also lead a healthy lifestlye, this book is a must read! In it, they expose the hidden dangers of low fat diets that we've been subjecting ourselves to for years, explaining the science behind the nutrition in a very understandable way. I read the book in only a few days, it was that enjoyable and interesting to read! Even better, they don't just promote the Mediterranian diet, they tell you how you can easily apply it to your life; and the recipes really are delicious and easy to make. Living and eating well don't have to be difficult anymore!

I was thrilled to receive this book as well as Sonia Uvezian's "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen" as Christmas gifts. I cherish both volumes and refer to them regularly. "Low-Fat Lies" debunks fad diets and recommends the Mediterranean Diet as a simple, clear approach to eating well and staying healthy. There is compelling evidence that people who follow this diet without indulging in excess and combine it with a lifestyle that incorporates moderate exercise and reduced levels of stress do not gain weight; moreover, they feel better both physically and psychologically. There is plenty of variety, the ingredients are relatively inexpensive, and the dishes are not difficult to prepare. Although "Recipes and Remembrances" makes no claim to be a book about diet or health, it is filled with hundreds of recipes for some of the healthiest and most delicious food I have ever tasted.

These two volumes are exceptional. They have significantly improved my understanding of what contributes to a healthy diet as well as raised the level of my culinary skills, and I can't imagine anyone not benefiting from them.

Hey, not literature but still a lot of fun! Don't miss any of about the first 10 books in this series.

I first started reading Cussler when I found Pacific Vortex at my condo complex's library. I became addicted. Dirk Pitt novels are all top-notch adventure stories with political suspense, romance, and high-speed car chases thrown in. This is the 2nd book in the series, though it was the first one printed, and is an exciting, riveting adventure tale. I don't want to spoil a lot, but the plot is excellent, and as always, as twisty as the roads Pitt drives his sports cars on. It all starts when Dirk Pitt, the main hero, and Al Giordano find an antique WWII Bomber plane attacking a United States Base. With the help of a beautiful secret agent, Pitt is thrown into a wild action-packed tale of danger and villanous criminals. As with many Pitt books, the political entanglements can sometimes slow the action, but I still highly recommend this story, and the rest of the series. Enjoy the read.

Very entertaining! My husband and I have been reading (and re-reading) Clive Cussler's novels for over 15 years. All his books contain lots of action and history. Yet, he is still able to connect all the loose ends. The hero Dirk Pitt is a man of honor and principles. He's a quick thinker with an adventurer's spirit.

Peter Green's writing is not only about accuracy. One thing I admire in this work, just as much as in Alexander of the Macedon, is his honesty in regards to his conclusions. He does not claim to know the truth. His testimony is the outcome of a series of logical inferences and from the combination of tremendous material of previous authors. But it doesn't stop there. The man can write! My worse fear when I dared open this huge volume was that I would fall into the jungle of names and unimportant events. I was happily surprised to find a solid history book with the elegance and entertaining effect of a novel. This book brought me so close to the post-Alexander Hellenistic Period in terms of its history that I became an amateur scholar of the period myself. One last virtue of peter Green's is that he does not demand or even expect the reader to agree with his conclusions. He opens the way for further inquiry by suggesting alternative courses and interpretations and by referring to a large amount of academic references for each disputed event. The author also manages to bridge with us the Hellenistic experience by noting several similarities of that world with today's administration and academic environment. In brief, Peter Green added to the legacy of the Hellenes, a testimony that even Alexander would bitterly have to accept as objective.

This is one of the very finest works of history I have ever read. It is not only a ground-breaking piece of research and historical synthesis, but it is a terrific pleasure to read. Green is an eloquent and graceful writer, whose text is further enlivened by his dry English wit and acute moral judgments. Even more remarkably, Green appears to be equally at home in writing about political history, literature, science, mathematics, philosophy, and art history. The range and diversity of his research is astonishing, and the footnotes will suggest to you many interesting avenues for further reading on those topics that fascinate you the most. Finally, the hardcover edition is quite simply one of the most beautiful examples of the bookmaker's art to emerge from an American publisher in a long, long time. The text is lavishly illustrated with a profusion of maps, art works, and strikingly revealing coin portraits of dozens of Hellenistic rulers. It will take you a while to work your way through this book, but you'll enjoy every minute of it -- and you'll regret it when you get to the end. I can't wait to come back and read it again a few years down the road.

...Green has taken an EXTREMELY complex moment in history and written a magisterial (for once this word is aptly used!) chronicle - - political, military, cultural, and artistic - - of astounding astuteness. His writing on every aspect of the era manifests a sense of judgement that is breathtaking in its maturity, experience, and intelligence. He is also utterly hilarious. The first two chapters are almost purely military and, to me, quite boring. But the rest of this thousand page book is filled with layer upon layer of insights on the philosophy, mentality, and changing cultural expressions of this remarkable period. I had the great fortune of using this as a textbook for Erich Gruen's class at UC Berkeley: there are points of disagreement between Green, Gruen, and myself, but this is a stunning work, and deserves the highest encomia.

I agree with the Russian reviewer that the ingredient
list sometimes gets too esotoric. I felt the same way
even though I am very familiar with the region's
cooking. The problem had to do with Wolfert's
exclusive attention to the Kurdish cooking, a firey
and spicy way of cooking compared to the regular
Turkish or Greek Mediterranean cooking. And what was the reason
for including a million different kibbeh recipes,
all essentially the same spicy meat ball. That was
a waste of time. May I also add that Georgian, and
North Balkan(Bulgaria, Romania etc) dishes have NO business in a Mediterranean cookbook. True Eastern Mediterranean is Turkish,
and Greek cooking, anything else is a wannabe. Yes, you can throw in a few syrian, and north egyptian dishes but can you find calamari in Syria, Kurdish Diyarbakir, Bulgaria, or Romania? I don't think so. Wolfert incorrectly identifies these regions as mediterrenaen when they are anything but.

I truly love this book. I am a mother with two small children, which leaves me with little time for elaborate meals, and I am certainly not a serious cook or very experienced cook, but I have found this book to be very useful. There are a number of recipes that I have used dozens of times, and several more that I use on special occasions when I have more time to cook. There are also many "speciality" recipes that I have not had a chance to try, but it does not limit my enjoyment of this book. I have enjoyed trying new ingredients and replicating some of the dishes I tried while living in the Eastern Mediterranean. I especially appreciated the Georgian recipes since I did not know much about Georgia- and now we have the Georgian cheese bread pie often since my two-year-old loves it. I highly recommend this book!

Wolfert is recognized as one of the true leaders in bringing the cusine of this part of the world to us. Having one of her previous works on couscous and Moroccan food, she is an expert.

I have not been able "yet" to cook much from this book, but what I have tried is just unbelievable in its uniqueness: Georgian Chicken Tabaka with Fresh Blackberry Sauce, Pear-Shaped Meatballs Stuffed with Creamy Eggplant and Macedonian Pork Smothered in Leeks.

Give this one a try. It's healthy, your family and friends will go wild over the unique smells from your kitchen. This will become for you as it has for me, a "go-to cookbook."

Wolfert's intros it each dish give such an interesting perspective of the culture and usage and her discovery of them. Reminiscent of Bert Greene's wonderful "Kitchen Flavors."

As spice is at the heart of this cuisine, she includes an excellent appendix on them, as well as sources.

Despite the careless editing of the previous entry in the "Lost Cities" series (Lost Cities of North & Central America), that book was interesting enough for me want to continue on with the series and buy this latest volume covering the search for Atlantis.

Well...the editing is back up to where it should be, but I find this book to be a bit of a letdown. Having read the entire series, I was already familiar with the rehash of information, and I wish that there was more narrative on the author's actual travel experiences. It also seems that the open-mindedness tinged with healthy skepticism in the earlier books has become less consistent. While David Hatcher Childress still professes to be unsure about some aspects of his research, he clearly has developed a set of beliefs out of the mishmash of theories, philosophies and spiritual concepts that he has studied over the last several years.

On a personal level, the most disappointing aspect is the author's own little holy war: blaming the Vatican as the cause of the Dark Ages and other assorted evils. His tolerance and acceptance of other religions becomes marred by more and more Roman Catholic-bashing as the series progresses. There is no question that the Vatican, like ANY OTHER POWERFUL INSTITUTION RUN BY HUMAN BEINGS, has been responsible for evil and destructive acts over the centuries. However, repeatedly describing the Catholic Church, ad nauseam, solely as an evil entity bent on squashing all the free-thinkers of the world seems like a nyah-nyah mentality better suited to a one-dimensional mind. Then again, as Childress himself has pointed out in earlier volumes, it's sadly easy to dwell on past transgressions and have someone or something to feel superior to...

David Hatcher Childress has written a series of these books, and in this one, he tends to conflate and expand the Atlantis myth past the bounds of any possible credibility. Now, this is fine for me...I love insane speculation...but for those looking for reasoned, conservative exploration of the Atlantis myth, you might want to look elsewhere than a book that postulates that Atlantis was or is everywhere from Ireland to Turkey. The Hittities, the Harrapans, the Egyptians, the megalithic builders of Malta and the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Europe...it's as if David figures if he claims Atlantis was everywhere and did everything, eventually he'll get it right by sheer thoroughness.

This being said, I loved the book. I was a little sad that he didn't do more with events like the possible Hittite/Mycenaean connection to the Iliad and how that might have played out in the post Santorini Bronze Age Aegean, but that's a mere quibble. Just for postulating that the ancient Celts used a gold disc to fire a laser beam into a barrow, Childress earns my loyal readership. An excellent collection of fancies that may hold more truth than they appear to.

The book makes a great read, same as DHC's other books of the "Lost Cities" series. Very entertaining, thought provoking, and well written. One thing though: I don't get why the author keeps calling himself "a rogue archeologist": someone has to explain to him what archeologists do. DHC is no archeologist, whatever he might think; he's a traveler, a gossip gatherer, and a free spirit, but all this has little to do with archeology. I enjoyed his open-mindedness, and the relativism with which he judges most of the theories and hypotheses considered. Going through his whole opus, I can't help noticing that this writer is a really great guy, and that his travel companions and friends must have been lucky to have met him, but archeologist? Please, give me a break. And use some proofreader, for the next edition.

I just got this book, and although lots of others rave about the photos, the style is a little bit too rustic for my tastes. If you are looking to decorate your home a la small Mediterranean village style, this is definitely for you. However, you won't find any luxurious palaces or mansions here. This book primarily appeals to those who prefer the simple, assymetrical, and distressed look that evoke a centuries-old Mediterranean charm. If your home has fitted carpets or wooden walls as is typical in the San Francisco Bay Area, the style just doesn't seem to fit. I am also far from impressed with the text as it's kind of repetitive, the author mentioned so many times that the Mediterranean style is simple, open, and it evolved due to the balmy Mediterranean climate! As if mentioning the very obvious once is not enough.

This is a wonderful book, filled with pages of beautiful pictures and creative ideas. It is a book that will inspire you to redecorate your home a "La Mediterranea" or maybe even send you off on a trip to visit such magnificent places. I highly recommend anyone interested in Mediterranean design/decor to get this book, as it not only gives you ideas, but also some easy-to-follow steps on achieving certain effects as pictured. Thumbs up for this one.

I have the highest praise for this book and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates and wishes to decorate in the Mediterranean Style. I agree with another reviewer that many of the ideas can be easily and inexpensively implemented. The ingredients of style are all there, making it possible to create a Mediterranean atmosphere in just about any home or apartment.

Paul Theroux has been travelling across the face of this earth for decades. His acid wit has disparaged dozens of cultures. Those treks seemed to seek out low roads and those who kept to them. With this new book I am happy to report Mr. Theroux is in his element-taking a literary hadj about the Mediterranean coastline .So that one doesn't get bored with the likes of Robert Graves and Carlo Levi-he visits war ravaged Croatia and paranoic Albania.He pays a clandestine visit to Syria and both sides of a divided Cyprus.His prose is masterful. His mood is almost benevolent. It seems that the air on this particular path has lightened his spirits. One reluctantly finishes the book wishing the journey to continue a while longer. Thank you Mr Theroux for a road well taken

Paul Theroux has produced a stunning book here, his recounting of an ambitious tour along the Mediterranean coastline, starting at Gibraltar and ending in Morocco across from "the Rock," along the way visiting just about every place in between, including Spain, France, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, mainland Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus (both sides), Israel, Malta, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia. He tried to visit Lebanon but was unable to, and was warned off from visiting Algeria. He never seriously attempted to visit Libya. Vowing never to take a plane, he travels along the coast and to the various islands by train, bus, taxi, ferry and cruise ship (both luxurious such as the $1000 a day Seabourne to the more decrepit, workaday Turkish vessel Akdeniz).

Though Paul seems at time a romantic, quotting descriptions of places from epic poetry, the Illiad, or modern works of fiction, time and again he finds something different, and often that is a great deal more gritty, spent, or to use some of his massive vocabulary, enervated, melancholy, moribund, or lugubrious (I had to use a dictionary several times in reading it, but hey, I learned something). Though some of it comes off as depressing, some quite depressing, I wouldn't have it any other way; he tells it like it is, describing the places he really saw and the people he really met. Avoiding the tourist's Mediterranean, not wanting to just see ruins, castles, and pretty beaches, Paul shows us in this work how the people live, work, and play in the countries of this great "Inner Sea." Expressing "traveller's guilt" at times for being a "voyeur," Paul observed often times the sorrows, tragedies, and miseries, but also the joys and the friendliness, of the inhabitants of this part of the world.

Paul does not romantize any of the countries he sees. He describes in detail the desolate look of the Spanish seacoast in winter (Paul deliberately traveled in the toursit off season), of all the English-language signs, cheap hotels, billboards, shops selling cheap souvenirs, trailer parks, all waiting forlornly for the summer hordes of tourists, a vacation mecca that was more English than Spanish. He goes into considerable detail his efforts to understand the bloody spectacle that is the bullfight in Spain, talking to Spaniards everywhere and even attending a few (and watching some in smoky bars in Spain), but never develop a true comprehension (or liking) for it. He visits war-torn Slovenia and Croatia, sharing dirty hotels with desperate refugees, worried about snipers, harrassed by police at border checkpoints, looking at bullet and mortar holes in ancient structures. His time in Albania is surreal, a land of screaming and whining beggars, virtual starvation, a land that just recovered from one of the most xenophobic dicators in history, one that mandated everyone has his own bunker and not even own his own car - his description of Albania alone was worth the price of the book. Northern Cyprus he spent some time in, a ghost-town, a phantom nation, one that doesn't exist except in a legal limbo, cut-off from the rest of the island by the Green Line, forever a truncated failure of a country, in reality an expensive Turkish colony. He referred to Greece as "the ragged edge of Europe," a poor country that was basically a slightly better Albania as it were, a nation that was not really modern and an EC welfar state, and despite its rich cultural history, the people of that nation today - he writes - are not really truly aware of or part of the heritage of Aristotle, Pericles, and Archimedes. I could go on at length here, but suffice it to say his portraits of each country are fascinating. Some are a bit brief; he doesn't spend that much time in Slovenia for instance (not as much as he did in Croatia for example), and I got the impression in Morocco he was just glad his trip was finally ended.

The book is not perfect though. Some of the locations I thought he would spend more time on, specifically Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Venice, but perhaps if he did the book would be massive. At the very least in Istanbul there were political and terrorist problems, thus complicating his stay. All in all though I found this book quite worthwhile.

Paul Theroux tackles the beautiful, crusty, cranky, ancient, tacky, peaceful and war-like Mediterranean with gusto in this travelogue.

At times his natural cynicism gets the better of him, but his writer's eyes and ears leave us with beautifully rendered descriptions of the places he visits and the people he meets.

My favourite chapters include his hauntingly beautiful descriptions of the mountainous terrain and secretive people of Corsica; his chronicles of the aching destitution that is Albania; his comparisons of cruise-bound Turks and land-bound Israelis; and his coming to terms with Alexandria.

Thank you Mr. Theroux for a thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking, and ultimately funny romp of a read through the Mediterranean.