Well researched, authoritative and accessible, but a wide reach makes for some tantalizingly brief sketches.
Baluch, founder of Dubai-based Swift Freight International, draws on decades of freight-forwarding experience in an ambitious work that emphasizes the importance of logistics in the movement of goods and people.
As the subtitle hints, Baluch combines three books in one. Part I summarizes historical logistical challenges, including the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza, Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, construction of the Panama Canal and the D-Day invasion. Balancing these marvels of logistics are accounts of failures, notably the German fiasco at the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II and the more recent burst of the dot-com bubble. The brevity of these well researched and documented descriptions will frustrate curious readers. The discussion of the Great Wall of China, which the author says is “unrivalled by any other structure in the world,” takes up fewer than five pages of text. Understandably, Baluch has more to say when he discusses the present state of trade-logistics systems. He spotlights the transport logistics climate in five developing countries: Egypt, China, India, South Africa and Dubai. He focuses on the transport infrastructures of each country while highlighting distinctive issues such as the high tolls for China’s truckers and the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Given the author’s origin, it’s not surprising that the portions of the text devoted to Dubai are the most thorough. Baluch’s predictions for the future include a familiar discussion of alternative energy sources and reasonable recommendations concerning the expansion of railways in the Middle East and Africa. He also predicts the expanded use of magnetic levitation (Maglev) for transportation, and the use of underground pipelines that move cargo with pneumatic pressure. He ominously forecasts a coming age of neurotechnology, “the ultimate business weapon and competitive resource,” but quickly drops the subject in favor of more pressing needs, such as an increase in efficiency in container ships.
Well researched, authoritative and accessible, but a wide reach makes for some tantalizingly brief sketches.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2005
ISBN: 994803139-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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