No comments about Mandarins, merchants, and revolutionaries: My Vietnamese family: An article from: Humanities.

No comments about A Vietnamese Family Chronicle: Twelve Generations on the Banks of the Hat River.

5 comments about The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family.

1. If one wants to understand Vietnam it is always important to read books with a Vietnamese viewpoint rather than those written through Western eyes. The author covers a wide time span in Vietnam's history and she presents it accurately while also dealing with the personal side of historical events. For anyone interested in understanding Vietnam this has to be added to one's must read list.



2. This is a great story of Vietnam and its evolution as a state. I found the author's detail and historical knowledge very rewarding. Anyone interested in the people culture of indochina should read this book.
   
   rlk



3. Excellent book for history buffs or Viet Nam veterans or anyone who knows someone who was in Viet Nam. This book explains a lot about the culture and people of Viet Nam. I highly recommend it.



4. Mai's book is an excellent way for American readers to understand the Vietnam war as well as Vietnamese culture, especially how they have reacted to French colonization, the American war period and the difficult choices that had to made about who to side with. It's a unique and important book that's gripping and important.



5. I bought this book prior to a vacation in Vietnam. This is painless history! Although the book is long (nearly 500 pages) and very heavy to carry on an airplane, it was worth it. I learned so much about the historical differences that led to the Vietnam war and the succeeding political situations. I feel really prepared now for this trip in terms of understanding the context for my travels both to Hanoi and to Saigon.
   If you want to get an understanding of the history of this country from prior to the French occupancy to the Communist era, I would recommend this book.

4 comments about Delta Six, Soldier Surgeon.

1. I don't usually enjoy war stories but this one shows the war from a whole new perspective. I saw the caring by not only the medical doctors and staff but also of the soldiers for each other. I cried and I laughed. I think if someone lost a loved one in VN, the reader would find some comfort in reading this book.



2. The Vietnam War has been covered in many books and feature films based on the accounts of soldiers, politicians, and protesters. This book will give you a completely different perspective. It will fill you with a tremendous amount of pride and admiration for all of those who served their country during those difficult years. Watch as a young patriotic doctor leaves his new wife and baby to serve his country a half a world away. Feel his struggles and his pain but at the same time watch him overcome all of this as he takes command of a large company of men while simultaneously saving hundreds of lives. Even though the setting of the story is a war with all its horrors, the real story of humanity at its finest shines throughout. So even if you've read most of the books and seen most of the films about the Vietnam War, read DELTA SIX, you will not be disappointed!



3. Delta Six Soldier Surgeon is not your usual war story. Dr. Richard Snider has written the story of a dizzying transition- from his surgical internship at Yale, to draftee in the Army and finally to front-line doctor in the jungles of Vietnam. In this memoir, we do not encounter issues and positions, instead we find a primal view of personal experience and feeling- smells in the air, the color of the dust, the clapping of helicopter blades, the continuous stream of injured bodies, and constant danger of rocket propelled grenades. Through it all, Dr. Snider discovered a grace and nobility of the human spirit, in his soldier/patients, in the Vietnamese and in his co-workers, qualities that transcend even the wretched conditions of wartime.



4. Not having served in Vietnam, I particularly appreciated the ability of the author to make me feel that I was there - able to feel the anxieties of servicemen facing danger at every turn and to see the horrors of war. The author also did a superb job of showing me how humanitarian efforts can make a difference in such an environment.

   This book left me with a much different perspective on the Vietnam conflict than I had previously experienced.