Books You Are Reading Now Or Highly Recommend.

[meom]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

[mcgriffith]

reading the following at the moment.

1. shalimar the clown - salman rushdie (beautifully written, typical rushdie, like an oriental rug, lushly populated and woven with unecessarily complicated characters, not a page turner)

2. the muhammad ali reader - gerald early (fantastic collection of articles and short stories on ali written by norman mailer, h.s. thompson, a.j. liebling, tom wolfe etc.., a great read, not so much about boxing as it is about ali in the context of american society, civil rights and the black movement, war and the social conscience, media frenzy and pop culture in the 60s, 70s and 80s. very highly recommended!)

3. the king never smiles - paul handley (censored censored censored!)

4. anthony bourdain's les halles cookbook: strategies, recipes, and techniques of bistro cooking (love it, this one's a keeper)

5. the complete stories - franz kafka (allegorical, metaphorical, allusory mumbo jumbo, yawn...)

Well then, you will HAVE to read "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Subtitled "Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly".

Absolutely farking hilarious....

McG

[pampal]

The Mapping of Siam

Great book about how Thailand's future was shaped by the geographical work done in the 18-20th centuries.

[zaza]

The novel by George Orwell (1984) or I guess its the Big Brother. It reminds me of a certain era I had lived in a country had been ruled by a tyrant Big Slaughter!!

[Paulbangkok]

I agree with a previous poster that mentioned Papillon - Henry Charierre, one tha hasn't been mention is........Tom Wolfe - A Man in Full, top read

[Jet Gorgon]

Sorry Jet Gorgon,Buddha Da by Anne Donovan was Scottish and came from (Gleasca) Glasgow !

Keep Smiing

Wiley Coyote

Ooooops! You are totally correct, Wiley! Now why did I say Irish? Pulling me own leg. Thanks for the correction.

[jaidam]

Yeah, Barfly was pretty cool. Hard to capture Chuck Buk's essence, though. His voice is so unique that only he, himself, can use it.

That said, the documentary "Live Through This" about Bukowski's life, is some top-notch stuff. Perhaps a bit self-serving (with over-the-top assertions that Bukowski predicted the war in Iraq), but definitely a great view into a disgusting drunk's life.

Well worth the watch.

Just picked up Coetzee's 'The Life and Times of Michael K' (I tend to work my way through authors in spurts). Anyway, it hasn't grabbed me as much as 'Disgrace' did, but he has a pretty good tone. Reminds me a lot of E.L. Doctorow's 'Ragtime', which is a total compliment.

BFD!

Also enjoyed Barfly, but the real treat was Buk's novel Hollywood. Written about his experiences with helping make the Barfly movie. Hilarious, and makes Mickey Rourke look a right plonker.

Fans of Bukowski should also check out the John Fante novels. "Ask the dust" was published in 1939, written in first person narrative, you can see where Bukowski gets his novel writing style from.

[tutsiwarrior]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

this is a good read...a girlfriend in Indonesia hurled it out the window when I was paying more attention to it than to her...good for an insight into chinese culture...the political aspect is bullshit...

(all right...step up an' put up yer dukes...Boon, get out a match an' lets burn this mother down...)

Edited July 1, 2007 by tutsiwarrior

[tutsiwarrior]

Yeah, Barfly was pretty cool. Hard to capture Chuck Buk's essence, though. His voice is so unique that only he, himself, can use it.

That said, the documentary "Live Through This" about Bukowski's life, is some top-notch stuff. Perhaps a bit self-serving (with over-the-top assertions that Bukowski predicted the war in Iraq), but definitely a great view into a disgusting drunk's life.

Well worth the watch.

Just picked up Coetzee's 'The Life and Times of Michael K' (I tend to work my way through authors in spurts). Anyway, it hasn't grabbed me as much as 'Disgrace' did, but he has a pretty good tone. Reminds me a lot of E.L. Doctorow's 'Ragtime', which is a total compliment.

BFD!

Also enjoyed Barfly, but the real treat was Buk's novel Hollywood. Written about his experiences with helping make the Barfly movie. Hilarious, and makes Mickey Rourke look a right plonker.

Fans of Bukowski should also check out the John Fante novels. "Ask the dust" was published in 1939, written in first person narrative, you can see where Bukowski gets his novel writing style from.

in Saudi on satellite tv picked up Ask the Dust movie with Salma Hayek and Colin Ferrel...a delectable Sayek but the romantic screen portrayal obscured the other things. I read Fante back in the 70s in an attempt to see where Bukowski was coming from...he was too clean cut for me...

'I kicked the shit outta Hemingway then sat back and poured myself a wine...'

Here's to you Chinaski...your sublime degeneracy exists in Suphanburi...

[LivinLOS]

Recently picked up my first Raymond Chandler.. Very dated but making it almost a period piece (early LA and hollywood) filled with gloriously unPC elements like slapping screaming hysterical 'dames' and stuff like that.

However dated it was a enjoyable tight read.. Good dialogue, fleshed out characters, tight prose.. Reminded me of Elmore Leonard.

[Sarpedon]

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. An excellent first novel which is really 9 short stories/chapters but each are all linked together in some way. Only when you get to the end of the book do you realise how well done it is.

[Jet Gorgon]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

this is a good read...a girlfriend in Indonesia hurled it out the window when I was paying more attention to it than to her...good for an insight into chinese culture...the political aspect is bullshit...

(all right...step up an' put up yer dukes...Boon, get out a match an' lets burn this mother down...)

Crap, IMHO. The flood of novels out of China about tortured rich families, bound feet, woes beyond compare make me throw up. Sorry, guess I'm jaded after reading three or more of better stuff a week in Chinese Lit. Amy Tan et al and the Joy Luck Club sagas are the worst. Just write a book on dim sum recipes and get on with it. Even Pearl Buck wrote better Chinese dramas and she wasn't even Chinese.

[chinthee]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

this is a good read...a girlfriend in Indonesia hurled it out the window when I was paying more attention to it than to her...good for an insight into chinese culture...the political aspect is bullshit...

(all right...step up an' put up yer dukes...Boon, get out a match an' lets burn this mother down...)

Crap, IMHO. The flood of novels out of China about tortured rich families, bound feet, woes beyond compare make me throw up. Sorry, guess I'm jaded after reading three or more of better stuff a week in Chinese Lit. Amy Tan et al and the Joy Luck Club sagas are the worst. Just write a book on dim sum recipes and get on with it. Even Pearl Buck wrote better Chinese dramas and she wasn't even Chinese.

One of the most entertaining, often insiteful and sweeping series of novels about Europeans in Asia are the "Asian Saga" novels of James Clavell. My favourites were Tai-Pan and Noble House. If just starting, start with Shogun, then Tai-Pan, Gaijin, King Rat, and end with Noble house.

[Jet Gorgon]

Ya, but he based them on history and then changed the real names. Why not use Tokugawa as the shogun and Jardine as the house? Then wrap all the fiction around them to make them more viable?

[chinthee]

Ya, but he based them on history and then changed the real names. Why not use Tokugawa as the shogun and Jardine as the house? Then wrap all the fiction around them to make them more viable?

Absolutely right. But as I qualified, they are entertainment.

[Jet Gorgon]

Ya, but he based them on history and then changed the real names. Why not use Tokugawa as the shogun and Jardine as the house? Then wrap all the fiction around them to make them more viable?

Absolutely right. But as I qualified, they are entertainment.

OK, I'll give you that, Chinthee. It's just that I started thinking my history lessons were wrong when I read them.

[uptou]

Yeah, Barfly was pretty cool. Hard to capture Chuck Buk's essence, though. His voice is so unique that only he, himself, can use it.

That said, the documentary "Live Through This" about Bukowski's life, is some top-notch stuff. Perhaps a bit self-serving (with over-the-top assertions that Bukowski predicted the war in Iraq), but definitely a great view into a disgusting drunk's life.

Well worth the watch.

Just picked up Coetzee's 'The Life and Times of Michael K' (I tend to work my way through authors in spurts). Anyway, it hasn't grabbed me as much as 'Disgrace' did, but he has a pretty good tone. Reminds me a lot of E.L. Doctorow's 'Ragtime', which is a total compliment.

BFD!

Also enjoyed Barfly, but the real treat was Buk's novel Hollywood. Written about his experiences with helping make the Barfly movie. Hilarious, and makes Mickey Rourke look a right plonker.

Fans of Bukowski should also check out the John Fante novels. "Ask the dust" was published in 1939, written in first person narrative, you can see where Bukowski gets his novel writing style from.

ive yet to read the last two bukowski novels,hollywood,& pulp.i think post office was definitely the funniest of his novels for me so far.ham on rye being the deepest.factotum & women were great reading,some of the stuff out of them you could'nt make up,like in factotum when he realises he hasn't wiped his ass properly after sitting on the bed,but couldnt care less.absolutely filthy .real human stuff.

barfly was a good movie,but i would have rather seen an actor who wasn't as pretty to make it more believable as i think his suffering with boils as a youngster partly made him who he was.

i read john fante,the road to los angeles,a good read,but yet to read more of his stuff.

[waldpyk]

Jared Diamond : collapse , but do not buy the pocketversion that makes heavy reading in more than one sense

( comparable to the small print in the dictionay of B.J.Becker - always have to put my glasses on.)

A book about tribes , societies and countries why they florish and perish

Sounds boring ? Believe me , it will change you

He also wrote Guns , Germs and Steel : a gem

They should teach that at school instead of the history and geography-grap we had to learn 40 years ago

enjoy

[meom]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

this is a good read...a girlfriend in Indonesia hurled it out the window when I was paying more attention to it than to her...good for an insight into chinese culture...the political aspect is bullshit...

(all right...step up an' put up yer dukes...Boon, get out a match an' lets burn this mother down...)

Crap, IMHO. The flood of novels out of China about tortured rich families, bound feet, woes beyond compare make me throw up. Sorry, guess I'm jaded after reading three or more of better stuff a week in Chinese Lit. Amy Tan et al and the Joy Luck Club sagas are the worst. Just write a book on dim sum recipes and get on with it. Even Pearl Buck wrote better Chinese dramas and she wasn't even Chinese.

Yeah it gets a bit heavy and dramatic sometimes. For something completely else I would recommend some of the books written by Eric Lustbader such as Floating City, Black Heart, French Kiss and others. Despite some of the misleading titles they're a good read with an oriental (mostly Japanese) flavor to it. Bit like Steven Seagal on paper but with a better plot.

Another favorite is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

[inetizen]

i like james patterson's books. the alex cross series and the womens murder club series are great. his other thrillers and maximum ride series are also great. check them out.

[tutsiwarrior]

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. She writes more about China than S.E. Asia but still a good read.

this is a good read...a girlfriend in Indonesia hurled it out the window when I was paying more attention to it than to her...good for an insight into chinese culture...the political aspect is bullshit...

(all right...step up an' put up yer dukes...Boon, get out a match an' lets burn this mother down...)

Crap, IMHO. The flood of novels out of China about tortured rich families, bound feet, woes beyond compare make me throw up. Sorry, guess I'm jaded after reading three or more of better stuff a week in Chinese Lit. Amy Tan et al and the Joy Luck Club sagas are the worst. Just write a book on dim sum recipes and get on with it. Even Pearl Buck wrote better Chinese dramas and she wasn't even Chinese.

look out babe...would you say the same about Oscar Lewis and his ethnographs about Mexico?

anyone ever read Juan the Chamula?...the dude went thru 2 wars and didn't know who he was fighting for...later to return to his village in Chiapas to become the headman and a drunkard...

'I don't want to die...I want to live...'

(the heartbreaking end to the film 'El Norte'...'I have arms... I can work!...' and don't <deleted> wid me...tutsi is half bolivian and his aunts in Cochabamba speak quechua better than they speak spanish... Mau Mau!!!...Mau Mau!!!...)

[Jet Gorgon]

Sorry, Tutsi. It's just that so many Chinese books like this came out in the 1980s and after, that it's been like a bandwagon rush for Western empathy. I got jaded in uni that's all; as I said, read so much Chinese (and Japanese) lit that this stuff was like harlequin romance to me. Are you still mad at me?

[endure]

I've just started reading Patrick O'Brians 'Mauritius Command' and I notice that there's a dedication to Mary Renault (another superlative author) in the front. Unfortunately I can't read what it says as it's in Greek

[tutsiwarrior]

Sorry, Tutsi. It's just that so many Chinese books like this came out in the 1980s and after, that it's been like a bandwagon rush for Western empathy. I got jaded in uni that's all; as I said, read so much Chinese (and Japanese) lit that this stuff was like harlequin romance to me. Are you still mad at me?

relax darlin'...yer my girl...I'm just in a weird mood bein' in Phila. an' all...just got off the phone wid me sister an' that always raises the blood pressure...

I'm goin' home now an' pour myself a vodka...(double vodka wid soda $11.50 in down town Philly!!!....shee-ed)

love ya

[endure]

Sorry, Tutsi. It's just that so many Chinese books like this came out in the 1980s and after, that it's been like a bandwagon rush for Western empathy. I got jaded in uni that's all; as I said, read so much Chinese (and Japanese) lit that this stuff was like harlequin romance to me. Are you still mad at me?

The same has happened in the UK with the 'I was an abused child' genre. That Dave Pelzer has a lot to answer for

[Ulysses G.]

For something completely else I would recommend some of the books written by Eric Lustbader such as Floating City, Black Heart, French Kiss and others. Despite some of the misleading titles they're a good read with an oriental (mostly Japanese) flavor to it. Bit like Steven Seagal on paper but with a better plot.

Marc Olden writes simular Ninja-type books, but IMHO he is a much better writer - hard to find though!

[suiging]

Gets your paws on any Stuart Macbride novel for harmless ( extremely violent but with a sense of ironic humour ) fun.

Set in Aberdeen and extremely graphic.

[canadiangirl]

This might be a bit cliche for Thailand, but I'm going through Dan Burdett at the moment: first I read "The last six million seconds" set on the eve of the Chinese handover of HK, then his Bangkok stuff (because I miss BKK sooo much) Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo.

This is a bit of a plug for my friend Jon, but I've been reading his books too: Invisible Armies, Blood Price and Dark Places by Jon Evans. They are all thrillers set on a global scale in various dodgy countries (sorry, not a good description) Invisible Armies is about a woman who falls into a bad situation while working in India, makes it bad home, only to find it has repercussions back in the States, moves to Paris -- still bad stuff. I'm not really doing it justice.

That's one thing I love about being back home: the library with its extensive selection!

[t.s]

Another thats just come to mind...The famous Canadian author Robertson Davies "A Deptford Trilogy".....simply summarized, it follows the lives and circumstances of a towns people, and how they are all in some way affected by a single simple event.....the throwing of a snowball. The three novels are Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders.

I'm also a great fan and have read the Deptford Trilogy 2 or 3 times. Finally got my hands on the last of the Cornish Trilogy (The Rebel Angels, Whats Bred in the Bone & The Lyre of Orpheus) and finished that off a couple of days ago. Great stuff. Trying to get my hands on the first 2 books of the Salterton Trilogy.

hear hear!

I have read all 3 trilogies numerous times and am considering another go around.

absolutely brilliant.

[November Rain]

Wow! A lot of these are seriously worthy books. I'm sorry, I have to admit to liking books that are less heavy in general, though I have read some of the ones mentioned.

One of my favourite contemporary books is "The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay. I've actually read all of his books (I tend to do that with authors I really like - Minette Walters, Stephen King - I like him! - , Gerald Seymour etc etc), but IMHO, this is the best. It's a story of growing up, courage, finding oneself, set against the South African troubles during & after WWII.

Another favourite is "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey. It's one of the few books that has a film version that's equally good. Classics - I like dark Orwellian/Huxley type things. I also love "East of Eden" by Steinbeck and some of the classic English women authors (Austen & the Brontes)