Books You Are Reading Now Or Highly Recommend.

[jEFFREYk44]

I just finished "Jasmine Nights" by S.P. Somtow called by somee as "the J.D. Salinger of Siam".

About a 12 year old Thai boy from a wealthy family, his parents are away somewhere and he lives with his three aunts he calls "the 3 Fates" (they are named Ning-nong, Nit-nit and Noi-noi} The year is 1963 and it is a bit of a coming of age story, lol funny at parts, always entertaining, The boy "Little Frog" refuses to believe he is Thai, refuses to speak Thai and his best friends are the son of the gardener and the black American boy living next door.

It is published by Asia Books.

Edited July 5, 2007 by jEFFREYk44

[eek]

Recently finished 'Private Dancer' - Steven Leather. Was ok..not the most fantastic book ive read centred around thailand, but interesting. The fact that you are given insight into different perspectives of a situation through the eyes of the characters was the most interesting part for me. The main viewpoints coming from the main character ( a western male) and his BG gf. Apparently based on a true story too.

Bought Thai Lite 2 - S.Tsow for a lighthearted read on a flight and although the first chapter made me laugh out loud (and a couple of others), the other chapters paled by comparison. I wish the whole book had been as funny as the first few pages. Maybe its just not my taste. Good lighthearted read anyway.

Reading another lighthearted book: 'Lonely Planet's Unpacked Again' - Tony Wheeler - travel disaster stories. Actually has several hair raising tales and many of them are told with tongue-in-cheek retrospect. Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing! Many of the tales have made me laugh and/or made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. Its also a good reminder of how easily something can go wrong. A bit of a reminder to expect the unexpected.

[GuestHouse]

I've recently finished 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by T E Lawrence, a stunning book and a good read for anyone heading out to Saudi Arabia.

I'm now reading Herodotus' The Histories' for the third time - its that good, and I never tire of it.

[Valjean]

WOW – you guys and gals are reading some great stuff. Wittgenstein – holy cow don’t you have to smoke pot to get this? Or be German. That is serious stuff. Mark Twain – he is to the US what Dickens is to England or Hugo is to France. Read everything they write. Wonderful story tellers.

On to what I am reading. Three books in progress…

Practical Buddhism – the legacy of Buddhadasa Bhikku. Co-workers and fiancé are helping me along. I enjoy – in small doses. I want to be a better man and I know I need to get onto another plane. I’m trying, I really am.

Blink by Malcolm Galdwell. OK slow to catch up on this. Tipping Point was a seminal work for anyone in marketing. Met him once so we’re almost best friends other than he doesn’t rememeber. Half way through but recommended.

Killing Johnny Fry, A Sexistential Novel by Walter Mosley. OK anyone with an modicum of sex drive in Bangkok would be tempted to pick this one up – I did. Too early to say but it’s weird enough that if I can’t sleep in the middle of the night (every night) better to read about Buddhism or Blink.

Past Few Months notable mentions…

Slow Man by J.M.Coetzee – this is a great read and if you are over 50 and sorta floating around a must read. It is one of those wonderful books where fiction, and we know that is what it is, veers of into the implosible – our suspension of disbelieve is challenged to follow the story but we let go and it’s a wonderful experience. Nobel Prize winner. Read it. And oh he’s an Ozzie so you guys should root for the home team!!!

Sweet Land Stories by E.L.Doctorow. Short story collection. What an ignored art – the short story. Five stories. One or two OK. The rest great. Life on the not doing so well edge but getting by (not in Thailand but ring a bell?). I say “Read It”

A Spot of Bother by Mark Handon. He wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night”. Tough act to follow but he’s done OK. Another mid-life crisis – or maybe a little past that into retirement crisis. Anyway too close to comfort as I’m sinking into some sort of delusional state. If you are unsure of your grip on reality read quick and hasten you progress. It was a book that when I’d read when I couldn’t sleep upset me more. Thank God for sex or I’d never sleep.

Thai Girl by Andrew Hicks – OK folks this isn’t great literature. But it’s a fun read. It seemed in many ways you needed to experience some of this first hand to get it. And I did and I think he did a fine job of wrapping up his tale. OK no Noble but good for him and I was flipping the pages.

Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. Author of The Piano Teacher. If you are thinking of suicide don’t read this book. It’s dark in a very, very disturbing way. 253 pages took me a long time and in fact I think I read Thai Girl in the middle of finishing this. Postwar Austria in the 50’s. Alienated to the extreme; violence, sexual awaking, and Nazi shadows. This is another Nobel Prize winner – and why I read from that list. It’s an amazing book but frankly it upset me. It made me uncomfortable. No one likes looking at dark places.

If anyone would like to have, join, start or otherwise be in a book club PM me. There is so much in this thread that I need to go to bed and read to catch up.

Thanks to everyone!

[amexpat]

River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam - by Joh Swain

It's more about Cambodia that VN and really made me wish I could have seen pre-war Cambodia. There's lots of nostalgia and new information especially for the VN vets.

Review:

From Library Journal

British journalist Swain will be familiar to many as one of the Western newsmen who worked so tirelessly to save their Cambodian colleague Dith Pran from the Khmer Rouge in the early days of the Communist victory in Cambodia. Presently a reporter for the Sunday Times, Swain spent five years in Cambodia and South Vietnam as a war correspondent. Those years were a time of American retreat, Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese victory, and seemingly unendurable suffering for the civilians of both countries caught in between the several armies. Written as a journalist's memoir, this is not a well-researched, definitive historical account of the Communist victory but an emotional, impressionistic view of the tragic experiences of people like Dith Pran who find themselves forced to deal with events far beyond their ability to control them. Already published in England, Swain's sympathetic portrayal of the collapse of Cambodia and South Vietnam is suitable for comprehensive Vietnam War collections.

[Valjean]

I just finished "Jasmine Nights" by S.P. Somtow called by somee as "the J.D. Salinger of Siam".

About a 12 year old Thai boy from a wealthy family, his parents are away somewhere and he lives with his three aunts he calls "the 3 Fates" (they are named Ning-nong, Nit-nit and Noi-noi} The year is 1963 and it is a bit of a coming of age story, lol funny at parts, always entertaining, The boy "Little Frog" refuses to believe he is Thai, refuses to speak Thai and his best friends are the son of the gardener and the black American boy living next door.

It is published by Asia Books.

Best book I've read in and about Thailand. This is a wonderful book.

[bulmercke]

Currently reading The Magic Plaster written by Kevin Wood of Radio City - Patpong fame -

Previously only dipped into it - but now making the effort to read it from cover to cover.

Interesting read - some good bits.

Different.

[mcgriffith]

I just finished "Jasmine Nights" by S.P. Somtow called by somee as "the J.D. Salinger of Siam".

About a 12 year old Thai boy from a wealthy family, his parents are away somewhere and he lives with his three aunts he calls "the 3 Fates" (they are named Ning-nong, Nit-nit and Noi-noi} The year is 1963 and it is a bit of a coming of age story, lol funny at parts, always entertaining, The boy "Little Frog" refuses to believe he is Thai, refuses to speak Thai and his best friends are the son of the gardener and the black American boy living next door.

It is published by Asia Books.

Best book I've read in and about Thailand. This is a wonderful book.

Read it, loved it, and saved it in my library!

[inetizen]

hi,

you guys should try www.goodreads.com its a social networking site for sharing information about books that you are reading with your friends...........its very very cool.

[mrtoad]

Some recent reads.

Innocent Man - John Grisham. Okay, not normally my type of book, but I was intrigued by the story of miscaraiges of justices. It was quite an enjoyable read, but also quite critical of some methods of police work and how a mentally ill man was exploited to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit. A true sad story.

Restless Souls -Phil Thornton. A good factual account of people up on the Thai / Burma border near Mae Sot. It was recommended to me by friend who spends quite a lot of time up in that area with the Karen. Some quite harrowing accounts of the suffering and struggles that these people endure.

The Last Executioner - Chavoret Jaruboon. A fascinating memoir of Thialand's last prison executioner. A good, light read.

I have now started Singapore Burning - which is a narrative of the Fall of Singapore in 1942. So far, so good.

Edited October 5, 2007 by mrtoad

[canadiangirl]

thanks for the recommendations everyone!

as for mine, lately i've re-read

L'Amant by Marguerite Duras (the translation is called "The Lover" -- movie made of it): read it in French if you can, as it's so perfect as it is. A complex story about a young French girl in Indochina who has an affair with a much older Chinese man. Duras is a master at the absolute top of her game with this book. One of the best novels I've ever read set in SEA, and one of the rare SEA love stories written by a women -- a different point of view.

Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux -- the author travels through China in the 80s entirely by railroad. Some really good stories about China in the 80s, really inspiring if train travel is your favorite, like me. :-) I think Theroux was one of the earlier post-colonial travel writers, so he has a really different style than the current crop of people, a bit more highbrow, he has lots and lots of reference to travel writers (usually colonials) from the 1800s and early literature from the places he visits.

Hagakure, the book of the samurai, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo: this book is HILARIOUS. Ok, it's full of deep Japanese mysticism for the office warrior types, but ignore all that stuff and pick up this book for great tidbits like: "how to pick the right older man to be your homosexual patron in order to advance your career" and "young people today no longer assist in executions and their character is going all to hel_l."

[inetizen]

I have just read a book called happier which is by dr. ben tal shahar, an israeli professor of the most popular undergrad course at harvard........its about positive psychology which is a new thing or rather newly popularized by dr. martin seligman of UPenn(authentic happinness book also about positive psychology)

On the fiction side my last one was You've Been Warned by James Patterson. So so this one.

[nidge]

Nearly finished the first book of the Trilogy "Attila" by William Napier. It was difficult to get into but after the first few pages it became very difficult to put down. Hopefully i will be able to buy part 2 when i get back to thailand. Anybody seen it for sale there?

[intumult]

The best series of books I ever read were the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell all set in the Napoleonic War. Made later into a tv series with Sean Bean.

[Ulysses G.]

L'Amant by Marguerite Duras (the translation is called "The Lover" -- movie made of it): read it in French if you can, as it's so perfect as it is. A complex story about a young French girl in Indochina who has an affair with a much older Chinese man. Duras is a master at the absolute top of her game with this book. One of the best novels I've ever read set in SEA, and one of the rare SEA love stories written by a women -- a different point of view.

The Lover is a fictionalized true story about Ms Duras - the author - as a young girl and now-a-days the older guy would be arrested for supposerly being a "pedophile". Perfect is a great description.

By the way, The North China Lover by Marguerite Duras is the non-fiction version of the same book if you want to know more.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[ercorn]

I am reading Genesis by W.A Harsinson,A freaked out Close encounters story.

[simon43]

Just finished reading 'History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani' by Ibrahim Syukri. This is an English translation of 'Sejarah Kerajaan Melayu Patani' which was published just after WW2, but was originally written in the local Jawi script. It's essentially a historical treatise on the history of the Patani region, from the perspective of the local Muslim population.

Simon

[inetizen]

now i'm reading michael crichton's next......just half way through it and i like it so far.......its into gene patenting and bio medicine but its mostly fiction with a little non fiction.

[wileycoyote]

"Tyrant" Christian Cameron.

Group of Athenian cavalry find that there have to conscript an army to defend a tyrant's city ,for their own survival.Likeable characters,subtle development of plot.Nothing is absolutely black & white.

Enjoyable read

[kmart]

"Rotten-No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish" Autobiography of the Sex Pistols / PiL singer Johnny Rotten (Lydon).

Fascinating story of the Pistols and punk era of the mid-late 70's told rather wittily and brutally honestly by the figurehead of the time. Great read for anyone who was a fan.

[Andrew Hicks]

It's definitely there in Paragon. I saw a copy in the big bookshop who's name i can never recall at the weekend. It's in the philosophy section.

Kinokinokiya??

or something like that.

I have just read Germs Guns and Steel; highly recommended by my mum years ago, finally someone i know bought it so i could borrow.

Awesome read, and many of the ill informed idiots on this board would do well to read it - sadly I suspect none of them read as none of them are posting in this thread! LOL

Also....high performance yacht performance by Frank Bethwaite. Bible for skiff and high speed yacht racing and tuning. Highly recommended for sailors.

And....Puckoon. A regular read for me by Spike Milligan; gift from me dad. Man some of it you couldn't get away with saying that stuff these days.

Kinokuniya!!!

There are branches in both the Emporium and Siam Paragon and they're amazingly good. Paragon has an excellent Asia Books too.

For books on Thailand, try Letters from Thailand by 'Botan', Silkworm Books. It's a novel structured around the letters from a Chimese immigrant to his mother in China.

[dominique355]

I am reading `The Rise and Fall of the third Reich` William L Shirer,If your interested in Europeans history its a must.

The film that Matt dillon did about Bukowski was great have not read anything from him yet,wife reads alot of his stuff though,

`The world according to Garp`by Irving worth a read as well.

regrds Ercorn

We see to have similar interests, Ercorn. I am reading Niall Ferguson's "The War of the World". Sometimes so strong, I have to put down the book in horror and calm down myself.

Here an interesting passage I would like to share with all TV readers:

On paper it called itself the [...] monarchy; in speaking, however, one referred to is as [...]; that is to say, it was known by a name that it had, as a State, solemnly renounced by oath, while preserving in all matters of sentiment, as a sign that feelings are just as important as constitutional law and that regulations are not the really serious things in life. By its constitution it was liberal, but its system of government was clerical. The system of government was clerical, but the general attitude of life was liberal. Before the law all citizens were equal, but not everyone, of course, was a citizen. There was a parliament, which made such vigorous use of its liberty that it was usually kept shut; but there was also an emergency powers act by means of which it was possible to manage without parliament, and every time everyone was just beginning to rejoice in absolutism, the Crown decreed that there must now again be a return to parliamentary government.

National struggles ... were so violent that they several times a year caused the machinery of State to jam and come to a dead stop. But between whiles, in the breathing spaces between government and government, everyone got on excellently with everyone and behaved as though nothing had been the matter.

The country Niall Ferguson is talking about is the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, aka Austria.

Interesting parallels, I think.

[ercorn]

I picked up a book on my last visit to China-War Stories(true stories from the first and second world war) by Paul Dowswll which was a great read as well.

[pitrevie]

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

If you enjoyed that book then you will enjoy the book she wrote with her husband debunking Mao which is called Mao

[Andrew Hicks]

WOW – you guys and gals are reading some great stuff. Wittgenstein – holy cow don’t you have to smoke pot to get this? Or be German. That is serious stuff. Mark Twain – he is to the US what Dickens is to England or Hugo is to France. Read everything they write. Wonderful story tellers.

On to what I am reading. Three books in progress…

Practical Buddhism – the legacy of Buddhadasa Bhikku. Co-workers and fiancé are helping me along. I enjoy – in small doses. I want to be a better man and I know I need to get onto another plane. I’m trying, I really am.

Blink by Malcolm Galdwell. OK slow to catch up on this. Tipping Point was a seminal work for anyone in marketing. Met him once so we’re almost best friends other than he doesn’t rememeber. Half way through but recommended.

Killing Johnny Fry, A Sexistential Novel by Walter Mosley. OK anyone with an modicum of sex drive in Bangkok would be tempted to pick this one up – I did. Too early to say but it’s weird enough that if I can’t sleep in the middle of the night (every night) better to read about Buddhism or Blink.

Past Few Months notable mentions…

Slow Man by J.M.Coetzee – this is a great read and if you are over 50 and sorta floating around a must read. It is one of those wonderful books where fiction, and we know that is what it is, veers of into the implosible – our suspension of disbelieve is challenged to follow the story but we let go and it’s a wonderful experience. Nobel Prize winner. Read it. And oh he’s an Ozzie so you guys should root for the home team!!!

Sweet Land Stories by E.L.Doctorow. Short story collection. What an ignored art – the short story. Five stories. One or two OK. The rest great. Life on the not doing so well edge but getting by (not in Thailand but ring a bell?). I say “Read It”

A Spot of Bother by Mark Handon. He wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night”. Tough act to follow but he’s done OK. Another mid-life crisis – or maybe a little past that into retirement crisis. Anyway too close to comfort as I’m sinking into some sort of delusional state. If you are unsure of your grip on reality read quick and hasten you progress. It was a book that when I’d read when I couldn’t sleep upset me more. Thank God for sex or I’d never sleep.

Thai Girl by Andrew Hicks – OK folks this isn’t great literature. But it’s a fun read. It seemed in many ways you needed to experience some of this first hand to get it. And I did and I think he did a fine job of wrapping up his tale. OK no Noble but good for him and I was flipping the pages.

Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. Author of The Piano Teacher. If you are thinking of suicide don’t read this book. It’s dark in a very, very disturbing way. 253 pages took me a long time and in fact I think I read Thai Girl in the middle of finishing this. Postwar Austria in the 50’s. Alienated to the extreme; violence, sexual awaking, and Nazi shadows. This is another Nobel Prize winner – and why I read from that list. It’s an amazing book but frankly it upset me. It made me uncomfortable. No one likes looking at dark places.

If anyone would like to have, join, start or otherwise be in a book club PM me. There is so much in this thread that I need to go to bed and read to catch up.

Thanks to everyone!

Valjean,

I'd be game for a book club. Maybe start with 'Les Miserables'!

And thanks emilion for your nice comments about my novel, "Thai Girl". With 15,000 copies in print it's gone down pretty well.

I'm currently working on a non-fiction story of setting up home in my Surin village and you can get some of the flavour of it with some of the experimental pieces on my Thaivisa blog.

Just click on Blogs at the top of the page.

Choke dee.

Andrew Hicks

[taxexile]

the biography of captain sir richard francis burton , by edward rice.

this victorian soldier , government agent , explorer , scholar and inveterate womaniser served his country and travelled through india , pakistan , the near and middle east and africa. he passed himself off as an arab , could speak half a dozen languages , was one of the few white men to enter into the forbidden cities of mecca and medina , was one of the first europeans to seek the source of the nile , was entertained in both the harems of kings and the backstreet brothels of the middle east and asia ( his research even led him to the abyssinian brothels to sample the remarkable penis clutching vaginas of abyssinian women).

he studied islam and sufism , and became initiated into the dervishes , and was a fierce spirited independant maverick in an age when conformity was the rule.

he discovered and translated the kama sutra and the arabian nights.

it gave me an insight into the politics and skullduggery of victorian empire building , the bravery of those who went to these dangerous foriegn countries , and the cruelty of life in those times. if you have any interest in well researched and well written historyand travel literature , then i cant recommend this book highly enough.

a remarkable and fascinating story and an unputdownable 600 page book.

some reviews.

if you spent many childhood hours staring at maps ... lamenting our increasingly unadventurous age , this book makes it vividly clear just what , for better or for worse , you missed.

full of action and intrigue , any novelist who invented a character like burton would be accused of piling the impossible on the improbable , yet this man actually lived.

rice handles the complexities of burtons story with immense skill , organising the wealth of detail with admirable finesse and bringing people and places to life with striking images and lively anecdotes.

published by harper perennial . isbn 0-06-097394-3

[inetizen]

Hi,

Now I'm reading 'Jack: Straight from the Gut' which is an autobiography of Jack Welch of GE. Can someone suggest me other books that may be good reading in the similar genre, i.e., about successful leaders who have documented their struggles and moved up the corporate ladder and made significant impacts in the business world.

Thanks,

inetizen