Asian Stories?

[coldcrush]

Hiya all,

being an avid reader as have plenty of time for it. Does anyone know of any good fictional/true stories that are easy to get my hands on?

Read all the Bangkok Hilton stuff and alot of others as well...in english please....

Any ideas welcomed!

Thanks All

[seonai]

I think there's a good one called Old Asia Hands

[coldcrush]

I think there's a good one called Old Asia Hands

cannot seem to find that one Seonai, can you be more pacific?

thanks

[Chung noi]

Howdy,

Last year I enjoyed the book "The Life and Times of Genghis Khan". It was in our public libary. I'm not sure who wrote it, but it was really interesting. You may be able to find it in your public libary or get it on loan from another.

*j*

[joeuk1]

Get a copy of the book Private Dancer its a great read .

JB .

[lazeeboy]

Get a copy of the book Private Dancer its a great read .

JB .

a freind gave me a copy of that yesterday ,said it was very good ,gonna start it tomorrow

[joeuk1]

Get a copy of the book Private Dancer its a great read .

JB .

a freind gave me a copy of that yesterday ,said it was very good ,gonna start it tomorrow

Hope you enjoy it , i did , maybe send it onto the thread starter when you have finished with it .

[coldcrush]

Get a copy of the book Private Dancer its a great read .

JB .

Yes joeuk, Stephen Lather is good at what he does, read a couple by him, Solitary Man was a good read. The Life and Times of Genghis Khan, sounds alittle unusual but why not, time is on my hands....

Will give that one a try.

Anymore people.

Thanks

[Sateev]

"The Falcon of Siam', by Axel Aylwen, about late 17th century Siam, when a Greek was made Prime Minister (Barcalon).

Good read.

Sateev

[Jet Gorgon]

Hi, CC. Somerset Maugham's The Gentleman in the Parlour. About his trip through Burma, Thailand and I think Cambodia. More vignettes of the people and events than a guide book. Witty and funny. It's a classic.

The Travels of Marco Polo is good.

[endure]

Letters from Thailand - Botan

Touch the Dragon - Karen Connelly

Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind - Carol Hollinger

Bangkok - Alec Waugh

The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp - Khammaan Khonkhai

Reflections on Thai Culture - William J. Klausner

Inside Thai Society - Niels Mulder

That should keep you going for a week or two

[gburns57au]

The Bangkok Secret...Anthony Grey

A story woven around historical facts starting with the death of King Ananda and the political turmoil since then...but they are sidelines to the main story.

[pgs]

1/14th of an elephant - IF you can get it. Bio from one of the Aussie military held by the Japs & worked on the railway to Burma. I have been told it's a 'banned book' in Thailand.

[soundman]

1/14th of an elephant - IF you can get it. Bio from one of the Aussie military held by the Japs & worked on the railway to Burma. I have been told it's a 'banned book' in Thailand.

^ ^ ^ That was a good read.

Also that "Guns, gunja, girls" about PP. - Very funny. Good insight as to why so many expats are a bit loopy.

"First they took my Father" - Cambodian Genocide story of survival. Very sad but a good read.

Fiction:

Any or all of the Asia Series by James Clavell will take a two months to get through. Good enjoyment.

Thai Gold & Opium Dream - Available through Asia Books

Many more - I'll look through my library for more suggestions a little later.

Soundman.

[canadiangirl]

Dan Burdett: the last six million seconds (about HK), bangkok 8, bangkok tatoo -- fiction about HK and BKK

Karen Connoly: The Dream of a Thousand Lives (about Thailand) -- real-life account of a young canadian girl who does a school exchange with Thailand, very poetic

Nicholas Kristoff, Sheryl Wundun: China Wakes -- foreign correspondants talk about china, good stories

Graham Greene: A Quiet American -- classic about american involvement in vietnam

Brett Dakin : Another Quiet American (about Laos) -- new princeton grad goes to work in laos

Jeremy Seabrooke: travels in the skin trade -- the sex trade and globalisation in Thailand, very lyrical author, most beautiful book I've read about the sex trade, writes with a lot of compassion.

Pira Sudham: Monsoon Country -- I haven't actually read this one but I'm trying to get my hands on it in Canada, the author is from Issan, writes about the life of the Issan people, was nominated for a Nobel Prize in litterature

Stephen Leather: Private Dancer -- about bkk bargirls, the most cliche story in the world, sloppy writing style, but keeps you turning the page and you probably won't be able to put it down.

Rudyart Kipling

Good thread, BTW, I'm looking forward to some new reading suggestions!

Edited July 15, 2007 by canadiangirl

[coldcrush]

Excellent response from all, thanks for all the good info...will keep away the boredom!

Anymore welcome as one reads alot.

Thanks

[Tony Clifton]

If you like historical facts: 1421

Excellent read. I had no idea the Chinese had circumnavigated and charted quite accurately most of the world so early. Unfortunately most of the documents were destroyed at the time but the author had and is still discovering proof and clues all over the globe. History of the Americas is quite wrong and still being taught that way.

Roll over Colombus.

[Shrubbery]

"Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye" by Warren Olson.

An amusing read.

ISBN 10-981-05-4832-X

[canadiangirl]

Excellent response from all, thanks for all the good info...will keep away the boredom!

Anymore welcome as one reads alot.

Thanks

Good thread! I'm enjoying the suggestions too!

[cooL_guY_corY]

Four Hours in My Lai - A fairly well known book about the My Lai massacre perpetrated by the americans during the vietnam war. Theres a few books on this "incident" but this is one of the better ones.

Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang, this book always seems to be in airports and very visible at most book stores, worth reading if your into non-fiction and this type of subject. Some numbers and facts regarding this are disputed, mostly by Japanese revisionists, although the author goes into detail about these issues too. Sadly Iris Chang killed her self while writing and doing research for a book she was writing about the Batan death march.

Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History

by Wallace Terry - This is a book about black soldiers in the Vietnam war, has different accounts of things by a bunch of different soldiers ( varying ranks, positions etc). This book offers a glance into what the war was like from the eyes of the soldiers there, some parts are a bit graphic, also touches on most of the soldiers having issues in there current lives due to what they did and experienced during the war.

Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare

by Philip Short - This is a large, newer, book about Pol Pot and the whole auto-genocide thing in Cambodia. Not the easiest read for me, but seemed fairly thourghough and well researched

All these are non fiction and are different degrees of "heaviness". Modern history in Asia is a very interesting topic.. i am looking for some books about the Laos bombing runs the americans were doing during Nam', i saw a ton of these at the big stores around bangkok, but no time or money for them at the moment.

[johnsurin]

Letters from Thailand - Botan

Touch the Dragon - Karen Connelly

Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind - Carol Hollinger

Bangkok - Alec Waugh

The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp - Khammaan Khonkhai

Reflections on Thai Culture - William J. Klausner

Inside Thai Society - Niels Mulder

That should keep you going for a week or two

I'll second Letters from Thailand. I was with the wife in the salon, (it will not take long) and they had the book in there, so I started reading it after a couple of hours, (as she said not long) I was fully engrosed by it.

[coldcrush]

Dan Burdett: the last six million seconds (about HK), bangkok 8, bangkok tatoo -- fiction about HK and BKK

Karen Connoly: The Dream of a Thousand Lives (about Thailand) -- real-life account of a young canadian girl who does a school exchange with Thailand, very poetic

Nicholas Kristoff, Sheryl Wundun: China Wakes -- foreign correspondants talk about china, good stories

Graham Greene: A Quiet American -- classic about american involvement in vietnam

Brett Dakin : Another Quiet American (about Laos) -- new princeton grad goes to work in laos

Jeremy Seabrooke: travels in the skin trade -- the sex trade and globalisation in Thailand, very lyrical author, most beautiful book I've read about the sex trade, writes with a lot of compassion.

Pira Sudham: Monsoon Country -- I haven't actually read this one but I'm trying to get my hands on it in Canada, the author is from Issan, writes about the life of the Issan people, was nominated for a Nobel Prize in litterature

Stephen Leather: Private Dancer -- about bkk bargirls, the most cliche story in the world, sloppy writing style, but keeps you turning the page and you probably won't be able to put it down.

Rudyart Kipling

Good thread, BTW, I'm looking forward to some new reading suggestions!

That should be John Burdett?

Good book.

[seonai]

Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth, The Mother - fantastically written about China in the famine days.

By the way, The Bangkok Secret is banned in Thailand

[seonai]

I expect you've read Memoires of a Geisha ? It's brilliant.

[sgunn65]

I would agree that Burdett's Bangkok Eight is a good throwaway thriller and will seek out Bkk tattoo asap. Thanks for that.

There is loads written about Vietnam and the war but for first person narratives 2 stand out. Dispatches by Micheal Herr and If I die in a combat zone by Tim O'Brien I think.

I also enjoyed the biography of Pat X called "Pattaya, my diminishing bank balance and the view from the 6th floor." Its sequel " I believe I can fly" is expected shortly!

[canadiangirl]

Dan Burdett: the last six million seconds (about HK), bangkok 8, bangkok tatoo -- fiction about HK and BKK

!

That should be John Burdett?

Good book.

Oops! Yep. I love Burdett!

[Prakanong]

Get a copy of the book Private Dancer its a great read .

JB .

a freind gave me a copy of that yesterday ,said it was very good ,gonna start it tomorrow

If you can get hold of the Esquire article too - its the factual account written before the novel.

The girl on the cover was a show girl at Angel Witch and I beleive it may have been Stickman who took the picture.

[mikeyj]

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A stunning true story of an Australians exploits. Most of the story takes place in the slums of Bombay but his adventures take him all over the place.This book is an absolutely stunning read, I couldn't put it down

[Gary A]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Chris Moore or Dean Barret. Both have written books about Thailand's night life and both live in Bangkok.

[coldcrush]

More good suggestions.

Thanks All, I will be able to read for a year !