Book List

[manarak]

well, there are all sorts of books for expats and for tourists or for both, bit "Farang" by Dr. Iain Corness is not one of them.

[melvinmelvin]

melvinmelvin

where did you buy Living in the Thai Countryside, by a chap called HAKAN KOLMODIN?

sorry, cannot remember, my guess would be in a Bookazine or a Asiabooks store

[melvinmelvin]

Has anybody been through "King of the Waters" by Homan van der Heide?

A dutch "water" engineer working for some 10 years in LoS during the early 1900s.

Is it a good read? Are the cultural and political aspects of the era well covered?

Edited November 16, 2011 by melvinmelvin

[tonytigerbkk]

Damage done by warren fellows

Kicking dogs by collin piprell

Private dancer by Stephen leather

Youll never walk alone by Debbie Pugh

Just started reading Thai girl by andrew hicks so far so good

I would have to agree on putting Private Dancer on a list of must reads for Expats (even though it's a bit aged now) but definitely not Damaged Done.

Fellows must have had shed loads to write about but instead he includes several obvious inaccuracies in his story, which ends up making his book look like a work of fiction.

[4.real]

Anything by Harlan Ellison and the greatest epic,' Paradise lost' By John Milton..If you have lots of time.

[chiangmaibruce]

Well, we seem to have a bit of a shortage of non-fiction here, so here are a few offerings taken from the chapter on "doing business" in my book:

Culture Shock! Thailand: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette, Robert and Nanthapa Cooper (Marshall Cavendish, 2008).

Inside Thai Society: Religion, Everyday Life, Change, Neils Mulder (Silkworm Books, 2001).

Passport Thailand: Your Pocket Guide to Thai Business, Customs and Etiquette, Naomi Wise (World Trade Press, 1997).

Reflections on Thai Culture, William J. Klausner (Siam Society, 2000).

Start Up and Stay Up in Thailand: Stories, Insight, and Advice from Enterprising Expats, Roy Tomizawa (Alpha Research, 1998).

Thailand's Boom and Bust, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (Silkworm Books, 1998).

Thailand Economy and Politics, 2nd edition, Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Thais Mean Business: The Expat's Guide to Doing Business in Thailand (Revised), Robert Cooper (Marshall Cavendish, 2004).

Working with the Thais: A Guide to Managing in Thailand, Henry Holmes and Suchada Tangtongtavy (Bangkok Books, 1995).

How to Establish a Successful Business in Thailand by Phillip Wylie (Paiboon Publishing, 2007).

Edited November 17, 2011 by bonobo
changed font size

[BigFishEatLittleFish]

Well, we seem to have a bit of a shortage of non-fiction here, so here are a few offerings taken from the chapter on "doing business" in my book:

Here is a promising book. Note the sad last line in the review below. Not sure I agree with it but I plan to read this book.

http://www.economist.com/node/21538093

Jim Thompson

Boat against the current

The disillusionment of a man of charm

Nov 12th 2011 | from the print edition

The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War. By Joshua Kurlantzick. Wiley; 253 pages; $25.95 and £17.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

HE WAS the Jay Gatsby of Bangkok: rich, charming, glamorous and endlessly hospitable, but with something mysterious in his background. The mystery only deepened with his death. On Easter Sunday in 1967 Jim Thompson left the cottage where he was on holiday in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, apparently for an afternoon walk. He vanished. Despite a huge conventional search operation (followed by more exotic efforts involving psychics and a Gurkha parachuted into Cambodia), no trace was ever found of him. A library’s-worth of conspiracy theories has never explained his disappearance.

The secret in Thompson’s background—and source of many of the conspiracy theories—was of the spooky variety. He was an agent for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, posted to South-East Asia at the end of the second world war. He befriended anti-colonial forces in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This was both a personal inclination and his mandate as a spy. The organisation, according to Richard Harris Smith, its biographer, had some “recurrent themes: democratic, social, progressive reform”.

Thompson felt betrayed by America’s rejection of these ideals in favour of alliances with anti-communist forces, however corrupt and undemocratic. Joshua Kurlantzick, now at the Council on Foreign Relations, portrays him as on the losing side in a battle in post-war Washington, as McCarthyite frenzy turned American foreign policy into a “with-us-or-against-us” crusade against communism. As a result, in Indochina, and in Thailand itself, America usually found it was on the side of the bad guys. Complex nations were grotesquely simplified for the voters back home and the boys sent to fight abroad. President Kennedy deliberately mispronounced Laos as “Lay-os”, lest Americans think he wanted to go to war with a small bug.

After government service, Thompson built up the Thai silk business that bears his name and collected artefacts to adorn the Bangkok house which is still on the tourist itinerary. He became a fierce critic of America’s policy in the region. This mattered since he was, in the 1960s, “the best-known private citizen in South-East Asia”. The Kennedys, the Eisenhowers, Truman Capote, Somerset Maugham and “nearly every prominent royal or heiress in Europe”; they all came to dinner chez Jim when they graced Bangkok.

Perhaps Thompson was subject to a contract killing by business rivals in Bangkok. He ended up betrayed both by his own country, America, from whose east coast upper classes he hailed and whose ideals he cherished, and by his adopted home, Thailand, to whose welfare and culture he had devoted himself.

The book fails, though, to explain why Thompson was so fascinating. It tells of his talents, knowledge, contacts, wit and urbanity, but it does not convince. He remains an elusive, insubstantial figure, if a very sad one, summed up by a journalist who knew him: “At the end, these foreigners realise they have no home.”

[lovelaos]

I would add to your list but I am not allowed to. A must read for anyone connected with Thailand

[harrypatterson]

The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson by William Warren

The Honourable Schoolboy by John LeCarre

The Falcon of Siam

The Falcon Takes Wing

The Falcon's Final Flight-all by Axel Aylwen

The Solitary Man by Stephen Leather

The Pirates of Tartuo by Paul Adirex

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski

Smoking Poppies by Graham Joyce

[GooEng]

Reflections on Thai Culture by William J. Klausner is a bit dry and schoarly and pretty out of date now, but has some very insightful material on the thai culture, character and history.

and the one about a straight faced highly placed public figure - it's a scream.

[bonobo]

If you read electronic books, Bangkokbooks, whose ads you can see here in the forum, has a decent collection of books on or taking place in Thailand.

And if you are in Chiang Mai, Gecko Books, also an advertiser, can satisfy your need for hardbound books.

[GooEng]

Reflections on Thai Culture by William J. Klausner is a bit dry and schoarly and pretty out of date now, but has some very insightful material on the thai culture, character and history.

and the one about a straight faced highly placed public figure - it's a scream.

oops, i forgot! anyone reading travel literature about this part of the world must read norman lewis's fantastic accounts of his travels in indochina at the tail end of the french presence.

he has been described by graeme green as "one of the best writers, not of any particular decade, but of our century" and that is no hyperbole.

his books about the countries he travels in are sensitive, perceptive and humane reflections full of pertinent and often very amusing context.

i picked up the 3 volume omnibus of his books on indochina on a whim about 20 years ago and read them back-to-back and have re-read them all - they are still in my top 10 books of all time.

loas, cambodia and vietnam were the countries he covered extensively and he didn't say much about thailand, but his books are well worth reading nonetheless, for the unadulterated pleasure of reading his brilliant writing if nothing else.

treat yourselves.

Edited November 17, 2011 by GooEng

[CaptHaddock]

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia by Joe Studwell is an excellent book on how the major economies of SouthEast Asia work and why, for example, none of them has produced a world-class company with international brand recognition in the way that China and NorthEast Asian countries have. I consider it essential to understanding Thailand's economy. Studwell is a journalist, not an economist. The writing is lively.

Edited November 18, 2011 by CaptHaddock

[endure]

My one favorite novel was Bangkok 8, read it twice, really gets you in the mind of what the writer feels.

I've just finished The Godfather of Katmandu by the same author. One little detail really spoilt it for me. There's a character called Tommy Ng in it and Detective Sonchai says 'Ng - where's the vowel in that - how do you pronounce it'. I can't speak Thai but even I know that there's a consonant 'ng' in the language.

[tonytigerbkk]

My one favorite novel was Bangkok 8, read it twice, really gets you in the mind of what the writer feels.

I've just finished The Godfather of Katmandu by the same author. One little detail really spoilt it for me. There's a character called Tommy Ng in it and Detective Sonchai says 'Ng - where's the vowel in that - how do you pronounce it'. I can't speak Thai but even I know that there's a consonant 'ng' in the language.

I don't know about Nepalese but in Tagalog ng is pronounced nang and I believe that in Cantonese ng is pronounced mm, as in mm that was delicious.

It is also used in Hungarian (ng = of) but I don't know how that's pronounced

[endure]

My one favorite novel was Bangkok 8, read it twice, really gets you in the mind of what the writer feels.

I've just finished The Godfather of Katmandu by the same author. One little detail really spoilt it for me. There's a character called Tommy Ng in it and Detective Sonchai says 'Ng - where's the vowel in that - how do you pronounce it'. I can't speak Thai but even I know that there's a consonant 'ng' in the language.

I don't know about Nepalese but in Tagalog ng is pronounced nang and I believe that in Cantonese ng is pronounced mm, as in mm that was delicious.

It is also used in Hungarian (ng = of) but I don't know how that's pronounced

What disappointed me wasn't whether Sonchai's pronunciation would be correct or not but the implication that he was unable to pronounce it at all because it didn't include a vowel.

[Blackandwhite]

John Burdett - new book is out - reads well so far loving it

[endure]

John Burdett - new book is out - reads well so far loving it

Title please?

[Blackandwhite]

Vulture Peak ( Sonchai jitpleecheep 5 )

[endure]

Cheers

[roamer]

" A war is taking place on the streets of Bangkok as political cliques fire bullets and rockets at each other.Mysterious 'Men in Black' snipe combatants from both sides.It is a good time to settle old scores.

Take a walk on the darkside with Chance. An enigma: family-orientated, loyal and loving... and a cold-blooded killer.... This chilling, high-octane thriller takes you to parts of Bangkok no tourist should ever go, a world where life is cheap and morality non-existent."

That was Bangkok Burn which was free for Kindle yesterday but is now 2.87.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bangkok-Burn-ebook/dp/B006WMDMI2/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352500254&sr=1-3

For those of you who do have a Kindle, this is a daily updated list of free Kindle books on Amazon,

There is some good stuff there but sometimes you just have to pay and search other sites that list the paid for stuff, Ken Follets latest World of Winter cost me 20p

[endure]

" A war is taking place on the streets of Bangkok as political cliques fire bullets and rockets at each other.Mysterious 'Men in Black' snipe combatants from both sides.It is a good time to settle old scores.

Take a walk on the darkside with Chance. An enigma: family-orientated, loyal and loving... and a cold-blooded killer.... This chilling, high-octane thriller takes you to parts of Bangkok no tourist should ever go, a world where life is cheap and morality non-existent."

That was Bangkok Burn which was free for Kindle yesterday but is now 2.87.

http://www.amazon.co...52500254&sr=1-3

For those of you who do have a Kindle, this is a daily updated list of free Kindle books on Amazon,

There is some good stuff there but sometimes you just have to pay and search other sites that list the paid for stuff, Ken Follets latest World of Winter cost me 20p

I got that too

Anyone found a safe way of reading a Kindle in the bath?

[Time Traveller]

The only books about Thailand that are worth reading are the ones that are banned in Thailand. Only those have the truth, or at worst they are not poorly written fiction.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Time Traveller

[Blackandwhite]

The only books about Thailand that are worth reading are the ones that are banned in Thailand. Only those have the truth, or at worst they are not poorly written fiction.

Oh

[martynsnowmans]

upto now i,ve not heard any1 mention THE LAST EXECUTIONER by chavoret jaruboon , nicola pierce .

hard hitting book , only read it once lent it to som1 never returned but would like to read again .

[endure]

Some good Thai books

'The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp' by Khamman Khonkhai

'Four Reigns' Kukrit Pramoj

'Touch the Dragon' Karen Conolly

'Mai pen Rai means Never mind' Carol Hollinger