Reading/Books fr Vietnam & Cambodia trip
 

We will be taking an organized tour (Friendly Planet) to Vietnam and Cambodia in a couple of months. I like to pass the time on long flights, bus rides, etc. reading, both fiction and non-fiction that are about, or take place in, the countries I am visiting. I have had great success with this forum in the past getting appropriate recommendations, so I'd like to hear what people say about Vietnam and Cambodia. Thanks.

'When the War was Over' by Elizabeth Becker (Cambodia)
'A Bright Shining Lie' by Neil Sheehan (Vietnam)
'When Heaven and Earth Changed Places' (Vietnam)
'Angkor an Introduction to the Temples' by Dawn Rooney

Do a search for reading lists on this forum as you'll find a lot more. These are just off the top of my head. Also 'Saigon' by Anthony Grey (Fiction).

"First They Killed my Father" by Loung Ung (Cambodia)
"The Lotus Eaters" by Tatjana Soli (Vietnam)-fiction
"The Unwanted" by Kien Nguyen

The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Saigon - Anthony Grey
Three Moons in Vietnam - Dawn Rooney
Ho Chi Minh - William J Duiker

The Latehomecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang

To Destroy You is No Loss: the Odyssey of a Cambodian Family by Joan Criddle & Teeda Butt Mam

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham

Andrew Pham has another book out called The Eaves of Heaven. I haven't read it yet, but enjoyed Catfish and Mandala.

Do get Dawn Rooney's latest book on Angkor: A Guide to Cambodia's Wondrous Temples

Have you seen Indochine? Good preparation for a trip to VN.

The House on Dream Street : memoir of an American woman in Vietnam, by Dana Sachs.

Wow! Suzi what a great idea for a website! I love it!! Just bought two books on Vietnam the other day as we are going in Dec., but when I'm done I plan on joining your book club. I love to travel and I love to read about the places I'm traveling to (or will be traveling to). Thanks!

I second Kim Echlin's *The Disappeared* on Cambodia.
For Vietnam, I recommend Camilla Gibb, *The Beauty of Humanity Movement*, set in Hanoi, both past and present. About an artistic movement during the 50s and its present-day reception. Excellent on contemporary Hanoi.
While in Vietnam last March I read three recent novels about the Vietnam war (The Lotus Eaters, mentioned above, was one) This one is far and away the best (from the Ny Times Review):
<<Karl Marlantes’s first novel, “Matterhorn,” is about a company of Marines who build, abandon and retake an outpost on a remote hilltop in Vietnam. According to the publisher, Marlantes ­— a highly decorated Vietnam vet — spent 30 years writing this book. It was originally 1,600 pages long; now it is 600. Reading his account of the bloody folly surrounding the Matterhorn outpost, you get the feeling Marlantes is not overly worried about the attention span of his readers; you get the feeling he was not desperate or impatient to be published. Rather, he seems like a man whose life was radically altered by war, and who now wants to pass along the favor. And with a desperate fury, he does. Chapter after chapter, battle after battle, Marlantes pushes you through what may be one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam — or any war. It’s not a book so much as a deployment, and you will not return unaltered.>>
I met an American vet in Hoi An who said it was the best book on the war he'd read.

Thanks for the great suggestions.
I had previously purchased the audiobook (www.audible.com) version of "Matterhorn" because of the strong reviews and am saving that for the trip. Most of the other books suggested seem to be available on Kindle which has become the only way I read when traveling. So, it may be hard to narrow the list, but the great thing about the Kindle is that if I run out of books on the trip, I can wirelessly download another instantaneously.
I especially like the www.packabook.com website and have bookmarked it for future use.

How was your trip with Friendly Planet?

I really liked "first they killed my father"

[Just realized that the OP's trip has come and gone, but thought I'd post anyway.]

Vietnam
I second Graham Greene's The Quiet American.

I think the best fiction/memoires on the American war are In the Pharoah's Army by Tobias Wolff and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. The Things They Carried is in a class to itself!

A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis is a classic travel account. Not sure if it's still in print, but it should be.

Cambodia
Definitely pick up Dawn Rooney.

Since someone resurrected this, here is what I (OP) ended up reading (Kindle) on the trip:
Catfish and Mandala - 4*
The Man from Saigon - 4*
The Sacred Willow - 4*
First They Killed My Father - 5*

I also listened to "Matterhorn" on my iPod - I gave it 3*, but realized that I may have enjoyed this particular book a lot more if I had read it. Certain books (one with a lot of characters or otherwise complicated plots like this one) are harder for me to follow on audiobook than a written one.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Also, re: Friendly Planet. This was our third trip with them (had done India and Japan previously) and we will continue to use them in the future when we want to do a tour company trip. Their prices are great for nice hotels, decent food, and good tour guides. The days can be somewhat exhausting (frequent very early mornings) but you do get to see a lot. I won't get into the debate over whether it is better to do a trip on your own or use a tour company as we have done both and see the benefits and downsides of each and tend to decide each time based on a myriad of factors.

fb- just want to say that I tried reading Matterhorn and had a similar problem with so many characters. I finally gave up and said I have to start again and make a chart of all the characters names as their introduced and who they are.

Bookmarking

I would like to put in a plug for The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb. I heard an interview with her on NPR and read it on our flight over to Vietnam. Fascinating! Our traveling companions read Sacred Willow and couldn't put it down. It's still on my "to read" list. After we returned, my dad loaned me 40 Days with the Enemy by Richard Dudman - a factual report of the capture of several journalists (the author included) in Cambodia during the war. It was riveting!

Thank you all. Just picked up 2 of the books at the local library.

Thanks so much for your recommendations. I am currently travelling in Vietnam and Cambodia, and have read 'the beauty of humanity movement' (camellia gibb) - Vietnam; and 'first they killed my father' (loung ung) & 'the disappeared' (Kim echlin). These stories added hugely to my travelling experience and the memories I will take home.