TIME FOR ANOTHER ASIA BOOK LIST
 

At the request of Marya_, I am officially opening a new thread on Asia books:

This is but one of many good ones I've read in the past year; I will add the other when I remember them!


http://www.amazon.com/Travels-Siberi.../dp/0374278725

The last days of old Beijing, by Meyer is a recent, nicely written and most informative book.

Brava!

Just when I am off to the library to pick up my reserved copy of a book that Craig recommended -- RADIO SHANGRI-LA by Lisa Napoli -- I find this delightful thread. Please keep the recommendations coming.

Here is a suggestion. If anyone saw or is planning to see the exhibit at the Met (or Boston or Milwaukee),"The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City," I highly recommend a very short, readable biography of Qianlong by Mark C. Elliott -- EMPEROR QIANLONG: SON OF HEAVEN, MAN OF THE WORLD.
http://tinyurl.com/62mtzvx

Merckxxx, I strongly agree with your recommendation of THE LAST DAYS OF OLD BEIJING. Here is a link to entice folks further:
http://www.lastdaysofoldbeijing.com/

Looking forward to more.

Not just Asia, but a book I'm reading now and very much enjoying is Tony Wheeler's book BAD LANDS

http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-.../dp/1742201040

Did anyone ever read Tony and Maureen Wheeler's account of how they started the business -- UNLIKELY DESTINATIONS: THE LONELY PLANET STORY? It is good fun for die-hard travel planners.

http://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Desti.../dp/0794605230

I just finished Bad Lands, and in fact, mentioned it on another current thread, but I did not know about that one, so thanks Marya_, for the mention..I will investigate!



http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-pyongyang.cfm

I am reading <i>To Japan With Love</i>, "a travel guide for the connoisseur". It has several short pieces (personal essays), like travel reports here, by a variety of authors and in different categories, like cultural encounters, spiritual Japan, young at heart, etc. They are written for the most part (maybe all) by foreigners who have lived in Japan. Many of the writers are women.

Each article is followed by info (fact file) about the place/experience discussed, especially "getting to" info (which can pretty specific).

There are also movie and book recommendations.

This is one of a series of guidebooks for Asia, see:
http://toasiawithlove.thingsasian.com/

Speaking about movies, I just watched a film that I thought was a masterwork:


http://www.last-train.com/

I just finished a 2010 translation of Lao She's, Rickshaw Boy. What a book. He read and admired Dickens and I do not mean at all to compare talents or style, but the issues of workers and poor people in developing nations is dramatic and compelling. Now after all these years, it does stimulate a great deal of thought on how England and China - more specifically London and Beijing - dealt with that legacy.
But without any other reasons, it is a novel you must read.

I would love some recommendations for titles set in Indonesia. Anyone?

I have read the first book in Toer's BURU QUARTET and have three to go but I would like to vary things a bit.

I just found Tash Aw's MAP OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD in the library. Has anyone read it?

On marmot's recommendation, I watched the film, THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, again and found it much more compelling after a visit to Jakarta. Perhaps it is also worth reading the book.

Thanks for any other ideas.

If you are interested in autobiographies I heartily recommend The Little Princes by Conor Grennan.

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/L...Conor-Grennan/

It's about a young man in his 20's who decides to volunteer for 3 months in an orphanage in Nepal. He fell in love with the kids and went back to stay for a year. He found out the kids were not orphans but had been victims of a man who conviced their parents in rural north west Nepal to give up their kids for a better life. He took the parents money and sold the kids to Maoist soldiers, and worse. Many of the kids ended up in his orphanage and he spent (and is still doing so) years finding and reuniting the kids with their parents.

I just finished "The Man Who Loved China", by Simon Winchester and couldn't put it down.

Now reading the Lisa Napoli book about her time at a radio station in Bhutan. Easy read. Sense of humor. Recommended.



http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shangri-...0793069&sr=1-1

Reading "To A Mountain in Tibet" by Colin Thubron, about the author's overland trek to Mt Kailas, sacred, as he puts it, to "one fifth of the world's population." Vivid and graceful writing, tales from local mythology and religion, some harrowing details on local life -- the sky burial description will stay with you -- and an open eye towards history and current politics.

http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Tibet...0809134&sr=1-1

If radio programs count, some might enjoy a BBC series called "In Our
Time". The format is three academics discussing a topic, chaired by
by Melvyn Bragg (well-known in the UK). Here are links to some
recent items of Asia interest. Click on any of these to get to the
full archive.

Taiping Rebellion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yqvqt
Boxer Rebellion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j4hmv
Daoism: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlgbg
Al-Biruni: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00smnlk
Great Wall: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s3h3w
Samurai: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pcm9f
Silk Road: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p315t
Jaipur Observatory: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hmpdd
Genghis Khan: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00773mr

More lightweight is a travel program called "Excess Baggage".
Here's its archive:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/excessba..._archive.shtml

someotherguy, I am listening to the one on Daoism, I suspect I am a Daoist in my last life, I really like the idea of 'doing nothing is the highest Dao'. The theory suits me. Thanks

I highly recommend the original book version of The Year of Living Dangerously. I think it was a very good movie, but the book has more depth.

Not fiction, but a fascinating history set in the Spice Islands, Nathaniel's Nutmeg.

Because my son will be spending the summer in Mumbai I decided to dust off my India collection and have I recently reread:

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush -- one of the classics of travel literature. Most entertaining.

Kim -- One of the first and most charming players in the Great Game.

A Jewel in the Crown -- intense and provocative, but I never feel motivated to continue on to the other 3 parts.

The White Tiger -- contemporary, urban and timely

A Passage to India -- my all time favorite. I must read it every year.

The Seige of Krishnapur -- I'll have to report back in a few days on this one.

For book sets in Indonesia, DL has these on his bookshelf: House of Glass, and The Mute's Soliloquy by Pramoedya Ananta Toer( he won a very prestigious prize for his writing and he also was a candidate for a nobel prize) , Max Haveliaar (or the coffee auctions of the Dutch Trading Company) by Muliatuli.

>>Speaking about movies, I just watched a film that I thought was a masterwork:
http://www.last-train.com/<<

Watched it last night after finding it here and it is amazing, just really hard to believe.

The last train was good i think so too. I thought it was amazing that the family allow a camera into their difficult lives. The ending was unsettling for me. Wonder what happened to the girl.