What Are You Reading??

Finished "The Man Who Loved China". An utterly gripping story about a larger than life person. Also finally found a copy of "The Life of Pi" which I began reading months ago while hungover in Con's apartment. Finished it on the plane. I recommend all to read that book. It's one of those novels that you will finish in one lenghty sitting. Finished reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma", a great read but, if you are a fan of KFC, you might not want to read it, as it might make you...well....a bit nauseous.
Started reading "I am a cat" by...err...some Japanese author whose name escapes me. The world as seen through the eyes of a cat, giving its unrelenting comments of Japanese society in the early part of the 20th century. It's good so far.

While nosing around a thrift store the other day I came across a copy of the classic Thunder Out Of China  by Theodore H. White and Annalee Jacoby, marked at $2.
It seems to be a 1946 first edition, and judging from the appearance of the pages and the binding, I'm the first to actually read this particular copy.

It's a revelation. It talks about WWII in China, but is really more about the swelling peasant uprising long brewing there...which of course led to the revolution and modern China as we know it today.

Having lived there, it's virtually impossible to envision the China described in these pages. It describes a Chongqing during the days when it was the Guomindang capitol, numbers swollen beyond belief by the onslaught of countless refugees from the occupied east coast...the native inhabitants were almost entirely totally ignorant, insulated Sichuan mountain peasants whose introduction to the to the 20th Century, aside from the scandalous sight of lipstick and crimped hair on some Shanghai girls, was the sight of a Japanese bomber unleashing fiery death upon the ancient city. White describes the Chinese soldiery as having been "born in the Middle Ages, and dying in the 20th Century."

See if you can wrap your head around this bit of statistical information; I couldn't myself: At that time, not including the added devastation brought on by the war, fully half of all Chinese did not live to see the age of 30.

China's come a long, long way in 63 years.

Just picked up a copy of The Mao Case by Qiu Xiaolong from the library. This is one of the things I really treasure having since moving back...free public libraries with a nice variety of literature. I'll let you know if this one is worth smuggling across the border from HK.

Back on Haruki Murakami.  Read Dance, Dance, Dance (warning: contain little or no dancing).  It is one of the greatest reading pleasures I have ever had.  I generally don't reread books- too many more in front of me- but this one is inevi9table. 

Then I ate up The Underground, a study of the Tokyo Sarin gas attacks.  Murakami interviewed dozens of victims as well as cult members.  Great analysis.  He's amazing at finding the center of the truth.

Currently reading Claudius the God by Robert Graves (fiction and history at one go), and The Feng Shui Detective by Nuri Vittachi, whom I met at the Bookworm LIt Fest last year.

Just recently finished Simon R. Green's "Nightside" series (all 9 books).  Loved them/him.  So do/did my student and my son.  3 generations agree.   








Of course it helps that we share a common (slightly odd) sense of humour.

Yo,nightside was good.

there are two other series in the same ballpark. I think you said about a year ago you read the one with the wizard detective. Forget the name?Made a tv series. There is also Stalking the Unicorn and related stuff.

Have you read Hawk and Fisher series? Top stuff.

Love fantasy PI> the original was probably Darkside Detective by Micheal Reaves I think

Something like that.

I think you said about a year ago you read the one with the wizard detective. Forget the name?Made a tv series......Have you read Hawk and Fisher series? Top stuff.

Yes, that was me.  The "Dresden" series by Jim Butcher.  (Currently awaiting #11 in the Post).  Also Ilona Andrews's "Magic" trio.

By the bye....Green's other major series ("Deathstalker") is much more of a plod.  The occasional bon mot does not enliven it enough for my liking.  I gave up mid-way through #5.  Read the first 3-5 pages.....then the last 3-5 pages, and I knew the entire book.  No need to read the intervening 300+, IMHO.

No.  Not read H&F.  Yet.  But I will get to enjoy the "Sookie Stackhouse" set (#1-7) - with #8, #9 & #10 on pre-order - by Charlaine Harris, as soon as Amazon has it delivered to me.  Waiting is such a big drag



  I can not recommend the TV shows on either Dresden or Sookie.

Also take a look at stalking the unicorn by michael resnick.

I just finished The Age of Shiva, the new book out by Manil Suri, who wrote The Death of Vishnu. If you like modern Indian literature (and I do), its worth checking out.

Currently reading the second of a two-part biography on Dr. Robert McClure.  He was the son of missionary parents, born in 1900 not in China because his parents had fled the country due to the Boxer rebellion.  He spent the first 10 years of his life in China.  His dad drew a chalk line in the doorway and had to insist the children speak English inside their home.  A short furlough home to Canada for the parents and Bob's teenage years were spent back in China with his father (a doctor).  Back to Canada for his own medical training and then mostly in China until 1949.  That part of his life is in "McClure - The China Years" and I've read it twice.  Excellent insight into rural life in China during the first half of the 20th century - dynasty falling, warlord era, Japanese occupation, rise of communism.

I found volume 2 while back home cleaning out my mom's house: "McClure - Years of Challenge".  I'm midway through and after China he served in the Gaza strip from 1951-1954, in India from 1954-1967, as Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 1968-1971, in Sarawak from 1972-74 in Peru 1975-76 and an outpost in Canada in 1978.  The book was written in 1979, so I'm not sure if the man ever retired. 

Xin Ran - China Witness: Voices from a Silent Generation.  It is fascinating!!  Well worth getting.

She is one of my favourite authors.  Her 'Good Women of China' moves me no matter how often I read it. 

I bought a bunch of photography books and magazines while I was home, plus 'China Witness', James Fellows "Reports from China" (Fellows is a writer for "The Atlantic Monthly" and has a good blog looking at China), Zachary Mexico "China Underground', Susan Sontag "On Photography", a couple of Liz Bryski books, a Kerry Greenwood and a Patricia Cornwell. One Bryski and the Cornwell were finished on the plane, but now I have enough new stuff to last me for a month or so!

Just read secret histories 2 - Daemons are forever and nightside 9 just another judgement day by simon green, and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files 10 turn coat.

all good. Trying to find secret histories 3.

Found another Terry Pratchett book.  When I need a light read (every 3 or 4 books) he's the bomb.

Read yet another Haruki Murakami novel: Sputnick Sweetheart.  I can't say enough about it- this guy may be the greatest living writer in the world.

Desperate for a substantial book, I took out Underworld by Don Delillo.  I'm about a hundred pages in, and whle the prose is fantastic, I have yet to figure out the cohesive point of the book.  Mind you, the thing's over 800 pages long, so I'm willing to be patient.

100 pages and no coherent story? I'd have slung underworld out the window by now. Books are about story not prose, for me at least. If I'm not sucked into it by page 3, the guy can't write.

Call me shallow, if you like. But this is why I haven't liked a prize winning book for decades, and now a Nobel prize or a Booker prize is liable to ensure I never even look at the blurb. Unless it was long ago.

Whatever happened to story telling? I really detest books that scream "look how clever I, the author, am". The author should be all but invisible.

Rant over. Go back to what you were doing.

Totally agree Mr N.  My first English professor had a rule 'Give any book 25 pages, if you don't like it by then, toss it out."  Which is why I didn't get more than 25 pages into James Joyce "Ulysses". 800 pages of pretty writing would make me annoyed.  This sounds like a very Chinese book!