Asia Books

The Bora Boys And The Last Big Door is fantastic children's picturebook by Michael J. Feeney about two young boys who meet the ghost of an old sailor in the attic. When the ghost learns that one of the boys was adopted from Cambodia, he takes them both on a special naptime trip to see the Cambodia of old, during Khmer New Year, a time of great celebration, oxcart races, and festive foods. The come home from the dream remembering their adventure, and knowing a little more about a land so far away. The colorful illustrations by John Devaney add a dreamlike quality to this warm and delightful story about connecting to one's roots and experiencing new things.

This book has changed the life of my family - what a delight to have a children's book that so opens our minds - We can't wait for the next one from Mr. Feeney!! Please, please, continue working with Mr. Devaney as your illustrator!! Outstanding artwork - where have you both been!! My five year old loves it - Although the suggested ages are 9-12...this children's book is enjoyed, I would say, by ages 5-12.

This book is awesome. The first book relating to adoption of a boy from Cambodia. Hurray! Plus, it is not mushy-really an adventure book.

Have fun with the voices and read it to your little one. I thought my 3 yo would get bored with it being a lot of words and more for older kids. He LOVED it and made it through the whole thing. (Secretly, I loved it too.)

I read the book looking for an introduction to Japanese feminism more interesting than your average textbook and I was not disappointed. The interviews explore the women's personal interests, projects, and views about feminism. Each interview is supplemented by the a brief biography of the interviewee and an exerpt from something she has written.

Dense and interesting, definitely worth it.

This book breaks the stereotype of the submissive Japanese woman by presenting interviews and written works by Japanese women who are considered to be leading feminists in their fields, surprisingly few of those academic. It shows that Japanese feminists have the same concerns as American feminists, but they continue to focus on the family and mother roles as the saving grace of society. It's a refreshing viewpoint away from radical feminism, and it made me rethink my definitions of feminism. There are extensive references to Japanese culture and language, which may be hard to follow for those not familiar with Japan, but a good chronology and glossary are provided. It covers such issues as abortion, pornography, fertility treatments, and environmentalism. It's a very interesting book without the heavy obscure jargon of most academic publications. I highly recommend it if your interest lies in Japan, feminism, or both!

this book was really useful for me while i was working on my senior thesis. but i think that it would be a good read for anyone who is interested in feminism and women's issues. japanese feminisms have many differences from american feminisms, but at the same time, there are quite a few parallel. one of the best parts of this book was the section on the translated version of our bodies ourselves.

I was excited to find a copy of Hibbard's The Bund in the Shanghai Museum gift shop. It's about time we had a good history of these beautiful, architectural masterpieces!

When people arrive in Shanghai, one of the first places on their sight-seeing list is usually the "Bund." As people wander down this fabled road, enjoying the architecture and scenery, few know the names of these lovely facades or the often interesting history behind them. And even many of us who live here have had to stop and ponder, what exactly is a "bund"?

"Bund" is not a German word, as is often thought, but is of Hindustani origin. The word means an artificial causeway or embankment. Shanghai's bund began its development in the 1850s. By the 1860s, Shanghai actually had four bunds. These four roads, or "Wai Tan" ("outer shore" in Chinese), demarcated the sides of the British settlement--which served as the center of foreign life in the city. Now days the city is down to only one "Bund" road, which was officially named Zhongshan Road Number One (east) in 1945.

This legendary causeway has been one of the city's most modern areas for much of its recent history, showcasing the latest architectural designs and taking tourists who were expecting charming pagodas by surprise. The Bund's builders have traditionally competed to dazzle onlookers by erecting the most progressive and impressive designs.

In more recent times, the area has faced major challenges as developers have sought to restore the area to its former glory--or dare I suggest surpass! Concerns have surfaced and debates have been fueled over historical conservation and restoration of the Bund. Many people ponder the riverside's future, as would-be developers attempt to surmount the difficulties of finding money and support as they seek to restore and preserve this prestigious set of addresses.

Get the inside scoop on all 29 Bund establishments in local tour director Peter Hibbard's new book The Bund. Within its pages, Hibbard provides a well-researched history and timeline of the Bund's development and each of its buildings. The book includes many featured essays, old documents, and letters written about the Wai Tan. The numerous photos and fun old maps complete Hibbard's well done attempt to bring the Bund's story to life. Truly hard core Bund fans can keep current by visiting Hibbard's Bund website, gingergriffin.com

At the book's end, readers can supplement their Bund knowledge with a helpful directory of the buildings and their occupants, including phone numbers. The finale also features a chart of the buildings' occupants, then and now, a walking tour complete with maps, and an index.

The book is a must if you find yourself playing tour guide to out-of-town visitors who you want to impress with insider knowledge, or if you are simply interested in this fascinating area of the city. It should also please architecture buffs.

A must have guide if going to Shanghai. Read it before going, take it with you, then read it again. Made the City come alive with its history.

The Bund - Shanghai's famous half-mile avenue along the Huangpu River - contains a line of fabulous monumental structures from Shanghai's dazzling colonial life of the 1920s and '30s. Despite the Western styles of architecture, the Bund is very much a part of China's history, with all that is good and bad.

Peter Hibbard's book tells the richly populated story of the Bund's development from the late 1800s, when Shanghai was the West's gateway into China near the mouth of the Yangtze River. Capital investment flooded into the area (much as it is doing today). The merchant banking and trading houses went up in grand style - neo-Gothic, classic European, Art Deco - using enormous quantities of often expensive materials from China, Europe and America. And a wildly extravagant social life blossomed, with balls, festivals and big-name entertainers from the West. Though the Chinese, from professionals to day laborers, found thousands of jobs there, under the earlier international treaties they had no legal authority.

Hibbard notes the ill-use and neglect of many of the buildings after the Japanese occupation, the post-war Communist takeover and the flight of the Westerners. While most of the structures have been renovated - some beautifully - and are partially occupied by banks, stylish restaurants and fashion houses, their future is uncertain, he says. The Bund, with its grand buildings and its setting along the river, waits for Shanghai to make it part of its future as well as its tumultuous past.

Hibbard is perhaps the leading authority on the Bund. He has stocked his book with the people, the plans and the external events that shaped its development. The text is wonderfully written and the pages are illustrated with hundreds of historical photos, drawings and poster art and with photographs of the present day. It's a guidebook and history as well as a book of stories to treasure.

There is no other equivelent for studying Burmese in english other than John Okell's books. I have the entire series along with the tapes and they are all excellent. My only wish is that these tapes will be converted to CD. I learned Burmese from my parents, but cannot read, write, or understand formal speech. His series of books and tapes have helped me tremendously.

I have purchased many self-teaching language courses and this is by far the best. Starts off simple and builds knowledge and confidence gradually. The variations in exercises also keeps the student interested throughout the book. The tapes are very much like an actual lecture. Okell includes many fascinating points about Burmese culture and the added bonuses at the end of the tapes such as BBC Burmese broadcasts and traditional Burmese music are really interesting to hear. What every language package should be.

This book has the perfect mix of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation. Okell is a superb teacher, and has chosen good, native speakers for his tapes. The progression of information is very logical and helpful. He also includes an Appendix to allow you to quickly get some useful prhases under your belt, as you methodically learn the carefully chosen vocabulary in the Lessons. The review sections are thoughtfully designed to quickly get you back up to speed after a break (as opposed to having to work through lessons again).

The pronunciation section (book & tape) portion is the best I have seen in an introductory text. For example, having wroked through introductory texts in Greek, Thai, and Vietnamese, his explanation of the differences in aspirate, plain, and voiced consonants is the most clear.

As you consider purchasing this text (a wise decision), you really ought to consider simultaneously purchaseing Okell's Burmese: An Introduction to the Script. For anyone wanting to learn more than cursory Burmese, the sooner you learn the script the better. The Roman-alphabet transliteration is far from standardized in Burmese (as opposed to the Vietnamese standardization a century ago) and can get confusing.

Final note: although amazon.com asks that I not display postal addresses or URLs, at the time of this writing, amazon.com was out of most of these books, while the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois Univ (the publisher) was fully stocked. Just an FYI.

I used C is for China in my second grade class. We appreciated the authentic photography and interesting details. We also enjoyed talking about the text coming from a Chinese perspective. We really enjoyed the information about dragons and the abacus. A must have for a teaching unit about China.

I really like this book. It is a great introduction to China for young people written by a Chinese author. She wrote it very responsiblity and provides a general insight into her culture. I want to read other books by the author.

I really enjoyed reading this book and looking at the photos that accompany each letter of the alphabet. The author also did the photos and what makes this book stand out among the other Chinese ABC books is that the photos are not the glossy touristy looking photos of wealthy families and places like the Imperial or Summer palace. But instead the photos of China's people doing their day to day things. The author states that the photos where taken in Guangxi, Yunnan & Shanxi. He wanted to show that the Chinese People are hard working, they have a strong commitment to their families, religion, history, customs both modern and traditional and their hope for the future. Each photo has on the right side of the page the Chinese character for the photo each letter represents. I would have like to have seen translation on how to correctly say each word. Other than that small thing I think this is a terrific book to have in your home library or for those of you who have children from Guangxi, Ynnan or Shanxi.

Here are the letters and what each represents:
A - Abacus
B - Bicycle
C - China & it's rivers
D - Dragon
E - Excercise
F - Fengzheng ( A popular flying kite)
G - Garden
H - Herbal Medicine
I - Incense
J - Jade
K - Kitchen
L - Lanterns
M - Markets
N - Noodles
O - Old (the older generation)
P - Picture
Q - Qingming Festival
R - Remminbi - Chinese Currency
S - Singing
T - Tiaoqi ( Chinese Checkers )
U - Uniform
V - Vegetables
W - Wenzi ( Chinese Writing )
X - Xiao ( A Musical instrument from ancient times )
Z - Zen ( Major Religion commonly known as Chan )

This book delves into many issues that Cambodia is facing today, leaving the reader with a greater knowledge of this country and its people. Through individual stories of regular Cambodian people to official interviews with government officials, this book covers it all.

Cambodia Now captures beauty in a traumatized country by focusing on individual Cambodians and their lives. This book goes far to explain how everyday Cambodians, not the power brokers and not the tour guides, are slowly recovering from the Khmer Rouge holocaust.

Karen Coates has written a warts 'n' all view of contemporary Cambodia, giving us a glimpse into how hard life really is in a country traumatized by war but which still retains a magical quality that attracts and infatuates people like Coates and her husband Jerry Redfern, both journalists who worked in-country on and off for six years. Personally, I loved the book, I could hardly put it down. I could relate to many of the people Coates met on her travels, and if you get the chance to stay long enough in Cambodia, you will meet them too.

My emotions fluctuated wildly between elation and dismay as I read the stories meshed together from her interviews with scores of Cambodians, from the fragile hope of street beggar Bun Na, to the dogged determination of commune leader Ly Chheng Ky, a lone woman in a typically male-dominated environment. She introduces us to Choun Nhiem, better known as the old sweeper of Ta Prohm from the cover of the popular Lonely Planet guidebook. She interviewed three people I've met on my own travels; Rithy Keo, a supervisor at the Kien Khleang rehab center just outside Phnom Penh, enthusiastic conservationist Tom Evans, working in the forests of Mondulkiri, and Youk Chhang, the tireless and dedicated director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. These three are just the tip of the iceberg of unsung heroes and heroines working to make a better Cambodia. But its a tough job and Coates makes that abundantly clear throughout her twenty-one chapters, in which she examines the past, present and future, dissecting Cambodia's many ills and its' hopes. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to delve below the flimsy veil of idyllic Cambodian life that most of the tourist hordes see and believe is the real Cambodia. They have little idea of what lies just below the surface.

This is an exelent book. Great for all ages. If you are looking for some luaghs or just fun stories this is the book for you. Even if your not looking for either just read a chapter or two and you will be hooked on the adventure of this young boy at bording school. His adventures are great.

This is an exelent book. Great for all ages. If you are looking for some luaghs or just fun stories this is the book for you. Even if your not looking for either just read a chapter or two and you will be hooked on the adventure of this young boy at bording school. His adventures are great.

Amazingly funny stories of growing up in a British Borading School in the Himalayas in the 1950s. I found the characters wonderful, the stories extremely well written, and the plots very entertaining. They reminded me of my own time at a borading school in England in the 60s. A delight. Especially good reading if you're feeling under the weather. Switch off the T.V. and curl up with Capers!

In Soldier's Home, Hemingway's fictional account of a soldier returning from the Great War, the protagonist struggles to communicate his experience to the residents of his small town:

"At first Krebs, who had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel and in the Argonne did not want to talk about the war at all. Later he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it. His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities."

Captured Honor, a work of non-fiction, begins in similarly painful territory, with a moving description of Jack Elkins' homecoming after service in the War in the Pacific. Elkins had an extremely bad war as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines and Japan, the details of which are frankly told in author Wodnik's compelling account. At war's end, Elkins finds himself pushed to the microphone on the stage of his small town church before an audience that includes his grammar school principal, old girlfriends, the hardware store clerk and his parents, among others. Their eyes search him for clues as to whether he remains the high school quarterback they remember, or has instead been transformed into "some sanitarium freak returned home to mom and dad."

Like Krebs, Elkins finds words inadequate to describe the enormity of his wartime experience. "You either tell all, or tell nothing" he thinks, and elects to keep the awful details to himself for more than 50 years.

Fortunately for us author Wodnik, a good listener and a fine writer, is able to engage Elkins and others who suffered as prisoners of the Japanese in their painful memories. Elkins, who fought bravely at Corregidor, survived the brutal Cabanatuan POW camp, and ended the war as a slave laborer working in the Mitsubishi shipyard in Yokohama, is a compelling subject, an ordinary man enduring extraordinary brutality in wartime. The book includes stirring memories of others including Fran Agnes, an apple picker turned Army aircraft mechanic who witnessed the Japanese destruction of Clark Field and survived the Bataan Death March and Henry Chamberlin, a medic, who is dispatched by his captors to Japan on a Hellship in conditions of unspeakable squalor.

Wodnik's important history is interspersed with scenes from the home front in Everett Washington, such as Veronica Lake flying in to sell war bonds to the star-struck citizenry. The correspondence of Ed Fox, an Everett hotel clerk and book fiend whose deepest influence seems to have been Dashiell Hammett, shows us the underside of a town emerging from the Depression, and fully engaged in wartime production of Boeing aircraft.

Captured Honor is a beautifully written book that presents with unsentimental empathy the stories of nine Americans who fought on Bataan and Corregidor. It juxtaposes these stories with an account of what was happening on the home scene -- specifically, in Everett, Washington, a town busy with war work -- as recorded in the diaries of a bookish hotel clerk. The juxtaposition works; it offers relief, and with these stories, I needed it.

Recently I learned much about the POW experience on the Bataan death march, on the "hell ships" and in the camps in the Philippines and Japan when I found a privately published 1959 novel written by a survivor. To me the other book was fantastical, so hard to believe that I started reading other veterans' narratives in an effort to make sense of it. Now Wodnik's nonfiction account has confirmed just about everything in it.

I think Captured Honor is an essential contribution to the history of the Pacific war -- and that Wodnik must be a gifted interviewer; these are often horrific, unglamorous memories that might have remained unrecorded. Time is running out for gathering these kinds of oral histories. But as hard as it is to read them, I am grateful for this book.

For anyone who is interested in the accounts of these brave men, this author has the ability to translate their memories into a fasinating and heartfelt read.

He put's you as much as is possible "at Corregidor, Bataan, and the infamous Zero Ward at Cabanatuan with Henry Chamberlain. Jack, Galen, Hanson, Johannsen,,, hero's all. It is to men like these we truly owe our right to walk in Freedom.

The book also gives you an account of what is happening at home which is an important part of the telling of the whole story. The auhor's command of the descriptive phrase makes people like Gracie, and Ed come alive. "the window in the room must have looked out onto a sky hanging so low in winter it seemed to scrape bricks from the faces of Seattle's tallest buildings".

Captured Honor .. thank you for capturing the memories for us before they were lost and faded...

Powelson turns to the historical experience of nations for an answer to the central question of economic development: why do some nations grow rich while others do not? The answer lies in the relationship between the decentralization of power and the ability of economic actors to play a role in the formation of transactional institutions. Absolutely necessary for students of development.

Jack Powelson's book, Centruies of Economic Endeavour, gives a clear explanation of why some countries (like the U.S. and Japan) are so much better at providing economic resources to its citizens than other countries, like in Eastern Europe, Africa and South America. His many years in business as well as academia results in relevant and clearly detailed notes for the reader to follow up. This book helped me understand why, even today, so many countries with large amounts of natural resources, cannot seem to get their people out of poverty. Must reading. Highly recomended.

If you believe in Lord Acton's dictum that "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," this book is for you. There have been a variety of theories why some countries have prospered and some have not. Some say it depends on allowing free trade; some argue it depends on the degree of democracy as opposed to socialism or communism. Douglass North won a Nobel prize for his work to prove that the key is having the right societal institutions. Certainly it takes more than having natural resources.

Professor Powelson (Economics at the U. of Colorado) has worked extensively in developing countries and observed that despite all the good advice these countries received, and had been receiving for 50 years, they were making very little progress. To find out why, he decided to study history, going back over ten centuries in every important region of the world to see what lessons could be learned. His conclusions are startlingly simple: People prosper and societies thrive where there is genuine diffusion of power -- power earned, not bestowed by a ruler. Where power is centralized among a ruling few, the ruling few are able to take care of themselves, but their nations fail to grow and prosper and the people stay poor.

This book explains why every college freshman should be required to study Western Civilization before studying any other. As George Santayana has said already, "Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them." Professor Powelson has written the most important history book of the past century for anyone interested in the lessons to be learned from the histories of Northern Europe, Japan, China, India, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, all covered beautifully in this one book.

I have been meaning to write a review of this particular book for a few years now. This book was recommended by a friend. At first I was first skeptical if I would like the book. You see the monsoons bring mixed feelings for me. Growing up in India, you either like the monsoons, or you learn to live with it. I belonged to the second category, and was never fond of the monsoons, because it meant wading through water logged streets, and the general disruption that accompanied the monsoon season. But, what I liked about the monsoons was an opportunity to sit at home and drink endless cups of tea, and eat hot samosas and pakoras.
So, it was with some misgivings that I started reading the book, and I was hooked within the first few pages. Alexander Frater does an excellent job of explaining all about the monsoons, and the methodical way in which the weather department in India follows the path of the monsoon. Some of them sound almost loving when the track the progress of the monsoon that starts from the South and travels up North, hits the Himalayas, and retreats back via the South, and showers the Southern state of Tamil Nadu. Chirapunjee in North Eastern India is supposed to receive the heaviest rainfall in the world, a fact that many school children in India will recite dutifully when questioned. But, due to the changing weather and climate conditions the rains have not been heavy of late in this area.

Frater tracks the journey of the monsoon faithfully, and tries to race ahead of the monsoon's next port of calling. Frater literally chases the monsoon, and presents an absorbing, and interesting account of his mission. He spends a couple of months doing this, and travels all over in India, including Chirapunjee. Frater has an amazing eye for detail, and is able to capture the naunces of interacting with the Indian bureaucrats, and others that he interacted while chasing the monsoon.

This is one of the best written books about an imporatant and integral part of India, the monsoons, upon which so many people depend. A good monsoon season spells bountfiful harvest, and a bad monsoon spells disaster. The monsoons still control the fortunes of Indian economy, and it is amazing that no one before Frater thought about writing a book on this subject.

I stumbled across this book at the 75% off sale at my university's bookstore; being an Indiophile I purchased it. This book has been hiking, camping & airborne with me. Frater's style is inviting and enveloping. While reading I slip beyond the words to that magical point in which my eyes no longer 'read' and I am there with Frater traveling up the coast of India to meet the rushing Monsoon at its next arrival.
If you are a lover of travelogues I highly recommend this book to you.

I never liked India. Too much confusion, too much humanity. I read this book and now I have an unending desire to visit India; top to bottom. Not during Monsoon, not during the dry season, but sometime in between. Mr. Frater delivers an unblinking look at the beauty and inspiration which lies beneath the clutter and dreck. Damn the weather, look at what's there. I envy you the experience of the first read.