Asia Books

A very good overview of Central Asian folklore and life. Could be used as a textook for courses on the region and for students, businessmen, aid workers, tourists and others who are interested in or will visit the region. Gets behind life in Central Asia and is therefore good in conjunction with a typical guidebook.

Unfortunately, Central Asia remains an unknown part of our planet. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more of this vibrant and intriguing area of the world, especially those interested in the life and cultures of the Great Silk Road. It is a clear and useful reference to the politics, economics, history and fascinating customs of the Central Asian peoples. I wish you a happy journey reading this work which will provide an opportunity for you to feel the ancient spirit and modern life of Central Asia.

Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics (Culture and Customs of Asia)
If you have seen little of Central Asia, this book will deepen and expand your sense of having been there. If you know Central Asia as a scholar or as a wanderer (or both), this book will illuminate your experiences. If you haven't been to Central Asia and want to know about it, this book will tell you. In any event, you will enjoy reading Rafis Abazov's book.

So you want to learn more about the Central Asian Republics? This book can provide you with answers. The book does not boringly describe the customs and cultures of the republics. It shows how throughout the history the cultural and religious influences from Greece, Middle East, China and Russia have shaped the modern cultures of the Central Asian Republics. It explains why the cultures of the regions are so diverse; it also discusses their unique and common features. Every topic covered in the book, such as visual and performing arts, archeology, media, cinema, music, etc., is discussed from the ancient times to modern days. Moreover, the book comes with beautiful photographs, selected bibliography and index; and each chapter begins with an epigraph! I think this book could be the right choice to read for anyone who wants an objective account of the regional cultures and customs.

Beautifully illustrated with text for the younger child to understand and additionally each page includes a more detailed explanation with some history about each Chinese custom.

This is a beautiful book with a lot of good information. My daughter, even at 2 loves to look at it. It has large type for easy reading out loud, with more in-depth text on the side for when the child gets larger. A great book for those with adopted Chinese daughters.

I like the Sleeping Bear press alphabet series and this one is another good entry. China is covered by using dragons, Beijing, the forbidden city, acrobats and other familiar subjects. It is very nice. You can read the poetry to children and read more thorough information on side. It seems pretty accurate and the pictures are very engaging and beautiful.

I have about 3 or 4 of these Chinese Alphabet books and this book is a definately up there as an awesome book about China A through Z with lots of interesting facts that some books do not have. I actually learned several new facts that I had not know prior. The way this book was done allows for the book to grow with your child as they grow. There is a picture representing the letter which I believe is done in oil paint and a few sentences of information. Then if you look to the left hand side of the page there is much more detailed information.

Here is a break down of each letter. I hope this is helpful to you.

A - Acrobats ( showing Lion dancers)

B - Bejing ( shows the Forbidden City, Summer Palace)

C - Chopsticks

D - Dragon Dance

E - Ehru pronounced Ay-roo ( an old musical instrument that only has 2 strings) this page also talks about the Chinese instruments.

F- " Four Treasures of Study - brush, ink, paper and ink stone used for Calligraphy which is a must for every child to begin to learn since the Chinese language has no alphabet but characters that are for each word.

G - Great Wall

H - Himalayan Mountain range & Mount Everest

I- Inventions - paper printing, compass, abacus, wheelbarrow & fireworks

J - Jasmine Flower

K - Kites & dough

L - Lanterns ( also talks about the fifteenth day of the Spring festival marking the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations which is the Lantern Festival.

M - Mongolians

N - Chinese New Year

O - Opera & shadow puppets

P - Giant Pandas

Q - Qin Terra-Cotta Warriors

R - Rice Paddies and terraces

S - Silk Road

T - Transportation

U - Umbrella

V - Vegetables

W - Wok

X - Xie, Xie Mandarin for THANK YOU ( pronounced She-eh She-eh)

Y - Yangtze River

Z - Chinese Zodiac ( painted to look like paper cuts of the 12 animals)

We purchased this book after eating at Sansei in Maui and Oahu our first time to Hawaii and love the book. If you have never eaten at Sansei you are really missing out. Chef DK has created an amazing menu. Everything is delicious. If you are heading to Maui or Oahu, make sure you put Sansei down as a "to-do" while you are there. On Sunday and Monday night they open at 5PM and everything on the menu is 50% off for one hour. You have to get their by 4PM or so in order to get in, but it is well worth the wait.

Chef Kodama and Bonnie Friedman share all of Chef Kodama's secrets and do a great job illustrating how to create traditional and contemporary Japanese cuisine. They explain how and why each ingredient is used and translate ingredients throughout the book so you don't have to keep looking up terms when trying a new recipe. The book is simple enough for beginners to follow, yet offers some contemporary (and slightly more complex) dishes for the advanced chef.

If you love sushi and want to start making it at home, by this book.

I've been to his restaurant in Maui and the food was fabulous. So good in fact that I bought this book. While I could use more examples of fish to swap for things only a Hawaiian can get I find the recipes so easy a beginner can use them to make some fantastic food. I highly recommend this book.

For beginners, there's a nice introduction to different basic japanese foods and rolling techniques with pictures. There are recipes for sushi, and small and large entrees. I've been to one of the two Sansei restaurants on Maui and the recipes from this book definately cover some of the best things on their menu. The only minor change I could see to make it better is more information about using pre-made grocery store sauces instead of making everything from scratch.

Loved the ease of instruction in making sushi. Not hard to follow, well done. Also like the homespun family history. It is a great guide to not only sushi but everthing else in his style. A lot of fun.

As someone who saw Moriyama's fantastic show at the SF MOMA I had to buy this book. Great gritty black and white photos examining post WWII Japanese Culture. Includes a fairly extensive intro detailing his influences and his career.

Book is well done - Beautiful photography ! Recommended to anyone that likes great photographs.

Some of the finest modern photography from Japan has been produced by Daido Moriyama. Defying any categories (including the "modern" one I gave him above, Moriyama stretches the boundaries of photography and peers into the dark and blurry places that scare us. The book's comments on each photo are extremely worthwhile also, providing an insight into Daido's work that isn't found elsewhere.

I've seen several books and articles on Japanese photography that seem to feature bad cameras, low resolution, muddy printing/reproduction. This is one of them. However, the pictures are disturbing, affecting. Some don't work for me.

Does it help to say, I lost a copy of this in a fire, and am buying it back?

Or that I recommend it highly to anybody who thinks they need better equipment to take good photographs.

This book has affected my way of thinking and living more than any other book I have ever read. While I feel a few things in this book are outdated and can not be realistically applied to todays world the majority of what is written has made me a more accepting person and by changing my expectations I have found that I lead a more fullfilled life.

The Dao is perhaps on of the best philosophical books that I have ever read and it is something that everyone should read at least once.

Moss Roberts' fine translation of TAO TE CHING is one of several recent translations based upon the Ma-wang-tui texts of Lao-tzu's reflective book of wisdom. Those texts were discovered in 1973, preserved in the tomb of an official's son. That tomb has been dated to 168 B.C. (p. 4). Professor Roberts' translation also draws from the Guodian LAOZI, discovered in 1993 in a royal tutor's tomb. As such, Roberts' translation could be considered the most definitive translation of the TAO TE CHING presently available.

Roberts is a Professor of Chinese at New York University, and the goal of his work is to assist his reader in understanding Lao-tzu's difficult poem. His book includes a twenty-three page Introduction that offers the historical background of the TAO TE CHING. He then annotates his literal translation of the two-part, eighty-one stanza poem with his insightful commentary. His translation is just as scholarly as Robert Henricks' translation, more literal than Stephen Harrison's poetic rendering of Lao-tzu's TAO, and more challenging than Red Pine's excellent translation.

G. Merritt

Contains extensive introductory information, including discussion of recent archeoligical discoveries, and interesting endnotes (although I prefer footnotes - less fumbling with pages).

However, I found this translation to be a bit difficult. One of the reviewers on the back of the book refers to it as "poetic" - well, maybe; mostly I found it a bit of a struggle to make sense of it, and had to read through it with several parallel translations to figure out what Roberts was translating. However, in that situation, read with several parallel translations, this translation provides an worthwhile "spin". I find Mair's translation much cleaner, simpler, and more comprehensible. The two together are nice.

In a country where life is generally so ordered it often appears as atrophied as a bonsai,
when individual citizens go astray, they frequently go astray with a passion and conviction as dedicated to their crime as their neighbors are to pursuing the norms. Mark Schrieber's look at the dangerous and shadier faces of Japan seems to me, an American resident in Tokyo for the past 38 years, long overdue in providing readers with a better balanced picture of the world's second largest economy. Some of the stories are truly bizarre; some are frightening; some are somehow humorous or ironic. But all of them offer an extraordinarily keen insight into a society that is often praised for its
lack of crime and its stable social order. A walk on the dark side with Schrieber is an exciting eye-opener and fabulously exotic entertainment as well.

Schreiber's first book, Shocking Crimes of Postwar Japan, was not only as gripping a read as anything penned by Ann Rule or Jack Olsen, it served as an excellent corrective to the widespread notion of Japan as a society free of violence-prone scofflaws. As good as that book was, however, its follow-up is, in many ways, superior--richer in anecdote, more analytical, covering hundreds of years of history. For those readers with an
interest in Japan, *The Dark Side* is, it almost goes without saying, a must-have. But this is also a painlessly instructive volume for those with an interest in the more general, and always fascinatingly complex, subject of crime and punishment. The criminally inclined, like the poor, we have always had with us: thanks to the prodigiously well-informed Schreiber, we learn the myraid ways that one country has dealt with that unfortunate certainty.

The Dark Side is a great book for two reasons. First, it's a good introduction to the history of crime, crime prevention, and criminal justice in Japan that stretches over 400 years. Though it's not a scholarly book, Schreiber's facts are carefully researched and then presented with a light touch. This book is valuable to anyone seriously interested in Japan, supplying background and facts that can hardly be found in other sources (unless the reader wants to retrace the work that Schreiber has done). The author achieves what we look for in a good historian-he's put a human face on the facts.

The second reason I like the book is because of its genuinely interesting stories. Call me offbeat, but I'm fascinated by the details of such topics as Japan's experiments with executions (including the story of a man whose neck was so strong that he couldn't be strangled-he was pardoned because his executioners saw his survival as a sign of divine intervention). The book tells about famous bandits from 300 years ago, love suicides (and the penalties for survivors!), a Tokyo magistrate whose skill puts him in the same league as Sherlock Holmes, and the delightful Sada-san, who anticipated Lorena Bobbitt by about 60 years.

All in all, this book is a fine read and a fine work of popular history.

This book delivers handsomely on its promise to take a reader on an entertaining romp through the dark side of Japanese society. This book's got it all-sex, death, murder, gore, pathos, ingenuity, stupidity, greed, and even moments of personal redemption for Japan's criminals and criminally insane. It traces four centuries of crime in Japan and pulls back the covers on everything from cannibalism to crucifixions, phallic dismemberment a la Bobbit to serial killers, and gangsters to grisly executions.

There's plenty of new stuff here for even the most jaded Japanologist and a treasure trove of exotic and enticing stories for the Japan neophyte. Opening this book is like diving into a box of crime bonbons. Nuts, chews, soft centers, whatever. I could hardly wait to turn the page and find out what unusual fact, character, or story waited for me next. In fact, my only disappointment with the book was that the author didn't provide even more detail and analysis of some of the cases, especially those from Japan's modern period. But that's a small quibble about a book that kept me engrossed and entertained from page one to the end.

This historical book provides individual, personal in depth true accounts of the Dutch and Dutch-Indo's plight during and immediatiately following Japanese invasion and internment in the former Dutch East Indies during World War II. A truly inspiring book of courage and fortitude that gives the reader an opportunity to acquire an understanding of this turbulent period of time in the Pacific theater of war. An excellent and informative read of stories that need to be told.

My family is Indo (Dutch-Indonesian), and our family history has been oral. It was difficult to relay their story to American friends who had never heard of any atrocities of the second World War other than the holocaust. As it's noted in the book, "It is unconcionable to allow future generations to forget what happend in the Indies, just as it is folly to turn our backs on the holocaust in Europe."

Memory fades fast, and it's good that this history is written down to be remembered. I'm involved with some contemporary Dutch organizations, but I look different by my dusky skin, and sometimes I think that this book explains to the "whiter" Dutch what I am, and where I came from. Forgotten or not, I'm part of their culture.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I've read enough about the American internment camps that the Japanese-Americans were held, and while there is a great deal of sympathy towards them in the United States, what the Japanese did to the Dutch and Dutch-Indonesians shouldn't be forgotten either. I sometimes wonder if it isn't known as much in the US because it didn't take place in Europe.

This book consists of eyewitness accounts of various people, mostly Dutch nationals or Dutch colonists, who were caught up in seven long years of war -- beginning with the Japanese conquest of Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies), the Second World War and the subsequent revolution by Soekarno and Hatta, Indonesian revolutionaries whose drive for independence was given the blessing of the Japanese.

The Dutch received an unfortunate smear -- "Dutch courage" -- as a result of a premature surrender to the Japanese; if what I've read is true, then this smear is undeserved (particularly in light of the British surrender at Singapore). This book should go a long way to rectifying that unearned stigma.

This is history they didn't teach us in school! Jan Krancher has compiled 24 personal accounts from survivors of a brutal -and nearly forgotten- episode of World War II: the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies and imprisonment of thousands of its people. This 3 1/2 year occupation was immediately followed by a bloody revolution and the creation of modern Indonesia.

These deeply moving stories, from civilian internees (including children) and military POW's, give the English-speaking reader a glimpse of what has been called the "other Holocaust", the brutalities of the Pacific War. You won't forget them.

If you liked the film "Paradise Road", you won't want to miss this book.

This book is ideed Tarla Dalal's best yet. I have always sweared on her cooking and always will. She has amazing recipes and very easy to follow steps. You've got to love it!!

I've tried many of the recipes in this book. They tend to be simple and rarely go wrong. i would avoid trying to cook italian food using her recipes though.

Tarla Dalal is excellent for Vegetarian cooking. My husband hates Vegetarian and I always have a tough time preparing meals for him when we are veg. But with this book it is sooooo much better. Her recipes are VERY Simple to follow and each of her recipes turn out DELICIOUS...from her starters to her desserts...she has them all.

I have been refering to this book since I was in my teens and a total novice at cooking. It is a book par excellence. The recipes come out perfectly . This book has been my best friend in the kitchen for last 10 years. In fact I would love to translate it into marathi which is my mother tongue so that more women can benifit from it. Thank you very much Tarlaji.

Anupama

If you are a fan of food writing this is the book for you. From peanut butter and crackers (a story about quitting smoking)to a bowl of Philipino dog stew this book makes for a wonderful read.

Sterling's pursuit of culinary exotica - he particularly likes spicy food - has taken him all over the world. He began his odyssey, and begins this unusual and entertaining book of essays and recipes, with his navy tour of southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

The early essays of his youthful navy days - quitting smoking while moving nuclear missiles ship to ship during typhoon conditions, a bittersweet dalliance with a Malaysian prostitute, in pursuit of pepper among Borneo headhunters - are hilarious, moving, and riveting.

As the years pass, his travels become more food focused, and the anecdotes more general and nostalgiac. But as his knowledge of food becomes more sophisticated, so do the recipes. And Sterling remains game for anything, including fried locusts, blood soup and dog, specifically puppy. And he includes recipes for everything - with substitutions for less adventurous palates.

There are numerous mouthwatering curries, satays, stews, soups and streetfoods includng traditonal dishes like pad Thai, chile prawns, green mango salad and Cambogee beef, along with Navy classics like boiled coffee and El Rancho beef stew. Exotica includes fish grilled with large red ants and two versions of grasshopper or cricket snacks. Great stories and good food.

Rollicking, rowdy, not infrequently ribald, and occasionally romantic --Richard Sterling takes us with him as he wanders over half the world and twenty years, eating, drinking, gathering pepper with headhunters and, er --rollicking. Lots of recipes for food and drinks and I've never had a crash with a Sterling recipe, either. You just have to admire a guy who can devise a recipe substitute for Bornean Red Warrior Ants, though he overdoes the tarragon a bit, in my opinion. (Different Warrior Ants?)

I've never been sure whether this was a cookbook, a travel book, or a wonderful life narrative. Or, I'm sure it's all of the above. If you love life and you love food and you love people, you have to have this.

And you really can omit the fire ants without damaging the recipe...

I read Mr. Murray's memoir of his service in Uzbekistan with great interest because I lived in Uzbekistan at the same time he was there. Living and working in Uzbekistan meant living in a blinding fog of misinformation and government propaganda. After reading 'Dirty Diplomacy' I can understand now to what extent the Uzbek government, as well as my own American government, justified torture and corruption in the name of its 'war against terror'. Mr. Murray's book is also enlightening about the dealings of the diplomatic world. A very informative read.

Eye opening account how some tricky diplomacy occurs from a view from former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. The book reveals the social injustice that occurs in this part of the world. Very interesting read.

First a clarification: I read "Murder in Samarkand" the British version of this book. It is an excellent, engaging and fast read. Murray details in a way I have not seen before the inner workings and nitty gritty politics of diplomacy during the "war on terror". It is a tale that should be of great interest to American readers as a different perspective on a seemingly forgotten part of the war. The book is split roughly between three topic areas which are intertwined and reported on as a first person narrative. It moves quickly and jumps between what he is doing as the British ambassador in Uzbekistan especially on human rights issues, the internal politics of the British Foreign Service as they try to restrain then fire their gonzo swashbuckling ambassador, and his description of a boozy, skirt chasing and not very discrete personal life as ambassador. In the end it is a story of a man with a strong sense of justice who exhibits exceptional courage and uses his position to stand up against horrific human rights abuses. Murray clearly has a strong sense of honor and justice and the capacity for wit, style, and resourcefulness under pressure. It is also a tragicomedy of sorts as captured by the US book title and as evidenced by the fact that he lost his career but got the belly dancer.

Uzbekistan was an important sideshow in the post 9/11 "war on terror" in Afghanistan and its story has not been well covered by US media. As part of the war on the Taliban, the US sought and got cooperation from the Uzbek government to establish a major air base within spitting distance of Afghanistan and made its deal with the devil in order to do so. The Brits, or at least Tony Blair's government, had little active role in that but did support the US. Murray, as the new ambassador, quickly fell out of step with the Blair government and the book is largely focused on the efforts of the now rogue ambassador to expose and limit the ghastly human rights abuses being carried out by the Uzbek government under the guise of supporting the war on terror. The government of Uzbekistan is kleptocracy and a police state throwback to Stalinist times. Craig Murray was one of a very few (and clearly the leading) western diplomats who accurately pointed out this inconvenient fact and its consequences. The toady US ambassadors at the time failed to take a stand and actively worked to undermine Murray. The book describes events occurring before the 2005 massacre of hundreds of protesters in Andejan which finally caused the US to back away from supporting the Ubek government.

This is not a simple history or rant against a totalitarian regime. It is a first person documentary of issues that both the US and British governments were trying to sweep under the rug. Murray's decision to incorporate some mundane details of diplomatic life actually works very well by creating a context for what is going on and by making an otherwise very political topic much more than just a polemic. His single handed quixotic struggle to expose the harm caused by the US/Uzbek marriage of convenience and the clearly horrific abuses of human rights and democracy in the region would become wearisome and dry without the spice of booze, belly dancers, and clandestine meetings. The book at times seems to deal almost as much with his unambassadorial lifestyle as it does with politics but frankly it makes a much better read because of that. Murray's memory for detail is remarkable and appears to be quite accurate according to friends who attended some of the events he describes. Having worked myself in Tashkent during the time Murray is writing about I'd add that he really doesn't exaggerate in describing Uzbekistan or the difficult lives and fears of the average citizen.

Murray could well have titled the book "Fear and Loathing in Tashkent" and tried to list Hunter Thompson as a coauthor. Hollywood would (?will) certainly not need to spice this story up for the big screen. I don't know if Murray is naturally as open as he comes across in the book or whether he has painted his self portrait (as described in the US title) simply because he thought it best to put everything on the table himself rather than let his enemies snipe at him over lifestyle issues. Murray obviously did take his job, as he defined it, very seriously and in the end did sacrifice his career rather than bend on his principles. Although he addresses some of his own foibles as part and parcel of his boozy adventures, this is not an autobiography. His marriage ends halfway through the book but he never lets on about any trouble at home (though it is hard to imagine any spouse putting up with his antics). We don't hear about the break up of his family other than noting that the final straw was his obsession and open courting of a beautiful belly dancer half his age. (I told you Hollywood would not need to spice this story up...too bad Jack Nicholson is too old to play the lead).

The book is really a combination expose, polemic and titillating confession that just works as a great read. His writing is lucid, sharp and he never drones when making political points. One cannot help but admire his willingness to risk and destroy his diplomatic career in the service of a greater good. He was right and I suspect history will be kind to him. As best I can tell he is currently an itinerant writer living in London. One comes away from this book admiring him and hoping that he will bounce back into some human rights leadership role again. And, if he doesn't, I hope at least he finds peace and happiness with his belly dancer.

The book details the real-life story of Craig Murray, a successful British career diplomat that became a pawn in the Great Game. Assigned to become Ambassador to Uzbekistan, he took over a very small embassy with all the attendant issues (morale, support, etc.) He also very quickly became aware of horrific human rights abuses in Uzbekistan that have been substantiated by other NGOs like Human Rights Watch.

His subsequent attempt to stand up against a regime that enjoyed boiling people alive, executing real or perceived enemies of the state in extra-judicial killings, etc. subsequently got Mr. Murray into trouble with the Blair administration since he was stirring the pot with one of their erstwhile allies in the "War on Terror". However, as Mr. Murray so eloquently lays out, it is precisely this type of tyrannical regime that leads to the rise of fundamentalist, extremist groups in the first place.

Mr. Murray went to extraordinary lengths to represent British interests in Uzbekistan and traveled the whole nation to get to know it better. Along the way, he tried his best to encourage Democracy and Rule of Law, a novelty in Uzbekistan. Some of his more dangerous and coloful confrontations included standing up to various local government officials, thugs, etc. and are recounted in gripping detail. It is evident that Mr. Murray risked considerable harm to himself.

Like most other diplomats in Uzbekistan, Mr. Murray could have simply looked the other way, just as the British government instructed him to when he reported human rights abuses and other issues with the regime that the Blair and Bush administrations wanted to cozy up to. That is not to say that he is a knight in shining armor, but he seems to be pretty honest about his personal flaws.

When one of his internal Memos to the Foreign Office decrying the human rights abuses in Uzbekistan was leaked to the press, the British government took extraordinary steps to kick him out of the Foreign Service. With his departure, the British Foreign Service lost one of their more courageous and competent ambassadors, though perhaps he was a bit too honest and outspoken for the diplomatic club.

This book was originally published under the title "Murder in Samarkand" in Britain. This version names more names regarding the folk working behind the scenes to kick Mr. Murray out of the Foreign Service, thanks to US freedom of speech laws. The British paperback version has more pictures, however. It's a very interesting read, and I highly recommend it.