http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com Reviews of books about Asia and/or by Asian authors. en-us reviewed by Glyn Ford. Adam Johnson, who teaches creative writing at Stanford University, has published two previous books, a novel, Parasites Like Us, and a collection of short stories, Emporium, neither of which would have suggested that he wouldframehis new novel inside the alien setting of North Korea. The only other Western writer tackling this difficult fictional terrain is the pseudonymous James Church whose... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1290 20120516 reviewed by Grant Evans. The young prince Bhumibol Adulyadej never expected to become King of Thailand and never expected to become the worlds longest reigning monarch. He ascended the throne in June 1946 following the mysterious death of his brother Ananda. But his coronation would only take place in 1950, when he returned from Switzerland after finishing his studies, and where he had met his young wife Queen... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1286 20120513 reviewed by Bill Purves. Michael Dunne has spent 20 years in the car business, almost all of them in and around China. He knows many of the expatriates who have shaped Chinas car industry, and he uses his knowledge well in American Wheels Chinese Roads to tell the story of General Motors joint venture in Shanghai. Dunne presents a detailed history, and he presents it engagingly. The story is straightforward and... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1288 20120509 reviewed by Karmel Schreyer. If you are a yoga-mum (and I know there are plenty of you!) then you will love this book. This talented author-illustrator has created a picture book that not only teaches a lexical set of animals (lion, butterfly, dog, snake, frog, cat, etc) and basic verbs (sit, stand, lie, squat, kneel, etc) but it does so in the guise of a yoga routine.No one is too young to begin to learn the wisdom of yoga,... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1284 20120506 reviewed by Peter Gordon. Hawaii is the only independent, sovereign country incorporated into the United States. Other statesTexas, California and even Vermontwere briefly independent republics, but these were largely basically artificial creations serving as a states-in-waiting. And while other indigenous peoples lost their independence to Americas westward expansion, only Hawaii sported the full panoply of modern... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1285 20120503 reviewed by Hilton Yip. One of the most significantphenomena of Chinas rapid economic growth of the past three decadesis the massive influx of migrant workers into its major cities. More thantwo hundred million mostly rural Chinese have moved to wealthier provinces and cities, working in factories, construction sites or doing the sorts ofmenial or dangerous jobs that city residents increasinglydisdain. In cities... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1281 20120429 reviewed by Melanie Ho. For anyone who has struggled through high school French or so-called executive Mandarin, foreign languages often seem obscure or mysterious. People that manage to speak several languages can seem like magicians.In a quest to find the secrets behind the worlds polygotsthose who speak several, or more than several, languagesMichael Erard travels across the globe and through time. Erard, who... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1279 20120425 reviewed by Jonathan Chatwin. God is Redis a book which ostensibly avoids overt political commentary; it is a modest collection of vignettes concerning the manner of existence of contemporary Christians in China. Each sectionthere are eighteen in totalintroduces a new adherent to the faith, with much of the narrative a verbatim transcription of that individuals accounts. Yet, though this approach ensures that direct... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1280 20120420 reviewed by Niranjana Iyer. Tomo is a collection of Japan-themed young adult short fiction commemorating the March 2011 earthquake; proceeds from the books sales support relief efforts in Tohoku. The anthologys contributors are all connected to Japan via their heritage or lived experience.The thirty-six stories are very loosely connected (in terms of both style and content) and have been grouped together thematically.... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1282 20120417 reviewed by Nigel Collett. Concerning this, Beloved-of-the-Gods says: Wherever there are stone pillars or stone slabs, there this Dharma edict is to be engraved so that it may long endure. It has been engraved so that it may endure as long as my sons and great-grandsons live and as long as the sun and the moon shine, and so that people may practise it as instructed. For by practising it happiness will be attained in this... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1276 20120413 reviewed by Melanie Ho. Children are often the innocent victims of conflict,their lives changed forever from the effects of war. In Stolen Childhoods: The Untold Story of the Children Interned by the Japanese in the Second World War, journalist Nicola Tyrer turnsto World War II, where 20,000 British civilians living in Asia, including 3,000 children, were put in concentration camps by the Japanese for three... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1277 20120409 reviewed by Peter Gordon. The two-headed Russian eagle, it is often said, looks both east and west. Looking, perhaps because it doesnt entirely belong to one or the other. Matthew Romaniellos new book The Elusive Empire is a thorough and painstaking discussion of the period in which the Russian empireand its Eurasian naturewas established. Moscow, under Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible), conquered the Khanate of Kazan in... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1275 20120406 reviewed by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar. The Folded Earthis Anuradha Roys second novel after her highly-acclaimed debut, An Atlas of Impossible Longing. This story of love and loss and the futility of escape, set in the Himalayas, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Hindu Prize for Literature. Ithas all ingredients that prize committees like: a personal story resonant with history, a cast of suitably eccentric... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1274 20120402 reviewed by Manasi Subramaniam. While learning about figures of speech in high school, I remember wondering at the synecdochewhen a part stands for the whole, or where the individual represents the collective. In works of non-fiction that ambitiously seek to encapsulate a whole (such as India/Mumbai) through one of its parts (such as one of its cities/slums), synecdochal representation can be dangerous. It lends itself to the... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1273 20120327 reviewed by Peter Gordon. Short stories are published rarely. The commercially-focused attitudes of publishers are often blamed for this, but it is nevertheless true that collections of short stories dont often sell terribly well. My pet theory is that short stories are, contrary to what one might think, relatively hard work. All fiction requires an investment in sorting out the characters and situations; an anthology or... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1272 20120323 reviewed by Tim O'Conell. On Easter Sunday 1967, after picnicking with friends, Asias most famous American walked into the Malaysian jungle and vanished. This enduring mystery is what most people think of when they hear the name Jim Thompson, and amateur sleuths continue to seek answers where hundreds of search squads, aboriginal trackers and psychics have failed before. Thailands silk king had no shortage of rivals... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1263 20120319 reviewed by Stephen Maire. John Dardesss Ming China, 1368-1644, declares in its subtitle that it is a concise history of the Ming. At 135 pages, it is truly concise. Moreover, fitting the 276 years of Chinas second longest dynasty into a volume as slim as thisis an accomplishment. As a volume inthe series Critical Issues in World and International History, the likely target audience is university coursesseeking a... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1258 20120316 reviewed by Melanie Ho. Early in The Long March Home, Meihua Wei is pushed on stage for a public accusation. The crowd shouts and accuses her of hiding her birth nameMayflora Willard. It is 1967, and half-American, half-Chinese Meihua is sent to prison for 13 years, leaving behind her husband, himself in a labour camp, and her children, including a baby girl named Yezi.The Long March Home, the first novel (following a... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1268 20120313 reviewed by Glyn Ford. MichaelBreens book is subtitled, Who he is, What he wants, What we do about him which in the circumstances of his protagonists death in North Korea sometime in the second week of December last yearsuggests, to put it mildly, that the book has been rather spectacularly overtaken by events. After all, the New Leader Kim Jong-Unmerits precisely two mentions in the index. So in the current... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1264 20120310 reviewed by Peter Gordon. When an author has a media presence as ubiquitous as Niall Fergusons, there is a temptation to review the writer rather than the bookespecially when the author rarely shies from controversy and even the title of the book (Civilization: The West and the Rest,indeed)seems intended to put some peoples backs up. But Ill try to play the ball, not the man.In Civilization, Ferguson attempts no... http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/new/?ID=1269 20120307