What book are you reading right now?

**Deck Ape** · 26-07-2009, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

^ That would be a good companion to Asian mail-order brides.
I'm reading Old Shanghai -- Gangsters in Paradise. Money, mayhem, murder, and politics in the 20s and 30s and what happened thereafter. Another find on the back shelf of my little library.

That sound excellent... true or made up Jet?

**November Rain** · 26-07-2009, 03:53 PM

Just finished 'The Poisonwood Bible' by Barbara Kingsolver. An excellent book about a missionary family in the Congo at the time of Independence. Gorgeous prose which changes depending on which member of the family is narrating. It catalogues their day-to-day life and their observations as the political situation and their father's sanity both unravel.

**caller** · 27-07-2009, 02:58 AM

Hello NR, how are you?

I'm currently reading 'The Bin Ladens' subtitled 'Oil, Money, Terrorism and the secret Saudi World'. Its by Steve Coll, who appears a highly regarded author? Certainly, the first 81 pages have been absorbing.

Whenever I read something heavy, I usually have something lighter on the go as well and have just read the first few pages of 'Bangkok Days' by Lawrence Osborne, an English journalist based in Bkk - anyone else come across him?

**Jet Gorgon** · 27-07-2009, 04:25 AM

Originally Posted by Deck Ape

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

^ That would be a good companion to Asian mail-order brides.
I'm reading Old Shanghai -- Gangsters in Paradise.

That sound excellent... true or made up Jet?

Based on fact (the foreign settlement in Shanghai, Chiang Kai-Shek, a bit of Sun Yat-Sen and Mao, the Jap invasion). Wouldn't defend its accuracy, or about all the info and "thoughts" of the main gangster Du Yuesheng, but adds much to what was happening at the time, and how the gangsters subsidised Chiang's battle against the commies.
Author's name is Pan Ling.

I just picked out another one -- The Soong Dynasty. I never liked the author, Sterling Seagrave (uppity prat), but I'm doing a turn back to my Chinese history days. The Soongs sisters were prominent in the early 20th C. Ching-Ling married Sun Yat-Sen, Ai-Ling married HH Kung (Chiang's finance minister and a crooked banker in his own right) and May-Ling married Chiang. This book starts with dad, "Charlie".

**Muadib** · 27-07-2009, 04:51 AM

Re-reading 'Chariots of the Gods' written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken....

For those who have not read this book, the central theme is that ancient gods as referred to throughout history are actually space travelers who visited earth and advanced civilization through their teachings and technology...

**Deck Ape** · 27-07-2009, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Based on fact (the foreign settlement in Shanghai, Chiang Kai-Shek, a bit of Sun Yat-Sen and Mao, the Jap invasion). Wouldn't defend its accuracy, or about all the info and "thoughts" of the main gangster Du Yuesheng, but adds much to what was happening at the time, and how the gangsters subsidised Chiang's battle against the commies.
Author's name is Pan Ling.

Oh, man my favorite! Gangster nonfiction. I'm a sucker for anything about 1970's coke smugglers. I'm sure the Chinese gangsters could have learnt them a thing or two, though.

**Jet Gorgon** · 27-07-2009, 12:11 PM

^ 555 Lots of opium, killing, girls, graft, intrigue...the usual stuff. Now, as I reread The Soong Dynasty, it's HH Kung bankrolling Chiang (I forgot). But, I would say that Du did his fair share in $ support for CKS, along with knocking out several people along the way. Apparently, Du was an honourable man -- if he said he'd fix it, you could count on him. He went to HK just before Mao took over; buried in Taiwan (wasn't in HK long enough to be eligible for a plot).

**SiLeakHunt** · 28-07-2009, 06:44 AM

Just read a book called "Paradise Lust" about a bloke who spunks it up the wall in (of all places) Thailand would you believe it.

Quite well written and funny in a lot of parts.

Cheers

**November Rain** · 29-07-2009, 07:30 AM

Just finished 'The Solitary Man' by Stephen Leather. That's two books of his I've read recently involving BKK. Good escapist fun.

Now reading 'Geisha of Gion', the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki

**jim1176** · 29-07-2009, 08:16 AM

Food, Inc.

First two chapters - nothing. Will struggle thru a couple more.

**Humbert** · 29-07-2009, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

I'm doing a turn back to my Chinese history days.

Maybe you've read these books already, you seem well read on the subject.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang - Autobiography about growing up in the red guard
Mao by Jung Chang - Biography

**Jet Gorgon** · 29-07-2009, 03:59 PM

^ Read Wild Swans (sorry, another I grew up during the Cultural Rev moaner, IMO). Not read Mao by her. Is it a stab at history or another fiction for money book? I'm pretty jaded about the "I was there, and me and my friends reported our parents to the guards, beat our grandmas with bound feet, and burned the family heirlooms, but I was brain-washed" kinda books. Not very good little commies -- making money off that.

Actually, am finding Seagrave's Soong book better this time around. Lots of factual info indexed, a point that I had forgotten.

**Norton** · 29-07-2009, 05:42 PM

Just finished Mutiny On The Bounty by John Boyne.

Excellent read and a far cry from other accounts which portray Mr. Christian as the good guy and Bligh some crazed captain deserving of a mutiny.

Reinforces the adage, there are two sides to every story.

This is especially true because Edward, Christians brother, was the primary author of writings designed to reshape and twist events so the hero and villain would have their roles reversed.

**Storekeeper** · 30-07-2009, 10:26 PM

I like to read the Bible while viewing the Thai girl knickers thread ...

**Jet Gorgon** · 01-08-2009, 03:13 AM

^ Tit.

I am reading Fanshen now, about land redistribution in China. Many personal stories about the barbaric treatment of peasants pre-Mao. I know I got a little red book somewhere. Look out, I might be turning commie!

**Jet Gorgon** · 03-08-2009, 03:04 AM

Gave up on Fanshen. Revolutionary drivel. Now rereading Toni Morrison's Tar Baby.

**Ukan Kizmiaz** · 04-08-2009, 12:45 PM

A History of Histories - John Burrow. If you like history, this a great book.

**hillbilly** · 09-08-2009, 09:37 AM

Recently, I have reread Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. I would encourage every American to read this book. Shocking is the best word to describe my emotions.

Dan · 09-08-2009, 09:45 AM

Really? I read it a couple of months ago and found it a bit thin; it promises a lot more than it delivers. A much, much better book on the same(ish) area is The Shock Doctrine. Very well researched, written, and argued.

Currently reading Volume 1 of Capital, Adobe Houses for Today, and Lemony Snickert (in Thai for my reading practice).

**Wayne Kerr** · 09-08-2009, 10:04 AM

Tropical Gangsters by Robert Klitgaard

A development economist's story of the lies and corruption he encountered in trying to spend $10 million of World Bank money on getting Equatorial Guinea's economy to work.

**S Landreth** · 17-08-2009, 06:59 PM

In between rain drops at the beach today I started “The State of Jones”, The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer.

So far it seems like it will be a good read. In short, from the prologue,…………

From 1863 to 1865, Knight, an antislavery farmer in Jones County, Mississippi, led an insurrection against the Confederacy. For two long years he fought a war from within, successfully evading every bloodhound and tough-booted rebel that came after him. Working side by side with blacks and fellow fugitives, he raised the American flag in the marrow of the South, Confederate president Jefferson’s Davis’s home state, and became such an effective opponent that in the last year of the war exaggerated reports circulated that he and his compatriots seceded from the Confederacy and formed a separate government. The phrase “The Free State of Jones” earned a storied if apocryphal place in Mississippi, and in the American imagination.

**Jet Gorgon** · 19-08-2009, 04:15 AM

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago. Wow, JC had eight brothers and sisters, worked four yeas as a shepherd with the devil who wouldn't let him kill any sheep, lived in sin with Mary Magdalene, talked together with god and satan for 40 days and nights in a boat and god told him there are other gods and devils, and never had a last supper. But an all-around nice guy.

**Rural Surin** · 19-08-2009, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago. Wow, JC had eight brothers and sisters, worked four yeas as a shepherd with the devil who wouldn't let him kill any sheep, lived in sin with Mary Magdalene, talked together with god and satan for 40 days and nights in a boat and god told him there are other gods and devils, and never had a last supper. But an all-around nice guy.

Sounds good. Fitction, huh?

**ItsRobsLife** · 20-08-2009, 02:07 AM

Need ammo..?

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama - The Sunday Times review - Times Online

**Texpat** · 20-08-2009, 02:22 AM

just finished Paying Back Jack.

Good page flipper. Pure fiction. Absolute fiction. Is there something beyond fiction?

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