Shenzhen by Guy Delisle

December 6, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Drawn and Quarterly, 2006. Originally published 2000. 148 pgs. Library copy. Once again, Delisle is hired by an animation company to oversee the animation office outsourced to an Asian country. This time, he spends a few months living in an urban city in southern China located near Hong Kong but sealed off from the rest of the country by electric fences and armed guards. Such conditions were unknown to me […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, China, Comics, French, Nonfiction, Translated • Tags: Guy Delisle

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

November 27, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Anna Fields. Blackstone Audio, 2005. Originally published 1997. 8 hours, 3 minutes. Library copy. In December 1937 – long before the Second World War began for Americans, Brits, and most Europeans – the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, the capital of China, and committed one of the most brutal massacres in human history. Within weeks of the invasion, the army had not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, Audiobook, China, Japan, Nonfiction • Tags: Anna Fields, Iris Chang

Message From an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran

October 24, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the Chinese by Nicky Harman. Chatto & Windus, 2010. 212 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “Stories of Love and Loss”, Xinran’s book includes ten chapters each one dedicated to the story of Chinese mothers who have lost their daughters through infanticide, theft, and abandonment or have spent their lives caring for the thousands of orphans in China. Xinran explains how and why these women made the decision to end their daughters’ lives or abandoned them as […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Adoption, Asia, China, Chinese, Nonfiction, Translated • Tags: Xinran

World War Z by Max Brooks

August 26, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Crown, 2006. 342 pgs. Library copy. Following the defeat of the zombies and the end of World War Z, the United Nations commissions a report as to the nature of the war – how did it begin?; who spread the zombie infection?; how did it end?. As the unnamed narrator writes in the introduction to this book, government bureaucracy and political correctness stepped in sanitizing the report and removing personal recollections and emotions about the war […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, Book Club, China, Europe, Fiction, Israel/Palestine, Japan, Middle East, North America, Russia, South America, United States • Tags: Max Brooks

In the Pond by Ha Jin

July 9, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Vintage, 2000. Originally published 1998. 192 pgs. Library copy. This short novella centers around Shao Bin, a Chinese man working at fertilizer plant, and his struggle to obtain a decent apartment for his young family. Continually passed over by the plant’s corrupt leaders, Bin decides to fight back against his communist superiors using his talent with calligraphy. Conflict espouses when Bin’s struggle is met with counterattacks and more opposition than he could never have imagined. As the […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Asia, China, Fiction • Tags: Ha Jin

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

June 9, 2013 by Christina

Fiction — print. Spiegel & Grau, 2013. 379 pgs. Review copy from the publisher. Set to be published by Spiegel & Grau in July 2013, Aw’s novel charts the overlapping lives of migrant Malaysian workers as their forge new lives for themselves in the rapidly changing city of Shanghai. Justin is from a family of successful property developers. Phoebe is a factory girl who has come to China brimming with hope, but her dreams are shattered within hours as the […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Asia, China, Fiction • Tags: Tash Aw

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

June 3, 2013 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Knopf, 2008. 294 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide”, Kristof and WuDunn introduce readers to the women of Asia and Africa who have been raised in oppressive environments, subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and managed not only to survive but turn their experiences into opportunities to educate and help others. The purpose of this book, however, is not just to inform readers about the ways women are advocating changes in their […]

Categories: 2013 Reads, Africa, Asia, China, Nonfiction • Tags: Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

Collapse by Jared Diamond

June 27, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Penguin, 2006. Originally published 2005. 576 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”, Diamond takes readers through a series of societies — past and present — that collapsed due to environmental damage. Some of societies included are the typical examples — Mayan culture in South America, Easter Island, and forest degradation in Haiti — while others were completely unexpected. I never expected the book to start with Montana, although it’s information about agriculture and […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Africa, Asia, China, Chunkster, Genocide, Honors Project, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, South America, United States • Tags: Jared Diamond

America the Vulnerable by Joel Brenner

April 26, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Penguin, 2011. 308 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare”, Brenner uses his extensive background in and knowledge about national security to explain America’s next great battleground: digital security. Incidents like WikiLeaks posting secret U.S. State Department cables is only the tip of this massive, transparent iceberg that threatens to sink the United States. Counterfeit computer chips have found their way into our fighter aircraft; the Chinese stole a new […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Asia, China, North America, Textbook, United States • Tags: Joel Brenner

Merchants of Madness by Bertil Lintner and Michael Black

April 7, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Silkworm Books, 2009. 180 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle”. Merchants of Madness provides a convoluted examination of the methamphetamine trade in the “Golden Triangle”, the intersection of the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma (also known as Myanmar). The authors argue the root causes of the drug trade are ethnic conflict and prolonged, stifling military rule in Burma mean drugs will continue to circulate throughout the Golden Triangle and the rest of […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Asia, China, Nonfiction, Textbook, Thailand • Tags: Bertil Lintner, Michael Black

Unnatural Selection by Mara Hvistendahl

November 22, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Public Affairs, 2011. 316 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men,” Hvistendahl turns a critical eye to practice of sex selection as people around the world are tilting the sex ratio from a normal 105 boys for every 100 girls to a staggering 120 to 163 boys for every 100 girls. It’s not just China and India that are selecting boys over girls but countries in Eastern […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Asia, China, Economics, India, Nonfiction • Tags: Mara Hvistendahl

Growing Up in The People’s Republic by Ye Weili with Xiaodong Ma

November 20, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the Chinese. Palgrave, 2005. 177 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Conversations Between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution”, this oral history is a translation of a conversation between Ye and Ma as they recount their lives in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, which includes the volatile Cultural Revolution. Fashioning themselves as a misunderstood generation, the authors explain the impact the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the march towards the countryside had on their lives. […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Asia, China, Chinese, Nonfiction, Textbook, Translated • Tags: Ma Xiaodong, Ye Weili