Aug 4, 2013

Sunday Salon: Books on Asia and Southeast Asia

The Sunday Salon.com Welcome to the Sunday Salon!This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey;  to Mailbox Monday hosted by
BermudaOnion's Weblog, and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

I finished reading these three books on Asia, and have a few more to go!



Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw is a literary novel about five individuals who are in Shanghai to find their fortune. Several of them are from Malaysia; some will be successful and others not. Their stories each analyse what it takes to become a billionaire. For one person at least, you are full of regret.

Bend Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu is a memoir of life during the Cultural Revolution and life as a new immigrant in America, a book which turns out to be quite controversial, based on comments on amazon and goodreads. The controversy over authenticity of the memoir tend to overshadow the contributions Ping Fu and her company have made to 3D printing and graphic technology.




Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan is a novel about the lives of the uber rich in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong - a story about several families and groups who are clannish as well as competitive in their garish display of wealth. Written with humor and a lot of candor. It ended somewhat abruptly, but overall an enlightening and entertaining read.



A great fan of mysteries as well,  I was delighted to get in the past couple of weeks,



A Conspiracy of Faith



(Click on the covers for their Goodreads descriptions.)
Other books for review:
Nightmare Range, a collection of mystery short stories by Martin Limon
Loss of Innocence by Richard North Patterson, a family drama set in 1968.
The Skull and the Nightingale by Michael Irwin, a dark tale set in 18th century England.

Mysteries and dark tales! What's on your reading list?

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for those Southeaast Asia titles. I've added to my list to consider for world literature reading. Wish I could find something for Indonesia - you haven't come across anything have you? If so can you let me know at www.bookertalk.com

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  2. I'm not familiar with any of these, but I'm eager to learn more when you review them.

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  3. Great haul! Hope you enjoy them all! My Sunday post: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2013/08/sundays-weekly-book-recap-29.html

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  4. Harvee, your selections look and sound wonderful! I hope to "catch up" in my blogging now that I'm back from my break.

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  5. I haven't seen the Asian books before, but would love to hear your thoughts on them.
    Here's My Sunday Post

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  6. Wow you have some great mysteries on your list. Enjoy and have a great week!

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  7. I've heard The English Girl is superb. I hope you love all of your new books!

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  8. ENJOY your new books. Looks like you received some good ones.

    Have a good week.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Mailbox Monday

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  9. I've heard good things about Crazy Rich Asians. Hope you enjoy all your new mysteries!

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  10. Looks like you've got some good reading ahead. Enjoy!

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  11. The English Girl caught my eye.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/08/mailbox-monday.html

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  12. You had a great reading week!
    I do like mysteries and dark tales myself. I've been trying to catch up on review books like always but I'm trying to sneak a Nicholas Sparks book in there someplace too...lol.

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  13. I am a huge fan of mysteries too. Looks like some great reading. Five Star Billionaire caught my eye when I saw it show up on the Man Booker Long List. I look forward to seeing what you think of it.

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  14. Awesome books! I've thought about the rich asian book a time or two..still might read it!!

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  15. Looking forward to your reviews of these so I can think about adding to my wish list for when my reading trip eventually gets to that part of the world. I'm in Algeria at the moment

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I appreciate your comments and thoughts...

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