Sunday Salon: Books on Asia and Southeast Asia

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?

Book Beginnings: A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King

Friday 56 Rules: *Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.

Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

Title: A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King
Published July 10, 2012; Touchstone
Genre: sci-fiction, comic book heroes

Book beginning: Chapter 1 is a comic featuring a hero
Chapter 2:  Ultimate, The Man With The Metal Face #566

Their lives are violence. Month after month after month, they fight a wonderful war, play a wonderful game, forever saving the next day from the next dastardly villain, the next meteor falling from the sky, the next giant monster emerging from his cave, his rock-fists swatting at the heroes rising into the air around him, and Pen slides the spatula under the half-cooked pancake and flips it over. The raw underside splatters wide and spreads across the pan. The circle starts to lose its shape as it falls into itself.

"I think I'm doing this wrong," Pen says. 

Page 56:  

A hand tugs him, pulls at Felix' shirt, tugs him, and he rolls backward on his back a few inches, pulled away from the fire, which has begun to spread. 

Book description:  "A Once Crowded Sky fuses the sensibility of bombastic, comic-book-style storytelling with modern literary fiction to bring to life a universe of super men stripped of their powers, newly mortal men forced to confront danger in a world without heroes.

The superheroes of Arcadia City fight a wonderful war and play a wonderful game, forever saving yet another day. However, after sacrificing both their powers and Ultimate, the greatest hero of them all, to defeat the latest apocalypse, these comic book characters are transformed from the marvelous into the mundane.

 After too many battles won and too many friends lost, The Soldier of Freedom was fine letting all that glory go. But when a new threat blasts through his city, Soldier, as ever, accepts his duty and reenlists in this next war. Without his once amazing abilities, he's forced to seek the help of the one man who walked away, the sole hero who refused to make the sacrifice--PenUltimate, the sidekick of Ultimate, who through his own rejection of the game has become the most powerful man in the world, the only one left who might still, once again, save the day." (publisher)

What do you think of this novel featuring comic book heroes without their powers?

Waiting on Wednesday: Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted weekly by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Let us know what new releases you are eagerly waiting for. Link your post to Breaking the Spine.

Title: Alex by Pierre Lemaitre, translated from the French by Frank Winne
To be published September 3, 2013 MacLehose Press
Genre: police procedural, Verhoeven Trilogy #2

The book description reminds me of some of the Scandinavian thrillers I've read, in particular Jussi Adler-Olsen. Read any of his?

Publisher's description: Winner of the 2013 Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award: “An original and absorbing ability to leash incredulity in the name of the fictional contract between author and reader . . . A police procedural, a thriller against time, a race between hunted and hunter, and a whydunnit, written from multiple points of view that explore several apparently parallel stories which finally meet.”

Synopsis: "Alex Prévost—kidnapped, ... suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a tiny wooden cage—is running out of time. Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven has nothing to go on: no suspect, no leads, and no family or friends anxious to find a missing loved one. Camille is forced to acknowledge that the person he seeks is no ordinary victim. She is beautiful, yes, but also extremely tough and resourceful.

Before long, saving Alex’s life will be the least of Commandant Verhoeven’s considerable challenges." (book description)

What new release are you waiting for?

Book Review: The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip

Title: The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip
Published June 25, 2013; Kensington
Genre: historical fiction
Objective rating: 4/5

The unemotional Skeleton Woman of Yip's previous novel, Camilla, trained from childhood to be an assassin, slowly becomes a more compassionate woman in this novel as she searches for her child and his father, risking death by returning to gang-ridden Shanghai from her safe haven in Hong Kong.

This book is a worthy follow-up to the story of the three Skeleton women who survive dangerous odds in the Shanghai of the 1930s in the previous book, Skeleton Women (see my review).  I enjoyed descriptions of the setting and the pithy Chinese sayings that the author weaves through her stories to illustrate the truths of life. Well written and entertaining, I recommend both books.

Watch the dramatic and colorful trailer for The Nine Fold Heaven.

Thanks to the author for a review copy of this book.

First Chapter: Ask Bob by Peter Gethers

Teaser Tuesdays  is hosted by MizB; choose sentences from your current read and identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Opening paragraph:

Dear Dr. Bob:
Our son just went off to college and my wife and I are suffering a bit from Empty Nest Syndrome. I want to get a dog to help ease the blow. I'm a serious bike rider and love the idea of a little four-legged buy running along beside me on my Saturday bike jaunts. The problem is, my wife is dead set against it. She feels the responsibility of taking care of him will fall on her.... I'm thinking of getting one anyway, taking the gamble that he'll grow on her. Got an opinion?

--A Hoped-to-Be Pet Owner in the Near Future

Page 56:

As usual, Ted didn't have money of his own; to my knowledge, he'd landed only one acting job since moving to L.A., a small part in an experimental play at a non-for-profit theater. But Ted did have superb taste, and that was very much his own.

Title: Ask Bob: A Novel by Peter Gethers
To be published August 6, 2013; Henry Holt
Publisher's book description: "Dr. Robert Heller is one of New York City’s leading veterinarians, and his “Ask Dr. Bob” advice column is hugely popular among pet-lovers. Yet Dr. Bob understands animals a lot better than people, and he definitely could use some advice of his own—especially when it comes to his family. "

Based on the opening paragraph and the teaser and the excerpt from the publisher's description, would you keep reading? 

It's Monday: Whatcha Reading?

Join  It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey and share your currents reads.

I am in the middle of reading Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds by Ping Fu with MeiMei Fox, a 2013 book I discovered at the library. It is a dramatic and moving memoir about a child torn from a loving home and surviving the Cultural Revolution in China, later seeking asylum in America, putting herself through college, settling into her new country, and becoming a successful entrepreneur. It's an eye opener into that period of upheaval in China and the struggles of a new immigrant.

I am also reading Access: Thirteen Tales by Xu Xi, a collection of short stories about women in Hong Kong, published in 2011.

I've finished Tahoe Chase. the thriller set in Tahoe, CA, and plan a review this week. The book will be out in a few days. Check back!

I am also looking forward to reading

Queen's Gambit, an historical novel about Katherine Parr, the last wife of King Henry VIII,  by Eizabeth Fremantle.

What are you reading this week?

Winners of The Last Camellia

Congrats to five winners:

JoAnn 
Mina
Mike, Melanie and Millie
Deb Nance 
Suko

for winning a copy of this paperback.

 I have sent you email and if you accept the win, please send me your mailing address by July 29. The publisher will mail the books. Congrats! A fabulous read!