Updated Book List Part 2

This is the new book list. As I said, it's pretty lengthy. And it will undergo further revision because I have a box full of books on Indian culture, history, politics, economy, etc., and a box full of books on China that need to go into this mix at some point.

Damn, I think I'm addicted to books. And I STILL haven't read all my Science News, dammit!

1. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
   
2. A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
   
3. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
   
4. A History of Selangor - J. M. Gullick
   
5. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
   
6. Alexander the Great - W.W. Tarn
   
7. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
   
8. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
   
9. Blood on the Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
   
10. Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan
    
11. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
12. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
13. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
    
14. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
    
15. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
    
16. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
    
17. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
    
18. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
    
19. Gandhi's Truth - Erik H. Erikson
    
20. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
    
21. In The Time of The Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
    
22. Kempeitai, Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
    
23. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
    
24. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
    
25. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
    
26. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
    
27. Malaysia - R. Emerson
    
28. Memory in Mind and Brain - Morton F. Reiser
    
29. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
    
30. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
    
31. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
    
32. Niels Lyhne - Jens Peter Jacobsen
    
33. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
    
34. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
    
35. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
    
36. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
37. Patchwork Shawl Chronicles of South Asian Women in America - Shamita Das Dasgupta
    
38. People's War, People's Army - Vo Nguyen Giap
    
39. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
    
40. Primitive Art - Franz Boas
    
41. Raffles - Maurice Collis
    
42. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon & Yap Hong Kuan
    
43. Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied
    
44. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
    
45. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
46. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
    
47. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
    
48. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
    
49. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
    
50. Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey
    
51. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
    
52. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
    
53. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
    
54. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
    
55. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
    
56. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Rafiuddin Ahmed
    
57. The Birth of Vietnam - Keith Weller Taylor
    
58. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terrence Blackburn
    
59. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
    
60. The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600 - 1800 - C.R. Boxer
    
61. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
    
62. The Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
    
63. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
    
64. The Mak Nyahs: Malaysian Male to Female Transexuals - Teh Yik Koon
    
65. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
    
66. The Nanking Massacre - M.E.Sharpe
    
67. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
    
68. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
    
69. The Plague - Albert Camus
    
70. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
    
71. The Prince and The Discourses - Niccolo Machiavelli
    
72. The Remembered Village - M. N. Srinivas
    
73. The Right To Die - Derek Humphry & Ann Wickett
    
74. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
    
75. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
    
76. Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
    
77. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
    
78. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
    
79. Vietnam: A Long History - Nguyen Khac Vien
    
80. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
    
81. Witness To An Era - Frank Moraes
    
82. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
    
83. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
    
84. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
    
85. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
    
86. You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson
    
87. Your Memory — A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
    

Updated Book List Part 1

Book review to follow.

So in January of this year, I posted a book list of 101 books. Here it is, in its original and (somewhat) pristine glory.

1. A Cloistered War - Maisie Duncan
   
2. A Field Guide To Writing Fiction - A.B. Guthrie Jr.
   
3. A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
   
4. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
   
5. A History of Selangor - J. M. Gullick
   
6. A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton
   
7. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
   
8. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
   
9. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
   
10. Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
    
11. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
    
12. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
    
13. Baba Nonnie Goes To War - Ron Mitchell
    
14. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
    
15. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
    
16. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
17. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
18. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
    
19. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
    
20. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
    
21. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
    
22. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
    
23. Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
    
24. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
    
25. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
26. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
    
27. Kempeitai, Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
    
28. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
    
29. Kim - Rudyard Kipling
    
30. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
    
31. Kranji - Romen Bose
    
32. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
    
33. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
    
34. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
    
35. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
    
36. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
    
37. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
    
38. Malaysia - R. Emerson
    
39. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
    
40. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
    
41. Night Butterfly - Tan Guan Heng
    
42. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
    
43. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
    
44. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
    
45. Outwitting the Gestapo - Aubrac
    
46. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
47. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
    
48. Prehistory of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago - Peter Bellwood
    
49. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
    
50. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon & Yap Hong Kuan
    
51. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
    
52. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
53. Rouge of the North - Chang Ai Ling
    
54. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
    
55. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
    
56. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
    
57. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
    
58. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
    
59. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
    
60. The Age of Diminished Expectations - Paul Krugman
    
61. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
    
62. The Crippled Tree - Han Suyin
    
63. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Sillein, Eds.
    
64. The End of the War - Romen Bose
    
65. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
    
66. The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki
    
67. The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Russell Wallace
    
68. The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
    
69. The Marquis - A Tale of Syonan-To - S.J.H. Conner
    
70. The Nanking Massacre - M.E.Sharpe
    
71. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
    
72. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
    
73. The Plague - Albert Camus
    
74. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
    
75. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
    
76. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
    
77. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
    
78. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
    
79. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
    
80. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
    
81. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
    
82. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
    
83. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
    
84. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
    
85. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
    
86. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
    
    
87. A Choice of Evils - Meira Chand
    
88. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
    
89. King Rat - James Clavell
    
90. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
    
91. No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigasu
    
92. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon, Yap Hong Kuan
    
93. Singa, Lion of Malaya - Gurchan Singh
    
94. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
    
95. Sinister Twilight - Noel Barber
    
96. Sold For Silver - Janet Lim
    
97. Syonan - My Story (The Japanese Occupation of Singapore) - Mamoru Shinozaki
    
98. The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
    
99. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
    
100. The War Of The Running Dogs - Noel Barber
     
101. You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson

So, naturally, at the end of 8 months, I have acquired another boatload or two of books and upon reinspecting the list and the number of books read and the general topics, I find that I am, once again, rushing ahead of myself.

I mean, how could I possibly read about WWII and its effects on the European colonies of the Far East without first reading the histories of the various countries involved, political, economic, social, cultural. Oh, my.

So much to read, so little time.

At any rate, by my count, I have added 70 books to that list (at least), but of the original 101, I have read 84. Which leaves a mere 17 books in order to complete the assigned reading list. However, I now want to change the list itself and put some of my new acquisitions on it. Therefore, I will review the number of books I've read between the last review and the present, and will then publish the new list. It's quite long, but I don't expect to read more than perhaps 20 of the books on it, as I'm hoping to have surgery later this year. Cuts into one's reading time something dreadful.

Wounded by Percival Everett

I don't do this very often ... write about a book I'm reading. I usually wait until my mid-year review of all books read ... then my end of year "Books read by Ms. Manitoba" list. But I'm reading a book that is just so good I want to recommend it now: Wounded by Percival Everett.


First, the writing is so very very good. The writing is so good you are there in the action, living and breathing and walking with the characters. Plus, the characters are so interesting and well-formed -- so much so, that you don't even feel that they are characters -- they're real people. At least I wished they were and I wished I could go visit them. Right now. Mr. Everett is also tackling some tough subjects: an anti-gay hate crime and a prickly gay man; racism in Wyoming and the rest of America; disappointment and betrayal in marriage; cruelty towards animals. Big topics. And he treats them with sensitivity, respect, and intelligence.

To read a full description of the plot, go to amazon.com here.


I highly recommend Wounded by Percival Everett.

Beijing's National Stadium Looks Gorgeous at Night

Here's a photo released by Getty Images taken by Clive Rose.

Ms. Manitoba strives to be fair. It sure doesn't look like a bedpan in this photo. See my earlier post.

The San Francisco International Festival of Short Films

Aug 6 to 9 ... check it out at this site:SF Shorts web site

And if you want to watch a very cool short film, go here and watch Johnny Kelly's Procrastination.

It Looks Like a Fu**ing Bedpan!

Photo by Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

Folks, I'm not schooled in architecture ... I'm one of the common people ... of course, that never stops me from commenting on something. But the National Stadium in Beijing looks like a hospital bedpan to me. The New York Times has an article on it in today's online edition. The writer of the piece, Nicolai Ouroussoff, says that people have nicknamed it the "Bird's Nest". Sorry. "Beijing Bedpan" to me. Considering that, Ouroussoff's following words cracked me up:

"Given the astounding expectations piled upon the National Stadium, I’m surprised it hasn’t collapsed under the strain."

More from Ouroussoff:

More than 90,000 spectators will stream through its gates on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games; billions are expected to watch the fireworks on television. At the center of it all is this dazzling stadium, which is said to embody everything from China’s muscle-flexing nationalism to a newfound cultural sophistication.

Expect to be overwhelmed. Designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the stadium lives up to its aspiration as a global landmark. Its elliptical latticework shell, which has earned it the nickname the Bird’s Nest, has an intoxicating beauty that lingers in the imagination. Its allure is only likely to deepen once the enormous crowds disperse and the Olympic Games fade into memory.

"Intoxicating beauty" ????!!!!!!

The Emperor has no clothes.

When do I get to vote on YOUR marriage?

Leah Garchik is reporting in her column today (sfgate.com) in the San Francisco Chronicle:

P.S.: As to fashion statements, Donald Currie saw the T-shirt in the window of the In-Jean-ious Lounge on Castro Street: "When do I get to vote on YOUR marriage?"

I REALLY REALLY WANT ONE OF THOSE T SHIRTS!!

I may even drive into San Francisco tomorrow to get one. I better call first and have them hold one for me.