Book List 2009 - Preliminary

Finally!

Here we are at the end of the first quarter and we've finally completed our 2009 list of books to read. Book List 2009

1. 20th Century Chinese Stories - C.T. Hsia, Ed.
   
2. A Dictionary of Common Trinidad Hindi - Kumar Mahabir
   
3. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
   
4. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
   
5. A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
   
6. A Mercy - Toni Morrison
   
7. A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America - Ed: Shamita Das Dasgupta
   
8. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
   
9. A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
   
10. A Tiger In Red Weather - John Wyllie
    
11. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
    
12. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
    
13. Anathem - Neal Stephenson
    
14. Armed Communist Movements in Southeast Asia - Lim Joo Jock, Vani S., Eds.
    
15. Arms and The Women - Reginald Hill
    
16. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul Kratosha, Ed.
    
17. Baumgartner's Bombay - Anita Desai
    
18. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
    
19. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
    
20. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
    
21. Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell
    
22. Blanche Among The Talented Tenth - Barbara Neely
    
23. Blanche Cleans Up - Barbara Neely
    
24. Blanche On The Lam - Barbara Neely
    
25. Blanche Passes Go - Barbara Neely
    
26. Blood On The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
    
27. Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
    
28. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
    
29. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
30. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
31. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
    
32. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
    
33. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
    
34. Death and The Dogwalker - (A.J. Orde) Sherri S. Tepper
    
35. Death Comes For The Fat Man - Reginald Hill
    
36. Death's Jest-Book - Reginald Hill
    
37. Dena-Paona - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
38. Devdas - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
39. Dialogues of the Dead - Reginald Hill
    
40. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
    
41. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
    
42. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
    
43. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
    
44. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
    
45. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
    
46. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
    
47. Gaijin - James Clavell
    
48. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
    
49. Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
    
50. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
    
51. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
52. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
    
53. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
    
54. Kempeitai - Raymond Lamont Brown
    
55. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
    
56. Kranji - Romen Bose
    
57. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
    
58. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
    
59. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
    
60. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
    
61. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
    
62. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
    
63. Marianne, The Madame, and The Momentary Gods - Sherri S. Tepper
    
64. Marianne, The Magus, and The Manticore - Sherri S. Tepper
    
65. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
    
66. Memory in Mind and Brain - Morton F. Reiser
    
67. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
    
68. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
    
69. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
    
70. My Island in the Sun - Khor Cheang Kee
    
71. Niels Lyhne - Jens Peter Jacobsen
    
72. Niskriti - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
73. Nonsense - Robert J. Gula
    
74. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
    
75. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
    
76. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
    
77. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
    
78. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
    
79. Over Tumbled Graves - Jess Walter
    
80. Padma River Boatman - Manik Bandhopadhyay
    
81. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
82. Pandit Moshai - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
83. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
    
84. People's War, People's Army - Vo Nguyen Giap
    
85. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
    
86. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
    
87. Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
    
88. Purple Cane Road - James Lee Burke
    
89. Raffles - Maurice Collins
    
90. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
    
91. Recalled To Life - Reginald Hill
    
92. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
    
93. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon & Yap Hong Kuan
    
94. Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd. Khairudin Aljunied
    
95. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
    
96. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
97. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
    
98. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
    
99. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
    
100. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
     
101. Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey
     
102. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
     
103. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
     
104. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
     
105. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
     
106. Skull Still Bone - John Wyllie
     
107. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
     
108. Soon I Will be Invincible - Austin Grossman
     
109. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce Vol. I - Anthony Reid
110. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce Vol. II - Anthony Reid
     
111. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
     
112. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
     
113. Sunset Limited - James Lee Burke
     
114. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
     
115. The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King
     
116. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
     
117. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
     
118. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
     
119. The Birth of Vietnam - Keith Weller Taylor
     
120. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
     
121. The Bones - Sherri S. Tepper
     
122. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
     
123. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
     
124. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Sillein, Eds.
     
125. The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600 - 1800 - C.R. Boxer
     
126. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
     
127. The End of the War - Romen Bose
     
128. The Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
     
129. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
     
130. The Gravedigger's Daughter - Joyce Carol Oates
     
131. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
     
132. The Killer Breath - John Wyllie
     
133. The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Conolly
     
134. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
     
135. The Long, Dark Night of Baron Samedi - John Wyllie
     
136. The Malayan Union Controversy 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
     
137. The Mak Nyahs Malaysian Male to Female Transexuals - Teh Yik Koon
     
138. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
     
139. The Companions - Sherri S. Tepper
140. The Margarets - Sherri S. Tepper
     
141. The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
     
142. The Nanjing Massacre - Honda Katsuichi
     
143. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
     
144. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
     
145. The Phor Tor Festival In Penang:Deities, Ghosts, and Chinese Ethnicity - Tan Sooi Beng
     
146. The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
     
147. The Plague - Albert Camus
     
148. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
     
149. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
     
150. The Prince and The Discourses - Niccolo Machiavelli
     
151. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
     
152. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
     
153. The Right To Die - Humphry-Wickett
     
154. The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
     
155. The Scents of Eden, A History of the Spice Trade - Charles Corn
     
156. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
     
157. The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke
     
158. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
     
159. The Vintage Book of Indian Writing - Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth West, Eds.
     
160. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
     
161. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
     
162. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
     
163. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
     
164. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
     
165. Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
     
166. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
     
167. To Catch A Viper - John Wyllie
     
168. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
     
169. Tumbuna Stories 1, The Creation of Animal Life/As Bilong Animal - Thomas H. Slone and Jada Wilson
     
170. Tumbuna Stories 2,The Origin of People and Society/As Bilong Manmeri Na Sosaiti - Thomas H. Slone and Peter Leo Ella
     
171. Virtual Reality - Howard Rheingold
     
172. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
     
173. Who Won The Malayan Emergency - Herbert Andrew
     
174. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
     
175. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
     
176. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
     
177. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
     
178. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
     
179. You'll Never Get Off This Island - Keith Wilson
     
180. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
     

And before y'awl start yawping about how ambitious I'm being, two things:

1. I already read some of these. After all, this list has been in prep since January, fer cryin' out.

2. It's all the fault of those people who shall remain, as my Primary Three teacher, Mr. Robert Tan, used to say, "nameless and shameless." You know who you are who keep lending/buying/giving me books!

3. Oh, yeah, thanks for the books.

4. I can't count worth shit.

Ms. Manitoba's right. Read the fiction first, it's easier than all those skull-thumpers.

For you, my interested audience (all three of you, c'mon now!) - some of these books have been on the list a mighty long time and still haven't been read. Should I hang on to them, or just let go?

Examples: A Spy's Revenge, Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Heart Politics, Virginia Woolf's work.

Most of these books are about WWII - is this good, for someone still recovering from major surgery? Vote, you get a chance to actually say what I'm gonna kick off my list.

Many of these books have been read and are being reread. Some of them (e.g., Robert Gula's Nonsense) are well worth rereading, repeatedly. Others? I ask you.

Examples: Revolt in Paradise, The Jungle is Neutral, The Mind's Eye (Hofstader, really boring), Howard Rheingold's Virtual Reality (dated), Machiavelli's Prince, The Physics of Star Trek (nerdy nerd nerd!) - really, why reread these? I can understand Camus, I've reread the Plague at least twice in this life AFAICR, but Hofstader? OK, vote already. I'll take your comments into account.

FYI, if you're interested in getting any of these books, they're linked to Amazon, so click and throw a few coins into my wallet, won'tcha? First review coming right up.