2014 Book List

Photograph copyright K. Smokey Cormier, used with permission.

Wut, you thought I'd given up publishing my yearly lists, or even shrunk them in shame? Fuck no. Not me. It's the usual unmanageable List of Thousands, well, OK, hundreds. I want pizza if I finish even one-third of the books on this list this year.

Book List 2014

1. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
2. 130 Projects To Get You Into Filmmaking - Grove
3. A Concise History of Indian Art - Roy C. Craven
4. A History of India 1 - Romila Thapar
5. A History of India 2 - Percival Spear
6. A New History of India - Stanley Wolpert
7. *A Short History of The Movies - Gerald Mast
8. A Tale Of Millions: Bangladesh Liberation War - M. Rafiqul Islam
9. Adventures in the Skin Trade - Dylan Thomas
10. Akbar & the Jesuits - Pierre du Jarric
11. An Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhari, & Datta
12. An Introduction to Indian Music - Chaitanya Deva
13. *Art History - Marilyn Stokstad
14. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
15. *Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
16. Bangladesh From Mujib to Ershad, an interpretive study - Lawrence Ziring
17. Bergman on Bergman - Paul Britten Austin, transl.
18. *Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
19. Burchett: Reporting The Other Side Of The World - Ben Kiernan
20. Canyon Cinema - Scott McDonald
21. Ceylon - S. Arasaratnam
22. Cinema, Emergence, & The Films of Satyajit Roy - Keya Ganguly
23. Cinnamon Shops - Bruno Schultz
24. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
25. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
26. Crafts of West Bengal - Prabhas Sen
27. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
28. Daddyji - Ved Mehta
29. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
30. Decolonizing the Mind - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
31. Desis in the House - Sunaina Maira
32. Dharma and Development - Joanna R. Macy
33. Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
34. Digital Photography Master Class -
35. Essentials of Screenwriting - Richard Walter
36. *Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
37. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
38. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
39. Frogs In A Well - Patricia Jaffrey
40. From Word to Image - Marcie Begleiter
41. Gandhi - Louis Fischer
42. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
43. Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston
44. Giving Up Hope - Kalyani Mehta
45. Gotta Have It - Spike Lee
46. Grassroots Guide to PNG Pidgin - Bob Browne
47. Handcrafted Indian Textiles - Rta Kapur Chishti & Rahul Jain
48. Herzog - Saul Bellow
49. Hinduism - Its Historical Development - Troy Wilson Organ
50. *How To Get Control of Your Time & Your Life - Alan Lakein
51. I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna
52. Ikat Textiles of India - Chetna Desai
53. Illustrated Historical Guide To Melaka -
54. I'm Just Here For The Food - Alton Brown
55. In The Blink of An Eye - Walter Murch
56. India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
57. IsvarChandra Vidyasagar -
58. Jews of the Raj - Mavis Hyman
59. Kieslowski on Kieslowski - Darusia Stok, ed.
60. Kiki: Ten Thousand Years In A Lifetime -
61. Light in August - William Faulkner
62. Light on Yoga - B.K.S. Iyengar
63. Look Homeward Angel - Thomas Wolfe
64. Making Documentary Films - Barry Hampe
65. *Making Pictures: A Century of European Cinematography -
66. Made In India - Suparna Bhaskaran
67. Masters of Light - Schaefer & Salvato
68. Medieval Mysticism of India - Ksitimohan Sen
69. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
70. Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh - Amy Raphael, ed.
71. Movies & Methods - Bill Nichols, ed.
72. Movies & Methods II - Bill Nichols, ed.
73. Music for Mohini - Bhabani Bhattacharya
74. Musical Instruments of India - Ram Avtar Vir
75. My Traitor's Heart - Rian Malan
76. *Nakshi Kantha of Bengal - Sila Basak
77. Notes on Directing - Walker
78. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
79. Our Films, Their Films - Satyajit Ray
80. Our Lady of Controversy - Alma Lopez
81. Ousmane Sembene - Gadjigo
82. Procrastination - Burka & Yuen
83. Punjabi Century 1857-1947 - Prakash Tandon
84. Ravi Shankar: My Music, My Life - Ravi Shankar
85. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
86. Rebel Without A Crew - Robert Rodriguez
87. Rosie - Anne Lamott
88. Sacred Cows, Sacred Places - Deryck O. Lodrick
89. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
90. Sayles on Sayles - Gavin Smith, ed.
91. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
92. Shoot Me - Simonelli & Frumkes
93. Showdown - Jorge Amado
94. Sitar & Sarod in the 18th & 19th centuries - Allyn Miner
95. Some Trouble With Cows - Beth Roy
96. Something Like An Autobiography - Kurosawa Akira
97. Songs of Kabir - Rabindranath Tagore
98. Srikanta - Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay
99. The Ajanta Caves -
100. The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen
101. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
102. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
103. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
104. The Bhopal Tragedy - ARPEN Report
105. The Central Structure of the Mughal Empire - Ibn Hasan
106. The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking - Polish, Polish, & Sheldon
107. The Dictionary of Hindustani Classical Music - Bimalakanta Roychaudhuri
108. The Discovery of India - Jawaharlal Nehru
109. The Encylopedia of the Indian Diaspora - Brij V. Lal
110. The Films of Akira Kurosawa - Donald Richie
111. The Forgotten Army (Indian Mutiny) - Peter Ward Fay
112. The Gene Hunters Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds - Calestous Juma
113. The Gesture Language of the Hindu Dance - La Meri
114. The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
115. The Hill of Devi - E.M. Forster
116. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
117. The Men Who Ruled India Vol. I The Founders - Philip Woodruff
118. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol. II The Guardians - Philip Woodruff
119. The Mind's Eye - Douglas Hofstader
120. The Politics of Sri Lanka - Robert N. Kearney
121. The Rape of Bangladesh - Mascarenhas
122. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
123. The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, transl
124. The Sari - Linda Lynton
125. The Story of Zahra - Hanan al-Shaykh
126. Thinking Fast & Slow - Daniel Kahneman
127. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads - Robert Ernest Hume
128. Third World Filmmaking -
129. Theory & Practice of Film Sound - Weis & Belton
130. Theory of Indian Ragas - Ram Avtar Vir
131. Visionary Film - P. Adams Sitney
132. Wanted: Equality and Justice In The Muslim Family - Zainah Anwar, ed.
133. Why Be Normal When You Could Be Happy - Jeanette Winterson
134. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
135. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
136. Yoga: Mastering the Basics - Sandra Anderson, Rolf Sovik
137. Yonnondio - Tillie Olsen
138. Zen & The Art of Screenwriting - W. Froug
139. Wild - Cheryl Strayed
140. Dread - The Rastafarians of Jamaica - Joseph Owens
141. Folklore From Contemporary Jamaicans - Daryl C. Dance
142. One Blood — The Jamaican Body - Elisa Janine Sobo
143. Rasta & Resistance - Horace Campbell
144. Rastafari Roots & Ideology - Barry Chevannes
145. Roots of Rastafari - Virginia Lee Jacobs
146. The Rastafarians - Leonard E. Barrett, Sr.
147. La Vera Cucina Italiana - Donaldo Soviero
148. The Classic Pasta Cookbook - Giuliano Hazan

2013 Book Review

Photo copyright K. Smokey Cormier, used with permission

Only 50 books this past year! I'm so ashamed. I plead special circs. I had way too much stuff to do, most of it (literally) shitty. Also too, tomatoes.

1. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

Srsly, wut was I thinking, looking to that shiny-headed Maroon for information? This book is for corporate drones. Wut a waste of time.

2. Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim

Growing up straight female and Chinese in Singapore in the 1950s. Frankly, the writer could have made this a lot more interesting.

3. Being Wrong - Kathryn Schultz

The author examines the decision-making process in the human brain, in the most fascinating way. Informative and thought-provoking.

4. Best American Movie Writing 2001 - John Landis, ed.

For film buffs, a fascinating collection of writing about film.

5. Beyond Basic Photography - Henry Horenstein

An indispensable addition to the photographer's library.

6. Breathless - Jean-Luc Goddard

Don't care how much I've read, heard, or seen about him. I *still* don't like Jean-Luc Goddard. OK, Alphaville I could tolerate.

7. Broken Harbor - Tana French

Tana French is a good writer, and her mysteries always seem earth-shattering. Until you get to the end. Then it all feels like a giant letdown, like the time you dated that person who said they were totally wild to jump in bed with you, but then they do, and fall asleep right away. Yaknow?

8. Brother Enemy - Nayan Chanda

Nayan Chanda was right there in Southeast Asia when all that shit went down, with the collapse of Saigon and the rise of the Khmer Rouge, and the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and ALL that shit, and he writes about it in such compelling (yet complex, and politically well-informed) language that you feel like you're right there. How often have you really, really wanted to read a book about shit like death and war and militarism? So, if you want to know what went down, especially from the Asian standpoint, get this damn book and fucking READ IT. You won't be sorry. Might be awful mad, tho.

9. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin

Another mystery. Not bad, and set in the South, so a nice face-on look at the pervasive racism, but in the end it seemed less a mystery than a somewhat aimless recounting.

10. Daybooks of Edward Weston -

A very good reason for every photographer to keep them. What a brilliant photographer.

11. Death to Dust - Kenneth V. Iserson, M.D.

A book about what happens to human bodies at, during, and after death, written by a medical doctor who did his research and writes in an amusingly grim, dark, thoroughly entertaining style. Indispensible for mystery writers, writers in general, ghouls, readers of horror and mystery, and nitpickers, in general.

12. Designing A Photograph - Bill Smith

Another indispensable addition to the photographer's library. A concise and well-illustrated manual explaining, and showing, the basic rules for good photographs. Sure, you've read them a million times, but do you remember them?

13. Escape From Tyranny - Zulkifli Ahmed

I expected a tale of harrowing events. It's hard to feel too much sympathy for someone complaining he has to sell his expensive Mercedes luxury vehicle to pay a fine.

14. Film Theory Goes To The Movies - Jim Collins, Ava Preacher Collins, Hillary Radner

I often wonder if one should read about film theory at all, rather than just reading about/making film. This is one of the books that answers that question. Read it.

15. Five Screenplays - Harold Pinter

Is anyone in doubt that Pinter is one of the greatest masters of screenwriting? Read the book, dudes.

16. Hitchcock - Francois Truffaut

Truffaut interviews Hitchcock, one of my favourite filmmakers. A fascinating look at the innards of the great director. Although Truffaut should've shut up a bit and let the Great Man talk.

17. How To Get Control of Your Time & Your Life - Alan Lakein

This is probably THE best book you have/will ever read about time management. If you only want to read a single book on the topic, this is the one to read and to keep. Had it for decades and reread it every other year, and always will.

18. J. Paul Getty Photo Collection -

The NICE thing about money is, it can even rehabilitate people like Getty. A beautiful collection in a coffee-table book with high-quality stock. Nice print job, dood.

19. Motion Studies - Rebecca Solnit

Everybody should read at least one book by Rebecca Solnit in their lifetime. The woman knows how to get into her topic, she always picks a complex and fascinating topic, and she can write your fucking socks right off. This is about Edweard Muybridge and his studies in motion and contributions to the field of photography.

20. Mucho Sol - Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Photography as she is meant to be displayed/enjoyed.

21. Photography, 4th Ed - Barbara London Upton & John Upton

Much of the information in this book was for photography as it used to be back when I was doing it. SLR cameras and printmaking and darkroom practices and manual lenses. But there's also a wealth of information for the modern photographer, most of it painstakingly culled from years of experience and research. A worthwhile tome.

22. Primitive Art - Frank Boas

An interesting, if highly technical, analysis of the roots of art, and the symbolism and language of primitive art. Who better qualified?

23. River of Shadows - Rebecca Solnit

This was every bit as interesting as Motion Studies, although it did seem overly reminiscent of that book. Similar material.

24. Singapore Studies - Basant Kapur

For the serious scholar of Singapore; a reference of all studies performed.

25. So Much Pretty - Cara Hoffman

Not so much a mystery as an excellent, if horrendously creepy, novel. You'll be picking pieces of it out of your brain for at least a year, if that's a recommendation (we think it is).

26. Stolen Glances - Boffin & Fraser, eds.

No. Seriously. It's a book on photography, but just no.

27. Switch - Chip & Dan Heath

You know how difficult it is to change your habits? Two experts in creating and changing patterns explain why and how you can do it anyway. Seriously worth a read if you're planning on changing your life (isn't everyone?).

28. The City & The City - China Mieville

China Mieville is always worth reading, though this is surely not his best work. Very good, but you'll spot the (minimal) flaws soon enough. Fascinating book.

29. The Concerned Photographer - Cornell Capa, et al

A painful yet brilliant, beautiful, engaging compilation of some of the bravest people ever -- the photographers who cover the deadly conflicts worldwide of hunger, war, genocide. A MUST-SEE. We should ALL be so fucking concerned.

30. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin

Loved this beautiful analysis of American contemporary culture through the eyes of one banished to its fringes. James Baldwin speaks for me.

31. The Fine Print - Fred Picker

Very interesting although no longer applicable in the age of digital cameras and photography. (Sob!)

32. The Gift - Lewis Hyde

Lewis Hyde explores the possibility of a gift-based economy in this wonderful, inspiring, optimistic little book. Highly recommended.

33. The Hand of Nature - Ettore Sottsass Jr./Patrick Gries

Incredible photographs of insects in stunning colour and detail. The Hand of the Photographer had plenty to do with making bugs so beautiful.

34. The Light On Her Face - Joseph Walker, ASC, & Juanita Walker

An auto(?)biography of lighting techniques used in film in the early to mid-20th century.

35. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson

Y'all know who Bill Bryson is. It was an interesting enough read, but not enough for a re-read.

36. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan

An excellent classical analysis of Singapore, its social organization, economy, politics, and (somewhat) current affairs. Lacking or not necessarily correct in a couple of trivial details, but an excellent scholarly work.

37. Turn of Mind - Alice LaPlante

A very interesting murder mystery about a woman who is losing her mental faculties. How can you tell if you committed a murder, or if you're covering up for someone else who might have, if you can no longer remember who you, or they, are?

38. Wikileaks - David Leigh & Luke Harding

These two are the Guardian journalists who worked with Julian Assange to bring Wikileaks to its public state. If anyone knows Wikileaks, and Assange, it would be these two, and the portrait they paint is not overly flattering. A highly recommended read.

39. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan

This ought to be recommended reading for all Singaporeans and anybody who has any fondness for the tiny island-nation or its inhabitants. A cri de coeur for Singaporeans to be more involved with their national politics and policies. The author is a brilliant neuropsychologist with an obvious and deep love for his country. Regrettably, its current government chooses not to return that love.

40. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang

One of Malaysia's leading politicians (though not, one should add, one currently enjoying any sort of power or even, possibly, liberty) speaks from the heart of problems inherent in the creation of Malaysia that threaten its continued democratic existence.

41. The Unmaking of Malaysia - Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

An interesting look at UMNO, Malaysia's current governing party, from its foundation to (roughly) the present. It's an insider's perspective, with all the insider stories that entails.

42. Unmasking Najib - Lim Kit Siang

Veteran Malaysian politician dissects current Malaysian prime minister and his history of duplicity and corruption.

43. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong

An excellent historical reconstruction of the role of Singapore in the revolution against the Dutch undertaken by Indonesian freedom fighters seeking to liberate their nation.

44. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb

Sheds light on a little-known chapter in Indonesian history, when the street gangs of Java assisted revolutionaries seeking Merdeka for the homeland. Fascinating, if somewhat lengthy.

45. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan

An account of Konfrontasi between Indonesia and the newly formed Malaysia, by a journalist from the Malaysian side of the border. Only of interest to someone interested in the Malaysian Government's viewpoint of the altercation.

46. The Sculpture of Indonesia - Nat'l Gallery of Art

Art in any more fragile form rarely survives the rigors of the tropical climate, which is why this tome on the sculpture of Indonesia is such a valuable record of artistic and cultural influences of the vast and diverse Indonesian archipelago. Beautiful.

47. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -

Academic papers from a conference on women in Indonesia; somewhat lacking in Indonesian women participants.

48. A Nation in Waiting - Adam Schwartz

An interesting, if sometimes confusing, account of the recent political history of Indonesia post WW II; written by someone who spent a good part of their life in that part of the world, covering the events described in the book for various media outlets.

49. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox

Thought this was going to be about the politics or history of East Timor, but it's just a hagiography of a rather unremarkable and colonialist Catholic priest. What a waste of time.

50. Indian Art - Philip Rawson

A very handy little volume about the art of India pretty much from prehistoric times to the present.

Book Review 2012

Books read:

1. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
   Excellent. Recommended.
2. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
   Very good, extremely disturbing.
3. Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
   Good.
4. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
   Limited interest.
5. Cambodia's Hidden Scars - Beth van Schaak, Daryn Reicherter, eds.
   Disturbing, good.
6. Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope
   Got into reading Trollope on someone else's recommendation, and I think this is one of those writers that I can marvel at as a wordsmith, but who leaves me pretty cold. I did give him a bash, though.
7. Designer Genes - Chee Heng Leng & Chan Chee Koon, eds.
   Excellent. Recommended.
8. Dubliners - James Joyce
   Joyce in imago. Recommended.
9. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
   Excellent. Recommended.
10. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
    Pulitzer prizewinner. Interesting. Good.
11. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
    Interesting look at the Vietnam war.
12. Foreign Bodies - Tan Hwee Hwee
    Colossal and horrifying waste of time. I hope this lady is doing something else these days. Oops, no, she's having Christian insights. Of the smallest-minded ilk.
13. Futureland - Walter Moseley
    Excellent. Recommended.
14. Hell In A Very Small Place - Bernard Fall
    Fall was the kind of military historian military historians read. Fascinating, depressing, etc.
15. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
    Read this. Then read Wilfred Burchett, and you'll understand why the US lost in VietNam.
16. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
    Srsly? Somebody's thesis. And it kind of petered out towards the end.
17. May 13 - Kua Kim Soong
    Limited interest, but fascinating accounts of the school riots in Singapore in the 1950s, with new information from recently released Colonial Office documents. Those colonial fuckers.
18. Middlemarch - George Eliot
    A writer of rare weight and heft. Every book is a joy.
19. Murder Through The Looking Glass - Mike Venning
    Very good little whodunit.
20. Norodom Sihanouk: My War With The CIA - Wilfred Burchett
    Fascinating, and vintage Sihanouk.
21. Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope
    It's literature.
22. Pol Pot - Philip Short
    Short is as unbiased as a white man can be (FWIW) and goes a long way to revealing the remarkably invisible Saloth Sar.
23. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
    I don't think I've come across too many writers who made language their own the way Joyce did, although this makes me frown and remember that I'm not reading enough in languages other than English.
24. Rule 34 - Charles Stross
    SF, and if you don't know what Rule 34 is, Google it.
25. Street Without Joy - Bernard Fall
    VietNam war. Fall's a Frenchman writing about "les petits jaunes," whaddya want?
26. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
    You're never going to get a look at Singapore by a Singaporean that is more honest than this, although, frankly, it's a masterpiece of the two-step.
27. Self Censorship: Singapore's Shame - James Gomez
    Is Southeast Asia suffering from a shortage of book editors, or something? This is the third or sixth book from the region I've read that started out fine and then suddenly turned into a mess of repetitive blather.
28. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe
    This is one of those rare, violent, disturbing books that stays with you for a LONG time after.
29. The China-Cambodia-Vietnam Triangle - Wilfred Burchett
    Excellent. Recommended. Some have chosen to lob slurs at Burchett now that he's no longer around to defend himself. But where Wilfred Burchett went and the caliber of stories he got, no other white person ever touched. He was a friend to the revolutionary people of Asia at a time when most white people thought of Asians as not-quite-human.
30. The End of The Affair - Graham Greene
    Greene's a Catholic, and I don't care for their worldview. That said, he's an excellent writer, although this is a disturbing, sick little story.
31. The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope
    See "Trollope, Anthony, future of on tpc's reading lists."
32. The Gate - Francois Bizot
    Bizot was one of VERY few people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng by Angkar's jailor who survived relatively intact. Most lost their lives after they had lost everything else they had. One wonders how/why he made it. Creepy.
33. The Hatchet Man of Singapore - J.B. Jeyaretnam
    Limited interest.
34. The Mighty Wave - He Jin (Transl: Tan Jing Quee, Loh Miaw Gong, Hong Lysa)
    A look at the student riots in Colonial Singapore from the student side.
35. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
    Not for the weak of stomach. This is a chronicle of the murdered and their murderers.
36. Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh - Wilfred Burchett
    A photographic chronicle of two very interesting people.
37. Vietnam: Inside Story of Guerilla War - Wilfred Burchett
    Excellent. Recommended.
38. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
    Someone very dear to me recommended this dreadful book, and I have not been able to speak to him honestly since I read it. I do not recommend it to anyone except the extremely ignorant, racist, closed-minded. It's a revolting look at the VN war written by some chickenhawk who never was there (wasn't even a zygote at the time, IIRC), and who never served his nation in any capacity except that of beating his own chest, pulling his own pud, and riling up his teabagger cohorts. This book makes me so sick, I wish I could fucking BURN it. Badly researched, poorly written, with a political agenda so obvious it made me want to choke the bastard within the first ten pages.
39. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
    Excellent. Recommended.
40. Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
    He's an interesting guy but I've lost interest in this kind of stuff. New-Age guru bla bla you know the drill.
41. A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
    I'm sorry, this was nearly unreadable. It has now been inflicted on the public at large.
42. The Voice At The Backdoor - Elizabeth Spencer
    Excellent. Recommended.
43. Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
    Bui Tinh and his family served VietNam for generations. Portrait of a fascinating human being now living in exile in Paris. Humans get trapped in the political conflicts of their day, and ground down; which was the Colonel's fate. He sounds like a gentleman.
44. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
    You know who the guy is. He wrote a book about reporting on the VietNam war and going back afterwards. White folks go to other countries and judge them ALL based on their own limited experience. Read it if you want, it's got some juicy insider gossip about dead people.
45. Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
    Very interesting book about post-US War VietNam and the religious cults that now flourish there. The writer is such an insightful individual!
46. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia - William Shawcross
    Very good and depressing.
47. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
    Limited interest.
48. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
    Limited interest.
49. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
    The writer makes a good case. Worth reading.
50. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
    The writer was a journalist in Burma after the assassination of Aung San, during the rule of General Ne Win. Limited interest.
51. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
    Abbott was in Burma before and after the rise of the military dictatorship & paints a beautiful picture of Burma.
52. Lempriere's Dictionary - Lawrence Norfolk
    This book started out much better than it ended, somehow.
53. Black Dog of Fate - Peter Balakian
    Not for the weak of stomach. Balakian is an excellent writer, and his subject is the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. It's not a pretty story.
54. The Bedroom of The Mister's Wife - Philip Hensher
    A collection of short stories by another writer for whom I had such high hopes.
55. California Photographs - Pirkle Jones
    If you're trying to teach yourself to see, this book is a tremendous help.
56. Picturing California: A Century of Photographic Genius - Oakland Museum
    Are there any BAD photographs of California? I mean, this is intimidating.
57. Singapore Rediscovered - National Museum of Singapore
    Wut? It's of historical interest.
58. Siamese Cats: Legend and Reality - Martin ClutterbuckInteresting.
59. The History of Photography - Beaumont/NewhallYour basic book.
60. Portraits - Helmut NewtonVery good.
61. Tete A Tete: Portraits by Henri Cartier-Bresson - Very good.
62. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
    Excellent. Recommended. Bernard Lewis is the authority on Turkish history, and rightly so.
63. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon JuanNot very good. I haz teh disappoint.
64. Handbook for Women - FPASLimited interest, but a very interesting look at women's rights/feminism in Southeast Asia of that period (1950s-1970s)
65. The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon NapierWell-researched and written, though probably not of interest to DaVinci Code nutbags.
66. My Friend Dahmer - John Backderf
    Excellent. Recommended.
67. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.The Singapore school riots' history from the OTHER side. About fuckin' well time, too.
68. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin
    Thought this would be a serious look at the status of women in Singapore. It's really just a feel-good bunch of limited-interest, er, stuff.
69. Granta on Film
    Excellent. Recommended. If only because it's delightful to hear John Fowles grumble about Harold Pinter.

So those were the books I read this year. Pathetically few. And my book list somehow skyrocketed from 150 to nearly 300 by year-end.

I now also have FIVE BOXES full of books on China to add to my already enormous reading list on China.

It's still good, though. Having a reading list for the year forces me to stay on track, read as much as possible, and GET RID OF SHIT!! This is no joke. Not every book on my list or in my house is a keeper. And I no longer feel obligated to finish every last word. This year, I must eliminate 100 books (at least) from my enormous goddamn collection. Or else I'll be reduced to crawling through tunnels made entirely of books to get from room to room.

On the plus side, I read nearly 70 books, which makes about five books each month. On the minus side, I now know more about what happened in Kampuchea than most people want, or ought, to know.

2012 Book Reviews First Quarter

This is what the current book list (at the end of the first quarter) looks like:

1. *7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
2. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
3. 130 Projects To Get You Into Filmmaking - Grove
4. 1491 - Charles C. Mann
5. A Concise History of Indian Art - Roy C. Craven
6. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
7. A History of India 1 - Romila Thapar
8. A History of India 2 - Percival Spear
9. *A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
10. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
11. A Lexicon of Terror - Marguerite Feitlowitz
12. A Nation in Waiting - Adam Schwartz
13. A New History of India - Stanley Wolpert
14. *A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
15. A Tale Of Millions: Bangladesh Liberation War - M. Rafiqul Islam
16. Adventures in the Skin Trade - Dylan Thomas
17. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
18. Alexander The Great - W.W. Tarn
19. *Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim
20. An Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhari, & Datta
21. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
22. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
23. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
24. Bangladesh From Mujib to Ershad, an interpretive study - Lawrence Ziring
25. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
26. *Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
27. Being Wrong - Kathryn Schultz
28. *Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
29. Black Dog of Fate - Peter Balakian
30. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
31. Cambodia's Hidden Scars - Beth van Schaak, Daryn Reicherter, eds.
32. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
33. Ceylon - S. Arasaratnam
34. China's Second Revolution - Harry Harding
35. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
36. Chinese Warlord - The Career of Feng Yu Hsiang - James E. Sheridan
37. Cinema, Emergence, & The Films of Satyajit Roy - Keya Ganguly
38. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
39. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
40. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
41. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
42. Death of Somoza - Claribel Alegria & Darwin Flakoll
43. Decolonizing the Mind - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
44. Desis in the House - Sunaina Maira
45. Dharma and Development - Joanna Macy
46. *Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
47. Discos and Democracy - Orville Schell
48. *Don Quixote - Cervantes
49. Dread - The Rastafarians of Jamaica - Joseph Owens
50. Enemies of the People - Anne F. Thurston
51. Escape From Tyranny - Zulkifli Ahmed
52. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
53. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
54. Facets of Taoism - Holmes Welch & Anna Seidel
55. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox
56. *Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
57. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
58. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
59. Flash of the Spirit - Robert Farris Thompson
60. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
61. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
62. Folklore From Contemporary Jamaicans - Daryl C. Dance
63. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
64. *Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
65. Gandhi - Louis Fischer
66. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
67. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
68. *Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston
69. Gotta Have It - Spike Lee
70. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
71. Granta on Film
72. Heritage of China - Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization - Ed. Paul S. Ropp
73. Hell In A Very Small Place - Bernard Fall
74. *Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
75. Herzog - Saul Bellow
76. Hinduism - Its Historical Development - Troy Wilson Organ
77. *I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna
78. In One's Own Shadow - Xin Liu
79. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
80. India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
81. Indian Art - Philip Rawson
82. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
83. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
84. IsvarChandra Vidyasagar - Subal Chandra Mitra
85. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
86. Laogai - The Chinese Gulag - Harry Wu Hong da
87. *Lempriere's Dictionary - Lawrence Norfolk
88. Leviathan - Hobbes
89. Light in August - William Faulkner
90. Look Homeward Angel - Thomas Wolfe
91. Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries - Michael Pollak
92. Mandate of Heaven - Orville Schell
93. Masters of Light - Schaefer & Salvato
94. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
95. Microeconomic Theory - Gould & Ferguson
96. Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh - Amy Raphael, ed.
97. My Traitor's Heart - Rian Malan
98. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon Juan
99. Nakshi Kantha of Bengal - Sila Basak
100. Norodom Sihanouk: My War With The CIA - Wilfred Burchett
101. One Blood — The Jamaican Body - Elisa Janine Sobo
102. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
103. Our Lady of Controversy - Alma Lopez
104. *Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
105. Painting Islam as the New Enemy -
106. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
107. Personal Voices - Chinese Women in the '80s - Emily Honig & Gail Hershatter
108. Physics and Philosophy - Werner Heisenberg
109. Physiology of the Human Body - Guyton
110. Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China - Anne Birrele
111. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
112. *Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
113. Punjabi Century 1857-1947 - Prakash Tandon
114. Rasta & Resistance - Horace Campbell
115. Rastafari Roots & Ideology - Barry Chevannes
116. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
117. Red China Blues - Jan Wong
118. Reeducating Chinese Anti-Communists - J.A. Fyfield
119. Resistance and Reform in Tibet -
120. Revolution Postponed - Margery Wolf
121. River of Shadows - Rebecca Solnit
122. Roots of Rastafari - Virginia Lee Jacobs
123. Rosie - Anne Lamott
124. Rural Development in China - Fei Hsiao Tung
125. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
126. Sayles on Sayles - Gavin Smith, ed.
127. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
128. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
129. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
130. Shoot Me - Simonelli & Frumkes
131. Showdown - Jorge Amado
132. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin
133. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
134. Sisters of Heaven - Gully
135. Son of the Revolution - Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro
136. Southern Africa Stands Up - Wilfred Burchett
137. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
138. Street Without Joy - Bernard Fall
139. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
140. The Adventures of Wu - H.Y. Lowe
141. The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen
142. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
143. *The Audacity of Hope - Barak Obama
144. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
145. The Bedroom of The Mister's Wife - Philip Hensher
146. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
147. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
148. *The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
149. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence - Victor Marchetti & John D. Marks
150. The City & The City - China Mieville
151. The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking - Polish, Polish, & Sheldon
152. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
153. The Discovery of India - Jawaharlal Nehru
154. The Dragon Empress - Marina Warner
155. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
156. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
157. The Forgotten Army (Indian Mutiny) - Peter Ward Fay
158. The Gate - Francois Bizot
159. The Gene Hunters Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds - Calestous Juma
160. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
161. The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
162. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
163. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong
164. The Journey to the West, Vol. 1 - Anthony Yu
165. *The Last Emperor - Edward Behr
166. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
167. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
168. The Men Who Ruled India Vol. I The Founders - Philip Woodruff
169. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol. II The Guardians - Philip Woodruff
170. *The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
171. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
172. The New China - Alvin Rabushika
173. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes - Arthur Waley
174. The Origins of Chinese Kongsi - Wang Tai Peng
175. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
176. The Politics of Sri Lanka - Robert N. Kearney
177. The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution - Lee Hong Yung
178. The Portable Dorothy Parker - Brendan Gill
179. The Rape of Bangladesh - Mascarenhas
180. The Rastafarians - Leonard E. Barrett, Sr.
181. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
182. The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, transl
183. *The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
184. The Sinkiang Story - Jack Chen
185. The Soong Dynasty - Sterling Seagrave
186. The Spirit of Chinese Politics - Lucian Pye
187. The Story of Zahra - Hanan al-Shaykh
188. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
189. The Unmaking of Malaysia -
190. The Voice At The Backdoor - Elizabeth Spencer
191. The Wilting of the Hundred Flowers - Mu Fu Sheng
192. Third World Filmmaking -
193. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
194. Transition to Neo-Confucianism - Anne D. Birdwhistell
195. Unmasking Najib -
196. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
197. Visionary Film - P. Adams Sitney
198. Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh - Wilfred Burchet
199. Wanted: Equality and Justice In The Muslim Family - Zainah Anwar, ed.
200. War and Peace - Tolstoy
201. When States Kill - Nestor Rodriguez, Cecilia Menjivar, eds.
202. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
203. West Indians And Their Language - Peter A. Roberts
204. Western Birds - Roger Tory Peterson
205. Wikileaks - David Leigh & Luke Harding
206. Wild Swans - Jung Chang
207. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
208. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -
209. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
210. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
211. Yonnondio - Tillie Olsen
212. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan
213. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

Second Quarter Reading List in Order:

1. *Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
2. *Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim
3. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
4. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
5. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin 
6. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan
7. The Unmaking of Malaysia -
8. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
9. Escape From Tyranny - Zulkifli Ahmed
10. Unmasking Najib -
11. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
12. Wanted: Equality and Justice -
13. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
14. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong
15. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
16. A Nation in Waiting -
17. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -
18. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox
19. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
20. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon Juan
21. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
22. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
23. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
24. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
25. Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh - Wilfred Burchet
26. *Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
27. *Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
28. *Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
29. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
30. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
31. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
32. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
33. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
34. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
35. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
36. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
37. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
38. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
39. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
40. *The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
41. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
42.  *Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston

Read:

1. Middlemarch - George Eliot****
The more I read Eliot the more I admire her. What a writer!
Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope**
2. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe***
3. Murder Through The Looking Glass - Mike Venning Fluff.
4. Futureland - Walter Moseley***
5. Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope**
6. The End of The Affair - Graham Greene**
7. The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope**
8. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce***
9. Dubliners - James Joyce***
10. May 13 - Kua Kim Soong** Good analysis.
11. The Mighty Wave - He Jin (Transl: Tan Jing Quee, Loh Miaw Gong, Hong Lysa)* Very interesting historically, but not well written.
12. Rule 34 - Charles Stross Fluff.
13. Designer Genes - Chee Heng Leng & Chan Chee Koon, eds.***
14. The Hatchet Man of Singapore - J.B. Jeyaretnam* Only for those with an interest in the political intricacies of Singapore.
15. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George* Tiresomely coy.
16. Self Censorship: Singapore's Shame - James Gomez*
17. Foreign Bodies - Tan Hwee HweeAWFUL
18. Pol Pot - Philip Short****
19. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler****

Not too shabby, 20 books in three months, considering I was (1) recovering from surgery (2) traveling and (3) dealing with illness all around. Trying for double the number in this quarter, but in my own defense, I've already read quite a few of these, just finishing 'em up, so. It looks like Southeast Asian history/politics is pretty much done for this year! Next for some South Asian history/art/culture/politics.

Book List 2012

It's the second day of the new year, you slugs. Get your books out and start reading!

Here's my list. I predict I'll make about a third of it by year's-end, if I'm lucky. Also, I hate Barack Obama because I think he reads faster than I do. That is unacceptable.

Everything marked with a * is something I'm already reading currently. Blame that crazy Canuck for teaching me bad reading habits. All book recommendations accepted. Quite a few on this year's list are from friends, old and new.

1. *7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
2. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
3. 130 Projects To Get You Into Filmmaking - Grove
4. A Concise History of Indian Art - Roy C. Craven
5. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
6. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
7. A History of India 1 - Romila Thapar
8. A History of India 2 - Percival Spear
9. *A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
10. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
11. A Nation in Waiting - Adam Schwartz
12. A New History of India - Stanley Wolpert
13. *A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
14. A Tale Of Millions: Bangladesh Liberation War - M. Rafiqul Islam
15. Adventures in the Skin Trade - Dylan Thomas
16. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
17. Alexander The Great - W.W. Tarn
18. *Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim
19. An Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhari, & Datta
20. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
21. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
22. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
23. Bangladesh From Mujib to Ershad, an interpretive study - Lawrence Ziring
24. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
25. Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
26. Being Wrong - Kathryn Schultz
27. *Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
28. Black Dog of Fate - Peter Balakian
29. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
30. Cambodia's Hidden Scars -
31. Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope
32. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
33. Ceylon - S. Arasaratnam
34. China's Second Revolution - Harry Harding
35. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
36. Chinese Warlord - The Career of Feng Yu Hsiang - James E. Sheridan
37. Cinema, Emergence, & The Films of Satyajit Roy - Keya Ganguly
38. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
39. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
40. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
41. Daddyji - Ved Mehta
42. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
43. Decolonizing the Mind - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
44. Designer Genes - Chee Heng Leng & Chan Chee Koon, eds.
45. Desis in the House - Sunaina Maira
46. Dharma and Development -
47. Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
48. Discos and Democracy - Orville Schell
49. *Don Quixote - Cervantes
50. *Dread - The Rastafarians of Jamaica - Joseph Owens
51. *Dubliners - James Joyce
52. Enemies of the People - Anne F. Thurston
53. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
54. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
55. Facets of Taoism - Holmes Welch & Anna Seidel
56. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox
57. *Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
58. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
    
59. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
60. Flash of the Spirit -
61. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
62. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
63. Folklore From Contemporary Jamaicans - Daryl C. Dance
64. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
65. Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
66. Futureland - Walter Moseley
67. Gandhi - Louis Fischer
68. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
69. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
70. *Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston
71. Gotta Have It - Spike Lee
72. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
73. Granta on Film
74. Heritage of China - Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization - Ed. Paul S. Ropp
75. *Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
76. Herzog - Saul Bellow
77. Hinduism - Its Historical Development - Troy Wilson Organ
78. *I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna
79. In One's Own Shadow - Xin Liu
80. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
81. India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
82. Indian Art - Philip Rawson
83. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
84. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
85. IsvarChandra Vidyasagar -
86. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
87. Laogai - The Chinese Gulag - Harry Wu Hong da
88. *Lempriere's Dictionary - Lawrence Norfolk
89. Leviathan - Hobbes
90. Light in August - William Faulkner
91. Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries - Michael Pollak
92. Mandate of Heaven - Orville Schell
93. Masters of Light - Schaefer & Salvato
94. May 13 - Kua Kim Soong
95. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
96. Microeconomic Theory - Gould & Ferguson
97. *Middlemarch - George Eliot
98. Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh - Amy Raphael, ed.
99. My Traitor's Heart - Rian Malan
100. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon Juan
101. *Nakshi Kantha of Bengal - Sila Basak
102. Norodom Sihanouk: My War With The CIA - Wilfred Burchett
103. One Blood — The Jamaican Body - Elisa Janine Sobo
104. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
105. Our Lady of Controversy - Alma Lopez
106. *Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
107. Painting Islam as the New Enemy -
108. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
109. Personal Voices - Chinese Women in the '80s - Emily Honig & Gail Hershatter
110. Physics and Philosophy - Werner Heisenberg
111. Physiology of the Human Body - Guyton
112. Pol Pot - Philip Short
113. Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China - Anne Birrele
114. *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
115. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
116. *Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
117. Punjabi Century 1857-1947 - Prakash Tandon
118. Rasta & Resistance - Horace Campbell
119. Rastafari Roots & Ideology - Barry Chevannes
120. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
121. Red China Blues - Jan Wong
122. Reeducating Chinese Anti-Communists - J.A. Fyfield
123. Resistance and Reform in Tibet -
124. Revolution Postponed - Margery Wolf
125. River of Shadows - Rebecca Solnit
126. Roots of Rastafari - Virginia Lee Jacobs
127. Rosie - Anne Lamott
128. Rural Development in China - Fei Hsiao Tung
129. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
130. Sayles on Sayles - Gavin Smith, ed.
131. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
132. Self Censorship: Singapore's Shame - James Gomez
133. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
134. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
135. Shoot Me - Simonelli & Frumkes
136. Showdown - Jorge Amado
137. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
138. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin
139. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
140. Sisters of Heaven - Gully
141. Son of the Revolution - Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro
142. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
143. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
144. The Adventures of Wu - H.Y. Lowe
145. The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen
146. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
147. The Audacity of Hope - Barak Obama
148. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
149. The Bedroom of The Mister's Wife - Philip Hensher
150. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
151. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
152. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe
153. *The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
154. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence - Victor Marchetti & John D. Marks
155. The City & The City - China Mieville
156. The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking - Polish, Polish, & Sheldon
157. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
158. The Discovery of India - Jawaharlal Nehru
159. The Dragon Empress - Marina Warner
160. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
161. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
162. The Forgotten Army (Indian Mutiny) - Peter Ward Fay
163. The Gate - Francois Bizot
164. The Gene Hunters Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds - Calestous Juma
165. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
166. The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
167. The Hatchet Man of Singapore - J.B. Jeyaretnam
168. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
169. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong
170. The Journey to the West, Vol. 1 - Anthony Yu
171. *The Last Emperor - Edward Behr
172. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
173. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
174. The Men Who Ruled India Vol. I The Founders - Philip Woodruff
175. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol. II The Guardians - Philip Woodruff
176. The Mighty Wave - He Jin (Transl: Tan Jing Quee, Loh Miaw Gong, Hong Lysa)
177. *The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
178. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
179. The New China - Alvin Rabushika
180. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes - Arthur Waley
181. The Origins of Chinese Kongsi -
182. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
183. The Politics of Sri Lanka - Robert N. Kearney
184. The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution - Lee Hong Yung
185. The Portable Dorothy Parker - Brendan Gill
186. The Rape of Bangladesh - Mascarenhas
187. The Rastafarians - Leonard E. Barrett, Sr.
188. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
189. The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, transl
190. *The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
191. The Sinkiang Story - Jack Chen
192. The Soong Dynasty - Sterling Seagrave
193. The Spirit of Chinese Politics - Lucian Pye
194. The Story of Zahra - Hanan al-Shaykh
195. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
196. The Unmaking of Malaysia -
197. The Voice At The Backdoor - Elizabeth Spencer
198. The Wilting of the Hundred Flowers - Mu Fu Sheng
199. Third World Filmmaking -
200. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
201. Transition to Neo-Confucianism - Anne D. Birdwhistell
202. Unmasking Najib -
203. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
204. Wanted: Equality and Justice In The Muslim Family - Zainah Anwar, ed.
205. War and Peace - Tolstoy
206. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
207. West Indians And Their Language - Peter A. Roberts
208. Western Birds - Roger Tory Peterson
209. Wikileaks - David Leigh & Luke Harding
210. Wild Swans - Jung Chang
211. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
212. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -
213. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
214. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
215. Yonnondio - Tillie Olsen
216. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan
217. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

There's about 105 books left to go on the list, but I can't climb up to reach them. Soon as the knee heals, I'll update the list. Helps me keep track of what I've lent, borrowed, read, and given away. This year's heavy on fiction, so quit complaining, all you monsters. And for god's sake, I don't want to hear any whining about all the war-related and torture-related history stuff I'm reading. Especially since y'all so don't want me pointing out who gave/lent them to me, yaknow?