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.