Why buy a foreign language dictionary when one doesn’t speak a word of the language in question? When it’s as fun to read as Peter Constantine’s Japanese Street Slang (2006, ISBN 13 978-0-8348-0250-6), that’s when. First published in 1992, the book has never been out of print, and even has a 2011 edition (we found […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Literature' Category
WoWasis book review: ‘Common Core: Thais and Americans’ by John Paul Fieg
Westerners in Thailand who employ Thais know what a challenge that can be. And conversely, Thais working for Western expats often find relating to their direct reports is sometimes more difficult than the job itself. The beauty of John Paul Fieg’s A Common Core: Thais and Americans (1978, ISBN 0-933-662-80-7) is that it examines core […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘History of the Mongol Conquests’ by J.J. Saunders
In this relatively short (191 pages) but powerful narrative, J.J. Saunders makes an effective argument that the series of Mongolian invasions of Europe and Asia, beginning in the early 1200s, was a major factor in shaping both European culture and Asian religions for centuries to come. The History of the Mongol Conquests (1971, ISBN 0-8122-1766-7) […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Book review: Timothy Hallinan’s ‘Queen of Patpong’
How does one really judge the entertainment value of a book? Timothy Hallinan’s book in the Bangkok Fiction genre, The Queen of Patpong (2010, ISBN 978-0-06-167226-2), caused us here at WoWasis to ask, and here’s why. We finished this 312 page book, the latest update in the ongoing saga of travel writer Poke Rafferty and […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Sarawak’ photos by Hedda Morrison
Hedda Morrison, who died in 1991, was the wife of Sarawak district officer Alastair Morrison. During her 20-year stay in Sarawak, she was able to accompany her husband on official journeys through the country, detailing, through writing and photographs, the lives of tribespeople. Her book Sarawak (1957) is an indispensible record of northern Borneo before […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Kaowai & Robinson’s ‘In Grandmother’s House’
Visitors spending any time looking into the culture of Thailand will run into thousands of folk traditions and beliefs, and Thais are always impressed when a foreigner wishes to know more about them. Understanding these concepts is empirical, as one thing inevitably leads to another. We at WoWasis are still learning. And that’s why we […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: North Korean Gulag… The Aquariums of Pyongyang
For anyone wishing to know more about what goes on behind the scenes in North Korea, Kang Chol-hwan’s The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag (2000, ISBN 0-465-01102-0) is a must- read. Kang’s expat North Korean family became wealthy in Japan and had a good life. At the urging of his […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Japanesque: The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism’
For centuries, Western art lovers have been fascinated by Japanese woodcuts of landscapes made by noted Ukiyo-e “floating world” artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, and of scenes from daily life by master artists Kitagawa Utamaro and Suzuki Harunobu. These woodcuts have directly inspired the work of Westerns artists, but perhaps never more […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Brian Mertens’ Bangkok Thai Ideas in Design
We here at WoWasis have been fans of Bangkok Fashion for a decade now. One of the city’s strengths is in having a culture that embraces the arts, and she is particularly strong in fashion and design, the latter of which includes progressive home furnishings. Brian Mertens’ spiffy coffee table book, Bangkok: Thai Ideas in […]
Read the rest of this entry »‘Pilgrimage,’ a short story by Steve Rosse
Note: this is a short story from Steve Rosse’s new book, She Kept the Bar Between Them. Read the WoWasis review of the book here. Pilgrimage The lights of Bangkok’s skyline slid up the taxi’s windscreen like a meteor shower in reverse. Murray’s eyes felt cleansed by the sight of it. The sound of the […]
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