Recent Book Recommendations - March 2010

Gonna be zipping out of town for a little while in a week or two, need to stock up on some English language books from Page One, Eslite, and the (useless) airport mall, anyone have suggestions on what they’ve been reading lately that’s any good, or warnings of suckiness?

Just a few I’ve read the past few months:

Good

All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) - well written and easy to read, quick, fairly intense and graphic, definitely a classic, and Remarque has an interesting backstory on wikipedia

Fever Pitch and High Fidelity (Nick Hornby) - very easy reads, the guy writes in a very enjoyable common man tone, and he does justice to rabid english football fans and obscure music lovers in these books, not long and time flies when you’re reading them

Gould’s Book of Fish (Flanagan) - Tasmanian author writing about a fictional Tasmanian penal outpost a couple hundred years ago, it takes a little work to read it and it can be raw and nasty like life probably was back then for most people, but it’s a very interesting concept and the story can be witty and insightful

The Mezzanine (Baker) - this guy writes with very strange viewpoints, he also wrote a really good book called Vox that was all about a single phone sex call, and the Fermata about a guy who can stop time and basically does pervy things, this one is nominally about one trip up an escalator in his office, but it is cleverly written about all the things that go on in this guy’s everyday life, and it can be very funny and extremely insightful - and it’s short

Not So Good

J-Pod - somewhat original writing style in the form of e-mails and memos and things between workers in a microsoft like company making video games on the west coast of the USA, but doesn’t come off very funny or witty most of the time, and it can be choppy, not really worth the reading

The Increment (Ignatius) - great reviews from respected newspapers, i think the author is an editor at newsweek or something, its a spy/special forces novel of Iran, sometimes very clever and feels like you’re learning inside info about how things work, but not very rewarding for all the reading

“the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon. Just re-read it. First-person autism at it’s finest. :thumbsup:

Absolutely agree, what a writer, I loved it so much I read his book A Spot of Bother, which I thought was well-written but not nearly as interesting or enjoyable.

Gotta be something else good people are reading, I have a hard time believing that Taiwan is also the black hole of quality western book readers…

OUT

and GROTESQUE

both by Natsuo Kirino.

Great Japanese weirdness. No ghosts. Just people FUBAR.

Man, that’s weird. You kick off a new thread on books with the title including the date, March 2010 and then mention Erich Maria Remarque! :laughing:

Actually, I doubt you will find this in Taipei, but the kind of sequel to All quiet, The Road Back is equally good.

This one is in the HK airport bookshops, at least, and certainly in Bangkok. The fourth in a mad series of great page turning crime fiction is The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett. There’s way too much dross out there from foreigners desperate to keep themselves ticking over in Thailand, but Burdett’s in a league all of his own. The use of his Thai cop, Det Sonchai Jitpleecheep as narrator is brilliant.

You certainly don’t have to read them in order, but the series starts with Bangkok 8, then Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts and The Godfather of Kathmandu.

HG

Excellent, I haven’t read a decent Japanese one since ahhhh Battle Royale (book 4 stars if you don’t mind reading about high school students hunting and murdering one another, movie version of said book = horribilis maximus), I’ll add these to the List, thanks, man

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Man, that’s weird. You kick off a new thread on books with the title including the date, March 2010 and then mention Erick Maria Remarque! :laughing:

Actually, I doubt you will find this in Taipei, but the kind of sequel to All quiet, The road back is equally good.

This one is in the HK airport bookshops, at least, and certainly in Bangkok. The fourth in a mad series of great page turning crime fictions is The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett. There’s way too much dross out there from foreigners desperate to keep themselves ticking over in Thailand, but Burdett’s in a league all of his own. The use of his Thai cop, Det Sonchai Jitpleecheep as narrator is brilliant.

You certainly don’t have to read them in order, but the series starts with Bangkok 8, then Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts and The Godfather of Kathmandu.

HG[/quote]

I’ve read the first three of Burdett’s books (the image that sticks in my mind the most is of the prostitutes in his mom’s bar opening for business and standing in a row and sliding a giant siwaleung between their legs to pray for good business), but not the latest - I thought the first was best and they went a little downhill from there, but still definitely readable, I’ll try his new one, thanks!

In the Asian “realism” vain, I read The Quiet American last year - brilliant man, just brilliant - and The Harmony Silk Factory (Tash Aw) which was interesting and readable, but not quite enthralling

BR was ok. The movie was OK.

Anything by Ryu Murakami is also good for plane/boat/bus rides or hotel balconies with a stiff drink.

69

or IN the MIso Soup. :lick:

Oh shit man I forgot about Murakami - I read two of his books and haven’t totally recovered yet - those books take some getting used to and require a little work I’d say

[edit] wait, wrong guy - I read 2 books from a Japanese author who wrote these surreal books - I wanna say one was about a guy investigating his wife being taken to a weird hospital on a cliff…
[edit2] OK his name is Kobo Abe, they were pushing a bunch of his books at Page One 2 years ago, very strange things, man

But that Battle Royale movie was pure crap, just terrible acting, I couldn’t make it all the way through, and that’s rare - I think it might even have had that girl who had the spiky mace thingy in Kill Bill

[quote=“TwoTongues”]Oh shit man I forgot about Murakami - I read two of his books and haven’t totally recovered yet - those books take some getting used to and require a little work I’d say

But that Battle Royale movie was pure crap, just terrible acting, I couldn’t make it all the way through, and that’s rare - I think it might even have had that girl who had the spiky mace thingy in Kill Bill[/quote]
I was waiting for nudity…made it through the whole thing.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Man, that’s weird. You kick off a new thread on books with the title including the date, March 2010 and then mention Erich Maria Remarque! :laughing:

Actually, I doubt you will find this in Taipei, but the kind of sequel to All quiet, The Road Back is equally good.

This one is in the HK airport bookshops, at least, and certainly in Bangkok. The fourth in a mad series of great page turning crime fiction is The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett. There’s way too much dross out there from foreigners desperate to keep themselves ticking over in Thailand, but Burdett’s in a league all of his own. The use of his Thai cop, Det Sonchai Jitpleecheep as narrator is brilliant.

You certainly don’t have to read them in order, but the series starts with Bangkok 8, then Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts and The Godfather of Kathmandu.

HG[/quote]

Great to know. I’ve read the three “Bangkok” ones but didn’t know about Kathmandu.

I sheepishly admit that I read The Time Traveler’s Wife last year on vaca…and uhm…it was very good.

Also, on the same trip…The beginning of the Hannibal Lector story prequel book…the title slips me…also, not bad as vacabooks go.

I know it’s kind of cliche, but everyone should read some David Foster Wallace. I wouldn’t start with his novels though, which are undoubtedly masterpieces but can be very daunting reads, frankly. Try his collections of short fiction or essays instead, which are pretty much catnip for the over-educated, over-thinking, pomo set. If you liked “the Mezzanine,” he’s kind of a bleaker, more self-serious Nicholson Baker.

As a teaser, the first page of “The Devil is a Busy Man” from “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men:”