I haven’t read that one but I did read another one of Leather’s a long time ago. A couple of guys from America come to Bangkok to investigate a murder and ogle the bar scene. It was OK. Like you said an easy pop-novel read. Private Dancer was his first, I believe, and he continued to crank out more of the same, i.e., if you’ve read one you’ve read them all kind of authors.
John Burdett also wrote a few Thai mysteries. I think Bangkok 8 maybe the most popular. Book: Bankok 8
Lost In Pattaya
by
Kishore Modak
Much better story than it appears and with multiple surprise twists.
I’m planning another Thailand trip so trying to find and read fiction about Thailand to get in the mood.
Unfortunately a LOT of the books about Thailand are sh@t stories and sh@ttier writing about bar life.
At 176 pages, a short, informative read.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Times
"A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism… clear-sighted and fearless.”—John Simpson, The Guardian • “Especially timely.”—The Washington Post
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don’t stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan’s essay calling for “containment” of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.
—_____________________________ _____________
A short section mentions Taiwan. I don’t recall this incident; it must not have made many headlines outside of east Asia.
1 Like
My Man Jeeves
By
P.G. Wodehouse
Quite fun light clean humor from the 1920s. Immediately started #2 in the series.
2 Likes
My Year in Books 2024
- 54 novels
- ~15 short story collections
- DNF 21 novels
5 Likes
Currently two novels, The Hunter (Tana French) and The Dark Wind (Tony Hillerman). The latter is a reread; last time I read a Chee novel was back in the 90s. A Dark Wind (a US television series on AMC that is sadly uneven but ok) caused the revisit. I just finished Hillerman’s People of Darkness.
Both authors are terrific.
1 Like
I read TF a few years back. Spit the hook right out.
Why is that?
I’m going to go with I didn’t like the writing, or the words she used and how she strung them together.
Book was In The Woods.
IIRC, I thought it was tone deaf, but who knows? Just not my cuppa tea maybe.
The Hunter is a mystery thriller set in rural Ireland. The protagonist is a burnt out, retired Chicago detective who’s lived in this village for just a couple years. The title is, I think, the antihero, a poor 15yo girl, nearly feral, who’s become the informal ward of the cop and whose real family are all black sheep in the village. Her pa returns (he’s abandoned his family) with an Englishman in tow who spins a yarn about hidden gold somewhere in the countryside and wants help finding it.
The mystery is what she’s up to (revenge for one), the thriller is watching her match wits with tribal Irish adults. Stakes are high.
I like it. French is a good storyteller.
Funny how that happens. I did not concur, yet I may give her a second look should her work cross my path. I recognize that was not who I am now when I was something else then.
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Sad to hear dark winds show isn’t great. I was really curious about watching it
Yeah it had so much promise, too. Great cast. It’s not terrible, though. It’s like you said, not great. Unfortunately.
I was at the very, very, beginning of a book called Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans, by Richard Campanella, but I’ve paused for a couple of weeks or more. I was in the part entitled “Timeline,” subtitled Historical events of geographical significance in the New Orleans area.
So far it hasn’t been a difficult read (knock wood). I hope I get back into it, because to me, it seems worth reading.
The Inimitable Jeeves
by
P.G. Wodehouse
Another fun read finished. #2 in the Jeeves series.
Carmilla
By
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
In 1872
3/5
Austria, simple Gothic short story
1 Like