Tag Archives: Asia

Asleep, by Banana Yoshimoto

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Thistle

Included in Asleep are three longer short stories by Banana Yoshimoto, translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich. Each in some way deal with sleep (whether physical or metaphorical). This is my first read by Yoshimoto, and I’m delighted to … Continue reading →

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The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Thistle

The Professor was once a brilliant mathematician, but an accident in 1975 left his short-term memory damaged. While he is able to clearly remember events prior to the accident, his memories since then are limited to the past 80 minutes. … Continue reading →

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A Passage to India, by EM Forster

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Thistle

This is such a difficult book to describe. It’s a sketch of the conflict between India and Britain, both in the overarching Britain-is-policing-India sort of way, and in a specific-individual sort of way. The two parallel each other. The main … Continue reading →

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Protected: Kampung Boy, by Lat

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Thistle

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Extras, by Scott Westerfeld

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Thistle

Extras is the fourth book in the Uglies trilogy. Yes, I did mean that. The dedication for Extras says, “To everyone who wrote me to reveal the secret definition of the word ‘trilogy.’” In other words, Westerfeld wrote this book … Continue reading →

Posted in 2009, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Sky Burial, by Xinran

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Thistle

This book was surprisingly captivating, interesting, and fast. I began to read it last night, and within an hour, I’d gone through the first quarter. The book is sort of a memoir-in-proxy. Xinran is a journalist, and in 1994 met … Continue reading →

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The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Thistle

Minor spoilers. Rather than post a plot summary of this book, I’d rather take you through my thoughts about the story as I went along. This book blew all my expectations out of the water, simply put. I expected to … Continue reading →

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Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden

Posted on November 16, 2008 by Thistle

All I can say is – wow. This book is utterly amazing. Considering it came out in the last decade or so, that’s really extravagant praise from me. Nearly every word was perfect (though I thought the “translater’s note” at … Continue reading →

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