As always, Akashic Books crafts a brilliant anthology. Highly recommended for those wanting to explore Hong Kong’s dark underbelly. Continue reading Espresso Shots: Hong Kong Noir, edited by Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason
Jim Marrs takes us on a wild ride into secret societies, Nazi wonder weapons, and why the Council of Foreign Relations is responsible for every bad thing ever. Continue reading American Odd: The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America, by Jim Marrs
“Hunting with Eagles” by Palani Mohan offers a rare glimpse into a vanishing way of life captured by a photojournalist nomad. Continue reading Hunting with Eagles: In the Realm of the Mongolian Kazakhs by Palani Mohan @ NYJB
This week I review “A Kingdom in Crisis,” by Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a fearless expose of Thailand’s corrupt politics and looming succession crisis. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: A Kingdom in Crisis, by Andrew MacGregor Marshall
This week I review “Singapore Noir,” edited by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, about the dreamers, desperation, and bad decisions that make up the noir genre in a city with no crime. This is good crime fiction, lah. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Singapore Noir, edited by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
At the New York Journal of Books, I review On the Noodle Road, by Jen Lin-Liu, which is “. . . a fascinating exploration of some lesser-known corners of the Asian continent and a portrait of a marriage under extreme circumstances . . .” Continue reading On the Noodle Road, by Jen Lin-Liu @ NYJB
This week at CCLaP, Karl Wolff reviews “The Cage” by Gordon Weiss, a former UN worker who writes about the human rights disaster of Sri Lanka in its battle with the Tamil Tigers. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: The Cage, by Gordon Weiss
The final volume of Kissinger’s memoirs details his tenure in the Ford Administration, along with my analysis on our current foreign policy situation and what conservatism has become. Continue reading Years of Renewal (1999) by Henry Kissinger
A Cultural History of the Chinese Language by Sharron Gu attempts to provide a means for non-specialists to approach Chinese, not from the technical and scientific discipline of linguistics, but from the discipline of literary history. Continue reading A Cultural History of the Chinese Language, by Sharron Gu
The first part in a series dedicated to examining the science fiction and fantasy films from 1979 to 1989. The series will investigate whether these films possess certain ineffable qualities missing from today’s films of the same genres. Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin? Willard: I’m a soldier. Kurtz: You’re neither. You’re an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill. Why are we beginning a series devoted to the science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s with Apocalypse Now? Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Vietnam War film holds the … Continue reading 80sSFF: Apocalypse Now (1979) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
The Driftless Area Review 