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TWI Books: #28
This week involved lots of things: translating, cleaning, watching the news, being kicked out of the kitchen (and hence off of my computer), being outside, and writing. I thus only managed three volumes this week.
1) Love And Death In Kathmandu - Amy Willesee & Mark Whittaker
This book started off quite dodgily. It had its impetus when husband-and-wife author team decided to head to Nepal to investigate the mass murder of the royal family by the deranged crown prince. The couple knew next to nothing about the country, its customs, or its history, and the opening chapters are written in breathless, Insider Edition-esque tabloid prose that I found very off-putting. Luckily, the authors quickly changed their tone and the book became a quite readable (though scattered) history not just of the murders, but of Nepalese history, religion, customs, and the continuing civil war between the royal-civilian government and the Maoist rebels. All this background information is enjoyable in and of itself, so the abrupt shift from general history/expose of the ruling family to the night of the murders and their aftermath seems magnified because of it. Love And Death In Kathmandu is a pretty good book overall, especially given the fact that its authors are neither historians nor students of Nepal. It does suffer from a few flaws such as W&W's penchant for incomplete sentences and incorrect use of the word "nor," but it's till very much worth reading.
2) Eye Scream - Henry Rollins
My fifteen-year-old self would probably have worshipped this book. Unfortunately, my current incarnation found it unrelentingly bleak (and at times downright tedious because of it). I rather hope that it isn't as autobiographical as I fear it is. If it is, it will be difficult for me to keep liking Rollins as much, regardless of his bravery(?) in "telling it like it is," which seems to be the book's big selling point, at least among amazon.com reviewers. Eye Scream ultimately lacks the humor or cutting commentary of Rollins' other writings (Roomitarian), or the openly honest autobiography of Get In The Van. I have a feeling I'll be putting this one up for mooch the next time I'm running low on points.
3) Nixon And Mao - Margaret MacMillan
This excellent book is ostensibly a history of Nixon's historic first visit to Cold War-era China in 1972. It's actually much more than that. MacMillan devots a good portion of the work to background histories of not only Nixon and Mao, but Kissenger, Zhou, and others besides. She also deals with other major contemporary events and the respective concerns of the two nations, giving readers a complete background picture to the drafting of the Shanghai Communique. MacMillan's prose is clear and direct, but she doesn't oversimplify and her stance is remarkably objective. The New York Times critisized the book for not being revelatory enough, but that's beside the point. Nixon And Mao is a lucid and informative book about the opening of China.
SBS: Climbing to a record height of 82 this week. To be fair, most of those books are mooches, which means that the actual number of books in my possession hasn't increased, I've just read fewer of them.
That will be all.
1) Love And Death In Kathmandu - Amy Willesee & Mark Whittaker
This book started off quite dodgily. It had its impetus when husband-and-wife author team decided to head to Nepal to investigate the mass murder of the royal family by the deranged crown prince. The couple knew next to nothing about the country, its customs, or its history, and the opening chapters are written in breathless, Insider Edition-esque tabloid prose that I found very off-putting. Luckily, the authors quickly changed their tone and the book became a quite readable (though scattered) history not just of the murders, but of Nepalese history, religion, customs, and the continuing civil war between the royal-civilian government and the Maoist rebels. All this background information is enjoyable in and of itself, so the abrupt shift from general history/expose of the ruling family to the night of the murders and their aftermath seems magnified because of it. Love And Death In Kathmandu is a pretty good book overall, especially given the fact that its authors are neither historians nor students of Nepal. It does suffer from a few flaws such as W&W's penchant for incomplete sentences and incorrect use of the word "nor," but it's till very much worth reading.
2) Eye Scream - Henry Rollins
My fifteen-year-old self would probably have worshipped this book. Unfortunately, my current incarnation found it unrelentingly bleak (and at times downright tedious because of it). I rather hope that it isn't as autobiographical as I fear it is. If it is, it will be difficult for me to keep liking Rollins as much, regardless of his bravery(?) in "telling it like it is," which seems to be the book's big selling point, at least among amazon.com reviewers. Eye Scream ultimately lacks the humor or cutting commentary of Rollins' other writings (Roomitarian), or the openly honest autobiography of Get In The Van. I have a feeling I'll be putting this one up for mooch the next time I'm running low on points.
3) Nixon And Mao - Margaret MacMillan
This excellent book is ostensibly a history of Nixon's historic first visit to Cold War-era China in 1972. It's actually much more than that. MacMillan devots a good portion of the work to background histories of not only Nixon and Mao, but Kissenger, Zhou, and others besides. She also deals with other major contemporary events and the respective concerns of the two nations, giving readers a complete background picture to the drafting of the Shanghai Communique. MacMillan's prose is clear and direct, but she doesn't oversimplify and her stance is remarkably objective. The New York Times critisized the book for not being revelatory enough, but that's beside the point. Nixon And Mao is a lucid and informative book about the opening of China.
SBS: Climbing to a record height of 82 this week. To be fair, most of those books are mooches, which means that the actual number of books in my possession hasn't increased, I've just read fewer of them.
That will be all.