Just released by Penguin, U.K. Alex Kerr’s latest book Bangkok Found: Reflections on the City, now available only on Amazon.jp, Amazon U.K, and Book Depository, U.K. (free shipping world-wide). Stay posted for a talk with Alex about this book on an upcoming Books on Asia YouTube podcast where he visually walks us through some of the More…
Category: Blog
Alex Kerr’s new YouTube Channel: Secrets of Things
By Amy Chavez Alex Kerr once told me, in a previous interview, about his mentor David Kidd: “David was a genius of Asian aesthetics. He would put a group of snuff bottles or something on the table and say, ‘Now Alex, tell me what you see.’ Then we’d talk about it for hours and he’d More…
Excerpt—Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko
Gordon Vanstone hails from Victoria BC, Canada and has a Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser University. Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko is his first novel.
Excerpt—Taiwanese at Work
John Spiri traveled all over Taiwan interviewing people about their typical day of work.
Review—Pax Tokugawana: The Cultural Flowering of Japan 1603-1853
By Haga Tōru (Japan Library, 2021) Transl. Juliet Winters Carpenter Review by Cody Poulton Lightning— girdled by waves the islands of Japan This haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784) captures a snapshot of Japan in the Tokugawa era: isolated, peaceful, self-contained. The Tokugawa era (aka Edo period), which stretched from 1603 until its fall in 1868, More…
Deal—Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World
The highly rated Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World by Lesley Downer is now on sale for a limited time on US kindle (e-book) for $5.99 and Kindle Japan for 499 yen. (441 pages)
Excerpt—Japanese at Work
Spiri traveled all over Japan interviewing people about their typical day of work
Review—Things Remembered and Things Forgotten
A delightful book of short stories from Kyoko Nakajima, author of The Little House, and winner of the Naoki Prize
Recollections and our desire to remember things a certain way blur our reality and intrude on our ability to see the present clearly.
Translation Excerpt—Hayashi Fumiko’s “The Tryst”
About the Author Born in 1903, Hayashi Fumiko’s first notable literary work was Hōrōki (“Diary of a Vagabond”), an autobiographical novel describing her life of extreme poverty. Many of her stories focus on urban working-class life, a genre sometimes referred to as proletarian literature. Some important topics touched upon in her stories are free will, More…
Review—How Human is Human?: The View from Robotics Research
Androids are certainly tools to think with and one thing they make us think of is our own mortality.
The Other Ishiguro Review by Cody Poulton Last month in Books on Asia I reviewed Klara and the Sun and contrasted Kazuo Ishiguro with another author with the same surname. Well, here’s a book by the other Ishiguro, Hiroshi, who happens to make robots—and not just imagine them. Ishiguro Hiroshi is probably the most famous More…