What are you reading right now?

[caller]

Private Dancer, sadly, has been around in book form for ages. Its almost achieved cult status in LOS amongst certain expats. So I read it. What a piece of bilge! The missus enjoyed it though and its become a bit of an in-joke from her to me ever since.

The strange thing about Stephen Leather is that a lot of his books are now widely available in the UK, but not those based in Thailand such as PD, apart from in Thai shops. That must say something I guess?

Thailand fever is a strange title for a very americanised view of west/Thai relationships with each page printed twice, once in English and the other in Thai, explaining his/her culteral differences and perspectives. The idea being that both the farang and Thai (female) partner read it to help understand one another. Its actually very helpful, although I had to keep saying, "its not quite like that in the UK". Its a book I would recommend if the scenario applies to you.

I'm just about to start state of the union by Douglas Kennedy. I like his books. If you don't know, he's an american living in London who writes fiction mainly from an american woman's perspective! Strangly absorbing.

[bradders]

Many thanks for your prompt reply to my post Caller - much appreciated!!

bradders

[Guess]

Hi HHS

Will you kindly advise if "Private Dancer" has now been published?

Version 2 now but maybe only available in this region.

http://www.dco.co.th/product_info.php?products_id=528

ISBN 9749275535

[bradders]

Many thanks Guess for the link!

I would order a copy but I have my doubts it would get through customs here!!

I'll have to be patient and purchase a copy when I visit HH in January - hopefully!!

Look forward to meeting some of you guys & gals then!!

bradders

[DawnHRD]

I downloaded it straight from the net (legally), but still haven't read it. I somehow can't get into the idea of reading books from my computer screen - seems somehow sacriligeous.

If I can find the link, I'll post it for you, bradders.

I liked Thailand Fever, Caller. It was very useful when I was with my BF (if a little topsy turvy, as written for farang male/Thai female, not the other way around). I didn't find it too Americanised, but I suppose if you're taking your wife to live in your country, it would be.

[DawnHRD]

Just checked. Seemingly you can't download the whole book any more, but some of it can be downloaded here:

http://www.stephenleather.com/unpub.html

[lomuamart]

Well, after 6 weeks or so, I've finally finished "Lord Jim" - Joseph Conrad. For me, it was a bit of a special book. Very difficult to read, but other than his "cowardly act", Tuan Jim was a man who tried to make the world a better place.
A "must read" for ex-pats everywhere, IMHO.

[GLCQuantum]

Have just finished reading the book 'A Time To Kill'.

I highly recommend it - 10/10 for me. The same writer wrote 'The Firm' which I haven't read yet. The guy has worked in law for many years and the book gives a great insight (to the dummies like me) of how the court system works.

Its a shocking story with some difficult reading at points but... if you haven't read it yet - GO AND GET IT!

[dtaai-maai]

Have just finished reading the book 'A Time To Kill'.

I highly recommend it - 10/10 for me. The same writer wrote 'The Firm' which I haven't read yet. The guy has worked in law for many years and the book gives a great insight (to the dummies like me) of how the court system works.

Its a shocking story with some difficult reading at points but... if you haven't read it yet - GO AND GET IT!

Great insight into the US court system, maybe, but it must be cracking on for 30 years old by now. Yes, Grisham broke the mould with his popular law-based novels, but you've got some catching up to do, GLCQ!

[moja]

Have just finished reading the book 'A Time To Kill'.

I highly recommend it - 10/10 for me. The same writer wrote 'The Firm' which I haven't read yet. The guy has worked in law for many years and the book gives a great insight (to the dummies like me) of how the court system works.

Its a shocking story with some difficult reading at points but... if you haven't read it yet - GO AND GET IT!

Great insight into the US court system, maybe, but it must be cracking on for 30 years old by now. Yes, Grisham broke the mould with his popular law-based novels, but you've got some catching up to do, GLCQ!

Slight exaggeration there Dtaai-Maai it was published in 1989 and was in fact John Grisham's first book although it was not until after The Firm was published that he got any recognition. Used to like his books but have gone off them now.

[lomuamart]

Recently finished "Bangkok Free Fall" by Richard Stevenson. IMO, a pile of pap concerning a gay American private investigator who's sent over here to track down a dollar millionaire who's gone awol. Lots of politics, lots of Buddhist philosophy and plenty of the lurid gay scene in BKK. And Hua Hin gets a chapter or two. Pap.
Started on "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev to purge myself after the aforementioned pap and it's proving to be a reasonable read and not as difficult as I thought it might be. That last comment was based on the author's name (it's going to be heavy, heavy, heavy) rather than any personal experience of his works.
Another long-running project is "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes. That's a terrific historical account of the founding of Australia by convict transportation. Absolutely fascinating and thankfully a book that I can put down for a week or so and get right back into again when I feel like it. I'd heard of the cat 'o' nine tails at school but you've got to read the book to really get a true sense of what 50 lashe with that was like - let alone 500. It just flayed you alive - sometimes dead. Norfolk Island? Never even knew that it existed but if you were unlucky enough to be given secondary transportation there and survived you would never forget the regime. Same goes for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). That was brutal as well.
However, there were actually some enlightened Governors who brought the "ticket to leave" system in so a convict could decide whether they wanted to return to Blighty after their sentences or remain in Australia with government granted land and make a go of it as free people. The latter made Australia.
Prisons? Who needed them? Any convict who was mad enough to try and escape inland from Sydney never lasted more than three days without aboriginal help and none of them had any idea about sea navigation. The continent was their prison. A great book that I will finish at the next sitting.
Oh yes. Botany Bay was just a con. The pro transportation brigade in Georgian England made it out to be the best place to start a colony from after Cook's discovery. The harbour offered little protection for the fleets against potential French forces, the land was pretty barren and fresh water very difficult to find. So, the first settlers found Port Jackson that later became the entrance to Sydney. And Norfolk Island that was supposed to supply timber for masts (it proved to be the wrong kind) and flax to make sails (only enough was produced to equip one naval vessel during the years it was colonised) were also a red herring. Prisoners were brutalised there and as it's 1,000 miles off the east coast of Australia it took quite a while for news of the barbarities to reach Sydney and return. The bloke who ran the island during its worst years was hauled back to the mainland and sent back to England where he wasn't court-marshalled but lived to a ripe old age in riches but relative obscurity. I'll stop there before I re-write all 600 pages.

[moja]

[quote="lomuamart"]Recently finished "Bangkok Free Fall" by Richard Stevenson. IMO, a pile of pap concerning a gay American private investigator who's sent over here to track down a dollar millionaire who's gone awol. Lots of politics, lots of Buddhist philosophy and plenty of the lurid gay scene in BKK. And Hua Hin gets a chapter or two. Pap.


Could not agree more!

[poosmate]

The Fatal Shore. Sounds worth a look..............available free here:http://ebook30.com/novel/novel/376484/r ... shore.html

[caller]

Well I've just finished another biography of Phil Ochs by Michael Schumacher (not that one), which I had to order from the States. The guy's life and music seems to hold an endless appeal over me.

There can't be many singers around who, once a contemporary and friend of Dylan, sang a song about his late brother to Bobby Kennedy, on a flight to NY, Just after Kennedy had come out against the Vietnam war (and in effect, his brother), who ended up pretty much as a vagrant, before eventually taking his own life.

So to buck the mood, I'm now into 'Field Grey' by Philip Kerr, the latest in the Bernie Gunther series of historical crime novels. The 1st two chapters have me completely hooked, as expected. Well worth exploring.

[dtaai-maai]

Absolutely fascinating and thankfully a book that I can put down for a week or so and get right back into again when I feel like it.

And in that same intermittent fashion I'm reading a couple of books - one is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, a historical novel describing the rise of Thomas Cromwell from vagabond to Henry VIII's most powerful courtier (until his head was removed).

The other is also historical, but not a novel, although it's written in a very accessible style: Mayflower, A Voyage to War by Nathaniel Philbrick, an account of the first settlements in New England. Very interesting for someone whose education only mentioned the subject in passing, but probably quite informative for many Americans too.

I avoid anything with Bangkok in the title like the plague - invariably a poxy pile of poopy pants.