Book Reviews and Suggested Reading Archive

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	Book Review: Tales of Judge Dee by Zhu Xiao Di Combining the skills of Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Fiorello La Guardia, Judge Dee began solving cases thirteen hundred years ago, and he is still going strong today. Zhu Xiao Di brings the judge back to life again, in an extremely entertaining and enlightening volume. A New Year's List of Books on Strategy and Leadership Check out this New Year's list of books on strategy and leadership. We believe these books should be in the library of everyone who is interested in the Asian strategic mind. Locked Passion of a Free Spirit This thoroughly engaging memoir tells the story of Fabiola Pon, an incurably shy Chinese girl who was born and raised in South Africa, where she was surrounded by ethnic and racial segregation. The Tao of Pooh The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh! ... in which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese ... or a venerable philosopher ... but is in fact none other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear, A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh (as was on the back cover of the book). Burmese Daze: Traveling with a Literary Companion Burmese Days was George Orwell's first novel, published seven years after the author had completed five years as an Imperial Indian policeman in Burma. There was little wonder when I noticed, among the few titles in English in a Rangoon bookstore, several copies of a well-done facsimile of the edition of Burmese Days I was carrying during my travels in Burma. Orwell, the perfect spokesman against the perfidy of foreign intruders, was now on the approved list of the masters of an indigenous imperialism. Li-Young Lee: The Poem within the Poet Chicago-based poet Li-Young Lee considers his poetry and his world to be synonymous. In fact, the same thought process and tools Lee used throughout his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to answer life's greatest dilemmas are the same processes and tools he utilizes to write poetry. Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China Discover the history of martial arts from its believed roots in the Mesopotamia to its spread to India, China, and the other Asian countries. The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee Learn about the history of China, Chinese law and procedure (including torture and punishment) and Chinese society in general through a selection of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An) mysteries. The Chinese today consider him their "master detective," as popular as Sherlock Holmes is to us.
	Reading Recommendations from the Japan America Society A list of fiction and non-fiction about Japan, including a collection of short stories, the inner workings of a Japanese family, the exotic world of a geisha, and the Japanese economy.
	Sadako and the Thousand Cranes The true and courageous story of a Japanese girl called Sadako. She developed leukemia from the effects of radiation after the atom bombing of Hiroshima. After she remembers the Japanese legend saying that anyone folding a thousand paper cranes is granted a wish, she sets out to accomplish this task.
	Novels by Asian-American Writers A new crop of Chinese-American fiction writers has emerged onto the literary scene. We give you a sample of some of their works, most are available at your local library.
	In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Set in 1947, the story of Shirley Temple Wong who, with her family, leaves her native, ancestral home in China and sails off to a new life in Brooklyn. Making friends in this strange new world is very difficult for Shirley, until she discovers baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers and a wonderful hero and role model in Jackie Robinson.
	Japan America Society Authors' Series A collection of books from the Japan America Society of Southern California Authors' Series.
	Shou The mystery suspense novel, Shou, by authors Deborah and Joel Shlian that takes readers to locales they might not ordinarily get to see, including the Far East, China, Korea, and Hong Kong.
	Sun Tzu's The Art of War: The Classic Book for All Seasons The Art of War, a 2500-years old Chinese handbook of strategy and tactics, provides thought-provoking, turn-of-the millennium guidelines for those competing in the speed-driven global marketplace.
	Samurai History and Culture: Featured Books by Romulus Hillsborough The founder of Japan's first modern corporation was a swaggering swordsman who packed a Smith and Wesson, an outlaw who led a band of stalwart samurai to overthrow the shogun and one of the most colorful figures in Japanese history.

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