The Bangkok Asset by John Burdett

 

The latest in a series that started for me with Bangkok 8 a few years back.  That pseudo-noir novel wowed me then and the author still awes me today.

This novel gives the reader a fascinating glimpse into a murder detective’s view of the corrupt world of Thailand.  The main interaction is with the PRC who have picked up where the CIA left off with the MKUltra project.

Amazingly modern and up to date and yet the noir detective genre sets as well in Bangkok as it does in Berlin or Los Angeles.

Like a fine meal, there are hints of William Gibson’s interest in slightly futuristic technology, but the overall flavour is refreshingly Thai. 

There are very few Americans or Eastern bloc agents until the end.  It’s mostly oriental except written in English; and thus you can’t get it published unless there are a few Brits and Americans. 

Great drugs, sex and corruption are an expected reality of modern life and thus hinted at but never depicted in detail.  There’s violence, of course, in great detail.

It’s mostly fast-paced action developing a Buddhist plot line (?)

 

 

The Lady from Zagreb by Philip Kerr

Oh, those lips; oh!, those eyes.  You just know she’s going to do him wrong.

Who?, Bernie Gunther, of course.

Bernie’s a private shamus in the noir mold of Chandler and my more recent favorite, Robert Parker.  Except it’s 1943 and he’s been co-opted by the Nazis to work for an SS General.

This is now the tenth book in The Berlin Noir series, and it’s Kerr’s best yet: hefty at 400+ pages, and Kerr is now showing mastery of the noir genre.

 

One Summer by Bill Bryson

I love Bill Bryson’s writing.

It’s his dry, sarcastic wit that I enjoy so much;  I think I grew to enjoy his style while living in England.

If Bryson were to write more history books, enough to be used in K-12 schools, America’s children would get a 50-point bump in history, geography, politics and literature scores on what-ever testing they’re using these days.

This is a pure joy, even at 500 pages with full sources, bibliography and index.

 

Euphoria by Lily King

This is a great fun read about the end of an era of anthropological discovery (European Empires 1890-1940).  The Brits and other empires claimed academic ownership rights to the myriad peoples of the Earth, never before exposed to the rest of the “known-world”. 

It’s comical, poking fun at the British mostly, but also Americans and Aussies.  I am thoroughly enjoying the book.  I feel a little “bait-and-switched”, the book being touted as a Margaret Mead biography; then again, how can one expect a biography in 200 pages with large print.?

So, let us not go to that level; the book never does.  I mean there are a lot of geographical references, so many in fact, that you’d have to have a detailed map of the area, and the time to plot the scenes of action.  But no one, unless a professional anthropologist, would read and plot maps.  It is at the superficial level that this book is a funny, sometimes incisive read.

All the talk of Cambridge reminds me pleasantly about Smiley’s People, Alec Guinness, Oxford Dons, and good times in England.  So, what makes this book fun, and readable, is the relationships between the three scientists:  Bankson, Nell, and Fen.  For such a short book, it’s amazingly fulfilling and delicious, a gourmet meal in text, a hearty main course of anthropological ideas, spiced up with everyone’s sexual proclivities, and served with a salad of exotic international adventures.

I can’t wait for the movie.

 

The Invention of Wings by Sur Monk Kidd

This was a suggested possibility when our Sonoma Book Lovers Group was getting into Black History month this past spring. 

I’m don’t particularly like the book yet.  I’m about fifty pages into this 300-page novel.  I did like Kidd’s book on Bees, so I’ll keep going, but at a slower pace.  .

We Are Pirates

A fun summer read – a bit silly at times, then again, a dark tale of misadventure; a totally believable story.  The author bases the action in San Francisco, which is always that much more interesting for Northern Californian readers. 

A media arts/radio broadcaster is trying to launch a nation-wide project, while his teenage daughter (14) is testing her separated parents, and herself with a crazy scheme to become a pirate(s) with some friends. 

It’s still silly and doesn’t cross the line, even midstream when the father is having it off with his new secretary in L.A. while pitching his new show.

It does cross the line, for me, when the kids go piratanical.  Murder does not cross my line; many people commit this crime with varieties of reasons.  Mayhem crosses my line.  It involves controlled passion, not a fit of … ..

Mayhem is evil, inexcusable.  As in the old testament, the righteous judgement is an eye for an eye; an arm for an arm.  The kids go beyond mayhem,

And the book ends without judgement.

The Elephant's Journey

 

This book is written in the “Cervantes” tradition.  It’s a quixotic adventure story.  There are long, rambling explanations, with many side commentaries.  But I assure you, it is not boring.  You read with pleasure and a smile on your face.

The Road to Character

An excellent non-fiction book.  I think David Brooks is slowly, over time, becoming a liberal Democrat as he ages.  This is a philosophical/sociological book reviewing the struggle people go through, between making their place in the world, and finding themselves in the world.  He posits that we change goals as we grow older. 

Initially the drive is strongest to find a career, a partner, create children.  But as we achieve those goals, we move on to doing good, becoming more moral, searching for and establishing our legacy.