I’ve had Man’s Search for Meaning on my TBR since a friend read and reviewed (on another platform), but as you know, my TBR is kind of unmanageable. But then The Orangutan Librarian talked about it in one of her recent posts and that motivated me into borrowing the book. I’m also linking to her… Read More Book Review: Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl
It’s been a while since I read a true crime book (I think) but I had Children of Darkness and Light on my TBR because I remember reading and enjoying Under the Banner of Heaven almost a decade ago (link to my Goodreads review because that review was from an even older blog!). Children of… Read More Book Review: Children of Darkness and Light by Lori Hellis
“What we may find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.” A long, long time ago, I had to read The Art of Travel for school. Expecting something on travelling, I remember feeling disappointed that it was more on the philosophy of travelling. But since I recently read The World… Read More Book Review: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
This post is a follow-up (of sorts) to my review of the book The New Tourist by Paige McClanahan. While The New Tourist took a broader look at the tourism industry, its impact, and how we view ourselves as tourists, The World in a Selfie takes an even broader look to consider what tourism says… Read More Book Review: The World in a Selfie by Marco D’Eramo
I first heard about Dr Gwen Adshead when she was the lecturer for the BBC’s Reith Lectures. Her four talks on the problem of violence were so insightful that after I immediately put a reservation for a copy of her book: The Devil You Know. For me, the book and the talks complemented each other.… Read More Book Review: The Devil You Know by Gwen Adshead
Hello friends! As you know, I’ve been tired lately, and I even talked about how I think I’ve piled too much on my plate. This is a bit of a recurrent topic for me, so I’ve been doing some reading on what I can do about it, and today I want to share five book… Read More Five Books That are Helping Me Slow Down and Refocus
After reading River Town, I decided to move on to another book about China – this one about the “return of religion after Mao” (according to the book’s subtitle). One thing I noticed in River Town was that while people didn’t like to criticise Mao Zedong overtly, they were rather willing to admit that he… Read More Book Review: The Souls of China by Ian Johnson
I had a business trip to Suzhou and Shanghai and was too ambitious about how much reading time I had, which is why I started River Town in China but finished it in Singapore. River Town is a memoir of Hessler’s two years in Fuling, a small town on the Yangtze river. Hessler was there… Read More Book Review: River Town by Peter Hessler
After listening to やさしい民俗学‘s series on the history of the kimono, I decided to read Kimono – A Modern History and brush up on my knowledge of the kimono. As the title indicates, this book is about the kimono from 1850 onwards, till about 2014 when the book was published. Split into six very long… Read More Book Review: Kimono – A Modern History by Terry Satsuki Milhaupt
While I was looking for books to borrow for my trip, I saw this and thought it would be a good fit. I might be going to the Near East and the Far East and yes, I am coming from Southeast Asia but all these countries have, in recent times, been heavily influenced by if… Read More Book Review: The Light of Asia by Christopher Harding