Tag: book review
China’s Political Economy Under the Microscope
The “red swan” that gives this book its title refers to China’s Communist Party-state policy-making process, and is a play on the “black swan” of the induction fallacy, popularized […]
The Appalling Cost of Western Hubris
Given the vast literature on the Indochina wars, whether the French colonial conflict of 1945 to 1954 or the US war with North Vietnam of 1954 to 1975, it might […]
Books to Read
Along with the last decade’s global trend of liberal retreat and authoritarian ascent, and as authoritarian states — China and Russia in particular — vigorously try to expand their influence […]
[Book review] Charles Bukowski, the Outsider Genius of the American Literature
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness is a paperback collection of short stories written by Charles Bukowski published in 1972. Each story is based on first-person narration, […]
[Book review] The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Dragons, ghosts, and cooked racoons—they were the backbone of her existence, and the only attachment she had to the culture of her first-generation Chinese immigrant parents. By calling forth memories […]
[Book review] Identity in Hermann Hesse’s Novels
Demian is a semi-autobiographical story written by Hermann Hesse, published in 1919. The novel is set in Germany, in the decade preceding World War I, and tells of a troubled […]
[Book Review] President Duterte: How and Why?
Easy answers came fast on the heels of his May 2016 election, most putting him down for a fool or a tool. Two new books take a closer look […]
[Book Review] Charting China’s Contradictions
The vote by the Chinese National People’s Congress in March to abolish presidential term limits marked a dramatic, if unsurprising, step along President Xi Jinping’s path toward centralizing power. As […]
[Book Review] Questioning the Role of Women in the 19th Century
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen, Thomas Egerton, 1813 Set in rural England in the early 1800s, Pride and Prejudice is a novel of the Bennett family’s story. The family […]
[Book Rewiev] Charles Bukowski, the Outsider Genius of the American Literature
[Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness] Charles Bukowski, City Lights Publishers, 1972 Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness is a paperback collection of short […]