The Prince of Peace — A Novel of Love and War Resistance
On a long train ride from Los Angeles to Oakland recently I was able to take up the recommendation of …
Category Archives: Books
No Man’s Land: A Novel from Vietnam by Duong Thu Huong
I couldn’t have been more surprised when our guide in Hanoi, a Vietnamese Catholic, mentioned offhandedly that some soldiers coming …
Behind the Red Mist — Fiction from Vietnam
I first encountered Ho Anh Thai’s fiction at it’s fantastical best in the wonderful Whereabouts volume of Vietnam: A Traveller’s …
Chinese Cooking
I had a Chinese girlfriend once. Her mother was an opera singer – of the other kind. She always seemed …
A Poem — to Focus in My Distraction
While I’m struggling to think through my five week trip through Southeast Asia, and not having it rise in the …
To A Very Young Lady, Separated — A Poem, Jaime Gil de Biedma
To A Very Young Lady, Separated In the year since you married, sweet beautiful breasts, you have found the fruits …
Reading Vietnam
Packed with my travel duffle for a 5 week trip to South East Asia is one of the indispensable series of books …
Confucius: Reading the Secular Among the Buddhists
For some reason, heading out for a 5 week trip to South East Asia, I retrieved my 1972 copy of …
Did Gifted Generals Win the War?
Andrew Bacevich, former colonel in the US Army, and now professor of International Relations at Boston University reviews two books …
Literary Festival in Rangoon
I would think that many, especially the young, would be dizzy with excitement in the ‘new’ Burma/Myanmar. After decades of …
The Good Soldier Švejk — Anarchic Humor Against War
Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk, ‘a certified idiot,’ tickles us into an anti-war, anti-militarism, anti-bureaucracy mood the more we read. Unlike …
Easter Island: Object Lesson — but in What?
Last week at one of Long Now Foundation’s ongoing, and always interesting, seminars two archaeologists, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo, presented evidence …