BOOK REVIEWS

Off the shelf

Manote Tripati talks about an interesting book about Bangkok in this new online column.

Editing the word of God
A well-intentioned primer on Islam that's helpful to the uninitiated, but far too simplistic to convey....

A voyage through blessed Bhutan
The magic spell this high country casts on foreigners goes far beyond its handsome royalty. Here in words and....

When the smoke of battle clears
The poetic firepower of an epic novel about the Vietnam War is eventually overrun by Gothic melodrama

Lusty landlubbers set sail
Life is lived to the fullest in a tale of six young men's adventures on a 30,000-mile trip around the....

Turning 63 in March, Eric Clapton surveys his sober domestic bliss and recalls, amid poignancy and pain, the....

Richard Russo, the sage of upstate New York, explains six decades in a life that never graduated from high....

Teenagers in or out of love should make a date with this issue. It offers updates on all the entertainment....

A tribute to the tusker
As India's pachyderm population declines, there's a nostalgic yearning for the long-lost mystique of....
Plugging that brain drain
The Wisdom Paradox By Elkhonon Goldberg Published by Pocket Books, 2007 Available at Asian Books, Bt450
Meet Keller the lizard killer
More Living Thai Ways Part III By Michael Keller Published by Bangkok Books, 2006 Available at Asia Books,....
Contact Wounds
By Jonathan Kaplan Published by Picador, 2007 Available at Asia Books

A City of Contrasts
An art historian takes a long, hard look at the Venice of the East in a new cultural guide
'Dead' writer talking
Author Peter James, whose tales of a fictional British police detective sell in the millions, is quite at ease....
Creating a cop called Costa
David Hewson, in Bangkok to unveil not one but two new novels, says if you only write what you know,....
Grace and fun and freedom
In his second book on the subject, Brian Mertens remains effusive in his admiration for Thai art and design -....

Richard A Engelhardt
Background: Unesco regional adviser for culture in Asia and the Pacific and coauthor of the recently published....
John Whitehead
Background: director of the British Council in Thailand