Interworld

#262
Title: Interworld
Authors: Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves
Publisher: Eos (HarperCollins)
Year: 2007
246 pages

A thin offering from Gaiman (of whom I expect better) and Reaves (whose work I'm not familiar with). It's reminiscent  of a second-tier Heinlein juvenile novel, down to the "Old Man" who is revered by all and whose mission everyone would sacrifice to carry out. The plot is enjoyable enough, though it will seem fairly derivative to most F&SF YA readers. Character development is weak and rushed, and some characters who seem important (like Nigel) simply disappear, and we learn about Binary but not enough to explain why we had to learn it.There is a little trouble with world building--for example, why wouldn't the crew of the Lacrimae Mundi know who/what Joey was (p. 40)? It's clear later that they know exactly where people like him fit into their world. More problematic is a bit of fabricated difficulty where Joey narrates that "I couldn't find the key that would let me go back to Base Town" (p. 170), though 14 pages before it "burned clear and bright in my mind" (p. 156) and by page 232 he knows it again, for no particular reason.

One is left with the overall impression that in its present incarnation, Interworld was not adequately edited to stand alone. It feels like an action-adventure opener that didn't warrant a sequel to fill in the gaps.

Jennifer Government

#261
Title: Jennifer Government
Author: Max Barry
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2003
333 pages

A book to read in the bathtub, or as I used to call it when I worked in hospitals, "night shift reading"--something to keep you awake, but easy to put down if there's a need for your services. Jennifer Government is science fiction even if you find it shelved as literature. It's a fast read, entertaining enough, light on characterization and plot. When I say "light on plot," I mean that although events unfold and resolve, the reader is left with a sense of hollowness and many questions. Jennifer's tattoo, for example, poses a question that is answered but not well enough to justify its existence except as a flourish. Since much of William Gibson's oeuvre takes on corporations and their power, one might do better to look there instead for a more satisfying and complex exploration of these issues.

A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

#254
Title: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
Author: Stephen Levine
Publisher: Bell Tower
Year: 1997
192 pages

Audiobook: here.
I usually like Levine's work so I was disappointed with this rather weak offering. Composed more of exhortations and pronouncements about the qualities and meaning he ascribes to dying (but states as reality) than of activities and practices for a "one year to live" exploration, it lacked the intellectual rigor and logic that the Buddhist texts demonstrate. It was disorganized, and though at times I found it interesting, I primarily found it annoying. I do not believe in the continued existence of consciousness or a soul after death, so many of Levine's comments were jarring, especially as he referenced atheism fairly positively. What I take from Levine is that I am incorrect or somehow not ready for death (though Levine's version of getting ready seems to be less about learning to be in the here and now rather than living in fear, and more about being ready for a post-death journey of transformation). It is certainly his prerogative to hold whatever view he holds, but sermonizing about the character of the afterlife is not convincing when supported by neither logic nor evidence. Many Buddhist writers manage this elegantly.
In the audiobook version, Levine pauses ponderously (even when playback is sped up) in a manner that took me out of contemplation rather than into it.

In Our Village: Kambi ya Simba Through the Eyes of Its Youth

#259
Title: In Our Village: Kambi ya Simba Through the Eyes of Its Youth
Editor: Barbara Cervone
Publisher: Next Generation Press
Year: 2006
Country: Tanzania (not my first)
82 pages

In photos, text, and interviews with local adults, the youth of Kambi ya Simba ("Lion's Camp"), Tanzania describe their lives. Published by Next Generation Press, this charming and informative book ought to make readers immediately fantasize about what the teenagers in their lives could produce and what they would have to say, if only they had the invitation and the forum. A nice introduction to village life in Tanzania, and also a terrific stimulus for discussions about youth competencies and how to build and share them.

Jamilia

#258
Title: Jamilia
Author: Chingiz Aïtmatov
Translator: James Riordan
Publisher: Telegram Press
Year: 1957/2007
Country: Kyrgyzstan
96 pages

Following up Burkett with a Kyrgyz novelist. Jamilia is more a novella than a novel. It appears to be a love story set against a backdrop of war, with multiple and conflicting loyalties and alliances, but is also an allegory about fighting for and longing for one's homeland. An enjoyable if brief novel that depicts a pastoral Kyrgyz village of more than half a century ago.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time

#260
Title: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time
Authors: Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2006
Country: Pakistan
361 pages

Both emotionally satisfying and deeply engrossing, this is the history of Mortenson's many years of building schools in Pakistan and, more recently, Afghanistan. A nurse by profession and mountain climber by avocation. Mortenson literally stumbles into the school-building trade. I especially enjoyed the parts of the book that describe the futility of making infrastructure decisions without input from the community, and the necessary buttressing or creation of other infrastructures to support the target project. In an early example, Mortenson raises funds for a school but can't get the materials to the site until he builds a suspension bridge. These connections illustrate the importance of collaborative, mutual community projects and serve as an object lesson in village development. It's also a good conversational starting point for combating anti-Muslim sentiment.

Read with Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World and van Bruggen's Flowers on the Cactus: AIDS and Orphan Care in Cambodia for a more comprehensive and far-reaching analysis of the context required to create and sustain superficially simple interventions.

So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places

#257
Title: So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places
Author: Elinor Burkett
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2004/2005
334 pages

Burkett's chronicle of her Fulbright year teaching journalism in Kyrgyzstan, with regional peregrinations, rebuts easy criticisms of the United States' behavior in the region. I appreciated this perspective, while at times finding Burkett a little jingoistic. Most tellingly, I am hard-pressed to remember any positive appraisal from her of this region's politics, governance, or infrastructure. Therefore, read with some skepticism; it is too easy an analysis for the U.S. to be basically helpful and put-upon and the former soviet to be inefficient and oppressive.

A Photographic Guide to Birds of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

#256
Title: A Photographic Guide to Birds of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
Authors: Peter Davidson
Publisher: New Holland Publishers
Year: 2009
144 pages

Not as good as A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand, this volume is all right for very superficial viewing but not for anyone who will ruminate over not locating a bird in its pages. This guide suffers from a number of authorial or editorial decisions, including sometimes omitting descriptions of key field markings, presenting photographs of subspecies that are less common than other birds one is more likely to encounter (e.g., the entry for the Brown Shrike), and neglecting to include birds such as the Hoopoe that are regionally common and quite striking while devoting space to what appears to be a painting of the Great Hornbill, "now scarce across most of the region" (p. 23). Use only when you don't have room for a larger guide.

A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand

#255
Title: A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand
Authors: Michael Webster & Chew Yen Fook
Publisher: Asia Books
Year: 1997
144 pages

For a pocket guide, this does a reasonably good job. The photographs are clear and the color register is pretty good. Page corner icons indicate the birds' group. The descriptions emphasize the birds' habits and physical characteristics. It's no substitute for a larger and more technical volume, but is serviceable for the casual viewer out on a walk.

I bought this on Khao San Road in Bangkok when I was in Thailand in February because there were large numbers of Asian Openbilled Storks (Anastomus oscitans) and Chinese Pond-herons (Ardeola bacchus) in the areas near my hotel, plus a number of other birds with which I was unfamiliar. It was 425 baht (about $12) from Asia Books; New Holland Publishers has it for a little over $8 from Amazon.uk.

Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons

#253
Title: Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons
Author: Cullen Thomas
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2007
Country: South Korea
347 pages

Audiobook: here

Narratives of foreign incarceration stints typically combine complaints about the institutions inadequacy and sadism, sometimes coupled with self-reflection. Brother One Cell has both, with a believable progression from naivete to indignation to receptivity. Compared to Fellows's prison experience, Thomas's was fairly benign, though still awful in many ways. Though it moved slowly at times, it sustained my interest and I found Thomas's depiction of his own development convincing. Thomas's language is sometimes poetic and sometimes strained. I would have liked more about description of his decision to smuggle drugs into South Korea, and more explanation of the title (it commands only a few sentences). Thomas refers to Kang Chol Hwan's Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, a North Korean prison narrative taking place on the other side of the not-too-distant border, and they would be interesting to read in tandem.

Listening to the audiobook version confirmed my extreme dislike for voice characterizations in non-fiction. Many of the accents attempted by the reader sounded similar, and those that didn't sounded like caricatures.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

#252
Title: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Author: Xiaolu Guo
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2008
361 pages

Both funny and poignant, this novel uses a word and definition to open each chapter of the narrator's diary or notebook. A student from China in England, she writes in English, which improves over time, as does her ability to express more complex and nuanced ideas and emotions. At times it's hilarious and the observations pithy; at others it is a tale of protracted yearning. A very enjoyable novel, perhaps especially so for English as a Foreign Language teachers.

A Different Kind of Boy: A Father's Memoir about Raising a Gifted Child with Autism

#251
Title: A Different Kind of Boy: A Father's Memoir about Raising a Gifted Child with Autism
Author: Daniel Mont
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Year: 2002
249 pages

In some ways as much a father's autobiography as a memoir of his son, this is a smart and well-written account of both a boy and a family affected by autism. I've read a lot of personal stories about autism spectrum disorders (both by the parents and by the children with autism) and Mont does a wonderful job of capturing the complexity of the situation and his own emotions. It helps that he as skillful writer as well as an involved father.

More Than White Cloth? Women's Rights in Cambodia

#250
Title: More Than White Cloth? Women's Rights in Cambodia
Author: Nakagawa Kasumi
Publisher: Cambodian Defenders Project
Year: 2006
106 pages

This useful monograph reviews women's rights (or functional lack thereof) in Cambodia. It is a very useful source of examples of the discrepancy between good policies and intentions versus deeply ingrained cultural beliefs and gulfs too wide to be crossed by policy alone.

Walking away from the Killing Fields: How a Hopeless Boy Became a University Professor in Japan

#249
Title: Walking away from the Killing Fields: How a Hopeless Boy Became a University Professor in Japan
Author: Nophea Sasaki
Publisher: Author
Year: 2008
197 pages

Perhaps more accurately, this is "the basic steps of becoming a professor." A self-published book with a short, tacked-on outline of the author's childhood in the Khmer Rouge period. It may be useful for people who don't know anything how to become a professor, but it does not add particularly to the literature on experiences under the Khmer Rouge.

The Road of Lost Innocence

#248
Title: The Road of Lost Innocence
Author: Somaly Mam
Translator: Lisa Appignanesi
Publisher: Virago
Year: 2005/2008
218 pages

A grim yet heartening memoir by a non-Khmer Cambodian woman who was sold into sexual slavery. After getting out of Cambodia, she ultimately returned and now assists women and children. Mam is a good writer and if a book with this content can be said to be enjoyable, this one is.