Note: we love real books, hard cover or paperback but in order to stick to our "diet" we put our books on our tablets.
Dennis reviews~
Am in the process of reading the book PATRIOTS: the Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides before we leave for Southeast Asia and Vietnam. It's written by Christian Appy and is an eye opening read. Appy interviewed 135 people who were personally involved, Americans and Vietnamese; generals to grunts, policy makers to protesters, and everyone in between.
Am in the process of reading the book PATRIOTS: the Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides before we leave for Southeast Asia and Vietnam. It's written by Christian Appy and is an eye opening read. Appy interviewed 135 people who were personally involved, Americans and Vietnamese; generals to grunts, policy makers to protesters, and everyone in between.
It gives a perspective I have not read or heard before and opened my eyes to how this devastating conflict changed so many lives. I hope to gain further insight by revisiting my 1966 - 1967 experience by seeing, meeting and talking with others (Vietnamese and American) who were there and those who came later. I'll share those insights and adventures as they occur in future posts. Allons...
A PS from Cindy~
PATRIOTS is a book I will not read because Dennis has told me that it is very graphic and often brutal. He does however often share with me the parts that he thinks I would find interesting. On page 139 is one such interview. Appy interviews Quach Van Phong who was an artist with the North Vietnamese Army. Supplies were scarce and water was needed for drinking. Quach Van Phong used his spit mixed with dirt in order to create artwork. This artist now lives on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. How amazing would it be to get to see some of his art?!
Cindy reviews~
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART by Timothy Hallinan is the first book in the Poke Rafferty mysteries. Bangkok provides a colorful and exotic setting for this series. Rafferty is a travel writer who manages to get involved in complicated mysteries. His friend Arthit, a Bangkok police officer is frequently needed to rescue him from near disasters. Rose, a beautiful ex-prostitute and Miaow, a child from the streets form his family. The book successfully weaves the mystery into the family storyline.
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART by Timothy Hallinan is the first book in the Poke Rafferty mysteries. Bangkok provides a colorful and exotic setting for this series. Rafferty is a travel writer who manages to get involved in complicated mysteries. His friend Arthit, a Bangkok police officer is frequently needed to rescue him from near disasters. Rose, a beautiful ex-prostitute and Miaow, a child from the streets form his family. The book successfully weaves the mystery into the family storyline.
Hallinan writes with humor and empathy for Thailand where he has lived on and off for more than twenty years.
John Burdett, in his mystery series set in Bangkok, also uses humor but offers a much different perspective. In BANGKOK 8 (the first book in the series) we are introduced to Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a Buddhist Royal Thai police officer and his soul brother and fellow officer Pichai. The story is told to the reader by Sonchai and his humor and knowledge give us another perspective of Thailand. According to Sonchai, "Krung Thep means City of Angels, but we are happy to call it Bangkok if it helps to separate a farang from his money." So here we go with our eyes wide open hoping not to prove the old saying true: "a fool and his money are soon parted." Though we are planning to part with it. ;-)
Just realized that this posted as Dan. It's actually Deanne - I think we're signed into his account on this computer.
ReplyDeleteThe Patriots book sounds interesting! I'm curious to hear more about it in relation to what the two of you see there. Also, Cindy, I didn't realize you had made the switch away from hard copy books. I'm not on-onboard with that yet!
ReplyDeleteI still like "real" books but for travel, I read too much to pack them all.
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