It’s the first Ha Jin book I’ve picked up and really enjoyed it. The narrative was straightforward and engaging – written in the time and context of 1980s Beijing up until the Tian an’men incident. A narrative told through a well-respected professor turned ill and derange and future son-in-law that dives into the era of […]

I was just watching National Geographic with friends on the telly last night and there was a documentary “The History of Food” with chefs, historians, authors and anthropologists discussing the state of fish in the world over making good fish and chips. As I was teaching in my Anthropology module class at Macao’s IFT, in […]

The final book to Kevin Kwan’s best-seller trilogy, I enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians and Rich People’s Problems best. The denouement moves quick in this final book and is a real page-turner. I suppose I particularly enjoyed it for its anecdotal history of the war and Japanese occupation, My late grandmother used to tell us similar […]

I didn’t know about Shonda Rhimes before I picked up this book. I know I’m terrible with this whole entertainment, celebrity name game. However, I did see a couple of seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, which my surgeon told me it is very accurate and whoever wrote it definitely did have medical professionals look over it. […]

My friend Mita recommended me this book and it was a great read. I didn’t know much about Dr Oliver Sacks until I was having a conversation with a friend who is a prof in neuroscience and another neurosurgeon friend. I was also recommended to watch the movie “The Awakening”, which I haven’t had a […]

I made a note to read this book by Lauren Collins as I continue to learn how to navigate my intercultural marriage with a French man. The book is somewhat interesting, anecdotal and also a discourse in linguistics in some chapters (which I found rather dry and difficult to get through). The flow of the narrative […]

This was a random book I pulled out from the library and a fun read. A short existential love story with a literature professor as the protagonist, referencing and alluding situations to all of my favourite authors and literary pieces during my angsty late teenage years and through university from Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther […]

When I last caught up with Jen in Beijing a couple of years ago, she mentioned she was researching a book on noodles and was planning a trip across the silk road to investigate the history and story of noodles. I’m so glad I picked this up at the library and thoroughly enjoyed it. There […]

I have fallen behind reading and most things, but have finally got round to pulling myself together. This book is a great thriller. Trauma, crime and amnesia all rolled into one twisted plot. Trauma does many things to people and their sense of self and identity: violence, war, rape, cancer and quite the book for […]

I’ve always believed that certain books have a time and place of coming into your lives. There are books I’ve read over a decade ago and didn’t enjoy, but picking them up over 10 years later, I have a completely different perspective, enjoying it in many ways I couldn’t a decade ago. I’ve had Michael […]