Reading Through Southeast Asia

Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray is sponsoring another One Shot World Tour on August 12th. The idea is to read and review on that date one book –any reading level–either written by an author from that region or set in that part of the world. For the purposes of this tour, Southeast Asia consists of the following countries:

Thailand
Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden.
Touch The Dragon or Dream of a Thousand Lives: A Sojourn in Thailand by Karen Connelly.
Laos
Cambodia
Children of the River by Linda Crew.
The Stone Goddess by Minfong Ho.
When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him.
When the War Was Over by Elizabeth Becker.
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung.
River of Time by John Swain.
Vietnam
Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan.
Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata. Semicolon review here.
When Heaven Fell by Carolyn Marsden. Semicolon review here.
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. Perry, a teenager from Harlem, experiences the horrors of the Vietnam War.
Paradise of the Blind by Thu Huong Duong and Nina McPherson
Singapore
Malaysia
The Malayan Trilogy by Anthony Burgess.
Indonesia
The Flame Tree by Richard Lewis. Semicolon review here. I loved this book when I read it back in 2005, and I’m recommending it to anyone who reads YA fiction and is participating in the tour.
Peace Child by Don Richardson. Christian missionaries Don and Carol Richardson confront a culture in which treachery is a cultural icon. Excellent true story.
A House in Bali by Colin McPhee.
The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher Koch.
Philippines
In Our Image; America’s Empire in the Philippines by Stanley Karnow.
Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal.
When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe.

I gathered this list from some of the lists linked below and from my own reading, and I’ll be reading a new-to-me book from the list above so that I can join in the world tour. I think I may focus on Cambodia.

All bloggers are welcome to participate in the One Shot World Tour on August 12th.

Links and Sources:
Southeast Asian Reading List by Bibliobuli.
Bibliography of Southeast Asian Children’s Books.
Cambodia: Book Reviews and Recommended Reading.

4 thoughts on “Reading Through Southeast Asia

  1. I love it, too, Sherry!

    I’m going to try to participate in this! I’m off to the library to try to borrow The Flame Tree through ILL.

  2. A book I really enjoyed by a writer from the Philippines, Arlene Chai, “The Last Time I Saw Mother” lets us look into a lot about the Philippines. It is told from the point of view of multiple narrators and goes back historically to the world war two period up to the 21th century. It is centered in the Zambales region of the Philippines. It also treats the effect of the vast outward migration of Filipinos to find better jobs to support their families, a heart break fact of life a very family centered people.

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