Reading and traveling in Asia

Book reviews

Book review- The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China

China is a large country with an area of 3.7 million square miles and, though the majority Han ethnic group make up 90% of its population, has over 50 ethnic groups. As a result, beyond the heavily-populated Han-majority provinces with teeming megacities and factory zones, there is a lot of ethnic and cultural diversity on […]

Books

Travel

Book review-The India Ride

Two Canadian brothers set off on an 18,000-km motorcycle ride around China in 2010 and succeeded. A couple of years later, they decided to do another epic motorcycle ride around India. The India Ride – 2 brothers, 2 motorcycles, an incredible adventure is the story of this feat of stamina, courage, and most of all, […]

Books

Book review-The Longest Way Home

Former actor and writer Andrew McCarthy seemed to have the ideal life, combining a busy globe-trotting writing career with a relationship with a loving and patient partner as well as two children. But a decision to get married to his girlfriend and mother of his younger child sparks a sense of panic. As McCarthy struggles […]

Book reviews

Books

Taiwan

Book review-Lord of Formosa

Lord of Formosa is a historical novel about Taiwan I read earlier this year. The lord is Zheng Chenggong or Koxinga, a Chinese nobleman-warlord who seized Taiwan from the Dutch in the early 17th century. Often overlooked, this was a period of time covering several decades when the VOC (Dutch East India Company, a Dutch trading […]