Asian Memoir

Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.

In 1998, Val arrives in Beijing expecting to find freedom - but she finds her traditional relatives instead. She discovers a city rebelling against its roots, struggling to find a new, modern identity like her. A thriving avant-garde subculture makes art out of the chaos in Beijing's gritty outskirts.

Never Cheat a Holy Man is my memoir about the three enlightening adventure-filled years in the mid-60s when my family and I lived in East Pakistan. As "memsahib", my job was to supervise a Muslim all-male household workforce. When the cook warmed the toast in his armpits and chilled the chicken in the refrigerator - still alive, I realized I was not communicating adequately. I acquired new skills mediating between cook and laundryman who were at constant odds.

The fearsome Kim regime of North Korea, though not lasting for centuries, has become one of history's most controversial bloodlines, not without cause. This is why Kim Jong-Un, the baby-faced 30-something with the bizarre flat-top seated at the throne today, is an object of such fascination. The world watched as the keys to the sinking ship were passed down to the young Kim, hoping for the state's long-awaited metamorphosis, but as it turned out, this young man could be far more erratic and inflexible than those came before him.

On December 16, 1945, Prince Konoe committed suicide after refusing to collaborate with US Army officer Bonner Fellers in Operation Blacklist. His refusal to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family of war crimes responsibilities. A week before he took the cyanide, he wrote a memoir regarding his experience governing Imperial Japan during World War 2. The memoir shows many efforts of Prince Konoe's efforts for negotiations with Chinese and US government officials to try to end the war early as well as his governing during a time of crisis.

Dr Kalam, who was India's 11th president and has been a scientist and a teacher, has written more than 20 books. Ranging from inspirational and spiritual thoughts, to autobiographical reflections, to his vision statements for a developed India, these works bear the imprint of a mind that is deeply reflective. For the first time, some of the most thoughtful, inspiring and educative of these writings have been compiled in one place in The Righteous Life.

In Gift of Gratitude, author Claire E. Hallinan shares her gratitude for the gifts that she was given by her past: the ability to think of all experiences as positive, the strengths that she determined to be resilient, and the future that she believed to be hopeful through her unique learning experiences. It is these gifts that she is able to share in her very own classroom as a teacher today.

Few images in history have managed to capture and hold the popular imagination quite like that of Hannibal, the fearless North African, perched on a monstrous elephant, leading his mercenaries over the Alps and then, against all odds, descending the ice-covered peaks to challenge Rome in her own backyard for mastery of the ancient world. It was a bold move, and it established Hannibal as one of history's greatest commanders. But this same brilliant tactician is also one of history's most tragic figures; fate condemned him to win his battles but not his war.

Munoz provides new insight into Benazir Bhutto’s unprecedented rise and an unflinching, minute-by-minute narrative of the assassination itself. With impeccable research, Munoz also situates Bhutto in the decades-long history of U.S.-Pakistan relations and the emergence of global terrorism, pinpointing her death as the moment when those relations changed forever. The result is a gripping narrative of Pakistan’s turbulent political realities and the death of its leading politician.

Asian-American Life Stories is a very important audiobook for the study of Asian-Americans in the United States of America. This audiobook contains autobiographical writings by 11 young Asian-American leaders, who represent various segments of the Asian immigrant population in the United States. Many of the autobiographies, therefore, contain very valuable historical and sociological date for understanding the Asian experience in the United States.

Adventurer Sylvain Tesson has led a restless life, riding across Central Asia on horseback, freeclimbing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and traversing the Himalayas by foot. But while recovering from an accident that left him in a coma, and nursing his wounds from a lost love, he found himself domesticated, his lust for life draining with each moment spent staring at a screen. An expedition to the mountains of Tibet, in search of the famously elusive snow leopard, presented itself as a cure.

Fresh out of the Israeli Army, 20-year-old Iris Bahr decides to follow in the footsteps of many before her and backpack through Asia. Only unlike the average traveler, she has more in mind than just seeing the sights: She is on a desperate mission to lose her virginity. Dork Whore is a fresh and funny memoir about a young woman whose quirky personality and embarrassing neuroses always seem to get in the way of her getting what she wants.

In a world fascinated by men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan is one of history’s greatest and most famous conquerors. No man, before or since, has ever started with so little and gone on to achieve so much.

Growing up in the friendly suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu thought that girls were supposed to be reserved, graceful, and polite. Everyone around her praised ladylike behaviour while seeming to disapprove of the louder, rougher girls—the kind of girls who made scenes. And while she spent most of her childhood suppressing her bold, emotional nature, Constance found an early outlet in local community theatre. The stage was the one place where big feelings were okay—were good, even.

The body of a woman is found in a Singapore nature park. Nobody has reported her missing and no one knows who she is. The only clue to her identity is a series of tiny numbers etched into her dental implants. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a married man is arrested for the murder of his mistress. The police are adamant that he is her killer. However, forensic evidence tells a different story altogether.

There are not many Indian heroes whose lives have been as dramatic and adventurous as that of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. That, however, is an assessment of his life based on what is widely known about him. These often revolve around his resignation from the Indian Civil Service, joining the freedom movement, to be exiled twice for over seven years, throwing a challenge to the Gandhian leadership in the Congress, taking up an extremist position against the British Raj, evading the famed intelligence network to travel to Europe and then to Southeast Asia.

The story of Mohandas Gandhi, one of the world's best-loved and most important promoters of freedom and justice, fascinates every generation. Thrown off a South African train for sitting in a "whites only" compartment, Gandhi resolved to oppose injustice wherever he encountered it. His life of resistance led him to a remarkable philosophy of nonviolence that culminated in the freedom struggle in India.

Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao’s Communist "reeducation".

A passionate student of Japanese poetry, theater, and art for much of her life, Gretel Ehrlich felt compelled to return to the earthquake-and-tsunami-devastated Tohoku coast to bear witness, listen to survivors, and experience their terror and exhilaration in villages and towns where all shelter and hope seemed lost.

This is the story of what happens when the author's plans to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Thailand are derailed after he has arrived in the country. Next Life in the Afternoon is spiritual, funny, at times irreverent, and full of personal lessons learned along the way. From Next Life in the Afternoon: "I’m squatting naked on a concrete floor in the predawn coolness of Udon Thani, pouring water from a washbasin onto my head to rinse off the bar soap I used as shampoo. My hair is long and stringy. I had counted on it being shaved off by now, so I had let it grow out a bit leading up to the ...