Reading List--

Ma Ma, please share some prose that you like so that I can develop my knowledge a little bit.

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Kyi May Kaung Oh, sure, look on my book list to the left of here--I have so many likes and I read all the time, so many are my favorites. I tend to like the gory stuff, usually set in oppressive systems. Marc Bojanowski, Dog Fighter, is excellent. An evil child in Mexico who loves to kill, but is redeemed when he falls in love with the moll of the local mafia. The first line is memorable, "In Mexico I fought dogs." So is Beasts of No Nation by Ozodinma Iweala--only 150 pages but very strong, about a child soldier. If you want to look at a long sweep of history with interwoven stories on a big canvas, you can't beat James Michener. In Burma I read Hawaii and Caravan. In USA, Poland, Mexico, Texas, Chesapeake, and now re-reading Poland again. I can't read Lolita, but Nabokov's Speak Memory is wonderful and I first read it in 60s in Burma. So is A Baker's Dozen, a short story collection. My copy sent home for the illiterates there. My father had a Russian book called The Thaw, about Khrushchev's thaw--but I have not read it. Mo Yan's books are excellent, as are Ma Jian's. Most recently I read Beijing Coma by Ma Jian, and Red Dust from his travels to look at all the different sections of the Great Wall. There's a Tibetan writer who writes in Mandarin, Alai's Red Poppy. Anchee Min. Empress Orchid. Mo Yan's Red Sorghum. I suggest these to you because of our shared background in economics. If you want to read about Chinese zigzags in economic policy, ending famously with Deng Xoia Peng's economic reforms, read The Joint Committee Report, published by US Congress. My adviser Herbert Levine recommended it in 90s. To this day I regret putting my copy in the corridor when I moved to DC. Oh, and Levine's friend Raisanovksy--that book too mistakenly culled out and "helper" put it all in the dumpster, stupid Burmese girl. I'll stop here, that should keep you reading for a while. Also, if you travel plan ahead with Insight Guides and the new ones with 3 D maps. That way I explored Berlin & Potsdam, Bali, S. Korea, Thailand. Now there is a lot of Bagan material on line, but only the comprehensive "academic" guide is reliable. I did not find Ayutthaya Historical Research site until after I had no more Thai trips, but that is encyclopedic. Everything fr monastery where Fig Flower King was as a monk before Hsinbyushin took him to Ava, to spot where two princes killed each other simultaneously in an elephant duel. And there are Angkor "guide books" but they are for the seriously stricken like me, who have not much time or money, but want to see the most impt/best. For that, if security allows, do not miss the lovely Banteay Srei temple. But it's a place, not a book. But there are ancient Khmer inscriptions on the door jambs. Oh, the Sadok Thom (?) check at left, Inscriptions by John Burgess and other Angkor fiction. KMK.