Lost on Planet China, by J. Maarten Troost

The full title didn't fit in the title box so:

Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid, by J. Maarten Troost

This easy read was written by the same author who penned Sex Lives of Cannibals (see review below). It was recommended to me by a coworker (and fellow expat) as something we can all appreciate. The author doesn't always paint a pretty picture of China but there was nothing in the book that I particularly disagree with. In fact, I 100% absolutely believe everything he wrote actually happened to him and I can say that while I have not traveled as extensively as he has, I have shared many of the same experiences and felt much the same way. In general, he pokes fun at cultural norms which westerners find somewhere between amusing and appalling. I don't particularly share his disdain for China but I think that is because I have been in the same place for 9 months and have actually gotten to know people, as opposed to judging them based on their habits. I do share the general distrust he does for the Chinese government and I think he describes the feeling rather well. Most if not all of the people I work with (Americans, Europeans, Indians, and other SE Asians) seem to feel the same way about the communist party (and state-owned companies) and the absurdities we have to deal with.

This book gets a bad rap because it portrays China in a relatively negative way but I can honestly say that it is a pretty darn accurate description of what one will find on the main backpacking circuits throughout the middle kingdom. I will say that most of the individuals I've come to know here are very nice, generous, and generally great hosts but I am ready to move on to a new set of appalling cultural norms in the next assignment.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost

This was a fun, light read about a guys experiences while living on a Pacific atoll for 2 years. It's mostly about the culture shot he and his wife experienced all written in a sarcastic, humorous way. It's pretty short and quick to read. I laughed out loud several times on the bus while reading it. Not a whole lot in terms of plot here, but the outlandish living conditions are enough to keep me reading. I plan to read his next book, Lost on Planet China as well which I'll post about when I'm done. It gets my recommendation, especially if you just finished a long, relatively humorless 2000+ page trilogy ;)

Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

The following is a review of the Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I decided to post them all as one post since I feel like they all really go together. One word of caution, llllloooooonnnnnggggg. You can't really judge how big a book is on a Kindle until you realize you've been reading 2 hours/day for a week and are only 25% of the way through. All 3 books are lengthy but I thoroughly enjoyed the saga.

The story follows the lives of the first 100 people to colonize Mars. They don't really have a goal when the international team lands on the red planet but the books are about what the first 100 do and how they work to achieve their vision of what the new world should be. The time line is fairly unrealistic (they first land in 2026 I believe for example) and the rate at which humans develop new technology makes the Renaissance look like the dark ages. But the story doesn't focus on the science fiction so much as the human and cultural forces experienced by the people there and their relationship with those still on Earth and the terrans who followed them to the red planet. The first 100 were a diverse group so while the narrative wanders back and forth among them, the reader gets to look through the eyes of biologists, physicists, geologists, ecologists, engineers, psychologists, and anarchists and get a feel for what they think is important in life and their fight to get it.

The settlers go about creating a completely new world, as opposed to a second Earth. I really enjoyed many of the changes proposed to traditional society but the author. One major element the author projected is the predicament Earth will be in in the next few hundred years. To me, the major point of the trilogy was to get people thinking about what the future holds for the world and what can be done to change it. He proposes some radical ideas which would likely never be possible on a world with so much momentum in one direction but the first 100 got the privilege to start fresh and do it right from the beginning.

This isn't so much your typical aliens vs. humans, pew-pew shoot em up kind of sci/fi, but more of a fictional anthropology set in the future. I really really liked it and felt fulfilled when the 3rd book was over. There is excellent character development and enough drama and excitement to keep me entertained all while exploring what we think of as human nature and how that can change depending on cultural influences.

A Thousand Splended Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I have a bit of a backlog of books that I've read recently. I keep track of what I read here which is a pretty decent website in my opinion to help you remember what you've read.

Anyway, content ahoy!

A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghan women through the 70s to the recent past. It gives a great feeling for the difficulties women go through on a daily basis and the discrimination they face under the rules of the Taliban. There are happy parts and heartbreaking events but overall it talks about the importance of love even in the face of tremendous loss and oppression. If nothing else, it made me glad that I live in a country where people are guaranteed certain human rights and are allowed to choose how they live their lives. It is a good insight into the lives of those much less fortunate than us and helped give me a tiny glimpse of what life is like in war-torn Afghanistan.

I've never read The Kite Runner, but I've heard many people compare it to that (same author). It was a moderately easy read but not for the light-hearted.