Book Reviews
An updating list of all the reviews you can find in Dorseyland, by Paul Dorsey of course. The books are in alphabetical order by title. Asterisks indicate recommended reading.
Click on the title to read the review.
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1776 – America and Britain at War * History by David McCullough |
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The Adventure of English – The Biography of a Language * Linguistics by Melvin Bragg. |
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American Evita Christopher Andersen assails Hillary Clinton. |
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The Ancestors' Tale * Richard Dawkins tracks evolution. |
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Bangkok Exit Farang fiction by Ryan Humphreys. |
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Bhutan: Hidden Lands of Happiness * John Wehrheim's beautiful travelogue in words and photographs. |
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Blink Malcolm Gladwell's pointless behaviourism. |
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The Boys in Black: The Thahan Phran (Rangers), Thailand’s Para-military Border Guards * Australian security expert Desmond Ball frets over the militia. |
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Chain of Command * Seymour Hersh on Bush at war. |
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China Shakes the World * James Kynge assesses Beijing's impact. |
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The Colonel of Tamarkan * Julie Summers on WWII PoWs in Siam. |
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The Cracking Codebook: How to Make It, Break It, Crack It * Simon Singh tells the amazing story of cryptography. |
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Da Vinci Code decoder books Various authors tackle Dan Brown. |
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Eric Clapton – The Autobiography * Old Slowhand surveys his sober domestic bliss and recalls the wild ride that got him there. |
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Expat Days: Making a Life in Thailand * Steve Rosse's elegant tales from Phuket. |
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Farang Iain Corness' remedies for foreigners in Thailand. |
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First Man * James R Hansen's biography of Neil Armstrong. |
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Foreign Devils of the Silk Road * Part of a history series by Peter Hopkirk on Western shenanigans in the orient between 1880 and 1920. |
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Freedom Next Time * John Pilger's stunning reports from the front lines of political travesty. |
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Generalissimo * Jonathan Fenby's biography of Chiang Kai-Shek. |
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Genghis Khan – Life, Death and Restoration * John Man tracks the Mongols. |
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The Great Game * Part of a history series by Peter Hopkirk on Western shenanigans in the orient between 1880 and 1920. |
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Interventions * Noam Chomsky on the staggering extent to which popular opinion has been moulded by government misinformation. |
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Kennedy: An Unfinished Life * Biography by Robert Dallek. |
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Kublai Khan — The Mongol King Who Remade China * John Man's biography of the ruler of a fifth of the mediaeval world. |
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The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take Her Revenge for Climate Change Fred Pearce preaches to the converted about global warming. |
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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Bill Bryson doesn't quite prove that you can go home again. |
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Meet You in Hell * Les Standiford looks at Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, millionaires brewing the perfect storm in a Pennsylvania mill town. |
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The Moon Princess: Memories of the Shan States * Shan princess Sao Sanda's memoir of travels, triumphs, history and heartbreak. |
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More Living Thai Ways Part III Michael Keller trundles through the same old 50-satang tour of Thailand: sanook, katoeys, stray dogs ... |
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Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time * Karen Armstrong's well-intentioned but too simplistic primer on Islam. |
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My Thai Girl and I * Andrew Hicks goes total immersion and lives to tell about it. |
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Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence Timothy Good keeps phoning home with evidence of an alien cover-up but the line stays "busy". |
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Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank * Lisa Margonelli shows how oil lubricates economies, politics and war. |
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On Secret Service East of Constantinople * Part of a history series by Peter Hopkirk on Western shenanigans in the orient between 1880 and 1920. |
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One Fourteenth of an Elephant * Ian Denys Peek on the WWII PoW camps in Siam. |
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Opium Dream: An Asian Adventure Bangkok-based Jason Schoonover writes another B-novel. |
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The Oriental Hotel Cookbook The venerable Bangkok hotel's history and recipes. |
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The Other Man: A Love Story — John F Kennedy Jr, Carolyn Bessette and Me Beefcake in undies Michael Bergin's silly menage a trois. |
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Our Final Century: Will Civilisation Survive the 21st Century? * Martin Rees reads the riot act to mankind on the brink of catastrophe. |
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A Plastic Nation * Pavin Chachavalpongpun on Thai-Burmese relations. |
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POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe 1939-1945 * Adrian Gilbert dramatically summarises the prisoner-of-war experience in Europe. |
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Private Dancer Stephen Leather's novel of Thai bargirls. |
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Rewriting History Dick Morris assails Hillary Clinton. |
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Sayings and Tales of Zen Buddhism: Reflections for Every Day William Wray paves a path to enlightenment with koans. |
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The Second Front: Inside Asia’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Network * Ken Conboy on Jemaah Islamiya. |
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Setting the East Ablaze * Part of a history series by Peter Hopkirk on Western shenanigans in the orient between 1880 and 1920. |
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Shades of Eastern Madness * Funny holidays with Devanshoom. |
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Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance * Thoughtful short stories by Matthew Kneale. |
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The Spin Doctor’s Diary: Inside Number 10 with New Labour Lance Price mulls Tony Blair. |
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Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar * Simon Sebag Montefiore's unmatchable biography. |
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Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response Aaron Klein on the tragedy's aftermath and the movie. |
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Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Occult theories redigested by Graham Hancock, and not well. |
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Thailand: The Politics of Despotic Paternalism * Thak Chaloemtiarana on the rise and fall of Sarit Thanarat, a dictator in an era of strongmen. |
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Thailand Confidential Jerry Hopkins assesses Siamese ways. |
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Thai Lite * S Tsow assesses Siamese ways. |
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Thai Vignettes: Phuket and Beyond * Steve Rosse's elegant tales from Phuket. |
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The Theory of Everything * Stephen Hawking explains God. |
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The Third Jesus Deepak Chopra brings Christ home for dinner. |
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The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes tally up blood and taxes. |
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Too Far From Home * Chris Jones on the twisted ride of the "marooned" men of Expedition 6 to the International Space Station. |
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Tree Talk and Tales Daniel Henning goes barking mad. |
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Vengeance George Jonas' inspiration for "Munich". |
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Very Thai * Philip Cornwel-Smith explains Siamese customs. |
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Wave of Destruction * Erich Krauss on the tsunami. |
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What We Say Goes * A Noam Chomsky buffet of American hypocrisy and coercion. |
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Will They Ever Trust Us Again? * Michael Moore fires another salvo at the war hawks. |
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The Wisdom Paradox – How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older Life can begin anew at 60, Elkhonon Goldberg assures ex-hippies. |
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The Woman With the Alabaster Jar Margaret Starbird on Dan Brown's theme. |
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The Writing on the Wall – China and the West in the 21st Century Will Hutton thinks the occident can reorient itself. |
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The Young Che – Memories of Che Guevara Ernesto Guevara Lynch offers a father’s recollections, but they’re not revolutionary. |
