Bangkok Gamble (Matt Chance Thriller Book 3) by Tom Crowley
Down & Out Books, 218 pages. www.amazon.com Our half-Thai/half-American, ex-U.S. Special Forces, locally based Bangkok hero is right back at it in the third installment of the Matt Chance series, entitled Bangkok Gamble. The first two, Viper’s Tale and Murder in the Slaughterhouse, introduced our man of action to the world with rousing action and […]
The Memory Project by Andrew C. Youngson
Billington Publishing, 2020, 270 pages Available on www.amazon.com next month It is always an authentic thrill to see a new literary genre being launched. Edgar Allen Poe invented detective stories: Jules Verne invented science fiction, and Lady Murasaki invented the novel. Andrew Youngson has added to the world’s unique literary history by launching a brand […]
Tom Crowley Interview
Today we are speaking to Tom Crowley, long time Bangkok resident, noted author of numerous Thailand based books and humanitarian worker. www.tomcrowleybooks.com What brought you to Thailand the first time? Business and investment management. In the mid nineties my company asked me to open an investment office for SE Asia. It came down to Bangkok […]
Under pallor, under the shadow: The 1920 American League pennant race that rattled and rebuilt baseball
by Bill Felber University of Nebraska Press, 2011, 204 pages. www.amazon.com One of the world’s most famous philosophers, Yogi Berra, once said: ‘It’s ’déjà vu’ all over again.’ This major league baseball season is jammed full of high drama, low antics, a very abbreviated season and multi billionaire owners battling multi millionaire players for a […]
If you can’t stand the fun, stay out of the go-go
by William Peskett. Bamboo Sinfonia, 2011, 197 pages. www.dco.co.th I will freely admit it. I have a stable of favourite writers I love to read every word they say. The more book reviews I do for Expat Life that authors’ stable gets constantly bigger. But William Peskett is a pure thoroughbred in the front stalls […]
The Royal chronicles of Ayutthaya: A synoptic translation
by Richard D. Cushman. Introduced and edited by David K. Wyatt. The Siam Society; 1st ed., 2000, 556 pages. www.thesiamsociety.org The sacking of Ayutthaya in 1767 destroyed the majority of the royal records. Only a few fragments were eventually found. Later they were collected and published in Thai. In the early 1970s, a young American […]
Bangkok Bob and the missing Mormon
by Stephen Leather. Three Elephants Publications, 2011, 288 pages. www.dco.co.th Having been in the U.S. military, one thing I (and probably every other military person) do when watching a film is to see if the film producers got it all ‘correct’ on the screen. That means are the ribbons on the uniform in the right […]
Katya and the Prince of Siam
by Narisa Chakrabongse and Eileen Hunter. River Books, 2020, 252 pages. www.riverbooksbk.com The most bittersweet tales of love in Thai history are most likely when a member of the Thai royalty marries a ‘farang’ (or foreigner). It has happened only rarely, but it is always mesmerising to the public when it does happen. The first […]
Bangkok pool blues
by Tom Crowley Metta Visions, 2010, 156 pages. www.amazon.com Underneath all the glittering temples, dazzling beaches, shop ’til you drop’ mega malls, friendly smiles of the locals who rolled the red carpet out for you, and always over the top entertainment here is a gritty, shadowy, and hard as nails nightlife revolving around Bangkok’s pool […]
Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast Asia: Towards a Chronology of Thai Trade Ware
by Roxanna M. Brown. River Books, 2009, 206 pages. www.thesiamsociety.org River Books, 2009, 206 pages. www.thesiamsociety.org I once read in an expensive book on valuable Chinese porcelain pieces that the Chinese did not keep their best ceramics at home. They exported them all. I would have thought the bargain basement, clearance sale, low -rent knock-off […]