My guide, Mr. Ajit, sat upfront with the driver, and as we came up on a mini-bus with a couple of men riding on top, he’d half turn in his seat, “That’s India.” A few minutes we tailgated a van packed with passengers, two men balanced on the back bumper, holding on for dear life. “That’s India,” Mr. Ajit said. The more squalid, inconvenient, and crazy, the happier it seemed to make Mr. Ajit. As it reinforced his view, that I was not receiving some burnished image of the true India.

Read more: http://www.internationalcrimeauthors.com/

The upshot of the many different takes on the question comes down to a discussion of the nature of thinking, the processes involved, the evolution of the brain, the relationship of neurons. Basically, the most honest correspondents conclude that we are in still in the dark ages when it comes to the way or ways we think.

Read more: http://www.internationalcrimeauthors.com/

By Alex Kerr

Baht 650

River Books

(2009)

Long-term Thailand expats are not rare birds. The flock contains many nationalities who have nested in Thailand since the end of World War II and the large numbers currently living here started no more than 25 years ago. But only a handful of expat writers have managed to capture the ‘spirit’ of expat experience, the history and culture of Thailand, and context of expat life. Alex Kerr because he has taken the time to make friends with Thais and learn the language, has written a fine book that describes and discusses the relationship between the native Thais and the expats quite unlike any other book you will read. Alex Kerr’s Bangkok Found Reflections on The City has written a beautifully illustrated and rare book. One that fills a gap in the expat literature.

Bangkok Found is filled with a luminous insight and intelligence by an expat whose Asian experience began in Japan at age twelve when his father, a naval officer, was sent to that country.

Alex speaks fluent Japanese, Chinese and Thai, and what makes Bangkok Found one of the best books you will read about an expat’s life in Asia in general, and Thailand in particular, is that his cross-cultural and linguistic training has equipped him with an ability to see, record, evaluate an explain aspects of Thai life that escapes most expats who have written about Thailand. Kerr is also a first class observer of people, language and culture.

Kerr has befriended many Thais during his thirty-years since first coming to Thailand, and his Thai friends like Ping who took him to the old capital of Ayutthaya gave him an early grounding into the Thai society. He also made friends among members of the colourful expat community that he has met over the years. His chapter on Thai Expat Society charts their work and lives as writers, restaurant owners, collectors, philanderers, and businessmen. Their intermarriage and the luk khrueng children are part of their legacy. Foreigners are painted against the larger canvas of Thai political, social and economic life. Kerr places the expats into historical and contemporary context. So long as barbarian Westerners don’t rock the boat, they can stay on board. The cross-cultural references to Japan make Bangkok Found an original and highly engaging read, and answers the basic question as to why large numbers of Westerners voluntary chose to live long-term in Thailand as opposed to Japan.

From the Pattaya Expat Club newsletter:

“Our Main Feature on 20 December is the foremost expat novelist interpreting Thailand, Christopher G Moore, who has two new books – an epic detective thriller ‘The Corruptionist’ set against the Bangkok backdrop of anti-government occupation of Government House, plus a pocket Reader’s Guide to the Calvino private eye series. It is Christopher’s 8th annual literary talk to the PEC members. He will discuss the new novel for half the feature and has requested an on stage interview with Richard Ravensdale from PEC, one of his tv and book review critics, to probe his work. He will also do a book signing. The Corruptionist is Baht 499. The Vincent Calvino Reader's Guide is Baht 249. Published in Thailand by Heaven lake Press. Buy a copy of either book on Sunday, and get The Risk of Infidelity Index and/or Paying Back Jack for 50% off retail price. Other selected backlist titles will be on offer with a good discount as well. A good time to stock up on ‘Calvino’ titles that you haven't picked up.”

The time: 11.30am. (Doors open 1030am) All Nationalities are welcome.