My reading list succumbs to my interest in all things Asian :)

[dangermousie]

Because I think posts without pictures are boring:



While I have womanfully resisted starting the taiga drama Yoshitsune even after meganbmoore's evilly enticing write-ups (it's 49 eps and I have slightly under 30 dramas to finish!), this did lead me to go look for various books on the topic so I ended up with:

Yoshitsune, a 15th century chronicle translated by Helen C. McCullough. I have a huge thing for historical chronicles and would have gotten this anyway. So far, the only feudal Japanese lit I read was Sei Sho-nagon's Pillow Book which was fascinating. I suppose Yoshitsune will be very different as it's written by a man.

Lynn Guest's Children of Hachiman (the novelization of the clan struggle in which Yoshitsune was involved, with Yoshitsune and his brother as main characters).

Kara Dalkey's Genpei, which takes the whole story and writes it as a fantasy (I am really looking forward to this because this could be very interesting).

I have also gotten my hands on a bunch of books about Tomoe Gozen (a female samurai of the era) by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. They are supposed to be good.

Actually, This is a wonderful website for listing almost any historical fiction out there that deals with Japan, that is in English. I am going to be pillaging that list like whoa.

Did I mention that my wonderful husband, in addition to getting me a gift certificate to nehaflix (an internet bollywood store) also bought me the first two volumes in Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series. The series is a fantasy set in future Singapore, where the realms of heaven, hell and earth co-exist. It's part mystery, part fantasy, part funniness. I read a book in the series recently and fell in love.

P.S. If anyone can recommend any good books about Korea, fiction or non, that are dealing with pre 1945 Korea, I will be very grateful. There are plenty of histories out there dealing with modern stuff, but I know it already. It's really hard to find stuff about stuff prior to that (fiction or non).

Comments

[stardreemer.livejournal.com]

This isn't a book about Korea, but if you like feudal Japanese lit you should read The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, who was a lady of the Heian court, and is considered the worlds first novel. Really long, but very good!

Here is a link to the Amazon page if you want to check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Genji-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/014243714X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9866101-8653457?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186617426&sr=1-1

I'm going to save this entry in my memories. Some of those books sound really good!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

I've been tempted by Genji for years but it looks so incredibly long and daunting (and expensive :P). But I really must get to it. I should buy it for a really long flight...

[stardreemer.livejournal.com]

It is really long, and there are moments when you are like "Wait? Who is that? Any why is he doing that?" but it is really good. And even though it is fiction it gives a really good picture of what life was like back then. Most of what is known about daily life in the Heian period comes from this book because it is so accurate. /history dork. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It does sounds really cool.

I spent my book budget this month but next month? will most likely get.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You have the Tomoe Gozen books? I hate you with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Only, not really. I still need to get Musashi, too...

A few other good ones, though more fantasy, are Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series, set in a fictional world that mirrors medieval Japan and is very historically accurate. There's also Kij Johnsons Fudoki and Fox Woman. Fox Woman is ok and is a fairly traditional tale of the Fox Woman myth. Fudoki isn't really fantasy...it's the diary(fictional, of course) of a Heian era princess chronicling her life, and in it, she creates a fable about a cat. (There's also Leah Cutter's page mage, which has some magic and is set in medieval china, but that's Japanese.)

A good, if occassionally frustrating, is Laura John Rowland's Inspector Sano mysteries(though really, they're as much mystery as the Amelia Peabody books...)

Also...Yoshitsune has as much politics as Musashi, Damo and Emperor of the Sea combined...if it's a politics scene, I've actually been ffing and just reading the subs unless it involved Takki, Shun, Abe Hiroshi or Tomoe Gozen.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I also own Musashi :) Am about halfway through it :P

Thanks re fantasy! I don't read too much fantasy but am always willing to give recommended ones a try (I dislike high fantasy but this doesn't seem to be it).

probably will skip the mysteries. With my reading endings first, I am the world's worst mystery reader. The only ones I managed to love were Lord Peter and Amelia books.

Re: politics. At least in ep 1, I am finding all the politics super fun. Which is scary :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well...Musashi I'm fairly certain I can get...I just have to get around to it(the drama and the manga Vagabond are based on the book...)

Nope, none are high fantasy. Honestly, I hesitate to even call Fudoki(though I may be wrong and it's Fudoku) fantasy as it's a fantasy story woven into fictional memiors...it's part heian storytelling and mythology, part lifestyle. The Hearn books are more "historical epic with some fantasy elements" and of the ones I mentioned, they're the ones that have the OTP that gets to be together. Paper Mage was the first "asian fantasy" novel I read...most of the magic is simply based on the idea that there are people with the ability to make paper animals briefly come to life, and that they work as bodyguards and such. It also has an otp, but it plays a smaller role(I liked them, though)

I almost didn't mention the mysteries because I figured you wouldn't go for them, but did just in case.

The politics are good and interesting, but at some point, it seemed the political narrative started to drown out Yoshitsune's narrative, and we didn't need as much as we were getting them...I'm still enjoying the politics, just enjoying most of them at a faster clip.

[stardreemer.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be all spammy...but I thought of another book you might want to try. Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka and the sequal Autumn Bridge. I haven't actually read Autumn Bridge, I have the book but left it at home, but I really liked Cloud of Sparrows. It started off kind of slow, but I really got into it.

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Sparrows-Takashi-Matsuoka/dp/0385338503/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-9866101-8653457?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186698802&sr=1-2

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I tried AB but was a bit lost because it was second in the series. I want to try CoS.