Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on
bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason
In this transporting first novel, a mild-mannered tradesman is seduced by late Victorian Burma. Mason's complex, absorbing tale dives into the world of 19th-century colonial Burma, its traditions, trappings, personalities and politics.
Birds of Thailand
by Craig Robson
A compact, comprehensive guide with 128 color plates by a team of illustrators. Robson is also the author of the authoritative Birds of Southeast Asia.
The Burma Chronicles
by Guy Delisle
Posted to Burma with his Doctors Without Borders wife and young son, Delisle captures the absurdities, challenges and routines of everyday life in Burma in bold black-and-white panels in this droll graphic travelogue, his third.
The Ravens
by Christopher Robbins
An in-depth look in to the American government’s ‘secret war’ in Laos from 1961-75.
Never Fall Down
by Patricia McCormick
An unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge. Based on the true story of a young boy, this novel is about a child of war who becomes a man of peace. It includes an author's note and acknowledgments from Arn Chorn-Pond himself.
In Buddha's Land
by Moe Min
This beautiful, illustrated portrait of monuments, monasteries and rituals is both a striking visual overview of Buddhism as practiced in Burma, and a splendid introduction to the country.
Ancient Angkor
by Claude Jacques & Michael Freeman
A visual and historical guide to the Angkor temple complex containing maps and historical information of Angkor Wat.
A Dragon Apparent
by Normal Lewis
This modern classic was once a beautiful account of a distant place: French Indochina in its twilight. Now it is also the story of a lost world. Originally published in 1951, it is said that A Dragon Apparent inspired Graham Greene to go to Vietnam and write The Quiet American. Norman Lewis traveled in Indo-China during the precarious last years of the French colonial regime. Norman Lewis traveled through Saigon to Phnom Penh, and then via Angkor Wat on to Laos. Every person Lewis meets – monks, farmers, royalty, colonialists – become important in his or her own right; the writer's keen eye for telling detail puts the reader right beside him.
Burma, Rivers of Flavor
by Naomi Duguid
A culinary adventurer, Naomi Duguid presents the food, local markets, people and culture of Burma in this exceedingly informative (not to mention beautiful) cookbook and cultural guide. The 125 personable recipes (most get at least a page) are interspersed with tales and photographs from her many travels in the region. Her first solo venture (she parted ways with husband and co-author Jeffrey Alford a few years ago), Burma, Rivers of Flavor, like Beyond the Great Wall and Mangoes & Curry Leaves introduces a new world through its food.
Twilight over Burma, My Life as a Shan Princess
by Inge Sargent, Bertil Lintner (Introduction)
A memoir (though told in the third person) of Inge Sargent, an Austrian who in 1953 married Sao Kya Seng, the princely leader of Shan, an ethnic enclave in the hill country of northeastern Burma. A fascinating story.
From the Land of Green Ghost
by Pascal Khoo Thwe
The astonishing story of a young man's upbringing in a remote tribal village in Burma and his journey from his strife-torn country to the tranquil quads of Cambridge. In lyrical prose, Pascal Khoo Thwe describes his childhood as a member of the Padaung hill tribe, where ancestor worship and communion with spirits blended with the tribe's recent conversion to Christianity.
Freedom from Fear and Other Writings
by Aung San Suu Kyi, Michael Aris (Editor)
This collection of speeches, letters and interviews by and about Burma's Nobel Prize-winning human rights leader, edited by her late husband and with forwards by Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu, provides essential background to her role in Burmese politics and the situation of the country today.
A Traveller's History of Southeast Asia
by J.M. Barwise, Nicholas J. White
A compact history of the region, including the Khmer and the various ancient kingdoms that produced Borobudur, Angkor and other architectural marvels.
Enchanting Laos
by Mick Shippen
Tackles the mountainous and landlocked Laos and its sense of mystery that intrigues travelers' minds. Regarded as Southeast Asia's sleepy backwater for many years.
Arts of Southeast Asia
by Fiona Kerlogue
A handsome guide to the art, architecture, textiles and crafts of Southeast Asia.
Where China Meets India
by Thant Myint-U
From their very beginnings, China and India have been walled off from each other: by the towering summits of the Himalayas, by a vast and impenetrable jungle, by hostile tribes and remote inland kingdoms stretching a thousand miles from Calcutta across Burma to the upper Yangtze River.
Cambodia's Curse
by Joel Brinkley
A generation after genocide, Cambodia seemed on the surface to have overcome its history--the streets of Phnom Penh were paved; skyscrapers dotted the skyline. But under this façade lies a country still haunted by its years of terror.
Southeast Asia Wildlife, A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Animals
by James Kavanagh
A laminated, pocket-sized reference to 140 birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians common to Southeast Asian. Each is profiled with detailed illustrations and easy-to-read descriptions.
The River's Tale, A Year on the Mekong
by Edward Gargan
A personal, probing chronicle of a 3,000-mile journey on the river from its source in China through Tibet, Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
A Short History of Laos, The Land in Between
by Grant Evans & Milton Osborne
A comprehensive history of Laos from the pre-modern dynastic era to the present day.
The Glass Palace
by Amitav Ghosh
In this panoramic novel full of tales and anecdote, Ghosh follows the lives and fortunes of Rajkumar and his family over three eventful generations in Burma, India and Malaysia.
First They Killed My Father
by Loung Ung
A heart-wrenching historical autobiography that recounts the brutality of war. Told from the perspective of a child, one who is thrust into situations that she doesn't understand, as she is only five years old when the terror begins. Loung Ung made many difficult journeys during her Cambodian youth, starting with being evacuated from her hometown of Phnom Penh. More meaningful were the journeys of self, which led her from a life as the child of a large and privileged family to that of an orphan and work camp laborer.
Art & Architecture of Cambodia
by Helen Ibbitson Jessup
Complemented by numerous photographs of freestanding statuary and illustrations of the temples, Jessup’s history of Cambodia from the perspective of Khmer art is a wonderful story for those interested in Cambodian religion and culture.
Brother Number One: A Political Biography Of Pol Pot
by David P Chandler
A dramatic account of Pol Pot's rise to power in 1975 and his direction of Cambodia's auto-genocide. The book details an absorbing and authoritative portrait of Brother Number One and insight into Cambodia's cruel history.
The Golden Triangle: Inside Southeast Asia's Drug Trade
by Ko-Lin Chin
The Golden Triangle region that joins Burma, Thailand, and Laos is one of the global centers of opiate and methamphetamine production. Opportunistic Chinese businessmen and leaders of various armed groups are largely responsible for the manufacture of these drugs. The region is defined by the apparently conflicting parallel strands of criminality and efforts at state building, a tension embodied by a group of individuals who are simultaneously local political leaders, drug entrepreneurs, and members of heavily armed militias. Ko-lin Chin, a Chinese American criminologist who was born and raised in Burma, conducted five hundred face-to-face interviews with poppy growers, drug dealers, drug users, armed group leaders, law-enforcement authorities, and other key informants in Burma, Thailand, and China.
Lao Folktales
by Steven Jay Epstein
A selection of the best-known and best-loved Lao folk tales that have entertained the Lao people for generations.
Burmese Days
by George Orwell
Orwell, a veteran of the Colonial police force in Rangoon, writes with irony and insight in this sharp novel of politics, folly and the British.
