SUGGESTED READING ASIA We are pleased to bring you reading materials to support your onboard experience and complement your moments ashore. The Smithsonian Collection by Smithsonian Journeys is an engaging enrichment program led by a wide range of experts who are eager to share their first-hand knowledge and expertise. As part of the program, Smithsonian Journeys and our Smithsonian Journeys Experts are pleased to share the below reading lists. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MAPS & GUIDEBOOKS These 6 items are available as a set for $103 including shipping, 15% Eyewitness Guides. Eyewitness Guide Japan. DK Publishing, off the retail price (Item EXASA147). Any additional books ordered 2015. Dazzling illustrations, architectural cutaways and color will be shipped free of charge. See page 4 for ordering details. photographs, along with useful local maps, give this guide to Japan’s many attractions a distinct edge. (PAPER, 408 Pp., $28.00, Item JPN130) Evan Osnos. Age of Ambition. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015. Longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker Osnos considers China’s modern struggle: the conflict between a Andrew Bender. Lonely Planet Korea. Lonely Planet Publications, growing need for individualism and the Communist Party’s 2016. In its hallmark style, this practical guide to Korea by Lonely fight for conformity. (PAPER, 416 Pp., $16.00, Item CHN774) Planet features maps, a good overview of culture, history and nature, and much nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With 50 pages on North Andrew X. Pham. The Eaves of Heaven, A Life in Three Korea. (PAPER, 424 Pp., $27.99, Item KOR04) Wars. Crown, 2009. Pham recounts the story of his father’s life during the French occupation, Japanese invasion and Hua-Yuan L. Mowry, Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson. Lonely the American War, weaving such momentous events with Planet Mandarin Phrasebook. Lonely Planet Publications, anecdotes from his childhood and details of family, friends, 2015. A handy phrasebook for basic Mandarin, focusing on food and daily life. (PAPER, 320 Pp., $16.00, Item VNM120) pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (PAPER, 256 Pp., $9.99, Item CHN72) Eyewitness Guides. Eyewitness Guide China. DK Publishing, 2014. This hefty illustrated guide to sites, attractions and places throughout China features excellent maps and Nguyen Xuanthu. Lonely Planet Vietnamese Phrasebook. hundreds of color photographs and site diagrams. Lonely Planet Publications, 2013. A handy palm-sized guide (PAPER, 660 Pp., $30.00, Item CHN242) to pronunciation, grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (PAPER, 284 Pp., $8.99, Item VNM20) Eyewitness Guides. Eyewitness Guide Vietnam and Angkor Wat. DK Publishing, 2014. Featuring innovative site diagrams, local maps and hundreds of color photographs, this handy companion introduces the culture, history and attractions of Vietnam. (PAPER, 304 Pp., $25.00, Item VNM102) HISTORY, CULTURE & EXPLORATION National Geographic. China Adventure Map. National Graham Holliday, Anthony Bourdain (Foreword). Eating Geographic Maps, 2011. A double-sided, full-color map of Viet Nam. Ecco Press, 2015. While living in Vietnam, native China, at a useful scale of 1:4,375,000, which shows roads Englishman Holliday penned this gastronomic tour that takes him and cities. Printed on tear- and water-resistant paper. (MAP, from fancy dining tables to streetside vendors and everywhere Pp., $11.95, Item CHN06) in between. A genuine adventure through Vietnamese cuisine. (HARD COVER, 352 Pp., $15.99, Item VNM177) ITMB. Vietnam Map. ITMB, 2011. A sturdy, double-sided map J.M. Barwise, Nicholas J. White. A Traveller’s History of of Vietnam, at a good scale (1:1,000,000), including Hanoi, Southeast Asia. Interlink Publishing Group, 2015. A compact Ho Chi Minh and the Hue region. With index. (MAP, Pp., history of the region, including the Khmer and the various $12.95, Item VNM05) ancient kingdoms that produced Borobudur, Angkor and other architectural marvels. (PAPER, 352 Pp., $14.95, Item SEA36) ASIA 1 HISTORY, CULTURE & EXPLORATION ARCHAEOLOGY, ART & ARCHITECTURE Continued Penelope Mason. A History Of Japanese Art. Prentice Hall, 2004. The most comprehensive survey of Japanese art and culture Katherine Boo. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Random House, 2014. A Pulitzer- Prize winning journalist and writer available, now in its second edition. Art scholar Penelope Mason at The New Yorker, Boo turns her four years among the covers major works of calligraphy, lacquer, metalwork, ceramics people of a Mumbai slum into an absorbing tale of the clash and textiles created from the birth of Japan to the end of WWII. of India, new and old, prosperous and disenfranchised. (PAPER, 432 Pp., $222.60, Item JPN485) (PAPER, 304 Pp., $16.00, Item IDA654) Giles Tillotson, Mary Beard (Editor). Taj Mahal. Harvard University Press, 2008. An enlightening pocket guide to the Fredrik Logevall. Embers of War, The Fall of an Empire and myth, meaning and legends of the celebrated tomb, “the the Making of America’s Vietnam. Random House, 2014. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this bold history traces the queen of architecture.” (PAPER, 190 Pp., $15.50, Item four-decade build-up to the Vietnam War as the French IDA528) disengaged from the country and American forces were deployed in full. (PAPER, 864 Pp., $20.00, Item VNM161) Michael Sullivan. The Arts of China. University of California Press, 2008. A lively survey of Chinese visual arts and culture Frances FitzGerald. Fire in the Lake. Back Bay Books, 2002. A classic historical, political and cultural portrait of the Vietnam War, seen through the ages, thoroughly illustrated and accessible. With a through the eyes of the Vietnamese. Winner of both the Pulitzer new chapter on the 20th century and beyond, this fifth edition Prize and National Book Award, FitzGerald, presents a vivid image covers bronzes, ceramics, painting and architecture from the of a revolution and a clear-sighted case for why the U.S offensive Neolithic to now. (PAPER, 352 Pp., $42.95, Item CHN16) was doomed from the start. (PAPER, 496 Pp., $19.00, Item VNM12) Stanley Wolpert. India. University of California Press, 2009. Wolpert’s reflections on India -- its religion and philosophy, its art, culture and politics -- make for a literate, succinct TRAVEL, BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR primer. (PAPER, 281 Pp., $34.95, Item IDA04) Monisha Rajesh. Around India in 80 Trains. Consortium, 2012. A terrific account of Rajesh’s epic four-month, 25,000-mile journey to the India of her youth. She begins Dana Sachs. The Life We Were Given, Operation Babylift, in her hometown of Chennai, chugs up the Konkan Coast, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam. watches for tigers in Ranthambore and survives Mumbai’s Beacon Press, 2011. This popular history of Operation Babylift chaotic local lines. (PAPER, 248 Pp., $17.95, Item IDA691) focuses on the heartbreaking stories of the children flown out of Vietnam, their adoptive American families and the parents that Mohandas K. Gandhi. Gandhi, An Autobiography, or the some children left behind. (PAPER, 258 Pp., $20.00, Item VNM183) Story of My Experiments with Truth. Beacon Press, 1993. There is no substitute for reading Gandhi in his own simple, John Keay. The Spice Route, A History. University of direct prose. A highly recommended glimpse into the California Press, 2007. John Keay draws on ancient logs, personality and life of this remarkable figure. (PAPER, 528 traveler’s accounts and maps for this rousing history of Pp., $16.95, Item IDA163) trade in cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pepper, gums, resins and other costly goods from antiquity to the 17th century. Jonathan Spence. Mao Zedong. Penguin Putnam, 2006. (PAPER, 288 Pp., $29.95, Item ASA52) Yale sinologist, writer and historian Spence tracks the life of the architect of the People’s Republic from his provincial John Bryan Starr. Understanding China. Hill and Wang, upbringing to his savage three-decade rule. (PAPER, 192 2010. A Yale professor’s essential primer on the history, Pp., $15.00, Item CHN66) politics and economy of China. A succinct and refreshingly forthright best-selling guide, this third edition discusses the issues at stake in China’s present and future. (PAPER, 400 Peter Hessler. Oracle Bones. HarperCollins, 2007. In this fine Pp., $17.95, Item CHN196) portrait of tumult and tradition, Hessler (River Town) finds clues to modern China’s realities in the personal stories of Neil Jamieson. Understanding Vietnam. University of peasants, scholars, day laborers and activists. (PAPER, California Press, 1995. Jamieson’s ambitious primer 512 Pp., $15.99, Item CHN316) addresses politics, social history, village life, structural renewal, literature and the arts, illuminating the Vietnamese worldview with insight and depth. It’s a terrific introduction Anchee Min. Red Azalea. Berkley Books, 2006. Born in 1957 to Vietnam. (PAPER, 428 Pp., $31.95, Item VNM01) (and a leader of the Little Red Guards in Shanghai as a youngster), Min writes with powerful simplicity of coming- David Lamb. Vietnam Now, A Reporter Returns. Perseus, 2003. of-age under Mao (including a stint at Red Fire Farm). An insightful portrait of contemporary Vietnam by a (PAPER, 336 Pp., $15.00, Item CHN273) Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and National Geographic writer. Lamb interweaves stories of Vietnam today with his own experiences and memories as a young reporter |for UPI during the war. (PAPER, 288 Pp., $17.00, Item VNM47) ASIA 2 TRAVEL, BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR LITERATURE Continued Continued Peter Hessler. River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze. Arthur Golden. Memoirs of a Geisha, A Novel. Vintage HarperCollins, 2006. Hessler’s compelling, personal story Books, 1999. The runaway best-selling novel about a of life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fuling, where geisha in the celebrated Gion district of Kyoto. A major foreigners are a curiosity, explores the culture, traditions feat of literary impersonation, the novel is rich in period and ideas of an isolated world.