Skip to content

Around the World in 2000 Books

(give or take a few)

Home
About
Top Rated Books
The Complete List
Reviews by Region
- Australia and Oceania
- Southeast Asia

Javanese Literature

The Desawarnana: Boners in translation

June 28, 2017June 26, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 1 Comment

Java in the 14th Century, translated and edited by Theodore G. Th. Pigeaud, 1960

The Desawarnana of Mpu Prapañca, translated and edited by S.O. Robson, 1995

Indonesia, #1
Borrowed from SF library
Read: April 2017
Rating: 2/5 (Pigeaud translation), 2.5/5 (Robson translation)
Recommended for: Salty academics

Continue reading →

Blossoms of Longing: sex and death in medieval Java

May 4, 2017May 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 9 Comments

Blossoms of Longing: Ancient Verses of Love and Lament, translated from the Old Javanese by Thomas M. Hunter, 1998

Indonesia, #2
Free digital edition from the Lontar Foundation
Read: April 2017
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended for: indolent romantics

Continue reading →

Search for:

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Join 202 other followers

A slightly belated #burmese #bookstack

I have been reading this book since November. It’s not terrible or anything; in fact it’s a pretty compelling story of a young woman who marries a man who doesn’t understand her and treats her like a doll, determining what she eats, what she wears, when she sleeps, and (most harrowingly) whether and how often she can see her family. The heroine’s passivity in the face of all these ever-tightening restrictions is a little frustrating to me, but it’s set in Burma in the 1930s, where women were pretty much expected to be passive and compliant all the time. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but I don’t think that’s why I’ve stalled out on this book. I don’t know whether to blame the pandemic or just life with two small children, but for perhaps the first time in my life I just haven’t felt like reading. Might as well say “I haven’t felt like breathing,” but there it is. But at last I’m nearly finished with “Not out of Hate,” and I decided to download the Kindle edition of “Letters from Burma” and the audiobook of “Burmese Days” so that hopefully I can get a little more reading done during the long long hours I spend nursing my toddler to sleep in a dark room. I would very much like to reach a stage where parenting and reading are not in conflict, but I’m afraid that day might never come.

It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. Frankly it’s been a while since I read anything that wasn’t by NK Jemisin or Stephen King. But I still have all these books from Southeast Asia that I’ve read and haven’t written about, so I jumped back in with quick takes on a whole bunch of books from the Philippines, including this fantastic buddy-cop serial killer mystery starring two Jesuit priests.

Folsom Street Fair, 2015

#tbt to my last blog post of 2019: America Is in the Heart, by Carlos Bulosan

Drawings from today’s blog post, Philippine Food and Life by Gilda Cordero-Fernando. Link in profile.

Goodreads

Top Posts & Pages

The Complete List
Legends, Traditions, and Tales of Nauru
Blossoms of Longing: sex and death in medieval Java
The Ten Thousand Things: Every, every minute
The Book of Luelen: The thought collector

Archives

Archives

Tags

Asian Literature Australia Australia and Oceania Australian Literature Book Review Books Fiction Indonesia Philippines Southeast Asian Literature

All text and images
© Kelly Dunagan 2017

Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow Following
- Around the World in 2000 Books
- Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.