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
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
      • French Polynesia, Cook, and Pitcairn Islands
      • Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Niue
      • Fiji and New Caledonia
      • Vanuatu and Solomon Islands
      • Papua New Guinea
      • Nauru, Kiribati, Marshalls, Micronesia, Guam, and Palau
    • Southeast Asia
      • East Timor
      • Indonesia
      • Philippines

Samoa

Lali: Looking Back

December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

Lali: A Pacific Anthology, ed. Albert Wendt, 1980

  • Cook Islands, #5; Tonga, #2; Samoa, #2; Niue, #1; Fiji, #1; Vanuatu, #1; Solomon Islands, #1; Papua New Guinea, #7; Kiribati, #2
  • £13.84 from Amazon.co.uk
  • Read: September 2015-December 2016
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Moana groupies

Continue reading →

The Challenge: Not Accepted

January 5, 2017January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

The Challenge, Ruperake Petaia, 2011

  • Samoa, #5
  • Kindle, (a waste of) $4.99 from amazon.com
  • Read January 2016
  • Rating: 1/5
  • Recommended for: Ruperake Petaia (because I can’t imagine anyone aside from the author enjoying this particular piece of literature)

Well, that’s half an hour of my life I’m never going to get back.

 

 

Telesa: The Covenant Keeper (Boy meets girl meets fa’afafine)

December 21, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 1 Comment

Telesa: The Covenant Keeper, Lani Wendt Young, 2011

  • Samoa, #4
  • Kindle, $2.99
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating: 3/5
  • Recommended for: Harry Potter/Insurgent crossover fanfic authors

Continue reading →

Where We Once Belonged: Rejecting the Polynesian Paradise

November 7, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 6 Comments

Where We Once Belonged, Sia Figiel, 1997

  • Samoa, #3
  • Borrowed from SF library
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Recommended for: Women who have been groped by Donald Trump

Continue reading →

Leaves of the Banyan Tree

September 29, 2016January 4, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 2 Comments

Leaves of the Banyan Tree, Albert Wendt, 1979

  • Samoa, #1
  • £0.69 from alibris.co.uk
  • Read December 2015
  • Rating 3.5/5
  • Recommended for: 10th grade English classes

Continue reading →

Monday Miscellany: Polynesian poetry

May 30, 2016December 31, 2017 ~ Kelly Dunagan ~ 1 Comment

While researching my post on Dreams of a Rainbow I read a fair amount of poetry from around Polynesia (both to try to situate Kauraka’s poetry more firmly in the Polynesian tradition and figure out whether it was objectively mediocre or whether I was just missing something). This is a bit of a long one, so links after the jump.

Continue reading →

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

Join 197 other followers

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.
Recent read: Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Excited about these recent library checkouts! Now to find a couple of new recipes that won’t scare a picky seafood-averse spouse or a preschooler who is highly suspicious of all sauces, soups, and stews...

Goodreads

Top Posts & Pages

  • Florante at Laura: Two guys crying in a forest, essentially
    Florante at Laura: Two guys crying in a forest, essentially
  • The Woman Who Had Two Navels: A very inaccurate synopsis
    The Woman Who Had Two Navels: A very inaccurate synopsis
  • Doctor to the Islands
    Doctor to the Islands
  • The Complete List
    The Complete List
  • The Bamboo Dancers
    The Bamboo Dancers

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.