New York: William Morrow. Hardcover. Set of the first four Poke Rafferty Bangkok Thriller books: #1: A Nail Through the Heart. 9780061255809, June 26, 2007; #2: The Fourth Watcher, 9780061257254, June 24, 2008; #3: Breathing Water, 9780061672231, August 18, 2009; #4: The Queen of Patpong, 9780061672262, August 17, 2010. All volumes are stated First Editions. #1-3 have full number line. #4 number line ends at "2". Near Fine books in a Near Fine jackets. Spine ends bumped, remainder marks to bottom edges of #1-3. Light edgewear to jackets. Not from a library. Not clipped. Suitable for gifting. American travel writer Poke Rafferty was good at looking for trouble-so good that he made a little money writing a few offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored. But that was before Bangkok stole his heart. Now the expat American is happily playing family with his fiancée Rose, a former go-go dancer, and Miaow, the wary street child he adopts. Yet just when everything is beginning to work out, trouble comes looking for Poke in the guise of good intentions. Gradually he realizes that he's been gliding across the surface of a culture he really doesn't understand-and that what he doesn't know is about to hurt him and everyone he loves. Getting them all out alive will take every skill Poke has.
New York: Scribner. Hardcover. October 16, 2007. First U.S. Edition / full number line. Published in UK as Murder in Samarkand. Good+ book in a Good+ jacket. Text has a few black ink emphasis marks from a prior reader. Spine straight and tight. 1/4" inch tear at spine tail. Rubbing to jacket. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. xvi + 366. An irreverent former British ambassador in Uzbekistan discusses his witness to regional brutality under the regime of dictator and western ally Islom Karimov, describing the political dogma he encountered from London's Foreign Office and their senior partners in Washington.
New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin. Hardcover. December 29, 2004. First Edition / full number line. Near Fine book in a Near Fine jacket. Interior is pristine. Spine ends bumped. Very light edgewear to jacket. Not from a library. Remainder mark to bottom edge. 433 pages.
New York: Hyperion. Hardcover. September 25, 2007. First Edition (stated) / full number line. Fine book in a Fine jacket. Not from a library. Not remainder mark. Not clipped. xii+719 pages. A masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides in the Korean War. The author charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu River and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures--Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway--while chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order. .
New York: Grove Press / Evergreen. Trade Paperback. March 1973. First Revised and Enlarged Edition. Sixth printing, 1981. Very Good. Interior is pristine. Spine straight, tight, uncreased. Edge and corn er wear. Spine faded. Not from a library. No remainder mark. 543 pages. The first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorized account of Maos life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. This edition includes extensive notes on military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution, and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.
New York: W. W. Norton. Trade Paperback. January 17, 1999. Second Edition. Very Good+. Interior is pristine. Spine straight, tight, uncreased. Edgewear. Not from a library. No remainder mark. 992 pages. The characters and events of Chinas turbulent modern history, integrating political and cultural history with social and economic developments. More than 150 illustrations, 50 maps, and many helpful tables.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain. Trade Paperback. 1981. A Rand Corporation Research Study. Near Fine. Interior is pristine. Spine is straight, tight, and uncreased. Cover is clean and bright. Dust stains to top edge. Light edgewear. Not from a library. vii + 307 pages. An intriguing study of the psychological bases of mainland Chinese politics. According to Pye, the driving force of Chinese politics is the tension that arises out of the clash between the Chinese cultural imperative for conformity and consensus and the contradictory longing for personal security gained through special relationships. Pye shows how the resolution of this basic tension plays a key role in the policy process and in the resolution of PRC leadership struggles. The endless process of forming and reforming of clusters and networks of officials at times consolidates into fairly coherent factions. Those upholding the consensus tend to be suspicious that others are acting against it. Therefore they threaten the others and cause them to do the very things they are suspected of.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Trade Paperback. 1985. Second Edition. First printing / full number line. Very Good. Interior is pristine. Spine is straight and tight. Dust stains to edges. Light edge and reading wear. Spine faded. Not from a library. 391 pages.
New York: Mcgraw-Hill. Hardcover. February 26, 1981. First edition / full number line. Very Good book in a Good jacket. Interior is pristine. Spine is straight and tight. Dust soiling to top edge. Jacket torn at spine ends. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Price clipped. 458 pages. A penetrating look at the developments in China following the death of Premier Zhou Enlai in 1976. The author was at Tianamen Square when angry crowds rioted. The book shows how far-reaching are the changes now underway in China.
New York: Pantheon. Trade Paperback. June 12, 1980. First American Edition (stated). Very Good. Spine straight and tight. Light soiling and scuffing to spine and front cover. Not from a library. 171 pages.
New York: Random House. Hardcover. October 11, 1994. First Edition (stated), second printing per number line. Translated by Professor Tai Hung-chao; with the editorial assistance of Anne F. Thurston; foreword by Andrew J. Nathan. Very Good+ book in a Near Fine jacket. Interior pristine. Spine straight and tight. Foxing along closed edges. Light edgewear to jacket. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. 682 pages. Chairman Mao's personal physician and confidant for twenty two years, takes us for the first time into the Chinese dictator's very private world.
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Trade Paperback. 1971. Originally published in French in 1967 under the title Les Origines de la Revolution Chinoise, 1915-1949. 1984 printing. Near Fine. Interior pristine. Spine straight, tight, and uncreased. Suning and edgewear to cover. Not from a library. No remainder mark. 223 pages. The original French edition of this book, published in 1967, was widely acclaimed as the best introduction to Chinese Communism ever published. A fresh, bold interpretative survey, it focuses on the dynamic social forces underlying the Chinese Communists' rise in three short decades from obscurity to power. The author seeks above all to relate the events of this tumultuous period to certain tentative generalizations about the nature and course of the revolution. He is concerned less with the May Fourth Movement as such, for example, than with the revolution's intellectual origins, less with the Communist party's early political history than with the place of Marxist ideology in that history, less with the military aspects of the war of 1937-45 than with the influence of nationalism in the growing success of the Communists. An important part of the book deals with the various governmental and non-governmental attempt at reform during the Kuomintang era, which the author shows were too little too late to dam the swelling flood of revolution. The conclusion evaluates the crucial role of imperialism, the peasantry, and the army in the Chinese "formula" for revolution and re-examines the relationship between Marxism and the Chinese Revolution.
Boston: Little, Brown. Paperback. 1984. Third Edition. Very Good. Prior owner's name on front page, otherwise unmarked. Spine straight and tight. Dust stains to top edge. Edgewear to cover. Not from a library. No remainder mark. 400 pages.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Borzoi Book. Hardcover. 1946 Book Club printing. Blue textured cloth lettered in burgundy. Very Good book in a Poor jacket. Unmarked, clean, lightly tanned pages. Clean boards with shelf and reading wear. Binding is tight. No tape, tears, creases, or folds to book. Jacket is falling apart. Not from a library. Original owner's name and "1946" penned on front pastedown along with a bookplate. 118 pages. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. This book describes the effect of the bombing of Hiroshima on six survivors of the atomic blast.
New York: Penguin / Riverhead. Hardcover. May 22, 2007. First Edition / full number line. As New book in an As New jacket. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
New York: Berkley / Riverhead. Trade Paperback. May 2004. Very Good. Interior pristine. Edge and corner wear. Spine straight and tight. Not from a library. 371 pages.
New York: Random House / Vintage Books. February 1999. Trade Paperback. Very Good. Interior is unmarked. Spine is straight and tight. Light edgewear. Not from a library. 434 pages. Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi. 2007. Hardcover. First Edition (stated). As New. Not clipped. No remainder mark. The third book in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi. 2005. Hardcover. First Edition (stated). As New. Not clipped. Not a remainder. 302 pp. The second book in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi. 2012. Hardcover. First Edition (stated). Fine. Not clipped. Red dot on bottom edge. The fifth book in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series.
