25 August 2011

Book Review: Daily Life in China in the XIII century, by Jacques Gernet, *****

Gengiz Khan and Chinese Tangut envoys
This book deals with one of the periods when China, then numbering sixty million inhabitants, was the richest and most powerful empire in the world. (Another such period would occur some 500 years later, and another one might be soon in the making.)

During the Sung dynasty the country flourished, even though wealth was far from evenly distributed, and the excesses of a small minority contributed to a worsening balance of payments and eventual weakening of the economy.


This empire would take a beating because of the Mongols' invasion in 1276, but up to then it was an even more impressive China than that Marco Polo would witness several decades later.

The capital was in Hangzhou, a port city near today's Shanghai, and its commercial fleet plied the seas exporting porcelain and silk. There was also relative peace, despite the fact that the Northern provinces had been lost already to the Mongols, who were held out for a while until Gengiz Khan invaded.

The book is written in scholarly academic style, but its flowing prose remains accessible to the non specialist as well. Buy this book on Amazon!

15 August 2011

Book Review: The Two Thousand Isles: A Short Account of the People, History and Customs of the Maldive Archipelago, by T. W. Hockly (1935), ***

Old Friday mosque in Malè, perhaps early XX century
Review

A short account of the people, history and customs of the Maldive Archipelago, written in 1935.  T.W. Hockly spent many weeks in the Maldives in 1935 and his book is an interesting account of his time there. He tells about life in the islands, and especially in the capital Male' where he actually spent his time. His account is interspersed with historical and political commentary, much of which is useful to put his experience in context.

14 August 2011

Book Review: Spectrum Guide to Maldives, by Camerapix, ****

Review
This is an interesting book on the Maldives, unlike most guide books on the market. It contains lots of useful data about the country's history and culture, and therefore it is still interesting even if published many years ago.

10 August 2011

Book Review: Maldives Mistery, by Thor Heyerdahl, ***

From the museum of Malè, 2009
Synopsis

When the Maldive Islanders converted to Islam in the 12th century, they discarded or destroyed all traces of earlier cultures, thus denying their past. Recent archeological discoveries prompted the government to invite Heyerdahl to examine the artifacts and attempt a reconstruction of pre-Islamic history.

Located in the Indian Ocean southwest of India and west of Sri Lanka, the Maldives encompass two broad, reefless sea passages ("One-and-Half" and Equatorial Channels) well-known to ancient mariners. Heyerdahl, an authority on primitive sea travel (Kon-Tiki, The Ra Expeditions, unravels a mystery that reaches into the vanished civilizations of Sumer and the Indus Valley. The Maldivan artifacts showed that temples were built around A.D. 550; that the original settlers had been sun-worshipers. (Reed Business, 1986).


03 August 2011

Il mercato dei libri in Italia: poveri noi lettori di libri, "protetti" dalla nuova legge sugli sconti.

Il parlamento italiano ha approvato, con nefasto consenso trasversale, una legge che regolamenta il prezzo dei libri, il "ddl Levi 2281-B", dal nome del primo firmatario. Solo i radicali si sono pilatescamente astenuti, tutti gli altri hanno votato a favore. E allora vediamo un po' in cosa consiste questo capolavoro normativo che ha messo d'accordo tutto il parlamento.

02 August 2011

Book Review: Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore (2003), by James Warren, *****

Synopsis

Between 1880 and 1930 colonial Singapore attracted tens of thousands of Chinese immigrant laborers, brought to serve its rapidly growing economy. This book chronicles the vast movement of coolies between China and the Nanyang, and their efforts to survive in colonial Singapore.


27 July 2011

Book Review: First Shot - The Untold Story of Japanese Minisubs That Attacked Pearl Harbor, by John Craddock, ****

Synopsis
America’s first shot of World War II was fired by a worn-out World War I destroyer. An hour before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.S. Ward hit its mark - a tiny but lethal Japanese submarine - but no one heeded the captain’s report. Before the morning was out, more than 2,400 people were dead, thousands more were wounded, and more than 100 American warships were destroyed or crippled. What became of the Ward’s message?

26 July 2011

Recensione: Sommergibili a Singapore, di Achille Rastelli, ****

Sinossi

Questo libro trae lo spunto da una serie di lettere inedite inviate alla famiglia da un sottufficiale macchinista, Pietro Appi, friulano di Cordenons, che entrò nella Regia Marina nel 1937 e alla fine del 1939 fu imbarcato sul sommergibile Bagnolini. Dopo aver partecipato a missioni di guerra in Mediterraneo e in Atlantico, nel 1943 passò sul Giuliani che, trasformato in battello subacqueo da trasporto, fu adibito con altre unità similari al trasferimento, per conto dei tedeschi, di materiale strategico tra basi navali giapponesi in Estremo Oriente e porti europei.

23 June 2011

Itinerary of North Sulawesi cruise on Dewi Nusantara

Itinerary of my diving trip in Indonesia, June 2011
You can see some pictures I took during this cruise here on Flickr.

My boat was the Dewi Nusantara.

06 June 2011

Map Review: Singapore Popout Map, ****

This is a great little map to carry around as you explore Singapore. It is several maps in one in fact, as you get a larger scale "Central" map and two smaller scale maps for City Centre and Orchard Road. It is sturdy enough that it will take some abuse and weighs next to nothing. A map of the metro system is in the back cover, very useful to find your way in the superefficient MRT. And finally one small map of all of Singapore and one of Sentosa island complete the picture.

I did not give it five stars because the index in the back of the two main maps is difficult to read/access.