This month we’re discussing Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It was highly recommended by a fellow book club member (Thanks Tom!), spent 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list when it came out in 2001 (in English), won a number of prizes in France, was translated ... Read more »

Dominica Drazal finds an intersection of history and erotica in Linda Jaivin’s A Most Immoral Woman

A glimmer of The Vagina Monologues , a dash of Sex and the City, a pinch of Wordsworth and a whisper of Hemingway make up Linda Jaivin’s newest book. China scholar, literary translator ... Read more »

Janice Y.K. Lee’s book peels back the layers of old Hong Kong

Often the action in historical novels takes pains to mirror that of the time

and place in which the narrative occurs. But some, like in Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher, pursue a narrative ... Read more »

Unfortunately, this Sunday's book club meet-up to discuss The Peace Correspondent is canceled due to unavoidable circumstances. The meeting has been re-scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 28. Hope to see you all there! Read more »

Born in ‘20s Shanghai to Russian-Jewish parents who fled the Bolshevik Revolution, Liliane Willens lived in our fair city until 1951. She recounts the unique story of her life in a China that rose international heights and then collapsing under the weight of foreign invaders and civil war. The period ... Read more »

Andrea Scarlatelli explores Shanghai’s hidden past with Stateless in Shanghai memoirist Liliane Willens

Walk into almost any bookstore these days and you are bound to find stacks of books telling tales of displaced people–those hoping to find something that resembles a home in a country other than the ... Read more »

Hit the road with seasoned traveler and writer Garry Marchant as he humorously and sharply details his more than three decades of journeying across Asia in The Peace Correspondent.

Marchant will be speaking at the 2010 Literary Festival in March.

Want to know more? Check out our review of the ... Read more »

We recently sat down with two 2010 Literary Festival organizers, Tina Kanagaratnam of AsiaMedia and Boris from M on the Bund, to give you the latest scoop on the Lit Fest

Author Update:

Unfortunately, the much anticipated Leslie Chang of Factory Girls won't be making an appearance this year ... Read more »

Doing Biz in China

Sam Goodman’s new book is a practical China business guide

Entrepreneurs en route to China are hungry for many things–new experiences, challenges, accomplishments and, of course, money. But in far too many cases, these newbies learn too late that China– where business is king ... Read more »

Legendary ad man, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow recounts his journey across the Burma Road from Rangoon to the wartime Chinese capital of Chongqing in 1939. This memoir has lain unpublished until recently.

A journalist specializing in Chinese affairs, Crow’s memoir consists of edited journal entries from his trip ... Read more »

It may not kick off until March 5, but the Shanghai International Literary Festival has just released the names of the authors who are coming. Some very big names in there. We are looking forward to Su Tong, Peter Hessler and Andrew Field. Full list below:

1. Tash Aw The ... Read more »

On the road with the author of The Peace Correspondent, Garry Marchant (slated for the 2010 Shanghai Literary Festival)

Any piece of travel writing invariably combines the realities of the place in question with the personality of the writer describing it. In many travel pieces, this combination is wildly out ... Read more »

City Weekend's contributing writer, Andrea Scarlatelli, recently caught up with author Colm Toibin, who was in town promoting his new book, Brooklyn.

CW: Why did you decide to write your novel Brooklyn from a young girl’s perspective? What were the difficulties with writing from that perspective?

Toibin: Well ... Read more »

Hearty and heartfelt apologies for the cancellation in October, but Book Club is back! Except this time it's not on the second Sunday of November, but instead on the last Sunday, Nov. 29, same time, same place. (4pm, Zen Cafe)

I've got a good book for you guys ... Read more »

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

This fantastical political, ethical, social commentary on good and evil takes the form of a literary re-visit of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. It’s a critically-acclaimed bestseller that has also been turned ... Read more »

**The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

This novel debuted to much critical acclaim and spent more than a hundred weeks on the bestseller list, sold about five million copies and the movie featuring a star-studded cast of Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson and Sophie ... Read more »

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This genre-defying publishing sensation has been picked up by publishers in 15 countries, sold several million copies in the UK and U.S. alone and has a movie out later this year. Clearly having achieved blockbuster status, this book about a time ... Read more »

Winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize, this slim, darkly comic novel brims with rage and cutting wit at the injustices of modern India.

This novel is written as a letter from an enterprising tea house sweetmaker-cum-chauffeur-cum-murderer-cum-entrepreneur to China’s very own Premier Wen Jiabao about social entrepreneurship in India ... Read more »

Though this meeting will take place just as the Shanghai International Literary Festival have left town, we're dragging it out a tad bit longer with our Book Club choice for April:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Check out our liveblog and podcast from his talk at SILF on ... Read more »

Author Nicole Mones of The Last Chinese Chef, one of last year's CW Book Club's popular pick, will be speaking on her book for March's Book Club meeting on Sunday, March 8 at 3pm at Luna in Xintiandi. If you can't make her talk at the ... Read more »

With the Shanghai International Literary Festival coming up in March--and lots of heavy hitter intellectual-types rolling into town--it’s time to better ourselves with knowledge. And since we’re in China, it ought to be China-knowledge.

There’s no better place to start for China knowledge than The China Beat ... Read more »

When Red is Black by Qiu Xiaolong

The third novel in his critically lauded "Inspector Chen" crime series, Shanghai-born Qiu Xiaolong yet again follows Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a Shanghai detective with a penchant for spouting classical Chinese poetry. Qiu's portrayal of Chen is of an honest, hard boiled ... Read more »

Disclaimer: Due to the enormous amount of discussion spawned by November's book, Wolf Totem, we never did manage to discuss December's Book. So everyone gets an extra month to get a copy and delve into this great book!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by ... Read more »