Asia

When a Billion Chinese Jump is a road journey into the future of our species. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of Inner Mongolia via the Silk Road, tiger farms, cancer villages, weather-modifying bases, and eco-cities, Watts chronicles the environmental impact of economic growth with a series of gripping stories from the country on the front line of global development. He talks to nomads and philosophers, entrepreneurs and scientists, rural farmers and urban consumers, examining how individuals are trying to adapt to one of the most spectacular bursts of change in human history, then poses a question that will affect all of our lives: Can China find a new way forward or is this giant nation doomed to magnify the mistakes that have already taken humanity to the brink of disaster?

An irreverent tale of an American Jew serving in the Peace Corps in rural China, which reveals the absurdities, joys, and pathos of a traditional society in flux

In September of 2005, the Peace Corps sent Michael Levy to teach English in the heart of China's heartland. His hosts in the city of Guiyang found additional uses for him: resident expert on Judaism, romantic adviser, and provincial basketball star, to name a few. His account of overcoming vast cultural differences to befriend his students and fellow teachers is by turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.

While reveling in the peculiarities of life in China's interior, the author also discovered that the "other billion" (people living far from the coastal cities covered by the American media) have a complex relationship with both their own traditions and the rapid changes of modernization. Lagging behind in China's economic boom, they experience the darker side of "capitalism with Chinese characteristics," daily facing the schizophrenia of conflicting ideologies.

Kosher Chinese is an illuminating account of the lives of the residents of Guiyang, particularly the young people who will soon control the fate of the world.

In these unforgettable letters, Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world's most inspiring figures, reaches out beyond Burma's borders to paint a vivid and poignant picture of her native land. She celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She reveals how state oppression has adversely affected everything from the national diet to traditions of hospitality. She also evokes the beauty of the country's seasons and scenery, customs and fetivities, which remain-after everything-so close to her heart.

"To understand the mess we're getting into in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, there's no better book out there." -Robert Baer, bestselling author of See No Evil

The tribal region bordering Afghanistan, known as FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area), has always been only loosely under government control. But since 2001 it has become a hornet's nest of violent extremists, many of whom have turned against their own state. In this groundbreaking book based on accounts by high-level Pakistani intelligence and military operatives and extensive firsthand reporting in villages where no American would be safe, award-winning reporter and broadcaster Imtiaz Gul chronicles his country's alarming slide into militancy. The United States is mired at great expense in Afghanistan, but Pakistan poses a far greater threat to American interests and to global security.

The former Soviet republics of Central Asia comprise a sprawling, politically pivotal, densely populated, and richly cultured area of the world. In this comprehensive new treatment, renowned political writer and historian Dilip Hiro places the politics, peoples, and cultural background of this critical region firmly into the context of current international focus.

Leading international voices condemn the brutalities of the Kashmir occupation.

At home, the Kashmiri people’s ongoing quest for justice and self-determination is as much ignored by their venal politicians as it is rejected by Pakistan. Internationally, their struggle is forgotten, as the West refuses to bring pressure to bear on its regional ally India. Kashmir: The Case for Freedom is an impassioned attempt to redress this imbalance and to fill the gap in our moral imagination. Covering Kashmir’s past and present and the occupation’s causes and consequences, the authors issue a clarion call for the withdrawal of Indian troops and for Kashmir’s right to self-determination.

The first book to give equal weight to the Vietnamese and American sides of the Vietnam war.