#histbookchat #China Xmas arrival!! The Raider by Stephen Platt (2025) @stephenplatt.bsky.social from @aaknopf.bsky.social which tells the story of Evans Carlson who was once embedded with Mao's Communist forces & who went on to form the US Marine Raiders in WW2

#Histbookchat #PhotoFriday Some fiction from me today!! Long Summer Day by R.F. Delderfield (1966) - the first of A Horseman Riding By trilogy. Been meaning to read this for years - a slice of English West Country life long gone. Might take me some time. Almost 700 pages... 1/2

Always a happy day when the latest journal arrives from across the pond @ssycds.bsky.social Lots of interesting stuff inside, including a special section on the human senses!! #histbookchat #sinology #China #SongDynasty

New book from Hans Van De Ven, due out June 2026 - for those who want more on WW2 in the East. #histbookchat (Still waiting for Richard B. Frank's second volume in his new trilogy. I am starting to worry...)

#histbookchat Finally, best general #nonfiction books read in 2025, four picks in no particular order: 1/5 #BookSky 📚💜

Okay, so now best China books read in 2025 #NonFiction #China #History #Law #Biography #Memoir I chose three - with one runner up!! 1/6 #histbookchat

Time for best books I've read of 2025, first off, #fiction #histbookchat #BookSky Two choices this year and they both take me back to #WW2 1/3

#histbookchat #sinology #law On the wish list for 2026! Just gotta find another relative to sell to afford it 😵‍💫😬😢

#BookSky 📚💜Latest read, and last book of the year!! Death in Cyprus by M.M. Kaye (1956, this edition 1984) #amreading #CrimeFiction

#histbookchat Santu Island is about to be taken over by the Chinese Communists and British citizens need to be evacuated! 😲All the Royal Navy has to spare is a washed up skipper & HMS Wagtail, an old gunboat about to be scrapped 😲 #BookSky 📚💜 #fiction #exciting (pubbed, 1960)

#histbookchat My latest piece in The Perfect Voice about a man who lived his life in the knowledge that one day he would lose his life for the sake of the rule of law: Giovanni Falcone - thks to Mister Banerjee @shoumojitb.bsky.social & his red editing pen! www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-jud...

#histbookchat No new book this week. Just finishing off this great book. Learned so much I didn't know about Italy - one of my books of the year. Don't know why I left it so long on the shelves before got around to reading it! #photofriday

#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 It's Jane Austen's 250th birthday and I am sure you are all wondering how and when she made it to #China !! There is a short paper by Helong Zhang from 2022 that addresses this issue 1/2 www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/11...

#histbookchat #China New arrival! All That Glistens: China Party-State Influence in Britain by Martin Thorley @methorley.bsky.social from @hurstpublishers.bsky.social as supplied by Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social the shiniest bookseller on the Emerald Isle!!

#histbookchat #sinology Out July 2026, from Cambridge University Press, edited by Cong Ellen Zhang #SongDynasty

New (open access) paper from Olivia Milburn on the cooking of meat in China (500 - 100BCE) - looks like its either kebabs or maybe kebabs for dinner.... #China #Cooking

Received a special delivery: ‘All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain’ with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social Expect to see some reviews and interviews next week. www.hurstpublishers.com/book/all-tha...

#histbookchat #photofriday I've been writing a bit about the Mafia this week, so a deep dive into history here with Blood Brotherhoods: A History of Italy's Three Mafias by John Dickie (this edition, 2014) #amreading #BookSky 📚💜 #truecrime #Italy

Tales of trickery were popular in the late Ming dynasty. We invited Bruce Rusk and Christopher Rea, translators of "More Swindles from the Late Ming" by Zhang Yingyu, to guide us through this literary underworld. Listen to Ep. 27: chinabooksreview.com/2025/12/02/e...

#BookSky 📚💜Latest read! Death in Zanzibar by M. M. Kaye (1959, this edition 1983) #amreading #CrimeFiction

#BookReview – The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier #TheGlassmaker #Histfic #Venice #Murano #Italy #BookSky #HistoricalFiction #SecretLibraryBookBlog Synopsis: "From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era…

#histbookchat Latest read! More than 40 years before Miranda v Arizona (1966) there was a triple murder in Washington DC, the investigation of which had a profound effect on American law: The Third Degree by Scott Seligman (2018) #BookSky 📚💜 #truecrime

latest read, this is a nice 1st edition from 1981 #histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜

#histbookchat #sinology New arrival! The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China by Ruixue Jia & Hongbin Li (2025) - supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who was awarded her English degree after reading only one book (Great Gatsby) just to stop her rabbiting on about it

#histbookchat Great piece in The Perfect Voice from Mister Banerjee @shoumojitb.bsky.social on the Nuremberg trials www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-nur...

#histbookchat #photofriday took a few days off from my own writing & finished Raiders, Rulers, & Traders by @davidchaffetz.bsky.social I'm not a great believer in books changing people's lives but I'll never look at horses the same way again! Amazing book! There was so much I never realised before..

#histbookchat My latest piece in The Perfect Voice, Mumbai, on China, hostage diplomacy, and the passing of Anthony Grey (1938-2025) - with thanks to Mister Banerjee's editorial red pen! @shoumojitb.bsky.social #sinology #journalism www.theperfectvoice.in/post/anthony...

#histbookchat Some #CrimeFiction from me today: Death in Berlin by M. M. Kaye (1955, this edition 1985) #amreading #BookSky 📚💜

#histbookchat Part 1 of Sino-Japanese War by John Dong out now from Helion - Part 2 due Spring 2026 www.helion.co.uk/military-his...

It's fish tank cleaning day and the fish 🐟🐠🐡🦈wanted some #blues so I chose their namesake - they were so excited! - Paper Doll by Samantha Fish (2025) 🎵🎶🎵 - very cool

Street poster, Beijing - The Core Values of Chinese Socialism. And, in case you were wondering they are the National (Prosperity, Democracy, Civility, Harmony), the Social (Freedom, Equality, Justice, Rule of Law) and the Individual (Patriotism, Dedication, Integrity, Friendship). So now you know….

#histbookpost sadly, no new book offering this week but a long (64pg😬) paper on Xi Jinping's concept of law and the future of law in China: Zeming Liu & Benjamin Liebman: Redefining Law in China #law #China #research #funread Open Access American Journal of Comparative Law 2025

#BookSky 📚💜Starship Troopers is to be filmed again. My thoughts on this and on Robert Heinlein's (most?) controversial novel in The Perfect Voice with editorial thanks to the esteemed Mister Banerjee @shoumojitb.bsky.social #sciencefiction www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-gal...

Great stuff from Tonio Andrade on China and the origins of gunpowder #sinology #histbookchat

Latest read! #histbookchat The Deep Silence by Douglas Reeman (1967, this the 2003 reprint) - the Royal Navy's newest nuclear submarine, HMS Temeraire, is in Asian waters and sailing into danger off the coast of Red China.... #exciting

Latest arrival for Halloween!! The Revolutionists by Jason Burke (2025) @jasonburke2.bsky.social from The Bodley Head as as supplied by the Scream (Drama) Queen of Dromore herself 🧙‍♀️🧹🐈, Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social #histbookchat #BookSky📚💜

#histbookchat podcast for the Japan specialists....

#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 #CrimeFiction I recommended this to @yorgosmoraitis.bsky.social for his class some time ago and decided I ought to read it for myself!!😂The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kai (2014) trans. Jeremy Tiang (2016) - six interlocking murder investigations moving backwards 1/2

Everybody wants to rule the world: welcome to my review of #Coldwire by Chloe Gong! #NetGalley

latest read! #BookSky 📚💜 #histbookchat Some more fiction from Douglas Reeman: The Iron Pirate (1986)

It's fish tank cleaning day and the fish 🐟🐠🐡🦈wanted some #spacerock and an album they hadn't heard before, so Into The Woods by Hawkwind (2017) - really, really good!!🎵🎶🎵

#BookSky 📚💜 Latest read! Death in Kashmir by M.M. Kaye (1953, this edition 1984) #CrimeFiction #amreading It's 1947, and there are both spies and murder on the glittering ski slopes of Kashmir...

#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 I wrote about the Tea & Horse Agency keeping the Song Dynasty alive (militarily) in my first Magistrate Zhu novel, now for a greater history of the horse: Raiders, Rulers, & Traders (2024) by @davidchaffetz.bsky.social

Very cool! Looking forward to this! 👏 #histbookchat #sinology

#BookSky 📚💜 #CrimeFiction Latest read! Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto (1958) trans. Jesse Kirkwood (2022) as supplied by the Queen of the Dromore Underworld herself, Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social

#sinology #law Talk from Prof Liang Cai on the 15th Oct if you're in HK - doesn't appear to be on Zoom, sadly - and she has her book coming out at the end of the month, £110 also sadly, no sign of a paperback - Convict Politics, #China 221BCE - 23CE #law

#histbookchat #sinology New arrival!! Politicizing Business by Ning Leng from @universitypress.cambridge.org as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social who, this month, is celebrating 30 years of selling books to the (once) literary impoverished inhabitants of Dromore!!

Great review by @susanbk.bsky.social of the new novel from Kristen Loesch #fiction #China #BookSky 📚💜