50. A Malaysian Journey by Rehman Rashid (1993, 285 page paperback, read July 18 - Aug 4)
Rating: 4 stars

That I'm using a 1993 memoir to mentally prepare for an upcoming trip to Malaysia says a lot more about me than it does about the book. But, Rashid is charming. Wikipedia says he's a prominent Malaysian journalist, but then doesn't list anything he's done since publishing this book in 1993.

He writes about the history of Malaysian in his lifetime, or at least since the 1969 riots, about the Malaysian challenge of non-mixing races, and then also about his travels around the country, about his own history and his journalism. As one who didn't rock the boat and liked working within the establishment, and had spent most of his professional life at the time of publication working for a party-controlled new papers, it's hard to know what is behind his words. But they come across sincere and really informative about Malaysian history and culture. So, I guess I really liked it.

2015
https://www.librarything.com/topic/191940#5234664 ( )