Anecdotes, facts, and observations on the role animals play in the daily life of Southeast Asian villages.

Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Southeast Asia (Kolowalu Books (Paperback))

Business & Money

Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer

McNeely, Jeffrey A.

Economics

University of Hawaii Press

In the middle of a Borneo rainforest a band of near-naked Penan, encouraged by an equally clothes-challenged renegade Swiss shepherd, hesitantly blockade a logging truck, testing their commitment to protect their forest home. 
Nearby, an orangutan researcher is threatened with being thrown out of her study site unless she can reach a compromise with the powerful minister of the environment. 
How can the world's oldest forest be saved? Who has the answer? The scientist who studies orangutans? The marketing experts of the world's largest nature conservation group? The earnest monkey-wrenchers? Or are they all just kidding themselves that they can make a difference? 
At the heart of Redheads fictional action lies the very real problem of rainforest destruction and the philosophical question of where the real boundaries lie between apes and humans. Could sex be an effective instrument of communication between the two? And just what is it about red silk underwear, anyway?

Redheads

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Sid Harta Publishers

What do jumping cats have to do with Buddhism’s Middle Path? Did Orwell really hate everyone in Burma? How did Myanmar's ruling junta use white elephants to consolidate their power? Will a synagogue caretaker’s improbable dream ever come true? What arrogance drives western travelers to seek the “unknown”? And why should you never disrespect the nat spirits who guard a sacred forest? This is Myanmar as you’ve probably never imagined, full of curious people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.

Curious Encounters of the Human Kind - Myanmar (Burma): True Asian Tales of Folly, Greed, Ambition and Dreams

Travel

Asia

Explorer's Eye Press

Why do prominent modern Indonesian sultans continue love affairs with the Mermaid Queen? Why is the island of Flores Ground Zero for Hobbit sightings? How does a Papuan hunter juggle the four religions which want a piece of his soul? Why did a now-neglected spice cause historic mayhem among greedy Europeans? Why does it make good business sense to make friends with the dragon princess? Why is discovering a new species almost as good as sex? What is the allure of Waltzing Banana Island? Can an elderly village woman armed with just a broom and gumption kill giant mosquitoes 'til they're dead? This is Indonesia as you've probably never imagined, full of curious people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.

Curious Encounters of the Human Kind - Indonesia: True Asian Tales of Folly, Greed, Ambition and Dreams

What's a woman to do when a Hindu god doesn't return her mountain? Would you risk your life by hugging a tree? How do you find a nameless young girl you first met (for five minutes) twenty-six years earlier? For environmental consciousness, should we trust the international bureaucrats or a Bhutanese farmer? Does the yeti illuminate the dark side of our souls? Why do we have an urge to "rid the land of demons"? How do "often frothy" phalluses protect Bhutanese villagers? This is the Himalayan region as you've probably never imagined, full of memorable people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.

Curious Encounters of the Human Kind - Himalaya: True Asian Tales of Folly, Greed, Ambition and Dreams

How has a town named after a female vampire ghost spawned an entire genre of kitschy horror films? Why did a quiet Swiss man choose to live rough in the rainforest with the semi-nomadic Penans - and what inner spirit drove him to fight a David vs. Goliath rebellion against timber tycoons and corrupt officials who were destroying the Penans's forest home? Has White-Brown colonialism been replaced by Brown-Brown arrogance? What's the story of the grandmother who spits at meddling ghosts (but only because they spit first)? Why did the first White Rajah of Borneo amass a vast harem of concubines? What happened when I tried to ride the tidal bore that almost killed Somerset Maugham? In what way was an illiterate Borneo teenager instrumental in helping Alfred Russel Wallace develop the theory of natural selection? How close are we to orangutans, "our poor cousins who look like they haven't done so well in life." This is Borneo as you've probably never imagined, full of curious people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.

Curious Encounters of the Human Kind - Borneo: True Asian Tales of Folly, Greed, Ambition and Dreams

What's the attraction of coffee that's been digested by a civet? Can 200-million-year-old fossilized freshwater shark dung bring you good luck? Why do boys like to make things go bang - hey, lemme try the AK-47 ? Why is the belching and slovenly widow of Laos's first president so possessive about the animal she considers her white elephant? How did Vietnam's last elephant hunter, at the age of 90, get a lucrative sponsorship deal for a tonic that makes men more powerful? Did a love potion help a Filipino politician become governor? And what role did an absurdly rich, secretive American businessman (who enjoyed deflowering virgins) have in creating Vietnam's golf boom? This is Southeast Asia as you've probably never imagined, full of memorable people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.

Curious Encounters of the Human Kind - Southeast Asia: True Asian Tales of Folly, Greed, Ambition and Dreams

Your hero’s journey can take many forms. Perhaps you met your soulmate at a cooking class in Tuscany and now make fresh pasta every evening — you’re 40 kilos overweight but happy. You took your eight-year-old daughter to the lake where your parents took you as a child — she caught her first fish. Or maybe you want to record your family’s history. How Grandfather Ishmael escaped Lithuania hours before he was to be arrested for horse theft, how Grandma Chen left China penniless, then through hard work and a deft touch at the mahjong table, became one of Singapore’s leading real estate tycoons.  Perhaps you aren’t too sure how to start your story, how to focus, how to make it interesting for other people. The Ten Writing Tips in Share Your Journey will give you the tools and confidence to write more effective blogs, write for online and print publications, and make more effective presentations. LEARN HOW TO: • Recognize the dynamics of your own hero’s journey • Get started by writing just one scene • Avoid the dreaded “info dump” • Create instant intimacy with the reader • Tell the story by following the Little Red Riding Hood Strategy • Create conflict with the Nancy Reagan Principle • Keep ’em hanging on with the Scheherazade Scenario • Invoke the Story of One to represent the Story of Many • Write like Steven Spielberg directs • Eliminate fluff like Michelangelo

Share Your Journey: Mastering Personal Writing: The (Surprisingly Easy) Techniques Professional Writers Use to Write Personal Memoirs and Travel Stories That Connect with Editors and Readers

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles follows the Victorian-era explorations of Alfred Russel Wallace through Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. While Wallace is recognized as co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection (and was perhaps deliberately sidelined by Darwin), he was also an edgy social commentator and a voracious collector of "natural productions"--he caught, skinned, and pickled 125,660 specimens, including 212 new species of birds and 900 new species of beetles. Sochaczewski has created an innovative form of storytelling, combining incisive biography and personal travelogue. He examines themes about which Wallace cared deeply--women's power, why boys leave home, the need to collect, our relationship with other species, humanity's need to control nature and how this leads to nature destruction, arrogance, the role of ego and greed, white-brown and brown-brown colonialism, serendipity, passion, mysticism--and interprets them through his own filter with layers of humor, history, social commentary, and sometimes outrageous personal tales.

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles: Campfire Conversations with Alfred Russel Wallace on People and Nature Based on Common Travel in the Malay ... of the Orangutan, and the Bird of Paradise

Biographies & Memoirs

Travelers & Explorers

Dead, but Still Kicking: Encounters with Mediums, Shamans, and Spirits

Religion & Spirituality

Occult & Paranormal

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Books by Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer