China: Recommended Recent Nonfiction

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China ghosts : my daughter's journey to America, my passage to fatherhood
by Jeff Gammage, 2007

A father's account of going to China with his wife to adopt their daughters: "Revealing . . . thoughtful . . . A father-daughter love story from a sensitive writer who doesn’t neglect thorny issues of race and culture." – Kirkus

China, Inc. : how the rise of the next superpower challenges America and the world by Ted C. Fishman, 2005

"A lively, fact-packed account of China's spectacular, 30-year transformation from economic shambles following Mao's Cultural Revolution to burgeoning market superpower." – Publishers Weekly

China : [people, place, culture, history] by Alison Bailey et al., 2007

"You can't help marveling at the ambition of the project and the daring of tackling it." – O, The Oprah Magazine

China shakes the world : a titan's rise and troubled future and the challenge for America by James Kynge, 2006.

"Kynge's crisp assessment of the dynamics involved is both authoritative and eye-opening." – Publishers Weekly

Lost on planet China : the strange and true story of one man's attempt to understand the world's most mystifying nation, or how he became comfortable eating live squid by J. Maarten Troost, 2008

"Troost is refreshingly upbeat, without a hint of ugly American elitism."
Starred Review – Publishers Weekly

The man who loved China : the fantastic story of the eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester, 2008.

"Winchester plunges the reader into the action with hardly a break." Starred Review – Publishers Weekly

River town : two years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler, 2001

"A vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people." Starred Review – Kirkus

The search for modern China by Jonathan D. Spence, 1990.

"To understand . . . China's past there is no better place to start than Jonathan D. Spences excellent new book." - The New York Times Book Review

Wild swans : three daughters of China by Jung Chang, 1991.

"An excellent work about China as seen through the eyes of women of three different generations" – Library Journal