346 ratings | 346 reviews | avg rating:4.50

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Isham Cook

Goodreads Author

Born

in Chicago, The United States

Website

http://ishamcook.com

Twitter

Ishamcook

Genre

Fiction, Travel, Nonfiction

Influences

Ballard, Beckett, Borges, Dick, Kafka, Hesse, Melville, Mishima, Sade ...more

Member Since

January 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/ishamcook

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American essayist and novelist. His writing philosophy is big concept, discriminating, provocative. His influences are Ballard, Beckett, Borges, Dick, Kafka, Hesse, Melville, Mishima, Sade, and all uncompromising authors who bulldoze their way into new territory. And, of course, it all begins with Shakespeare.

Kirkus Reviews calls his second novel The Kitchens of Canton "poignant...language barriers abound, with dialogue in Cantonese, Italian, and Latin, but Cook isn’t merely interested in verbal language—body language, customs and rituals, and symbols are also on full display. The book also explores Americans’ complicated relationship with sex, juxtaposing it against their seemingly comfortable relationships with weapons and violence. An in ...more

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Isham Cook’s books

Average rating: 4.32 · 793 ratings · 133 reviews · 10 distinct works

	American Rococo: Essays on the Edge 4.28 avg rating — 198 ratings — published 2017 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Kitchens of Canton 4.31 avg rating — 196 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai 4.41 avg rating — 186 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Confucius and Opium: China Book Reviews 4.50 avg rating — 132 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	At the Teahouse Cafe: Essays from the Middle Kingdom 4.03 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lust & Philosophy 3.88 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2012 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Exact Unknown and Other Tales of Modern China 3.93 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2014 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Massage and the Writer 3.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2014 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sexual Fascism: Essays 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poems by August Stramm, Isham Cook (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Isham Cook's Blog: Isham Cook

“The golden ocean flower.” Fiction

[For background to this story, read the preceding story “Qiezi.”]

A cleaver and a silver tael given to her by her father were all that weighed down the sack hanging from her shoulders as Qiezi forded the river. Now on the opposite bank on agile feet she scarcely needed to halt her pace except that she was hungry, the family meal aborted by the unfortunate events of the past hour. Expressionless

Isham is Currently Reading

Isham Cook is currently reading

My Education

by Susan Choi (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 03, 2022 02:28AM

Isham Cook is currently reading

Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves

by Carolyn Chute

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Apr 03, 2022 02:07AM

Isham Cook is currently reading

The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047

by Lionel Shriver (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 03, 2022 12:01AM

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Isham’s Recent Updates

Isham Cook has read Outside Looking In by T. Coraghessan Boyle (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 30, 2024 04:30PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Outside Looking In by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Outside Looking In by T. Coraghessan Boyle <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook liked Richard Sjoquist's review of Sleepwalking through China: The true story of an American teacher in a foreign land: "I came to this book with a jaundiced eye. I found it pretentious for the author to use a Chinese pseudonym and presumptuous to declare in the blurb on the back cover that "most people get China wrong, [sic] I want to set the record straight." At time" Read more of this review »
Jul 19, 2024 05:39PM · see review
Isham Cook answered Richard Sjoquist's question: Can you recommend any translators of Chinese literature other than Howard Goldblatt, who I already follow? No, because to be frank I don't often read translations of Chinese literature in English. I'm actually more interested in Chinese authors who write in English (e.g., Han Jin, Xiaolu Guo) and expat authors writing about China.
Jun 23, 2024 03:26AM · like
Isham Cook rated a book really liked it Stoner by John Williams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
If nothing else, a novel should be instructive. This novel was a trying read but I managed to get through it and learned how NOT to live life. It’s a well-regarded novel and is indeed competently written, but it’s a dreary story, with the most tediou ...more
Aug 21, 2023 01:50PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stoner by John Williams. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stoner by John Williams <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook is now following Jessica Fern Author of Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual N...
Jul 24, 2023 08:07AM · like
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History, Vol. I) by David Hackett Fischer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
So fascinating you don't notice the 900 pages. Tidbits from the section on the Puritans in 17th-c. New England: It was illegal to be single. Tithingmen regularly barged in and inspected every family. Bachelors were rounded up and forced to live with ...more
Mar 04, 2023 04:26PM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing The Rose Of Paracelsus: On Secrets & Sacraments by William Leonard Pickard	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
From what I understand of William Leonard Pickard's background, he was trained as a chemist (after an aborted first semester at Princeton as an undergraduate) and spent most of his years manufacturing LSD (ultimately in an abandoned nuclear missile s ...more
Feb 06, 2023 12:35AM · 1 like · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book really liked it Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback by Laurie Penny	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I was prepared to go along with, even endorse, Laurie Penny's contention that white male entitlement is almost exclusively to blame for our society's burden of sexism and sexual violence because, well, if we are honest about it, there's much truth to ...more
Jan 31, 2023 10:01PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sexual Revolution by Laurie Penny. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sexual Revolution by Laurie Penny <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Surveillance State: China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control by Josh Chin (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Everything dystopian you think is happening -- in both China and the rest of the world including the US -- is happening. One of the many striking facts in this new book is that almost all of the companies involved in developing the apparatuses for di ...more
Oct 15, 2022 08:59PM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Surveillance State by Josh Chin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Surveillance State by Josh Chin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy by David Corn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nothing in David Corn's new book wasn't already known, but he pulls it all together and his history of the GOP makes for an excellent page-turning refresher course. What's indisputably clear is that the Republican Party is and has long been (at least ...more
Oct 08, 2022 01:01AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of American Psychosis by David Corn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — American Psychosis by David Corn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Isham Cook (?)

“But the outcome was inevitable: she assumed you would not take no for an answer; she could already see your charming smile morph into the grimace of a rabid dog. To”
― Isham Cook, Lust and Philosophy

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Isham’s Quotes

“Andrew Solomon, in his book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, traces the links between addiction and depression, which frequently co-occur, as well as the intimate relationship between depression and anxiety. He quotes an expert on anxiety who suggests we should think of the two disorders as “fraternal twins”: “Depression is a response to past loss, and anxiety is a response to future loss.” Both reflect a mind mired in rumination, one dwelling on the past, the other worrying about the future. What mainly distinguishes the two disorders is their tense.”
― Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

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