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Isham Cook

Goodreads Author

Born

in Chicago, The United States

Website

https://IshamCook.com/, https://IshamCookChina.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. Tinkers with comfort zones.

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 insightful, unconventi ...more

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Combine Editions
Isham Cook’s books

Average rating: 4.36 · 1,810 ratings · 171 reviews · 11 distinct works

	The Tao of Poison 4.41 avg rating — 1,008 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 Kitchens of Canton 4.30 avg rating — 198 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
	American Rococo: Essays on the Edge 4.27 avg rating — 199 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 Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai 4.42 avg rating — 184 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 4.51 avg rating — 135 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 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 33 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 3.92 avg rating — 12 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 3.50 avg rating — 8 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

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166 posts
Isham Cook's Blog: Isham Cook

Insights into China, Part 7: A glimpse inside a school

High school in Changchun, Jilin Province, China. The caption reads: “A high school with 80 years of educational memories” (still from promotional video)

High school in Beijing, 1996. The middle column on the blackboard in back translates the English at left; the right column lists responsibilities for keeping the classroom clean (photos by Isham Cook)

THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

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Isham is Currently Reading

Isham Cook is currently reading

Mating

by Norman Rush

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Apr 22, 2026 02:28AM

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The Magus

by John Fowles

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My Education

by Susan Choi (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 03, 2022 02:28AM

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Isham’s Recent Updates

Isham Cook is now following Bookmark's reviews
May 26, 2026 05:43PM · like
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky (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
Has to be about the creepiest book I've ever read; you'll see malevolent AI around you everywhere you look after reading it. Conventional horror books can't hold a candle to it. ...more
May 21, 2026 02:38AM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book really liked it Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein	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
Richly imagined story of an earthling raised on Mars who is returned to earth and challenged with acculturating to Protestant morality. The hefty read is punctuated by longueurs, and I impatiently awaited the famous section at the end when Heinlein a ...more
Apr 22, 2026 06:37PM · 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 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book really liked it Island by Aldous Huxley	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
A novel that unfolds like scenes in a play, told in close conversations among a few friends or relations in private domiciles in the author's utopian setting, where the islanders have achieved a self-sustaining communist community, under imminent thr ...more
Apr 22, 2026 03:03AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Island by Aldous Huxley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Island by Aldous Huxley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu	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
It's been called one of the greatest Chinese novels of the 20th century, and rightly so, for its literary sophistication, biting comedy of manners, and the tragic implications of social relations in 1930s China. There is no happy or sentimental resol ...more
Apr 22, 2026 02:48AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook is currently reading Mating by Norman Rush	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
Apr 22, 2026 02:28AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Mating by Norman Rush. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Mating by Norman Rush <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Max Hastings	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
A leftist Australian acquaintance of mine who despises the U.S. trashed this book as he felt it hadn't explained the full extent of U.S. violence in Vietnam. A U.S. citizen myself, I'm no fan of the U.S. Government either, and I've read Chomsky & Her ...more
Apr 22, 2026 02:12AM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book really liked it Island by Aldous Huxley	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
A novel that unfolds like scenes in a play, told in close conversations among a few friends or relations in private domiciles in the author's utopian setting, where the islanders have achieved a self-sustaining communist community, under imminent thr ...more
Apr 21, 2026 09:33PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Island by Aldous Huxley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Island by Aldous Huxley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Neuromancer (Sprawl #1) by William Gibson	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
Classic sci-fi and one of the first cyberpunk novels - from the 1980s! Not an easy read (more coherent on second reading), but the sophisticated noir atmosphere and elegiac prose carry one along. Gibson's is a haunting voice, and his baroque visual a ...more
Apr 21, 2026 09:31PM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller	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
Miller's vulgarity fetish and absence of coherent narrative are welded into a solid and memorable whole by his relentlessly inventive and gorgeous English. And you can see how Jack Kerouac picked up where Miller left off. ...more
Apr 21, 2026 09:28PM · like · see review

More of Isham's books…

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

405 likes

“No human figures were in the painting; had there been, and she would have removed them by repositioning the painting.”
― Isham Cook, The Tao of Poison

tags: adventure, anti-heroine, character-study, dark-adventure, fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, survival-story

163 likes

“The forest was almost thunderous in its myriad sounds.”
― Isham Cook, The Tao of Poison

tags: atmospheric-reads, dark-adventure, goodreads-quote, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, nature-writing, qing-dynasty

151 likes

See all Isham Cook's quotes »

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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