354 ratings | 354 reviews | avg rating:4.52

Isham Cook’s Followers (42)

Isham’s Bookshelves

to-read (237)
currently-reading (3)
read (353)
china-bookshelf (108)

Isham’s Friends (88)

Shako Liu

286 books | 199 friends

Adam Hoss

708 books | 173 friends

Sonny Kohet

15 books | 15 friends

Leslie Ann

946 books | 1,941 friends

Pyramids Ubiquitous

863 books | 106 friends

Susan

1,911 books | 457 friends

James

5,946 books | 178 friends

Rasmenia Massoud

1,216 books | 617 friends

More friends…

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

edit data

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

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Isham Cook questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Isham Cook’s books

Average rating: 4.31 · 804 ratings · 142 reviews · 11 distinct works

	The Kitchens of Canton 4.31 avg rating — 197 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 4.28 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 Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai 4.41 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 4.50 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 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 3.82 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
	The Tao of Poison really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9 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
	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

More books by Isham Cook…

160 posts
Isham Cook's Blog: Isham Cook

Five steps toward personal emancipation in an Orwellian world

At the risk of embarking on something as lowbrow as a self-help guide, and coming off, to the average person, as eccentric or outrageous, the following proposes 5 steps toward personal emancipation (more important in these Orwellian times than ever!). This post will be regularly expanded and eventually turned into a book, in which I will delve into the history–going back to the Enlightenment a

Isham is Currently Reading

Isham Cook is currently reading

My Education

by Susan Choi (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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 03, 2022 02:28AM

Isham Cook is currently reading

Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves

by Carolyn Chute

bookshelves: currently-reading

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 03, 2022 02:07AM

Isham Cook is currently reading

The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047

by Lionel Shriver (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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 03, 2022 12:01AM

rss
Isham’s Recent Updates

Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield (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
Fifields' The Great Successor picks up where Demick's Nothing to Envy leaves off to lay out all the bizarre developments and shenanigans of the Kim Jong Un regime, from his obsession with amusement parks and nuclear weapons to basketball. The Dennis ...more
Sep 30, 2025 09:01PM · 1 like · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings	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
Cuming's The Korean War blasts apart our brainwashing that the N. Koreans were alone responsible; in fact, both sides were itching to invade and only needed a pretext. The U.S. carried out a genocidal campaign against the North, employing napalm ince ...more
Sep 30, 2025 09:00PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Korean War by Bruce Cumings. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Korean War by Bruce Cumings <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing 1984 by George Orwell	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 book needs no hype; it remains one of the two founding dystopian novels - the other being Huxley's Brave New World. However, since reading Barbara Demick's "Nothing to Envy," about life in North Korea, I have to say that that country surpasses "1 ...more
Aug 28, 2025 03:30AM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (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
A most incisive study of North Korea, the contemporary world's great tragedy of an entire nation confined to a concentration camp. Things have marginally improved under Kim Jong Un, largely due to the regime's new method of generating income through ...more
Aug 28, 2025 03:27AM · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing The Complete Works of Shakespeare [38 plays, 4 poems, sonnets] by William Shakespeare	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've now read all the plays (many multiple times) except for King John and Henry VI (1-3) & VIII, which I'll get around to at some point. My views on Shakespeare (garnered after years of teaching him as well) are summed up in my concise essay "A Shak ...more
Aug 28, 2025 03:23AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Complete Works of Shakespeare [38 plays, 4 poems, sonnets] by William Shakespeare. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Complete Works of Shakespeare [38 plays, 4 poems, sonnets] by William Shakespeare <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse (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
Gripping historical novel set during the Taiping Rebellion in China based on the life of the historical figure of Sir Robert Hart (1835–1911) and his conflicted and tortured relationship with two Chinese sisters and former slaves who sought to share ...more
Aug 25, 2025 02:01AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — My Splendid Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook is now following Linda's reviews
Aug 08, 2025 07:59PM · like
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Second Life by Stephani Cook	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
Perhaps because the author's surname was the same as my pen name, I picked up this memoir in a secondhand bookshop. I soon discovered the prosaic cover belied its gory contents: a most grim, challenging, and disturbing read, as any good book should b ...more
Jun 22, 2025 09:48PM · 1 like · like · see review
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Bernardine's Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason	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 hard to imagine a celebrated socialite at the center of more storied personages than American Bernadine Szold-Fritz was in 1930s Shanghai. Gravitating to her salons and theatrical extravaganzas (Anglo-Chinese collaborative dramas) were the cream ...more
Jun 08, 2025 10:49PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Bernardine's Shanghai Salon by Susan Blumberg-Kason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Bernardine's Shanghai Salon by Susan Blumberg-Kason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Isham Cook rated a book it was amazing Quicksand by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki	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
Aesthetically perverse in the way only the Japanese can be, this precision-tooled psychological thriller published in 1929 would have benefitted from more explicit lesbian sexual description, admittedly impossible at the time. The story really boils ...more
Jun 01, 2025 05:21PM · 1 like · 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

149 likes

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

0 likes