This new take on Japanese modern classics -- old standbys and lots of recent writing as well -- is big (864 pages and it's only the first volume). It includes examples from the Restoration of 1868 through the Occupation of 1945. There's not only the usual fiction and poetry but also essays and criticism as well. And most of the translations are newly done for this publication.
VERY THAI by Philip Cornwel-Smith and John Goss (River Books)
This is a brilliant book-length photo-essay on Thai popular culture that gives hundreds of examples of the Thai way of doing things. As Alex Kerr says in his preface, this culture "seems an informal, free-wheeling place, even at times chaotic. But the more time you spend here, the more you realize that there is an internal logic and symbolism invisibly ordering everything.