Xinran is a radio show host that talks about women's issues. This gives her access to women all over China to hear their stories because they trust her and it's easy to open up to her. As China "opens up" following the revolution, women are finally able to speak about their stories. Xinran tells us these women's stories, as it seems that even in the 90s, China still wasn't quite ready for them. These stories include tales of rape and abuse. The Red Guard takes away parents who don't believe in Communism, an earthquake destroys a village, a child keeps a fly as a pet while she's in the hospital. Each story is unique and each has the ability to break your heart.
I was in shock while reading some of these stories. These women have been through so much pain and they each deal with it in completely different ways. The flow of the book was exceptional, with Xinran explaining how she met these women and a bit about her radio program. Each story relates slightly to the next which helps the reader go from one to the next.
We even get a brief glimpse in to Xinran's past, though I would have liked a bit more. This book will stay with me for a long time.
This book is a translation but reads like it was written in English. The translator deserves an applause for such a great job.
First Line: "Early one spring morning in 1989, I rode my Flying Pigeon bicycle through the streets of Nanjing dreaming about my son Panpan."
Rating:
(4.5/5)
Drew is a smart, but lazy, American ex-pat living in Turkey. When his friend Kadir asks him to hide something for a day and someone ends up murdered because of it, Drew knows he's stumbled upon something dangerous. With a background in religious studies, Drew finds out that previously undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls are at stake here. These scrolls are expected to have knowledge in them that would change Christianity, which makes it not too surprising that so many people are after these scrolls and that they are willing to kill for them.
When Ava finds out she's HIV positive, and her hair styling business starts to dry up because those in Atlanta are scared of her, she decides she needs a change of scenery. Ava returns to small town Michigan, where her widowed sister still lives. Joyce is happy to have Ava back, and puts her to work helping with her woman's group, the Sewing Circus. Joyce is trying to educate the women of the small town on how they should be treated, safe sex, child care, and other essential life skills. Of course, not everyone in the town agrees with these teachings and try to throw a wrench in Joyce and Ava's plans.
Zack Lightman is a video game geek. He's spent countless hours honing his craft and has become one of the top ten ranked players of Armada. Then, one day, he sees one of the enemy's fighter planes outside of his school's window. Zack decides he's losing it, just like his father did before he died.
In this epic sequel of Pillars of the Earth, we're taken back to Kingsbridge. The church has been standing now for a while, John the builder is long gone, but similar problems with the town still exist. There's a guild who doesn't treat people fairly, the priory only cares about power, and the sprinkling of good people seems to be less than those out for themselves. We're introduced to Merthin, a talented builder that descends from John, Caris, a very independent young lady who wants to learn how to help heal people, Gwenda, who comes from a poor family and doesn't want to stay that way, and Ralph, Merthin's brother who is mean spirited and wants to become a knight.
Rachel takes the train every day. Each day, the train stops at the same part and she can see in to the back yard of a couple whom she has given her own stories too. This house is only a couple homes down from her ex-husband, his new wife, and their baby. This is a farce though, Rachel hasn't been employed for weeks and has no where to go. Instead, she drinks until she blacks out. One of the nights she blacks out, the woman in the house that Rachel spies on goes missing. Rachel thinks she may have been involved but she can't remember.
Carlotta Carlyle is an ex-cop, current private investigator. Needing some extra cash, she decides to help out a friend and is put undercover as a secretary for the big dig, a huge over budget in Boston to put roads underground. Carlotta is searching for fraud on the worksite, and ends up working in the same trailer as those running the entire project. She's also taken on a missing persons case, hired by her landlord. Carlyle has her hands full working on both these cases.
Daniel Tammet is a high functioning autistic savant. Similar to the main character from Rainmain, he can calculate huge sums in his head, tell you what day of the week you were born, and recite pi to 22,000 and something digits. Daniel wasn't diagnosed as autistic until late in life, which had him and his parents questioning some of his behaviour as a child. Daniel takes us through his life, how he sees words and numbers, how he functions in the world, and what has happened to him since people became aware of his condition and he was featured in a tv show.
From the blogger of 1000awesomethings.com, comes this book that talks, ad nauseam, of things that are AWESOME! This book can be fun when you digest it in small chunks. As gross as this is going to sound, it would actually make a good bathroom book. Do your business, read a few awesome things, and go on your merry way. This isn't the way I read it though, and about half way through just skipped the descriptions of items I wasn't that interested in.
Claire and her mother exchange notes on the refrigerator door because with their busy schedules that's sometimes the only way they can communicate. Claire is a typical teenager with boy troubles and her mom is a working single mother that's on call frequently as a doctor. At first the notes are trivial: groceries to get, allowance needed, don't forget your keys! Then they become more serious as Claire's mother learns she has cancer.