Category: Book Reviews

I don’t use Twitter very much, but when I do I am sure to look for any posts related to “Changsha.” That is how I found the book Healing, Romance, and Revolution: Letters from an American Nurse in 1926 China. Harriet Smith was a nurse in Changsha, Hunan, China for several years. This book only Read More

Min is an excellent writer and always chooses interesting subjects. Pearl of China is no different. Pearl of China is a tricky novel. Min set out to tell the story of Pearl S. Buck, perhaps the most famous and influential writer on China in the 20th century. But Min wanted to tell the story from a Chinese Read More

For nearly 8 years in the late 80s and early 90s, Xinran hosted a radio program in China called Words on the Night Breeze where she invited women to call in and share their stories. Unfortunately, because of strong government censorship, many of the calls could not be shared or the experiences talked about in Read More

The Feng Shui Detective by Nury Vittachi is hilarious. Vittachi has an amazing gift of being able to find humor in language itself. The lead character, Mr. Wong, is a Chinese feng shui master, but lives in Singapore and has dreams of writing a book about feng shui in English. He realizes the need to Read More

Writing a book is hard. As a writer, I know how difficult it is to put the pen to paper and put what you have to say out there for the world to see and then be ripped apart. I try to be fair in my reviews and, even when they aren’t very good, look Read More

Every free minute I have had since I returned to China I have spent with Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret. And, despite the misleading title, it isn’t a textbook for learning Chinese. Chinese Lessons is a book I almost didn’t buy. While I was in the states, one of the first things I did was order a slew of Read More

Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter is a sympathetic look at the life of a 5th child and second daughter of a wealthy man in China before and during the communist take-over. Add in a wicked stepmother and the already burdensome child becomes the target of scorn and abuse for most of Read More

Next year, I am planning to write the biography of a very dear friend of mine from LiXian who has led a fascinating life. To get myself ready, I have decided to start reading more life stories, fiction and non-fiction, of Chinese persons to get more familiar with the writing style. So, since I am reading them, I thought Read More

When I was first planning our move to China in 2009, I did months of in-depth research from internet forums, books, talking to people who had lived there, and so on. Seth didn’t. I tried to teach him Chinese or to get him to join forum groups or something, but he just said “I’ll figure Read More