Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Siji, our narrator, who remains nameless, and his best friend Luo are send to the mountains to work and be re-educated during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  Both come from educated, well off families who are now considered enemies of the state.  The two boys now live [...]

Sky Burial by Xinran

I’m not sure how I discovered Sky Burial by Xinran. I think I simply visited my library’s catalog and searched for author’s beginning with X. Xinran’s full name is Xinran Xue but goes by just her first name (double bonus with the X’s though!). When I read the description of this wonderful book [...]

The Translator, A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari

A book that everyone needs to read is The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. What can I possibly say about The Translator that would convince you to read it? What can I possible say about The Translator without trivializing it?
Daoud Hari grew up in a village in the [...]

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

I’ve just read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. My first introduction to DiCamillo was just one short month ago when I read Because of Winn-Dixie which I enjoyed very much. After reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, I do what I have now started to do, browse through [...]

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the Chinese New Year! I have to admit, we haven’t done much celebrating the last few years as it’s just been Taylor and I, but as our children get older we will make a bigger deal of Chinese New Year to help our children learn of their ancestry. Our only [...]