Emily Hahn’s China to Me: A Partial Biography is precisely the type of memoir I had hoped to write 40 years later about my own life. Like Hahn, I set out to live and work in a foreign country. Hahn chose China in the middle of turbulent times when Japan was asserting control over muchContinue reading “Book Review: China to Me: A Partial Biography”
Tag Archives: nonfiction
Book Review: Reach for Joy
In Reach for Joy, Tessy Reyes (a pseudonym) tells of her 30-year marriage to an independent survivalist who controlled her and her children until she succeeded at getting away from him. During that time, she bore ten children, nine of whom survived. Her memoir opens with the memory of the child who didn’t survive, aContinue reading “Book Review: Reach for Joy”
Book Review: Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s treatise Between the World and Me takes the format of a series of letters from the author to his teenage son, offering him historical perspective on the advice he feels his son needs to succeed—and to stay alive—in the future. Coates refers often to Americans “who believe they are white” to refer toContinue reading “Book Review: Between the World and Me”
Book Review: Say It Like Shakespeare
Tom Leech’s Say It Like Shakespeare presents communication tips for business people through comparison with Shakespeare’s language. While the subtitle of the book, The Bard’s Timeless Tips for Communication Success, misled me slightly, leading me to expect more direct references to communication within Shakespeare’s drama, Leech’s deft selection of examples made it clear his tips areContinue reading “Book Review: Say It Like Shakespeare”
Book Review: Leaving Before the Rains Come
“‘The problem with most people,’ Dad said once, not necessarily implying that I counted as most people, but not discounting the possibility either, ‘is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live.’” Alexandra Fuller learned from her parents how to live. She has lived enoughContinue reading “Book Review: Leaving Before the Rains Come”