When my brother and I were just kids, we locked ourselves in our grandparents' small powder room. The lock was just beneath the knob, and one of us had secured it without knowing how. We were trapped. From the other side of the door, my grandfather screamed at us for ten minutes … [Read more...]
Lychees on a hot summer day
Today was a scorcher in Chicago. 95F and 35C. And there was very little food in the house.So in the early hours of the morning, before the sun came out in full force, I took my two youngest kids grocery shopping. The store carried a small selection of tropical fruit, so I … [Read more...]
Book of the week–Skeleton Women
This week I picked up Mingmei Yip's latest (and I think greatest) novel, Skeleton Women (Kensington, 2012). Set in the ever-fascinating 1930s Shanghai, it tells the story of Camilla, a 19 year old singer/spy who is kept by one gangster boss to set up the hit of another gangster … [Read more...]
Book of the week–The Olympics Beat
I'm so excited to post this review the very week of Shannon Young's book launch for The Olympics Beat: A Spectator's Memoir of Beijing (Kindle Edition, 2012). Young's e-book is the length of a novella, but packs in all the essential elements of a full-length travel memoir.As … [Read more...]
Shopping for Chinese paper cuts in Hong Kong
It's been two years since I blogged about Chinese paper cuts. That post was one of the first I wrote, and to sum it up, I lamented not buying enough Chinese handicrafts before I moved away from Hong Kong in 1998.So on my trip to Hong Kong last month, I was determined to … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- …
- 83
- Next Page »