I'll be taking a break from this site for several days while I jet off to New York for a little R&R with my three sisters-in-law.Since winning the Good Reads' raffle for Jean Kwok's debut novel, Girl in Translation, I've been saving it to read on this trip. The story … [Read more...]
Book of the week–The Ugly American
When my friend Judy lent me Johnny Got His Gun (last's week book of the week), she also brought The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick (W.W. Norton, 1958).I'm not sure why I hadn't read The Ugly American before. I certainly use the term a lot. And now that … [Read more...]
Kowloon–Canton Railway
When I was at a writing conference a couple years ago, a presenter jumped off his desk after I read from the first page of my manuscript."I love train stations," he exclaimed. "But you have to bring us to China. Let us see, hear, and smell it."I've since scrapped that … [Read more...]
Spring nostalgia
For some reason I always feel nostalgic in the spring. I miss the places where I've lived and think back to a spring from my past, in another city or even another country.Twenty years ago I was in Baltimore, packing up my things and preparing to leave college for the summer. … [Read more...]
August Moon Hotel, Kong Kong
When my uncle told me he stayed at the August Moon in Hong Kong some 40 years ago, I figured the name must have outshone the building.In Hong Kong, I often ran into drab buildings with flowery names, as if the names could mask the blandness of the architecture.But when I … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- …
- 99
- Next Page »