I went to What the Book used bookstore and the Kyobo Bookcenter when I visited Seoul the 15th-16th, and have spent a lot of my out of school time reading since then (partially, I caught a pretty bad cold last weekend and spent most of my time resting. Also I just really like to read).
I read Ender's Shadow, which follows the same timeline as Ender's Game-- probably one of my favoritest books, if someone was to make me choose-- but from Bean's perspective. Christian told me he liked it better, and I think with good reason. Bean is in a lot of ways more socially isolated but also less self absorbed- he is much more aware of himself and able to read what's going on around him. I spent a lot of time thinking about my brain and other people's brains and how we are shaped by experiences and all sorts of good things.
At the same time I started No god but God by Reza Aslan. I don't feel like I can sum this book up sufficiently without it's own really long post, but I'll write a start, at least. Aslan wrote this book as an introduction to the "history, evolution, and future of Islam" and did so with a readable grace that I am very grateful to have found. He describes the the Middle East-- already centered around pilgrimage to Mecca-- into which Muhammad was born. He describes Muhammad's life and the various states and theologians and movements and mystics that have followed after Him and his Quran. I have learned a lot about Islam, and been growing in how I think about religion and spirituality from reading this. (I have been just reading one chapter a day, so a still have a few days left before I finish.)
Next I read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Buck was raised in China (her American missionary parents moved there when she was about 2 years old) speaking both English and Chinese. So, while her book has gotten criticism for being a story about 'real' Chinese farmers written by a White American, she was actually pretty informed in what she was writing. The prose is 'simple' to a fault. It reads in an almost train-of-thought flow that shares this Chinese farmer's perspective on the events and people in his life and --impressively for her background-- does this without judgment or any sense of cultural or moral superiority. Buck definitely highlights how awful women's condition was in China, but she makes them and the men in the book real people who interact and think about what best to do with that condition. There are no real heroes in this book--there is a lot of luck, good choices, and bad choices. I don't think this should be the only book you read if you want to understand China-- even if you only want to understand China before 1949-- but is a lovely novel to start with.
I am now reading Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, who was the first Chinese author to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature. I am only on page 70 of about 500, so I can't tell you its big picture. Thus far it follows two journeys ('mine' and 'yours', which I suspect might both belong to the author, but at different points in time?) in remote parts of China, searching for meaning and self. At this point, I can already pretty confidently recommend it to anyone who has seen different possible lives/versions of themselves while traveling or meeting new people or investigation new ideas or spending time in nature. Ummm. So pretty much everyone. I guess just if you like to read.
Recently I read The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith ('recently' and 'finally', as an uncle gave this to me a few years ago and it took a while to catch up with my in my travels). It advertises itself as a "Libertarian science fiction adventure!" and does not disappoint. It is an Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole alternate history, which (while a bit pedantic more than once) is an excellent medium for what the book is trying to do. It shows a USA where the Whiskey Rebellion was successful and its spirit continued to define American politics, and thus provides a model of Libertarian government. It gave me a lot to think about and economically and politically, and the show-not-tell of a novel is a great way to learn a new way of seeing the world (though Smith also does a fair amount of telling through his 'propertarian' characters, so be ready).
I read the first part of A. S. Neill's Summerhill School just before going to Seoul (and then the tone changed a bit in Part 2, and I found new books, and I moved on, fickle reader that I am!). Along with The Life and Work of Maria Montessori by E. M. Standing that I read about a year ago, this helped me re-understand and appreciate my mother's motivation for homeschooling Isaac and I, and gave me a lot of insight into how intellect and emotions develop. Neill founded a school where students are not required to do anything-- if they break something (well, some things) they have to pay for it, and there are rules set by the students and staff together about being quiet at night and such-- but they don't have to go to lessons, ever, if they don't want to. And when students arrive there from the public school system, they don't want to. It takes usually weeks or months and sometimes years before students realize that they WANT to learn and want help doing it. Some students never go to lessons and study entirely on their own, in whatever subjects they like. His students, for the most part, end up successful and generally more confidently creative than their counterparts in public schools.
I have been reading Your Life As Story by Tristine Rainer off and on since I bought it at Prairie Lights in Iowa City in August. It's a book about writing autobiography (if you couldn't tell) and does a lovely job of talking about the squishy ideas of how to write about your life with solid examples and advice-- and a lot of respect for how squishy it is. The paragraph that is sticking out most in my mind is one where she talks about how subjective and changable memories are in time and relationships. Depending on how old I am and who I am talking to, my telling of various events in my life change drastically.
Oh man! And I finally read Watchmen, which was good and thoughtful and educational if also graphic. And earlier this year I read Transmetropolitan at Christian's behest (and he is reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler-- which I cannot recommend too strongly if you want to learn about China!). Dystopian futures! Adventure! Good brain food.
I'd love more book recommendations! Love!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Education reading list
I am going to try to keep an updated list of books and talks on education that I am exploring/planning to explore. I'll put recent additions at the top and leave previous entries below, and just re-date this post each time I add to it :)
- Diane Ravitch. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. I haven't read this book yet, but saw this author's interview on the Daily Show and will be buying it when I have more book money in my budget.
- Waiting for Superman, a documentary from last year about failing schools and lotteries to get into good schools from bad neighborhoods. It highlighted an inspirational school system called KIPP that is showing that kids in poverty are absolutely capable of doing well in school.
- A.S. Neill. Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood if anyone can help me find a pdf copy of this to read before I can get back to my paperback in Iowa, I would really appreciate it.
- Jonathan Kozol. The Shame of the Nation: the Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America he has given a number of talks with this same content, one of which is available on youtube.
- John Holt. Learning all the Time. Holt began as a teacher and became a proponent of home- and unschooling. He believed that mostly adults need to get out of the way and let kids learn and not try to bog them down with lots of teaching. My mother told me he was a big influence on her decision to homeschool us.
- Eric Jensen's articles on "brain-based teaching" and assisting children living in poverty on his website, Jensen Learning.
- Ken Robinson. "Schools Kill Creativity" and "Bring on the Learning Revolution" (talks on ted.com)
- E. M. Standing. "Montessori: Her Life and Work" (book, which I highly recommend to any interested in investigating how they learn and what they believe about their minds)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Words, words, words.
I read a lot, and have since I learned how. I must say that part of my motivation to read when I was a child was the praise it got me and, as Christian can attest, I still want someone to witness my reading progress. Another reason is often escapism. I prefer novels-- the longer the better-- because they allow me to spend the most time in a world outside my own, and especially when I was young loved most to re-read favorites, because I knew I could be prepared for whatever happened. I still like stories that are long enough for me to spend time in a world, and I still love to relive stories-- but maybe not quite as often as I used to.
I also write, but less confidently (naturally, I suppose). I journaled more or less regularly through middle and high school, but have had trouble keeping a regular journal since then. Most of the time, though, when I sit down to write I have to write my head into order before I can even pretend I am writing about anything other than the state of my mind. Hence most of the contents of this blog. I am trying to write creatively, but with my current project am teetering on the line between knowing I have a story I want to write that will give me room to explore all the things I want it to, and feeling that all the pieces of it are spiraling out and should never have been connected. That's a little melodramatic but, y'know, I live in my mind so little things in here often seem pretty big to me.
I brought almost all new books with me to China last year, and decided halfway through the year that it had not been the best plan-- the living on the other side of the world business was enough 'new'ness and I wanted familiar stories. So, I brought more with me this time-- in large part through that previously mentioned e-reader, though I am filling up the shelves here with books anyway.
I have been reading a lot on Jeju, in between the teaching, spending time with Christian, and large amounts of sitting and thinking which fill my days. I have read:
1) the remainder of Red Mars, and about half of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
2)The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (again)
3) The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
4) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (again-again)
5) Briar Rose by Jan Yolen (again)
6) about half of Anne Frank's diary in German
7) about a third of 藏地密码 by 何马
8) a couple of stories in my 科幻小说集 (science fiction anthology)
9) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (again)
10) most of China Mieville's The City and the City
11) The beginning of Tintenherz by Cornelia Funke
Goodness, I was thinking to talk about each of them a bit but that's a long list. They are all recommended!
I also write, but less confidently (naturally, I suppose). I journaled more or less regularly through middle and high school, but have had trouble keeping a regular journal since then. Most of the time, though, when I sit down to write I have to write my head into order before I can even pretend I am writing about anything other than the state of my mind. Hence most of the contents of this blog. I am trying to write creatively, but with my current project am teetering on the line between knowing I have a story I want to write that will give me room to explore all the things I want it to, and feeling that all the pieces of it are spiraling out and should never have been connected. That's a little melodramatic but, y'know, I live in my mind so little things in here often seem pretty big to me.
I brought almost all new books with me to China last year, and decided halfway through the year that it had not been the best plan-- the living on the other side of the world business was enough 'new'ness and I wanted familiar stories. So, I brought more with me this time-- in large part through that previously mentioned e-reader, though I am filling up the shelves here with books anyway.
I have been reading a lot on Jeju, in between the teaching, spending time with Christian, and large amounts of sitting and thinking which fill my days. I have read:
1) the remainder of Red Mars, and about half of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
2)The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (again)
3) The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
4) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (again-again)
5) Briar Rose by Jan Yolen (again)
6) about half of Anne Frank's diary in German
7) about a third of 藏地密码 by 何马
8) a couple of stories in my 科幻小说集 (science fiction anthology)
9) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (again)
10) most of China Mieville's The City and the City
11) The beginning of Tintenherz by Cornelia Funke
Goodness, I was thinking to talk about each of them a bit but that's a long list. They are all recommended!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Not sure why this blog post gets so many dang views
Previously titled: 罗亚死了，罗亚死了
April has been a good month in a lot of ways.
First, a friend of a friend visited Nanjing, and in helping to show her the city I finally saw a bit of the city myself. We went to Purple Mountain:
(this buddha statue was created as a tourist attraction in the late 90's, and we saw some other folks sitting on his lap, so we decided we wouldn't be disrespecting him or anyone else by following suit)
And visited a temple and a Ming Dynasty city wall that are both within 30 minutes walking distance from my Center. Who knew?
I have ALSO been buying myself some books. These include: an anthology of Chinese fantasy writing from 2008, "Swordbird" (a book written by an 11 year old Chinese girl who lives in the US in both Chinese and English. Think Redwall series, except birds. Holding swords), a Chinese dictionary (not Chinese-English. Just Chinese), and a copy of China's National Geographic (or 黄夏地理). Xiaoxuan just helped me order a science fiction anthology and a selection of Lu Xun's writings (linked to Wikipedia). He was a very influential thinker in the decades after the Nationalist revolution in 1911. Many Chinese have to read bits of his writing in high school, and the woman that I have been helping to practice English highly recommended reading his complete stories (as in full texts, not necessarily everything he's written).
I am feeling good about my life plan. This is good. I have been feeling foolishly insecure all year about one thing or another. The plan a little farther out: I am moving to Korea next year, then I think back to China to work for a year and reapplying to grad schools for fall 2012. Then I'm hoping somewhere will let me teach and take students abroad, and maybe I'll work on a PhD.
I've realized I need to actually post about China more, and not keep this blog so self-centered. Now that I feel like I've got myself figured out a little more (haha, ask tomorrow) that is my plan. If you've got questions to guide my writing, I'd love to hear 'em!
Title is from one of the fantasy stories I'm reading, yo. "Luoya is dead, Luoya is dead"
April has been a good month in a lot of ways.
First, a friend of a friend visited Nanjing, and in helping to show her the city I finally saw a bit of the city myself. We went to Purple Mountain:
(this buddha statue was created as a tourist attraction in the late 90's, and we saw some other folks sitting on his lap, so we decided we wouldn't be disrespecting him or anyone else by following suit)
And visited a temple and a Ming Dynasty city wall that are both within 30 minutes walking distance from my Center. Who knew?
Pagoda in the temple:
View of the lake and Ming wall from the top of the pagoda:
I have ALSO been buying myself some books. These include: an anthology of Chinese fantasy writing from 2008, "Swordbird" (a book written by an 11 year old Chinese girl who lives in the US in both Chinese and English. Think Redwall series, except birds. Holding swords), a Chinese dictionary (not Chinese-English. Just Chinese), and a copy of China's National Geographic (or 黄夏地理). Xiaoxuan just helped me order a science fiction anthology and a selection of Lu Xun's writings (linked to Wikipedia). He was a very influential thinker in the decades after the Nationalist revolution in 1911. Many Chinese have to read bits of his writing in high school, and the woman that I have been helping to practice English highly recommended reading his complete stories (as in full texts, not necessarily everything he's written).
I am feeling good about my life plan. This is good. I have been feeling foolishly insecure all year about one thing or another. The plan a little farther out: I am moving to Korea next year, then I think back to China to work for a year and reapplying to grad schools for fall 2012. Then I'm hoping somewhere will let me teach and take students abroad, and maybe I'll work on a PhD.
I've realized I need to actually post about China more, and not keep this blog so self-centered. Now that I feel like I've got myself figured out a little more (haha, ask tomorrow) that is my plan. If you've got questions to guide my writing, I'd love to hear 'em!
Title is from one of the fantasy stories I'm reading, yo. "Luoya is dead, Luoya is dead"
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The wisdom's in the trees// Not the glass windows
I have been stressing a bit recently. I have not been having a bad time. I have already, in fact, celebrated my birthday twice. Shirin's birthday was on Monday, so on Saturday she and Rong Fan and Xiaoxuan and I ate hotpot. Hotpot is, I think, from Mongolia, and involves a pot of boiling water (kept boiling by a burner in the table) in the center of the table and ordering whatever ingredients you want to eat. I really like mutton and tofu "skin" (羊肉 and 豆腐皮). Shirin and I then got hour-long oil massages for about $10. On Monday Shirin invited me and two other friends to her place and we made curry and drank tea.
Today I am bringing chocolates to my first class, since today may be the only time in my life that I have class on my birthday and I have never had the opportunity to be the kid who brought birthday treats before. I have been waiting long, but I won in the end.
Then I'm going back to the bookstore where Xiaoxuan and Xiaochun took me and gonna buy myself an idiom (成语) dictionary, and perhaps something else. Got sweet mugs there. We'll see.
The weather here is quite nice. It is a sunny 50 degrees for my birthday today. I miss snow, but I'm hopeful we'll get a bit sometime in the next few months. We are very lucky to have central heat in our buildings, which was not permitted when most of the buildings in Nanjing were built, so many people are very cold in the winter.
Anyway, to stop the stressing, today is going to be a day for praying and meditating and eating chocolate and not worrying about school. Hopefully this will help me to be clear and focused enough tomorrow to make real progress on papers again. It will definitely make me happier about whatever I do.
I love you!
Today's title brought to you by Breakdown by Jack Johnson
Today I am bringing chocolates to my first class, since today may be the only time in my life that I have class on my birthday and I have never had the opportunity to be the kid who brought birthday treats before. I have been waiting long, but I won in the end.
Then I'm going back to the bookstore where Xiaoxuan and Xiaochun took me and gonna buy myself an idiom (成语) dictionary, and perhaps something else. Got sweet mugs there. We'll see.
The weather here is quite nice. It is a sunny 50 degrees for my birthday today. I miss snow, but I'm hopeful we'll get a bit sometime in the next few months. We are very lucky to have central heat in our buildings, which was not permitted when most of the buildings in Nanjing were built, so many people are very cold in the winter.
Anyway, to stop the stressing, today is going to be a day for praying and meditating and eating chocolate and not worrying about school. Hopefully this will help me to be clear and focused enough tomorrow to make real progress on papers again. It will definitely make me happier about whatever I do.
I love you!
Today's title brought to you by Breakdown by Jack Johnson
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Instant coffee and coconut milk. It's working for me.
As I try to stay motivated through my final papers (they are each 3,000 words long, one in English and three in Chinese), I am looking forward to future adventures! I will be crashing in Korea on January 10th. "Crashing" here is probably pretty literal. This semester has been a challenge, and I am already very much in need of a break. There isn't really much of a plan between arriving and leaving in February, but I don't really think anything needs to be added to a month and a half on an island south of Korea with Christian. Hopefully this thought will propel me through 12,000 words and two languages of papers (though I should say that while 3,000 words of English is about 10 double spaced pages in English, 3,000 Chinese characters is only 5 or 6).
And THEN, next semester, my mother and friend (there's a better word for you in Chinese than English, dear- 阿姨, friend who counts as family）and aunt are coming during my spring break in April. I am really excited to show them around, and to see more of China myself.
AND THEN, next summer Nicole is coming! For two weeks. This will also be excellent times.
After that, Xiaoxuan has invited me to stay with her family in Hebei province for a little while, and then I'll fly out of Beijing and finally see North American again! Hopefully by that time I will know what I'll be doing in North America. I'll be getting decisions from grad schools in February and March, but may deferring to spend some time in the real world before I dive back in to more grad school. It's a little crazy in here.
Xiaoxuan and Xiaochun took me to a fantastic book store on Saturday. I wanted to buy some things to read over winter break so that my Chinese doesn't atrophy. I have the first in a series of books about Ming dynasty history, which are written in a novel-like manner and are some of the most popular books in China right now. Xiaoxuan also recommended a book about a man during the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命）who gets sent to the countryside of Inner Mongolia to be re-educated. She says that both she and her father like it very much. It's called 狼图腾, or Wolf Totem. All by myself I picked out the most recent issue of an academic journal, which Xiaochun later told me was quite influential. It has a couple dozen articles, mostly having to do with deciding where China is and should be heading as a country.
I am going to go back and buy a dictionary of Chinese idioms, or 成语，because I hardly know any right now and they are necessary for understanding Chinese and not sounding very unsophisticated and awkward when I speak. Then I will have way more than I can possibly ingest over the next couple of months, and will call it good.
Countdown to Christian: 26 days.
And THEN, next semester, my mother and friend (there's a better word for you in Chinese than English, dear- 阿姨, friend who counts as family）and aunt are coming during my spring break in April. I am really excited to show them around, and to see more of China myself.
AND THEN, next summer Nicole is coming! For two weeks. This will also be excellent times.
After that, Xiaoxuan has invited me to stay with her family in Hebei province for a little while, and then I'll fly out of Beijing and finally see North American again! Hopefully by that time I will know what I'll be doing in North America. I'll be getting decisions from grad schools in February and March, but may deferring to spend some time in the real world before I dive back in to more grad school. It's a little crazy in here.
Xiaoxuan and Xiaochun took me to a fantastic book store on Saturday. I wanted to buy some things to read over winter break so that my Chinese doesn't atrophy. I have the first in a series of books about Ming dynasty history, which are written in a novel-like manner and are some of the most popular books in China right now. Xiaoxuan also recommended a book about a man during the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命）who gets sent to the countryside of Inner Mongolia to be re-educated. She says that both she and her father like it very much. It's called 狼图腾, or Wolf Totem. All by myself I picked out the most recent issue of an academic journal, which Xiaochun later told me was quite influential. It has a couple dozen articles, mostly having to do with deciding where China is and should be heading as a country.
I am going to go back and buy a dictionary of Chinese idioms, or 成语，because I hardly know any right now and they are necessary for understanding Chinese and not sounding very unsophisticated and awkward when I speak. Then I will have way more than I can possibly ingest over the next couple of months, and will call it good.
Countdown to Christian: 26 days.
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