December Challenges

Dec 1 A book with a character who is a scholar or student (curious)

Dark Matter

Author: Black Crouch

Genre: low fantasy

Number of pages: 401

First published: 2016

Setting: Chicago

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: I love Thursday night.

One sentence comment: Excessively lengthy, yet offers few surprises, the plot unfolds predictably, with little deviation from the expected course.

 

Despite its popularity, the book is quite disappointing. Firstly, the narrative spends an excessive 150 pages building tension around the protagonist's mysterious circumstances, only to reveal a resolution involving object superposition, a concept already established as the book's core premise. This drawn-out suspense tests the reader's patience. Secondly, the narrative then shifts to another 150-page adventure through multiple universes via various doors before the protagonist finds his original world, a trope reminiscent of young adult novels. Lastly and most infuriating, the text is filled with numerous one-word or one-sentence paragraphs. The excessive use of these patterns weaken the literary quality of the text. Extended dialogue and full paragraphs allow for more nuanced expressions and subtle humor. One-word or one-sentence paragraphs often lack depth and can feel redundant.

 

While the book may have its shortcomings, it does possess some positive attributes. Its straightforward language and simple structure make it an accessible read, particularly for action-oriented and thrill-seeking readers to be motivated and captivated. This accessibility allows readers to engage with the story without feeling overwhelmed by complex sentence structures or dense vocabulary.

 

 

Dec 2 a book you’ve been curious to read for a least a year

Royal Blood (A Royal Spyness Mystery #4)

Author: Rhys Bowen

Genre: historical mystery

Number of pages: 305

First published: 2010

Setting: London, Romania

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: November in London is utterly bloody.

One sentence comment: The title and the content cleverly reference Dracula legend.

 

There were so many hilarious moments in the books that had me laughing out loud. I was cracking up when I read a snooty lady kept nagging the main character, ‘if you let servants go around looking like oversized flowerpots you will be a laughingstock.’

 

Dec 3 a book that contains a curiosity/mystery/problem to be solved

The Daughter of Time

Author: Josephine Tey

Genre: historical fiction

Number of pages: 255

First published: 1951

Setting: England

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: Grant lay on his high white cot and stared at the ceiling.

One sentence comment: It’s about a bored man studying a boring case.

 

I found myself quite dissatisfied with this book. Firstly, I struggled to connect with the protagonist. His demeanor throughout the narrative struck me as arrogant and dismissive, making it difficult to sympathize or root for him. This lack of relatability significantly hindered my enjoyment of the story.

 

Secondly, I found the plot to be exceedingly predictable. The core of the narrative could have been summarized succinctly, yet it was unnecessarily drawn out across hundreds of pages. This excessive length felt like a significant padding of the story, leaving me feeling frustrated and disappointed.

July Book Challenge

 

1.      A book set in the place where you live ~

女二 (Female Supporting Role)

Author: Joyoon Deng

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 461

First published: 2023

Setting: Taipei

Rating: 2 stars

First sentence: She was barefoot, stepping into her sister’s cloth shoes.

One sentence comment: This is a book full of dialogues, a bit like a play.

 

I seldom read novels written by Taiwanese writers because I don’t relate much to the characters. However, this book was recommended in a philosophical professor’s video, and it got a Taipei Prize last year.

It’s about a young woman’s acting life and her psychology. The reason she wants to be an actor is that she doesn’t need to act the role of herself. She wants to conquer something. I like the idea that after one gets mature, one can be great without depending on dreams.

 

2. A book set in a different world

Revival

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Number of pages: 466

First published: 2012

Setting: US

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: In one way, at least, our lives really are like movies.

One sentence comment: I love the first two chapters, which are so vivid that I was brought in the methodist community in the sixties US, and felt similar heart-broken like the characters in the book had felt.

 I started the book in latter June. It was written by King in his mid seventies. The major theme is death and faith, which, I believe, he had personally experienced in his near fatal car accident and aftermath in previous years. King is a master in writing an antihero, especially the pivot of his change. The antihero in the book is most interesting. His surname, Jacobs, is the mixture of job and Jacob from the bible. The former was stripped of everything he loved in life, but the latter was determined to fight with an angle to get up a ladder to heaven. Curiously he also used his middle name Dan, which I think is from Dan Brown, the latest powerful antichrist writer.

 I adore this book either for its theme or characters. However, the weakness of the book is the portion of the narrator‘s band career and love life, which felt like superfluous add-on. Therfore, I only give it four stars.

 

3. A book by an author from a country different than your own

Sense and Sensibility

Author: Jane Austen

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 353

First published: 1811

Setting: Sussex, Devenshire and London, UK

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex.

One sentence comment: The story is bland because I was affected by none of the characters.

 

This is the last of the Austen’s six novels that I read. I realized why the film of 1995 directed by Ang Lee was considered excellent because the actors made the characters’  feelings effective. Again it is a story of love constrained by financial situations but Marianne was surprisingly immature considering how they were forced to move out with her father’s death.

 

In my opinion, the theme of the book is Gossip. People who care about the two heroines, Elinor and Marianne, pass gossip for the benefit of finding husbands for them. However, Elinor and Marianne seem to be quite obnoxious, criticizing other people for their lack of taste or vulgar remarks. If these people don't exist, the sisters’ good taste of music or art can't be known for the purpose of either love or marriage. If they don't care for gossips, why are they eager to be informed of Willoughby's fortune and character from those who gossip? Actually the society they sit in is fed by gossip, but they act as if they are better than their companions. I think the two sisters are the most unpleasant characters in Austen's novels.

 4. A book with a place in the title

Murder on Bank Street (Gaslight Mystery #10)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Number of pages: 326

First published: 2008

Setting: New York City

Rating: 2 stars

First sentence: Danny didn’t like lying to the Doc.

One sentence comment: It becomes the easiest thing to continue this mystery series for everything that happens there seems so familiar to me.

 This book seems repetitive to me since many events happened then were talked by different characters. The readers have to read the same events a few times. The plot is most absurd. I think this is the worst book in the series so far. Had I not already bought a few later books, I may stop here.

 

5. A book with a landscape on the cover

Circle of Friends

Author: Maeve Binchy

Genre: fiction

Number of pages: 722

First published: 1990

Setting: Ireland

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: The kitchen was full of the smells of baking.

One sentence comment: It’s disappointing that there isn’t a mature female leading role as in the author’s previous books.

 

The story revolves around three 20 year old girls. Everyone has to cope with their drawbacks and yearnings. It’s a great story but not as great as the author’s earlier novels. Still, I enjoy reading a devious young woman in formation.

 

April Book Challenge

 

April *1 author’s first or last name begins with A, I, or R.

Death at Bishop’s Keep (#1 A Victorian Mystery)

Author: Robin Paige (Bill Albert & Susan Witting Albert)

Genre: historical mystery

Number of pages: 296

First published: 1994

Setting:1894

Rating: 5 stars

First sentence: Kate Ardleigh glanced warily over her shoulder.

One sentence comment: I was amazed to find the Victorian mystery series I had been seeking.

 

As an Irish American, Kate is the perfect protagonist to plunge into a late Victorian society. An empire passing its prime is perfect for a quirky heroine and aristocrats that sought marriages with financial consideration. Of course we have a Charles Darwen like man to give us another spirit of the era, science and invention. The backstory is dense such as crime that may have nothing to do with the thematic murder in the story. I love the language that refrains me from gobbling the novel without tasting its flavor. The ending is marvelous and I am sure to follow this series.

 

April *2 fire colored spine

Murder in Chinatown (Gaslight Mysteries #9)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Number of pages: 305

First published: 2007

Setting: New York in the end of nineteenth century

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: “I’m not in labor, am I?”

One sentence comment: The ending is great for it brought a solution and a new beginning.

 

It’s the ninth book in this series, and it read as good as the previous books. I have a slight criticism, which is the first 100 pages can be reduced into one third of the length. The conversation in the middle of the book is very interesting, and the ending is heart-warming.

 

April *3 With an Earth words

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree (Puzzle Lady Mystery #4)

Author: Parnell Hall

Genre: mystery

Number of pages: 349

First published: 2002

Setting: an American village

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: “No, no, no,” Rupert Winston cried, silencing the piano and vaulting up onto the stage with all the spry grace of a much younger man.

One sentence comment: This book demonstrates why I love a village life – a musical pageant and real people posing the stable scene for Christmas.

 

The book introduces a new puzzle, acrostics, which is quite amazing. The weak point of the book is that I can’t find any characters to relate to so I can only watch ridiculous characters committing impossible crimes. The conversation between protagonists for discussing the crime is repetitive and boring.

 

April *4 with a water setting

Tell No One

Author: Harlan Coben

Genre: thriller

Number of pages: 369

First published: 2001

Setting: present

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: There should have been a dark whisper in the wind.

One sentence comment: The author tried to create a mysterious atmosphere that doesn’t convince me.

 

I was put off by the lovesick feelings of the protagonist from the very beginning. The secret was so overdone that it was later revealed like a pretense. The author’s writing is good but I just couldn’t appreciate the storyline.

 Local Book Club Choice

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide

December book challenge

 This year I have read 44 books. My favorite book is Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy.

Dec*1 ~likeness: historical mystery series

Her Royal Spyness (Royal Spyness #1)

Author: Rhys Bowen

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 324

First published: 2007

Setting: Scotland and London in 1932

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: There are two disadvantages to being a minor royal.

One sentence comment: It’s the latest historical mystery seies I started to read, and the first book put me into laughter mode often.

     At first I had suspected if I wanted to buy a book about the royal family. However, when I started to read, I found this is a book exactly for me that didn’t care for royal family affairs. Through this book, I remind myself that we shouldn’t see things as they appear on the surface.

The narrator is a down-and-out 21-year-old distant relative of the queen. She had to strive for her survival like most young people who started to make their living. The downside was that a royal member was not supposed to work. Surprisingly, there were so many of them, young and powerless to a new world then. Bowen must be a genius that she captures the tone and voice of young girls on top of the society, as if I were watching the TV series Downtown Abbey. The only thing why the book didn’t get my five stars is that I am too much of a serious temperament for a book full of playful and sharp-tongued jokes.

 

Dec *2~likeness: historical mystery series

Murder on Lenox Hill (Gaslight Mystery #7)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 291

First published: 2005

Setting: New York in late 19^th century

Rating: stars

First sentence: The weather was so miserable, even Mrs. Ellsworth was indoors, Sarah Brandt noted as she hurried down the windy street to her house.

One sentence comment: I have always wanted to know more about what would happen to the characters in the series.

     This is the first historical mystery series I have been following since 2021. I only read two or three books a year, thus I am able to check whether I would grow out of my favor of the series.

     The dual point of views from both protagonists, Sarah and Frank, a midwife and police officer, give me snapshots of the last few years of the 19th century New York, from its upper class, immigrants, to gutters. In this book, the focus is on a church preacher who devotes to fatherless boys.

     The  character development is overwhelming. Sarah has taken in an orphan girl, who was once traumatized with unknown reasons to us, so she could not speak. Frank's son has gone into a school to learn a sign language. Another fun is that Theodore Roosevelt, who was on top of the police force before becoming the 26th president in 1898, is lurking in the background.

 

Dec *3~likeness: historical mystery series

Where Serpents Sleep (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery #4)

Author: C. S. Harris

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 346

First published: 2008

Setting: London in 1812

Rating: stars

First sentence: The girl stared out the window, one hand sliding up and down her shawl – covered arm in a ceaseless, uneasy motion.

One sentence comment: I have admired with excitement the characterization and dialogues in the series.

     This is my favorite historical mystery series to follow. Somehow Harris gives me the feels of the 19^th century French authors, Dumas and Hugo, whom I read as a child. The first fun part of this book is that – while the weak Regent was facing Luddites, those who hid their faces and smashed machines in the country, the prime minister Perceval equates the former American colonies with the new satanic threat from the bible prophesy. America was trying to annex Canada at the time. I love the peripheral part of the story that the Prince was tough with America, defending the interest of Canada and British shipping interests.

On the personal level, I love domestic affairs of lord Jarvis, the antagonist of the series. Her daughter Hero, against her father’s conservative attitude, was taking the lead to investigate the crime that had involved her as a witness. Hero started to take a major role telling her feelings. It reminded of my feelings when I grew up, such as “there were times when the contrast between the way lady Jarvis was now and the way Hero remembered her was enough to bring the sting of tears to her eyes.” It is forever a pang that you see someone you love deteriorating.

Harris is my favorite author because her books follow well-reasearched events and she is wise enough to bring about lively characters to show the world within and outside them. She said “At the same time that Sebastian is evolving and changing, we watch Britain and the world around him change, too.”

https://crimereads.com/how-do-you-keep-a-long-running-series-fresh-the-secret-is-character/

 

Dec *4~likeness: historical mystery series

Jane and the man of the cloth (Jane Austen Mystery #2)

Author: Stephanie Barron

Genre: cozy mystery

Page number: 335

First published: 1997

Setting: Lyme Regis in 1804

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the expectation of pleasure is grnerally preferred to its eventual attainment – the attainment being marred, at its close, by the resumption of quotidian routine made onerous by the very diversions so lately enjoyed.

One sentence comment: The story gets better to the end, and I realize that Lyme Regis  is actually a good place for a mystery because its Jurassic-age site welcomes new people.

     Lyme Regis is Austen's favorite town, a  medieval town on the coast of Dorset. Barren cleverly drew together exciting elements of Lyme Regis, such as archeology, smuggling, and the historical fire, to form a mystery. She even added a touch of romance to Austen. However, the course of story development is very bland, and Austen is highly unlikely to have this sort of romance.

 

October Challenge

 

# a book by an author who is dead

The Cat Who Could read Backwards ( Cat Who mystery #1)

Author: Lilian Jackson Braun

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Page number: 250

First published: 1966

Setting: Midwest in the US

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: Jim Qwilleran, whose name had confounded typesetters and proofreaders for two decades, arrived fifteen minutes early for his appointment with the managing editor of the Daily Fluxion.

One sentence comment: Braun’s writing style is my favorite, for almost every sentence she had written took me by surprise.

     While I was reading the book, I couldn’t believe that the book was published almost sixty years ago. It read as if it was published in recent years, and the language is so refleshing. I’m not a pet lover but the vivid description of the cat intrigues and delights me. No wonder the series is still in the backlist as popular paperbacks.

 

 # a book in which a character mourns the loss of another

Murder on Marble Row (Gaslight Mystery #6)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 313

First published: 2004

Setting: New York in the late 19^th century

Rating: 5 stars

First sentence: Frank didn’t actually heard the explosion that morning.

One sentence comment: The author always has the gift of using an intriguing opening to remind us of the protagonist’s complicated relationship with the heroine, which is the major spark of the series.

     In this book, Thompson tackles the issue of anarchists bombing. What’s really exciting is that Theodore Roosevelt, then Commissioner in the police force, appeared and assigned the investigation to the protagonist, Frank. The author has a great talent to mingle a serious issue with romantic relationship. The interaction between the leading characters, Frank and Sarah, is getting more and more interesting as the book series develop. It will be a shame if I miss one of the books in the middle of the series. Frank’s thoughts about women, including Sarah, are considered sexsual discrimination but was his era’s common sense so I always read with a chuckle. I am reminded of the controversial statements that one of our recent presidential candidates made about women in Taiwan. For example, he referred to a young woman in a governmental position as ‘pretty enough to be a receptionist.’ I’m thinking perhaps there is not much difference between the late 19^th century and the present time.

     Besides linking issues relating to our time, the greatest talent of the author is to make the protagonist, Frank, adorable, even though he is a typical representative in patriarchy. I sympathize him because men’s traditional role in a conservative society was crumbling as more women started to take professional responsibilities in the American society. However the integrity of a traditional role he had held still shone on him, and for this reason we accept him as who he was.

 

# a book with a “death” word in the title

Puzzled to Death ( Puzzle Lady Mystery #3)

Author: Parnell Hall

Genre: cozy mystery

Page number: 391

First published: 2001

Setting: Near Boston present time

Rating: stars: 4 stars

First sentence: Cora Felton pulled the heavy knit sweater around her shoulders, crinkled her nose, squinted her eye against the sun, and declared: “I. Hate, Fall.”

One sentence comment: It is a marvel to connect a crossword tournament and a domestic murder.

     With the series progressing, I can see both the murder design and conversations are getting better from the crossword guru writer, Hall.  I also detect scarcasm where the fake puzzle lady, who is interested in muder investigation is to some degree an illiterate in the eyes of the real puzzle constructer in the story. I have enjoyed the murder series but can hardly do much to the puzzles the author offered in the plot. Fortunately, knowledge of the puzzles is not intrinsic for solving the murders.

 

# a book with a white cover

Revolutionary Road

Author: Richard Yates

Genre: fiction

Page number: 463

First published: 1961

Setting: a village at western Connecticut in 1955

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: The final dying sounds of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there, silent and helpless, blinking out over the footlights of an empty auditorium.

One sentence comment: It seems that women of either types, single-willed or constantly nagging, are horror to the author.

     I bought this book more than ten years ago, but wasn’t impressed by reading it. At present this is the only English book with a white cover in my TBR, so I decided to reread it.

The story is set at the time when a woman had the luxury of being a housewife and getting her husband’s support to attend a performing group to manifest her ambition. At first, I felt out of place, having nothing to link with the characters thus lost my interests. In Taiwan, our society has never been so rich either in material or in spirit that ordinary working people have the ability to pursue art as an integral part of life. While I see the narrator living in heaven, he states that his people “take the larger absurdities of deadly dull jobs in the city and deadly dull homes in the suburbs.” However, when I kept reading, I resumed curiosity by appreciating the author’s delicate language and understanding that every era or place has its problems for us to trace.

 

Monthly Challenges for June

 

June # title contains at least 5 of the letters of supercalifragilcexpialidocious

The Last of Her Kind

Author: Sigrid Nunez

Genre: fiction

Page number: 407

First published: 2006

Rating: four stars

First sentence: We had been living together for about a week when my roommate told me she had asked specifically to be paired with a girl from a world as different as possible from her own.

One sentence comment: It’s like an American social history from 60’s to 80’s seen through the lives of two women from contrasting social background.

 

I spent three weeks reading this book slowly because I felt the protagonists were so real and their lives penetrated into my mental picture of American culture, which was so sophisticated at the time that I, as Taiwanese, could hardly imagine it before. 

 

June # Goodreads rating 4.0 plus

The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Genre: Dystopian fiction

Page number: 225

First published: 1993

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.

One sentence comment: I never like dystopian fiction except the novel 1984 by George Orwell; however, I can see this book is well structured, enlightening and easy to read.

 

June # a book with a cover you love

Murder on Mulberry Bend (Gaslight mystery #5)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 343

First published: 2003

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: “I hope you enjoy the evening.”

One sentence comment: Like in other books of the series, the protagonists are fun and intriguing.

 

I have been following the series, which give a midwife the role of detective, and this is the fifth book in the series. This book becomes my favorite among its predecessors.  It has the longest length, while others are less than 300 pages. It encompasses various elements that make the book most interesting. First, it delineates psychological complexity humorously of both protagonists, Sarah and Frank, from the very beginning. Second, it shows a charity at the time to save girls in the Italian district 200 years ago. Third, it provides religious wisdom and  crude reality at the same time, but Sarah combats both with her sense of justice and reasoning. However, I am disappointed about the ending, which I think is a cliché and incredible. That’s why I only give this book four stars.

 

 

Two books about Ireland and two Canadian debuts

 

Echoes

Author: Maeve Binchy

Genre: historical fiction

Page number: 737

First published: 1985

Rating: stars: five stars

First sentence: It was sometimes called Brigid’s Cave, the echo cave, and if you shouted your question loud enough in the right direction you got an answer instead of an echo.

One sentence comment: This is a book that makes me care about all the characters.

 

Echoes is another terrific book by Maeve Binchy. The title echoed in a few parts of the books to imply the deep aspiration from two protagonists, Angela and Clare, to have someone close to share their burden of life. These two women with about ten years between them, were caught by dilemmas and had to make decisions of their owns.

 

I love the characters that are strong and warm-hearted. Binchy had a great talent to tell Irish stories in which people’s lives were rocky and bitter but with humor and mutual understanding.

 

The book is also tinged with mystery. How will Angela and Clare be settled in their small town life when both of them seem to be misfits. How can Clare fall in love with David and give up her high hope of career? How will the pains of both family, the brothers of the two women, face their town people in the end? And how will Gerry, the lady's man through the book, die in the coast, according to the beginning of the book?

 

Absolution by Murder

Author: Peter Tremayne

Genre: historical mystery

Page number: 272

First published: 1994

Rating: stars: four stars

First sentence: The man had not been dead long.

One sentence comment: I was surprised that Ireland had such a glorious history as a religious leader in the 7^th century.

 

While reading the book, I suddenly realized that Ireland had a historical glory over England where it was a religious leader at that part of world.

 

Set in the 7th century, a Northern Kingdom in England was torn by religious forces between Ireland and Rome. Therefore a debate was held among religious leaders in order to decide which religious rituals to follow for the country. A series of murders happened during the time.

 

The heavy research involved in the book is marvelous. My criticism is that the author is not a great plotter, because the culprit was so obvious in the beginning of the investigation.

Still Life

Author: Louise Penny

Genre: mystery

Page number: 318

First published: 2005

Rating: 5 stars

First sentence: Miss Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist of Thanksgiving Sunday.

One sentence comment: I had never read a modern mystery like this book, so elegant worded with touching thoughts.

 

Beyond a beautiful cover of the misty October, this book has brought to me an experience of a remote Canadian village. Published in the beginning of the 21st century, this book deals with the issues of our present time - rogue teens, lone elderlies, feeling animals and people of faltering faith of God. Reading the author's elegant language combined with elements of art and poetry, I feel the reading week  has been a real treat.

 

The Push

Author: Ashley Audrain

Genre: fiction

Page number: 303

First published: 2021

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: Your house glows at night like everything inside is on fire.

One sentence comment: This book reminds me of the kids I met who played pranks on their friends but were unaffected by their suffering.

 

The narrative of this book is sometimes vivid and thrilling, but superfluous in many parts.

 

Books, Friend’s Visit and Bible Study in February

 

# 4 Title starting with the letter “H”

Hangsaman

Author: Shirley Jackson

Genre: Fiction

Page number: 218

Rating: 1 star

One sentence comment: I am not convinced why this book is necessary since lots of the plot is either not important or clear.

 

I adored Jackson’s The Hunting Hill House even though I don’t read horror normally. However, about this book, I was confused right from the beginning. When the protagonist talked to her parents, ‘a detective’ suddenly spoke to her. The author seemed to use Stream of consciousness in her writing. I just dislike this type of writing. I dragged myself to page 70 then gave it up.

 

#5 Title starting with the letter “I”

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944 - 1956

Author: Anne Applebaum

Genre: Non-fiction

Page number: 470

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: Among many other things, the year 1945 marked one of the most extraordinary population movements in European history.

One sentence comment: What happened in the Eastern Europe was formidable with persecution, resistance and sacrifice.

 I’m not used to reading books about communism. I bought the book from the internet in the beginning of the Ukrainian war last year when there was lots of talks about the author, and then I put it on my shelf. This book club prompt motivated me to read the book finally.

 Before reading the book, I have never imagined the devastated state in Eastern Europe after the war. “During the occupation, it became normal to change one’s name and profession, to travel on false papers, to memorize a fabricate biography, to watch all of one’s money lose its value overnight, to see people rounded up in the street like cattle.” Nither have I ever imagined the Russian Red Army were such brutal soldiers. The second chapter is about the occupation in 1945. “They appeared so shocked by the material wealth of Eastern Europe…. They found ordinary peasants who owned several chickens, a couple of cows, and more thatn one change of clothes. They found small contry towns with stone churches, cobbled streets, and people riding bicycles, which were then still unkown to most of Russia….What they don’t steal, they often destroyed…. In Poland, Soviet tanks deliberately destroyed a thousand-year-old cathedral that had no military significance…. Burning to the ground the priceless book collection of the university library…. Angry soldiers of the Red Army seemed consumed by a desire of revenge…. Women of all ages were subjected to gang rape and sometimes murdered afterward.” Communist leaders from Easter Europe endured purges and policy changed then survived, but most of them stayed loyal to Stalin, which is implausible to me.

 The postwar mass deportation of ethnic Germans was diabolical. They were treated inhuman, starved and beaten as a result of revenge by the Eastern European people. Some of them “moved into Polish or Jewish homes, following the muder or eviction the owners.” Therefore Churchill and Roosevelt approved of the ethnic cleansing policy. Then deportation camps transformed to prisons and communists were in charge of the distribution of German property. Stalin also forced Poles to leave towns and cities that had been Polish-speaking for centuries to colonize in German-speaking places. Ukrainians were also sent to Soviet Ukraine. “By 1950, not much remained of multiethnic Eastern Europe."

 There bound to be countless traumatic cases. In postwar Poland, a Jew was found abusing German prisoners, including women and children, and was responsible for an epidemic. He was arrested for war crime, but later he was identified as a victim, who had suffered from Nazi genocide. Many Jews left their countries for America, Western Europe, and Palestine, because it was impossible “to live in the towns and villages that had become cemetries of their families.” Besides, there were still brutal attacks on Jews after the war.

 The above is only the beginning of the book. Later there are more persecution towards people’s belief. Numerous political leaders and religious priests were put in prison and tortured. This book is full of stories about many different people at the time. It reads like a condensed novels with various layers.

#9     A book with a dedication

City of Lies (#1 of the counterfeit lady series)

Author: Victoria Thompson

Genre: Historical history

Page number: 325

Rating: 3 stars

First sentence: Jake looked much too SMUG.

One sentence comment: An unrealistic protagonist can not make a brilliant story.

 

The story begins with a suffragist movement, in which we get the pictures of prison, starve strike and force feeding. It carries a mission of the important history at the time, but can be boring and pretentious, because the protagonist was too unrealistic. However, the writer was able to keep her humorous tone all over the book so that there was still fun in reading.

 

My friend’s visit

It was the first time that my friend stayed at my flat in spite of our long-term friendship. On one of the five days, we went to our university where we had attended classes in different classrooms more than thirty years ago. There were many people and things we could talk about as if they stayed the same but the university has gone through lots of physical changes. I found my friend changed very little, still giggling like a girl. She is still not treating life seriously. She has knowledge about many things but doesn’t have a clue about her own matters. She cried with tears when talking about her husband but she didn’t have a strong motivation to solve the problem of their relationship. I wonder whether it is the same whenever one is tangled in an unhappy marriage. She asks so little from life and simply content with the basic need purely in terms of materialism.

 

Bible study

After my friend left, my church friend, Mayling, and I started to take Bible lessons from Paster Kim. I have been inspired by Kim’s Sunday sermon and realized that I’d paied too little attention to the structure of Kingdom of God. By listening to Kim more often, I am amazed by his spiritual level. He was sent to spread the Good News as a missionary in the southeast of China, and he spent time living with Hmong people in an unsanitary and uncivilized environment. In the end he was sent to prison by the government. I am glad that this study has brought me closer to God, and I began to pray for people I meet everyday. It changes the way I see things when I encounter difficult students, because now I am concious of their need and of my positive reaction towards them.