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very good books
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust by Iris Chang
A detailed account of the war crimes Japan committed in China during WWII. It's a haunting novel with first-hand accounts and terrifying numbers. It draws upon the sources of the people who were actually there including Japanese newspapers of the time and the detailed diary of John Rabe. A nazi, and also one of the "good men of Nanking." The book is told from three different perspectives. The victims, the outside world, and the aftermath. It's really good.
there are companion books to this one that I haven't gotten to read yet:
The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe
The Rape of Nanking II (not written by Iris Chang)
The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Confronts Japan's National Shame
The Bridegroom by Ha Jin
Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
Under the Red Flag by Ha Jin
These three books go together. They are all comprised of short stories set in the time that Russia was still communist and China's emergence from the ancient world. Ha Jin has a very non-apologetic style of writing that can be described easily as "laying out the guts of the world," or in his case, laying out his grit with the Chinese communist government. His word choice and stories are told just as they are, nothing more and nothing less. It's very impressive, I think, his way of writing. It flows very well.
Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
Short stories that study human nature and perception of other people. The situations are fairly ordinary but told in such a way as to make them seem more than they are.
Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto
A woman named Sakumi falls down a flight of stairs. When she wakes up, she has to learn to deal with the fact that she has no recollection of her past. She meets people that she knew well for the first time and is given a new chance to think of them a different way. Little by little, through the book, she regains her memory and a new respect for the people around her and life in general. She ponders the death of her younger sister Mayu, kindles a relationship with said sister's still living ex-boyfriend, and helps her young brother to deal with his emerging supernatural powers (they are subdued and handled in such a way that it does not take away from the book).
Overall, the story is very nice and throughtful. Worth reading at least once.
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker
It is a speculative novel about the life of a raptor native to Utah that must resettle in more fertile lands. In the very beginning of the book, Raptor Red loses her mate and must somehow fend for herself with only half the hunting force as she had enjoyed with her consort. Later on in the novel, during her wanderings, she meets up with one of her sisters. He sister already has chicks to care for, so Raptor Red intergrates herself into their little family unit and they all set out for the great search for food. Bakker tells the story from Raptor Red's supercomputer-like mind making it seem objective as well as entertaining. It's a well-paced novel, and well-informed.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
I've only begun reading this. It's very good so far. It centers around a group of rabbits that leave their community to escape the danger posed by the never-ending development of humans. They are led by Hazel who is in turn compelled by the prophetic visions of his brother Fiver who dreams of a land far-away from people and elevated enough to see for miles around. The journey of the rabbits is steeped in tales of the enigmatic rabbit of legend El-ahrairah and his many run-ins with the sun-god Frith. Watership down has many political and historic contrasts that I don't care to name right now^^(sorry guys) You really should read it for yourselves. It's pretty cool.
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12-30-2002 06:38 AM
