Read 50%. The action moves along fast but I'm just about keeping up, my favourite parts are the range of characters and their stories that are a mix of comedy, drama and lessons to learn. This is challenging but enjoyable read.
In the image is a very very short extract from one of my many favourite scenes, where Xuande (also known as Liu Bei) visits Master Tranquil Water.
This book is one of the 4 reads I've put off to the end of the year.
A 667-pages roadtrip novel, with chapters alternating between a disillusioned “you“ mainly looking for young women to spend the night with (those sections haven't aged well), and a “I“ looking for what I'll sum up as “Eternal China“: folksongs, old monasteries, folktales... and of course, the Soul Mountain in the title. I am glad I read it -I enjoyed the folk chapters- but I am in no hurry to read any more from this #NobelPrize winner.
bailedThe first chapter intrigued me but later on I found myself reading words and not really (listening).
This is probably a very good book just not my cup of tea.
#10BeforeTheEnd update:
I finished Paris noir and The Adventures of Vela. I was planning on starting Mejnun and Leyla but after Vela, I need a break on the long-form poetry front, so Soul Mountain it is! As it is a doorstop and I have a few days off, it should be perfect.
@ChaoticMissAdventures
Pic is of the Chinese Garden in Chaumont, back in June
#NobelPrize
pickSaw this on a list of best nonfiction that reads like fiction. I learned so much about Tibet — it‘s huge! And such severe altitude and weather. And the Chinese ruined everything. Fascinating.
pickThis was so so good! Historical fiction about prosperous Chinese families, women practicing medicine on other women because male doctors were not allowed to, more foot binding killing girls and women. Based on an actual book written by a female Chinese doctor. Maybe her best book yet.
pickThis is a fascinating book. It‘s at once an exploration of why the author believes Xi‘s China will try to take over Taiwan in the near future and a current international relations primer. I for sure learned a lot from this book.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
first line: Empires arise from chaos and empires collapse back into chaos. This we have known since time began.
from my current read, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, translated by Martin Palmer
Yesterday's library haul: Gingerbread Baby, and June Fourth Elegies by Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. I might have picked up this book because I took the author for a Nobel Prize laureate in Literature 😊. It is a collection of poems written over many years, in prison, in labour camp or at home, on the anniversaries of the Tiananmen Square protests. Some are more to my taste than others.
I haven‘t read anything by this author, but her books look amazing. So I bought these so far, of course, back when I was in Arizona last.
