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Just finished "Shanghai Diary" by Ursula Bacon. I thought it was a great book.
As a child from a Jewish family living in Germany just before World War II, Ursula went from a life of affluence and privilege to working to adjust to hardship, loss and great challenges.
Her dad was beaten by Nazis and thrown into jail, but her uncle secured tickets aboard a ship bound for Shanghai for Ursula and her parents. That was one of the few places in the world that Jews could flee to without restriction.
While she and her family had great difficulties, they came to realize just how fortunate they were to escape the grip of the Nazis. In Shanghai, they made great friendships and learned to make the best of often meager and primitive circumstances.
Just finished "Shanghai Diary" by Ursula Bacon. I thought it was a great book.
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While she and her family had great difficulties, they came to realize just how fortunate they were to escape the grip of the Nazis. In Shanghai, they made great friendships and learned to make the best of often meager and primitive circumstances.
Thank God for the Chinese. From my readings the Jews had it worse then than the Syrians do today. Sad how during the really important times we have to see what schmucks we can be.
It seems like "Betrayed" is going to be about illegal aliens in the US -- another shameful period of our ongoing history. As a girl growing up in Michigan, the orchardists and farmers were glad for the Mexican migrant workers. We've had over a hundred years of them coming to this country to pick our crops and then return to their homes in Mexico. It was a mutually beneficial situation. Then we started the "WAR on Drugs" and everything went to the outhouse. Now our farmers are struggling to get their crops harvested in time -- good food is going to waste on the vine -- and the theoretical war on drugs has done nothing to stem the flow of drugs.
I wonder how many books have to be written about our human foibles before someone gets the idea that we can actually grow and mature as a people.
I couldn't get into that book either but I've never been a fan of Atwood's. I'm not sure why.
I believe this is my second attempt with her work, though I might've just dismissed one at the bookstore or library without bringing it home. My friend loves this trilogy -- he's on the last one, and thought I would like it. I hate when I have to disappoint someone that wants me to love a book they love. Probably I should learn to keep my thoughts to myself.
Nah, I still am working on that; I'm not ready yet.
I believe this is my second attempt with her work, though I might've just dismissed one at the bookstore or library without bringing it home. My friend loves this trilogy -- he's on the last one, and thought I would like it. I hate when I have to disappoint someone that wants me to love a book they love. Probably I should learn to keep my thoughts to myself.
Nah, I still am working on that; I'm not ready yet.
Oh no, never pretend. I have actually read an astounding amount of Atwood's books for someone who isn't a fan - I've even read her poetry. I think my favourite was Cat's Eye. I think that is the title. I didn't hate her books but her dystopian trilogy never managed to get me past ten pages. One day I may try again. I have heard her read a number of times and I sometimes wonder if what keeps me from being a fan, is her awful real-life voice.
Oh no, never pretend. I have actually read an astounding amount of Atwood's books for someone who isn't a fan - I've even read her poetry. I think my favourite was Cat's Eye. I think that is the title. I didn't hate her books but her dystopian trilogy never managed to get me past ten pages. One day I may try again. I have heard her read a number of times and I sometimes wonder if what keeps me from being a fan, is her awful real-life voice.
Actually, I don't care for dystopian lit in general. I doesn't account for the good that exists in the world now, and projects only a worsening of where we've failed. I personally wish for a writer that takes our failings and shows how we overcome them to make the future even better than it is. Probably they would title it "Pie in the Sky."
I put the "Cat's Eye" on my TRL. No sense leaving an opened door unexamined.
David Lodge's "Changing Places" is horribly disappointing,and I'll probably quit. I absolutely loved his "Deaf Sentence" (Read it!!!), but "Changing Places" was written 40 years ago when his writing was very immature. I think I would have enjoyed it then, but it is now an embarrassingly dated style.
Working my way through a collection of short stories about New Orleans called French Quarter Fiction. As with any collection of short stories, some are better than others. But I love the city, so I'm enjoying it.
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