Almost Spring in Kyoto

It was mid-March, just before spring, when I traveled for the first time to Kyoto, Japan. This Torii, a Shinto gateway, is flanked by evergreen trees. It is one of the largest in Japan.


The Torii leads to the sprawling Shinto Heian-jingu Shrine. A stone lion stands guard in the forefront.



Gardens surrounding the shrine are still under the spell of winter, with a promise of spring to come.

Steer Toward Rock by Fae Myenne Ng

Steer Toward Rock

A new novel by Fae Myenne Ng, American born Chinese, who writes about new Chinese immigrants and Chinese born Americans in California. Jack Moon Szeto is caught between the world of San Francisco and the world of old China, which follows him to this new country. Set in the 1960's, the novel deals with love and marriage, old traditions and the search for the new.

I am enjoying a very good book about a Chinese poet making a living as a chef in Georgia, by Ha Jin, A Free Life, which I am just about half way through. Next I'll start reading this new novel, Steer Toward Rock, published May 2008 by Hyperion. The immigrant experience once again, this time in San Francisco's China Town.

A Free Life by Ha Jin

My latest read - am about half-way through Ha Jin's A Free Life, a novel that describes the life of a Chinese student studying at Brandeis who is stranded in the U.S. after Tiananmen and who tries to make a life here with his wife and young son. A great book that helps us to understand the new immigrant experience.

A Person of Interest by Susan Choi

Now reading Susan Choi's A Person of Interest, about an Asian professor, Lee, a mathematician at a midwestern university, who becomes a person of interest in the investigation of a mail bomb that kills a computer science professor whose office just happens to be next to Lee's. Novel was partly influenced by the real-life case of Taiwanese professor, Wen Ho Lee (who was acquitted of charges brought against him at his place of work), according to the book promo.

I'm impressed by her writing in A Person of Interest and her skill in getting us involved in the intricacies of her main character's thinking and how he might be perceived by others around him.

Choi's 2007 novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize last year. She is, by the way, part Korean and part European American, but born in Indiana.

Book Review: Prayer of the Dragon by Eliot Pattison

Prayer of the Dragon by Eliot Pattison is intriguing because of the cultural tidbits about Tibet. The main character is a Chinese policeman who has spent time in a Chinese gulag and whose companions now are an old Tibetan monk and another Tibetan from a secret outlawed temple.

All three are called to a small Tibetan town after murders have occurred there. The monks are threatened and tortured by the overly zealous town headman, who wants no interference and no upsurge of religion in his territory. The murders are somehow connected to the sacred mountain called the Dragon, and the secrets on the other side. There are miners panning for gold in the mountain and the valleys, and the policeman must find the perpetrators of the crimes or risk being charged himself.

Interesting novel, but overly long and drawn out. Had to skip to the end after two-thirds of the way into the book.

Book Review: All Shots by Susan Conant

Read Susan Conant's 18th dog lover's mystery novel, All Shots. More about her malamute dogs - training them, keeping more than one in the same household, showing them for awards and titles. And making sure everyone knows the difference between a malamute and a Siberian husky.

The plot involves identity theft, both human and canine. Set in Cambridge, Mass., the book also describes various Harvard types and their current fads, one of which is maintaining a "Media-free" environment for preschoolers. No TV, no TV cartoon characters on their toys, books, or clothing, etc. Interesting!

Time to Blog

Now reading the novel, Grave Imports by Eric Stone, about the smuggling of priceless cultural artifacts out of Cambodia. Witty dialogue, good observation of people and place. Wicked satire of the British expat.

Just finished The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill, which is not about a florist at all, but about mothers-in-law that the author has a good time bashing. I was not sympathetic, having recently become a mother-in-law myself.

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If it didn't take so much time, I'd add to my blog more often. It takes time from chores, housework, reading, writing, talking, visiting, traveling, taking care of the dog, procrastinating, meditating, and even sleeping.

There are so many steps to getting pictures from my camera onto the computer and then onto the blog! A sometimes daunting process!

My hat's off to those of you who blog religiously every day or every other day. And to those you who have figured out how to manipulate your templates to look original and eye catching.

Where do you get the time!