Book Reviews 书评
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Book Review 书评
“The Code Breaker”
Author: Walter Isaacson, March 2021
The code breaker is Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Prize co-winner in chemistry for her pioneering work in Genome editing which, in particular, has had direct applications to the fight of COVID pandemic that is going on right now. The author has a reputation of making complicated science/technology understandable and interesting to laymen. The book is also about the characters and true grits of many ingenious and hardworking scientists - with Doudna being the epitome of brilliant leadership in science advancement. In particular, “her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species (BookBrowse quote)”.
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Book Review 書評
“Chaos Under Heaven” - Trump, Xi and the battle for the 21st Century
Author: Josh Rogin, Washington Post Journalist, CNN political analyst
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021
ISBN 978-0-358-39324-5; LAPL: 327.73051 R818
CEC Review：With lots of first-hand inside stories in the White House, particularly about the inexperienced President Trump and his close aides. The book actually told a complete story covering many administrations from George Bush to Joe Biden. In particular, the book tells how Trump turned out to be a disrupter of the American politics and the world order. Many details of bickering among insiders for power-grabbing.
Amazon Review: The explosive, behind-the-scenes story of Donald Trump’s high-stakes confrontation with Beijing, from an award-winning Washington Post columnist and peerless observer of the U.S.–China relationship
Washington Post Review : Rogin’s compelling blow-by-blow account of the backbiting within the Trump administration would have been strengthened by a more complete analysis of the bilateral relationship prior to Trump.
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Book Review 书评
“一人称单数 First Person Singular”
Author: 村上春树 Haruki Murakami, June 2020
All eight short stories are told in first-person singular narrative. They are quintessential Murakami with some intrigues and often surreal, albeit no deep or complex plot. Poetic at times. Extremely enjoyable for leisure reading.
目錄 Table Of Contents
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Author & Article recommendation
作者/作品推薦 “關於花木蘭，八個顛覆三觀的歷史真相”
作者：馮學榮 - 研究真相的歷史學家
電影《花木蘭》將於2020上映，今天，我跟大家說一些關於花木蘭的有趣歷史。本文無意吹捧、也無意評價電影《花木蘭》，而是借這個話題，和大家談一談一些有意思的歷史事實。
木蘭姓「花」是徐渭杜撰
是的，在歷史上，木蘭本不姓「花」。最早記載木蘭的歷史文字，就是《木蘭辭》，是一首敘事詩。在《木蘭辭》中，木蘭是沒有姓的，只有一個名字「木蘭」。翻遍古代的歷史資料，也沒有任何可靠資料，記載了木蘭的姓氏。
也就是說，在中國的歷史上，沒有誰知道木蘭姓什麼。。。。(Click the link here for the entire article.)
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Article Review 文评
The New Yorker, August 17, 2020 issue, Peter Hessler’s
“How China Controlled the Coronavirus - teaching and learning in Sichuan during the pandemic”
Of all reporting on this subject by China or the western media, by far Peter Hessler’s is among the best and most objective.
A professor of English and Writing in Chengdu’s Sichuan University, Hessler had the foresight of staying in China with his family during the pandemic of Coronavirus, instead of returning to the U.S. as everybody first urged. As a result he has had a front row view of how China battled and controlled the pandemic.
With his years in China, Hessler is now a leading authority on the Chinese culture, history and people, if not more. When he first arrived in China in the 1990s as a young Princeton graduate and Peace Corp volunteer in rural China, Hessler spoke of no Chinese, knew little of the country or its people. In the subsequent 10 years in the country, not only did he develop a fluency in its language, he became fully capable of understanding even the Chinese classics, as well as the ancient Oracles. There he married a Chinese American and had twin daughters. During this time, Hessler was a frequent contributor to the New Yorker on all matters of China. He also wrote quite a few books documenting China’s opening, reforms and transformations.
After a number of years in Egypt, Hessler and his family returned to China. While teaching in Sichuan University, his daughters enrolled in the local elementary school. With the pandemic situation stabilized, his daughters’ school has resumed classes, while the Sichuan University conducts full curricula online. Taking advantage of the circumstance, Hessler assigned all students to do research on the pandemic situation in their respective hometowns. Collectively, a comprehensive sample covering a wide swath of China has resulted.
Drawing conclusion from his studies, Hessler points out China’s success in controlling the pandemic is due to the following factors:
China’s political system,
China’s technology.
China’s culture. This may be more important than 1) or 2). In other words, other countries with similar systems and technology know-hows may or may not be as successful as China due to different cultures.
Click the above link to read this fascinating New Yorker article, or click here to read a copy.
CEC Book Club 健華書社 introduces
Chinese American Authors
Jia Lynn Yang 楊嘉苓
A first generation American born 1982 to immigrant parents from Taiwan.
New York Times editor, and former Washington Post editor
New Publication: “One Mighty and Irresistible Tide, The epic struggle over American immigration, 1924 - 1965”
2020 Norton Publisher, ISBN 978-0-393-63854-3
Framed movingly by her own family’s story of immigration to America, Yang’s book is a deeply researched and illuminating work of history, one that shows how Americans have strived and struggled to live up to the ideal of a home for the “huddled masses,” as promised in Emma Lazarus’s famous poem. The book also demonstrates Yang’s passion towards the immigration issues, and her analytical mind of seeing order within mountains of historical documents she dug out, as well as the prowess of her penmanship.
Ted Chiang 姜峰楠
Born in 1967 and a Brown University graduate, he is a famed science fiction writer, especially of novelettes. His work and awards were too numerous to list. In particular, his “Exhalation”, a collection of short stories, won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. From his works, readers inevitably are wowed by his knowledge of history of all mankind and their interwoven cultures, in addition to his scientific expertise. Of course, his greatest success is his boundless imagination and storytelling.
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Author Recommendation
Viet Tranh Nguyen阮越清
“The Sympathizer” A 2016 Pulitzer novel
Thorndike Press, 2015
ISBN 978-1-4104-8262-4
Reviews (excerpts) from various readers:
“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.” With these words Viet Thanh Nguyen decides to start the novel and these two sentences were enough to get me hooked. They managed to intrigue me, to want to know more and set the basis for what will prove to be one of the main theme, the interior conflict of the narrator. The Sympathizer is a book about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. I've run across a lot of Asian American works. Though my heart is always with these stories, they've often lacked style. Viet Nguyen has style.
The Sympathizer is a book about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The book is about loyalty, identity and the difficulty to adjust to a new culture and reality.
I've run across a lot of Asian American works. Though my heart is always with these stories, they've often lacked style. Viet Nguyen has style. He's really funny, in a smart unpredictable way.
If you ever struggle with your feelings and understanding about America’s role in the Vietnam War, this book could give you a useful framework to both widespread blaming and forms of forgiveness to both sides. There really was no right side to be on, and the Vietnamese people became a pawns in a larger struggle.
“The Model Minority Trap” - TIME Magazine article, 7/6-13/20
The face of Tou Thao haunts me. The Hmong-American police officer stood with his back turned to Derek Chauvin, his partner, as Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and murdered him.
Asian Americans have embraced a country that passed a law to keep them out. The real American dream would unite all of us in justice and economic equality.
(Click the link to read the entire article)
CEC Book Club 健華書社
Book Review 書評 (in Chinese)
"The Room Where It Happened:
A White House Memoir"
Author: John Bolton, 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10: 1982148039; ISBN-13: 978-1982148034
Reviewer: 朱敬一, 臺灣中央研究院院士, 經濟學家。
************************
美國前國家安全顧問 John Bolton 的新書 "The Room Where It Happened" 幾天前上市，實體與網路銷售皆大賣，據報導他的版稅收入大概至少有幾千萬元。該書還沒有中譯版，所以不知道中文書譯名為何。此書撰寫是「敍事序時體」，每一章按國安事件的主題切分，例如土耳其、委內瑞拉、中國等，然後就各個主題，再依事件時序記述其發展。這樣做實為不得不然；因為美國面對的平行事件太多，若同時處理，讀起來會昏倒。（全評分下列8點）
寫書痛批川普，報復性居多
閣員眾生相，一覽無遺
人權，值幾文錢？
美國與盟邦關係極差
對川普人格，極為不滿
總統，經常打臉閣員
官場鬥爭，哪裡都一樣
國安顧問該扮演什麼角色？
單擊此處查看整個評論。 該書和以上評論並不代表健華社的觀點。
Click here for the entire review. The book and the above review do not represent the view of CEC.
“Origin”
By Dan Brown, 2017, DoubleDay Publishing, ISBN 978 0 38551 4231
If you don’t mind Brown’s formulaic writing, albeit a new plot, then you will like this book. If you also like travel, you will enjoy this thriller even more. Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Landon teamed up with a most intelligent lady met in Spain, this time, and tried to untangle themselves from a murder mystery and helped unravel the revolutionary discovery about mankind by the victim, a world leading scientist. As proven in the past, Brown was also an expert of blending history, culture, religion, art into one fascinating book. In particular, Barcelona became lively with Brown’s vivid storytelling involving Gaudi, the famed artist, and his various landmark architectural marvels. As a result, any prospective Barcelona travelers are recommended to carry it as a guidebook. The book became even more entertaining when lots of the state-of-the-art technologies were heavily employed in the crime making, as well as crime solving. The only drawback is: ten years later when the book is read again, the so-called state of the art technologies would all become kid’s play.
Destined For War
- Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
By Graham Allison, 2017
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 978-0-544-93527-3
LAPL 327.73051 A438
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978-0-544-93527-3 LAPL 327.73051 A438
If not for the trade war, America and China may have already tangled in military conflict, said a high ranking U.S. official.
However, China and America are destined for war, claimed the author, because of Thucydides’s Trap.
The author wrote:
“…..As a rapidly ascending China challenges Americn’s accustomed pre-dominance these two nations risk falling into a deadly trap first identified by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. Writing about a war that devastated the two leading city-states of classical Greece two and a half millennia ago, he explained: ‘It was the rise of Athes and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.’........”
The author also found sixteen historical cases in which a major nation’s rise has disrupted the position of a dominant state. Twelve of these rivalries ended in war.
Several possible scenarios that might lead to war between the U.S. and China are discussed in the book. They involve North Korea, Taiwan, South China Sea, etc. In each scenario, the author offered solutions so that war might be avoided. Not meant to be sensational, the book is a serious academic work that is also interesting and readable to general readership. This Harvard sinologist is a true China expert who understands the history and culture of China very well, probably much more thoroughly than most.
At this moment, the trade war is still ongoing, despite the first stage truce. Let the trade war go on if only the real war can be avoided, or indefinitely postponed.
“Edison”, 2019
By Edmund Morris
Penguin Random House Publishing
ISBN 9780812993110
Just when you thought you knew everything about Thomas Edison, who brought light and hearing to mankind, this book provides so much more of what Edison invented which you probably never heard of. In fact, throughout his waking hours (he hardly slept at all), Edison had kept coming up with new ideas, many of which resulted in patented products. With one exception: Edison did not patent a lifesaving medical device he invented so that it could be massed produced immediately by all to save more lives. Overall, he had thousands of patented inventions, not all of them well-known.
A genius as he was, Edison had an eccentric personality and did not mingle with other easily. He didn’t even care about his own family - he was remote to his children. In fact, as a workaholic, he would stay in his lab almost at all hours, and napped on his workbench when needed.
This biography is of monumental proportion - almost encyclopedic. The author is well-known for his excellent work on many biographies, all authoritative. Hence this one, in particular, is not a light reading, due to its size.
“Super Pumped - the Battle for Uber”
By Mike Issac
Publisher: Norton, September 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-393-65224-6
LAPL: 388.373 I73
The successful founding and growth of Uber may be unprecedented in the business history. The company has expanded so fast, and so widely covering a whole range of cities worldwide - in a very short time. The phenomenon is largely due to one person, Mike Kalanick.
If the business world is looked upon like a battlefield, then Travis Kalanick, the Uber founder, is a most fierce commander. During his reign, he was intense, ruthless, and ferociously aggressive. And he would not quit until he won. Then he would be ready for another battle. Winning is the only option for Kalanick, and his tactics for winning have not always been ethical or legal. His business model is so new and ahead of the law - to be fair. Venture capitalists loved him and fought to be his investors.
Not surprisingly, Kalanick is a workaholic, and sleeps little. It’s not unusual for his workers to get his phone call after midnight. Maybe unexpected to many, Kalanick was from an ordinary Northridge family in California’s San Fernando Valley growing up with public school education. He attended UCLA, and quit before graduation to start a business.
This book is an encyclopedia about the Uber history and Kalanick. It also covers a lot of people around him in detail. The tediousness, if any, is however largely buried by the excitement and personality of Kalanick, as well as the new reality of the 21th century businesses.
“Dancing Naked in the Mind Field”, 1998
By Kary Mullis, 1993 Nobel Winner in Chemistry
Published by Pantheon Books
ISBN 0-679-44255-3
With the author as a chemist, you probably can guess this must be a science related work. Indeed, this is either a most outrageous book or a most mind opening book - depending on your point of view. For sure, it is a most fascinating book covering topics and viewpoints either that you have never heard of or entirely contrary to your long standing beliefs. The author is certainly a very smart person, with a unique and an extraordinarily eccentric personality. He is probably the only Nobel Laureate and surfer. Moreover, he admitted that he smoked LSD. In fact, he often dared subject his own body for various experiments - with successes. Reading this book is like a most exciting roller coaster ride with lots of unexpected turns, and through many dark tunnels. With an open mind, be entertained. Oh, by the way, don’t worry being overwhelmed by the science content of the book since the author is a Nobel. Anyone, with or without any science background will equally be entertained.
点击照片或链接以了解详情
World renowned Contemporary Chinese author introductions
世界着名的當代中国作家介绍
Yan Lianke is likely the next Nobel Literature winner from China. LA Public Library has a collection, some of which in Chinese and some in English translation.
阎连科，许多人认为，将是下一位得诺贝尔文学奖的中国作家。LA Public Library 有他部分中英文藏书。
两位伟大作家的過世
The Passing of two great authors
C.Y. Lee 黎錦揚, a CEC speaker, Author of "Flower Drum Song", passed away in Montery Park on November 16, 2018 at age 104
二月河, author of the trilogy "康熙，雍正，乾隆", passed away in China on December 15, 2018 at age of 73
Recommended Article 好文共赏
By Hannah Beech, New Yorker Magazine
Read this fascinating article about this fascinating character if you are curious about any of the following.
Is she a freedom fighter for democracy and human right?
Why doesn’t she stop or condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas?
What exactly is the Rohingyas issue?
Is she standing up against the ruling military or colluding with it?
Does the world really understand who she is?
Killing Commendatore 刺殺騎士團長
By Haruki Murakami 村上春樹
English translation: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018.
中文翻譯：台北市，時報文化出版企業股份有限公司, 2017.
“畫龍點睛”，真有其事嗎？村上春树认为有。
不用质疑，村上春树想象力丰富，他的故事一向玄虚，沾邊灵异。
村上的新書：“刺殺騎士團長Killing Commendatore”，就是一幅画里生动的人物，真的活生生的导诱了一个奇妙的故事。
六百多页的21世纪故事，从莫扎特的“Don Giovanni”歌剧说起，牵涉到二次大战欧洲和中国的战场。血腥的南京大屠杀，也是重要的一环。
村上春树是美食家，一顿美餐的描述，令读者有齿颊留香的感覺。
兩個主要人物都是（分屬兩代的）畫家，似乎彰顯出春上村樹有極高的繪畫素養。根據他，畫不是創造出來的，而是被發現的。畫家從一個概念開始，和他的主題，不斷進行各類溝通（甚至靈性上的對話），最後終於瞭解了這主題，畫也就自然完成了。
看畫或欣賞畫，也有個類似甚至更長的過程，主要去瞭解和發現原畫家的心路歷程。
故事亢長曲折，因有这些穿插，从第一面起，一路下來不知後面會如何發展，更無法預測故事的結尾。但阅读的过程可说是“柳暗花明，赏心悦目，引人入勝”。作者細細説來，聽者如醉如痴。
在”性“方面，書中多有篇幅，細膩描寫，遠勝“色戒”的電影平面表現。某些中學圖書館拒絕收藏此書，也不足為奇。”春“情乃”春“書內重要情節。仔细欣賞，更能瞭解（或接受）故事的脈絡和结局。
结局不盡如意，因为和前面复杂奇妙的情节，没有完美的勾连，少了點一氣呵成的感覺，有點失望。
不過600頁的書，有前550頁的趣味，值得一看再看。
Recommended Article 好文共享
By Jon Lee Anderson, A New Yorker Article
This succincint article has a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. - Mexico relation from the very beginning till now. From that historical perspective, lots of issues become crystal clear on why and how. Currently is Trump winning? You find out and draw your own conclusion. Click the link and have a most interesting reading.
李歐梵 與 李玉瑩的”新浮生六記
一方出版, 2002
ISBN 986-80548-3-4
LAPL: Ch 895.1092 L689
First love came to them when he was 60 and she was 40 something. It was as passionate as any first love - like that between much younger couples. Perhaps, it was even sweeter, because at their ages, they had a much better understanding of what true love really was.
They both failed their first marriages, respectively, and thought that true love was only something illusive, and might not exist at all. So when they found each other, felt the passion for the first time in their life, they both relished this tremendous fortune of theirs.
No fiction, it was a documentation of their love and feeling toward each other. In fact the book was a collection of their diaries, as well as (love) letters to each other, respectively - put together chronologically.
Love is for better, and for worse. Their married life had ups and downs. When she fell into the abyss of a grave illness, he suffered with her and fought the disease hard together. They never gave up, holding hands together till she recovered. The love between them was enduring as ever.
A unique and exquisite love story, put together elegantly. And the story goes on.
Recommended Article 好文推荐
The Content of No Content
Are the Tech giants eroding democracy?
Is Big Tech too powerful?
By Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker
The biggest danger to our democracy is not the rightists or the leftists. Rather, it is the AFGA, which stands for Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple - the 4 giant content controllers and profiteers. They are too big and are out of control. Amazon dictates how we shop. Facebook and Google dominate the flow of information. Apple helps facilitate all three. Together they know, in good detail, of our life and privacy, and make additional profit of them. Using their information, for example, a young computer engineer in Ukraine sitting in his crummy bedroom could easily disrupt the American election by the fake news he sent to the world. What can Americans do about the situation? Click here to read this fascinating article.