Category Archives: book talk

Eighty Days, a race around the world: Bringing someone else’s history to life

Wouldn’t that be exciting to find a stranger has discovered a stack of letters written by one of your ancestors and wants to write a book about her? Matthew Goodman wrote Eighty Days about a historic race around the world that … Continue reading

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“The Boy at the Gate” memoir is a poignant song

At the age of eight, Danny Ellis was separated from his siblings and dropped off at the most notorious orphanage in Ireland. The Artane Industrial School housed 800 orphans and delinquents that nobody wanted—a noisy, ragtag bunch of “humanity’s lost … Continue reading

Posted in bad memories, book reviews, book talk, multicultural | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Canton Elegy: Astonishing memoir of Chinese history and a father’s love

Recently I finished reading an advance copy of Canton Elegy by Stephen Jin Nom Lee. It is one of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a LOT of memoirs. I wrote about Canton Elegy in April 2012 when I saw … Continue reading

Posted in book reviews, book talk, grandparents, history, inspiration, letters, multicultural, war stories, WWII | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment