Been reading and things...

So I got swept up in a semi-delicious little book that I completely devoured in about a week. Lost In Translation by Nicole Mones. Her first novel, I believe. It was a fast read and it did seem to draw me in. It was so easy. And full of interesting cultural references and translations -- the heroine being a translator living in China. This book is not the source for the movie by the same name, though they are both about a young American woman who are translators in an Asian country. This book is more of a mild mystery about China, daily mannerism, finding Peking Man and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Here's a sample, starting on page one...

So it was nice to disappear in this easy novel. But alas it's done. Maybe Brad will enjoy it now.

There's a promising blog entry on an MSNBC link that just popped up -- which reflects on the enormity of the country plus more. Just into starting to read about that. Here's the name/link to it: Lost ... then found in China's multitudes -- Blogger has time to reflect while
traveling by rail to Beijing

And all this makes me recall this fascinating website I bookmarked called 100 x 100, with 100 photographs by Michael Wolf of residents in their flats in Hong Kong's oldest public housing estate. Each room is 100 square feet in size. I poured over this site when I found it last year; each room is so cramped, but how each one was furnished, the colors, the neatness, the messiness -- all mirrored the individual.

What is with this minor China obsession I seem to be exhibiting? Or is that simply Asia Minor? Apologies, it's late.

Totally unrelated, I just read an amazingly refreshing interview with Elizabeth Edwards. She is definitely showing grace against enormous odds. My hat is more than off to her. She said, "I come from a family of women who live into their 90s, so it's taken something real from me. There was a time during the day when we were getting test results when I felt more despair than I ever felt in any of the time I had the breast cancer. I have a lot that I intend to do in this life. We're here at the house. I'm going to build paths through these woods so we can take long walks that I intended to take when I was 80. And I have a 6-year-old son. I was going to hold his children someday. Now I'm thinking I have only a slim chance of seeing him graduate high school ... I have an obligation to try to live as long as I can for my family." You know, some things just resonate.