It's called a Copy Editor.

Ugh. So, some minor things about Anna May...

First off, the back has a quotation from Iris Chang, author of The Chinese American. Except, well, her book is titled The Chinese In America.

That, and at the beginning of the second (maybe third) chapter, Hodges is outlining a plot to one of her movies, and makes repeated references to the character named Chang Lo. Except every other time it's spelt Chang Low.

It's the little things that make me not take you seriously.

Book Store

After my jaunt to Borders, I remembered the gift certificate to Barnes and Noble I had gotten for Christmas. When it comes to big box book stores, I vastly prefer Borders, but there is no borders where my parents live, so, B&N it was.

Last night I went a little crazy:

The Cook's Encyclopedia to Italian Cooking Carla Capalbo
A Noodle Cookbook that I can't find a reference for (it was on the clearane shelf)
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes Bill Watterson
Geisha, A Life Mineko Iwasaki
Small Island Andrea Levy
Boundaries of Her Body:A Shocking History of Women's Rights in America Debran Rowland
Motifs Paris Combo

The last is a CD that came on when I was browsing the clearance shelf. I feel so in love with the first track that I had to buy it!

The wheels on the bus

I had to take the bus to work today. I miss taking the bus if only because it gave me 20-40 minutes each day to read...

I started Anna May Wong... today. Some comments on Amazon and my initial reaction to the introduction leave me wary that this won't be the most unbiased opinion of her life and work.

I mean, Hodges first found out about her because he saw a signed photo in a shop and bought it, even though it was really expensive. The way the intro reads, he became infatuated with this photo (almost Peony Pavillion-esque, really) and so got a book deal so he could research her... it seems almost... unhealthy. I am also very wary of historians writing outside their subject field (his is African American history).

But, all that said, I've only read the intro. We'll see how the rest of the book goes. Even if it is only a love letter to an unknown actress, it could still be a good read. I'll just have to get and read a poison pen letter too!

Getting lost in the bookstore

So, I finished up Republic of Wine by Mo Yan this weekend.

It was a good book, but hard to read. It took a long time, partly because I'm a huge wuss and couldn't read it before bed due to visceral scenes of eating babies.

I think I need to reread it. It's all over the place so I think it'll make more sense when I know what's coming... if that makes sense...

Tonight, I went to Borders, as I had a gift card to be spending...

I walked away with:

A knitting magazine
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China ed. by Wilt L. Idema and Beata Grant
The Doll House and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen

Failure

Oooooo... I've been tagged by Lynne for this book meme. This is the first time I've been tagged. It's quite exciting!

So...

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be and why?

Ok, um, I've never read Fahrenheit 451. I know. It's embarassing. But, I read a plot sypnopsis online and juding off of Lynne's answer, I need to be memorized so I can survive, right? I'm going to go with Beowulf. In Olde English. Great story, easy to memorize and not only would the literature be preserved, but the history of the language would be as well.

The last book you bought is:

Well, one trip to the book store, 3 books purchased.

Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (as a gift)
Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Republic of Wine by Mo Yan

The Last Book you Read:

Changing Places by David Lodge. Hilarious.

Currently Reading:

Republic of Wine by Mo Yan
Gendering the Spirit: Women, Religion, and the Post-Colonial Response edited by Durre S. Ahmed

Five Books You Would Take With you to a Deserted Island:

Some sort of survival guide
Complete Works of Jane Austen
The Colombia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature
For the 5th one I'm torn between a Norton Anthology of American Lit or the Bible. I think I'm going to go with the Bible.



Sometimes I feel that my high school education cheated me. I don't know. But there are lots of books that I got to college having not read, and, given that I didn't major in English, a lot of books that I graduated from college having not read. I have a hard time comprehending how someone who went to the schools I did could have gotten this far reading certain titles. For instance, I have never read To Kill a Mockingbird. Seriously.

Books I didn't read:
Fahrenheit 451
Nothing by Austen
Nothing by any of the Brontes
Nothing by Dickens
To Kill a Mockingbird
Red Badge of Courage

Now, to be fair, it's not that kids in my school district didn't read such titles, but that kids who took top-level English all through high school didn't read these titles. We read such stuff as:

The Crucible
Things Fall Apart
As I Lay Dying
Hamlet
MacBeth
Romeo and Juliet
Huckleberry Finn
Killer Angels
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Dandelion Wine
Sula
Beloved
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Great Gatsby
Oedipus Rex
Antigone (by Anouilh, not Sophocles)
Lord of the Flies
Cat's Cradle