2/1/2007

Reading Kublai Khan, His Life and Times, by Morris Rossabi. She picked it up because she wondered if he was related to Genghis Khan and yes, he is--he's one of his grandchildren who inherited a corner of China and also his grandfather's conquering spirit. However, while his grandfather was vicious, Kublai was more diplomatic. This book, she says, is for reading on BART, because it's more dynamic. When she's at home she's reading a story about a Korean boy living in the Chosun dynasty who spies on ceramicist to discover the secret of celadon, the green-blue glazed pottery. She's just come back from a vacation to South Korea inspired by Korean cooking shows and soap operas.

Recently she read Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, which is about pioneer Chinese Americans in the 1800s and a woman who is sold into slavery but later, by marrying a non-immigrant, she becomes a land owner--at that time immigrants were not allowed to buy land.

She works near the downtown library and browses through the stacks for books on her lunch hour. Sometimes, for fun, she goes to the young adult section. She loved Peppermints in the Parlor, by Barbara Brooks Wallace, which she got with an audio cassette and read along with it!