Other Side of the Planet dot com

Book: The Sex Lives of Cannibals

Posted on April 16th, 2010 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Books, Travel.

Because I promised myself that I would start blogging again…

Title: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Author: J. Maarten Troost
Genre: Travel Essay
Anna’s Rating: 5/5

I have to admit that the sole reason I purchased this book was that my friend Chris called me as I was crawling into bed to rant and rave about a fabulous travel essay she’d just read that, in her words, made her time in Peace Corps feel normal.  It was so good, in fact, that she decided she didn’t care that she’d gotten me out of bed, because I had to hear about it.  (And she liked the book so much that she didn’t want to lend it to me, deciding that I could buy it because I’m rich [read: less poor].)

And I’ll have my readers, if you’re still out there, know that this book was, in fact, so good that it made me laugh out loud in public, with tears streaming down my face: in bus stations, on trains, in the hospital (my boyfriend’s mom thought I was crying for the man I love who was at that time having tubes shoved into his arteries and up into his heart, but alas, it was the book).

The joy was in the “ditches of digression”, as the author so eloquently put it (and let’s be honest, my writing has long since made its home there, too).  The book starts out slowly, introducing our hero and heroine, who shall rescue the victim of the American Rat Race and sequester them away on a journey to a time and a life that now seems too distant.  Things pick up pretty soon, and by Chapter 4, the tears of laughter start rolling; after that I just couldn’t put it down.

Author Maarten Troost delves into a variety of topics, from animals to history to culture and more, approaching each topic and showing how his time abroad changed his perspective and values, all in a voice that leads the reader to think he’s sitting on your living room sofa (or living room hammock, in my case, as I’m too cheap to buy a couch).  In all sincerity, I must commend the man who writes a history chapter that I find interesting; if all history books were as enjoyable as that, I’d likely have at least a minor in the subject.

In short, if you’re looking for a humorous way to convince yourself to move to a scant patch of polluted, over-populated sand in an under-developed and poorly organized nation, or if you just need a bit of escape from the realities of life, I highly recommend The Sex Lives of Cannibals, which apparently has very little to do with its title (except that cannibal tribes conquered the island in question in the past, and some of them made families with local women, making the unique people that populate the island nation of Tarawa today - see?  I DID follow some of that history!!)

2 comments.

Book: Lies My Teacher Told Me

Posted on January 9th, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books.

Talk about horribly behind…I finished this like two months ago…

Title: Lies My Teacher Told Me
Author: James Loewen
Genre: History
Anna’s Rating: 5/5

I should preface this by saying that I have little interest in history, particularly US history.  Even as a Chinese major in my undergrad years, I could never force myself to take an interest in Chinese history (which my language textbooks told me is of a glorious nature.)  It I had to choose, though, I’d go for ancient history.  What can I say?  The pyramids are awesome, and I’m rather bitter about being unable to see either the Colossus or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

So I wasn’t particularly thrilled to be assigned to read a US history book for my class on the history of educational philosophy…

This is the only history book I have ever liked.

It’s an excellent read - and this is coming from someone who loathes the subject.

Lies My Teacher Told Me looks at history in a way no high school text book ever has, and inspired me in ways that no college professor ever managed to.  (I still remember sitting there in my Chinese history class, wondering what would ever compell a man to do his PhD in Acient Chinese Economics, like my professor had.)

This book tells the whole story of American history, focusing moreso on what is left out of history books rather than what is included.  And yet, it made me realize that even this book cannot be telling the whole story: history has too many facets for any one person to gather and comprehend them all… 

This was the real success or author James Loewen: he made me think, as so few do.  It wasn’t until my senior year of college that I finally met a teacher who would make me think or actually exert an effort to get a decent grade, and I remember her most fondly, (even in spite of the three B+ grades she tarnished my transcript with.)

So read this book, even if you hate history. 

Especially if you hate history.

Particularly if you’re a teacher who hates history, as it has a good bit on education as well, and really, there are a few things you should know before you go out misleading our nation’s future.

Just read it.

0 comments.

Book: The Threat Within

Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Threat Within
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #18)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 3/5

Book number #18, like #17, just wasn’t that impressive.  It didn’t outright suck, as at least there was a message in the end of the book, and a link or two back to the movies, such as Qui-gon’s concern that Obi-wan would never become a Jedi Knight because he could envision no future in which Obi-wan served alongside him as a full-fledged Jedi Knight.  It serves to remind us how limited our perspectives are by our tendancy to be self-centered individuals.

It just makes me sad that the series doesn’t seem to end for any more reason than that they’d run out of decent ideas.  It would have been nice if there had been an overall plan for where to take the series and how to wrap it up.  (Things to keep in mind when I write a book series, I guess.)  Admittedly, I do have the two special editions to read: one arrived this week, and the other is on its way via Amazon, but these books tell the story of Obi-wan and Anakin, so, it’s different, I expect.  We shall see.

And crap or gold, I shall blog about it.

0 comments.

Book: The Only Witness

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Only Witness
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #17)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 2/5 (Very disappointed.)

What can I say…?  This is the most disappointing book in the seventeen that I’ve read so far.  It took me about two weeks to finish, and considering how easy of a read these are, that says something.  I’ve been known to read two a day.

There was just nothing to enjoy.  No exciting plot.  No interesting twists.  No good character development.  No good quotes.  No links back to our beloved films.  It just exists.  And if you’re reading the other 19 books in the series, you might as well read it just to say you’ve completed the series, but all the same, if you’re buying a lot off e-bay and book #17 is missing, bid away.  You’ll get the incomplete set far cheaper, and you really won’t be missing anything.

0 comments.

Book: Undead and Unwed

Posted on December 6th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books.

Title: Undead and Unwed
Author: Mary Janice Davidson
Genre: Chick Lit
Anna’s Rating: 3/5

So, after numerous recommendations, I finally got around to reading Undead and Unwed, which is a vampire chick lit set in Minnesota.  I found the first couple chapters unbelievably hilarious, but I found that they’re only really funny to people who have lived in the Twin Cities: the rest of the world has no real way to connect to the humor.

I give it credit that the book does start out with an excellent first sentence: “The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry.”  Really, the entire first chapter is completely quotable.  From complaining about the “six buses for a population  area of a quarter million…when they weren’t late, they were early…schedule?  What schedule?” and references to Khan’s Mongolian Barbeque (mmm…) and the Mall of America (I do miss living 5 miles from there) make me happy.

Meanwhile, the story of a 30-year-old (nearly me) single (me) woman (me) living alone (me) with a cat (me) in Minneapolis (formerly me) while working a crappy job (everybody) as an executive assistant (formerly me) is something I can definately relate to.  Yet somewhere after the first couple chapters, I got bored, put the book down, and there it sat for half a year.  Maybe I’m just not a chick lit person - yet I am a chick flick person, so maybe there’s a potential for transferrence of obsession.

So, while I’m not running out to pick up the next book in the series (Undead and Unemployed, I think) this instant, I might grab it the next time I happen to find myself at a book store (which is not as often as I’d like lately…I’ve actually been picking up unread books on my bookcase at home lately, which is unprecedented, but undeniably overdue.)

1 comment.

Book: The Call to Vengeance

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Catching up on my blogging of Jedi Aprentice books just made me want to read another one…sigh…  Read half of it Saturday night, and the other half Sunday morning.  I’m a sinful creature…

Title: The Call to Vengeance
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #16)
Author: Jude Watsom
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

Yet another trilogy exists between numbers 14, 15, and 16.  In this continuation, Obi-wan is watching as his master, Qui-gon Jinn, slips to the Dark Side in the wake of the trauma that left the reader in shock at the end of book 15, The Death of Hope.

Good kids mystery book, wherein I suspected the real culprit early on, but it kept the reader guessing…very nice.  Not very quotable, but it kept the reader engaged - that’s the primary job of a book, after all.  (Yet so many fail in this, don’t they?)

Reflecting on Obi-wan in the movies, the events that unfold there seem all the more traumatic, as he watches people he cares for most, time and again, slipping to the grip of the Dark Side…and I’m left to wonder: Is Obi-wan the perfect Jedi?  Does he never falter when everyone around him seems to?  (This is, perhaps, why some people hate his character.)

Of course, I still have books 17 and 18…and I should order the two special edition books as well.  Maybe there’s more left to Obi-wan’s story.

QUOTE:

“Use your time.  You’ll find one day that you have too little of it.”
- Qui-gon Jinn, as recalled by Obi-wan Kenobi, p. 85

1 comment.

Book: Plane Insanity

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books.

Title: Plane Insanity
Author: Elliot Hester
Genre: Travel Essay
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

While not as brilliant as his second book, Adventures of a Continental Drifter, it was still a highly enjoyable volume.  Last time was a recount of one, round-the-world, travel exploit.  This time, it’s a gathering of humorous tales of the airline industry’s flight attendants. 

The stories are good, and made me look forward to my time on the subway.  There’s something about the way he describes things that I can still vividly recall the child who looked upon him with big eyes right before spraying him with vomit as he attempted to leap out of the way in a way that, in my mind, you should be able to watch in instant-replay on a sports channel - and I read that months ago, before I lost and finally found the book again.

The author, Elliot Hester, has since given up his job as a flight attendant, to my understanding, and has been traveling the world and writing a travel column for US newspapers since 2002 - lucky bastard.  But when he wants to hand that job off to someone else, mayhaps he’ll think of me…

And on a random note, a bit of humor I deeply appreciated from the acknowledgements, where the author speaks of how his mom told him he should be a writer when he grew up: “Well, Mom, I finally became a writer.  Forgive me for not growing up.”  I hope to use this line when I, one day, publish a book, too.

0 comments.

Book: The Death of Hope

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Death of Hope
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #15)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

My first thought when I finished this book more than a month ago: Wow…

I have hardly developed more articulate thoughts since then.

A continuation of The Ties that Bind (#14), The Death of Hope is the continuing tale recounting Qui-gon Jinn’s efforts to change the future, not realizing that his own actions set into motion the very future that he is trying to avoid…

QUOTES:

“Accustomed to lie, you become.  Easy it becomes to be false in big things, if false in small ones you are.”
- Yoda, as recalled by Qui-gon, p. 141

“We could be rivals.  But I think it would be better if we were friends.”
- Talh, speaking to Qui-gon after a close match, p. 144

0 comments.

Book: The Ties that Bind

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Ties that Bind
         (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #14)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 4/5

This and the next book definately are on the list of this series’ higher quality volumes.  This story was excellent, with multiple aspects that relate to the real world rather well, but the best, and overarching aspect, of the story had two main points: reminiscing over the past, and trying to control the future.

This is mostly a Qui-gon story.  It begins with him taking Obi-wan out to a place he had been long ago with another dear friend, Jedi Master Tahl.  They had promised to return together, but life happens, and often times we never get around to doing the things we say we will.  Days and weeks turn into months and years and the things we value slip through our fingers. 

Now Qui-gon takes Obi-wan on the same trip in an effort to grasp at what was lost, but he is only plagues by visions of Tahl’s death.  Desparate to change the future, he chases across the Galaxy, to the world of New Apsolon, in an effort to change the vision of the future that he sees.

0 comments.

Blog: My Star Wars Shelf

Posted on October 30th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

[An insight into my insanity: books tipped over on their side are on my extensive and ever-growing “To Read” list.]

Well, more of a bookcase nowadays…  I advised my mom that I’d be more inclined to stay in this country if I had my creature comforts here with me in New York City…she immediately shipped me my prized collection of Star Wars books.

I’ll be the first to admit that I read too much Star Wars…and yet, if I enjoy it, really, why not?  There are far worse habits, such as smoking or drinking, that I could pick up.  If stress releif comes through fantastic escapism, then pile on my geek books.

2 comments.