Review: The Christmas Box

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very cute and touching short story. Good for the Christmas season.


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Review: From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000

From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 by Lee Kuan Yew
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a thick tome, but every page was fascinating and a revealing insight into the founding of a new country from scratch, and a uniquely successful country at that.

I went into this taking it with a grain of salt, since memoirs, especially by public figures like Lee Kuan Yew, tend to be self-serving.

However, even given this, it was extremely interesting and enlightening. This book will be eye-opening to pretty much anyone, whether you are familiar with Singapore's history or not (I wasn't really).


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Review: Thinking In Systems: A Primer

Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An eye-opening book, in the sense that, chances are, you've already been using these methods for thinking about certain things in life, but hadn't even thought about applying them to others. At least this was the case for me. 

Some of the concepts were fascinating, like Romania's attempt to increase population by banning abortion, and how it failed miserably. 

I think I would've preferred either a more comprehensive list of use cases or else a more narrow scope (i.e. how this applies to businesses, etc.). Regardless, some great concepts and an excellent primer. 

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Review: The Passengers on the Hankyu Line

The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fun book with a very interesting premise: the comings and goings of people on a certain train line and their lives and interactions. I probably enjoyed this even more than the Traveling Cat Chronicles. 

There are many books of this genre these days (usually with bookstores or coffee shops). Especially out of Japan it seems. But Arikawa definitely is one of the better authors at carrying it out. 

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Review: Wild Animal

Wild Animal by Joël Dicker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fast-paced, intricate, and always good to read thrillers taking place in Switzerland.


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Review: The Underground Village

The Underground Village by Kang Kyeong-ae
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Depressing but poignant, by someone who lived it.


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Review: Through the Woods

Through the Woods by E.M. Carroll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't usually like graphic novels much, but this was good. Enjoyable and pretty scary.


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Review: Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World

Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is nothing to really complain about with this book, but there's nothing to be excited about really either. This is not a history of Papyrus, nor is it necessarily about the invention of books (although that is covered, and I found it very interesting). This is more a journey through various topics the author finds interesting. The topics are indeed interesting, and they tie into paper, or writing, in some form or another. But they are chosen by the author for no apparent objective reason.

Conspicuously missing was the entire Asian continent. Indeed, anything East of the Levant. It would've been fascinating to read about how the Chinese used bamboo and silk for writing (and how these influenced the way Chinese characters could be carved, and therefore how they look).

Not to mention the fact that China lays claim to the invention of paper. It seems that might have been worthy of a mention.

The author also mentions the book as a major improvement to the scroll, but no mention of the accordion style used by Buddhist monks long before this.

It also would've been interesting to read about independent writing inventions and how they differed with/without paper, as in with the Americas.


Regardless, obviously it's not exhaustive, but just a collection of thoughts.



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Review: Florescence—THE TAIPEI CHINESE PEN: A Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Chinese Literature from Taiw

Florescence—THE TAIPEI CHINESE PEN: A Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Chinese Literature from Taiwan by Various
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Night of the Urban Legend" by Xiao Xiang Shen was my favorite story. Excellent premise, although I'm not sure about the ending.

"Tengu Entanglement" by Ho Ching-Yao was also promising, so I hope the rest of it is translated soon.


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