Log #8

Finally, after so many torture and pain, Yeonmi and her mom decided to escape to South Korea and had succeeded. Even though at first she didn't feel like belonging to there, at least she had freedom. Throughout my reading of this book, my mood kept going up ann down. The scenes she described in the book were so vivid as if all of these were played right in front of me. Sometimes there are even scenes that are hard to put into words.

In order to live is a book with true stories and true feelings. Honestly, I think it's quite impossible to use a relaxed mind to read through it, but the strong emotion and tight storyline make me keep continuing. This book has also risen some issues. From important ones such as human trafficking and North Korean refugees to small problems like family relations and emotional problems. In this book, the author didn't give an exact solution to these problems instead she gave us time and space to thought about them. Indeed, it's difficult for us to help solve this problem. However, if more and more people can pay attention to it, and support those poor people. Perhaps there are chances that we can make a change.

Log #7

Yeonmi and her sister ↑

When we are trying to reach our goals, there is no doubt that we all need some "luck". Yeonmi was a very lucky person during her journey to freedom even if she had met so many difficulties in the past.

 

After she and her mom escaped to China, her mother was sold to a poor farmer's family. While Yeonmi was being transferred to brokers and brokers. The last broker, who Yeonmi stayed with for the longest time, was a very complicated man. He still commanded Yeonmi to do bad business for him but at the same time, he was helping Yeonmi. He protected her from the police, helped her find her father from North Korea, and bought her mother back to unit with them. This broker was a very important person to Yeonmi, because at last, he helped her and supported her to escape to South Korea. If it wasn't that broker, Yeonmi and her mom would never ever taste freedom. If it wan't that broker, Yeonmi would never have future.

Sometimes in our life, all we need is that little bit of luck. I didn't mean that we can depend everything on luck, but we cannot deny the importance of it.  I remembered when I was in high school, I participated a very big and important Enlish competition. If I won that competition, I could enter the college that I had been long for. Therefore, it's very obvious that this was quite a pressure. I think in this competition, I had a lot of luck with me. The monitor was the same as I used to practice, the order that I got was just what I had wished for, and the writng was what I am familiar with the most. From this small details, I could see there were plenty of luck going with me on that day. However, I still worked really really hard no matter it's before or during the contest. Thanks for them, I was able to realize my dream.

Log #6

Yeonmi, the author herself, had a childhood like no other people had. With their poorness and starvation increased every day, they were desperate to find ways to survive. What’s worse, her parents were sent to prison for some ridiculous reasons. Throughout the book, I can see how Yeonmi struggled with her childhood life and the only hope for her was the light across the Yalu River in China. There were some sentences that I felt really touched and impressed, she said, “I lived in North Korea, the country where we were supposed to have nothing to envy, and all I felt was envy – desperate envy for the people on the other side of the river. I still didn’t dare to think about why we couldn’t have so many things in North Korea, but I knew that I wanted to go where there were light and food. It was like being drawn to a flame without thinking about why. I wish I’d known at the time what that light really meant to North Koreans like me. Following it would cost me my innocent and, for a while, my humanity.” To Yeonmi, freedom and escaping seemed to be a distance idea; however, her heart had already flown across the river.

After Yeonmi and her mother escaped to China, little did they know that there was another nightmare waiting for them. She witnessed her mother raped by the brokers in order to protect her, her mother being sold to another farmer family and herself being transferred to brokers one after another. When I was reading this part, I was completely terrorized and shocked. I couldn’t imagine what if this scene happened in my family. I would probably kill myself already. The only thing I wanted to do at that moment was to hold my mom’s hands or hug her. All that happened to Yeonmi were like scenes that would only occur in movies. She was indeed a girl with very strong willpower and determination to survive and keep her family safe.

Log #5

In order to live- Yeonmi Park

What will you do if you can't dream? Or not allowed to dream? We all have heard more or less about the conflict between North and South Korea and how terrible was it like to live in there. This is a story about a young woman and her family escaping from North Korea and what was the life like before they escaped. I have only read five chapters of the book, but I already see how ridiculous and miserable that place is. People there are so brainwashed that their so-called "great leader" is the most magical and mighty person in the world. If you live there, you are not allowed to express your own thoughts, say whatever you like or even travel to places. Due to their communism, people cannot meet their basic daily needs, let alone dreaming about future. The only word for North Korea is  tragic.

The author uses words and sentences that are understandable for us to realize what the true life is like in North Korea. When I am reading it, there are so many thoughts coming out of my mind. Why could this awful Kim Jong Un do this to his citizens? Why could those people there be so obedient? Why would no one come out and so NO? You know, what terrible is that this is STILL happening right now! Reading this makes me feel upset, angry and shocked at the same time. It's a book that you can never stop reading it.

Three best presentations

Best 3 presentations on 11/14

1.        Jocelyn: One More Day

Personally, I think Jocelyn’s presentation is the best one. The structure of her presentation was well-organized and the transition between each part was very clear. Jocelyn mentioned that One More Day was a more serious book because it was about life. However, the way she described the book had risen my interest to read it. One quote that I like a lot in her presentation is: we always pursue what we want, but forget what we have. This is a very good quote that can always remind me to cherish what I already have when I am pursuing my dream.

2.        Henry: Blood on snow

Henry’s presentation is my second favorite. His book is a thriller written by a Norwegian author. It sounds pretty interesting to me because I am seldom exposed to literature from Northern Europe. This book is a thriller. With the cold weather from Northern weather adding to the story, it must be a good piece of work. I also like Henry’s PowerPoints due to his clear bullet points and red and gray color. Finally, he talked about that we need to be always on guard. It might sound quite negative, but I think it was, in fact, true. We are never going to know who will stab you in the back one day.

3.        Sindy: If I Stay

My third favorite is Sindy’s introduction to the book If I Stay. I have seen the movie trailer before but I thought it was just a very normal and cliché romance movie. But after Sindy’s presentation, I felt that there was another topic that the author wanted the readers to learn. There was a quote that I liked a lot: “Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you”. Even though that we were often told that how our destiny would be like was all controlled by ourselves, but sometimes, our destiny just chose it by it selves and it was impossible for us to reverse it. I was glad that I hadn’t had to make this kind of decision in my life.

Log #4

A lot had been going on since Eilis, the main character, had started her life in Brooklyn. There, she found someone special to her and found a new job opportunity that she had desired for so long. However, with her sister’s sudden death, Eilis was forced to make a decision between remaining in somewhere she had kept so many memories and returning to a place where she was able to become a new person.

This book focused a lot on the transformation of Eilis. It’s not merely a typical romance novel, but rather a story that was standing on a woman’s perspective toward her own life. The way she dealt with loneliness and the way she tried to make a decision were probably what the author was trying to convey to the reader. When reading this book, I could feel the dilemma that was pulling Eilis on each side between Brooklyn and Ireland. It occurred to me some of the articles that I read about identity crisis. Take Chinese-American for example. There must be a lot of them trying to figure out whether they were Chinese or American. It’s like there were two parts of the culture pulling them but they can’t decide which they belonged. Inside their mind, they grew up with the value of Chinese people, but at the same time, they were also being affected by the American culture. Like Eilis, though she did not born with two culture differences, she was still facing the difficulty of which she belongs to. This issue had been lingering in my mind throughout my reading of this book. I don’t know how I would make up my mind if I am facing the same questions either.  If it were you, what’s your decision then?

Do Not Read This ~ The problem of illiterate

Have you ever thought about what it would be like for not being able to read? This means you can't not only  read your favorite books, but also the tag on the medicine or even the signs on the street. We all take being able to read for granted, but it's not the same to everyone.

  

Recently I saw a video that was a commercial about illiteracy. Nowadays, we might think that there are seldom people who can’t read in the world; however, there are still nearly 20% of the adult population that are illiterate.

Therefore, I would like to share an article about illiterate and the commercial that I saw. 

1. Do Not Read This~ a commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRZxZsMd5jw&feature=youtu.be

2.Illiteracy is the root cause of almost every major problem humanity faces

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lily-cole/illiteracy-is-the-root-cause-of-world-problems_b_9297736.html

Log #3

Picture from: http://www.sickchickchic.com/2016/02/brooklyn-book-review.html

The second book I choose to read is “Brooklyn”.  At the beginning, I thought this book was a typical romance novel like all the others. However, it described a lot about the changing of the mood inside the main character Eilis when she moved from Ireland to New York to work and live there.

Having left home to study in Taipei, I somehow felt that there was a connection between me and Eilis. I could understand how she felt when I was in the same position.  Staying in a completely foreign place was definitely new and exciting. However, when times went by, the thought of missing home and family can be really painful and overwhelming. In the book, the author described Eilis’ feeling of homesickness, “All this came to her like a terrible weight and she felt for a second that she was going to cry. It was as though an ache in her chest was trying to force tears down her cheeks despite her enormous effort to keep them back”. When I first came to Taipei to study, I was really exciting about the new environment and people, since Taipei had always been my dream place to live and study. But as time went by, I started to miss the accompany of my family so much that I even cried as soon as I heard my parents’ sound on the phone. When I was feeling down and lost, there was no one who I could talk to. I believe that time was my lowest point in life so far which frustrated me qutie a lot.

Fortunately, the condition of my homesick has improved a lot after staying here for over a year. But I still go back to Taichung almost every week as long as I am free. Since I am going to exchange for six months in Sweden next year, I hope I could quickly cope with this situation.

I am looking forward to seeing what will happen next to Eilis and her new life in Brooklyn.

Log #2

picture from: https://alythestoryteller.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/book-review-me-before-you-by-jojo-moyes/

From what I have read so far, Louisa is starting to make plans to persuade Will to stay. They go out to watch horse racing, listen to orchestra concert and even went on a luxurious trip to Spain. From this point, Louisa’s boyfriend, Patrick is quite jealous about Louisa spending too much time on Will; at the same time, Will and Louisa start to have feelings for each other.

I admit I really dislike Patrick right from the beginning of the book. He is a person that only cares about himself, and puts much effort on his career instead of his lovely girlfriend Louisa. As a woman, I would definitely not have this kind of boyfriend who has such selfishness. Being in a relationship isn’t simple, it requires two people’s devotion, patience and trust. There are a lot of factors and results need to be considered when we decide to jump into a relationship. For instance, if both of us have time to accompany each other, do we fully trust each other and so on. It’s a quite complicated issue, but if we think through before taking action, I believe the process will be very awesome and sweet.

Furthermore, Will talks about something that I really like in the book. He keeps telling Louisa to get out of the small town they live in and go out to explore this world. Since Louisa have told Will that she really wants to study in college, this is very touching. Will always believe that Louisa has the potential and doesn’t want her to waste it. While reading this part, I think it’s actually quite inspiring for me. We all have our dreams and we all hope to realize them one day. It’s always good for somebody to support and encourage behind us. And it’s always never too late to realize our dreams. We just need that one person to push and motivate us. 

Log #1

Since Me Before You had been a great hit in both book and movie version, I decided to choose this as my first book for the semester. This book was talking about a girl called Louisa who worked for Will, a paralyzed rich man. At the beginning, they disliked each other a lot and didn’t want to see each other. As time went by, they began to understand that both of them had their own plight and eventually fell in love with one another.

So far from this book, there were two parts that I liked a lot and agree with a lot. After being paralyzed in an accident, Will told his mother that he wanted to end his life after six months of trying to live. It was not difficult to know why Will would have this kind of thought. He used to be so successful, but now he could only live by depending on other people, which made him really shameful and desperate about life. If I were Will, I would make the same decision as him because I didn’t want to become my family’s burden and live so painful.

Another part that I liked a lot was when Louisa and Will went to an orchestra concert together. Having been to a concert for the first time, Louisa was so immersed into the music and said this, “I hadn’t realized that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn’t predicted. It left an imprint in the air around you, as if you carried its remnants with you when you went”. I totally understood what Louisa was thinking at that moment. Every time when I was listening to my favorite music, I felt exactly the same way. No matter it was classical music or pop music, listening to them was like watching the stories behind the melody or the lyrics. Music had that super power that could change your mood and it was the best feeling in the world.

Now, I am super excited to see what is going to happen to Will and Louisa in the rest of the book.

Picture from: http://vanillaslumber.blogspot.tw/2016/04/book-review-me-before-you.html

My reading history

I have started to read since I was four or three years old.  When I was little, me and my brother love to read some short stories in Disney’s English books before bed time and my mom would read to us some classic stories in Mandarin as well. In elementary school and junior high, I found out that I love to read fictions very much, but most of them were in Chinese. It wasn’t until high school that I started to read more and more fictions in English.

My favorite science fictions must be Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent.  I read them in both English and Chinese. They were all very popular novels and had been adapted into movies. However, I prefer reading the books rather than watching the movies because the books were more detailed and the story lines were more developed. The reason why I love these books so much is because the stories were mixed with love and science. Sometimes I would take them out and read these books over and over again.

I love reading a lot but I was often distracted from my computer, smartphone and television, even now. When I went into junior high, I didn’t read as much as I did in elementary. As time went by, the book I usually read were textbooks. But I still enjoyed going into the library or the book store near my house and stayed the entire afternoon. I would read stories and imagine the scenes in my brain and this what I love the most about reading.

I would say the person that keeps me reading is my mom. She likes to read all kinds of books and would sometime recommend us to read them. The books that my mom advised me to read were sometimes too complex for me to understand, but there are some that I like a lot. There was one book called Gang Leader For A Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To the Streets. This book was written by a professor when he was still studying for master degree. He observed the lives of the gangsters in Chicago and wrote a paper about it. Through this book, I was able to realize that the U.S.A was not always rich and bright like what the TV showed. Another book was called SANNINGEN OM IKEA. This book was written by a previous worker of IKEA. He revealed all the secrets of IKEA about why they can become so successful. IKEA is a very famous and huge company and it influenced our lives so much. It’s quite interesting and surprising to see all of the secrets uncovered.

These are pretty much my reading history and I hope to read a lot more in various genres in the future.