Review: Shattered by the Wars by Hi-Dong Chai ★★★★★
Shattered by the Wars, by Hi-Dong Chai, should be required reading. This powerful coming of age memoir is a story of love, faith, suffering, and sacrifice.
Hi-Dong Chai had to overcome many obstacles in such a short amount of time. During World War II, Korea was under Japan’s control. They imprisoned his father because he was a Christian minister who refused to bow down to the picture of the Japanese emperor. His brother volunteered for the Japanese military in hopes to save his father. During the Korean War, his father was taken away by two North Korean officers. He never […]
Mom On The Road, by Allyson Primack, is a humorous look into the life of Maggie Stevens.
Sex, Drugs & Islam is the provocative and controversial memoir by Pakistani author, Dari Ghaznavi. In a conversational style, Ghaznavi tells tale of his time in the military, running drugs and other criminal activity, traveling the world, and, especially, chasing women. Despite its dark topics, the narration is breezy and spirited. Dari Ghaznavi really has lived a life like no other.
Contains brief scenes of rape and forced drug use.
Forty Bibles and Forty Dictionaries is an autobiographical account of the lives of author Hae-Lyun Kang and her family: Korean, Catholic and middle-class, living in Sydney, from 1970 to the present. With an obsessive mother, a hard-pressing father, unusually-humored sisters, and a brother who fired two shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in January of 1994, Kang describes from her own perspective how she and her brother both grew into becoming who they are, and what may have lead her brother to the infamous circumstances in Sydney.
Mongolia Monologues is Joanne Nussbaum’s travelogue memoir about her time as a Peace Corp volunteer in Mongolia at the age of 53, following the death of her daughter. She wanted to work in sub-Saharan Africa, but instead was sent to Mongolia to work in youth community development. The book is a comprehensive overview of the whole trip – from applying as a volunteer, to the ins and outs of Mongolian culture, to the Peace Corps process, and the wisdom learned along the way. The memoir is told with good humor and optimism, even when things get tough.
There is a trend in self-publishing for the “selfie” book, a written version of the frequently-seen Instagram snap that appears online so often. Choices: A Physician’s Journey On Two Continents by Staffan R.B. Nordqvist is such a book: a memoir of a Swedish doctor who emigrates to the USA.
Have you ever met someone who has almost accidentally cut off his leg with a chainsaw, set himself on fire trying to light a cigarette, who was thrown from a tractor, and lived to tell about it? Meet Forbes Skinner, author of The Ituni Experience: The Trials of a Chainsaw Logger. In his memoir, Skinner comes across as a very determined, stubborn, intelligent, naïve, and unlucky man. Many readers may be unfamiliar with Skinner’s country, Guyana, and about chainsaw loggers. They won’t be for long. One of the most fascinating aspects of The Ituni Experience is the inside look […]