一年一度送礼烦 (木愉）

一年一度送礼烦

木愉

圣诞来了，头痛的事情之一是送礼。当然不是送家里人，而是送上司。在东方的故国，逢年过节送礼给上司，是一种讨好；在西方的美国，圣诞送礼也是一种讨好。在故国送礼，也许是单向的，在西方送礼，则可能是双向的。正因为是双向，反倒让人费尽心神。总想送点上司欢喜的，不能让上司心里不快，还得破费送你。

圣诞还远着，我就开始为送礼苦恼着了。想了很久，决定把从家乡带来的蜡染画送出去。蜡染画是裱上去的，看去还精美，像是有品味且独到的艺术品。每年送礼，都是陶罐之类，那是妻子到一家艺术品专卖店里选购的。送来送去，上司不烦，我倒是先烦了。所以，今年转送蜡染画，就觉得有了些新意。

临到送礼前夕，妻子过目所送礼品，认为礼品都是蜡染画不好，送给每个人的应该不同。这样，她就把买来的一个大玻璃盘子给我看，建议我送给顶头上司。蜡染画则送给大上司。我反正没有更好的选择，就接受了她的安排。

有了礼品，要送出去也是一件难事。让人看到送礼的过程总是有些尴尬，所以，就要人不知鬼不觉地去完成这个使命。以往总是要等到同事都走光了，只有上司在或者其办公室空着的时候，送去。这次，因为还送另外三个同事，而那天恰好就只有这三个同事在，上司们去开办公会去了。于是，就第一次堂而皇之地提着一大袋礼品送出去。送出了礼品，心里顿时为之一爽，就像在三伏天忍受了一个月污垢的折磨，总算洗了澡。

顶头上司是个女的，独身。她那天专门到我的办公室来，要我到她的办公室去一趟，我去了，她关上门，然后当着我的面打开了我送的礼品，马上就赞叹不已，说太漂亮了，我赶紧不失时机地加上一句：“是德国货。”她说，她从来还没有收到过这样精美的盘子，圣诞时要拿出来一用。笑着，谢着，她又给了我一个拥抱。

大上司那边却没有反应，我不知道他是喜欢还是不喜欢，心里有些惴惴不安，却又觉得覆水难收，只好一任它去。

第二天，到办公室去，桌子上摆着一个贺卡封，里面夹了一张洗车卡，可以洗车一年。我去感谢，说，这个礼品很实用，我很高兴。她说，她从来都是很实用的。有一次，她送给她妈一本书，她妈还吃了一大惊。

第三天，到办公室去，桌子上又摆了一个铁皮盒，里面是一张50美金的购物券。那是大上司的。他的礼品总是如此简单而公式化，省事，却不是我们这些手下人可以袭用的。

一年一度送礼烦，今年这道门槛好歹又算迈过去了。

Mu Yu's Musing just been created -- check it out

Hi, I've just created this blog for Mu Yu's writings for his fans, me included! It was great fun to have many of you at our home last Friday. We missed our friends who were on the roads and could not join us.

Thank you all for the generous spirits, delicious treats and good wishes for my mom's birthday. It was a very special day for her and me.

Happy New Year to you all; may the new year bring you good health, new discoveries, many more music, dances and books!

Nu Shu Documentary, etc. Friday at 7PM December 28, 2007. 竹林子's Home

When: December 28th, 2007, Friday, 7pm till whenever
Where: 1043 Graywell Drive, (331-1270)
What: Holiday Celebration

Hi. Let's get the holiday celebration started by watching a documentary and admiring the real Nu Shu (only copy at IU!). Food and drinks will be provided. Please come for conversations, fun and discoveries.


Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China
A film by Yue-Qing Yang
Canada/China, 1999, 59 minutes, Color, VHS/DVD, Subtitled Order No. W00655
In feudal China, women, usually with bound feet, were denied educational opportunities and condemned to social isolation. But in Jian-yong county in Hunan province, peasant women miraculously developed a separate written language, called Nu Shu, meaning "female writing." Believing women to be inferior, men disregarded this new script, and it remained unknown for centuries. It wasn't until the 1960s that Nu Shu caught the attention of Chinese authorities, who suspected that this peculiar writing was a secret code for international espionage. Today, interest in this secret script continues to grow, as evidenced by the wide critical acclaim of Lisa See's recent novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, about Nu Shu.

雪的作业

写一下你和女友的友谊(亲姐妹也行），字数不限，一段或一篇都行。

Yoyo bookworms,

老同也罢，“非同”也罢，亲情永驻，友谊常在。

I have created a shared doc for the homework. You will find your name there and write whatever you like.

Cheers.

My 2 cents

Due to the "high demand" I suggest we continue our Cross Country presentation. How about we set about 15 minutes aside each month and let one single person tell her experience, starting with 雪 in January. It is not required. Anyone who wants to just sign up by making a comment in this post.

1. 雪 (January, 2008)

追踪报道（Cross County ）

大家可以试着做一下王阳留的功课，记一个简单的旅途笔记，对详细资料有兴趣的话再和笔者联系，笔记可作为我们这次读书会的一个小小的文字记载。假如是一个景点的话，也可以三言两语简单的描述一下，谈谈你的感想。或分享一下旅途对你人生的影响。

Louisville(Children’s Museum)-----Nashville( Ice Show, Parthenon-----Birmingham(Japanese Garden, Avemaria Grotta----Huntsville, Alabama( U.S. Space & Rocket Center)--------New Orleans(Conventional Center, Zoo, French Quarter, Mardi Grass)

Hawaii

Ice Show

New Orleans

万卷书，万里路

正像竹林子所说，“读万卷书，行万里路”。昨晚的读书报告会是一个精彩的实证。
感谢Yoyo2为大家提供的的好机会. 还是那句话，“Kowtow to Yoyo2"。
唯一不足的是，因为时间的限制，大家感到余兴未尽. 那就只好有话在这里说了。

我们真幸福！

http://www.usqiaobao.com:81/qiaobao/html/2007-11/16/content_39180.htm
假如你看了我这些女友的生活，会不会和我一样发出我们真幸福的感叹呢？感谢悠游俱乐部在各方面提高了我们生活的质量！

<<姐姐的守护者>>

I want to add My Sister's Keeper to our Book lists :一本引起争论的伦理题材小说(Based on couple real events)
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Health/story?id=3826596&page=1

"雪花与密扇"中文版(节选)

http://www.books.com.tw/books/series/series9867088220-1.php

A New Life -- Ha Jin's newest

健康生活新开始

作者简介：

哈威·戴蒙德 (Harvey Diamond) 与人合著的《健康生活》一书曾排名《纽约时报》畅销书榜首。销量达1100万册，被译为32种文字。健康生活新开始 (Fit for Life -- A New Beginning) 这本书则是经过他补充大量资料后出版的新作，出版后同样倍受瞩目。作为世界知名作家，教师和健康顾问，他出席了许许多多电台和电视台的节目。

内容提要：

书中讲述了以下内容：疾病的七个阶段及每个阶段的信号：如何去除体内导致疾病的有害物质：人身健康卫士——淋巴系统的秘密：乳腺癌、前列腺癌和肠癌的一些新信息；如何节食；如何减肥；如何去除消化不良、头痛与其他病痛；精神力量对身体的治疗作用。作者还介绍了一套完整的节食、锻炼与生活习惯计划，帮助你增强淋巴系统，在各个阶段战胜疾病。这本书不是医学教材, 虽然它也谈到了诊断和治疗，但是它想告诉您的是如何预防疾病。这本书涉及到了很多领域：自然保健学、激励康复、切除手术、营养学、身心交融、素食主义、化学疗法、锻炼、放射、淋巴系统还有最重要的三项CARE原则。本书共十四章, 由于时间的关系我将着重介绍第四章---疾病的七个发展阶段和第十一章---定期单一饮食, 这两章实际上也是这本书的主要内容. 下面的LINK是这本书的部分章节, 请大家事先看一下对要讲的内容有个基本了解.
http://www.yongran.com/qibao/Article_Special.asp?SpecialID=11

Movie talks on NPR

The movie is here
Into the Wild
The Kite Runner
The Jane Austen Book Club

Add to Book Lists

I want to add two books to Xihu’s list:《沙漠之花》和《雪花与密扇》

Dessert Flower
Snow Flower and Secret Fan

These are two fascinating and easy to read books, 《Dessert Flower》is talking about African ritual female genital mutilation. 《Snow Flower and Secret Fan》about Chinese Women foot binding, both are involved in women’s fate, struggle for freedom, a heartbreaking and beautiful story. The only difference is first one is a biography and second one is a novel.

读《简 · 奥斯丁书友会》by 菲儿

Thanks for Liana's profound lecture, Xihu's insight and every one's comments, I have learned a lot from you, here comes my sharing of Jane Austen Book Club.
I am glad to live in Bloomington, appreciate book club and am proud of our group!

Karen Joy Fowler新出版的小说《简·奥斯丁书友会》（The Jane Austen Book Club）在主题与技巧上都沿袭了十八世纪著名女作家简奥斯丁的特色，连书名都是她的名字。 一如简·奥斯丁的小说侧重于女性的家庭生活及婚嫁是否决定你的命运等主题，Karen Joy Fowler也在小说中探讨了婚姻，家庭，妇女的地位等女性关心的问题，唯一不同的是《简·奥斯丁书友会》将每部奥斯丁小说的主题与阅读奥斯丁小说的人们融合在一起，将镜面外的人与镜子深处的人纠合在一起。时代的变迁并未使这些问题弱化，反而更让这些命题引起人们的关注。
小说的硬皮封面是代表了小说中六个人的六把椅子，每一把椅子都有一个他们自己的故事。这个在加州由五个女性和一个男性组成的奥斯丁读书会，在每月一次的相聚中开始讨论奥斯丁的每一部小说。Karen Joy Fowler的小说将六个人生活中的爱情，友情与亲情，背叛，孤独与冲突及父母子女间的沟通，离异和独身，同性恋等敏感问题统统串在了一起，他们各自生活中的困境和他们以读书会的形式聚集在一起的安逸形成一种反差，出于对现实逃避，他们试图在奥斯丁小说中寻求答案，在作者刻意安排下，六个月的读书会使他们每个人的命运微妙地发生变化。。。。
Jocylyn 是读书会的会长，五十出头，如同奥斯丁小说《艾玛》中的艾玛乐于助人婚配，但Jocylyn却从没有结过婚。在读书会中结识了本想为失意女友Sylvia安排的Grigg，但结果自己却和Grigg走到了一起。
Sylvia正处在丈夫闹婚变的痛苦中， 和Sylvia有着近四十年友情的Jocylyn为了帮助她度过这段困难的时期组织了这个读书会，和其它被抛弃的妇女不同，Sylvia的丈夫Dianel最终意识到Sylvia的宝贵，回到了Sylvia身边。

Allegra 是Sylvia和Dianel的女儿，一个同性恋者。她受了她那百败百战的性伴侣的伤害，一度消沉万分，不过最终还是回到了伴侣的身边，有了个团圆。作为父母的Sylvia 和Dianel并不能左右她的选择，这恰好也是当今一个关于同性恋的热门议题。
Prutie 是一个高中法语女教师，唯一一个在婚也有一个不失为成功的婚姻，但也许她在心底里对婚姻有着更多的期盼，可谁又能百分之百地对自己的婚姻感到满意呢？读书会的六个多月，让她心中对母亲那不能释怀的结在慢慢松开，难道不能原谅一个已经过世的老人体恤曾是一个二十多岁单身母亲的难处？
Benadette 六十七岁，是她们中年纪最大的，因沉浸在“老我”中，无法自拔，一度宣布自己不再照镜子，却在读书会六个月中找到了“新我”，也有了数次婚姻后最终的归宿。
Grigg 是他们中唯一的男性，年幼时受四个姐姐的庇荫，成年后仍受姐姐的影响，他和年长他十多岁的Jocylyn的相处与简·奥斯丁小说崇尚的老夫少妻大相径庭，不过谁又能说现代的Grigg和Jocylyn一定不能幸福呢？
Karen Joy Fowler的小说还再现了奥斯汀的喜剧风格，她对书中人物不乏调侃，嬉笑，以她特有的方式对他们进行善意的嘲讽，适度的讽喻中更倾注了她对人物的关爱。一个读书会的朋友说，《简·奥斯丁书友会》里没有她真正喜爱的人物，让她难以从中受到什么正面的激励，确实，六个主人公都不太具备令人向往让人迷恋的完美，相反你会看到不少人性的弱点和黑暗，不过，这并不影响小说对人物的塑造，却反而让他们更具有代表性和真实性，如同小时开头所言，每个人都有他们自己的简·奥斯丁。。。。
另一个让我去读《简·奥斯丁书友会》的原因是作家Karen Joy Fowler出生于美国印地安那州的布鲁明顿市，也就是我现在住的城市。

An Evening Well Spent

Well, my fellow Yoyo bookish ladies,

Last night’s meeting, marked by vivid story telling and lovely discussion went on pretty well. Many thanks to our two eloquent presenters and to those who asked questions and filled in the details, especially to our gracious host, whose beautiful home setting enhanced our spirit.

Here are some of my observations I’d like to share with you. Please bear with me if you find them un-agreeable.

• To make book club more successful, we need everyone’s involvement and participation. It is essential for presenter to provide some information long before the meeting, so that our listeners will get well prepared and have something to contribute at the meeting.
  
• Which naturally leads to my next observation, it seems to me there is not enough time left for discussion.
  
  Three ways to solve this:
  

1. Better time management: Presenters are encouraged to keep your talk concise and within time limits. Your role is to make short introduction of the book and to stimulate discussion. Perhaps rehearse a bit before the meeting to see how long your talk will last.
   
2. One presenter instead of two: no more worry of running over time and leave enough time for disscussion (brilliant idea, not mine thought)
3. Longer hours: Prolong our meeting from 2 hours to 2.5 hours.
   
   What do you think?

My 2 cents

After The Old Man and Sea, and Waiting we need more books to choose from. Here are my suggestions for reading: The five books below are relatively short and easy to read. Some of them I regard very highly.

1. Into the Wild http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild -- A movie will be out 2007.
2. The Kite Runner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner -- 雪 recommended it highly to us -- A movie will be out 2007.
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns
4. Reading Lolita in Tehran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran
5. The thirteenth Tale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Tale_(novel)
Click on this and click again and again untill you get this cool site http://www.thethirteenthtale.com/ -- Thanks to 竹林子's brilliant idea on audio book, we found and checked from MCPL the Thirteenth Tale on CD. We took it on our trip to Colorado. It was a welcome surprise during our otherwise a long and boring 2 days drive along I-70 west.

Next Meeting

Hi, congrats to us all for a fabulous start. And a special thank you to Xihu for all her selfless efforts and thougtful guidance, leading us to a better road and a higher ground!

Read a Chinese couplet last night, and I think it is relevant:

鱼无水则鳞枯，人无书则神索

Now, back to the topic of our next meeting:

I am enjoying reading what Xihu recommended, Jane Austen Book Club. I hope to finish it by this coming Sunday so whoever is interested in a quick read can borrow it from Xihu. I will bring it with me when we see each other on Sunday.

Xihu had done a great introduction of this book, and I thought I could follow it up by relaying some of the stories (very contemporary) to you. So, a book club story to our book club members, for 15 min or 20 min.

Here's a link that might be of interest some of you.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cll6AAAACAAJ&dq=jane+austen+book+club

7月30日--第一次活动

1。自我介绍 -- "To read or not to read" 是一个严肃的命题。答卷还令人满意.

• 读书是获取间接经验的桥梁



• 行万里路，读万卷书的目标



• 少女的憧憬，残酷的现实，幻想的破灭



• 文学的禁锢，精神的饥渴



• 每人都有《青春之歌》



• Every book is created equal



• 书中有做人的道理；读书是消遣的活动

2。追风筝的人 -- Khaled Hosseini, Spinning Tales of a Faraway Home

• 菲儿review

3。The Jane Austen Book Club

• Who is Jane Austen -- Appeal of Jane Austen to morden readers --A Banner year for Jane Austen
• There's something about Jane
• If you want to read all her works on line click here.

热烈祝贺悠游读书会成立！

哇，侠女们突然该走性感路线啦！文武双全的侠女更诱人哦。祝悠游读书会越办越红火！！！

上路了

两年多前对'舞蹈’的共同爱好使我们走到一起，昨天大家怀着对书籍的记忆与迷恋坐在圆桌旁。两年多来，大家蹦蹦跳跳，说说笑笑，虽然每星期见面，只觉得来也匆匆，去也匆匆。昨天每人简短的发言好像打开尘封已久的记忆，使大家悄悄地窥探到每人心灵的一角。生活的阅历，个人的好恶使我们对阅读这一活动有着不同的诠释，界定了自己的兴趣和选择。但愿我们以“学习交流”为本，携手上路，前面是一个《美丽的新世界》:-)

Yoyo Book Club 宣布成立

时间：二零零七年七月七日晚七点 地点：美国印第安纳州布城美玉宅

竹林子为Yoyo Book Club题的对联是：
香书香闻卷卷书香 醇情醇品丝丝情醇
横批：
共享人生
望大家以此共勉