Good Reading Season Starts with Good Earth

Hi, readers: thanks to Xiaoying and Da Yan (and Alice's gentle reminder), the new reading season starts on September 24th, same time, same place. Xiaoying has already put the online Chinese version out so please check that out. For those of you wanting to read the English version, I checked out an extra copy from the public library. Just let me know and I can bring it to you this coming Sunday.

One of you may have checked out the audio version of the book, right? It is being checked out from the library.

Anyone wishes to say something about the author, the book, or China during that time, just post your thoughts here. I will propose a meeting schedule to Xiaoying early next week.

Happy reading!

A walk in the woods (July 4th -- 6th, 2008)

Hi all,

This is the my part of summer trip report. Due to the fact that we don't have enough time for so many items on the agenda, I will not go into details of the trip. You are welcome to see the photos and short movie and ask me any questions.

Thanks.

同样主题的小说《姐姐守护人》和电影《左右》

都是为救生白血病的女儿，电影《左右》注重于与前夫要再发生性关系生个孩子救女儿而给再婚后的两个家庭带来的冲击。小说姐姐的守护人（My Sister’s Keeper）则是着重于孩子生下来后的种种矛盾。中国电影偏重于婚外性是否道德？而美国小说则探讨人身权利可否剥夺？着重点的不同也因此看出东西方文化的不同。会长有电影，强烈推荐。
为了救患急性骨髓性白血病的女兒Kate， Sara 利用现代医学科技生下了与Kate基因可以完美配型的Anna，从一生下来Anna就开始了无穷无尽的手术，来供应Kate所需的血液、白血球、骨髓、干細胞，最后甚至自己的肾脏，Anna终于忍无可忍，上法庭控告她父母侵犯她的“人身权”，《纽约时报》畅销作家 Picoult从人物不同的角度的来叙述故事的发展，对「爱」有着不同寻常的诠释，她将人与人之间脆弱敏感且又错综复杂的关系刻画得淋漓尽致，将一個极具争议性的话題展现在读者面前。

June 25th Show & Tell

Another unforgettable night, Ladies! Thanks to everyone, especially to those who brought goodies and did show & tell. You are really talented and I'm so proud to have you as friends.

Big thanks to Newcomer for your brilliant idea and refreshing and delicious strawberry cream cake.

安全到达San Diego

众位姐姐，
带着众位姐姐的美好祝福，我们已经安全到达目的地。谢谢大家为我们饯行，非常感激。 很荣幸和大家相处了2年多，祝大家越跳越年轻，越跳越美丽。
下面是文安说过的那位全美国人民都知道的正在和pancreatic cancer作顽强斗争的Carnegie Mellon University 教授的“the last lecture" 链接。
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/
强烈推荐两个video,一个是The "Last Lecture", given at Carnegie Mellon University (76 minutes)，另一个是Diane Sawyer of ABC (and her incredible producer, Geoff Martz) did an hour special, which was way too flattering.
Enjoy!

刚刚从“故纸堆”里挖掘出来

游佛罗伦萨, 2001初夏

这是当年记下参观佛罗伦萨“学院美术馆“ (The Academia)一篇日记。《大卫》原件就在这里。

A Great Reading Season!

Thanks Xiaoying for "pushing" us to dig further into the Vermeer story and fantasy. I watched the movie first, but thought the book was quite more chewy, thanks to all the symbolism you help us discover. Discovering a painter is like discovering a world to me. I feel a lot richer now that we know something about Vermeer.

Last night's book discussion served as a great wrap up to the first reading season. Thanks for all your stories about art and artists. The deeper we dig, the purer the water gets!