Book Review: The Fault in our Stars April 25, 2012

Just read an amazing Young Adult Novel “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green,  as poignant as John Green can get, this might just be his very best, epic love story dealing with coming-of-age, life and death.

 

 

16 years old Hazel Grace was battling with cancer since puberty, she had to carry an Oxygen tank to keep her breathing smoothly, so when she met Augastus Waters, another cancer survivor, she didn’t want to be the human “grenade”, one day will explode and break his heart. The courtship culminated to the trip they took together to Amsterdam, to meet Hazel’s favorite book’s author, to find out the ending of the book which haunted her for many years. Then the story took a drastic turn, leaving the reader to cling to their own Oxygen tanks….

 

 

Typically John Green, whose masterful storytelling skills are matched with incredible insightful, thought-provoking and poetic observation. Lines like “The world is not a wish-granting factory”, “The universe wants to be noticed and we want to be noticed, too, not as a collective, but as a unique individual.” “We don’t have many says in this world, but we can choose who to hurt us, and I think I chose well….” lept out the pages more than the story itself and the characters.

 

 

 I was thinking about “Catcher in the Rye” but without the misanthrope and pessimistic sentiment. But it’s not a “uplifting” “feel good” or “triumph over tragedy” kind of book as well, Green’s main point is to change people’s views on cancer patients, especially the youngsters, they are just as human as the rest of us, getting the disease doesn’t make them less capable of loving, caring or being creative. They just don’t have the luxury to not to contemplate on existential matters, as it turns not, they probably are more real than the rest of us, who think the final destiny will never come.

Book Review: “Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking” April 12, 2012

Just read “Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking” by Susan Cain. It will be put in the league with the ground breaking books such as “Outliers”, “EQ”. It started with debunking the myths of introverts being shy and anti-social then it went straight comparing the traits of extroverts and introverts. The most intriguing part of the essay is how introverts can learn to adapt to be a pseudo-extrovert for the sake of survivals, people they love and vocation they devote to.

Coined by Dr. Brian Little, the term “Free Traits” means one can switch between different modes, however, introverts need the “down time” to restore to their true self, it seems paradoxical, to be recharged to mask themselves into the extrovertive persona.

One part of the book also delved into the cultural aspects of personality types, Cain did a thorough study on HS students in Cupertino, Clearview High, revealing this “introverts haven” where being nerdy and bad in sports is norm and respected. However, once they graduated and went into the real world, the world of meritocracy collapsed. Asians were often left out of the leadership roles because their quiet, unconfrontational ways often made them become invisible, voiceless.

The lessons can be drawn from this book on education and parenting is also incredibly insightful and invaluable. Cain shed a new light on how the “clashes of personality types” happend among parents/child, husband/wife and how the extroverts and introverts learn and relate differently can drastically impact their well beings. Especially for introverts, often sensitive and enjoy “deep, meaningful” relationship with people, often wonder why they are surrounded by people sometimes can be intimidating and even bullying.

For anyone who wanted to have “deeper”(my introverted self talking) understanding of their personality traits, to make sense of that uneasiness feelings of not “fitting” in sometimes, to charge ahead in this extroverted society(American is arguably the most extrovertd people) without being taking advantage of, it’s a must-read.

On the Movie “Avatar” January 24, 2010

James Cameron? I would never link the name to any meaningful display of dichotomy of civilization and primitiveness, an emotional journey of self-discovery and awkening or even a political statement with stunning persuation. Yet he achieved most of these goals amidst the busy “IMAX” visual effects hooplas and delivered one of the most commercially and morally successful movie of  all time.

By no means Cameron is Peter Jackson but maybe the comparison is invalid because we don’t need a poet to convince the general to seize fire before the war. We need a messenger/diplomat, and the message he tried to convey here is undoubtfully humanely touching, political convincing and morally gratifying. It took a lot of imagination and soul-searching to “dive” oneself  into a seemingly primitive world and reveal the truth, beauty and strength beneath the hostile nature. Just as exotic as all the living and non-living beings in Pandora, the satirist of Cameron is the exotic James Cameron I hardly recogize and believe.

I see the ideas of Tolkien and Miyazaki’s Nausicaa, but to jump from the universal “environmental awareness” theme to the heart of “pro-war” sentiment of Washington D.C. is rather timely and heavyhearted. The good old James Cameron without too much rhetorics and poetry is what we need, a no-nonsense style on condemnation of imperialism and colonialism can be appealing to the most self-serving human being. Avatar is a metaphor of empathy to the extreme, which might be the only cure for the cruelty of human selfishness.

Regarding to having a second child April 3, 2009

I’m wondering why there is not a whole lot of publications on this, for me a cause of much agony and anxiety. Among all the myths a woman has to endure and live with, very few attention or splitting of views is given on the choice to have one or more kid.

I’m standing at the crossroad, knowing this decision is inadvertently the most important one for my whole life and trying to lay out a good foundation for argument. As the maternal instinct pushes, all the for votes go side by side with the conventional wisdom. One child is too lonely, too possessive, selfish and a sibling can change the equation like no others. Plus the benefit of having another person to love, needless to say to be conforming to the majority of multiple-kid families categories.

However, when I look the past four years of my motherhood, the most prominent feeling passing the glory and joy of loving a child, is really how much the “woman” behind the “mom” has been altered, my career had to take a setback, personal development impeded, most of all, a sense of feeling your own person, not a diminutive “mini” person living in a big shell of “mom” has to take a back seat.

For me, I see that little person is trying so hard to come out of the shell, and finally the curve is heading up from the slump. Having a second child means to push me back again, physically, emotionally, intellectually, economically, the more I think about it, the more I see the road divided right at this junction. I love my son wholeheartedly and he will remain my sole devotion, and he will realize having mommy being a whole person is probably more important than having a sibling to play with.

Friends and family, your opinions are welcomed and appreciated, like I say, let the great debate start…..

Outliers March 9, 2009

You have probably heard about this bestseller sensation but may wonder what kind of book it is to be one of the most popular non-fiction titles ever. In one of the most fascinating books I’ve read, “success” was examined and analyzed in the most unusual way.  Outliers tries to demystify so called personal attributes such as talents, efforts or social-economic class to determine one’s success.  What do three most important figures in PC history, Bill Joy, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have in common? Surely they’re outstandingly talented but the answer will definitely surprise you.

Does IQ, hard work or family upbringing really play main roles in determining one’s success?  Or is it more the sheer luck of being born in the right time, the right culture and the right community in order to create a “genius” of our time? Chapter after chapter, the author weaves through compelling evidence of case studies and cultural analyses to show us the truth behind a success story. Amazingly insightful and ingenious, Gladwell takes the readers in for a treat to dissect the parts and pieces which put an individual or culture ahead of the curve. And by the same token, he found compelling reasons why certain individuals or cultures just couldn’t make the cut.  Chris Langan, world’s smartest man, whose IQ is above Einstein’s, is a quintessential case of why just high IQ is not enough to be an outlier.

In searching for a high-quality non-fiction title for teens, I found myself extremely gratified with this groundbreaking book. Teens will be immersed with Gladwell’s refreshing ideas in a mission to find the factors that made one an “outlier”. Also try his earlier works “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” with the same kind of enlightening power.

If you give Wall Street a Bailout January 4, 2009

A poem inspired by ” If you give a Mouse a Cookie”

If you give Wall Street a Bailout

If you give Wall Street a bailout,
He is going to ask for unfreezing of the credit market;
When the market remains frozen,
He will want you to lower the interest rate;
When the low interest rate doesn’t rally the stock market,
He will want you save his friends in Detroit;
If you save his friends in Detroit,
He will also want you to lend hands to his friends the homebuilders;
But when his Detroit Friends show up in private jets,
You get angry and bellow “No bailouts to all of you tonight! Now go to bed.”
But when Wall Street is getting weary again,
He will come to you for an even lower interest rate;
Chances are when the interest rate approaches zero,
He will need a bailout to go with it.

Dec. 24
Teresa Chang

Reflections and Resolutions December 22, 2008

It’s not that I like the sentiment of the Wall Street and the likes, but boy am I happy that 2008 is near its end. All of sudden, I found myself  living in Dickens’s ” It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.  Obama’s win marked the high point of history and the avalanche of the global recession marked the low.

At the personal level, 2008 has been pretty monumental with many news still leaving me in disbelief. As I flipped through the reflective issue of the Time magazine, I couldn’t believe how my personal life was paralleling to the historical backdrop. A year marked with numerous scandals(Spitzer, John Edwards, Madoff), a year will have generations to come to ponder the definition of greed, bailouts, deleverages… Am I a participant  in the midst of the craziness or merely an analyst trying to make sense of it? Maybe a little of both, but I do wish I have a turbo-charged spirit to soar through the gloomy moods of people and media. This is a year that I found my happiness is no longer solely depending on my own well-being but also people and events surrounding me. I’m 37, don’t tell me that’s called the mid-life C word.

And here’s to 2009, I will be always preparing for challenges in life. Be more vigilant and preemptive, be more proactive and disciplined in finding solutions to problems.  Be more resourceful and helpful to all people who need me. But most importantly, be able to feel thankful and happy for what I have accomplished so far.

One of the brighter spots November 26, 2008

I’m just so glad John started this Forum to get crashed into Web 2.0, it’s certainly much more fun to learn everything as a group. Here’s a few blurbs about the experience,

To start a blog is like to reunite with one of the old lost friends. Combining the function of journaling and socializing at the same time, blogging really fits the bill of being the most effective way to communicate. From here I started another blog for my experience teaching Chinese and hopefully another one about my growing toddler son.

On RSS, I think it is one of the most exciting features ever being created online. I love to visit all my favorite sites’s most updated content in one stop shopping. Only hope I have more time to get to actually read all the new content on top of all the printed materials I wish to read. Definitely a powerful tool to librarian for aquisition purpose, it should be mandatory for public librarians to subscribe to PW or NYT Book Reviews’s feeds.

Doing the Web 2.0 exercises is one of the brighter spots in my professional and personal life.

The halo in my heart-an immigrant’s tribute to Obama’s win November 10, 2008

For the longest time, if not as long as 14 years I spent on this soil, I smiled. When each battleground state turned blue like a domino, when the waves of the evidence rose to not just hopes but overwhelming joys, that defining moment around 11:00pm on Nov. 4, 2008, I thought I witnessed one of the greatest miracle in my lifetime.

Obama said it eloquently, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Yes, I was a doubter until this night, I doubted there will ever be any embracement of true equality and cultural diversity in this country, I doubted if there’s any other way but the abusive interpretation of the word “democracy”, just to demonstrate the arrogance of wanting world dominance. The road from a believer of American Dream to a cynical and sometimes bitter doubter for me is the same road that many immigrants have traveled. The damage being done by this administration, the scar has left with most of the minority groups(majority groups, too, but at different levels) is painful, deep and without drastic uplifting moment like the night of Nov. 4, it will never be healed.

The mentality to undermine the non-white voices has never been displayed more perfectly in the Republican’s Campaign this time. Sarah Palin emphasizes the places she visited were “real” America and remembered the background chanting “U.S.A” in GOP’s convention? The message is strong and clear, if you’re not white and don’t live in a small town and don’t believe in sending troops to Iraq, then you’re not “real”, or worse, not “patriotic”.

This is the message unfortunately has been propagated constantly in my life. In a world that the “emerging” market is going to be the tortoise than the hare, in a world that strength comes from all walks of lives, in a world that skin color has no bearing of one’s character and dignity, I was reminded everyday, that I am not the mainstream, not real, not “U.S.A”.

But at that miraculous moment, I thought I saw the shackles and bondage around not only the African-Americans but people of all other cultural representation were opened. The spell has shamed our founding fathers has been broken, the disease of racism, some argued, may never be cured, but we know the stride we made at that night has been the leap to the moon.

When the stock market finally rallied hours before Obama’s press conference on this past Fri., a journalist attributed the rally to the “halo” above Obama. We, as a people, drew that halo together. With little voltage at each heart, together it grew into a powerful force of light. I thank all people who voted for him, and I will hear the humming voices from each one of them, ” yes we can!” for the years to come.

A new darling gadget-GPS October 23, 2008

I and my hubby were amongst the very first people who went out to get a GPS about 4 years ago. The old $200 Garmin GPS from Costco has not lived up to our expectation. Recently we purchased the Navigon 5100 and it gracefully guided us on the roads in southern California and here in Westchester. For only $150, it has the most important feature: “spoken street names”, without it, any GPS is not more useful than a paper map. It alerts you at 0.1 mile before the turns and annouces the street/highway’s names. It’s truly a taste of high life. How can anyone live without one?