Called book of the year by the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Quite the tale I suppose.

Hessler chronicles the transformation of China from an unchanging traditional country for hundreds of years, to its explosion into the modern age and links to the western world in the last few decades. Hessler is the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker and also writes for National Geographic.

I sent this book off to Ri on behalf of therubycanary. Happy reading!

Thanks so much ruby and bybee!

received this book when I met Ri when I was in Cincy

My mom, AceofHearts, passed away from breast cancer on September 17, 2013. Aside from being one of the best people I know, she was an avid reader and took immense pleasure in Bookcrossing, her book club, and reading many great books. Unfortunately she didn't get around to reading this book.

We had similar tastes in books and would share them whenever we read something we enjoyed. This book sounds interesting so I'm going to keep it to read.

Peter Hessler starts in China as an English teacher, eventually moving his way over to journalism. He keeps in contact with his students and their stories are brought to life in this book. He uses these stories to tell a bit about China's past and teach the reader about more recent history. For example, he has a student move to Shenzen and get a job at a factory there. Peter tells the recent history of Shenzen and how it is an experimental city, built with many factories that have attracted young people to come work. This makes it different from many other cities in China as it is one city where the younger generation isn't living with their family.

There are lots of interesting stories like this interspersed in the book. I learned a lot about the Uighurs, a group I had no knowledge of before. Peter describes then as having similar problems as the Tibetans but without the Dalai Lama to make their plight more well known.

At times, this book could be a bit slow and too detailed. There were also times where Peter would start to examine one subject, stop, and come back to it later 50 pages. It at times made for a disjointed read. However it told an interesting story of an unknown China to me.

Mailed last week to UnwrittenLibra as part of a trade. Enjoy!

Received here in Middleton WI the other day from HoserLauren in Canada. Thanks!