This is my most recently completed book. It tells the true story of the immigration of the author's great-great grandfather to America from China in the late 1800's. It is a fascinating description of immigrant life and the struggles to overcome racial prejudice and achieve the American Dream experienced by the succeeding generations of this family. It also gives you a glimpse into typical life in Southern China during that same time frame.

River Town shares the personal experiences of  the author as he spends two years teaching in the Yangtze river town of Fuling (Mackenzie's hometown) in Sichuan Province. We were able to spend one day in Fuling and his descriptions of the city are spot on. After reading this book, I felt that I had a clearer picture of what daily life was like for the typical Chinese, and what Mackenzie's potential future could have been.

Bette Bao Lord was the wife of the American Ambassador to China during the late 1980's. During that time she accumulated many life stories from friends and these are published in Legacies. Many of these stores take place during the rise of the Communist Party in China and include tales of torture, imprisonment, starvation, and strength to survive in spite of it all. This book gave me an incredible depth of detail into the turmoil of the  Cultural Revolution and how that has affected China to this day.

This is a compact, colorfully illustrated book. It is illustrated with plenty of maps and beautiful pictures of many of the better known cities in China. It also contains a great deal of historical information and background information on the Chinese contributions to the world.

Believe it or not, you can actually learn Chinese in 10 minutes a day. Using this book as a guide and studying it for only the 10 minutes a day, I was able to begin learning some Chinese. It starts off with basics, especially teaching the tones. The method and pace is quite enjoyable and has encouraged me to pursue furthering my learning of Chinese by making it seem accomplishable.