good books

just finished American Shaolin, the autobiography about a kid who drops out of Princeton to learn kungfu from the its birthplace, Shaolon temple. An entertaining read and full of cultural insights into a people shifting from communism to capitalism.

Followed that up with The Good Earth. I never read it for school, and it was a treat. Buck writes with the simple immediacy of Hemmingway and Hesse.

About to start the new translation of War & Peace, so when I finish that in August, I'll have remember to post my thoughts.