yumi’s book blog

you can download the pdf file from the freebie section and there are tons of other cute things for your pleasure!

i'll be posting a picture of my books with these soon ..  ^_^

more books from the conference!  i was so happy that these were still there when i went back the 2nd day.  it's like they were waiting for me!

so Korean manga is called "manhwa". this particular manhwa has been translated into English, so of course some of the poetry is lost (i think everything sounds better in the language it was created in) but it is still beautifully written.  it's a story about a mother (widow) and her daughter, set in a rural village.  the exact year isn't specified but from the period clothing and references, it's not modern times. 

the relationship between the mother and daughter, Ehwa, is the main focus of the story.  because it's just the two of them, they share everything and the daughter is the mother's only friend and confidant.  more importantly, the mother is constantly feeding knowledge to her daughter but not in the nagging way that most of us are familiar with.  the words she uses are like poetry, told in stories and allegories, well known sayings that she will remember long after she has left her mother's house after she marries.  in Korea, back in the day, when a girl got married, she went to live with her in-laws.  she usually wasn't treated very well, more like a servant than a daughter.  so parents who had a daughter, literally were giving her away when she got married.

(my parents told me and my sister similar stories, usually warning us of the dangers of disobeying our parents.  and they have stuck.  i can't make any decision without hearing their voice in my head!)

one important thing.  these books are not for kids.  i wouldn't say they're "adult" books but there is a lot of talk about sex.  not in a vulgar way (although some of the characters are vulgar) but a few pages made me blush.  it's probably nothing kids haven't already seen or heard.  the kids in the book talk about sex but they also got married much younger back then.  overall, it's very tastefully done.  the mother explains sex and sexuality to Ehwa, again, very poetically, as something beautiful and to be treasured.


i devoured these two books in a day.  the 3rd in the series doesn't come out until this fall.  why are so many books coming out in august and september?  why not june and july when there's more time to read??

growing up, i went through a period where i was morbidly fascinated with death.  i read many Lurlene McDaniel books about kids and teenagers with terminal illnesses, mostly cancer.

then in high school, i lost two friends and an ex-boyfriend to cancer.  one was 16 years old.  the other two were 18 when they passed away.  they didn't get to finish their first year of college.

so i guess you could say i still have a morbid fascination with death.  mostly in how people deal with it.  what do you do when you know you're going to die?

"Ways to Live Forever" tells the story from an 11 year old boy's perspective.  Sam has leukemia.  it had gone into remission but now it was back, for the third time.  and the doctor was recommending that they stop treatment.  Sam's father is in denial and avoids talking about the whole issue of his illness.  his mother tries to do what she can and his 8 year old sister is too young to really understand.  Felix is another kid with cancer who is his best friend.  they both know what the other is going through but Felix isn't one to take things lying down.  not even a wheelchair can slow him down.

so Sam begins to write what started out as an assignment by his teacher (who tutors him and Felix at home) but it turns into something more: lists of facts, lists of things he wants to do before he dies, memories of his life.  it sounds like it would be really depressing but what's so great about this book is that it's not.  there are times when Sam whines like an 11 year old boy would.  there are other times when he writes with clarity and thought that only a kid that has to grow up too fast would do.

it's not fair that kids get sick.  it's not fair that parents should have to watch their kids suffer and then die.  but that doesn't have to be the end of it.  if life is a cycle then it doesn't end with death.  it's just the next phase.

this book is going in the classroom.

Another day at the conference and this time i brought home three bags of books.  All but one were $5 or free.  Needless to say, i was giddy.  "The Dangerous Alphabet" is the only one that I wanted and didn't get.  At noon, it was an all you can grab and I had to choose between that one book or "Nation" by Terry Prachett and "Jellioe Road" by Melina Marchetta.  I decided two was better than one.

But I will own this in the near future.  I read it recently while I was at Barnes and Noble and loved it.  Not the writing (there's only about a line or two on each page for each letter) but Gris Grimly's illustrations.  There is so much detail, so much to look at, I could never get bored.  I think it's a little creepy for little kids so I wouldn't recommend reading it as a bedtime story.  But it would be the perfect addition to my odd collection.

Speaking of odd, one of the books I did manage to get my hands on was the new Emily Strange book:

so many books.  so little time.

Seriously, I brought home so many books I'm having trouble deciding what to read next.  I've read two so far.  I'll write about the one I finished tonight in the morning.  My heart is still aching from it and I don't want to cry.

The librarian I work with gave me her pass to the ALA Conferenence today.  I could barely contain myself.  She had gone yesterday and filled a suitcase and duffle bag full of books and was completely spent.  I couldn't wait!  First of all, Tracy Kidder was a guest speaker who I wanted to see and hear.  I had just gotten the advance reader copy of "Strength in What Remains" from the Amazon Vine program so I rushed over to McCormick Place and caught the end of his presentation.  He showed photos of his trip back to Burundi and talked more about his relationship with Deo, the man he wrote about in this book.  I have yet to read it because I've been wrapped up in another amazing book.

I first heard about it on NPR and was intrigued.  I love mixed media.  You get a completely different experience reading when illustrations and photographs are used when telling a story.  It feels more complete.  So I managed to get this from the library a few days ago by putting a hold on it.  I started it a few hours ago and just finished it.  The first thing I noticed was that Didier Lefevre was an amazing photographer.  And his friend Emmanuel Guibert did a great job of filling in the blanks with his illustrations.  There are a few pages where it is only photographs or only illustrations and I often stopped to look at those more closely.  But it's the story that I found so compelling.  You wouldn't think there would be humor when documenting a story like this one, where a group is crossing the dangerous border from Pakistan into Afghanistan but they find it.  And what I find even more amazing is that these people do this for a living.  They put their lives in danger every day to give these people the most basic medical care, without the sterilized instruments or the technology.

The images of the patients' injuries can be disturbing but then there are images of the father holding the son to help him endure the pain.  And the story of how a mother thanks the doctor even though her child dies on the operating table because thanks to him her son "is ready to meet Allah".

Now that I've read it, I want to own it because this is a book that I want to share with as many people as I can.  So I'm going back to the conference tomorrow, on its last day.  Several of the sellers told me they were giving away books or selling them for $5 and I have my eye on "The Photographer" and a few others.  I hope I won't have to fight anyone for it.

When I was seven years old, I attended the short lived Korean language class at my church.  My parents had sent me off to preschool without any knowledge of English other than what I had learned on Sesame Street and then they  sent me to Korean school without any knowledge of how to read or write in their language.  How ironic.  I learned enough in those few weeks (I have no idea why it didn't last) to be able to recognize characters and read (very very s l o w l y).  Now, at 31 years old, I thought it was time to learn to read and write fluently.  Or at least more fluently than a second grader.

I picked up this book at the Korean bookstore where my dad buys his books.  And I ordered a reading book for 2nd graders.  I've already had to call my mom to ask her what some words mean and my handwriting is horrible.  It's a little sad.  But I'm determined to get better.  I speak pretty well for being born here in the States but I'm lost when I watch Korean tv.  There are so many words I don't know or just can't recognize (salad is sah-luh-duh).

I guess the biggest motivator is that I want my future children to be able to at least understand what their grandparents are saying to them.  My dad speaks English pretty well but my mom speaks what we call "Konglish", a combination of Korean and English.  I find myself translating for my husband while he smiles and nods, pretending to know what's going on.  Although, it's pretty clear what she's saying when she points at his goatee and laughs.  That's universal.

But I digress.  The writing book isn't just your usual practice book.  There's interesting information about the culture and grammar.  Some of it is informative, some of it is just amusing:

"You may find Koreans sometimes say the phrase, "The Korean Time", when someone is late to meetings or appointments.  In the past, some Koreans used to turn up about half an hour or even an hour late for meetings or appointments.  Koreans like to do things quickly and for this reason they used to schedule meetings or appointments around half an hour or an hour ahead of the actual time they can come.  They, then, used to think they had time to spare which then led to them turning up late.  You can hardly find such people these days as everything is fast paced in Korea."

This explains why I'm always 10-15 minutes late.  "The Korean Time" is in my blood.  ^_^

wow.  i started this monster of a memoir last night but i was too sleepy to continue.  so i settled down with it this morning with a cup of coffee and a biscotti.  and then i couldn't stop.  i just finished it and i'm blown away.

i have always been a fan of anime but never really got into manga but i still found Tatsumi's memoir interesting.  with Japan after WWII as the backdrop, he writes/draws about how he got started in manga and how that schoolboy interest grew into his life.  he weaves the history in with the ups and downs of his own life.  i won't remember all the names of artists but i will remember what he had to say about life as an artist.

"He gained his freedom by facing his desk in solitude and painstakingly filling the white paper with black ink ...The creative act of making something from nothing allowed him to live in an infinitely free world"

reading may not be an art but as an avid reader, i feel like i get to experience that feeling a little by taking in what the writer/artist poured out onto their blank pages.  truly inspirational.