The End

2021 Books

Somehow, throughout this Spring semester I have still found time to read. Reading has always been a passion of mine ever since I was a young child and my grandmother read Mr. Potter's Penguins to me. It's an escape from the humdrum of daily life into worlds made vivid in your own mind. Below is the list of recreational and class assigned books that I have read so far.

Adelstein, Jake. Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat in Japan. Pantheon Books, 2010.

• Tokyo Vice is a memoir by Adelstein detailing his time in Japan working as a reporter in the 1990's. He writes about his encounters with the Yakuza, the seedy underbelly of Tokyo and death threats to him and his family. It is fast paced, engaging and a different point of view that most westerners don't get to hear about.

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction To The History of Eastern Thought. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

• In Bresnan's Awakening, he covers the histories of India, China and Japan. He goes into great detail about their various religions and how it ties into the present day.

Clements, Jonathan. Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: the Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun. Tuttle Publishing, 2017.

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  This book about Japan's history is told in a humorous but thoughtful way. It covers from prehistory origin stories to modern day Japan and its place in the world.

 

Feiler, Bruce S. Learning To Bow: Inside The Heart of Japan. Perennial, 2004.

• Learning To Bow is an intimate account of Feiler's experience teaching English in Japan. It covers culture clash, Japan's rigid schooling system, workplace norms, how the kids learn gender roles as well as the roots of them all. It is insightful and interesting to read.

Hawley, Jack. Bhagavad Gita - A Walkthrough For Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

• Hawley's Bhagavad Gita is an easy to read translation of one of Hinduisms most famous works. It is clear, concise and repetitive; though that's the point. 

Kuivalainen, Amy. Immortal City. BHC Press, 2020.

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  Immortal City is the first in the Magicians of Venice series. It combines history, legend, fantasy and murder. If you're interested in Atlantis or magic, this is a great fast paced book.

Kuivalainen, Amy. The Sea of The Dead. BHC Press, 2020.

• The Sea of The Dead is the second in the Magicians of Venice series. It continues the story of Penelope and her newfound link with Atlantis and the magicians that protect it. 

Rice, Anne. Interview With A Vampire. Sphere, 2008.

•  Rice is the queen of horror novels and this is the book that gave her that title. This is the first in her Vampire Chronicles series. It tells the story of Louis, a vampire and how he came to be.

Rice, Anne. The Queen of The Damned. Ballantine Books, 2016.

• This is the second book in Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. It introduces us to Lestat, the Brat Prince and his encounter with the Queen of vampires. In it, we learn about how vampires came into existence and the millennia that followed.

Rice, Anne. The Tale of The Body Thief. Ballantine Books, 2016.

• This is the third book in Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. Again, we are reading the account of Lestat and his experience with a strange man. This man, propositions Lestat with the chance to change bodies, letting Lestat become human again.

Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat. Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

• This is the fourth book in Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. This is Lestat's memoir, his life story and his version of the events that happened in Louis's account in Interview With A Vampire.

Saint-Exupaery, Antoine de, et al. The Little Prince. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000.

• The Little Prince is a children's book by French aristocrat, writer, and aviator Saint-Exupéry. It is a sweet and sad adventure of a little boy on a quest to get back home. Its underlying moral is that love is all important and gives us the ability to see the truth and beauty of things.

Turton, Stuart. The Devil and The Dark Water. Thorndike Press, a Part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2021.

• Turton's The Devil and The Dark Water is a fantasy murder mystery set in 1634 on a Dutch ship bound for Amsterdam. There is intrigue, magic, legend and murder. It is fast paced and easy to read.

Verderber, Kathleen S., et al. Communicate! Cengage Learning, 2017.

• Communicate! is a school textbook for Communications courses. It covers all the different ways we communicate and how to be more effective at it.

    Towards the end of this Spring semester we were given an assignment to select a theme to identify throughout each chapter. I chose "What Does It Mean To Be Human". In doing so, I got to learn about the chapters and history in a more introspective way. I had to place my feet in the shoes of the people who lived during these eras to determine what being human felt like and meant to them. All together this project probably took me about eighteen hours to complete, spread out over the course of 2 weeks. It was labor intensive and long, since I chose to do it alone. Here is the link to it 

    When this Asian Humanities class first started, I hoped that we would learn a lot about the people of China, Korea and Japan. I wanted to learn more about their cultures, history, and points of view. Though we learned a lot about China, Japan was a little short in terms of learning time and Korea wasn't mentioned all that often. We did learn quite a bit about religions and India though. It makes sense though as this is just a general overview of the humanities in Asia and not topic specific.

    I chose this class because it fits for transfer to Sacramento State for a BA in Asian Studies. I enjoyed learning about the progressive time periods from ancient India to Sakoku Japan in terms of religious spread. I also enjoyed the various videos we were given to watch to supplement our readings. Some of what we learned in class is knowledge that I had already gained from taking a World Religions course at San Diego Mesa, but it was a nice refresher. Reading the Baghavad Gita again was enjoyable. Overall, I enjoyed this class.  

じゃあね!       안녕