Less Salt, More Sugar, A Little Wine: Cooking in Old Age
A China Retrospect: Living and Teaching in Beijing 1986-87 is available at Dragon Tale Books, Amazon.com and from the author. The book combines memoir, travel and history of a year at the College of Light Industry in Beijing. It was a time when memories of the Cultural Revolution were still fresh and raw. The Mao Zedong, worker-peasant, bourgeois-capitalist jargon was ever-present, but young people often rejected what was in the press or movies as “just propaganda.” It was a period of openness and hopefulness, and the candor of students was often disarming. It’s in paperback, hardcover and Kindle.
Victorian Travelers and the Opening of China, 1842-1907 is an account of six English men and women who worked and traveled in China between the first Opium War and official end of the opium trade. Robert Fortune is the most complicated, essentially stealing the tea trade from China. Archibald Little brought western trade to the interior of China. Constance Gordon Cumming, Henry Knollys, and Isabella Bird were globetrotters who wrote vividly about their travels. Alicia Little was a crusader who played a major role in ending the cruel practice of foot binding. Available at Dragon Tale Books in Menomonie, Ohio University Press, and online sources.
Nineteenth-Century Travels 1835-1910: The Far East includes biographical essays and long excerpts from the writings of ten English travelers to China and Japan. Available from Pickering and Chatto and online sources.
Retiring Minds: Life after Work celebrates the possibilities and inevitabilities that ensue after leaving professional duties behind. In memoir, journal, fiction and poetry, what people are doing in retirement is treated with wit and wisdom. The contributors to this collection include former deans, a librarian, and college teachers of art, economics, English, family studies, hospitality and tourism, speech, sociology, and theater. In retirement they are photographers, travelers, volunteers, and writers. They have great stories to tell and share them with candor. Available at Dragon Tale Books in downtown Menomonie and at Amazon.com.
Some Memorable Lines from the Book
“She used to call me her knight in shining armor. When did that worm turn?” –Gene Bloedorn
“‘If the cook ain’t fat, I ain’t eatin’ it.’ ” – Leland Nichols
“I’m telling you stories. Trust me. It’s happening very gently. . . . And we are old. It happened very gently.” – Pat Zontelli
“Grandchildren are indeed the reward for not murdering your teenagers!” – Sheri Nero
“I’m—having a colonoscopy,” I said. “You’re having a colonoscopy?” he said. “Yes.” “No—you’re having heart surgery.” He looked at his yellow pad. “Your name is David?” “Yes, it is.” “Aren’t you having heart surgery?” “Nope.” He looked at his pad again in some confusion. – David McCordick
“I was an adjunct. Would always be an adjunct. . . . I burn my bridges. Would never be an adjunct again.” – Judy Brown
“Raskolnikov gets to be a bore in the end. . . . Incidentally the epilogue of Crime and Punishment stinks.” – Erik Thurin
Susan Thurin 