Book Review of "Hui Gui - A Chinese Story"

Father and daughter weave a story of war with Japan and the subsequent occupation together with the consequences this invasion has upon their life story. One is a recollection; the other a documentation of personal experiences. Together the voices blend to tell one seamless story.

The meaning of Hui Gui is returning home and this ideal is the very theme of the story as each character journeys towards home throughout the course of the narrative. The real question then becomes, “What is the personification of home for each of us?” The very ideal that one journeys, and often struggles towards, in order to resolve inner conflict and find true peace and contentment.

For the characters of Hui Gui: A Chinese Story, by Elsie Sze, this definition of home is different for each of them. This yearning for home takes each on their own path and leads them on a journey of self-discovery.

Tak Sing, a young boy when we are first introduced to his character, is thrust into the middle of wartime China, disrupting life as he knows it. This comes first at the hand of external enemies during the Japanese invasion; then China faces a war within as communism takes over as the governing body. This radically affects and changes the social structure as it had hitherto been known.

Having reduced his opulent family to peasant farmers, Tak Sing is forced to seek refuge in Hong Kong so that his future progress may not be hindered by the ideals of the Communistic regime. Leaving his family and friends, he is thrust into a foreign culture and community with only his virtue and integrity for companions.

It is in this land of opportunity that he meets and marries Lily, who is ironically the one character in the novel unable to forgive the past, preventing her from embracing the future. This message seems to work at odds with the theme of the book.

Serena, their daughter, is the result of merging these two worlds together. Her responsibility is to document the story of her mother while at the same time uncovering the role she plays in her own future. Where one voice ends in the story, the next begins. Yet the story is one; a continuation of past, present and future. It is Serena’s voice that brings these components together. The book ends with Serena’s conviction that it is her duty to finish writing Papa’s book. While the reader is left questioning what she means by such a sentiment, there is the understanding that through Serena will live the continuation of familial ideals; that she will seek to find a balance and live life to the fullest, thus discovering peace, happiness and fulfillment along the way.

Ultimately, we are all writing our own stories. The question is if we will ever finish. Indeed, we’re all a book in progress.

Shawn is a collector of book reviews and lists them at books to read before you die. He also collects famous inspirational quotes and spiritual thoughts.

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By Shawn B

Book Review - How Do I Tell the Kids About the Divorce? By Rosalind Sedacca

By Susan Heim

When I went through a divorce more than 14 years ago, my two children were a baby and a preschooler, and thus weren't old enough to be given too many details. I have often wondered, though, how different it would have been if they had been older. How would I have told them that their father and I were divorcing, and we'd be moving to another home? Would they be scared or cry or begin acting out? Indeed, one of the most difficult conversations a parent will ever have with his or her children is telling them that their parents are separating or divorcing. Children may blame themselves, worry about the future, fear they'll never see one or both of their parents again, or feel that their safety and security are crumbling before their eyes. So, how can parents allay these fears while imparting such a scary message to their children?

Fortunately, a book by Rosalind Sedacca, CCT, provides a great start. How Do I Tell the Kids about the Divorce? A Create-a-Storybook™ Guide to Preparing Your Children - with Love!is a fill-in-the-blank book that guides parents through making a personal family storybook they can share with their children. The text was designed to convey six key messages to children of divorce:

1. This is not your fault.
2. Mom and Dad will always love you.
3. Mom and Dad will always be your Mom and Dad.
4. You are, and will continue to be, safe.
5. This is about change, not about blame.
6. Everything is going to be okay.

Using the templates provided, parents can customize their book to reflect their personal situation. Parents are encouraged to include stories (and photos) from their family's history, guided on ways to explain "the problem" without inflicting blame on the other parent, and coached on how to provide a picture of the future and how it will change. Parents can use materials as simple as a photo album or as elaborate as a scrapbook. Two versions are provided, one for kids aged 5-10 and another for kids aged 10-15. How Do I Tell the Kids About the Divorce? also provides advice and insights from six therapists who specialize in family issues.

Divorce is never going to be an easy adjustment for children, but with the help of this book, parents can provide their children with the information they need to be assured that they're loved and their future holds promise. How Do I Tell the Kids About Divorce? is available as a downloadable eBook at www.howdoitellthekids.com (and also includes some great bonuses!).

Susan M. Heim is a former Senior Editor for the bestselling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. Her published books include "It's Twins! Parent-to-Parent Advice from Infancy Through Adolescence"; "Oh, Baby! 7 Ways a Baby Will Change Your Life the First Year"; "Twice the Love: Stories of Inspiration for Families with Twins, Multiples and Singletons"; "Boosting Your Baby's Brain Power"; and, "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More." Her articles and essays have appeared in many books, magazines and websites. Susan writes a regular online column for Mommies Magazine called "Loving and Living with Twins and Multiples." She is also an expert on twins and multiples for AllExperts.com and ParentsConnect.com, and a parenting expert for SelfGrowth.com.

Susan is the founder of TwinsTalk, a website about twins and raising twins (http://www.twinstalk.com). Susan shares her parenting wisdom on her blog, Susan Heim on Parenting, at http://www.susanheim.blogspot.com She is the mother of 4 sons -- two teens and twin preschoolers.

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The Google Story (Book Review)

By Joy Cagil

During the electronic revolution, Google sprang about as the most indispensable search engine almost overnight. If there is anybody on the face of this planet who hasn't heard of Google, I think he must be a relic from the Stone Age.

The book, The Google Story, is about the birth and the coming of age of this marvel of a company. Its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, met in Stanford in 1995. Despite the earlier differences between them, they connected well because they shared a vision and a bright but goofy character. Sergey, the math whiz and a first-generation Russian- American, is the son of Michael Brin, a math teacher in the University of Maryland, and Eugenia Brin, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Larry's father, Carl Victor Page, was a computer engineer and he introduced his children to the world of computers early on. Although Larry's mother was Jewish, Larry knew more about computers than Judaism.

During 1996, Larry and Sergey teamed up to analyze Web links as research toward a PH. D. thesis. Since this work took longer than anticipated, Larry came up with the theory of counting the number of links to a website could be a way of ranking that website's popularity. Later on, they applied the Page Rank to the Internet. By early 1997, a primitive search engine called BackRub was developed. During the autumn of 1997, BackRub earned a new name, Google, derived from the googol a mathematical term, which means a number equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros and is expressed as 10 to the 100th power.

After its initial beginnings, the development of Google as a company reminds me of any small cottage industry that can abruptly grow in leaps and bounds to take over its industry sector. If Thomas Edison is called the genius of Menlo Park, Sergey and Larry, too, may be called genius-wizards of Menlo Park, because like Edison, they rented a large house in Menlo Park from where to continue the expansion of their company. Menlo Park became the nest from which Google the research project became Google.com.

One bright idea that led Google to its present day success was the idealism of its founders. During the heyday of the dot com companies, Sergey and Larry preferred to keep the company private as long as they possibly could because they wanted to build the best search engine; the money they could gain by making the company public was not so important.

Still, the company needed cash to expand, especially after moving to the new company headquarters in Palo Alto, and on June 1999, Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced that two venture capital companies, Kleiner Perkins and Sequioa Capital, had agreed to invest $25 million dollars in Google with their managers Doerr and Moritz joining Google's board of directors. With this announcement, the Google revolution started taking roots.

Not all went without a glitch. For example, in 2004, there was the legal action against a UK company Booble.com, imitating Google but with a sexual content. Then, when Google finally went public, it attracted a trademark lawsuit from Geico.

As such, the authors go on to tell many stories about the company and even its chef who prepares the food for the staff.

At the end of the book, Brin suggests improving the brain by plugging a version of Google into it. That will certainly be the next wonderful surprise Google can grant its users.

The Google Story is in hardcover with 326 pages. In the front of the book, a contents page showing its 26 chapters is followed by an Introduction, and at the end of the book, are the appendices such as Google Search Tips, Google Labs Aptitude Test, and Google's Financial Scorecard, plus A Note on Sources, Acknowledgments, Photo Credits and Index. A few black and white photos in the middle of the book add to its enjoyment as well as the variety of anecdotes inside it. This book is also available as an abridged audio CD, an abridged downloadable audiobook, and a trade paperback.

The writers of the book David A. Vise and Mark Malseed are reporters. David A.Vise, a Washington Post reporter, has won the Pulitzer Prize and is the author of three books, one a bestseller "The Bureau and the Mole." Mark Malseed is a contributing reporter to the Boston Herald and the Washington Post and has done some valuable research for two of Bob Woodard's books.

For me, this was an enjoyable read with one tale after another. Although the information in it has been in the news media before, seeing it in one piece was a treat.

Joy Cagil is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers. Her education is in foreign languages, linguistics, psychology, and humanities.

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