DON’T BELIEVE IN TEARS


Book Description

Heartbroken after surviving from an unexpected car accident with his wife Jennies, Brian is desperate and giving up all hope to live without her. He engulfs in silence, misery and alcoholic. But when he forces himself to accept a job from his father in law, also is his boss, which is made for him to return his birth city in Viet Nam where he's going to work with his Uncle Tim whose is President of Eastern Bank to clinch an important contract has been arranged. His entire world suddenly has changed and his life turns upside down by quirk fate when he accidentally bumps into a woman outside of the airport, who resembles his dead wife, and then following her to where she works. More astonishing is she's an employee of Eastern Bank, also is his uncle's secretary. His heart turns over and quickly in love after knowing her name is Ngan. Getting closer to Ngan and trying to win her heart, Brian intrigues with his uncle to take a mailman job instead to disguise his character. And from there, they became more than just colleagues, but as so often happens in times of need friendships are forged, and after Brian is acting as an actor to pretend Ngan's beau to visit her family, and then secretly helps Ngan to rework her project. They are each surprised at the intimacy of their working and spending days and the impact their encounter brings: Warm, crying, laughing, witty, and as wise as ever. They're falling madly in love and Brian has to return to Viet Nam to get married Ngan. With a happy ending when Ngan is immigrated to America at last, Brian has a different thought about the fate that God has created. Having Ngan in his life, as if God has brought Jennies' life back on earth for reuniting with him that makes Brian doesn't believe in tears which is he has been crying for, and learning along the meaning of true love, and ultimately, what fate really is.




Don't Believe In Tears


Book Description

Heartbroken after surviving an unexpected car accident with his wife Jennies, Brian is desperate and giving up all hope of living without her. He immerses himself in silence, misery, and alcoholism. However, when he forces himself to accept a job from his father-in-law, who is also his boss, designed for him to return to his birth city in Vietnam, where he'll work with his Uncle Tim, the President of Eastern Bank, to clinch an important contract, his entire world suddenly changes. His life turns upside down by a quirk of fate when he accidentally bumps into a woman outside the airport, who resembles his late wife. Following her to where she works, he discovers she is an employee of Eastern Bank and also his uncle's secretary. His heart flips when he learns her name is Ngan. Getting closer to Ngan and trying to win her heart, Brian intrigues with his uncle to take on a mailman job to disguise his character. From there, they become more than just colleagues. In times of need, friendships are forged, and after Brian acts as an actor, pretending to be Ngan's beau to visit her family, and secretly helps Ngan rework her project, their relationship deepens. They are each surprised at the intimacy of their working and spending days and the impact their encounter brings - warmth, tears, laughter, wit, and wisdom. They fall madly in love, and Brian has to return to Vietnam to marry Ngan. With a happy ending when Ngan finally immigrates to America, Brian has a different perspective on the fate that God has created. Having Ngan in his life feels as if God has brought Jennies' life back to earth for a reunion with him, making Brian stop believing in tears he has shed. Along the way, he learns the meaning of true love and, ultimately, what fate really is.




What Every Russsian Knows (and You Don't)


Book Description

This book is a collection of 12 essays looking at touchstones of Russian popular culture, mostly from the Soviet period, that continue to resonate through language, images, and ways of seeing the world in Russia today. These include films: The Irony of Fate, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, White Sun of the Desert, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson; a novel: The Twelve Chairs; animated cartoons: Hedgehog in the Mist and The Prostokvashino Three; the writer Mikhail Bulgakov; the singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky; stand-up comedians Mikhail Zhvanestky and Mikhail Zadornov; and a character from a fairy tale, Yemelya the Simpleton. The subjects of the chapters were selected for their influence on Russian language and thinking, and also because they reflect Russian attitudes and perceptions. The author brings them to life through her own experiences of, and responses to, these modern icons. This book, though invaluable for students of Russian, is for everyone interested in Russian language and culture, and explains why certain references and attitudes continue to permeate everyday life. Olga Fedina grew up in Moscow in the turbulent late-Soviet and immediately post-Soviet years, graduating from the Department of Journalism of Moscow State University. She subsequently lived for a decade in London and is currently based in Valencia, Spain. She sometimes misses her homeland, and this book expresses some of the unique aspects of Russia and the Russians that she always carries with her.




The Story About the Story Vol. II


Book Description

The essays in The Story About the Story Vol. II chart a trajectory that digs deep into the past and aims toward a future in which literature can play a new and more profound role in how we think, read, live, and write. In the second volume of The Story About the Story, editor J. C. Hallman continues to argue for an alternative to the staid five-paragraph-essay writing that has inoculated so many against the effects of good books. Writers have long approached writing about reading from an intensely personal perspective, incorporating their pasts and their passions into their process of interpretation. Never before collected in a single volume, the many essays Hallman has compiled build on the idea of a "creative criticism," and offers new possibilities for how to write about reading. The Story About the Story Vol. II documents not only an identifiable trend in writing about books that can and should be emulated, it also offers lessons from a remarkable range of celebrated authors that amount to an invaluable course on both how to write and how to read well. Whether they discuss a staple of the canon (Thomas Mann on Leo Tolstoy), the merits of a contemporary (Vivian Gornick on Grace Paley), a pillar of genre-writing (Jane Tompkins on Louis L’Amour), or, arguably, the funniest man on the planet (David Shields on Bill Murray), these essays are by turns poignant, smart, suggestive, intellectual, humorous, sassy, scathing, laudatory, wistful, and hopeful—and above all deeply engaged in a process of careful reading. The essays in The Story About the Story Vol. II chart a trajectory that digs deep into the past and aims toward a future in which literature can play a new and more profound role in how we think, read, live, and write.




The Other Side


Book Description

What do Soviets think of Americans? What do they learn from books, newspapers, and films about life in America? How do we, as Americans form opinions about life in the U.S.S.R? Through the selective use of both Soviet and American materials, The Other Side explores these and other provocative questions that are central to public understanding of how perceptions affect U.S.-Soviet relations. The Other Side also examines the many differences between Soviet and American media, such as the role of the press, and offers article-by-article comparisons of Soviet and American press coverage of the same events. Appropriate for citizen of all ages, and groups as well as individuals, The Other Side includes a Reader's Guide, suggested educational projects, an annotated bibliography, and guidance for discussion leaders.




The Little Corporal


Book Description







MEIN KRAMPF


Book Description

Ukraine, 1952, ages ago, yet true. The girls still carry the heavy cross of the sexual innocence. A Russian girl, 22, rowing medalist and coach, fall in fiery, forbidden love with a cocky, witty boy, 14, listed as a Jew. Yet, he is above all that and plans to swim to Turkey if SSoviets try to ship the Jews to the starving, icy Siberian mini Zion named the Jewish Autonomous Region. The bedlam of arraigning the alleged Jewish moles of AmeriKKKans mirroring that in their country too crafts just a fading set in this truthful, intriguing book. S.I. Fishgal (www.publishedauthors.net/sifishgal) wanted to title MEIN KAMPF (My Struggle), but someone did that before. For ignoramuses in German, not you surely, krampf means cramp. His PIDDLER ON THE HOOF (PublishAmerica Inc.) and KOSHER HOOKS (Lulu) show the boy's earlier years. As a gentleman, Fishgal made his books independent, with the horse sense, crisp and funny language, topsy-turvy idioms and plays of words.




When Breath Becomes Air


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.




Tears We Cannot Stop


Book Description

“A hard-hitting sermon on the racial divide, directed specifically to a white congregation.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review A New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe Bestseller As the country grapples with racial division at a level not seen since the 1960s, Michael Eric Dyson’s voice is heard above the rest. In Tears We Cannot Stop, a provocative and deeply personal call or change, Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress, we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how Black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, and discounted. In the tradition of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time—short, emotional, literary, powerful—this is the book that all Americans who care about the current and long-burning crisis in race relations need to read. Praise for Tears We Cannot Stop Named a Best/Most Anticipated Book of 2017 by: The Washington Post • Bustle • Men’s Journal • The Chicago Reader • StarTribune • Blavity• The Guardian • NBC New York’s Bill’s Books • Kirkus Reviews • Essence “Elegantly written and powerful in several areas: moving personal recollections; profound cultural analysis; and guidance for moral redemption. A work to relish.” —Toni Morrison “Here’s a sermon that’s as fierce as it is lucid . . . If you’re black, you’ll feel a spark of recognition in every paragraph. If you’re white, Dyson tells you what you need to know—what this white man needed to know, at least. This is a major achievement. I read it and said amen.” —Stephen King “One of the most frank and searing discussions on race . . . a deeply serious, urgent book, which should take its place in the tradition of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and King’s Why We Can’t Wait.” —The New York Times Book Review