Book Reviews

I read this after reading 活着 thinking that since I liked the former, 兄弟 would also be worth reading, and good Chinese practice. It was good Chinese practice, but not really worth reading. There were good moments in this book, such the stories of 李光头 (li) as a child that reminded me of Huck Finn or a good episode of the Simpsons. The depiction of the cultural revolution, especially after witnessing red armbands suddenly appear on neighbors during the recent protests against Japan, was vivid and frightening. ...

《活着》的书名不太准确。我觉得《他们都死去了》更合适。

这个中文版特别容易看。 我觉得还比哈利波特容易。而且，翻译的质量不错。 It was a fun read, the voyeuristic thinking that takes place in a last-man-standing game is hard to ignore. There were certainly some good and interesting ideas, genetically bred weapons that have gone wild, cross breeding with the native population, reality TV as a means of government control. The main character was interesting and everything but the ending was unpredictable. But this book gave me the same pause that 1984 and Brave new world did- it seemed constructed tell a story, rather than a world that spawned a story. I’ll read the sequel, but I don’t expect too much.

我非常喜欢这个系列。 可是那个名城古迹部分非常无聊。而且有的传统故事的主题重复，所以我觉的这本书就是还可以。

Great book, but the kindle version is a mess, and the organization seemed haphazard. Of course that comes with the territory for a book of such scope.

The inline pinyin is annoying, the translations are sloppy, but this is still the best graded reader currently available. Rather than inventing stories with a limited vocabulary, the authors simplified real stories for academic use. As such, the series deals with subjects that Chinese authors want to write about, and is much better for it. The stories are interesting, the language is not too advanced, I would recommend this to any but the most beginning Chinese language students.

还可以

最后的故事有意思，好笑，但是其它的都太无聊了.

Roast guinea pig - just the sort of word I need to be learning.

Another decent graded reader from Blaine Ray. It’s pretty clearly originally meant for Spanish though. The conversations go something like: “I really like your mom’s Mexican food…. and Chinese 饺子” or “Let’s have a celebration on Cinco de Mayo, and eat Chinese food!” 而已