Vietnamese- Americans have opened their hearts to Syrian refugees as they witness history repeating itself. Haunting stories of boats capsizing and families drowning as they try to get to Greece has galvanized former Vietnamese boat people in Fountain Valley, California, to organize a walkathon to send medical aid to Syrians fleeing the war in their country. They have also started a Twitter campaign and a fundraising drive to raise awareness and compassion for today's "boat people,"
"This is us," said one Vietnamese-American, remembering the rickety boat he fled in across the South China Sea. A Vietnamese- American filmaker is making videos to publicize why they care. Vietnamese fled their country almost forty years ago as Saigon fell and the communists took over. Today there are over two million Vietnamese in the United States. This is a wonderful tribute to the gratitude they feel for their adopted country and the compassion they have for their fellow human beings. Would that all of us would be so compassionate. This is the worst refugee crisis since WWII. Everyone needs to open their hearts and their wallets to help. 

This young adult novel is set in the Algonquian  wilderness of Ontario, Canada, in 1885 and tells the story of Red Wolf, young Native boy and a wolf named Crooked Ear who forge a friendship as they face the encroachment of the white man to their lands. When Red Wolf is wrenched from his family by the Indian agent who takes him to the Christian boarding school where life is wretched at best and he is forced to abandon his native ways, he finds a friend in the orphan wolf who follows his trail. The story shifts from the perspective of Red Wolf to the perspective of the wolf as life for Red Wolf becomes more unbearable. With wonderful voices and character development, Dance has done a masterful job of depicting the injustices the coming of the white man brought to both the Native peoples and the wolves. A great read.

Eighteen hundred migrants fleeing North Africa have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea this past year in the burgeoning tide of of smuggler vessels ferrying migrants from North Africa to Europe. Just today the EU has decided to quit ignoring this human tragedy by destroying the smugglers ships before they take on their human cargo. This solution hopefully will save lives, but will not address the problem of why people wish to flee their country of origin.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Rohingya and Bangladeshis are abandoned by traffickers and turned away by Malaysia and Thailand. The Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority in Buddhist majority Myanmar, have been turned away and left to drift at sea. "It's maritime Ping Pong with human life...If these people aren't treated and brought to shore soon, we are going to have a boat full of corpses," said Joe Lowry, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration in Bangkok, on a boat carrying hundreds of migrants from Myanmar drifting in the Andaman Sea between Thailand and Malaysia.

In 1979, Vietnamese boat people faced the same conditions. The crisis was resolved by the rich countries of the world agreeing to take them in, countries like the U.S, Frqnce, Canada, and Australia. Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong were several of the countries that acted as transit countries with refugees arriving there to be resettled in other countries. Why can't we do that with today's boat people? This current problem is another human tragedy that needs to be addressed.

This memoir covers the history of China in the 20th century through the eyes of "three daughters of China", Jung Chang's grandmother, her mother, and Jung Chang herself. If you want to learn more about the immensely complicated history of China from feudal society to the occupation of China by Japan,the civil war between the Communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, and Mao's Cultural Revolution this is a great read. I was particularly struck by the resilence during many times of trial and separation that this family displayed. 

This is the story of Vivian and Molly, two courageous women fighting to survive. Moving between contemporary Maine and depression era Minnesota, it begins with the story of Vivian, an Irish emigrant girl living in New York whose parents die. Sent on an orphan train to the Midwest, she is taken in by several rural families who do not treat her well. The story of Vivian's struggles as she is forced to move from one home to another breaks your heart. I like the way Baker weaves the story of Molly in, an adolescent who is forced to go help Vivian in her old age, and finds a friend in doing so. If you're interested in the history of the orphan trains and enjoy a good story, I think you will relish this book.

Stephen Colbert says, "As far as I can tell, a young-adult novel is a regular novel that people can actually read." While this is an oversimplification, he has a point. Young-adult novels are generally shorter than adult novels. Characters are usually twelve to eighteen, written for an audience in the same age range. The Fault is in Our Stars by John Green and Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell are two examples of contemporary young adult novels. An excellent resource for more information is the book, Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks.

Missed hearing Lisa See on her national book tour this summer for her latest book, China Dolls, about three young Asian women in the Chinese nightclub era, also called the Chop Suey Circuit, during the 1940's. Told from the viewpoints of each of the women, this story explores what it was like to be a showgirl in the early days when a proper Chinese girl did not even show her legs. Ruby, Helen, and Grace come from very different backgrounds and the author has researched the era thoroughly. The characters seemed fully drawn and I liked the romantic tension. My favorite book by Lisa See is On Gold Mountain, her memoir that details the history of her Chinese American family. I also enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. The book was intriguing and the movie was a visual delight.

 It has been a long time since I have read The Joy Luck Club, but I have always admired the writing of Amy Tan. This book, a nonfiction account of her life through loosely connected stories, details her tumultuous relationship with her mother, her life as a writer, and the background of her novels. For the aspiring writer, she gives some writing tips as well as a picture of her writing process. I particularly enjoyed her struggles to write a second book after the overwhelming success of The Joy Luck Club. According to a writing friend of hers, the second novel will always be "lousy." And so she wrote the beginnings of many novels until she hit upon what she refers to as her eighth novel, The Kitchen God's Wife. As I search for a topic for a second novel after completing Out of the Dragon's Mouth to be released in March of 2015, I find her problem of finding a topic for a second novel to be reassuring. Her Chinese family believed in fate, but after the deaths of her brother and her father, Amy decides to take charge of her own life Reading this book made me want to reread her novels and revisit the movie, The Joy Luck Club. You should too.

Just finished reading this book which is set in Sarajevo during the siege which lasted from April 5, 1992 to Feb. 29,1996, the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. On May 27, 1992 mortar shells killed 22 people standing in line for bread. To quote the author," For the next 22 days Vedran Smailovic, a renowned cellist, played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor at the site in honor of the dead." Told from the viewpoints of four different characters living in Sarajevo, this is a powerful and eloquent statement against war.

Just viewed an inspiring documentary called Girl Rising that tells the stories of nine girls around the world whose childhood has been exploited and the power of education in their lives. One of the themes of my young adult novel, Out of the Dragon's Mouth, is education and the heroine, Mai's, thirst for it after her Chinese school is closed and she is not allowed an education in Communist Viet Nam. She dreams of America and all the books she will get to read and the free education she will receive. In the sequel which I am now writing, the reader will discover the differences that Mai finds between an education in Viet Nam and the public school system in America. I highly recommend Girl Rising for anyone who is interested in the plight of women in the world. This film played a limited engagement in local theaters.