Publisher description:

In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book’s editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The biggest frustration for many of us was being unable to help these victims. I don’t have any medical skills, and I’m not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. A few tweets pulled together nearly everything – all the participants, all the expertise – and in just over a week we had created a book including stories from an 80-year-old grandfather in Sendai, a couple in Canada waiting to hear if their relatives were okay, and a Japanese family who left their home, telling their young son they might never be able to return.”

Thoughts:

I had the chance to read this for free during Amazon’s temporarily free books bit. It’s still free at Amazon right now, so you should definitely go take a look.

This book is a  bit written in haste, clearly, all written within a week or so. It’s an intimate, close, immediate look at the great quake of March 11, 2011, and full of true human stories that are moving. Many fall flat, but many are genuine and touching. I enjoyed this read a lot, because despite its imperfections this is a firsthand look at what happened that fateful day.

Favorite quote:

Two things stand out: The zen-like demeanor of the Japanese amidst such a huge disaster, and the realization that if there is a place on earth that I want to be with my family and friends (current and extended), when (God forbid) such a disaster ever struck again, then it’s this country, Japan.

Overall rating:

B+

Every so often I get to catalog a book that is published by some sub-group of the Chinese Communist Party, and I never know whether to laugh or cry while reading these.

For a country so utterly lacking in basic human rights, they really make a huge deal out of the “fact” they are a true democratic, representative government with a full guarantee of basic human rights such as free speech, privacy ownership (ie. no unwarranted searches and occupation of private home), freedom of religion, and the rights to a fair trial.

However, when I look closely at the language used to guarantee these “rights,” it’s all very circumspect and always leaving a loophole for the government to manipulate to take away that right from a citizen.

My favorite one is the 36th Amendment to the Chinese Constitution (emphasis mine):

The citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right to religious freedom. Any governmental organization, social organization, or individual is not allowed to force citizens to believe in religion or not believe in religion. There will be no discrimination against citizens who believe or do not believe in any religion. 

The state will protect normal religious activity. No one may use/manipulate religion as a way to disrupt the flow and organization of society, hurt the safety of citizens, or get in the way of the State’s educational policies.

Religious groups and affairs must not be occupied/ruled by foreign authorities.

Yeah. I think the above text is kind of self-explanatory as to the attitude China takes to human rights. Totally and utterly fake and non-existent in reality and practice.

If there were truly real human rights in China as provided for in their Constitutional texts, such as the freedom to speech/protest/publication, the freedom to a fair trial, and the freedom from being incarcerated without a fair trial, then what the hell is Liu Xiaobo still doing in prison?

Everything about human rights and politics in China is fake. Even faker than it is in the rest of this sad sad world.

08. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro’s sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are “told but not told” what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own.

With a film starring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, how can I resist? I read this book over a long period of time before I saw the film, and even though it was a difficult and heartbreaking novel to digest, it was also very good. I don’t want to give anything away, and I will say that this book is best read without any previous knowledge of the story. Go through it. Mull over Ishiguro’s beautiful, simple prose that is full of meaning and consciousness (or soul, so to speak).

This is a book to be read over a rainy weekend with some hot tea in hand, with contemplation, thought, and true grief. It inspired a heart-rending grief in me for children and adults who do not even exist, and it is certainly a difficult read. It was challenging for me in that Ishiguro doesn’t seem to ever state anything straight out, but rather reaches the heart of the matter by shaping a narrative around it to show the shape of it, so that you can only guess or think about the meaning. I definitely recommend the film after the book, because the film brings to stark present a story that seems rather far away for the most part.