Milk and Honey

A very touching collection of songs written and performed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Published in 1984, four years after John Lennon's death, this album is apparently Yoko Ono's effort to pay tribute to her late husband and to express their love. Yoko's song writing and singing skills were, of course, not to be compared with John's. However, this album is to be enjoyed as a whole, as an interplay between the two, like the blending of milk and honey. John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me" never fails to bring tears to my eyes every single time I listen to it. And I like "I'm Stepping Out" for its wonderful melody and rythmn. A booklet in the jewel case shows rare photos of the couple and there is also a precious radio interview of them about five hours before John Lenon was killed.

I think that a lot of people have made cynical criticisms of the couple but I think such comments have a root: jealousy. Perhaps they have never experienced true love so they don't understand it. From this album I can really feel the true love between Yoko and John. As Yoko sings in her song, "Don't be Scared":

Don't be scared
Don't be scared
Don't be scared to love
It's better to love than never love at all
Don't be scared

Daughter of the River

A gripping autobiography of a Chinese woman born near the Yangtze River in the early 60s during the big famine of China. The famine, whose magnitude I never imagined, killed tens of millions of people. Through her raw and honest account of the hard life in China throughout her childhood, I got a glimpse of the country where my parents were making a parallel struggle in another city, and came to a better understanding of the political and physical turmoil they lived under. During those years and even a decade later when I and my brother were born, my parents had to "tighten their belts" and save their food for us.

With the backdrop of the epidemic plight in China, the author told vivid details of her personal experience, and such details as people drowning in the river, dying of hunger, sharing extremely tight living quarters with no privacy and falling in the poop in public toilets give a very stark impression of the gross level of existance the Chinese people had to endure. Besides poverty, the political oppression at that time did not make life a bit easier. I could not help but shed many tears during my reading.

The book also talks about Hong's sexual awakening as well as the mystery that has shrouded her whole childhood. This mystery surrounding her birth is gradually revealed toward the end of the story. A very sad revelation yet a turning point that pushed her into a new direction in life--to leave home and become a writer.

Steppenwolf

I got this book as a gift from my husband who bought it from Shakeapeare and Co. in Paris. He read the Swedish version many years ago and highly recommended it. I was not disappointed. In fact, the book gave me many surprises. Harry is the Steppenwolf, the main character who believes he is half man half wolf and is constantly torn between the two end of the existential spectrum--the "man" part symbolizing the bourgeois tendencies of an intellectual person´s desires for stability and acceptance; and the "wolf" side which defies all conventions and follows all the wild instincts. Harry is not at ease with himself. One day, he met a woman--a prostitute, who is to show him what it is that he lacks in life and what he really desires. The ending of the story is a complete shock. A very philosphical book with a surrealistic feel and a compelling plot. Now it's your turn to discover the Steppenwolf inside you :-).

Bitter Moon

Directed and produced by genious director Roman Polanski, this movie (1992) is unlike any other I have ever seen. Erotically charged and full of suspense throughout, the story-telling in excruciating detail and visual allure is 100 percent compelling and makes you sit through two hours holding your breath -- and laughing at intervals thanks to the sense of self-ironic humor of the protagnonist. But most of all, the twists in the plot and the daring content are really shockers -- like all of Polanski's other movies. Starring Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Peter Coyote and the seductive and incredibly beautiful Emmanuelle Seigner (Polanski's wife, who has also starred in Frantic and Ninth Gate), this movie is for anyone who is looking for a film that pushes the limits and gives you a whole new perspective on romantic relationships.