Reading in the Garden

Pearl of China Pearl S. Buck is a celebrated American author known for her rich descriptions of poor Chinese peasants. She was born Pearl Sydenstricker in Hillsboro, West Virginia on June 26, 1892 while her parents were home on leave from their work as missionaries in China. At the age of five months, Pearl traveled back to China where she lived a majority of her life. Totally immersed in the oriental culture, she grew up playing with local children in the rice paddies and bamboo groves, learning to speak Chinese before English. Her mother tutored her in English and she voraciously read Charles Dickens. After high school, Pearl left China to attend college in Lynchburg, Virginia, but returned soon after her graduation to care for her sick mother.   At the age of twenty-four, she married agriculture teacher and missionary, John Lossing Buck and settled in Nanking. Life was not easy.   Her marriage was not a happy one and worse, her newborn daughter was di...

Join The Great American Read On May 22, 2018, I watched the two-hour launch of “The Great American Read” documentary TV special hosted by Meredith Vieira. PBS had conducted a poll in which over 7,000 Americans named their most beloved novels.   In the two-hour premiere that aired in May, the top 100 best-loved novels were introduced by celebrities, authors, and other notable people urging the audience to vote for their favorite book on the list.   The books are not necessarily novels written by Americans, just novels Americans voted for. This is an eight-part series which will continue throughout the summer, with the winner of the best-loved novel that the public elects to be revealed in October. For more information visit their website https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/   1984 by George Orwell A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving A Separate Peace by John Knowles A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Be...