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This 75-year-old author is a specialist in neurology, a breast cancer survivor, has undergone surgeries for cataracts, a bulging disc, and a dislocated vertebra, and has consciously chosen to never marry. In this personable and approachable book, this unique woman helps dispel readers’ fears, teaching them the principles of happiness for the final stage of life’s journey, even when the road ahead is rough going.

 

Eschewing technical jargon and confusing explanations, the book is an easy read, even for seniors who might already be wondering if they are slowing down mentally. The author approaches things in a step-by-step fashion. Her suggestions are intended to have low barrier-to-entry, and don’t require any financial resources to follow. In fact, most of her advice revolves around principles for healthy living that we can follow at any age. If you’re caring for an aging parent, consider reading this book together, and encouraging each other to put these principles into practice.

 

As the author suggests, being too hard on ourselves won’t accomplish anything. Just as we all must one day face death, so must we all face aging. And even if the process cannot always be graceful, if we can live happily with aging, we will have done enough.

 

With her professional training and experience, the author is able to mix parenting theory with hand-picked examples to help parents penetrate the confusion around adolescent speech and behavior, pinpoint the underlying emotional issues behind problem behaviors, and better empathize with the needs and circumstances of their children.

 

The book is packed with clear, practical advice. When confronted with falling grades (a common concern of Asian parents), the author advises first understanding the child’s internal motivations, and then helping them identify small steps that can be taken to improve. When dealing with direct challenges from children, the author recommends first looking at the origin of the behavior, and the influence of their environment. How can stressed and busy parents learn to better empathize with their adolescent children? Don’t immediately contradict your child’s opinions, nor act as if ideal behavior should be taken for granted. Even these small steps can begin to have a positive impact on the relationship.

 

More than just an instruction manual for parenting adolescent children, this is a personal growth book that encourages parents to develop their own self-awareness. Parents must engage in sincere self-reflection before they can effectively deal with the rebellion, anxiety, and emotions coming out of their adolescent children. Only then can they properly support and love their children through this stormy transition into the independence of adulthood.

 

In this book, a third-generation victim of the White Terror traces her family history back through this traumatic period. In 2008, the author stumbled across a reference to her grandfather’s final letter in the national archives, sparking an inquiry into her family’s collective memory, and a quest to have the letter finally returned to her family.

Starting from her personal experiences growing up, she begins to uncover the shadows cast over her family by her maternal grandfather, who was disappeared during the White Terror. Through this challenging process, the author helps to restore this period of cruel devaluation of human life to the historical record, while also easing the longstanding tensions between herself and her mother, and addressing the subtle subject of intergenerational trauma. Challenging routine accounts of the White Terror, the book vividly expands our understanding of history by introducing the possibility for collective healing.

This diary of a medical anthropologist and her mother’s simultaneous illnesses is far more than a daily record of suffering; it is a demonstration of the way disease can become the central axis of life, determining the rhythm and texture of the passing days. Interweaving rational analysis and shifting currents of emotion, the book forms a powerfully persuasive whole. Much of the credit for this goes to author Liu Shao-Hua’s dual status as both a scholar and sufferer of illness.

 

As the manifestations and negative impacts of disease pour in with the regularity of a news broadcast, the author repeatedly affirms the importance of love and companionship during this time of hardship. In addition to the preparations for treatment, the mental process of coming to grips with serious illness, and intimate portraits of family life, the book also gives a sincere account of the author’s life philosophy on cohabiting with disease. Far more than a reconciliation with the past, this wisdom points us to new ways of dealing with present and future struggles of life.

 

Author Wei Ming-Yi is a counseling psychologist and social work supervisor with decades of experience serving on the front lines of mental health and shuttling between various decision-making bodies in the public sector. This has granted her in-depth knowledge of both the on-the-ground realities of psychological suffering, and the institutional processes used to combat it. The stories she tells in this book are mostly vignettes composed of brief snapshots, free of melodrama and heart-wrenching displays of tears and anguish. Instead, the emotional climaxes occupy but a moment, leaving readers space to contemplate their meaning. The author’s flowing prose is a display of technical prowess, approaching the emotional depths of its subject with steady-handed discretion. Readers will have the sense of treading a well-graveled road, assessing the terrain with every step, ruminating on every word.

 

“How can it be like this? What should we do?” From start to finish, these questions will continually circle in the sensitive reader’s mind, and the author is reluctant to provide easy answers. Suffering is not resolved via dichotomies; there is no black and white here. Even less distinct are the bounds of the authority to intervene in the lives of others. What is given to readers is a larger space for contemplation. They are brought closer to the heart of the problem, without issuing any judgement, and the pleasure of reading this book is the appreciation of the freedom that this provides.

 

The author’s perceptiveness is like a thin blade, cutting its sustained and silent course through questions of life and death, suffering and decline, before slowly being ground down to a soft gleam by Buddhist wisdom and philosophy. Like a stone polished smooth in the river’s current, macrocosm and microcosm unfold side by side, the grand scale of universal time flowing through a blade of grass touched by morning dew.

 

When addressing what is abnormal in his mother’s condition, the author writes with such depth and precision that he transcends any conventional standard of human behavior, leaving us with no objects on which to depend, no words sufficient to further decode what has already been put down. Yes, the human bodies in this text carry disease and madness, but they also seem to have left behind any association with the entanglements of speech in this mundane world.

 

I wonder how many Buddhist Sutras the author has perhaps recited, or copied out, gentle and fragile as poetry? And, what might be his purpose in writing such a book? Asking questions within questions, seeking the suffering within suffering, he draws himself closer to his own inner truth, even if only to catch a glimpse of the painful answers that lie hidden there.

 

Fieldoffice is the life story of an architectural firm committed to the continuous exploration of the needs of people, and the relationship between people and the environment. Through their works, they have successfully realized the ideals of blending architecture with the environment, and of creating a symbiosis between buildings and people. Based in Yilan, Taiwan, Fieldoffice Architects holds a special place in the history of Taiwan architecture. Through a range of personal perspectives, this book records the life and work philosophy of this unique firm.

 

The presence of Yilan’s ocean, rivers, natural scenery, and the local populace is constantly felt as various Fieldoffice employees walk readers through their architectural process. One might even say this is a book that uses the medium of architecture to spark a revolution. Most of the ideas presented within these pages are clearly revolutionary in nature. The communal living spaces, unique lifestyles, and the vision behind each work of architecture are each intended to bring about radical forms of behavioral and conceptual change.

 

With lucid prose and images, “city sleuth” Peter Lee conveys his experiences in the field, guiding readers on a meandering journey into the depths of the everyday, and revealing some of the most unique architecture, public art, and public transportation infrastructure of Taiwan.

Lee is never short of favorite sights to share, nor of personal interpretations of their significance. Take, for example, the Jingliao Holy Cross Church near Tainan, which took its inspiration from the temporary thatched huts erected by local farmers, or the old wooden houses in Chiayi that are being repurposed for new uses. Another example: the alternative utopia built by photographer Chen Min-Chia deep in the mountains of the northern coast, a simple cabin he calls “a working man’s place of repose”. Lee’s case studies blend the aesthetic observations of an architect with the atmosphere evoked by the site, demonstrating that architecture is a response to society, and revealing the intimate relationship between cities and the periods through which they evolve.

The charm of this book lies in the author’s keen sense of narrative, and eye for telling detail. From the technical skills of the chefs to the selection of raw ingredients, the preparation methods of oo-pe̍h-tshiat in all its variety are described in exhaustive detail. Even rarities such as stuffed pork lung receive a nod. The scope of the discussion extends to the history of local culinary cultures from across Taiwan, paying special attention to the life stories of the bearers of this culinary tradition, which, compiled together, form a heck of a mouth-watering read. As readers savor these literary delights, they will have opportunity to observe the associated social and cultural backdrop, in which food culture is seen to connect to everything from social structure, to economics, to the manifestation of local culture.

 

While dining on this feast of a book, readers will discover links between the individual, the food they consume, and lived aspects of contemporary society. It is a rewarding read that will awaken readers to the importance of preserving and passing on their local food culture.