Based on a true story, Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans gives a softer view of a very true hardship the people of North Korea face. When a village in South Korea decides to secretly send balloons filled with rice to feed the hungry people of North Korea, they are faced with many obstacles: the other villagers do not want to give aide to the enemy. The North Korean soldiers could see the balloons and shoot them down. They do not […]
Repeating history?
I have many thoughts about this book but as always, here’s the situation that led to me reading it. This Kind of War is another book from the Army Chief of Staff’s reading list. It has also been recommended by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis as a must-read. Secretary Mattis is known, colloquially, as the Warrior Monk due to his dedication to his craft and his knowledge and understanding of making war. He is known to be a voracious reader and believes that all leaders […]
A buzzing sound began in my brain
This book came to me by way of Amazon Prime’s First Reads program, so it was free, which was the correct price for it. I did keep wanting to love it, but fundamentally I hated it. Here is what it had going for it: it was a very fast read. A Small Revolution is the story of a young Korean-American woman – our narrator, Yoona – who does a program in the summer between high school and college that brings Korean-Americans to South Korea for […]
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
Without You, There is No Us ranks right up there with the scariest books I’ve ever read. Suki Kim, a South Korean-American journalist, takes a job at a university in North Korea. The school is run by Christian missionaries hoping to crack into the “evangelical Christian Holy Grail. . .converting [North Korean] people would guarantee the missionaries a spot in heaven.” Suki’s not actually a missionary–she’s there to write an expose on North Korean culture. The result is Without You, There is No Us, a […]