Book Review: Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.

Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

As an adapted version of Wild Swans finally reaches the London stage, the book itself, which has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, is still banned in China.

Red Sister, Ching Ling married Sun Yat Sen, considered the ‘father’ of the Chinese republic; Little Sister May Ling became the first lady of pre-Communist China, while Big Sister, Ei Ling became a political advisor – each had a lasting effect on Chinese politics. 

“It goes without saying that this book is going to be banned. A lot of Chinese publishers thought my first book, the Empress Dowager, may not be banned because she’s a historical figure and died in 1908, she’s harmless to the party.

She said that publishers had contacted her and asked her permission to market the book in China. “Then they went back and asked their bosses and they all invariably said no. So it’s going to be banned too.”

“It’s me that is being banned because if the book does well, and by association my other books do well, particularly the biography of Mao, it will make people interested.”

BOOK: Lord Of The Rings

 

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose

REVIEW: Finally after 10 years I have finished the Lord Of The Rings books and they are great with outstanding characters and a passion for story telling.

At time's a tad confusing with so many characters but generally a fantastic journey all round.

My heart and love will forever belong to Samwise Gamgee, the ever faithful best friend and travel companion.

(Now I am just sat here crying while listening to the sound track)

#lordoftherings #bilbobaggins #frodobaggins #samwisethebrave #elves #dwarfs #kingsandqueens #bagend #theshire #rivendale #thegreatadventure #fellowshipofthering #returnoftheking #thehobbit #merrybrandybuck #pippin #peterjackson #reading #endofera #books #gandalf 

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

In the third volume of The Lord of the Rings trilogy the good and evil forces join battle, and we see that the triumph of good is not absolute. The Third Age of Middle-earth ends, and the age of the dominion of Men begins.

Review: Nair Hair Removal Face Cream

 

First of all your going to get my rant! I am fucking fuming. My face is on fire, it is red, blotchy and swollen. So I put this product on my face for the duration of a song that was just under 3 minutes my face is burned, hot and hurting also very sensitive.

When I was wiping it off it felt like a you where scraping sand over something and it was painful so I kept dabbing a very cold flannel on my face which made it feel better but it was too late my face had been burned and I slavered Aloe Vera on it every four hours.

 It will be a few days before it calms down, it doesn't look like any long lasting damage will be done but I will never use this product ever again.

*It took 1 week for my face too stop burning, i was putting aloe vera on 3 times a day and washing with cold water*

 

LGBTQ Book Recommendations Part 2

 In Love Stories, Jonathan Ned Katz presents stories of men's intimacies with men during the nineteenth century—including those of Abraham Lincoln—drawing flesh-and-blood portraits of intimate friendships and the ways in which men struggled to name, define, and defend their sexual feelings for one another. In a world before "gay" and "straight" referred to sexuality, men like Walt Whitman and John Addington Symonds created new ways to name and conceive of their erotic relationships with other men. Katz, diving into history through diaries, letters, newspapers, and poems, offers us a clearer picture than ever before of how men navigated the uncharted territory of male-male desire.

28th April 1870. Fanny and Stella, the flamboyantly dressed Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton, are causing a stir in the Strand Theatre. All eyes are riveted upon their lascivious ogling's of the gentlemen in the stalls. Moments later they are led away by the police. What followed was a scandal that shocked and titillated Victorian England in equal measure.

It turned out that the alluring Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton were no ordinary young women. Far from it. In fact, 'Boulton and Park' were young men who liked to dress as women. When the Metropolitan Police launched a secret campaign to bring about their downfall, they were arrested and subjected to a sensational show trial in Westminster Hall.

As the trial of 'the Young Men in Women's Clothes' unfolded, Fanny and Stella's extraordinary lives as wives and daughters, actresses and whores were revealed to an incredulous public.

With a cast of peers, politicians and prostitutes, drag queens, doctors and detectives, Fanny and Stella is a Victorian peepshow, exposing the startling underbelly of nineteenth-century London. By turns tragic and comic, meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, Fanny and Stella is an enthralling tour-de-force. 

LGBTQ Book's Recommendations Part 1

From drag queens and discos, to black holes and monsters, these stories and poems wrestle with love and loneliness and the fight to be seen. By turns serious and fantastical, hilarious and confrontational, We Were Always Here addresses the fears, mysteries, wonders and variety of experience that binds our community together.

We Were Always Here is a snapshot of current LGBTI+ writing and a showcase of queer talent.

Contributors: Alice Tarbuck, Andrés Ordorica, April Hill, AR Crow, Bibi June, BD Owens, Callum Harper, Christina Neuwirth, Ciara Maguire, Elaine Gallagher, Elva Hills, Eris Young, Etzali Hernández, Felicity Anderson-Nathan, Freddie Alexander, Garry Mac, Gray Crosbie, Harry Josephine Giles, Heather Parry, Heather Valentine, Jack Bigglestone, Jane Flett, Jay G Ying, Jay Whittaker, Jonathan Bay, Jo Clifford, Kirsty Logan, Laura Waddell, Lori England, MJ Brocklebank, Rachel Plummer, Ross Jamieson, Sandra Alland, Shane Strachan, Zoe Storrie. 

Written 12 years before Teleny by Saul, this account of Victorian cross-dressing and rent-boys is a legend all its own. Based on the true story of a male brothel in Cleveland Street (later shut down).
Subtitled: "The Recollections of a Mary-Ann", the "Cities of the Plain" are of course Sodom and Gomorrah.
One of the first exclusively homosexual works of pornographic literature published in English. It has been suggested that it was largely written by James Campbell Reddie and the painter Simeon Solomon, who had been convicted of public indecency in 1873 and disgraced.

Happy Pride 2021 - Books

        Hello to all you beautiful LGBTQ people around the world.

I hope you are all having a happy and safe pride so far, over the next couple of days I will be posting queer books I have read/ currently reading and recommendations, just because I can. #HappyPride2021

Outlaw Marriages by Rodger Streitmatter

For more than a century before gay marriage became a hot-button political issue, same-sex unions flourished in America. Pairs of men and pairs of women joined together in committed unions, standing by each other “for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” for periods of thirty or forty—sometimes as many as fifty—years. In short, they loved and supported each other every bit as much as any husband and wife.

In Outlaw Marriages, cultural historian Rodger Streitmatter reveals how some of these unions didn’t merely improve the quality of life for the two people involved but also enriched the American culture.

Red Azalea by Anchee Min

Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, she was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labour collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame Mao’s political operas, Min’s life changed overnight. Then Chairman Mao suddenly died, taking with him an entire world. A revelatory and disturbing portrait of China.