Passages from 

The Tale of Genji (潤一郎訳源氏物語)

It was a long novel full of different love stories. I found it as a Japanese version of "One Thousand and One Nights", which is not my favorite kind of books. Even though I didn't finish the whole book, I still can say it was a nice and different experience. Here are some passages I loved:

"We vowed that we would go together down the road we all must go. You must not leave me behind."

She looked sadly up at him. "if I had suspected that it would be so--" She was gasping for breath. 

"I leave you, to go the road we all must go. The road I would choose, if only I could, is the other."

__________________________________________________

"The autumn night is too short to contain my tears...

The Good Women of China

Hidden voices 

by Xinran 

Here is another book I read recently,  and I really enjoyed it, not in a funny way at all, but I've learned from each story a new lesson. I believe that if a book don't teach you something new, then it is not worthy. This book deserved the time I had to steal from my busy days (busy with studies). Sometimes I was reading while I wait the bus, then I continue reading in the bus, which caused me troubles when I miss my stop. Other times I was reading it while I was eating my breakfast or lunch. And of course, whenever  had troubles sleeping, I would just grab it and forget my pain by living other women' sorrow. The most important lesson I got from these stories, is that time cannot really heal broken hearts not lost souls. Some wounds are meant to remain open and painful, forever.

In the following I reviewed briefly each story in the book, so everyone can have an idea if the book is interesting for him/her.

1. My Journey Towards the Stories of Chinese Women :

"What was a woman's life worth in China?" I can say this was the main purpose behind writing this book. 

2. The Girl Who Kept a Fly as a Pet:

" I used to dream that my pain could be cleared away somehow,  but can I clear away my life? Can I clear away my past and my future?"

That was really a very touching story. A little girl who suffered from her father sexual abuse and her mother giving up on her by accepting the abuse, decided to commit suicide while she was already sick in the hospital using her favorite animal friends:'flies'. It wasn't an easy story to read when I knew the facts are real. How can any father do this to his daughter? How can any mother scarify his own girl to keep a family? What kind of family did she really kept? What did they feel after losing their daughter? How happy was she when she was dying?

3. The University Student: