Reviews

A Review of Paul Rouzer’s: A New Primer of Literary Chinese

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Paul Rouzer’s A New Primer of Literary Chinese is pretty much the best book of its class that I’ve seen. It covers literary Chinese for English speakers looking to learn in a self-contained package. The book does not build on any specific series and is completely standalone. By being standalone, it is suitable for pretty much any learning path. It also covers the Japanese Kanbun pronunciations as well as Korean Hanja pronunciations.… Read the rest

A Comparison of Introductory Zen Books

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Zen wasn’t the first thing to get me into meditation, but it was the most impactful. I have been on and off for following the habits I should, and while getting back into meditation after a long break, I read (and reread) a bunch of introductory Zen books to get back in the swing of things. Some I had read before, others were completely new to me.… Read the rest

Teach Yourself: Get Talking Thai vs. Conversational Thai in 7 Days

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Teach Yourself: Get Talking Thai in 10 Days and Conversational Thai in 7 Days are both quick and simple language guides for learning the fundamentals to get the most out of a vacation. Both works feature David Smyth as an author, but Conversational Thai in 7 Days also features Somsong Buasai as an author. Both of these works aim to fill roughly the same role, namely, basic language guides for usage during actual travel to Thai.… Read the rest

Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook – Yip Po-ching and Don Rimmington

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ReviewDisclaimer]

Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook by Yip Po-ching and Don Rimmington is one of the first serious grammar books I bought for learning Chinese. I have been rereading through it since a few people have asked me about suggested grammar books for learning Mandarin and I wanted to see if it was like I remembered. Overall, for an intermediate-beginner or higher, this book is a solid home run.… Read the rest

Queen Victoria’s Alice in Wonderland – The Continental Historical Society

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Alice Crowned

Introduction:

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or more colloquially Alice in Wonderland, is a book attributed to Lewis Carroll which was the pen name for Charles Dodgson. Queen Victoria’s Alice in Wonderland looks to challenge the authorship of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and attributes it to Queen Victoria as a cryptic autobiography. This book is a complete roller coaster in the best way and the evidence presented is decently compelling, though I would argue it isn’t definitive.… Read the rest