Li Ching-chao: Complete Poems

 Li Ching-chao: Complete Poems by Li Ching-chao, translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung, 118 pages.

Described as China's greatest woman poet, Li Ching-chao lived from 1084 until 1151 during the final years of the Sung Dynasty. 

The poems in this book are arranged in setions based thematically on youth, loneliness, exile, "his death," politics, mysticism, and old age. Natural beauty, a sense of loss, and melancholy run through all these peoms (maybe less so in the "Politics" section) One of my favorites: 

Written by Chance

 

Fifteen years ago, beneath moonlight and flowers, 

I walked with you 

We composed flower-viewing poems together. 

Tonight the moonlight and flowers are just the same. 

But how can I ever hold in my arms the same love.

Famed poet Kenneth Rexroth and poet and critic Ling Chung, who in 1972 had translated Orchid Boat: Women Poets of China, worked together to translate these poems

Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839-1865

Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839-1865 by

Ulysses S. Grant, edited by Mary Drake McFeely and William S. McFeely, 1199 pages.

By the second chapter of Grant's memoir, he has already headed off to West Point, so the account covers his early life in brief, and then his military career from his time at the military academy through the war with Mexico and then through the end of the Civil War, Grant has his favorites among his contemporaries, and their are those he is less fond of; his judgement of others seems imbued with a sense of fairness throughout and he makes a strong case for the Union point of view as he argues against the pro-Confederate bias among the historians of his time.

Chernow's recent biography of Grant adds interesting detail that is lacking here, though the letters found at the end of the book are illuminating. The story of how Mark Twain came to publish this work is missing here, but is found in the audio version of the memoirs. Important historically, and a great read.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 198 pages.

An epistolary romance that runs up and down the threads of time. (maybe it's not a "romance,"  I dunno, I throw this term around loosely).

Red works for Commandant and the Agency, and Blue, her adversary, is a part of Garden. Garden and the Agency are in an unending war that travels up and down the timestream. 

Both Red and Blue are lone operatives and among the best at what they do. Their adversarial relation begins to change as they begin an exchange of letters, missives, and messages in a variety of formats. They situations with their respective employers grow strained as they become increasingly interested in each other. An odd and enjoyable read. 

Winner of numerous awards.

Herding Cats: A "Sarah's Scribbles" Collection

Herding Cats: A "Sarah's Scribbles" Collection by Sarah Andersen, 108 pages.
This is the third book by Andersen in this series (I just learned this today, I knew that I had see the author's work before but I don't recognize either of the other books) about herself and her feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment about her everyday life.

A fun read. I will be checking out the other books fairly soon.