A CONTRY BOY QUITS SCHOOL
BY:LAO HSIANG
CHINA
SUMMARY: It is about a poor Chinese family which is forced to send its boy to school following an
official proclamation, ignoring which would mean a jail term. ... The boy is finally pulled out of the school.
LEARNING: If they will push you
to study. Do it for your future. Because education is the sword of life
SILK
ALESSANDRO
ITALY
SUMMARY: The story
of a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler in 19th century France traveling
to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their
African supply. ... He succeeds, makes fortune and is invited to travel again
to trade silkworm eggs in a longer journey to Japan.
LEARNING: Silk is a powerful and erotic tale that reveals how one's
man desire threatens to ruin his life. It is 1861 and Hervé Joncour is a silk breeder from
France who is happily married to the beautiful Helene.
MALINCHE
LAURA ESQUIVEL
MEXICO
SUMMARY: Laura Esquivel reimagines
the relationship between the Spaniard Hernán Cortés and the Indian woman
Malinalli, his interpreter and mistress during his conquest of the Aztecs. ...
Throughout Mexican history, Malinalli has been reviled for her betrayal of the
Indian people.
LEARNING: As humans, we are the best
creation of God for we are gifted with intellect, free will and most of all,
the ability of speaking to express ourselves.
SEVEN AGES OF MAN
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ENGLAND
SUMMARY: The speech compares
the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life,
sometimes referred to as the Seven Ages of Man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon and
old age, facing imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare's most
frequently-quoted passages.
LEARNING: "The Seven Ages of Man" from
"As You Like it" by William Shakespeare is very motivating, specially
about life, because it inspires you to give importance to life, it helps you to
understand the life more deeper, and it can help you to be you as a human being
living here in Earth and be an inspiration to others.
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUN
KHALLED HOSSEINI
AFGHANISTHAN
SUMMARY: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a gripping
tale of two young women, Mariam and Laila, and their difficult lives together,
married to the same husband, Rasheed. The women form a close bond during these
miserable circumstances, and come to care for each other deeply.
LEARNING: One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs. And the
thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY LIKE THE NIGHT
LORD BYRON
ENGLAND
SUMMARY: The poem is about
an unnamed woman. She's really quite
striking, and the speaker compares her to lots of beautiful, but dark, things, like "night" and
"starry skies." The second stanza continues to use the contrast between
light and dark, day and night, to describe her beauty.
LEARNING: Convey her beauty as a
harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light. After its discussion
of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as
representative of inner goodness and virtue.
THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT
AMY TAN
AMERICA
SUMMARY: The Valley of Amazement is a
beautiful story of separation, hope, and love between a mother and daughter.
... As a boy, Loyalty had visited the courtesan house in which Violet lived
with her mother. He was badly scratched by Violet's cat. Loyalty buys Violet's
virginity, and Violet fantasizes he'll marry her.
LEARNING
: This story
teaches us to be confident, love and accept ourselves of who we are. Many
persons will be ashamed and shy of how they look, move, speak, and etc. and are
insecure of their “unique” features. Because we are unique, we must be “who we are”
And also, loving and accepting ourselves first is the main priority before
others will love and accept you also.
CORALINE
NEIL GAIMAN
ENGLAND
SUMMARY: . I call it
"delightfully scary" becaus while it grips the reader's attention
with creepy happenings that may cause a case of the shivers, it is not the kind
of scary book that leads to nightmares of the "it could happen to me"
kind. The story revolves around the very strange experiences Coraline has when
she and her parents move into an apartment in an old house.
LEARNING: I liked this novel for the most part because it
was out of the ordinary. It's not like anything i've ever read and I really
appreciated that aspect. However, one thing that really bothered me was how
Coraline's family treated her.
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
WOLE SAYINKA
SOUTH AFRICA
SUMMARY: Telephone
Conversation" is a 1963 poem by the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that
satires racism. The poem describes a phone call between a landlady and the
speaker, who is black, about renting an apartment. ... You can read the full
text of “Telephone Conversation” here.
LEARNING: This poem shows us the
conversation of two people in a phone talking such a business deal on that
make ...
THE BOY NAMED CROW
HARUKI MURAKAMI
JAPAN
SUMMARY: The boy named crow. Kafka on the
Shore is structured around the alternating stories of Kafka Tamura, a
fifteen-year-old boy who runs away from home to escape an awful oedipal
prophecy, and Nakata, an aging and illiterate simpleton who has never
completely recovered from a wartime affliction.
LEARNING"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how
you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in
fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is for certain.
