Laura Santamar Santamar itibaren Ganakadova, Odisha, Индија itibaren Ganakadova, Odisha, Индија

Originally written as a series of articles for The Atlantic Monthly, 'Postcards' offers snippets of modern Chinese life intended to provide the reader with a glimpse of the diversity of challenges and triumphs that the nation faces. Fallows does an excellent job of bringing the reader along on his journey into China. It's not a single smooth, seamless journey, but rather a series of excursions into different aspects of China, from the tale of a successful entrepreneur to the often dangerous factories that drive the export-based economy, from the subtle danger that the 'Great Firewall of China' poses despite being easily bypassed to signs of hope amid the rampant pollution that plagues China. Fallows shows us sides of China that we don't often see presented in the mainstream media. Well worth the read for anyone interested in China.

I first read this book shortly after it came out in 2005, but I felt like it merited a re-read, as I had enjoyed it the first time around, and a movie adaptation is coming out shortly. It's hard for me to find myself on the side of a cheater. I think cheating is hurtful, disrespectful, selfish and degrading. But to be fair, this book is less about the act of cheating than about the nuances of relationship and betrayal. I am firmly on the side of Rachel, not just because she's the narrator, or because she has the most awesome name in the world, but because I've been there. I've felt like the less-pretty friend, the one who gets walked all over and under-appreciated. The one who doesn't get thought of first and has found herself single at the age of 30. By the way, I have to digress here. Is there really something that horrible about being 30 and single? That is what Darcy preaches the whole book, and what Rachel claims not to believe, but in the end, when she says she wasn't actually happy until she had her man, what is she really telling all of us singletons out here? Don't worry if you're a miserable single person, because one day, you'll find the right guy/girl/alien and then you'll find your true happiness, which can only come when you are in love. Well, I don't buy that. Would my life be better if I had a boyfriend/husband/live-in-housekeeper to share it with? Maybe, but to be honest, I don't really know, or care that I don't know. I'm happy being single (even though I'm -GASP- 30), because at this point in my life, I treasure my independence, that I can make life decisions without taking someone else's opinion into equal consideration. That might change one day, if I meet the right person, but I'm not hanging all my hopes of current and future happiness on it. Now that I have that out of my system, back to the book. Yes, I wanted Rachel to end up with Dex. Yes, I wanted Darcy publicly shamed, not only for treating Rachel like an underling for so many years, but for treating everything like a game she had to win, including the trophy of Dex. Rachel and Dex belong together, and it is really a shame that they didn't figure it out sooner, and save everyone involved a world of heartbreak, but in the end, I think their relationship is stronger for it. The saddest part of this story is the broken friendship between Rachel and Darcy, but to be honest, it wasn't the cheating of one summer that broke that friendship, it was the years and years of strain and competition.