In summer 2024, I participated in a sea kayaking course with friends organized by the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine. The week-long trip included challenging paddles, such as a ten-mile trek to return an instructor to the hospital and a twelve-mile journey. Highlights included a whale sighting, paddling through seal territory, and a reflective SOLO session. Despite the physical and mental demands, the camaraderie and shared experiences made it unforgettable.
Dragon Hoops
Nerdy Asian math teacher and graphic novelist decides to follow his school’s basketball team around to learn about the ins and outs of teenagers from diverse backgrounds striving on the same team to achieve state championship.
The Outsiders
The book that inspired a hit movie that produced many future stars. The themes of friendship, growth, and betrayal seem as eternal as ever.
Three books I read recently and why I liked them
What I wrote on a high school application essay asking about the books I read recently. Actually I’m still reading only of them… but they are all super good!
Life as We Knew It
Asteroid knocks the moon out of orbit and the natural disasters that follow forces everyone to stay at home. Even though it was published before the COVID pandemic, the psychological effect remain eerily familiar.
How Lucky
What does it mean to be lucky, or unlucky? When you are struck with a progressive medical illness that confines you to a wheelchair, where do you look for friendships and how do you prepare for what the friendship might bring?
Coo
Can you imagine being raised by animals? Like Tarzan who was raised by apes or Mowgli in the Jungle Book who was raised by wolves… what if you are raised by pigeons, not in the jungle but atop a busy city?
Akira Book 1
Akira is the quintessential manga masterpiece. The book that inspired generations of youth and introduced the genre of graphic novel to the world.
Six Wives of Henry VIII
Perhaps the most fascinating and frequently dramatized marriages of Western history. Six women, six personalities, six stories. What about them that grapples us?
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Are you ever curious about the people you’ve read about in history textbooks and wonder what they were like in real life? What happened to them after they did what they were famous for? This is the book to read to learn about the human side of heroes and may change your impression of many of them.
