Chinese Cinderella is a nonfiction novel by Adeline Yen Mah, about her childhood during World War 2. It describes her struggles with being blamed for her mothers death and living with a stepmother, that swares Adeline is trouble. You could say that this is the chinese Cinderella story because Adeline was excluded from her family, especially by her evil stepmother. Adeline feeds off of the pressure from her family, to create wonderful pieces of literature. After changing from boarding school to boarding school, she wins an award for play-writing. Even though her father asks what Adeline wants to major in, while in college, he still goes against her wish for literature, and states that he wants her to study medicine. Through the beginning of the novel Adeline gets a pet chick, it becomes her dearest friend, someone she could talk to about anything. one day after dinner, the family dog attacks Pete, the chick, and soon dies after. this forces some anger to rise in Adeline, because it was the only thing in life that she felt was dear to her. i would relate this book to the American conderella story, because it tells about a girl that uses her troubles to her atvantage to create something wonderful.

-- a topical antibactirial agent used for cuts and scrapes
-- book sentence: she wiped away the blood, washed my wrist, and dressed the wounnd with mercurochrome, cotton and a bandage.
--my sentence: after i fell of the swing fixed the scratches with some mercurochrome and band-aids

Without reading Adeline Yen Mah’s novel, Chinese Cinderella, I can infer that it is basically the Chinese Cinderella story. The cover depicts a little girl that looks very lonely and the passage next to the photo says “the true story of on unwanted daughter”, it also has, what I am assuming, is the title in Chinese. There is no photo of the author, although I am thinking that the little on the front cover is Mah. As for the biography, there is an Author’s note and Postscript. These tell about the language, customs and what it was like in china at the time of her own living there. The Preface is very interesting, as it teaches you why and what the names in the book are. For example, big sister, second sister, ect. It also teaches you how to count in Chinese, which is included in the Table of Contents.

The novel starts with the narrator asking about her dead mother, and her grandmother blowing her off and avoiding the subject. It then explains the family tree and who she lives with, it also tells of how her siblings blame the narrator for their mother’s death, because mama died giving birth to Mah. The story also implies that women were still treated badly because Mai Nai has bounded feet, when a woman has bounded feet it is a sign of ownership and sometimes a sign of “beauty”

here i am all sad lonely

thinking my life is meloncholy

i need some lust

i need some love

some love to find,

i must, i must



here i stand before you now

standing tall and proud, but how

can i love this dazzling

genesis of mine,

but i do, i do

love this genesis of mine



with our love and hope

then maybe we can cope

with the parting of our love

while i find a wife

with flesh not stone

my dearest dove

The story of "Sundiata" is very similar to the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt. Rick has never been able to walk, due to ceberal palsy. His father devoted his life to his son and competes in triathalons while pushing and pulling Rick along. Together "team hoyt" has crossed atleast 1,000 finish lines. in "Sundiata", he is unable to walk throughout his childhood, but is still able to suceed as a pwoerful leader.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/father-and-son-across-1000-finish-lines/

What do you want out of college?
A review of 10 Things Your Employers Want You to Learn in College by Bill Coplin

       College.  Not just a place to learn, but to explore. If you get nothing out of college but a degree, please become ADEPT in these 10 skills: work ethic, physical performance, speaking, writing, teamwork, influencing people, research, number crunching, critical thinking, and problem solving. Mastering these skills will put you farther up on the list to get a job.  Not to be generic, but this book is about important things to do while in college, not only to master at your major and minor, but to become very well rounded. Being well rounded makes you a more likable person, because it shows that you enjoy change and different things.

       My definition of success is achieving a goal you may have, whether it is good grades in school, or becoming famous. Bill Coplin says, “learning to defer gratification is part of growing up, and growing up means motivating yourself to get what you want” (Coplin, 10). Coplin is very correct in this quote, it is important to know what gratification is and to know how to receive it. In life, I would like to go to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and become a photographer, preferably famousJ. Money is a big obstacle, photo equipment would put a HUGE dent in the money I have. The novel helped me learn that I don’t just have to take required classes. For example, even if I don’t major in dance, I can still take a dance class to add a little PANACHE to my college life.

       The book is structured like a textbook. It will say a skill and quote, then information pertaining to the quote, then things to do within your courses and out of them. The author describes college as “… a place to learn how to determine the accuracy of information, and now perceptions and values bias much of the information you receive” (Coplin, 94) this quotes tells how about 2/3’s of what you learn in college are not needed in everyday life, and it’s important to tell what is needed to know and what is not. The topic for each chapter is a different skill. The first 10 chapters, of course, are about the ten skills I stated in the first paragraph. I would say the writing was effective and powerful. It attempts to motivate you into succeeding at what you want to do and preparing to succeed while in college. In the book 10 Things Your Employers Want You to Learn in, I learned the importance of being self motivating and deciphering important things from unimportant ones.

       I would recommend this book to college students, and maybe even high school students if the thing ahead. Readers should care about reading this book because it teaches the importance of being able to succeed easily. The “textbook”, describes the 10 things as good points. When your employer sees you have that, the light bulb and thumbs up go off in his head.