48 Hour Book Challenge Half Way

As the half-way mark slid by in the 48 Hour Book Challenge, I have managed to read for 8 hours.

Saturday morning I finished The Iron Butterfly: Memoir of a Martial Arts Master by Choon-Ok Harmon with Ana Maria Rodriguez.  This unique memoir is by a woman who, against great odds, became a master of the Korean martial art, Kuk Sool Won. Born during the economic turmoil of post-war Korea, Choon-Ok survived an impoverished childhood where her family had to scrounge for food to have one meager meal per day. She was not allowed to attend school because her family had no money to pay the fees. When her family moved to the city, she wanted to study martial arts. She had an opportunity to learn when her sister married Chief Master of a school. Eventually she came to the United States via an arranged marriage to an American who studied the same form of martial arts. Yes, the two of them corresponded by mail and had only met once before they were married!

Interesting contrast to the book MotherReader read, Bitter Melon. Hope Iron Butterfly doesn’t get lost in the whole Tiger Mother thing.

I read aloud to my son from Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, (selecting leaving a few of the “juicier” parts out).

Saturday afternoon, I plowed through Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. This books is assigned summer reading for our local high school’s honors freshman English class. I’m still processing it.

Then last night, my son and I read a book about cacti for an upcoming science club meeting.

I was thinking that writing might be more cathartic than reading, but sometimes there’s nothing like getting caught up in a good book. What do you think?

Iron Butterfly
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Pelican Publishing (February 8, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781589808904
ISBN-13: 978-1589808904

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Warner Books (April 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446675369
ASIN: B000LP674W