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Last Boat Out of Shanghai
- The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
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A Brief History of China
- Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
- Written by: Jonathan Clements
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society - from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings listeners through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
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Excellent introduction to to Chinese history
- By Andrew on 2023-09-08
Written by: Jonathan Clements
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A War Like No Other
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Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, and details their employment of the full scope of conventional and non-conventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture, and terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles and Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, and thinkers including Sophocles and Plato.
Written by: Victor Davis Hanson
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The Mole People
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Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels that form the bowels of New York City. This audiobook is about them, the so-called mole people, living alone and in communities, in subway tunnels, and below subway platforms. It is about how and why people move underground, who they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the "topside" world they've left behind.
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A Brief History of Japan
- Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun
- Written by: Jonathan Clements
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- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
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With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present, and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.
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History need not be dry.
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Written by: Jonathan Clements
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I Am a Cat
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- Narrated by: David Shih
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Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
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I Am a Cat
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Written by: Soseki Natsume, and others
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Fury
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
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A Brief History of China
- Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
- Written by: Jonathan Clements
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In his retelling of a Chinese history stretching back 5,000 years, author and China-expert Jonathan Clements focuses on the human stories which led to the powerful transformations in Chinese society - from the unification of China under its first emperor, Qinshi Huangdi, to the Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan and the consolidation of Communist rule under Mao Zedong. Clements even brings listeners through to the present day, outlining China's economic renaissance under Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
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Excellent introduction to to Chinese history
- By Andrew on 2023-09-08
Written by: Jonathan Clements
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A War Like No Other
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- Written by: Victor Davis Hanson
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- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, and details their employment of the full scope of conventional and non-conventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture, and terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles and Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, and thinkers including Sophocles and Plato.
Written by: Victor Davis Hanson
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The Mole People
- Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City
- Written by: Jennifer Toth
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- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
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Overall
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Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels that form the bowels of New York City. This audiobook is about them, the so-called mole people, living alone and in communities, in subway tunnels, and below subway platforms. It is about how and why people move underground, who they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the "topside" world they've left behind.
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A Brief History of Japan
- Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun
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- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
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With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present, and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.
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History need not be dry.
- By Amazon Customer on 2020-04-03
Written by: Jonathan Clements
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I Am a Cat
- Written by: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
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Overall
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Story
Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
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I Am a Cat
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Written by: Soseki Natsume, and others
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Fury
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The world renowned author of The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie is a Whitbread Award winner and recipient of the Booker Prize. His first truly American novel, Fury is a metaphorically rich black comedy that reflects the pressure-cooker of modern life. Malik Solanka, irascible doll-maker and retired historian of ideas, suffers the pain of wanting without knowing exactly what it is he wants.
Written by: Salman Rushdie
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Mediocre
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Through the last 150 years of American history—from the post-reconstruction South and the mythic stories of cowboys in the West, to the present-day controversy over NFL protests and the backlash against the rise of women in politics—Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves. Mediocre investigates the real costs of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism.
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Brilliant!
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Written by: Ijeoma Oluo
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A Sorrow in Our Heart
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A biography of the famous Shawnee describes Tecumseh's plan to amalgamate all North American tribes into one people, his role as statesman and military strategist, and his death in the Battle of Thames.
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The Nazi Hunters
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In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
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all new to me
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The Black Swan of Paris
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Celebrated singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, the chanteuse’s position of privilege allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance. When her estranged mother, Lillian de Rocheford, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve knows it won’t be long before the Gestapo succeeds in torturing information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary - including assassination.
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A Great story
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Rivers of Power
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Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of human civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power, and can capriciously destroy everything in their path. Even today, rivers remain a powerful global force - one that is more critical than ever to our future. In Rivers of Power, geographer Laurence C. Smith explores the timeless yet underappreciated relationship between rivers and civilization as we know it.
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The Shadow of Vesuvius
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When Pliny the Elder perished at Stabiae during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his 37-volume Natural History, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father. Grieving his loss, Pliny the Younger inherited the Elder's notebooks - filled with pearls of wisdom - and his legacy. At its heart, The Shadow of Vesuvius is a literary biography of the younger man, who would grow up to become a lawyer, senator, poet, collector of villas, and chronicler of the Roman Empire.
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The Expendables
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From the number one best-selling author of Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, a provocative, far-reaching account of how the middle class got stuck with the bill for globalization, and how the blowback - from Brexit to Trump to populist Europe - will change the developed world.
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Pro Trump, pro Putin, pro populism
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Babylon
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Civilization was born 8,000 years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place. In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period.
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A good introduction to the history of Mesopotamia
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Villette
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Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
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Villett
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A Short History of Russia
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Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders. In A Short History of Russia, Mark Galeotti explores the history of this fascinating, glorious, desperate, and exasperating country.
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Encompassing yet succinct
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In sixth-century Constantinople, one woman, Theodora, defied every convention and all the odds and rose from common theater tart to empress of a great kingdom - the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know. The woman whose image was later immortalized in glittering mosaic was a scrappy, clever, conniving, flesh-and-blood woman full of sensuality and spirit whose real story is as surprising as any ever told....
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wild exaggerations exhausting
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The Pianist from Syria
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An astonishing but true account of a pianist’s escape from war-torn Syria to Germany offers a deeply personal perspective on the most devastating refugee crisis of this century.
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Informative and Engaging
- By Tinitree on 2022-03-27
Written by: Aeham Ahmad, and others
Publisher's Summary
The dramatic real-life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist revolution.
Shanghai has historically been China's jewel; its richest, most modern, and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao's proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction.
Benny, who as a teenager became the unwilling heir to his father's dark wartime legacy, must decide either to escape to Hong Kong or navigate the intricacies of a newly Communist China. The resolute Annuo, forced to flee her home with her father, a defeated Nationalist official, becomes an unwelcome exile in Taiwan. The financially strapped Ho fights deportation from the US in order to continue his studies while his family struggles at home. And Bing, given away by her poor parents, faces the prospect of a new life among strangers in America. The lives of these men and women are marvelously portrayed, revealing the dignity and triumph of personal survival.
What the critics say
“The dramatic story of four young people who were among the thousands fleeing China after 1949's Communist revolution. Eye-opening.” (People)
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What listeners say about Last Boat Out of Shanghai
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Carl E. Teichrib
- 2022-12-13
History not to be lost or forgotten
compelling. A must on any reading list. an almost forgotten history that bears hearing
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- J Rutherford
- 2022-10-16
I learned so much...
listening to this important history that I had never heard before. It was 100% worth my time.
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- Gayle Huo
- 2021-07-18
Excellent
Very informative historical view of China at that time. Educational. Painted the tragedy of the times which even reaches to today.
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- Cooper
- 2021-05-04
Must Read
While I thought it wasn’t forceful enough it’s condemnation of communist China, it is the lived experience and life story of four amazing individuals.
The book was compelling from start to finish and should be read by every western reader to better understand a time in history that should never be forgotten.
You won’t regret picking it up.
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- Helpful Buyer
- 2019-07-02
Great book, poor performance
The book itself is an engaging read and I highly recommend it! Unfortunately, the audio performance falls short. Some sections have obviously been re-recorded, and the quality during those sections is incredibly poor - the voice is distorted and there is a lot of background noise. If the stories weren’t so great, this alone would have stopped me from finishing the book!
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11 people found this helpful
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- David L. Jones
- 2019-07-01
Incredibly enlightening!!
Outstanding book!! I didn’t want it to end
As the husband of a Shanghai woman who spent 7 years in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, I particularly appreciated learning more about this time in history.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Bob
- 2019-06-01
a story all Americans should read
WIth the many problems we have in USA today. We are still blessed to have a free press and many people who still care about truth, character and caring about your neighbor.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Samantha Erwin
- 2020-07-08
Very interesting!
It was incredibly interesting, including because these people had such different life experiences. I've lived in Shanghai for a short while, but I never completely understood why the rest of Mainland China had certain stereotypes about Shanghainese. This book emphasized that point very well and drew out a lot of detail. This detail paints an accurate picture of those who were just trying to get by. I love all the people in this book for different reasons. The narrator did a wonderful job as well, her voice was nice and calming. Although, there are a few parts which were edited in afterwards. Oh well! No big deal.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Lovina M. Query
- 2020-06-25
WONDERFUL!
I hadn't heard of this book among my many "reading friends" so didn't expect the wonderful experience. It's the best book I've listened to since "Warmth of Other Suns." And similar to Warmth of Other Suns, I learned history in a meaningful way and connected to all the characters! How many other gems are around that I'm missing? Thank you Helen Zia and Nancy Wu for this a book I'll listen to over and over.
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3 people found this helpful
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- P Lee
- 2019-09-29
survival
A very complex weaving of the lives of Chinese immigrants during the Japanese invasion of China, world war II, China 's civil war, communism, American immigration policies, Mccarthyism and all the road blocks imposed on the human desire to be safe from harm and free to pursue those ideals so eloquently spelled out in the constitution of the United States. This book is a must read not only for all those who have roots that germinated in China, but to all who cherish and believe in the ideals of the American constitution. The stories of the struggles in the lives mentioned in this book will not be easy to listen to, but will definitely make you appreciate where we are today and the struggles that are still ongoing.
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3 people found this helpful
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- DP
- 2019-09-07
A Window Into Shanghai's Recent History
As a second generation Chinese, and more specifically Shanghainese, this book provided insights into the history of my family and those times and stories no-one would talk about.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2019-05-22
Last boat out of Singapore
Good book the The history of it is very interesting good story enjoyed it I recommend it
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rebecca
- 2021-07-14
Amazing book
I rarely find a book so engaging. I don’t know as much as I should about WWII in the pacific or Asian history. This book made it easy for me to learn and see how hard life has been for some very strong people and life for refugees.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-11-19
Thought provoking
Once I started listening I had to continue. Thank you, for allowing us to share in your story.
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