… the easy flow of the narrative is reminiscent of an oral storyteller.
I read your book as soon as it came in the mail and found myself quoting from it for days.
~ Mona Kerby, author of Owney the Mail-Pouch Pooch
Your book is wonderful. You capture the eternal in the ephemeral, the larger picture in the small incident.
~ Barbara Hampton, co-author of Honey for a Teen’s Heart
You manage to show what is unique about China, while demonstrating how it is like everywhere else – and I think that is the essence of great travel writing. When it comes to the people you met, you always seem to know whether to render them in a sketch or a portrait, finding their most characteristic traits.
It is a book that is warm, funny, quietly informative. Your personal role in it is never self-aggrandizing; remarkably though, your self portrait emerges, as if in silhouette, as if by accident.
I’ve read quite a few books this year, including the masterful David Copperfield, and yet The Year I Smelled Like Milk is my favorite among them. Please accept the enclosed poem as a token of thanks.
~ John Dutterer, poet and visual artist, Maryland
An engaging immersion into life in Beijing. Hobson has a knack for pulling you through the cultural gap and introducing you to people you’re glad to have met. If you are traveling to China for business, school, or pleasure, I can imagine no better book for reading on the trip. Hobson takes us with him as he teaches English in Beijing, negotiates a new and different lifestyle (food, markets, bathrooms, travel, relationships), and even gets caught up in a Buddhist pilgrim festival while on a bicycle trip through Western China. One of the best parts of this book is the inclusion of numerous short writing assignments from his students. From the quaint to the sad to the hilarious, these remind you that each of the more than a billion Chinese is a unique person, who has something real to say.
~ Reuben Settergren, software engineer, California
I flew back from Orlando today and read a big chunk of your book. I’m sure the people around me thought I was insane as I frequently found myself laughing out loud.
~ Rich Tyson, pulmonologist, Tennessee
A hilarious and heartfelt story of a real fish out of water. Follow the author as he navigates his way through Chinese culture at right about the time China’s industrial revolution is about to explode. There are many laugh out loud passages as Hobson tries to navigate familiar and not so familiar obstacles of an American in China left to mostly his own wit and survival skills. I also really enjoyed seeing how Hobson’s relationships with his students blossomed – over time you begin to see how the human spirit shines through, no matter where in the world you happen to be.
~ Timothy Hague, software engineer, New Jersey
I just finished your book last night. I read every page and wished I had more. You have approached the subject of cultural differences in a very intelligent and sensitive way. My favorite parts were the time you played soccer and told your students that they were really in shape, because your legs were sore for days after and they told you their legs were still sore. I also liked the way you wrote about being alone during winter break and every interaction was tainted with the recognition that you were a visible minority, a situation that could not be escaped. I really liked the line you used when you described the officials that asked you to help plant the trees, they had “… the finest level of class: taste mixed with grace.”
I could sell this book. I’ve already got my book club friends ready to put it on the reading list for 2010. I know [our media specialist] will order it for our media center at Long Reach. It would be a great read for the English classes as well as the Chinese classes. There are so many themes that could be explored and you don’t leave any stone unturned from the public restrooms to the air over the mountains that looked like smog. Your mother should be proud that she raised someone confident enough to move far outside their comfort zone, yet humble enough not to think they were in complete control. Thank you for a wonderful experience.
~ Theda Mayer, high school math teacher, Maryland
Interesting, informative, funny, full of adventures, even sometimes suspenseful! So many qualities I would not have expected in a book about a teacher’s experiences in China, therefore very enjoyable to read. The writing tends to draw me into each situation and look at my own reactions, so that I actually learn a little about myself.
~ Donna Kotting, high school psychology teacher, Maryland
After having taken two smaller trips to China over the last two years, I highly enjoyed this book. It reminded me of some of my own experiences and also allowed me to see more of China through the eyes of Michael Hobson. Since he spent the 1993-94 school year in China, the book also gave me some insight into how things have changed in Beijing over the last 15 years.
The book is full of interesting and funny stories from “Mista Hobison’s” year in China where he worked as an English teacher. The setting is mainly Beijing, where he taught, but it also includes his bike trip across parts of western China when the school year ended. This book is a delight to read!
~ Nathan Snyder, seminary student, Missouri
You did an outstanding job capturing our experience in China in the mid 1990s. So much has changed since then. My wife and I visited China in 2008, and were stunned by how modern it had become. Reading your book brought back so many memories, and it made me smile more times than I could count. It really made me miss that era, and I find myself a little sad that it is gone. Yes, it was hard, but it was as unplugged as you can get, compared to now. Thanks for doing this, I was reading it once a week, small nuggets, sort of savoring it when I got a chance late at night. I must confess, the last few nights I was staying up late to read about the travels. Great stuff.
Our China experience had the same feel to it – a time following the political events of 1989 and all the fall out, and during the rapid modernization of China. My wife has been back to China more than me, even Shenyang where we met. She tells me it is completely different. The bikes are gone, the stores look like Western replicas – mobile phones everywhere and Internet cafes with laptops as far as the eye can see. In 2008 we visited the tiny village where her family was from, and went to a restaurant for a banquet. I swear in the restaurant I felt like I was in San Francisco or Los Angeles as I watched CNN and NBA on satellite TVs. The facilities were nicer than some restaurants in the States. Unbelievable.
That is what is wonderful about your book. It is a snapshot of a world lost, and you really did an excellent job of capturing it from a foreigner’s perspective. You should be proud.
~ Jason Wakefield, minister of the gospel, New Hampshire
Something I love about this book is how even though you’re a teacher, there’s so much that you teach your students outside of the classroom – and so much that they teach you.
~ Jasmine Leung, creative writing student, British Columbia
I finished your book a few days ago. Man, I got scared for you a few times, like when you got heat stroke. And that part with you walking on thin ice on the lake at the Summer Palace. Or that part where you described biking through a dark tunnel without any lights (and back!). What spooked me most was when you thought the truck carrying Chris and Chad had left you in the middle of nowhere when you got out to get a snack. I would have been freaking! Don’t know how you survived that biking expedition out West. It is cool and crazy at the same time. I thought the whole scene where you had that Hollywood departure at the train station was hilarious! You heartbreaker you! And Dad’s Home Cooking sounds like a really cool place. Hope to go there sometime.
Because of your book, I pulled out my video footage of my trip to Beijing and started watching some parts of it. I wonder what Beijing is like now. I liked the part where you incorporated the description of your life after Beijing and how your trip had affected you. It really rounded out the experience.
- Carol Chen-Johnston, cardiologist, Illinois
After reading I felt like I’d gone to the places the author visited, seeing and hearing the same sights and sounds. His unique ability to bring his experiences in China to life makes this book a pleasure to read!
~ Augustina Menegay, high school Chinese language teacher, Maryland
I am only 13, but I really enjoyed this book. If you are thinking of visiting China, are interested in Chinese culture or just want something good to read, this is the book for you. I learned a lot about China, and laughed a lot too! It has a good mixture of hilarious anecdotes and more serious insights into the Chinese people’s lives which I found easy to read, yet at the same time, very thought-provoking.
~ Elise Gibson, 8th grade student, Missouri
I received your book around 2pm yesterday and spent the rest of the day doing as little Mom-work as possible as I read every last page before I fell asleep last night. You could say I devoured it – and it was excellent! I will have a laundry list of discussion points the next time we get together for dinner. I’ve already recommended it to a lady at church, too!
- Alison Lutz, Maryland
I just wish to tell you how much I am enjoying reading about your experiences. I have studied Mandarin and wish that I had learned it when I was much younger and had the chance to live in China and learn more in depth.
~ Diane Bishop, Maryland
The insights presented in this book make it a “must read” for anyone thinking of traveling to China or even considering doing business with the Chinese. The author is already on my list of literary talents after having read a collection of his short stories. Excellent work and well written.
~ John Mosher, network engineer, Virginia
How does it feel to be an outsider? Mr. Hobson’s book lets us inside his life in China in 1993-1994 and gives us a snapshot of a time and a China that have almost disappeared.
~ Pat Carson, library media specialist, Maryland
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