Beyond FACTS AND FICTION: SKY BURIAL and THE KNOWN WORLD

Yes, I’m cheating. Not even time to write decent reviews of these multicultural treasures. Suffice to say if you’ve ever wondered about the history of Chinese-Tibetan relations, Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet by popular British-Chinese journalist Xinran Xue provides vivid, jaw-dropping details of both sides’ late-20th-century perspectives. Based on a true story told to Xinran Xue by a Chinese woman who spent thirty years in Tibet searching for her missing husband, Sky Burial goes far beyond the confines of a simple love story as it explores a tapestry of fascinating and sometimes shocking traditions, lifestyles, and revelations.


Incredible story-telling also brings Edward P. Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Known World alive as the very personal, specific details of how slaves were traditionally (and often casually) bought and sold as well as treated and (often brutally) mistreated in the U.S. are mined, turned over and over for your consideration. I’m in the middle of this one, and I’m learning something stunning (as in being hit by a stun gun, not enjoying a pretty sunset) about slavery—and fiction writing—on every page.

One fun, final note: BEYOND Understanding turned two this month! So far my profile has been viewed more than 1,000 times; the blog itself has been viewed nearly 12,000 times; I’ve written 145 (or so) posts and listed in my side bar more than 40 stellar resources. I hope to continue BEYOND Understanding for a long time; there seems to be no end of new sites, foundations, books, etc. designed to help spread the word about diversity, tolerance and make-the-world-a-better-place (please!) issues. Onward!