The best books on the Boxer Rebellion

For six decades, the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a useful tool of racial oppression--the existence of the title far more important to the white public than its succession of champions. It took some extraordinary individuals, most notably Jack Johnson, to challenge "the color line" in the ring, although the title and the black fighters who contended for it continued until the reign of Joe Louis a generation later. This history traces the advent and demise of the Championship, the stories of the 28 professional athletes who won it, and the demarcation of the color line both in and out of the ring.

Oh, no, another book about the Tiananmen Incident? Inconvenient Memories is a rare and truthful memoir of a young woman's coming of age amid the Tiananmen Square Protests. In 1989, Anna Wang was one of the lucky few who worked for a Japanese company, Canon. She traveled each day between her grandmother's dilapidated commune-style apartment and an extravagant office just steps from Tiananmen Square. Her daily commute on Beijing's impossibly crowded buses brought into view the full spectrum of China's inequalities during the economic transition. When Tiananmen Protests broke out, her Japanese boss was concerned whether the protests would obstruct Canon's assembly plant in China, and she was sent to Tiananmen Square on a daily basis to take photos for her boss to analyze for evidence of turning tides. From her perspective as a member of the emerging middle class, she observed firsthand that Tiananmen Protests stemmed from Chinese people's longing for political freedom and their fear for the nascent market economy, an observation that readers have never come across from the various accounts of the historical events so far.

Sources in Chinese History serves as an introduction to a sweeping array of key events, personages, and policies from the founding of China’s last dynasty in 1644 to the present. Now in its second edition, each chapter opens with an annotated visual source followed by a historical snapshot of a key event from that period. By highlighting social and cultural dimensions of China’s past, the sourcebook challenges the reader to consider the shifting perspectives, economic challenges, and political ideologies of each era. Special attention has been made to incorporate non-traditional documents, such as film scripts, private correspondence, and political cartoons.

From the founding of China’s last dynasty to Xi Jinping’s leadership today, this book suits those seeking more information about a specific person or era, as well as those looking for a more thorough introduction to China’s recent or more distant past.

By the turn of the twentieth century, China was undergoing acute political, social, and cultural change. So, question: how did the Chinese people stop believing in an emperor who claimed the Mandate of Heaven and decide to replace the empire with a republic? After years of looking at individual thinkers, activists, writers, and political movements, I tried to put the story together, with all its ups and downs, from the first glimpses of a political community that would function without a sacred leader to the final ignominious expulsion of the emperor from the Forbidden City a full twelve years after the founding of the Republic. Also important to me: the story of the rejection of kings is not limited to China. 

In the isolated desert kingdom of Kevala, Irro, a carefree monster hunter, and Hari, his not-quite-human assistant, are doing a roaring business. Then a mysterious cult leader arrives, promising to rid Kevala of monsters once and for all. What does a monster hunter do when all the monsters are gone? And can we live without monsters? 

Jeremiah just wants to have a normal summer with his dad. Unfortunately, his dad just moved to downtown Minneapolis to live with his wacky new boyfriend, Michael. Michael serves weird organic foods, wears shorts that are always too short, and rides around on The Uni-Cycle: a bike decorated to look like a unicorn. Things are shaping up to be a looooong summer. Thankfully Jeremiah finds Sage, the girl next door whose favorite hobbies include naming clouds and taking epic bike pilgrimages through the city. As the summer goes on and Jeremiah starts finding community in surprising places, he starts to wonder who truly belongs in his family.

Foreward Reviews say it’s, “Welcoming and inclusive.” Kirkus Reviewssay it’s, “Touching and unforgettable.” Naturally, I have to agree.

This is the inside account of the U.S.-China economic struggle starting in the 1990s.  I wrote it with my Wall Street Journal colleague, Lingling Wei, who was the best-sourced American reporter in China until she was expelled in 2020 along with other American journalists. Our book features deep reporting in Beijing as well as Washington D.C., which distinguishes it from many works by U.S. journalists who rely too much on American sources. We focus on the trade war fought by President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.  Expect lots of scoops and details not available anywhere else.     

The spirit of aloha is found in Hawaii’s fresh ocean air, the flowers, the trade winds…the natural beauty that smoothes the struggles of daily life. In 1922 Honolulu, unhappy in the adoptive family that raised her, Dolores searches for that spirit early on. At sixteen, she marries Manolo. His large Portuguese family embraces her, but when his drinking leads to physical abuse, only his relative Alberto comes to her rescue—and sparks a new passion within Dolores. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Dolores flees to California. Both men follow—Manolo’s drinking problems continue and Alberto’s begin. Outraged, Dolores doubts her feelings for Alberto. Is he only going to disappoint her, as Manolo has? Or is Alberto the embodiment of the aloha spirit she’s been seeking?