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    Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West
    Unavailable
    Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West
    Unavailable
    Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West
    Ebook413 pages7 hours

    Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West

    By Peter Hessler

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage—a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work.

    Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions. This unusual perspective distinguishes Strange Stones, which showcases Hessler’s unmatched range as a storyteller. “Wild Flavor” invites readers along on a taste test between two rat restaurants in South China. One story profiles Yao Ming, basketball star and China’s most beloved export, another David Spindler, an obsessive and passionate historian of the Great Wall. In “Dr. Don,” Hessler writes movingly about a small-town pharmacist and his relationship with the people he serves.

    While Hessler’s subjects and locations vary, subtle but deeply important thematic links bind these pieces—the strength of local traditions, the surprising overlap between apparently opposing cultures, and the powerful lessons drawn from individuals who straddle different worlds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 7, 2013
    ISBN9780062206244
    Unavailable
    Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West
    Author

    Peter Hessler

    Peter Hessler is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he served as the Beijing correspondent from 2000 to 2007, and is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He is the author of River Town, which won the Kiriyama Prize; Oracle Bones, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; and, most recently, Country Driving. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, and he was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2011. He lives in Cairo.

    Read more from Peter Hessler

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    Reviews for Strange Stones

    4/5

    36 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This collects a number of essays originally published in the New Yorker. Somehow, knowing that Hessler had moved from Beijing to Cairo, I thought the 'west' in the title would include essays from Egypt, but it doesn't - instead it refers to three essays about rural Colorado. Unlike Hessler's previous books, which wove previously published material and new material into complex tapestries, there's no effort to thread the essays in this collection into a common fabric. Favorites for me in this collections included 'Walking the Wall', about the Great Wall of China and an American who studies it; 'the Uranium Widows', about a former uranium mining town in southern Colorado; 'Home and Away', comparing athletic stardom in China and in the West; and 'Dr. Don', a moving profile of a man who has served his Colorado community for years as a pharmacist and the only medical professional for miles around.
    • 4/5
      Not as good as his previous books, but there are still some really good pieces in it. If you're already a Peter Hessler fan, you'll like it. Otherwise, read his other books first.
    • 3/5
      A collection of stories the author wrote while a reporter for the New Yorker.
      The author is very good at telling a story.
      Most take place in China, there is a great story about uranium in Colorado but there is nothing that binds these stories together. It’s as if he had a contractual obligation for delivering a book and slapped this one together, from what he wrote in the past.