Author Archives: Meg
The Lost Concerto
After the suspicious drowning death of her husband and the unsolved murder of her best friend, Sofia, Maggie O’Shea doesn’t seem like the luckiest action heroine around. She kind of wants to stay home, drink too much wine, and play her … Continue reading
Shepherd
The other day, I had a new student called Shepherd. I always ask my kids how they chose their English names, for every mumbled explanation that it was assigned in primary school English class, there’s a great story about identity and personality. Shepherd … Continue reading
Everybody Rise
Everybody Rise is a lifestyle-porn New York adventure with a likeable protagonist, a middle-class girl pretending to the world of deb balls and multimillion-dollar getaway cottages. I love lifestyle and manners novels, with a blatant escapist love for the gorgeous, the exclusive and … Continue reading
Bing Kafei
I have an electric kettle in my room, so one of the first things I bought was a package of those Nescafe instant coffees. They’re nice, of course, but not even the most optimistic expat could mistake it for brewed, fresh coffee. Fortunately, … Continue reading
Retro Point-and-Click “Theropods” on (The) Absolute
I have a new post over on The Absolute, talking about Therapods. Theropods is a simple point-and-click adventure game about a cavewoman battling dinosaurs, but the game is surprisingly adorable. Our story opens when a peaceful evening at the neolithic campfire … Continue reading
Anne of Arkham Asylum
Inspired partially by Julia’s post about getting all the Anne of Green Gables books on the Kindle, and partly by a chat with a coworker about Prince Edward Island (Australian coworker: They’ve assigned me to teach a class on Canadian life… … Continue reading
Yangzhou Differences
It’s Really, Really Hot I mean, I knew it would be hot. I packed for summer. But, you guys, it’s so hot. I bought one of those cotton nightgowns that the grandmas in my old Beijing hutong used to wear around the neighborhood, … Continue reading
Essential Chinese: Frappuccino
I recently learned that xing bing le is Chinese for Starbucks’ frappuccino. This is pretty exciting because I recognize each character from another context, so I feel like I actually understand the whole, as language and branding, not just as sounds … Continue reading
Hamburger Helpful
Yesterday I had a Chinese lesson through my school. I was quite happy that we had a structured lesson, and I was even happier when one of my coworkers joined me. We were given a dialogue where one person orders a hamburger … Continue reading
Double Outrage
It was a lot of effort for me to get onto Facebook here, and I sort of wish I hadn’t bothered. The latest viral outrage, about the lion hunter, is about endangered animals, sure, but it also highlights wider issues about American … Continue reading
