【推荐1】Once my husband was diagnosed (诊断) with stage 4 cancer, I didn’t go back to work and my life became about being the best caretaker and wife I could possibly be. After my husband was gone, it felt like my entire future had been ripped out from under me. All my hopes and dreams had involved the two of us together. But life took on new meaning.

I went to the quiet beach in Hawaii that my husband and I discovered together the first morning of our honeymoon and spread his ashes (骨灰) in the ocean. I once wished a heart attack would strike me dead, but something about having to be alone and carry the pain made me stronger than before. I realized that I could rely on myself and be my own friend.

Pretty soon, I went to Florida and saw my dad for the first time in 6 years. I went to Australia by myself and made many lasting friends from all over the world. I started to experience things that challenge myself and live life to the fullest. After many trips to other countries, I returned to work. But this time instead of working really hard like before, 1 made a promise to myself to work less and experience more.

Since my husband’s death, I have travelled to over 20 countries. The lesson I could learn from my travelling experiences was that we should live in the moment. We can’t know what will happen in the future, or even control much of it but I don’t want to wait to follow my dreams and check things off my bucket list (遗愿清单). I hope you don’t either.

【推荐2】My husband, Dave, who teaches Botany (植物学), always plants things. He has planted trees anywhere we have lived and is proud to see they are flourishing and providing shade and beauty for whoever lives there.

I also love planting, especially the harvest. But I hate weeding (除草). I remember one of our first gardens in Kansas when I was attacked by the hugest grasshoppers (蚱蜢) I had ever seen while weeding our little garden.

Now, our growing efforts at our new home are vegetables. We are enjoying the garden we have created. It’s large but manageable with daily care. We use methods to minimize weeds. We have the time to keep up with the watering and weeding. I find I don’t hate that anymore.

There is something satisfying about pulling grass, and violets that are growing where we don’t want them, and unnamed weeds that are affecting the growth of what we want. I find that my relationship with gardening is turning into a true romance that has a rosy future.

It’s all about time, environment and attitude. Being in my eighties, I have the time to be patient for results, to enjoy the hope for future harvest, and I have the knowledge that comes from experience. I find a lot to love about growing things and about growing older.

【推荐3】A new 20-volume collection of the late Chinese writer Wang Zengqi’s works has been recently published by Zhejiang Literature& Art Publishing House, as a way to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of his birthday.

Born in 1920, Wang was a reputed contemporary Chinese novelist, essayist and Peking Opera writer. At the National Southwest Associated University in 1939, he studied under the supervision of Shen Congwen, widely considered to be one of the greatest Chinese writers. He has been especially popular among reader for his faithful, vivid descriptions of people and the details of daily things, gourmet dishes if particular.

He saw, firsthand, the development of the modern Chinese literary tradition after the May Fourth Movement in 1919. He was not just an observer, but an important participant and builder of socialist literary traditions after 1949, and then, again, arguably a leader of the modern literary tradition established in the 1980’s.

“This 20-volume collection reflects Wang’s literary view and writing style in a general sense,” says Wang Lang, the eldest son of Wang Zengqi.

They don’t reflect the whole picture of his writing, however. There was also time when he was furious and wrote articles about social issues. It was also his view that writers should take social responsibility. Although his works in this respect are limited, they are an important part of his writing career, Wang Lang says.

One outstanding characteristic of Wang Zengqi’s writing is the use of colloquial language, which combined his mother tongue of Gaoyou from Jiangsu province and the Beijing dialect, because he worked in the capital for a long time, says Li Er, deputy director of the National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. An exhibition of Wang Zengqi’s paintings is currently running at the museum.

Unlike many other popular writers in the 1980s, Wang Zengqi remains popular among today’s readers.