A stirring and magnificently illustrated picture-book memoir of the author’s childhood during the Chinese Cultural Revolution Ying Chang Compestine was a young girl in 1966 when Mao launched his Cultural Revolution to reclaim power and eliminate non-communist values in the country. His army began punishing and arresting people who didn’t agree with him, foreign reading material was banned, and children were all required to dress in uniform and carry the Little Red Book of Mao’s teachings. It was a time of fear, mayhem, and scarcity that lasted until Mao’s death ten years later, when Ying was thirteen. Through those ten harrowing years, Ying’s parents found ways to secretly educate her and allow her dreams of visiting America to stay vibrant. Now she brings her childhood story and China’s history to life in this absorbing and beautiful picture book.

The title, I Grew Up Playing With Red Flags, is a literal and metaphorical representation of how the author has experienced red flags during athletic games and her dating life. The author explores the irony of playing capture the flag and the dangers of chasing those same flags off the field. Similar to the author’s first book, My Origami Heart, this book is based on the author’s past relationships. Through descriptive language and poetry, the author takes the reader on a journey through the depths of her heart. She delves into the tales of seven men. The names of the characters have been changed for privacy reasons. Although this book is not a traditional sequel, it includes references to characters in My Origami Heart. It also includes a more thorough narrative of the last character in My Origami Heart.

The tools of abuse are powerful--that's why they work. They get in because they are unseen--that's how they destroy. Author Anna Moss calls abusive relationships 'the other cancer" because they strike at the same rate as the biological disease--and because they reoccur if conditions don't change. Using neuroscience, psychology and experience, she shows how predators are made, how a woman becomes prey AND how she can learn to take herself out of the victim pool. Misery forums and quick fixes don't work, but mindset changes and self activity do! No one is born to be mistreated. If you think you're doomed, ruined or have failed because of domestic violence, dating abuse or a psychopathic bond, think again. If you've got a pulse, you've got a chance. Moss guides you through abuse fundamentals, weaponized behaviors, intensifying techniques, psychological concepts, mindset dynamics, myth busting, neuroscience, self assessment, exit strategies, resources, stories and statistics all about dysfunctional relationships. By the last page of the book, you will be equipped with new tools and insights you can use in any setting. Daily life will become revelatory. Two things will start to happen: the cast of characters in your life and all of your relationships will change--for the better.--amazon.com.

He thinks in time-lines and relates whatever he comes across to its origins in the past. So while readers will discover what happened to the Lord family between 1939 and 1945 - not much really, they had it dead cushy - the narrative is interspersed with interpretation and discussion about how the war changed things. Although Richard inevitably became a history teacher, his lifelong passion for retrospection was triggered, long before he could even read, by three things - the pictures in an old schoolbook, wartime news bulletins read by the BBC’s Alvar Liddell, and what his Dad told him about how it had been in the trenches in 1918. Although the author takes his history seriously he is typically irreverent and usually up for a laugh. There is also a poignant element in a memoir that sometimes takes a confessional turn.

In a conversational style and in chronological sequence, Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong recount their earlier lives in China from the 1950s to the 1980s, a particularly eventful period that included the catastrophic Cultural Revolution. Using their own stories as two case studies, they examine the making of a significant yet barely understood generation in recent Chinese history. They also reflect upon the mixed legacy of the early decades of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In doing so, the book strives for a balance between critical scrutiny of a complex era and the sweeping rejection of that era that recent victim literature embraces. Ultimately Ye and Ma intend to reconnect themselves to a piece of land and a period of history that have given them a sense of who they are. Their stories contain intertwining layers of personal, generational, and historical experiences. Unlike other memoirs that were written soon after the events of the Cultural Revolution, Ye and Ma's narratives have been put together some twenty years later, allowing for more critical distance. The passage of time has allowed them to consider important issues that other accounts omit, such as the impact of gender during this period of radical change in Chinese women's lives.

Story of a girl growing up despite several problems and insecurities, but a very exciting life nevertheless!