Philippines: Un Pays au Pluriel (A Country of a Thousand Faces), 1987

When I first found the French-English book Philippines: Un Pays au Pluriel (1987) from the bottom shelf of the Embassy library, it seemed like just any other book about the Philippines with pictures of nature, tribes wearing their traditional garments, and Filipinos wearing beautiful smiles. But when I read the description of the author Jean…

When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi, 2016)

When I saw the pale blue book with the image of a surgeon’s back as the cover, on one of the shelves in Morawa Bookstore in Vienna, during my visit last weekend, I didn’t pay it special attention. Even after I briefly read the title and the synopsis at the back cover, it didn’t impress…

Managing Oneself (Peter F. Drucker, 2008)

Six months after I arrived in Paris in 2018 for my foreign assignment, I ordered a book in Amazon about the history of France. Then, I saw that one of the recommended books is a white and orange booklet with the helpful title “Managing Oneself.” I thought, “Why not? It will possibly help me adjust…