My book group chose Mao, The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday for this month's reading.
Not only is it a very long, thick book, but here is the first sentence.
"MAO TSE-TUNG, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world's population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader."
I am struggling to get past that first line. "70 million deaths in peacetime." 70 million deaths.
I can't seem to venture into a book that begins with something so unimaginable to me, by magnitudes, and I will. Tonight, though with the fog pouring in, I feel myself pour into cooking mode. To the kitchen, I go.
