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Discuss in pairs or 3s what were the other post-war challenges if you were  (Please select the respective colour post-it)                         1. A middle-aged man with 3 young kids.(Pink)                   2. A young man in his early teens(Blue)                              3. An educated person in 30s(male/female) (Green)     4. A returning British Officer working for the BMA. (Yellow)                          Elaborate on how these challenges affect you and those around you.You may consider the political, economic and/or social aspects.

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Discuss in pairs or 3s what were the other post-war challenges if you were  (Please select the respective colour post-it)                         1. A middle-aged man with 3 young kids.(Pink)                   2. A young man in his early teens(Blue)                              3. An educated person in 30s(male/female) (Green)     4. A returning British Officer working for the BMA. (Yellow)                          Elaborate on how these challenges affect you and those around you.You may consider the political, economic and/or social aspects.

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With an introduction by P. J. O'Rourke'Do not read this book in public. You will risk severe internal injuries from trying to suppress your laughter.' Sunday TimesI was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment that did not affect me.

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When I read this memoir, I was amazed at the insightful portrayal of life in China over three generations. The author understands quite well what her Mother and Grandmother felt and did during that period of time. The turmoil in China is described in detail, with sharp and graphic paragraphs that convey the atrocities of civil war and languid parts that show the contrast between the times of peace and war. When I read the book, I felt that I was really there, standing among the soldiers, hearing the crack of rifles and bone, smelling the stench of gunpowder. One of the stories that strike me most is when the Grandmother walked out of the house after a Communist raid on the Kuomintang city that they lived in. Intestines hung from the telephone wires and bodies were smeared onto the ground. The ditches were clogged with body parts and bloody water, not to mention rubble which had no doubt crushed the unfortunates trying to hide inside. This description., written by the author, made me feel as if I had travelled back in time and stood amongst the wailing women, the corpses that looked like a bug that had been stepped on, and the carcasses of those that should have been dead, but weren’t. The powerful description written by the author makes me feel as if I was there, and that I could experience the scene in so many different ways: as a widow cradling the guts of her dead Husband, a medic staring in horror at the smashed, but barely alive body that tried to speak, but couldn’t because he didn’t have a lower jaw, the communist soldier kicking a headless carcass into a ditch, a dying man coughing red as crows picked at his exposed insides, and the leaders, Mao-Zedong and Chiang-Kaishek, observing these scenes coldly in their fortified bunkers. It reminds me of the Battle for the Cowshed in Animal Farm, where the humans are Kuomintang and the animals are Communists. All of them are killing each other with savage brutality, so who is right and who is wrong? Is the Communist soldier responsible for the spine of the man who would have shot him if it hadn’t been blown out of his body? Does the Kuomintang soldier feel guilty for the mangled mess that his shotgun has made of the “filthy Communist”? After all they are enemies. But isn’t being human enough to drop your guns? Why are they tearing each other apart? When war breaks out and the drains run with the blood of both you and your enemy, do we have a right to say that “I am right, you should die”?

Should we even pick a side?

Why do we fight, and what did these two sides actually fight for?

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In this memoir, the author, Frank McCourt, talks about his life as the oldest child in a poor family. His father had drinking problems and was not keen on finding a job. Whats more, they are an Irish Catholic family, and in that time, around 1990, was not ideal. I really enjoyed this memoir as the narrator, being innocent and naive at the time, explains his situation in a innocent, curious and

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This memoir was a very saddening one at the beginning. The writer wrote about how his father had me been captured by the Japanese during the World War 2 and how each day his mother waited for him to come home. When the Americans defeated the Japanese, his father was released from the Japanese and could go home. However, the plane that he was on crashed en route to their home. You can feel for the writer and his mother, and how disappointed they were to hear that despite waiting so long for his father to come home, he could never go home again...

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In this memoir, the author writes about his thoughts, feelings and sad, pathetic actions while living in a hospital, that is said to be part of Paris but not really, as a paralysed man.
What strikes me the most, would be the part where he talks about getting bathed.  On somedays, he feels happy about getting his bath, with the warmth of entering the water and all.  However, on somedays, he gets extremely sad as he reminiscences his past life, having not been born paralyzed, and he recalls getting into the warm water, enjoying himself as he would read the papers and drink his coffee.
I feel that this can be used as a sort of analogy, to show how everything is reletive.  To us, one dollar may be nothing, yet to another it may mean the difference between going hungry or not.  To us, minute makes no difference, but to a surgeon it could be everything.  To us, an old shirt may be useless, but to a poor, homeless soul, it may mean the difference between going to sleep cold at night or not.  This is just as how it may be a nice luxury for the paralysed author to be being bathed he, but for the author, when he was not yet paralysed, it is not even comparable to the nice, relaxing baths he took in the mornings.  This strikes me as I feel it is something we could all reflect on.

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In this memoir, the author Frank McCourt, describes himself being born into a family in New York and being the eldest sibling in the family. Frank noted that his childhood was miserable and it was an Irish catholic childhood which does not suit him. The weather back then was rainy and wet, which forces Frank and his family to go to the church just to stay dry. Based on this first chapter, I could kind of infer the type of childhood he was experiencing which was lonely and somewhat miserable. Some things that would be interesting would be how he described it with vivid and various feelings, which would immerse the reader to continue reading the book.

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In this memoir book, he wrote about many parts of his life in order of year. Example around 1970 he was in high school and his life moving on. My favourite part was when he explained about his life in National Service, as it really appeals to us secondary school students who will need to go for National Service in  few years and are hopeless. I hope that i can get the book and finish it soon.

~Elroy

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In this memoir, the narrator has a disorder that no doctors could understand. Because of this, they told the narrator's mother that it was hopeless for him but she refused to believe this. She still believes that he is mentally able to understand things despite the fact that he does not respond to anything. I really enjoyed this memoir as the relationship between the narrator and his mother was very heartwarming and inspiring.

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This memoir is about Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani Activist and the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate. She recounts her journey through her whole life journey, how she fought for Women's rights, and her miraculous recovery after being shot in the head, continued to fight for rights. This memoir describes the events that shaped her character, her inspirations and depicted her feelings every step of the way, clearly showing the injustice she felt because she was a girl and could not receive an education. I feel that this memoir opens up my eyes about the injustice felt by people all over the world. We take education for granted, even complaining about it, yet there are people like Malala who don't even get the opportunity to study. She fights so hard to let women have an education, yet we are sitting in our comfortable classrooms complaining about our "hard life"

Zachary

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This memoir is about the writer, Paul Kalanithi, who is a neurosurgeon. He had completed his training in neurosurgery and was going to start his career. However, he received devastating news at the age of thirty-six that he had stage 4 lung cancer. This was a massive letdown to Paul as he also wanted to start writing books soon. He was devastated and he did not tell his wife about his worries over his health. When she found about these by accident, she thought that Paul was not being open to her and so she decided to stop the relationship for a while and so Paul was also going through emotional difficulties as well.

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The narrator came to Singapore from China to earn money. I was struck by her willpower to come to Singapore BY SHIP Despite China being considerable far away from Singapore. However, when she arrived, she was soon sold as a slave girl to work in a Singaporean Family. This sparked interest for me to continue to read this book. A few years later, she was freed from slavery, she became a nurse. Unfortunately, in 1942, the Japanese took over Singapore she flees Singapore but arrives at Japanese-occupied Sumatra. The story is kept interesting by the narrator having a lot of twists in this period of her life, thus making the story enticing to read. I feel that this story is very inspiring as we can learn values such a perseverance from the narrator

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This memoir is not only interesting, but I'd also very descriptive with the use of vivid language. The memoirs follows the life of a vet, who has many ups and downs. The language the author users makes you feel as if you are there treating the animals. I would really recommend this book to my peers.

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When I read the story of 'The Witch and the Fairy', I was intrigued to find out more about the girl, who had a birthmark across her face, resulting in her being a loner. The author, as her teacher, encouraged her to be more active in class and after meeting with the girl who is named Man-Ru's father, she learns that Man-Ru enjoys reading and invites her to a reading club. What really warmed my heart was the journey that the author, Ms Tham, and Man-Ru took together, which shows how Man-Ru and Ms Tham both changed together. I feel that the power to shape a person is a strong one, and it touches my soul especially because of Ms Tham's perseverance to shape Man-Ru.

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When I read the story 'First they killed my Father', I realized that I was very fortunate to be somewhere safe like Singapore. In the story, the main character was living a middle-class life, before getting invaded by the Khmer Rouges, the name given to Communist Party of Kampuchea. As the title suggests, her Father was killed, along with her mother and sisters. The main characters is able to escape with some of her friends, brothers and cousin. After the whole ordeal, another set of challenges appear as they travel to Vietnam and Thailand for a better life. So I feel fortunate to be here and I should not rake everything as a privilege.
Kelvin

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This memoir is about a boy called Francis, who lived through a hard time in his childhood. Francis goes through all kinds of problems, war, alcoholic addicted father, poverty and many siblings when the parents can't even support one child. The most striking part of the story is when Francis's father comes home without his wages but only drunken, singing Irish songs and shouting around like an uneducated, savage man who couldn't even keep a job after finally getting it. I really feel angry at the father and can't really understand why he is like that. First of all, when his poor children and wife are starving to death, he spends all that precious money on stupid whiskeys and doesn't even regret on it. And if he knows that he got alcoholic addiction, shouldn't he try to come out from it? I thought at that point of time that Francis father should really stop drinking whiskeys and bring home wages for the poor family.

Kyojin

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After reading this personal account, I felt very relatable with the author. The memoir was all about how the author, as a child, thought the changing of a new decade would be all a bout fun and games, but as adults saw it, they looked at it as a normal day. Even worse, when JFK, the president of America at the time had been assassinated. I feel quite sad that the child had to bear with the pain of the changing of decades not being all rainbows, and instead having to deal with the tremendous impact of losing someone his country loved dearly. However, it was good that he came to the realisation that life is a lot cruel than he had anticipated.

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After reading a section of the book, I was very sad, and sorry for David, having gone through such a terrible and horrible childhood. Everyday, he was tortured by his Mother. His life was like a living 🤬 and he just wished he would die. After reading his memoir, I realised that I am very fortunate, as both of my parents care for me and love me. I am also well fed, unlike David, who has to starve every day, to the extent that he has to still food from other students. David's mother is a witch, and she enjoys abusing, beating, and starving David. And yet, she still makes David lie to his school teachers, so that they would not know what she had done. In a nutshell, David's mother abusive, and David always tries his best to be obedient and do what he is told. He deserves a much better life , where he is loved and cared for, and treated like a human beings that has feelings

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In this memoir, the author writes about his older brother and his younger sister. He talks about how being sent far away from the comforts of home to a far way boarding school made him feel more loved than if he was sent to a nearby public school. He mentions that if he was sent to a public school he would wonder what was wrong with him and he would feel left out. In his memoir he explains all about the funny, sad and also happy incidents that occurred to him when he was in the private school. He talks about his limited number of friends and the teachers in his school. He also talks about how his mother treated him lovingly when he came home during the summer holiday. He talks about his mother becoming pregnant with is new sister and also the change of houses as he moves to an area much further away. In this memoir there are stories of how he tried to help the new students adapt to this school and there are also recounts of him trying to overcome the homesickness when he returned to school after after the summer holidays. This book is very enjoyable to read as it has very explicit details of private school life in Britain. The book is very enjoyable and enriching to the mind and the soul and I think everyone should read this memoir to help the gain more knowledge and to be a better person.

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Memoir: The destructive force. by: Clive James

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Memoir: The destructive force. by: Clive James

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In this memoir, the author writes about how his family waited every day for their father who had gone to fight the Japanese at the time to return home from a Japanese built prison. After long days and years of silent waiting, James' mother gives up on hope and thinks their father is dead. However, when the war ended, Father was found to be alive and wrote multiple letters to his family while on his way home. But then something truly tragic happened. The plane Clive James' father was on had got caught in a typhoon and crashed... Losing everyone on board. This was a sad moment for the author and also a touching one as the author describes how the last few letters written were so important as they were the last words they ever said to each other.

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After I read this memoir a realised how lucky I was. The character is tortured and abused by his mother. He does not get good food. David the character, once was even forced to put his hand on the stove by his mother. That part strikes me because I think the mother is just a 🤬 who does not know how to raise a child. However his brothers live a better life and they don't get beaten like him. Mother is one cruel person who abuses her own child. She should be arrested for child abusing. She does not even give her food for lunch and leads to David stealing food.
Shiva

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The striking feature in this chapter,to be honest the entire book really,features the author's childlike behaviour which is extremely hilarious and relatable from being dragged off to school by his mother suring the weekdays while granting his family a heart attack on the weekends with bizzare adventures.

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This story is about the one we read in class, just that in the book named Unreliable memoirs they tell us More about the author before the crashing into Mrs Branthwaithe’s poppies. the author was a boy who was really smart,but wanted to be known for being nasty.He tried many ways to gain students attractions by doing things that would get him caned really badly. I am really shocked by the character of this boy, and how he is such a try hard to an extent that he is willing to be caned. i am sure many of you will like this memoir. So, if you are willing to find out more about the character of the boy who built the Super cart, here is the link:https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=hQAWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25&lpg=PT25&dq=billycart+hill+memoir&source=bl&ots=VhM3BZ6gHi&sig=ATVM6ZYyxcttRBkUJ-gd67b9rxY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYstzcgpLcAhVSfX0KHdrJDhAQ6AEwAnoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=billycart%20hill%20memoir&f=false

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This memoir is about an Irish boy who returns back to America when he was 19. Knowing nothing about the country, a priest helps him to settle down as he rents a room and gets a job. He doesn't like the US after what they had done to his home country, Ireland. I feel bad for the way the Americans treat him as they ignore him and bullies him.

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I actually have read this memoir during class time. This story is about Mrs Branthwaite, who has a perfect garden which James describes 'like the cover of a seed catalogue,' so when James makes a train of 'Billy Carts' and they destroy the poppies by crashing into them, Mrs Branthwaite has to be taken away, speechless, by two police officers and the children scatter in all directions.  Personally, I feel that although Mrs Branthwaite deserved it, I can still empathise with her as she must spent a lot of time, blood and sweat to grow those poppies as they were the best in the town.

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After I read this memoir, I personally feel that Mother was to blame for everything as she was the one who from a nice and kind person, turn into an evil, mean mother.She asked David to burn himself on the stove to DIE! That is a bit overkill since she forced him to die and not of old age or any other option(dying in a war, dying because of sickness/injury).She, a mother, asked her child to K-I-L-L himself. Whats more, she stabbed David, banged and smashed him into many different objects( kitchen counter,mirror,table etc),made him do disgusting things like eating his younger brother's dirty diaper and eating his own puked up food that was in the toilet.His mother caused David to steal food by not feeding him, making him the lone kid in class, and not considering him as part of the family,she even treated their pets much better than him and made David sleep in the basement.Mother is very cruel and I feel that David should deserve better than this.Mother should show David respect and not treat him differently from his siblings, scold him and beat him.It is unfair to David as even his younger brother despises him and encourages Mother to satb him and k-i-l-l him These are my thoughts and my feelings towards this memoir.
-Joshua G

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When I read this memoir, I could not stop thinking about the harsh atrocities that the Mother thought of to torture Dave, the main character of the story. Like Marcus, I also wondered why the mother suddenly changed from a very nice person to such a horrible person. One explanation that I could think of was that the mother became addicted to alcohol and her being drunk caused her to be like that. I also noticed that the Mother kept arguing to her husband about Dave and how he ruined her life with Dave's father. The feelings when I read this book were disgust and sympathy. Disgust because the mother made the Dave do disgusting things like making him vomit the food that he stole, put it into a toilet bowl, pick it up back again and eat it. I also felt sympathetic towards Dave for having such a painful childhood. That are my thoughts and feelings toward this memoir.
-Rupesh

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I have actually read the memoir before the reading session. However, I was still intrigued as I mostly forgot the details in the plot. The author was abused by her big sister and Niang, her stepmother. At the beginning of the story, she was pushed around and beaten by her elder sister when she got a medal for being the top in class. It also tells me about how life was like back then during the Japanese Occupation and bias in raising children. Due to causing her birth mother to die, the author was shunned by Big Sister. Niang acted cruelly to her only later on, as she slaps her for talking back and holds the same grudge to her death bed. Her father even forgot she existed as she apparently was not in his final will at all, Niang even preventing her from seeing it. This is a very good book which is a quick and captivating read due to its big font and some Chinese text to show the translation. I think that the book revolves around a brilliant girl that gets mistreated and does not get the best life. I also feel that it is relatable as she is around our age, yet the scene in China during that time is very much different from what we see now

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One if the striking things that I found when reading this memoir, was that at first, the child's mother was actually very nice. that makes me wonder, why did she change? did do something drastically wrong? and his brothers were not punished with him! that got me thinking. why were they not punished? why David of everyone in the family? i also began thinking, will anyone's mother actually do things so bad to their child? If they really loved him, they won't want to 🤬 him or torture him.