Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West

This work represents a collection of Hessler's (staff writer, The New Yorker; Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip) writing from 2000 to 2012. In the title piece, he is curious when he sees sign after sign, "Strange Stones." Soon he learns that the Chinese refer to any rock that is shaped like another recognizable object as a "strange stone." In the essay "Dr. Don," Hessler introduces readers to the only medical man in tiny Nucla, Colorado. Don Colcord owns a local business, the Apothecary Shoppe, where he helps all who come to him, whether they have health insurance or not. Most moving is "When You Grow Up," in which readers meet three boys, ages 10, 12, and 14, who left their village in China to earn money for their families. After feeding them countless hotpots, Hessler asks what they want to be when they grow up. One wants to be a driver, another a security guard, and the third simply wants to go home.