![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Korean-cover1-216x300.gif?resize=216%2C300\" "\\"Korean")
Korean Cover<\/p><\/div>\n
I was lucky I had a mother who lived long enough for me to appreciate her. Part of my problem was that as a young girl, I was so enamored with my father that I didn\u2019t see the woman my mother was until I became a mother and grandmother myself.\u00a0 Perhaps it was because my mother wasn\u2019t always kind to me. She was very critical at times, and too often I felt that I could never measure up. Now, I look back and understand she set high standards. She wanted the world for me and she wanted me to figure out how I could get that on my own.<\/p>\n
Like the mother in Kyung-sook Shin\u2019s novel, mine also brought boxes of food she\u2019d lovingly prepared when she came to visit me. Oh, what I wouldn\u2019t do to experience that all over again.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s often been said that education is wasted on the young. I feel wiser and more thankful now that I\u2019ve lived through a number of acts. And yet now that I\u2019m in my third act, I realize how much more I still have to learn. Does any of this resonate with you? Do books like this make you stop and think about your own journey with your mother? Or your journey as a mother?<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s still a few months away from Mother\u2019s Day, the day we publicly\u00a0honour our mothers. I was reminded of mine, when I read the wonderful international bestseller, Please Look After… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,1,4],"tags":[283,232,78,286,297,295,9,296,7],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-a-separation","tag-bestseller","tag-diana-stevan","tag-iranian","tag-korean-author","tag-kyung-sook-shin","tag-novel","tag-please-look-after-mom","tag-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-ef","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":782,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-help-black-and-white-and-red-all-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":0},"title":"The Help: Black and White and Red All Over","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"14 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 60s was a time when the relationships between the Blacks and the Whites grew embarrassingly red for many. The shame of it all is brilliantly captured in Kathryn Stockett\u2019s novel, The Help. It\u2019s not surprising then, that the book is an international bestseller.\u00a0 The author portrays three extraordinary women\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/The-Help.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6400,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2024\/uncategorized\/mother-an-unheralded-heroine\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":1},"title":"Mother: An Unheralded Heroine","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"10 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mothers, unheralded heroines, deserve our attention. They're the ones whose tireless efforts to raise a child in our increasingly complex world are often overlooked. To honour her mother who had just died, Anna Jarvis, an American peace activist, started Mother's Day in the USA in 1905. In her work with\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"unheralded heroine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/babd-1-scaled.jpg?fit=677%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/babd-1-scaled.jpg?fit=677%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/babd-1-scaled.jpg?fit=677%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2254,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2015\/writing\/how-a-fly-inspired-me-to-self-publish\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":2},"title":"How A Fly Inspired Me To Self-Publish","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"21 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspiration comes in many forms. Yesterday, I had coffee with a woman who had bought my book and wanted me to sign it. She's a writer, and from the background she shared with me, an experienced and talented one. The problem she shared was that she was having trouble getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Inspired By A Fly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/fly-photo-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6847,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2025\/writing\/folding-memories-into-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":3},"title":"Folding Memories into Story","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing What You Know Ernest Hemingway, the wonderful author of great works such as\u00a0The Sun Also Rises\u00a0and\u00a0For Whom the Bell Tolls,\u00a0was a master of folding memories into story. 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It's about a Ukrainian peasant farmwife, who shortly after her husband joins the Tsar\u2019s army has to escape with their six children,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"book cover design","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Oleksander-Murashko-Peasant-Family-1914.jpg?fit=498%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1769,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/writing\/has-free-sex-killed-romance\/","url_meta":{"origin":883,"position":5},"title":"Has Free Sex Killed Romance?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"25 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, unlike a few generations ago, couples engage in sex easily without a commitment. But has free sex killed romance? The Big Romantic Films Is that why Hollywood gave up on making big romantic movies? It used to make great ones like: Gone With The Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), Dr.\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bridges of madison county","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/bridges-of-madison-county.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Please-Look-After-Mom.gif?resize=169%2C270\" "\\"Please")
mothers. I was reminded of mine, when I read the wonderful international bestseller, Please Look After Mom. Its Korean author, Kyung-sook Shin tells the story of a woman with dementia and how the ravages of that illness affect her children and her husband. But the story isn\u2019t so much about the illness. Rather, it\u2019s about a family\u2019s hopes, dreams, and disappointments through the voices of the children, the father, and the mother. No one escapes unscathed in this family drama, not even the mother, but this is life. Through the lens of each family member, we learn not only of their struggles to make sense of their lives, but we also learn about our own.<\/p>\n