I’m keeping things short and sweet today, as there’s still lots to do here at my parents’ house to prepare for Christmas tomorrow. Thanks so much for reading these posts—please enjoy the usual assortment of recommended stories, plus my favorite Christmas cookie recipe.
But first, more Goodreads reviews from my recent deep-dive into fiction to wrap up 2023:
Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy (3 stars); Sisterland (3.5 stars)
Christina Lauren, The True Love Experiment (3 stars)
Jennifer Weiner, Golden Hills (3 stars); The Breakaway (4.5 stars)
Recommendations
China Stories
Rayhan Asat, “No One Is Talking About the Plight of Uyghurs with Disabilities in Detention. The World Owes Them More.”
William J. Broad, Chris Buckley and Jonathan Corum, “China Quietly Rebuilds Secretive Base for Nuclear Tests”
Rachel Cheung, “The Grand Experiment: Two decades on, China’s social credit system is more dysfunctional than dystopian.”
Shibani Mahtani, “Witness against Hong Kong media mogul was mistreated, Post examination finds”
Carey Mott, “Capitalists Inside a Communist State: On Two Books and the Puzzle of Chinese Billionaires”
Isabella Qian, “7 Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp”
Ann Wang and Ben Blanchard, “Taiwan’s last generation to fight China”
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “The Fallen Goddess: A Different Sort of Statue Story”
Anouk Wear, “Hong Kong Finds Its Voice at the UN—And Uses It to Cheerlead for Beijing”
Wanderings Around the World
The Tokyo trial is consequential not because of long-defunct Wilsonian daydreams about a world pacified by international law, but because it misfired and fizzled. While Japanese leaders have repeatedly apologized for the crimes of World War II, there is no Japanese equivalent to the near-universal national repentance of Germany today. The international lawyers and human rights activists who extol Nuremberg usually see Tokyo as an embarrassment best forgotten. The Tokyo trial is important precisely because it remains so controversial. If Nuremberg is remembered as a metaphor for moral clarity, then Tokyo represents a dive into murk.
Gary J. Bass, “75 Years Later, Asia’s Wartime Memories Linger”
Gabe Bullard, “I’m Thinking About CD Wallets”
Shoaib Daniyal, “Youth unemployment is a major problem in India – so why is it absent from national politics?”
Sam Knight, “The Disturbing Impact of the Cyberattack at the British Library”
Natan Last, “Can Crosswords Be More Inclusive?”
Standout Story
In lieu of a link, this week I’m offering a recipe—for my favorite Christmas cookies, pictured above. The recipe for these Italian Anise Cookies came from a magazine, decades ago; my mother has it saved on an index card in her recipe box. Every December we bake dozens of the cookies, wait for them cool completely, and then dip their tops in a strong anise glaze before adding some sprinkles for decoration. They’re perfect with a cup of coffee and a good book.
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp anise extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat baking sheets with nonstick spray.
- Beat sugar, butter, eggs, milk, and anise extract with mixer until blended. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder, and salt until well-blended.
- Drop rounded teaspoons of dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes until bottoms are light golden. Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.
- Once cookies are cooled completely, make the glaze: in a bowl, whisk together 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, 4 to 5 tsp milk, and 1 tsp anise extract until smooth. Dip tops of cookies in glaze and, while wet, sprinkle with nonpareils or other decoration. Let set completely.
Makes 80 cookies.
Feature Photo: Italian Anise Cookies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 22, 2023.
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 
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