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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan


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Has anyone read this book by Lisa See? I just finished it, as it is our book club selection for October. It has a fascinating history of women in a remote area of China, the secret language that they invented and their interpersonal relationships. It also discusses in great depth the subject of foot binding. Just reading the descriptions made my feet hurt, and to think of the things those little (6yr old) girls had to go through to get what were considered beautiful feet (golden lilies). For comparison, I believe the author said the perfect foot size was the size of your thumb from the top to bottom. If you look at an adult thumb that is only about 3 inches long. I thought this was an excellent book both from a character standpoint and from the standpoint of learning about another culture. I like reading books where I can learn about other cultures, so was happy our club found this one. My book club just finished reading the Kite Runner and Reading Lolita in Tehran, so I guess you can say we are vicariously travelling the world this year. Before I leave, another old but good book about China is The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. I read it before I read Snow Flower, so it was interesting to compare the history and characters that were found in them

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lthomass, that's a book I've been wanting to read. Thanks for posting about it; it's a good reminder to me. I love all books about China, but especially about the women of China.

Another book you might be interested in is called "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" by Jung Chang. It's an autobiographical account of the lives of her grandmother, her mother, and her own life. I loved this book because it begins with her grandmother coming of age in pre-communist times. Her life was very different from that of her daughter, who was a strident communist. And HER daughter, the author, also led a different life from that of her mother, and made different choices for herself (insofar as she COULD make a choice under the communist regime). I came out of that read with a much better understanding of the 20th century in China.

So I'm looking forward to your book. :( Thank you.

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