Tag: books

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See was my book club’s November pick. Sadly, only one of us had finished it at our meeting last Wednesday {it wasn’t me but I was second closest since I was on page 46}. Jamie warned us that it was a little slow to start but said once we got into it, we’d have a hard time putting it down. She was so right. Even though my new bed time is 930p, I stayed up until 11 Monday & last night just so I could finish.

This book is Lisa’s follow up to Shanghai Girls. So I might be giving away spoilers  from it just talked about Dreams, but I can’t not talk about it. I actually woke up at 4a {to pee, again} & was so haunted by the climax imaginery & scenes that I tossed & turned for 45 mins.

Set in early 1960s China, Dreams following Joy & her mother Pearl’s journey finding & reconnecting with each other & the country. While I’d read some about the Great Leap Forward in school history classes, placing Pearl, Joy & the rest of the charactiers in the middle was quite a differnent way to learn & experience this time for China. I was {& still am} shocked, appalled, & troubled by what the characters {& thus real people} went through based on the leadership they had to blindly follow.

Like other books I’ve recently read, one of the main themes was motherhood. The strong binds that tie mother to daughter. What it means to be a “family”. I loved the scenes where the women were working & talking together ~ about their history, spouse & “Little Red Sister” monthly visit. I can not imagine using a pad out of leaves alone or sand wrapped in leave {makes me all the more appreciate modern day tampons, pads & momma cloth}.

I might have given away too much. But if you’veread &  Shanghai Girls & enjoyed it, or like Chinese American literachure

I finished Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda back in September. I realized last week that I had yet to share my thoughts here. This book was my book club’s October pick. I think as a whole we liked it.

None of us have ever traveled to India, so the parts that described India, it’s culture, especially involving the lives of women were very interesting. The big city life & such wide range of poverty & richness were fascinating.

Of course the struggle to be a mother & then the discussion of what defines a mother captured my heart. It seems I’m finding infertility&  pregnancy every where these days. My book club friends & I wondered if we could do what the mothers in this novel did ~ they’re strength is remarkable in such different ways.

We spoke in book club how such different pictures of marriage were depicted in this novel & we debated who’s was better or stronger.

I enjoyed Secret Daughter a lot. I liked the back & forth narrative between the characters & because of that, by the end I felt I really connected with each of the main female characters. I’d definitely recommend this to women’s book clubs or it read on your own.

Just to put it out there, this is not a paid review; I wasn’t chosen to be part of BlogHer’s How to Be an American Housewife Book Club {sad face}. But I’d heard it was good from a bunch of other places too & it was a short list at the library, so I was looking forward to reading the book.

I finished How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway while I was in Edenton two weeks ago. I zoomed through it in just four nights {I might’ve stayed up until past midnight that Thursday because I had to know what happened}. Margaret did a great job {at least I thought so} making me feel what it would be like to be thrown into the life on an American housewife in post-WWII. I’d never really pondered the thought of the American way of cleaning, housekeeping, child-raising, cooking & what a wild experience that must look to someone from another country.

My favorite part~ that we followed Shocko’s story right up to the climax, then Margaret switched things on us as the readers. I loved following along with the story from all the perspectives.

Again this novel is Asian based. I was telling friends last weekend that I’ve read more books this year either with Asian characters &/or set in Japan or China. I’ve learned so much about these cultures & their history that I haven’t been bored. In fact, up next is another Asian book, the sequel to Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy which is my book club’s December pick.

I finished these three books over the summer & just realized I had yet to post about them. All three were non-fiction or memoirs. I read Henrietta Lacks & Same Kind of Different as Me for book clubs & Waiting for Daisy for my personal sanity.

I remember hearing about HeLa in high school science classes & again in genetics class at NCSU. I love that Rebecca Skloot heard some of the same information about the HeLa cells I had & ran with it. She turned biology class cells into a large book about the history & family of Henreitta Lacks, the real life woman who’s cells became HeLa.

I read this book mostly on the plane to & from CA, but I was too exhausted after BlogHer to make it to the book club meeting. I’d  have been interested to hear my group’s thoughts on the racial, socioeconomic, regional discussion this book produced. The Eternal Life of Henrietta Lacks also brings up debate about how cells are taken & used without much patient thought or consent. Some of the medical information was over my head/boring, but I think you would especially enjoy it if you worked or had interest in the medical field. I can only imagine how cool it would be to learn the story behind the cells you work with all day. Let me know if you’ve read this, especially if you work with or had heard more details of HeLa before reading it.

My good friend Kelly, who’s also one of the leaders of my small group Bible study, read Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore at the beginning of the summer. Shortly afterwards, she emailed us to see if we would like to read SKoDaM as a small discussion group. We read it in three 80 page chunks where we munched on yummy snacks while sharing our faith, thoughts on family, southern social history, & homelessness. We were challenged by the faith, strength, kindness & love shown in Same Kind of Different & even called to ask what we can do as a group in our own church & community.

I was reading both these two books at the same time. I went back & forth in order to try to finish both before the respective book club meetings. I actually saw some parallels in regards to how African Americans were {not that long ago} treated & grew up in the South and the consequences to that way of life. The stories told in both these non-fiction books have stuck with me even two months later. I have & do recommend both to family & friends.

While on Amazon buying SKoDaM, I did a quick search for faith-based infertility books. That resulted in discovering Hope for Hannah {in my current TBR pile} as well as Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein. I purchased Hope since I couldn’t find it at the library & requested Waiting for Daisy that same night. This was a quick read for me {so quick I didn’t take a photo before returning it to the library}.

As I mentioned in my Talking about Infertility post, knowing I’m not alone or the only one who has or is struggling with infertility is a comfort. While we haven’t had to experience IVF or miscarriages {yet}, so many times while reading, I was nodding or even reciting passages aloud to Jason. I hate that others have to deal with IF too but there is something to be said about strength & comfort in numbers banning together.

Peggy is very openly candid about their experience & it comes across in a witty way. I’d recommend Waiting for Daisy to anyone who is or has gone through infertility or who’s family & friends want to know more about what infertility is like for a woman/couple.