Search - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Another stunner from Lisa See. She writes so beautifully and paints a breathtaking picture of time and place. Her characters came alive for me, and I loved, suffered and weeped along with them. An eye opening look at the cruel custom of foot binding, and the relationships forged by women to love and support one another in a culture where women are considered basically worthless. Completely engrossing and unforgettable. Very highly recommended.

Now this is teaching at it's best. Learning another culture at a different time through the families of two lovely young Chinese women. The customs become more understandable and their love and friendship is relatable. I found the first disc interesting but lacking the hook that is in so many other of my favorite novels. Thanks to my habit of always reading a book to the conclusion, I found the other three disks endearing, exciting and wonderful in scope and emotions. Highly recommend this to anyone who has a best friend, a Chinese relative or has an interest in history.

A touching, poignant, yet intense story of the timeless bonds between women - and how they truly guide they passages of our lives, contrary to what men think they understand. :) Set in the time of foot binding and strict social obligations, this beautifully narrated story transports you to life in a society where rules guided every minute of every day for women - if not their thoughts.

I ended up grabbing this one (abridged) because my book club is reading it, but I wasn't going to have time to read it, working too much. So, I downloaded it and listed to it. It was okay. The narrator was actually very pleasant - the story, of course, was beautiful. I guess I retain very little of my reading because I didn't see any difference - *laugh*. This is an absolutely beautiful book, one that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The foot-binding... oh, the foot-binding.

But one thing that I realized while reading this is I don't recall any books written by the males in this time-period, etc... I wonder what they really felt?

Hmmm....