A really good book...

D

dpiglet

Cathlete
I am always on the lookout for good things to read, and the last great book I read was recommended by Sparrow....."Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"....thanks so much Sparrow, it was one of those books I didn't want to finish because I did not want to leave "my friends". I just finished another one that made me feel that way. It is: "An Unfinished Life" by Mark Spragg. The public libraries in Az did something a couple of months back.....kinda like one huge book club, they picked one book for the whole state to read. The kids got "Everything on a Waffle", which according to my 12 year old dd was excellent. The adult selection was the book by Spragg. It was one popular book.....I just got it last week there were so many holds for it, and I ended up having to read it in large print....but it was so good that it didn't matter. A lovely, lovely story that just made me smile. Anyway, just had to share.

Donna
 
Sorry donna, this has nothing to do with your post. I just have to comment on how beautiful your dog is! I have a Chocolate lab named BAiley:)
Randi
 
Donna,

I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan right now. It's a wonderful book and I thank Sparrow for recommending it. It's written simply and beautifully and grabs your interest in the first paragraph. I know what you mean about not wanting it to end. I feel the same way and have been stalling on the last few chapters. I don't care much for contemporary fiction, but this book is a gem. I'll have to check out the other book you mentioned. I don't think I've ever heard of it.

Sparrow, if you can recommend another book that is similar to Snow Flower, do tell!
 
I'm going to have to check out that book.

(I'm also really taken with Bailey. He's a beauty and I just get this great feeling about him from his picture. How I wish I were home enough to own a dog. Sorry for the digression.)
 
>Donna,
>
>I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan right now. It's a
>wonderful book and I thank Sparrow for recommending it. It's
>written simply and beautifully and grabs your interest in the
>first paragraph. I know what you mean about not wanting it to
>end. I feel the same way and have been stalling on the last
>few chapters. I don't care much for contemporary fiction, but
>this book is a gem. I'll have to check out the other book you
>mentioned. I don't think I've ever heard of it.
>
>Sparrow, if you can recommend another book that is similar to
>Snow Flower, do tell!
>

Yay! So glad you are enjoying it. And Donna, I'll add An Unfinished Life to my list. Sounds good.

As for other good reads along the same lines, hmmmmm....for more Chinese women's history there is Wild Swans, non-fiction but it reads like an epic novel. Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say about it:

Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her "husband" with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later "rehabilitated." Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University. Her meticulous, transparent prose radiates an inner strength.

For fiction, I'd say The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan (actually anything by Tan IMO but I find that people either love or hate her, so I recommend with some caution.) Or, we can leave China for India and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart. The writing is not as delicate as in Snowflower but the characters are equally as compelling. Here's the link for synopsis and review:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03...f=pd_bbs_3/102-7496196-5121715?_encoding=UTF8


I also really liked her Mistress of Spices, until the end when things got weird. :D

Sparrow

'Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow - what a ride!’ — Peter Sage
 
I tried an Amy Tan book not too long ago and just could not get into it....I think it was The Bonesetters Daughter.....it just didn't grab me, but I have heard she is wonderful, maybe I need to try something else by her, Sister of my Heart sounds like a good one too! My kids and I are such library rats.....we must go at least 3 times a week, usually getting way too many books. I scan every "recommended reading" section I can find anywhere to look for new things to read......acutally go around with spiral notebook to jot down ideas....yeah I am such a nerd!!

Randi! I have two other labs as well. a chocolate 12 year old lab named Abby and a 2 year old black lab named Corbin. Yeah, we were going with the "ABC" thing.
Nancy- Bailey is the middle guy at 5 years old, and is "my" doggie...we thought we were gonna lose him earlier this year when he contracted valley fever....I think the picture was taken when he wasn't feeling all that great....but he does have the sweetest nature....except when he is in the pool, fighting with Corbin over the toys!!

Donna
 
Labs are the best kind of dogs to have IMO:) My lab Bailey is 9 and she still acts like a puppy, but better behaved! I wish my parents would have got another one so she could have a buddy:)
Have a good weekend donna!
Randi
 
Shelley sent me Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. It took me a while to finish it, since I got it at a time when I was running around so much, but when I got to the last chapter I felt a little panic that I was running out of pages to read. Atwood is a brilliant writer, and along with Carol Shields, is one of my favorites. And they happen to be Canadian. :)

Pinky
 
>>Donna,
>>
>>I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan right now. It's a
>>wonderful book and I thank Sparrow for recommending it. It's
>>written simply and beautifully and grabs your interest in
>the
>>first paragraph. I know what you mean about not wanting it
>to
>>end. I feel the same way and have been stalling on the last
>>few chapters. I don't care much for contemporary fiction,
>but
>>this book is a gem. I'll have to check out the other book
>you
>>mentioned. I don't think I've ever heard of it.
>>
>>Sparrow, if you can recommend another book that is similar
>to
>>Snow Flower, do tell!
>>
>
>Yay! So glad you are enjoying it. And Donna, I'll add An
>Unfinished Life to my list. Sounds good.
>
>As for other good reads along the same lines, hmmmmm....for
>more Chinese women's history there is Wild Swans, non-fiction
>but it reads like an epic novel.
>
For fiction, I'd say The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
>(actually anything by Tan IMO but I find that people either
>love or hate her, so I recommend with some caution.) Or, we
>can leave China for India and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's
>Sister of My Heart. The writing is not as delicate as in
>Snowflower but the characters are equally as compelling.

>I also really liked her Mistress of Spices, until the end when
>things got weird. :D
>
>Sparrow
>
>'Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of
>arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but
>rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn
>out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow - what a ride!’ — Peter Sage

Sparrow,

Thank you so much. I have added these selections to my wish list. I think I'm leaning towards Wild Swans to start and then on to Amy Tan.

I just picked up The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Have any of you read that? I've heard rave reviews so I'm going to start it as soon as a I finish Snow Flower. I've paused my reading because I don't want it to end, but I'll probably finish it today.

Thanks again Sparrow. I can always count on you to suggest a good book!
 
I tried to read Wicked but didn't care for it.
An unfinished life is very good. A real fun laugh out loud book is Skinny Dip by Carl Haissan. Just finished Empire Falls and that wasn't bad. Also just read Joan Didion's The year of Magical Thinking.
Jen
 
Oh hooray for books!

I have some recommendations:

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie Macdonald

Anything at all by Alice Munro, who is another Canadian author and writes absolutely beautifully. She has a lot of collections of short stories, which are all brilliant.

I've read a few Amy Tan books, and found that there was a sameness to all of them that I got a bit frustrated with after a while.

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews was a great book too.

(Gotta push those Canadian authors whenever I can;))
 
The Time Travelers Wife is one of my all time favorite books....and believe me I have read a LOT. I just though of another one that I loved, it is The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. Of course one of the reasons I loved it is because it's setting was in my hometown.....East Providence, RI and I got the biggest kick out of his descriptions of all the places I grew up in and around. Thanks Shelley, and all of you, just added a bunch of recomendations to my little book!!

Donna
 
Shelley, I have Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Munro. This is one book I'd love to read again.

Other writers whose books I'd devour in a heartbeat would be Ursula Hegi, Barbara Kingsolver, and Julia Alvarez. I also love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, although I'd love to have enough time (and silence) to enjoy and dissect his prose.

Another book that touched me so unexpectedly was Man and Boy by Tony Parsons.

I'm currently reading Expecting Adam by Martha Beck. I've had this book forever and haven't had the time to read it. It's about the author's life as a mom of a boy with Down's Syndrome. I can connect with parts of her struggle.

Pinky
 
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