Book 9: February 2007
A few months ago my cousin Jenine read a book and added it to that month's Recommended Reading list. So when I turned to her to choose this month's book club selection, this same book was the first to come to mind. Please join Jenine and me in reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
Described a moving, sorrowful and realistic journey into Chinese history and female friendship that is as deeply moving, this book sounds terrific.
To help me with the wine pairing for this month, I turned to my friend Molly who has the dual talents of being fluent in Chinese and also a wine connoisseur...not to mention one of our book club members. Molly tells me that Pinot Noir would be a fine choice to pair with Chinese food, so we thought it would make the perfect pairing for this book. I couldn't find a Pinot Noir that included any clever reference to the title of our book, so pick up any Pinot Noir you favor. If there is one you especially love, or find a new one that is delicious, post it here as well.
Reviews from people we don't know:
"I love to read, it's all I do. I brought this book because of the title at first, it caught my attention and I finished it in less than a day because I couldn't put it down! I cried, I laughed and loved with the characters and felt them to be apart of me in every aspect. this is a great novel for anyone who is interested in China or just a good book!"
"This is a great book. The historical nature of the book allows for a compelling glimpse into another culture during very different times. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is extremely interesting and offers a lot of topics for discussion. I highly recommend this book for book clubs." (editorial note: no pressure, right?)
"Good read." (editorial note: this looks like a comment we'd find on our site)
Described a moving, sorrowful and realistic journey into Chinese history and female friendship that is as deeply moving, this book sounds terrific.
To help me with the wine pairing for this month, I turned to my friend Molly who has the dual talents of being fluent in Chinese and also a wine connoisseur...not to mention one of our book club members. Molly tells me that Pinot Noir would be a fine choice to pair with Chinese food, so we thought it would make the perfect pairing for this book. I couldn't find a Pinot Noir that included any clever reference to the title of our book, so pick up any Pinot Noir you favor. If there is one you especially love, or find a new one that is delicious, post it here as well.
Reviews from people we don't know:
"I love to read, it's all I do. I brought this book because of the title at first, it caught my attention and I finished it in less than a day because I couldn't put it down! I cried, I laughed and loved with the characters and felt them to be apart of me in every aspect. this is a great novel for anyone who is interested in China or just a good book!"
"This is a great book. The historical nature of the book allows for a compelling glimpse into another culture during very different times. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is extremely interesting and offers a lot of topics for discussion. I highly recommend this book for book clubs." (editorial note: no pressure, right?)
"Good read." (editorial note: this looks like a comment we'd find on our site)
If you prefer white wine, a Gewurtztemeiner would also be excellent with the zhong guo fan (translation - chinese cuisine). This looks like a great book! Thanks, Jennie.
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I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I did. Not only does it have such a deep example of the power of female friendships, I was both horrified and fascinated by the actual history of footbinding. We all know that small feet were favored, but I had no idea about the details. It was something that I thought of often while I read, and even looked up internet photos of bond feet and related x-rays because I just couldn't believe that what they were describing was what really happened.
Even more powerful to me was the way the author did not write of the women's struggles with any bitterness, but described the strength that they summoned to cope with their lot in life. I appreciated the lack of modern day judgment.
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I really enjoyed this book. It was absolutely unbelievable what the culture expected of these young girls. The whole story was fascinating and moving. Read it if you haven't started it yet!
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Okay, so I was going to sit this one out because there was a 92-person waiting list for the Hennepin County Library's 22 copies of this book. But, yesterday afternoon when I was at Target I happened across a copy and it was 20% off and I thought, "What the heck?"
Man, am I GLAD I did! I'm only about 100 pages in but I'm already hoping Trixie goes to bed early tonight so I can dig back into this.
My feet were literally aching while I was reading the footbinding stuff at the beginning; I had to set the book aside for a minute because the descriptions were just so powerful.
Anyway, great pick -- I'm looking forward to the rest!
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The same thing happened to me! I better get to Target...
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