Next
to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, this is my favorite Lisa See book. The story
centers around Tan Yunxian, a young woman living in fifteenth-century China.
Life was not easy for females back then—from foot binding to subservience to
men and the pressures of giving birth to a son. Tan Yunxian tries to play
along, but in her heart, she is a healer who desires to utilize her extensive knowledge,
having been educated by her grandparents—physicians skilled in Traditional Chinese
Medicine.
Tan Yunxian and her small circle of female friends offer each other
support as they forge their individual paths and strive to navigate a highly
restrictive society. Based on a historical figure, which makes this story all
the more compelling.
'Despite the inordinate limits placed on women, See allows their strengths to dominate their stories' Washington Post 'Poignant . . . quietly affecting' Time
In 15th century China two women are born under the same sign, the Metal Snake. But life will take the friends on very different paths.
According to Confucius, 'an educated woman is a worthless woman', but Tan Yunxian - born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separation and loneliness - is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. She begins her training in medicine with her grandmother and, as she navigates the…
It
had been a while since I read the first two in this trilogy about a small town
in upstate New York. I’m always interested in the drama of small towns (hailing
from upstate New York myself), but I’d forgotten how adept Russo is at this topic.
The first few chapters joggled my brain with familiar names from the earlier works, but it took a while to get my
bearings. Midway through, I was completely hooked and couldn’t wait to see how
Russo would intertwine and resolve the various plot and character threads.
Exploring
love, fatherhood, divorce, race, good cops, and bad cops, this novel made me bow
once again to Russo’s methodology: everything for a reason, everything made
right in the end.
'A wise and witty drama of small-town life . . . delivering the generous humour, keen ear for dialogue, and deep appreciation for humanity's foibles that have endeared the author to his readers for decades' Publishers Weekly
Ten years after the death of the magnetic Donald 'Sully' Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is taken over by its much wealthier neighbour, Schuyler Springs. Peter, Sully's son, is still grappling with his father's tremendous legacy as well as his relationship to his own son, Thomas, wondering if he has been all that different…
I adore Jane Austen and everything she ever
wrote and every film ever made from her works. Sadly, there were only six
novels (Sanditon, the seventh, was unfinished). So when anything Austen crosses
my path I grab it, even while knowing nothing will ever rise to the original
Jane.
I came across this takeoff of Emma by happenstance, and didn’t have high
expectations. A modernized version (not again)…on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
But the authors swiftly drew me in, and I was soon rooting for the 21st-century version of Emma and her elusive love interest, Knightley.
I read this light,
entertaining remake in a couple of days, gripped by the tension and suspense
even though I knew damned well what the (happy) ending would be!
In this witty and romantic debut novel, Jane Austen’s Emma meets the misadventures of Manhattan’s modern dating scene as two lifelong friends discover that, in the search for love, you sometimes don’t have to look any further than your own backyard.
Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex her…that is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sister’s marriage—and subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school…
By midlife, Kathryn E. Livingston
thought everything would have clicked into place. Instead, she felt like she
was falling apart. She was consumed by panic and anxiety, always expecting the
worst, until her discovery of yoga helped her find peace.
This is a memoir
about two transformative years in Kathryn’s life, an account of her
relationship with a compassionate teacher who taught her to trust herself and
the universe, even while facing the death of her parents, her children leaving for
college, and breast cancer.
Yin, Yang, Yogini is a memoir about
reinvention, with yoga as the backdrop for change—a blueprint for evolving in
midstride, learning to let go of the past, and living with trust in the present
moment.
