Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons, Pearl S. Buck

Sons is the second book in the House of Earth trilogy by Pearl S. Buck. The first book is about a Chinese man who works hard farming and gains land to become a great and wealthy farmer in China. He has three sons, and after his death, the land is divided between them. This book is about the three sons, Wang the Landlord, Wang the Merchant, and Wang the Tiger, a soldier and warrior. It is mostly about Wang the Tiger and his conquests, how he builds his "empire" and his army, and he has a son with the purpose of training him to inherit his warrior kingdom.

I find it interesting that Wang the elder, the father of these three sons, wanted all his sons to farm, but they all had different ideas of what they wanted in life. So it is with the son of Wang the Tiger, who has a passion for agriculture, even though forced to become a military student. It seems to have come full circle; however, there is one more book to read, A House Divided, so we shall see how things turn out.

I have to take a break from reading Pearl Buck's works. Her stories are excellent but the writing style sometimes goes on forever and is a bit dry. They are a great way, though, to immerse yourself into learning about how the Chinese people lived in her lifetime.

 

The Interior, Lisa See

The Interior, Lisa See

This is the second book in the Red Princess Mystery series, about Liu Hulan, a Chinese investigator in 1990s China. This book deals with murders, coverups, American corporations outsourcing to China and sweatshop conditions, using sex as a means to get what one wants, land grabs, and betrayal. 

Liu Hulan receives a call from an old friend who lives out in the country on a farm, she knew her in their young Communist days. But this friend's daughter was murdered and called a suicide. She was pregnant, and she also had some interesting information that could incriminate the American company she worked for. 

Meanwhile, Liu's American boyfriend, David, a lawyer in the States, receives a new job and upon digging into his first case, calls upon an old friend, also a lawyer, for some information. His friend is killed in front of him, and he narrowly escapes death. David is sent to China, and it is discovered that there are ties between the two murders. Hulan and David both look into it, while also trying to protect client privacy, which makes things even more difficult. Both of them are put in danger as they get closer to revealing the truth about each case and the way they intertwine.

Lisa See is one of my favorite authors right now. I am really fascinated with Asian cultures and learning about them in story form. I appreciate the lengths she has gone to in order to make a great story and let us peek into the culture of another way of life.

 

Saving Fish From Drowning, Amy Tan

Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan

Believe it or not, with my love of Asian-themed fiction, I have never read any of Amy Tan's work before. I have some in my TBR pile, but this was the first to surface, and I think it was a good one to start with. It's interesting how the other authors I have read, though not connected to this story at all, give background information that becomes relevant in this story. It's like reading this type of fiction can help you learn and retain more history and geography. 

Anyway, this book starts out with a foreword by the author, explaining how she came across a story written by a ghost and written down by a medium. (That could have put me off, but part of Chinese lore/beliefs is that when someone dies, their spirit stays around for a while before being released to the underworld/afterlife and they can communicate with the living at times. This was kind of along the lines of the book written by Lisa See, Peony in Love....so knowing that she was just using this as a literary device and it wasn't in fact how she got the idea for the book, I went along with it.) The book is written as a narrative by the ghost, Bibi Chen, and is about a trip to China and Myanmar that she was supposed to guide with her friends; however, she died right before the trip. She decided to tag along as a ghost anyway so she could watch over them.

Her friends go on this trip after Bibi's funeral, starting out in China and moving on to Myanmar (Burma) and there is one debacle after another, and eventually they all, except one, go missing.

This book shows how if you travel into another culture and you don't understand that culture, you can commit a lot of wrongs and offenses, and often, Americans do this, thinking that people think and act the same way that Americans do about everything...and they don't.

I don't want to give away the true meaning of the title. It literally comes from the story of a fisherman who says that by catching fish, he is saving them from drowning, being noble...but by the time he catches them all and saves them from drowning, it is too late, they have all died, so he shouldn't waste their bodies, and so he sells them for money so he can go out and save more fish from drowning.

This idea comes to fruition near the end of the book, I initially thought it would be about Americans trying to reform other cultures to progress in society, but has more to do with someone well-intentioned trying to save those he loves. I am going to leave it at that because I don't want to give it away.

I really enjoyed this book, and having traveled to another country with a culture far different from my own, I could understand how necessary it is to be considerate of the country's culture in which one is visiting.

I look forward to reading more of Amy Tan's books.

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See

Here is another lovely story by one of my favorite authors. This is the story between mothers and daughters, starting out in a remote Akha village in China in the 80's. It is about a young woman who falls in love and gets pregnant outside of marriage, and in her village, that means that her child must be killed at birth. However, instead of killing her daughter, her mother takes her to a sacred part of the forest where the women of her family cultivate the ancient tea trees in order to secretly give birth, then she treks across the mountain to the nearest city to take her daughter to an orphanage.  

Later, the man she loves returns and they marry, and she tells him of their daughter, and so they go to retrieve her, but find that she has been adopted by Americans. Her heart is with her daughter, always longing for her, but she must move on with her live, through tragedies and major changes.

Meanwhile, her daughter, adoped to a loving family, with only an antique tea cake on her person to give any clue to her identity, goes through her own struggles in America, and becomes obsessed with learning about the tea cake and her identity. She ends up learning much about the Pu'er tea made in China, and being intellectually gifted, pursues learning about the chemical and medicinal properties.

This tea cake ties them together, will it bring them together as well? 

I really enjoyed this book. It was different from her other stories, in that we learned about the Akha villages and how different they are from mainstream China. I also learned about the tea trade and how lucrative it has been historically. Not being a tea drinker, I have known nothing about tea, so I felt this gave me a bit of education on that as well.

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Imperial Woman, The Story of the Last Empress of China, by Pearl S. Buck

Imperial Woman, by Pearl S. Buck

I have read some of Pearl Buck's work previously. I was delighted to come across this one. It is the story of Cixi, the Dowager Empress of China, based on true events. She, in a way similar to Esther, was plucked form her home and paraded in front of the Emperor, and chosen to be a concubine. Not #1 but just a concubine. She was intelligent and clever, however, and she learned that in order to get in good with the Emperor she needed to befriend his mother. From there, she got his attention and soon became pregnant and gave birth to the firstborn boy. This gave her a place as Empress Mother and changed her life. She asked for education on history and current events, and soon learned how to advise the Emperor in matters of state, something that was mostly unheard of back then in the 1800s. She gained more power and eventually ruled after the death of the Emperor. 

I did enjoy this read. The one part I didn't like was the chapters are so long, sometimes over 100 pages.

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Flower Net, Lisa See

Flower Net, by Lisa See

I am so glad I stumbled upon Lisa See's books. She writes about Chinese and Chinese American culture, and she comes from Chinese stock herself.

Flower Net is the first book in the Red Princess Mysteries, about a Chinese detective, Liu Hulan, seeking to solve the mysterious deaths of two young men, one found in China, one found off the coast of California, both with similar deaths. 

This book, being a mystery rather than just historical fiction, is a little different than her other writing, but can still be appreciated for its authenticity of writing about the culture. I have two other books in this series, looking forward to reading them.

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Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

Falling Leaves, by Adeline Yen Mah

This is the biography of Adeline Yen Mah, a Chinese girl who was abused by her parents, how she overcame the abuse, and found closure. She started out life in 1930s China, and her mother died when she was very young. Her father remarried a very abusive and manipulative woman, and she was terrible to all her step children, but poured out most of her abuse on Adeline. Her father went right along with her. She was treated like vermin scurrying across the floor. 

She talks about the harsh conditions she had to live under, being the unwanted child, how her siblings turned against her, largely from parental example.

She eventually went on to become a successful anesthesiologist in the United States, and bent over backwards to honor and support her father and stepmother, and other family members, and was treated horribly for it.

It breaks my heart that someone could treat their child the way she was treated. I just don't understand it. I am just glad that even though you might have a rough beginning, it doesn't have to stay that way. You may not ever get a Cinderella fairy godmother to step in and fix everything. You may have to make that better life yourself, but it can be done.

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The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson

While I was visiting my father in the hospital in Ontario, Oregon, after he had a hip replacement surgery, I discovered a Little Free Library, and this book caught my eye. Why wouldn't it, with a title like that? I was intrigued. I brought it home and added it to the top of Mt. TBR, but it didn't stay there for long. 

This is the (fictional) story of a centenarian in a nursing home who has decided that living there is for the birds, and escapes out the window on his birthday and ends up on an adventure that changes his life. Intertwined with this adventure are snippets from his past, where we learn that although he may not be the brightest crayon in the box, he has a passion for explosives, and helped create the atom bomb. From there it goes through dealings with communists, the cold war, and Korea, and meeting not only Albert Einstein and working with him, but also befriending Albert's dimwitted half brother Herbert.

You read and can't imagine how he's going to escape the clutches of the enemy, and then when he miraculously does, he finds himself in another impossible situation. 

This book was a very entertaining read, I definitely recommend it.

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Peony in Love, by Lisa See

Peony in Love, by Lisa See

I love Lisa See's books. I am fascinated with Asian culture, and she puts so much research and heart into her books, likely because she is passionate about her own family history.

This book is a work of fiction, like most of her books, but I was not expecting this book to be what it was, a ghost story and love story rolled into one. It is a story about a young girl about to be married to a man she has never met, but after reading a certain book, becomes lovesick, and dies before being married. She becomes a ghost, and in her death and afterworld life, we learn about Chinese ideas not just on life after death, but also customs which must be performed for the dead, and to protect the living from the dead. It's very interesting and entertaining, definitely not written with American ways of thinking on anything, including monogamous marriage. 

I found it fascinating and enjoyable, following Peony in her quest to love her husband even after death, and try to take her place as an ancestor.

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The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, Kelli Estes

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, Kelli Estes, Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing

I LOVED this book. This is yet another fictional storytelling of Chinese American history. This book is based in the Seattle area and Orcas Island, going between present day and the late 1880's-1900's during the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

A young Chinese woman escapes genocide by being pushed into the water near Orcas Island and is rescued by a kind man. This is her story, and she embroiders her history and the story of her family on a silk robe, part of which is discovered years later. This story profoundly affects the family that discovered it, as well as the professor who researches its history. I am not going to say much more because you just need to read it.

Absolutely worth reading. Even though it's fiction, it gives one an idea of how the Chinese were treated. It makes me think about the Lilly White mine, near where I live in Baker City, Oregon. The mine was worked by Chinese slaves, and instead of paying them, when the mine was mined out, they sealed the workers inside and blew it up with dynamite, literally killing hundreds of Chinese.  It's sad and atrocious what mankind has done in our country's history. Reading things like this helps us remember and strive not to let things like that ever happen again.

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China Dolls, Lisa See

China Dolls, Lisa See

I find the best way for me to learn is through stories, whether fictional or non fiction. It sticks with me better in story form. That's one thing that is so great about this author, Lisa See, is they way she weaves history into her stories. This is not the first book I have read by this author, nor will it be the last. I started out with Shanghai Girls, about two sisters in 1930s China and the struggles they overcome, coming to America and moving to ChinaTown, the secrets they hide, and how they are treated as non-whites and foreigners in a country that is supposed to be a melting pot of nations. Then I read Dreams of Joy, its sequel, which is a story set in Communist China. Definitely worth reading, and very eye opening.

However, this story is a little different from Shanghai Girls. This takes place in the same time frame and general area as some of Shanghai Girls, but this is the story of three young Asian American women with very different pasts, who all end up in Chinatown in San Francisco, and all become dancers at a swanky Chinese night club. They all three carry heavy secrets, which affect their lives, careers, and relationships. 

We learn about Chinese culture in 1930s America, the family dynamic, racial prejudice, the night club life, and World War 2 and the fear it brought to Asian Americans. The Japanese were corralled into internment camps under suspicion of espionage, and Chinese had to make sure others knew they were not Japanese so they would be treated better, and not arrested. 

Despite all their challenges, they learn to overcome adversity, grow, reach for their dreams, and create a bond of sisterhood among themselves.

If you love learning about Asian culture or American history, this is a good one to read.

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2022 Books I Have Read

 JANUARY 2022

1 Kings, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Book of Luke, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Basic Drawing Techniques edited by Greg Albert and Rachel Wolf

Beadwork Basics, Ann Benson

Girl Scout Hand Book for the Intermediate Program, 1942 edition

Two-Hour Beaded Projects, Ann Benson

Old Stories of the East, James Baldwin

FEBRUARY

Bookbinding Basics, Paola Rosati

II Kings, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Book of John, Holman Christian Standard Bible

China Dolls, Lisa See

Whole 30 Food Freedom Forever, Melissa Hartwig

Toots and Other Stories, Anna Adams Gordon

MARCH

1 Chronicles, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Masters of Painting: Their Works/Their Lives/Their Times by Bernadine Kielty

Caring for Yourself While Caring for Your Aging Parents, Claire Berman

Acts, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes

Painted Garden Art Anyone Can Do, Lin Wellford

APRIL

Romans, Holman Christian Standard Bible

1 Corinthians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

2 Corinthians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope

It Starts with Food, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

Draw 50 Animals, Lee J. Ames

Creative Color for the Oil Painter, Wendon Blake

MAY

2 Chronicles, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Galatians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Ephesians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

One Glorious Ambition, Jane Kirkpatrick

Philippians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Natural Woman, Natural Menopause, Marcus Laux ND and Christine Conrad

Ezra, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Mom's Little Book of Photo Tips, Lisa Bearnson

Peony in Love, Lisa See

Colossians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

1 Thessalonians, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Growing Up with Dick and Jane, Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman

2 Thessalonians, /Holman Christian Standard Bible

JUNE

1 Timothy, Holman Christian Standard Bible

2 Timothy, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Nehemiah, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Philemon, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson

JULY

Esther, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Hebrews, Holman Christian Standard Bible

James, Holman Christian Standard Bible

1 Peter, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Priest's Graveyard, Ted Dekker

Thunder from Jerusalem, Bodie & Brock Thoene

AUGUST

2 Peter, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Children's Book of Games and Puzzles, Helen Jill Fletcher

Step by Step Beadcraft by Judith Glassman

1, 2, 3 John, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Jude, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Job, Holman Christian Standard Bible

Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

SEPTEMBER

Revelation, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Blue Tattoo, The Life of Olive Oatman, by Margot Mifflin

Family Scrapbooks, Memory Makers

Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen

OCTOBER

Flower Net, Lisa See

Creating Art at the Speed of Life, Pam Carriker

NOVEMBER

Psalms, Holman Christian Standard Version

Her Mother's Hope, Francine Rivers

A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

Proverbs, Holman Christian Standard Version

DECEMBER

Ecclesiastes, Holman Christian Standard Version

Song of Solomon, Holman Christian Standard Version

Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher

TOTAL not including books of the Bible: 36

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