Monday, October 15, 2007

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This was the book that my book club just read. This was a fascinating book. It is about two girls in China who grow up communicating with a secret language "nu shu" that Chinese women invented. This was passed down to daughters from their mothers. They write the symbols on a fan that they send to each other when they aren't together.

The book goes through in great detail of the footbinding that each girl had to endure. It sounded painful and we all wondered how could any mother make their daughters go through this--the answer is that it would help them to marry well. See the author's website for pictures: www.LisaSee.com.

These two girls (Lilly and Snow Flower) are called laotongs or "old sames" and are the best of friends until one betrays the other. I won't spoil it--you'll have to read it in order to find out what happens.

I haven't read many books about China. If you liked "Memoirs of a Geisha" (that's about Japan) then you will like this book.

2 comments:

Reene said...

Hey Colleen. I read this book for a book club also & I really enjoyed it. It was a great book. I've finally started updating my own blog (www.reenelea.blogspot.com)

1morechapter said...

I loved this book. One of my favorites.

I am the host of the Decades '08 Challenge, so if you want more info, go to:
http://1morechapter.com/decades

I saw your question about starting anywhere. Yes, that is allowed as long as you have 8 consecutive decades anywhere . The 2000's don't count, though.