Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

As promised, our book for February is "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See, published in 2009.  The paperback version came out this year.
Parts of it are very graphic and hope that doesn't offend anyone, but I think it's an important historical perspective about the Chinese female immigrant experience in the U.S.-Carole

Travel to China―literally speaking, that is. In this haunting novel, Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, follows two sisters―tall and bookish Pearl and beautiful and flirty May―as they move from Shanghai to Los Angeles in the 1930s. -Sharon Tanenbaum, Real Simple Magazine

May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides.
But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)--where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months--they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know. (Amazon.com)

Book Club Questions


Photo Slide Show


Three Generation Curried Tomato Beef Lo Mein Recipe

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Our First Book!

Stormy Weather
by Paulette Jiles
Barnes and Noble Reading Group Guide
Information about this book  


Cast of Characters (from shelfari.com)
Jeaninie Stoddard: The middle sister and main character.
Mayme Stoddard: Oldest of the girl siblings
Bea Stoddard: Youngest Stoddard girl
Jack Stoddard: Father of the girls
Ross Everett: A friend of the family who befriends Jeanine when she was nine.
Elizabelth Tolliver Stoddard: Jack's wife and mother of the girls