Thursday, June 28, 2007

Food, Fun, and Good Conversation

Last night's book club was a success. The book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan , led us down all kinds of paths of discussion from renewed and broken friendships, to braces and botox, to rearing children and daughters.

Thanks to Tiffany for bringing such extravagant treats and Heather for the tasty cookies.


fuzzy book clubbers




double lantern




more fuzzy book clubbers

(Yes, I know the pictures are fuzzy. I wanted to protect your identities)

Monday, June 18, 2007

June Book: "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See



Foot binding, women's chambers, and laotong friendships. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, is a wonderful journey through mid 1800's China and the often times, secret life of women a man's world.

Lily and Snow Flower are matched as laotong's early in life to help them each find success in marriage and life. They're deep "true love" friendship runs the span of nearly 40 years of trial, tribulation, joy, deceit, and enduring love, loss and the trouble with forgiveness.

If nothing else, this book taught me several important personal lessons:

  • Friendships are important and should be cherised because we don't have them forever.
  • It is a wonderful thing to be a woman in a country where we have a voice, a vote, and the opportunity to be educated. Being stuck in a "women's chamber" your whole life, having your feet broken to be beautiful, and being regarded as your parents problem instead of their joy is just too rough.
  • Having the right to choose who I marry and how I live my life takes on a whole new meaning after reading the book. Choice is such a key element of life, and even though we don't think about it very much during the day, we make so many decisions, large and small, that others could never even fathom.
What were some of your thoughts on the book? Please share!

Makayla wrote a great review. You can read it HERE

Interested in more information on foot binding? Check out these links:
Color Photos of Chinese Women with Bound Feet

Listen to a story on NPR about foot binding with this link

Wikipedia article on foot binding