Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

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This true story the author uncovers in her research is shocking, and it’s hard to imagine that just 60ish years ago, the U.S. was treating African Americans in this way. It was a really eye-opening book for me, and I felt like I was telling all my friends about this book as soon as I was done reading it.


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This book! Ah! I really loved this one. Someone recommended this book to me a while back, and for the life of me I can’t remember who it was. If it was anyone reading, then thank you!! As you may know, historical fiction is my favorite genre, and this one took me right into rural 19th century China where young girls were being foot-bound. This is a historical phenomenon I honestly didn’t know anything about before, but I always sort of wondered about it (maybe everyone does?). This book explains the whole process in detail, and it’s really interesting to see how this practice shaped Chinese culture.

Aside from the historical context of this book, I also really connected with the characters and empathized with them during their journeys. Excellent read!

Rebecca

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This was another book that I had on my reading list that I didn’t know anything about before picking it up. The fictional story takes place in England in the 1930s, which was actually when the book was written. It follows the story of a young girl who starts off as a poor maid to a rich old lady, who falls in love with a handsome man almost twice her age, marries him, and then finds herself in charge of his beautiful and famous manner on the water. The main character – who is weirdly not named throughout the whole story – is haunted by her new husband’s late wife, who seems to be everything she’s not. Whereas the main character is young, inexperienced, awkward, from a poorer background, and introverted, her husband’s late wife was beautiful, brilliant, funny, outgoing, well-bred, and commanding.

Again while the story line was interesting, the writing here is really what stood out to me. The author does a great job of making you feel exactly what the main character is feeling, which sometimes is awkward and very introverted behavior (these parts made me cringe!). It was a beautiful story with a couple of twists, and I’m planning to go back and reread this one in a couple of months.

A Man Called Ove

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Ok, this was a book I wanted to love but I think I just didn’t get it. This book had tons of great ratings and I even got a couple of comments from you guys saying you loved it, but I think it just wasn’t for me. While I did enjoy the list to data character development of the grumpy old man named Ove – and I especially liked finding out why he was so grumpy – I didn’t like it enough to feel really wowed by the book and I was honestly kind of happy when it was over so I could move on to something else. In fact, I almost didn’t even include this book on this list but I know a lot of other people really enjoyed it and it wasn’t that I hated it or anything, so I am still throwing it up here. If you read this book and loved it, please enlighten me!

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Question(s) of the day: Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What’s the best book you’ve read lately?

The studio was located in a strip mall so I honestly wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised by how big and bright the studio felt. I also loved the mural on the wall below that says “Happiness Grows Here.” Yes! Also, there was tape on the floor to mark different stations for where to unroll your yoga mats, which I thought was so helpful!