Hey, Sis.

If you are reading this, sister of mine.  I've got two recommendations for you.

First, Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood.  A friend of mine sent this book to me as a gift a few years ago and I was hesitant to read it because I had read The Handmaid's Tale when I was in high school and had disliked it very much (why I would ever rely on some impression I had of something in high school is beyond me).  In short, Alias Grace is the story of a servant woman who was implicated in a murder of her employer in Canada in 1843, based on a true story.  It was like one of those 20/20 shows, in a way, really it is left up to the reader as to whether she did it or not.  While I don't remember which way I ended up leaning, I do remember that I felt like I really got to know personally this accused woman and sort of understood why she would have done it.  I was captured up in the story and still even now I will have flashbacks to events in the story, it was so very well done.  I think it either won or was nominated for the Booker Prize.  Right after I read this book, I went immediately on a Atwood bender and picked up The Blind Assassin, which was almost as good.  I think I may need to revisit Atwood and read Oryx and Crake or probably The Robber Bride would be better since Oryx and Crake has been compared to that darn Handmaid's Tale.

Secondly, have you read The Good Earth yet?  Can I recommend this book enough?  I know I have already talked about it in this blog (not that anyone has read enough of it to notice the double rec.).  But, seriously, I just used an example from this book when talking to my husband last night!  And...I read it four years ago.  The book's got staying power.   Also, Pearl S. Buck wrote quite a few novels, none as lauded, as far as I know as Good Earth.  One of my dinner club pals gave me Pavilion of Women and I read that shortly after.  Which was pretty good and very very interesting.  According to Wikipedia, Pearl S. Buck was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature (for The Good Earth) yet because she was raised in China (as a daughter of missionaries, as I recall), she is claimed as a Chinese author in China.  Hey, I'd claim her too, if I could.  Both books are illuminating stories of life in China.  Need I say more?  I read The Good Earth in the hospital pretty much right after giving birth to my third child.  I couldn't put it down.  It is the story of a hard scrabble life, met with the stoicism and pride of a Chinese family, their eventual rise to position and the thundering drum beat approaching of the coming revolution.  I learned so much about the beauty and honor that imbue Chinese culture, and yet was struck at how relationships transcend culture and I ached when they suffered and was ecstatic when they faced hard-won success.  Read it please at least some day so we can talk about it.  

That's all for now, I can't wait to hear what you think.