The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan was published in 1989, but the themes of this book are timeless. This story of Chinese born women and their American daughters goes back and forth in time from present day to before 1949.
Blurb from the back of the book: "Each story . . . weaved the reader through a world where the Mood Lady can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage at two and delivered at twelve, can with cunning, free herself' where a rich man's concubine secures her daughter's future by killing herself, and where a woman can live on, knowing she has lost her entire world."
I look forward to reading this book again. Five out of five stars.
This book is beautifully written and contains so many good quotes.
"My father thinks she was killed by her own thoughts" (5).
"All these years, I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me" (64).
"I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water" (64).
"But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up wedged under a too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life" (122). I loved the symbolism of this passage.
"Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever" (239).
"In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you" (289).
Blurb from the back of the book: "Each story . . . weaved the reader through a world where the Mood Lady can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage at two and delivered at twelve, can with cunning, free herself' where a rich man's concubine secures her daughter's future by killing herself, and where a woman can live on, knowing she has lost her entire world."
I look forward to reading this book again. Five out of five stars.
This book is beautifully written and contains so many good quotes.
"My father thinks she was killed by her own thoughts" (5).
"All these years, I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me" (64).
"I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water" (64).
"But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up wedged under a too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life" (122). I loved the symbolism of this passage.
"Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever" (239).
"In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you" (289).
Read to a child today even if that child is you.
As part of Corbin Canfield's Eagle Scout project, he received cash donations for our NICU book project. I have ordered those books and will post pictures of them when they come in.
As part of Corbin Canfield's Eagle Scout project, he received cash donations for our NICU book project. I have ordered those books and will post pictures of them when they come in.
Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.
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