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 1. Great Book Club Choices Set in China
 | The Ten Thousand Things by John Spurling
Hardcover Apr 2014. Paperback Apr 2015
400 pages. Overlook
Let's go back. Way, way back to fourteenth-century China. The best thing about this elegiac novel is not the absolute transport to a way of life in a country and a time far away. It's that its lessons are still relevant here. And now. This is a finely crafted landscape painting. Pick it up for its gorgeous details. Then sit back and soak that vast canvas in.
More details and reviews about this book |
 | Pearl of China: A Novel by Anchee Min
Paperback Mar 2011. 304 pages. Bloomsbury USA
Contemporary news from China might mostly be about the economy or the environment so Pearl S. Buck's glimpse of the agrarian countryside is as insightful now as when it was published in the 1930s. But much before The Good Earth and the Nobel, what was Pearl, the daughter of Christian missionaries, like? This richly imagined novel explores the question through the lens of her friendship with the only child of a peasant family.
More details and reviews about this book |
| Night in Shanghai: A Novel by Nicole Mones
Paperback Jan 2015. 288 pages. Mariner Books
What's an African-American classical music pianist got in common with a young Chinese woman living in bondage to a Shanghai mafia boss? Plenty, as it turns out. Nicole Mones shines light on black musicians in the Chinese jazz age and unearths a little-known tale of Holocaust heroism. The result is a story that soars and hits all the right notes.
More details and reviews about this book
Discuss Night in Shanghai |
 | China Dolls by Lisa See
Paperback 3 Mar 2015. 416 pages. Random House
The many shades of belonging as a Chinese American in
the 1930s are epitomized by three Chinese girlfriends in San Francisco's Chinatown. Visiting nightclubs and Japanese internment camps all in one large sweep, Lisa See delivers a beautiful story not just of friendship but also about identity and its definition in a complex world.
More details and reviews about this book |
 | The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
Paperback Jul 2014. 448 pages. Ecco
Words such as "sweeping" and "evocative" might be bandied about just a bit too frequently these days but these descriptors are just right for popular author Amy Tan's novel spanning forty years and two continents. Okay it's occasionally raunchy but don't let that faze you. The exploration of the role of power and the moving mother-daughter relationship made this one a BookBrowse favorite.
More details and reviews about this book |
 | The Bathing Women: A Novel by Tie Ning
Paperback Oct 2014. 368 pages. Scribner
We've all heard of China's Cultural Revolution but what were its effects on young people of the time? Sure, the insight into communism and politics is invaluable. But it is the novel's exploration of love, loss and friendship through the eyes of four Chinese women that makes this one a winner.
More details and reviews about this book |
 | Beijing Coma: A Novel by Ma Jian
Paperback Jun 2009. 624 pages. Picador
Who doesn't remember the iconic image of the lone Chinese man staring down the barrel of the government's massive machinery? Tank Man as he came to be called, soon became the default symbol of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the history of which is brilliantly explored in Beijing Coma. The searching exploration of China's changing political landscape made this one a BookBrowse favorite.
More details and reviews about this book |
 | Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother:
Stories of Loss and Love by Xue Xinran
Paperback Mar 2012. 272 pages. Scribner
We consider it essential reading for mothers. This is a heartbreaking glimpse at the many Chinese moms who have given up their daughters for adoption, a devastating fallout of the country's one-child policy and age-old thinking that favors boys. What's striking is the range of classes represented, the mothers are equally successful businesswomen as they are poor peasants.
More details and reviews about this book |
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 2. Book Club Q&A
The Kindred Spirits Book Club live in Warren, Ohio. They like to mix it up, alternating genres, trying to guess whose biography each member has read based on clues, and reading paragraphs out loud that they find especially compelling. Marlene Pond, co-facilitator of Kindred Spirits Book Club talks about the ways her book club has evolved over the years.  How did Kindred Spirits get started? I am a former educator and went to work at a branch library when I retired. When the branch manager of the library retired from her job (I happened to still be working part time at the library) she and I decided to form a book club. We invited some patrons of the branch to join, as well as some personal friends. Can you tell us about your meetings? Kindred Spirits meets at Panera once a month. We use Panera's meeting room and club members get whatever they would like to eat before the discussion begins. We have a half hour for eating and socializing, and then we generally discuss the book for about one hour and a half. The co-founder and I use reading guides, which we modify a bit, and then pass around to the group. We initially did this because some of the members weren't contributing very much... continued |
 3. The BookBrowse Book Club Please Join Us to Discuss:
 Night in Shanghai: A Novel by Nicole Mones
Published Jan 2015, 288 pages
In this stunningly researched novel, Nicole Mones not only tells the forgotten story of black musicians in the Chinese jazz age, but also weaves in a startling true tale of Holocaust heroism.
More about this book | Join the discussion  The Wonders by Paddy O'Reilly
Published Feb 2015, 288 pages
The Wonders will appeal to fans of Sara Gruen's Ape House and Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - and anyone who's ever questioned the nature of fame, our kinship with the animal kingdom, and the delicate balancing act of life and death.
More about this book | Join the discussion
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4. Books to Win & Discuss
Each month BookBrowse members can request books to to either review or discuss in our First Impressions and Book Club offers (which are one of the many benefits of membership.)
To celebrate our new Book Club newsletter, we are sharing a limited number of copies of two of these books with you.
If you win a copy of one of these books you will receive a print "advance reading copy" (ARC) by mail free of charge within a couple of weeks, with the understanding that you'll do your best to read it and then participate in a discussion on BookBrowse. Discussions stay open for about 3+ weeks so you have plenty of time to participate at your convenience, but early participation is much appreciated as we rely on those who receive a copy of the book to form the heart of the discussion.
We welcome visitors from all over the world but for a number of reasons including the logistics and cost of shipping overseas the publishers who are providing these books can only send to US addresses.
Offer closes Friday, Feb 20 at 12pm ET.
  Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway
Putnam Books, publishes 04/07/2015. Novel. 400 pages. 10 copies available
About this Book: The award-winning author of How to Be an American Housewife returns with a poignant story of estranged sisters, forced together by family tragedy, who soon learn that sisterhood knows no limits. Discussion will open April 13 and will stay open for 3+ weeks Enter to win a copy of this book
When the Night Comes: A Novel by Favel Parrett
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, publishes 04/21/2015. Novel. 256 pages. 35 copies available
About this Book: From the award-winning author of Past the Shallows comes a remarkable novel that weaves together the lives of a young girl from Tasmania and a sailor in search of meaning, whose brief encounter leaves a lasting impact on both.
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Back issues of BookBrowse HighlightsYou might also be interested in the content of our About section, including how we got started, profiles of our editorial staff and reviewers, and answers to frequently asked questions. |
