Peeking Between the Pages

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Book Review: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

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Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is about two sisters, Pearl and May, and starts out in the year 1937 and ending in 1957. The first part of the story brings us the sights and sounds of Shanghai and later we move on to the US and learn of the struggles they encounter there. It’s an emotional novel in many ways and it brings to light the discrimination that people feel when going to another country, the way life is for women in other countries, and the love that can exist between two sisters that can’t be broken.

Pearl and May work as Beautiful Girls in Shanghai – they pose for calendars and various advertisements. Pearl is twenty-one and May is a few years younger. They are used to and have been brought up with the good life.; they’ve never wanted for anything. Their father owns a successful rickshaw business and his girls have been given many advantages that others haven’t. With life the way it is the girls don’t really adhere to the authority of their parents or the traditions that should be followed. They are much more concerned with having fun. Both girls are outgoing but May seems to be the more beautiful one. The girls spend their time going shopping and to clubs so needless to say they are shocked when one day they are informed by their father that he has lost everything they own and he is marrying them off to save the family.

The girls are to be married off to men who have traveled from Los Angeles to find themselves Chinese brides. The girls are horrified as they had always planned to marry for love, but go along with their family’s wishes; they have no choice as they are now penniless. The girls marry and their husbands go back to the US and the girls are to follow. The girls being defiant as usual do not do what they are supposed to and end up in an even worse situation. They are now trapped in a country at war and are forced to face unbearable hardships to get out of the country – hardships that will break them both emotionally and physically.

Finally they make it to Los Angeles and to the home of their husbands which comes as a bit of a shock to them as well as they thought they were much better off than they are. However this is their life now so they work to make the best of it and at least they are still together. Life is very different for them now and many times Pearl can’t believe this is the life they are actually living. Pearl is constantly working, either at home or in the family owned businesses while May has had the opportunity to live a more carefree lifestyle even with the restrictions put on them by the family.

What I found most memorable about this book was the bond and the loyalty between Pearl and May and the courage of people to make it against all odds. As well the discrimination they suffered when coming to the US was interesting as well. it’s a shame that people aren’t just accepted for who they are and many times while reading what they went through it made me angry. Another thing of interest to me was what life was like for these women. Thankfully foot binding wasn’t happening when they were born but still women were considered as nothing in China and that even folded over to their lives in the US. They hold no value at all and that is really hard to read.

I read Shanghai Girls for Lisa See’s blog tour with TLC Book Tours and I really enjoyed it. Once I started reading it I had trouble putting it down as I needed to know what would happen next to these girls. I’ve got Lisa’s other two books, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love on my shelf and I’m really looking forward to them. I have to say that Shanghai Girls really ends in the middle of nowhere. I was shocked when I got to the last page as I still expected more story but that leads me to believe there will be a sequel and that I’m looking forward to.

You can see other tour stops for Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls here. You can purchase Shanghai Girls here in the US and here in Canada. As well be sure to visit Lisa See’s website. Stop by tomorrow when Lisa See visits Peeking Between the Pages with a guest post.


My thanks… to Lisa with TLC Book Tours for my review copy of Shanghai Girls.

Book Review: Raising Rain by Debbie Fuller Thomas

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I have been so lucky with reading good books lately and Raising Rain by Debbie Fuller Thomas was no different. I really enjoyed it. It’s a story about secrets, regrets, love, friendships and most of all forgiveness and finding peace within yourself.

The story is about four college roommates Jude, Bebe, Toni and Mare and mostly told in the present time thirty-some years later. In addition there is Rain who is Jude’s daughter but really ended up being mothered by all these women especially Bebe as Jude was deep into almost any kind of cause she could find in college. There are flashbacks to the 70’s when the girls were roommates so along the way you’re enticed by the secrets and regrets that have happened in the past but you only get to learn of them gradually.

The women are all forced to confront their pasts when Jude, who is terminally ill, decides that she wants to have a Celebration of Life before she dies. Jude is quite the character really. She’s not very nice and hasn’t been much of a mother to Rain at all yet at the same time does love her in her own way. The whole point of this celebration for Jude is for the women to find some way to mark her passing while at the same time stirring the pot of emotions that everyone is feeling for one reason or another.

Rain was raised by Jude to be ‘a new woman’. To be a woman who didn’t need a man to survive and a woman who should strive to have a career and make something of herself. Yet Rain fell in love with Hayden but they separate when Rain wants a baby and he doesn’t. Rain begins to look into options for having a baby as a single woman. But is this really what she wants at forty years old? Does she really want Hayden out of her life? Does she want to end up like her mother – bitter and angry at the end of her life? These are all things that Rain is up against throughout the novel. I liked Rain. She’s a character who seemed very real to me in her emotions and thoughts.

Bebe was another of my favorite characters. She was really more of a mother to Rain than Jude ever was from the time that Rain was a baby and this was something that Jude had been envious of to the point of limiting Rain’s visits to Bebe’s and her husbands when she was growing up. Bebe is dealing with her own emotional upheaval. Her son Scott is heading to boot camp and Dylan is heading off to college. She hasn’t spoken to her brother in years because of an incident when she was in college and that is beginning to wear on her as well.

When they all meet for Jude’s Celebration of Life some past secrets are revealed and the women deal with the deep seated emotions they have over things they did in the past especially Bebe where Rain is concerned. What you see is how the past affects the future in so many ways; ways you couldn’t even imagine. Bebe learns that God is there for her showing her the way to forgive herself and move on and Rain realizes before it’s too late that sometimes letting go is the best way to go.

Raising Rain is a novel that carries story lines that could happen to any of us. That’s its appeal; you could easily see yourself in these situations and you wonder what you might do if it were you. This book would make such a great book club selection as there are so many issues addressed within it’s pages that would keep your members talking for hours. I enjoyed Raising Rain enough that I downloaded Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon; the author’s first novel and I’m really looking forward to it.

Raising Rain was released on September 1, 2009 and you can buy it here in the US and here in Canada. Be sure to pop into Debbie Fuller Thomas’ website as well.

My Thanks…to the author Debbie Fuller Thomas and NetGalley for my eBook copy of Raising Rain.