Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Great read!! It reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha but of course Snow Flower takes place in China not Japan. But the similarity is that these books are stories about women in the 1800's in Asia and how they live their lives with much tradition and repression.

Snow Flower is about two young girls who are sworn sisters or laotongs. Laotong means, "old sames," and when a girl signs a contract with another girl, they are matched for life. Snow Flower and Lily write on a fan that passes between them in nu shu, "women's writing," a secret writing that only women know. Here they can break out of their isolation and tell their hopes, dreams and accomplishments to their old sames.

Lily is the narrator who tells her story beginning at the age of 5 through her 80's. She tells the story of their painful and sometimes deadly foot binding tradition, how women live most of their lives in total seclusion, the unvalued status of a daughter and difficult arranged marriages. But mostly this is a story of two friends.

Twilight Series

i just finished Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse...all in the same weekend. those books are amazing and i suggest EVERYONE should read them. i also found out that shes giong to be writing two more books in the series (i forgot what theyre called). one doesnt have a release date but the other is set to be released fall of next year...it will be a long wait but what god book isnt?

Deception Point & Enrique's Journey

I finished Deception Point by Dan Brown about 10 minutes ago. Alex gave it to me to read and said it was really good. He was right! It's a fast-paced adventure packed with murder and whodunit suspense. It was a fast read for 558 pages and I would recommend it!!


I also finished Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario. This is a non-fiction account of one boy's journey from Guatemala to the United States. Enrique's mother leaves him when he is five years old for the U.S. to make a better life for her family. She works illegally so she can send money back to Guatemala, promising she'll return in a few years. As the years pass, Enrique is eaten by the desire to be with his mother. At age 14, he decides to try to find her. With only the clothes on his back, a bit of food and his mother's phone number, Enrique illegally rides the trains north. He rides on top of the trains or in empty box cars. Both places rife with danger.

Enrique tries 8 times to get to the U.S. He sees murder, torture, corruption by officials and many young people lose limbs or worse by being pulled under by the trains.

If you've never heard about this plight of poor Central Americans heading north trying to make a better life for themselves, this is a must read.