Nu Shu

I finished the book! It left me a little teary-eyed, but maybe that's just hormones :)

Am so intrigued by the idea of nu shu and that it actually existed! Funny how such a beautifully kept secret art has evolved into passing notes in class that say, "Do you like ___? Circle YES or NO" - LOL!

Cathy

mother's love = tough love

This morning I sat next to an Asian woman reading Snowflower and the Secret Fan. She told me that her grandmother's feet had been bound. She discovered this as an 8 year old girl when she pulled off her grandmother's socks while she was sleeping. Her grandmother always kept them covered, and it was sort of a mystery. She said that reading the book has given her some insight on the way her mother treated her, and the way her grandmother treated her mom.

I find it so interesting that the Chinese characters for "mother love" are pain and love together. I guess an American translation would be "tough love." I think this concept is depicted very well in The Joy Luck Club (does this book conjure up images from that movie for anyone else?) with Auntie Lindo's story. I'm sure we've all experienced some "tough love" in our lives and I wonder if there are roots of it in other cultures.

~Huey-Tyng

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Who's been reading? I have! And may I just comment: Footbinding - OUCH!!! I'm at the part where Lily has just read the note from Snow Flower while on the way to her new hubby's. But I'm scared to read on b/c I have a feeling the story is about to take a dark twist! How far into the book is everyone else? Thoughts???

Cathy

Eat, Pray, Love the MOVIE

Check it out. What do you think?

Question about Eat, Pray, Love

We touched on this briefly during our book club discussion, but I just thinking about when Liz was in India and how she was trying not to be a social butterfly anymore and then she got the job as the greeter person at the Ashram. She was trying to do one thing, but the universe wanted her to do the opposite. Do you think that sometimes we have to push ourselves to be different than who we are despite the obstacles? Do you think that as much as we hate it, we have to go against our nature sometimes or do you think that we should always remain true to our essence? Is there a way to negotiate the two? Or is the universe ultimately in control and we must go where the wind carries us?

First Book Club

So, we had our first book club yesterday, February 3, 2008 - also the day of the Super Bowl (which the Patriot's lost... quite the travesty to their season). I think it was a great time for sharing thoughts, laughter, food and a slew of other good things.

I can't really recap the afternoon for you because that is not my forte (because my obvious calling is writing emails and creating blogs during work), but after chit-chat and chowing, we did manage to discuss Eat, Pray, Love and how we related to it. If there are any other lingering thoughts that you'd like to send out into the universe or at least to your fellow book club ladies, then please do so on the blog. I'd love to hear anything from those that weren't able to attend!

I hope that this blog will help us track our progress with reading our next book, Snowflower and the Secret Fan as well as stimulate deeper discussion as we read.

Until we read again...