Synopsis from Library Journal:

“I wasn’t born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha….I’m a fisherman’s daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan.” How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother’s death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri’s chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Under the tutelage of the renowned Mameha, she becomes a leading geisha of the 1930s and 1940s. After the book’s compelling first half, the second half is a bit flat and overlong. Still, Golden, with degrees in Japanese art and history, has brilliantly revealed the culture and traditions of an exotic world, closed to most Westerners.

Why it’s a favorite:

As you can see from the synopsis, this is the kind of book that is a completely different world from the one I normally inhabit. But that’s the magic of reading. Peeking inside a geisha’s life was an eye-opener for me. I know it’s fiction but it felt so real. I hurt for the little girl who was treated in such a cruel manner. And, I was fascinated by costumes and rituals of the geishas. It satisfied my inner peeping-Tom, but it was also a well written and engrossing tale.

I highly recommend this book, if you haven’t already read it. Check your library or used book store or, it’s now in paperback at Amazon.

My Favorite Reads is sponsored by Alyce of At Home With Books. Visit her for more favorite reads.

This past year I’ve been re-reading some of my favorite books from years past. I know many people don’t like doing that but, for me, it’s very much like visiting old friends. And now Alyce from At Home With Books is sponsoring a weekly gathering to share My Favorite Reads.

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The Joy Luck Club

by Amy Tan

Putnam, 1989

My Rating: A+

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a favorite read from the 1990′s. First let me share the summary from Wikipedia:

The book focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families who start a club known as “the Joy Luck Club,” playing the Chinese game of Mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods. The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four sections to create sixteen chapters. The three mothers and four daughters (one mother, Suyuan Woo, dies before the novel opens) share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes. Each part is preceded by a parable.

The club itself is actually for the four mothers. The woman who died, Suyuan, was the creator of the club while she was still in China. The other three members ask Suyuan’s daughter to take her place in the club. And thus begins the journey of understanding the experiences, the dreams and the hopes of the mothers. Suyuan’s daughter learns why her mother created the club.

“I thought up Joy Luck on a summer night that was so hot even the moths fainted to the ground, their wings were so heavy with the damp heat. . . .

“My idea was to have a gathering of four women, one for each corner of the mah jong table. I knew which women I wanted to ask. They were all young like me, with wishful faces. . . .

“Each week one of us would host a party to raise money and to raise our spirits. The hostess had to serve special dyansyin foods to bring good fortune of all kinds –dumplings shaped like silver money ingots, long rice noodles for long life, boiled peanuts for conceiving sons, and of course, many good-luck oranges for a plentifulk sweet life.

As is often the case with immigrant families, the daughters of the Joy Luck Club were raised to be independent Americans and to go their own way. They were fuzzy on the stories of the old country. Now as Suyuan’s daughter starts to learn her mother’s story, the other daughter’s become involved as well.

The Joy Luck Club is available at Amazon

The Cooking School Murders

Virginia Rich

E. P. Dutton, 1982

Rating: A

Are you a cozy-mystery lover? Do you like that cozy-mystery mixed with talk of food? There are plenty of books available now that fill both of those qualifications. One of my favorites is from the early 1980′s. It’s The Cooking School Murders by Virginia Rich. For me, it was the beginning of the culinary mystery books. I don’t know that it was the first ever. Probably not. But it was the first culinary mystery I read.

Synopsis from the book jacket:

The elite of Harrington, Iowa (population 4,785) have gathered for an advanced cooking class. But when one of the students is found with her throat slashed, the other chefs, including our Mrs. Potter, home for her yearly visit,  are the prime suspects. The weapon? The thin, sharp, six-inch French boning knife displayed in class that evening.

As Mrs. Potter muses, “Everything that happens in New York happens here. The only difference is that here you know the people.” Dignified but down-to-earth,  proper but never prissy, it is Mrs. Potter who unwittingly discovers the surprising culprit.

Why I Like It:

The main character, Eugenia Potter, is a first class protagonist. She reminds me of Miss Marple – only Americanized and about forty years later. She is called Mrs. Potter through most of the book, only by her first name when with friends. She relies on her knowledge of people and her intuition. She politely pokes, prods, and listens to gossip to help her solve the crime.

There are plenty of other interesting characters and, of course, I liked all the talk about menus and food. I especially like one discussion about the fads in food tastes. At the time they were bemoaning the fact that mashed potatoes and gravy was no longer “in.” Inside the book, the cover pages are filled with some of the recipes eaten during the coarse of the story.

The plot moves along nicely and the mystery, at least for me, was a good surprise at the end. The author’s dialogue style is very realistic. I felt as if I were right there in the middle of the conversations. I first read this in the 1980′s and it still stands solid as a re-read.

About the author: Virginia Rich was the wife of a rancher in Arizona. They also had a house off the coast of Maine, just like Mrs. Potter. The Cooking School Murders was her first novel. She wrote two more books and had extensive notes for more. Her death interrupted the fourth novel. Nancy Pickard completed the fourth novel and went on to add two more for  a total of six Mrs. Potter novels.

My Favorite Reads is a meme sponsored by Alyce of At Home With Books. Check her blog for more of her favorite reads and those of others.

The Cooking School Murders is available at Amazon

I have so many favorite books I’ve read over the years. Those are the books where I still remember the characters or the ideas promoted in the book or perhaps a certain way it made me feel. I saw one of My Favorite Reads at a recent Library Sale.

September by Rosamunde Pilcher, St. Martin’s Press, 1990

Synopsis from the book jacket:

As the novel opens, “invitations are being written for a party in September. September is an extraordinary month in Scotland, when a brief but glorious summer is ending and the long, gray winter has yet to begin. It is a time of almost frenzied rounds of parties and house guests and reels. September is a month when marriage is proposed and marriages break up, when even normally reticent Scots, Londoners, and Americans drink a little too much, dance a little too late into the night, when promises are made, hearts are broken, and long-buried family secrets can come to light.”

Why it’s one of my favorites:

I first read this book back in the 1990′s and I still remember the characters, especially the main character, Violet Aird. Violet is still the same, steady as she goes. She’s coming up to her 70th birthday and she’s the matriarch of her family. She is not a powerhouse matriarch but a quiet, gentle person who worries about her family. She knows it’s best not to force them into doing what she thinks is best for them. She may be a quiet person but she is not silent. Violet likes to guide with little nudgings. Her family and friends tell her not to worry. But Violet says that all mothers worry about their families. Of course we do. I always thought that I’d like to be like Violet Aird when I got to that age. Well, now that I’m getting close to that age, I still want to be like her.

September is the kind of book a person should spend time with and savor. At 536 pages you can’t race through it anyway. It’s definitely a book to settle in with. And now is the perfect time to read this kind of story: the hectic Summer pace is over and it’s not yet time to start in with all the holiday planning. Just the right time to settle in for a good book that feels like visiting with old friends. Try visiting with Violet Aird and her family, friends and neighbors.

To read about more bloggers who are featuring My Favorite Reads, visit Alyce at At Home With Books.

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