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Would any one else be interested in reading a Lisa See book this year? Eileen and I would be happy to have anyone else along :)

Oooh, thanks for setting this up Jenny! I am on hold for Island of the See Women and should get it in a couple of weeks if you want to read that one. I also have Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls (although that appears to be a duology) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I have only read Tea Girl at this point, so I'm open to suggestions!

I've only read Peony, and I intended to pick up Island of The Sea women but got Tea Girl instead haha. I can easily put Sea Women on hood at the libary. And, we can always continue on with other of her books after :)

Sounds like a plan! If no one else wants to join in, do you want to start with the Sea Women? It'll take a little while for it to show up for me as well, but once it does, I can hold onto it for as long as I want, so whenever you're ready we can get started. :)

That sounds good to me, I'll let you know when mine comes in, or you can let me know when yours comes in, whoever gets it first.

Sounds like a plan!

Ok, I just put it on hold from my library. There are 7 copies, and I am first on the holds list so no more than 3 weeks for me to get it :)

Sounds perfect!

Well, Sea Girls was supposed to be returned Wednesday so I was supposed to have it Thursday or today... its not there :( so hopefully next week haha

LOL okay. I got it in, and have a copy of it now on my mp3 player so we can start whenever you're ready. :)

I picked up copy earlier today, so if you want to start it today, sounds good to me! I'll be slow the next few days, work, but Wendsday should pick back up!

Okay, I want to finish The Light Between the Oceans first, but will start diving into this. I'm also listening to Anna Karenina, but that's on my phone/audible, while this will be on my mp3 player. So I will be able to switch back and forth. :)

Ok, sounds good to me!

I'm about 40 pages in, and I have to say this is really good so far. The characters are well written, and the setting is brought to life. Lisa See really does her research!

Yes, I started listening to the first hour and it's already quite good! I was telling someone today about how I love the research she's obviously put into her writing!

Yes, she's such a great writer!

I'm going to be delayed for a little bit while I catch up with the rest of this month's genre read. I am trying to finish Anna Karenina, although I'm okay if I don't quite make it. But I have roughly 17 hours left on it, lol! I'm also reading the Senile Squad and Looking for Alaska. Those are the last three books I'm trying to complete in the next 5 days, ha! Wish me luck!

Sorry, I just now saw your last post! I hope you did finish those books!
I'm about 2/3 of the way through this now, intended to finish, but had to stop. That last chapter was just too sad.

Okay, so I finished Anna Karenina, Senile Squad, and Looking for Alaska. I need to finish Gilead because it's a church book club book, but I think I'll try listening to both Gilead and Island. They're on two different mp3 players, so I should be able to listen to both at the same time.

Yea, it should not be a problem! I envy the fact you can listen to audio books. I can't concentrate on them, plus the fact my hearing is very bad from multiple ear infections and noise damge/tinnitus

Jenny wrote: "Yea, it should not be a problem! I envy the fact you can listen to audio books. I can't concentrate on them, plus the fact my hearing is very bad from multiple ear infections and noise damage/tinnitus"

Oh, that's unfortunate! I was NEVER much of an auditory learner but after 3ish years ago, I realized I was spending hours knitting but zero hours reading because you can't do both at the same time. So I deliberately started training my ear and brain to process auditory input. I still prefer to watch movies with subtitles because my auditory processing is still the weakest of my senses, but it's so much better than it used to be. It took at least a year before I was able to listen to audiobooks without rewinding all the time. But I kept persisting and I'm glad because it's opened up so much for me!

I do wish we were allowed to bring mp3 players to work. I work 12 hours, so it would be lots of reading time for me ha!

I love audiobooks

Wow, that's a long time! Yes, it's too bad you can't spend some of that time listening!

So I started listening to this more today and I'm about 15% of the way through. I'm also listening to Gilead and making my way through The Travelling Cat Chronicles on my kindle since the book came into my library. I didn't mean to start it today but I'm already on p. 125 because I couldn't put it down, lol. But I want to listen to more Lisa See tomorrow. I'm loving all the details that Lisa See puts into the land, the people, and the history. So interesting!

Sonya, I'm glad to hear that! It does help fit more reading for sure, since you can do other things while listening, not so much reading haha!
Eileen, I finished the last third of the book today. I will warn you, about half way through it gets really tragic. I agree, the details Lisa See puts into everything are amazing, it's like you are diving with these women for sure!

Jenny wrote: "Sonya, I'm glad to hear that! It does help fit more reading for sure, since you can do other things while listening, not so much reading haha!
Eileen, I finished the last third of the book today. I..."

Without revealing any spoilers, there's already been some tragedy in the first third of the book! I'm just slightly past the part where they've both gotten married.

Yes there has been some by that point. Young-sook is amazingly resilient, isn't she?

Very much so! I can't imagine growing up that way. By this time she's not only responsible for her family, but now she has her husband's family to take care of. And she's young! Like 20 or 21?

About 21, yea. I think when she comes back from her leaving-home water-work shes 21, about to turn 22. Just thinking about diving into that cold water makes me cold!

This is the second book I'm reading about Korean history, although I guess this is fiction. The first one I read was A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea which was absolutely tragic. But I'm thinking after this one, I need to read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story, which are both on my list. Maybe not too soon though, because they're going to be tragic however you look at it.

I'm at the part where Mi-Ja comes to visit after awhile and she's looking healthier than she has for a long time and Young-Sook is clearly not as healthy, but they go "swimming" and harvest for food for Young-Sook's family but get caught up in a round-up,....

This is fictionalized history I guess would be the right term. Reading the acknowledgements, the overall history, ie hanyeo, Japanese presence, and even the round ups like where you are at in the book really happened, as well as the things later in the book. I need to read more history/ historic fiction set in other places, most of what I read is in america or england, france or russia. I'd like to learn about more cultures.

I agree with you. I was never good at history and didn't have a huge interest in it when I was growing up (I was a math science person), but in the past couple years I've started finding historical fiction very interesting, because I'm learning about other cultures and historical times. One of the first that got me interested in this type of book (although it takes place in the US as well as Yemen) was The Monk of Mokha. I found that really fascinating!

Poking my head to say that I totally cried when Young Sook hears Mi-ja's voice over the earbuds!

Jenny!!!!!!! This was an amazing book! My God, I'm in awe of her writing and the ending, omg, the ending! Incredibly powerful and tragic book--this would have been perfect for last month's genre!

Yes, that part made me cry too, along with the incident where she lost so many... The ending was great, I'm glad she reconnected.
Shall we go on to another Lisa See, or Treasure Island?

Hmm...let's do Treasure Island first, although I want to finish Gilead first. Maybe start Treasure Island next week?

By the way, might it be fun to read Treasure Island, followed by Silver: Return to Treasure Island?

O wow, I didn’t even know there was a sequel!

Eileen wrote: "This is the second book I'm reading about Korean history, although I guess this is fiction. The first one I read was A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea which was..."

We seem to have read some of the same books recently, Eileen. I also read “A River in Darkness...� a few days ago. What an amazing story - so sad to read, & it’s tragic to know it was a true story.

Eileen, if I can find Silver, yes we can do that!

That would be cool, Jenny! But no particular timeline on that! Susy, the "sequel" is by Andrew Morton(sp?), but it had good reviews so I decided I wanted to read them together. Trisha, we have been hitting some of the same books recently! That particular one was a free book on Kindle for me, I think.