Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

      In Shanghai Girls Lisa See takes readers farther ahead in time to 1937 China. At this time Shanghai was the "Paris of Asia". Pearl and her younger sister, May, have glamorous lifestyles. They go to parties, have great clothes, and pose for artists. Their life is wonderful until their father announces that he has gambled away their savings. To help pay back his debts he sells his daughters as wives to Chinese men from Los Angeles. When it seems like things couldn't get worse, a war breaks out. Now the sisters must travel alone as refugees to America facing many obstacles and making many sacrifices. Once in America they seek out their husbands and try to build a new life in San Fransisco as immigrants.

I have become a fan of Lisa See's novels. In Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See writes about the struggles of Chinese women in the 17th and 19th centuries. Shanghai Girls explores the lives of women in the 1900's bringing to light different and new obstacles. While marriage is still a main theme it has a much different approach.

Shanghai Girls was a fast read and the end left an opening for a sequel. I give this book a Thumbs Up! 

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Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

In Travels in the Scriptorium an old man, referred to only as Mr. Blank, awakens in a white room with no memory of who he is or how he arrived there. There are only a few items in the room: a bed, a telephone, a desk, and chair. On the desk is a manuscript about another imprisoned man in a world unlike his own. Slowly, with the help of a stack of photographs and a few visitors, Mr. Blank begins to unravel the truth about his dark past.

I picked up this book because it was a great bargain and I thought it seemed very interesting. I really like books that are strange, eerie, and much different than the bestsellers. The beginning of this book definitely had my attention. It is very similar to the beginning of Butler's Fledgling. The main characters in these novels are disoriented and have no idea who they are. So you learn about them and their surroundings along with them. The book started to lose my understanding/interest when Mr. Blank starts to read the manuscript. I was confused the whole way through and I didn't even understand the ending that ties everything together.

It took me so long to read the book because I lost interest. So I give this book a Thumbs Down.

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