I find that I am past my phase of only wanting to read light and cheerful books. I think The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, which I still strongly recommend, was the beginning of the end of that. So the following list will be a mix of things, a combination of what I have read since I last wrote to you and other titles that those titles brought to mind.


The first title is actually not a book, but an audiotape. For some reason I have been reluctant to delve into Amy Tan’s books, though “The Joy Luck Club” is one of my favorite movies and it was a treat to hear her in person at one of MPR’s Talking Volume events, discussing the creation of The Bonesetter’s Daughter. I just love the sound of her voice. So it occurred to me to get the above title on tape.

It turned out to be one of the most absorbing and powerful stories I have ever listened to. My impression is that the book is divided into thirds. In the first third, Amy Tan narrates in the voice of Ruth, the forty-something Asian/American woman who lives with her boyfriend and his two spoiled daughters. She describes her upbringing in the U.S. and her current struggles with her mother who, while always a difficult person, appears to be increasingly confused. One weekend, while her mother is in the care of her aunt, Ruth finds a manuscript in her mother’s house that is written in Chinese and realizes that her mother has written the story of her life in rural China.

This brings you to the middle of the book, which is narrated in the voice of the mother, by Joan Chen, a Chinese actress who has done work in the U.S.. It is through this wonderful reading, heavy with a Chinese accent, that we learn of the mother’s unusual and at times catastrophic life before she came to America. Here the book takes its place among the best of historical fiction, describing the family system, the village lifestyle, the superstitions, the businesses, and even weaving in the discovery of the bones of Peking Man. Ruth learns all of this for the first time as well, and is able to appreciate some of the reasons for her mother’s strange behavior now and when Ruth was a child.

The last third of the book brings Ruth and her mother into the present again, as Ruth attempts to figure out her mother’s care and living situation while realizing that she (Ruth) has gained a better sense of her own place in the world.

I can’t emphasize enough how powerful this book is on tape, owing to the amazing reading that Tan and Chen give it.

Around this time I also started reading historical fiction for the first time.

Girl With A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, is about a young girl who is hired out to work as an assistant to the artist Vermeer in order to support her family. He teaches her to mix paints and ready his studio daily, and he realizes that she has a very keen eye for color, light, and composition. They also both become aware of a certain tension between them, which must be hidden from the mistress of the house and the other servants, who are prone to jealousy and back-stabbing. Chevalier paints a fascinating and realistic portrait of life in 17th century Amsterdam, and the politics that go on between rich and poor. The title of the book comes from a famous portrait by Vermeer, and how that portrait came about is worked into the story in a most riveting way. This is a short, easy read and well worth it.

I followed that one with another by Chevalier titled Falling Angels. This story is set in the early 1900’s, as London is moving out of the Victorian Age and the suffragette movement is just beginning. It focuses on two young girls and the changes they and their families are going through. A strange twist to this story is the girls’ fascination with the cemetery near their home and the relationship they form with a boy there who is a gravedigger. The story is told in alternating chapters from all the different characters in the book, adding a very interesting perspective. Strange, but good.

I would also recommend a wonderful novel by Susan Vreeland titled The Passion of Artemisia. I couldn’t put this book down. It is based on the real life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a 16th century artist in Italy trying to survive during a time when a woman was rarely taken seriously as an artist. As the story opens young Artemesia is on trial for accusing a local artist and mentor of rape. When the trial is over her father (who she later realizes has betrayed her) feels it is best to ship her out of town and marry her off to a distant relative. The rest of the story is about her marriage, her growth as a major artist of the time, her various patrons, her successes, her defeats, and her relationship with her father. I was truly sorry to see this book end.

Another very quick read in the genre is Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman. It is a fictionalized account of a period in the life of the artist Mary Cassatt, her very sickly sister, who posed for her, and some well known people who enter the story.

Last on the historical novel list (so far) is A Name of Her Own by Jane Kirkpatrick. Based on a true story and real people, it takes place in the early 1800’s, shortly after Lewis and Clark have made their expedition west. The main character is Marie, a Native American woman (from the Ioway tribe) who is married to Pierre, a half Indian/ half French fur trader. At the start of the book they have a baby and a toddler, and Marie and the children are about to be left behind in St. Louis as Pierre leaves on another expedition west sponsored by the wealthy Astor family of New York.

Marie (who through most of the book is only called femme by her husband), talks her way into joining the expedition with the children, and most of the book is about the grueling journey and all the hardships and situations they went through and encountered, including her battles with her hard-drinking, ill-tempered husband, and her meeting with Sacagawea.

You won’t believe anyone could survive this type of expedition, but she did. I learned a lot of history here that I never learned in high school, and the story kept me up late several nights in a row.