Received from Book Mooch pal. Will be reading it for my book group.

Read this book with my book club. Everybody was very impressed about how the impact of the famine and Wang Lung's attachment and love for his land resonates in every culture and country. We felt sorry for O-lan who devoted her life to her husband and his dream of keeping his piece of land and later helping him acquire more land. She bore stoically three boys and two "slaves" (girls) without ever complaining

Starting a Book Ray...

1. Shahrun
2. Sharlan
3. Bookworm-lady
4. Femke85
5. Estelle1806
6. Mankyi

Thank you so much for this book. I shall read it next and get it to its next reader as soon as possible.

The beauty of this story is in its simple telling. There were some very harrowing parts but no profanity or anything of an explicit nature. This lent the narrative an almost fairy tale quality and charming innocence. We follow the life and times of Wang Lung and his family. It’s a pretty epic saga and a fascinating look into life, culture and social hirachy of Chinese. I’m not claiming to be any kind of expert on China, but this book did feel authentic. I was left a little frustrated by terrors that were mentioned but left unexplained. And the passing of time wasn’t clear. My imaginings of where we were at, were usually disproved. What saddens me is that poverty, sale of women and starvation - as depicted in the book - are still current global problems (this book was first published in 1930s). Special mention has to go to O-Lan ! What a gorgeous character! Who wouldn’t want her in their corner! This is a trilogy but I feel satisfied that I am done with it after the first book. I enjoyed it, but didn’t feel compelled to keep reading the whole way through.

Packing this to post off to it’s next reader in Sweden! Lucky book. Safe travels, I hope you bring joy to your next readers.

The book was waiting for me in my mailbox when I arrived home after my vacation yesterday. What a treat! Thank you valpete and Shahrun.

I understand why this book is a classic. Simple, moving and poetic.

Now moving on to Spain! Thank you valpete for organizing this bookray.

Thank you, Sharlan, for sending it with a lovely card.
And thank you, Valpete, for sharing; looking forward to re-reading it. :)

I have been tagged with another copy of this novel, so I am sending this one to the next in line without further delay... I will ask for her address now... :)

Sent today to Femke85, who is next in the bookray. Enjoy!! :)

Thanks for sending this bookray book, Bookwormlady and thanks for sharing, Valpete. I will put it on my bedside table and will start reading when I finish my current book.

This book gave a very interesting look into the life of a Chinese farmerin the 1920’s. The book is quite old and the writing style sometimes a bit dated. A strange mix between poetic descriptions, yet completely without emotions. The death of a female child is mentioned with as much emotion and depth, as one describes how grains were mixed to make food. But this tone is also probably representative for life in those times, as female children were called “slaves” and seen as a burden. Giving birth was something done as quickly as possible and without fuss, especially during harvest time when women were expected to be back on the fields a few hours after being in labour (I feel very spoiled with my one year paid parental leave in sweden).

During the book, the farmer Wang Lung, lives through poverty and famine, but also through wealth and family-problems. It’s a very interesting book, capturing many years of a hard life.

The Good earth came to me as a bookray and it would not have been my first choice if I would see it in a bookstore. But I’m glad I’ve read it, even though it sometimes left you with a bit of a bitter aftertaste. I already have the address of the next person, so the book will soon travel again.

This book continues to travel. I might have gone a bit overboard with the stamps. Partially because I ran out of the standard postage stamps and had to use lots of lower value stamps to get to 80 sek (8€). But also because you participated in my stamps sweeps and weren’t picked as a winner (sorry! Better luck next time), so here is some sort of consolation price. Since I buy stamps from collectors to use for Bookcrossing parcels, some of them are actually quite old. Like the one with the horse and rider was printed in 1967. It’s postal value is 0,05 sek (0,005€) so I would need 180 of those to post 1 letter within Sweden.

Thank you so much, Femke85 for the book and the wonderfully stamped enveloppe! Loads of new stamps for my collection ;-) It seems 2 disappeared in transit...

I am grateful to have received this book as I probably would not have picked it myself.
Unfortunately, this left me quite unsatisfied, as I found the narrative style quite boring. I have to say I was reading other books at the same time.
I did not find the story too compelling, and this fiction did not have a real plot.
I am curious to know why this book is used as a reference for China's history, I found there were no historical details and it felt quite timeless...
Thanks for sharing, valpete.
This will now travel to the next reader on the ray.

Travelling to Mankyi.

Please let us know when you release it again...

The book arrived at my mailbox today. Thank you, estelle1806, for the bookplate and beautiful stamps ( I collect them for my husband's grandfather).

I'm finishing another book and will start with this one shortly. Hopefully, I can finish it before the Mainz BC Convention, so that I can release it there.

If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.

Mankyi recommended this book to me on the convention in Mainz. Thanks for the nice talk :-) Hope you had a good trip home!