Will be sending out on a bookring before I read it.

kymberlie in USA (Texas)
savannahblue in USA (Oregon)
HikingReader in USA (Wisconsin) *
tho in Portugal (Lisboa) *
Virgulina in Portugal (Lisboa) *
fflloorr in Portugal (Lisboa)*
PreciousArwen in Portugal (Setúbal)*

*Able to ship anywhere.

And then back to me :-)

Received this at some point while I was in the hospital. Going to be read it as soon as I can so I can send it to savannahblue.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. It seemed almost like poetry as opposed to prose. The flashbacks to ancient China were amazing and the rich details of the porcelian pieces made me want to immediately visit a museum to see the type of perfection that she was describing. Mones is an extremely talented writer and I look forward to reading her first novel, Lost in Translation, and any others that she writes.

On a side note, while I know you should never judge a book by its cover, the cover on this novel is absolutely stunning. The colors are beyond lovely and it actually seems to glow. The subtle Chinese characters repeated throughout the background and the beautiful picture of a cup is so perfect - very hoi moon.

Mailed today to savannahblue. Hope you enjoy it!

just rec'd today from kymberlie. what a gorgeous cover! thanks for sharing, zmrzlina. will start tonight and keep it moving.

i'm crazy about this book. i didn't want to put it down, slowed my reading as i neared the end, not wanting to finish. i found myself thinking about it during the day, feeling the air of Jingdezhen and Hong Kong. . .(we lived in thailand for a while, so it wasn't too hard to summon.)

and then to find that the author lives in my city - maybe i'll get to hear her read sometime. can't wait to find a copy of Lost In Translation.

thanks so much for sharing, zmrzlina - sending on to the next bookring member.

Pay me no mind...I am playing with the status feature on the new version of BC :-)

Oh dear, I think I forgot to journal when I received this, which was about two weeks ago.

I was so excited to start reading it, that it went immediately into my bookbag and I have been devouring it since school got out! I really enjoyed this book, and while it is not a life-changing type of novel-- I have to say I loved inhabiting it and I will miss it now that I am finished.

I loved the delicate prose and the wonderful descriptions of art, characters, and places. Really an interesting subject and I will surely read other works by Mones. Anyone know if "Lost in Translation" has anything to do with an independent film of the same name? Just curious...

Thanks so much for offering this and I will pop it in the mail tomorrow to tho.

Just received it - and really looking forward to read it, especially after seeing the other journal entries ...

I quite enjoyed this book ... It's not exactly what I had expected, which was an art mistery novel, but it's a bit more than that. I loved the description of all the Chinese porcelain, it made me want to know so much more about that... And the main character, Lia, is quite unusual and interesting. There's also a bit of romance, of course, but written in a way that only adds interest to the story, and doesn't divert from it. The smells and sounds of China are very well described, I've only been to Beijing once but it seems to evoke what I recall from that trip. The flashbacks to pieces of past history are also well imagined, it would not surprise me if something similar to this story could actually have happened. In the end, I was sorry that the porcelain did make it out of China, I was expecting some last minute twist to that, but I guess this is what happens in the real world anyway.

I will be passing this on to mady, who wants to read it, and has asked Zmrzlina for her permission ...

Useful link:
A beginner's guide to Chinese porcelain:
http://www.gotheborg.com/index.htm

I'm making a second journal entry, because I found this info on a website and thought it would be interesting to post it here ...
The site tells a bit about Emperor Chenghua, and can be found here: http://cherryhill.antiques.com.tw/cgi-bin/general.cgi/chenghua
While reading this book I was fascinated by the story of the "chicken" cups and had to find out more... I've actually been to the Taipei National Palace Museum, where at least a few the cups can be seen, but unfortunately I can't recall those pieces in particular :-(

************************************************
In April, 1999 a Ming dynasty ceramic cup was sold at an auction for over US 3.7 million dollars. It broke the Chinese Ceramic auction record for the highest priced piece sold. It's small, only 8.1 cm. in diameter and 3.1 cm. high. It's painted with a couple of hens, a couple of roosters and a several chicks. What is it? It is a "chicken cup" from the reign of the Ming emperor, Chenghua.

Chenghua reigned from AD1464 to AD1487. The Empress dowager assigned a palace maid, Wan, to take care of him when he was but a child. Wan, who was 18 years older than Chenghua, cared for him not only as a mother but also as a lover. By the time Chenghua became Emperor at the age of 17, Wan had used her relationship with Chenghua to spoil herself with a position of power within the palace. She persuaded the Emperor to drop Wu, the official Empress, and had herself declared Empress in instead. In the second year of Chenghua's reign, Wan gave birth to a prince. Chenghua loved his son very much and instantly promoted Wan to the level of the highest-ranking Imperial Concubine. The prince died before he was a year old, but this did not affect the Emperor's love for no one but Wan. Wan loved to dress as a male, believing that this would help her give birth to another son. She would often set up worship ceremonies to pray to conceive a son. Historical records show that during the ceremony she would have 20 tables, full of plates of food piled very high to show her sincerity. Gold and silver nuggets would be spread across the floor to increase the power of her prayer. At the same time, she would carefully keep track of which other concubines were visited by the emperor. If any these concubines became pregnant, Wan would order an abortion. Despite her best efforts, a concubine gave birth to a son. The concubine hid this from the Emperor and Wan.She hid her son in the cold palace for 6 years to keep him alive.Finally, the concubine Wan died of a stroke a the age 58, in the middle of a caning she was giving a palace maid.The forty year old Emperor went into depression and died a few months later.
Chenghua was so much in love with Wan, that he is reported to have given her a gift every day of the year to please her. Many of these gifts were small and delicate pieces of ceramics. Of the various types of ceramics, one type, called Doucai, would have the outlines of scenes done in a pale underglazed blue with the scenes filled in with various overglazed lacquer colors. Doucai literally means "competing colors".It started earlier in the Ming dynasty but the quality of the earlier doucai could not match with the doucai produced during Chenghua's reign. Some of the gifts given to Wan were doucai chicken cups. Chicken cups were reported to have been used in wedding ceremonies. The cup pattern consists of a crowing rooster with his head raised, a hen with her head down busily looking for worms, and three chicks. Many believe the pattern showed the Emperor's desire to have a family with several children. At the bottom of the cup is a seal that proclaims the cup to have been created during the "Great Ming Chenghua" period in chinese. The calligraphy for the seal came from the young emperor himself.

To please his favorite Concubine, Chenghua had ordered his artisans to produce the most beautiful pieces of doucai ceramics. In order to produce a perfect piece of imperial ware, many pieces were made; the imperfect pieces were destroyed. Many of the shards from these destroyed pieces have been found at kiln sites. According to the records, just to make sure a cup was perfect, 72 workers were involved in its production. The production of doucai is done in two parts. First the cup is painted with a cobalt blue scene, covered with a transparent glaze and fired with the underglazed blue at high temperature. Then the overglaze enamel paints were applied and the cup was fired again at a lower temperature that would allow the enamel paints to fuze with the glaze but not affect the glaze in the areas without the enamel paint. This meant that the cost of producing a single chicken cup was very high. By the late Ming dynasty, during the Wanli period (AD1573-1620), many collectors and scholars had begun reporting on the extremely high cost of chicken cups. An early Qing dynasty scholar named Chen Jia mentioned in his ceramic appreciation and value article, that one pair of Chicken cups would cost around 100,000 dollars. At this time, a large county would only take in about 5,000 dollars of tax revenue a year.
By the late Ming dynasty, imitations of Chenghua chicken cups were being produced because of the high value of the originals. But the quality of these imitations were not very good. In the Qing dynasty the Emperors, Kangxi, Qianlong, and Yongzhe all produced chicken cups. Some bore their own marks while some bore a copy of Chenghua's mark. Even at this time collectors were lamenting the high cost of Chenghua cups and the high number of "forgeries" available. These Qing copies all sell for high prices at auctions today. Last year a chicken cup with Qianlong's mark sold for almost US 15,000 dollars.

Chenhua ceramics have a very distinctive style and character:

1. Continuing the Ming's traditional concept of gentle and tender beauty, most of the ceramics were small, delicate, with soft colors.

2. Because Chenghua was continually trying to please Wan, the colorful decorative patterns mostly described topics that a lady would favor such as children playing, flowers and birds, etc.

3. Their belief in Buddhism meant that often Buddhism patterns were used with many pieces designed for altar uses.

During Chenghua's 23 year reign the government spent a tremendous amount of money in ceramic making, but the quantity of production was only a fourth of the amount produced during his grandfather Xuande's 10 years of reign. Chenghua Imperial wares are all very thin and light. At that time, charcoal fired kilns were used. The small amount of iron deposit in the clay and glaze produced a tint of yellow, which under light appears as a flesh color A friend of mine once described it "as a pearl". This is what most of the imitations could not produce.

By the Chenghua period, the imported Lajiward cobalt blue was almost used up. So the government started to mine the Po Tang domestic cobalt mine. The color of the cobalt blue is soft, light and elegant with the feel of translucence. The late Ming dynasty Chenghua reproductions used Huei Ching Cobalt blue, which has a purple tone and is no comparison with Chenghua's light and elegant Po Tang color.
The Chenhua imperial ware collection worldwide is just over 600 pieces. Among them, about only a fourth are doucai. The Taiwan National Palace Museum has over 400 pieces of Chenghua ceramic in its collection. They all came from the Old Qing Palaces. One of the rooms that the emperor Qianlong spent most of his time in, has the best quality Chenghua small cups totaling 67 pieces kept in a Japanese lacquered box. Chenghua ceramics were among Qianlong's favorites (...)

Photo: The chicken cup sold in 1999 by Sotheby's

Wow, thank you for the lovely pictures in addition to the details about Chinese pottery! Looking forward to reading this when it returns, but no hurry. Hope mady enjoys the read.

I would like to think I could release this in the Chinese art rooms at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but I don't think it would be allowed.

Got this one from tho today... I'm looking forward to reading it ;) Thanks a lot tho and Zmrzlina!

I sure loved this past week as I have been reading this book. I loved the story and the way it was written, all the details about Chinese ceramic, the characters of the story and the way they were built/described, Lia's memory world and also the romance ;) This was definitely a hoi moon book for me :D
Thank you so much to tho for advising me to read this book and for the info on Chenghua's reign and also to Zmrzlina for allowing me to do it. I sure want to read more books from this writer!! I will be passing this book next week to another BCer here from Lisbon who I'm pretty sure will also appreciate it!

And I hope the person in Lisboa who isn't on the flight list is willing to send it back to me as I haven't read it and after all the wonderful reviews, I would really like to!

I LOVE this! I just got a PM from flloorr, who is also in Portugal, and she would like to be added to the list while it is still in the country. Of course I am adding her. I am so happy this book is gathering so many readers. If I thought the author would be as thrilled, I'd write her. I may just do that after I read it...

I received this book yesterday from mady. I promise I won't take too long with it! :)

I finished reading this book today and although it was very well recommended it didn't draw me in as much as it did everyone else. :(
Lia was an extremely interesting character and her romance with Michael was what kept me reading, I was truly rooting for them. I also enjoyed the historic parts where Lia resorts to her memory and lets us enter her private world. I guess what turned me off a bit were the porcelain descriptions (I don't know why but my mind just kept wandering) and the way the author jumped from character to character. There were times I couldn't keep the characters straight!
All in all I enjoyed this book just not as much as I was expecting. Thanks for the opportunity to read it! :)

And another bookring =D

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is now going to PreciousArwen.

I'm so glad Mady recommended this book to me =)
I loved the description of all the Chinese porcelain and Lia ( the way she uses her memory as flashbacks to the past are very interesting).
Thanks again Zmrzlina for letting me participate in this ring!

I have it now. Thanks fflloorr for passing it to me and thank you Zmrzlina for having me in this ring.
As a porcelain's fan I hope I will enjoy this one.