Purchased at the Aspinwall Saturday flea market. This is my favorite of Amy Tan's books. In my opinion, it's far and away the very best.


Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

This was the first Amy Tan book I read, and it was my favorite of the lot. Since I liked it so much, I bought this copy to share as a bookring with my friends here at BookCrossing.

Here is what I ask of the BookCrossers that join my rings:

1) Have fun!

2) Please make a journal entry when you receive the book so that we know it arrived safely. It is a cold, cruel world out there after all!

3) One month is the general BC rule of thumb for keeping bookrings. If it turns out you're going to be a little longer than that, please just make a journal entry and let us know.

4) Enjoy the book! When you've finished it, please make a journal entry with your thoughts. (This is my favorite part of bookrings!) It's fine if you just want to put your release note in with this one. If you want to do it separately, that's okay too.

5) Pass it along to the next participant, sit back, relax, and enjoy the journal alerts. (I certainly do!)

Here is the ring order. I will adjust it as more people join the ring to allow for geography, shipping preferences, and other considerations. The person who has the book will be shown in boldface.

Thanks for playing with me guys!

1) newf - Canada (ships INT)
2) RoryG - Finland (prefers Eur)
3) Fluffy-Owl - England (ships INT)
4) Rossella05 - England (ships INT)
5)EnchantedWoods - Australia (ships INT)
6) Goddess-Of-Fire - MO, USA
7) DianaCoats - CA, USA
8) Satnam - NH, USA
9) The Joy Luck Club - NE, USA

...and back to me

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to newf. Hope you enjoy it!

This landed in my mailbox sometime last week while I was out of town. It's next on my TBR list after the bookring that I'm currently reading. Thanks for sharing it!

I really enjoyed reading this. It reminded me alot of How to Make an American Quilt, in terms of the format of each chapter told by a different, female narrator among a group of friends. The insight into the Chinese immigrant culture was really interesting, and the characters are really brought to life, even though it's occasionally hard to keep track of who's who. I would definitely recommend this.

Thanks so much for sharing it. I put it in the mail to RoryG in Finland this morning. It should arrive within two weeks.

This was waiting for me when I got home today :) I have another ring before this, but I should get to this soon.

This was a quick read, once I got to it. I liked the way it got into different people's heads and gave insight on why they were the kind of persons they were and why they did certain things. I read the Bonesetter's daughter few years ago in Finnish and I liked that one as well. Although, I think this kind of has the same idea, same pattern sort of. So, I wouldn't like to read them one after the other. But now when time has passed, it was ok. Anyway, this was an enjoyable read, not too heavy, but not too light either.

I'll be sending this forward as soon as I get the next person's address.

Edit 15.08.2005: iggi1812 asked to be skipped, so I'm sending this to Fluffy-Owl as soon as I get the address.

Received this today, have been looking forward to reading it for a while now. I read The Kitchen God's Wife, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so hopefully this book will be just as good, if not better.

Finished this earlier today, and almost cried at the ending! It was an ending which to me seemed both happy and sad - maybe those who have already read this will understand what I mean. The writing was excellent, and the stories were engrossing (although I agree that sometimes it was hard to tell who was who - yes, there was a chart at the front, but quite hard to keep up with who had told which story). It was similar in theme to The Kitchen God's Wife, so I'm glad I left space between them, but I hope to read more by Tan in the future.

Now going to post on to Rossella05.

Posted off to Rossella05 yesterday. Hope it arrives safely.

Arrived this morning. I like the "If undelivered please Open and Read!" message on the back of the parcel. The card was also very nice, thank you Fluffy-Owl. The book is next on my TBR list.

A captivating and moving story with wonderful characters, I'll definetely recommend it to family and friends. And thank you for introducing me to this author, I hope to read more of Amy Tan's books in the future. I have EnchantedWoods's address and will send the book in the next few days.

Have recieved the book safely - Thank you.

Boy it seems every ring has landed at once but I will endeavour to read and release as soon as possible. If I am worried about time I will send and read it another time.

Kind wishes