This month, we celebrate authors who illuminate fascinating but lesser-known worlds at different time periods in different countries of Asia. Prepare to be an armchair traveler!
Beginning chronologically during the Ming dynasty, we have Lisa See’s LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN. In a culture in which education for women is considered worthless, Tan Yunxian was taught by her grandmother, one of the very few female doctors in China, the essentials of Chinese medicine—looking, listening, touching and asking—in order to treat female patients, who were not allowed to be examined by male doctors. Yunxian’s training runs parallel to that of another young woman, Meiling, a midwife in training. The skills of the two complement each other, for a doctor is forbidden to touch blood, while a midwife frequently encounters it. The two vow to be forever friends, but when Yunxian leaves home for an arranged marriage, her new mother-in-law forbids her to see Meiling. Instead of using her valuable skills, she is to become a proper wife, embroidering slippers, reciting poetry, playing instruments and most important, giving birth to sons. But Yunxian’s desire to help women—and her increasing dissatisfaction at being trapped within the walls of the family compound—will lead her, with renewed contact with the forbidden Meiling, to break free of tradition and create remedies that are still being used in China, five centuries later.
We move from medieval China to the 1800’s in THE LOTUS SHOES by Jane Yang. Although Little Flower is of humble birth, her mother binds her feet, as “golden lilies” are a feminine attribute prized above beauty, dowry and even bloodline. When she is sold as a maidservant to Linjing, daughter of the prominent Fong family, she hopes one day her golden lilies will lead her to freedom. In addition to bound feet, Little Flower possesses a skill for fine embroidery that far surpasses that of the girl she serves. The resentful and often malicious Linjing does all she can to make Little Flower’s life miserable. She hopes to escape when her mistress is wed but needing to make use of her maid’s exceptional skills, Linjing insists on taking Little Flower with her as part of her dowry. But when scandal derails the marriage, both women are given refuge in the Celibate Sisterhood, a closed order that offers protection but in which disobedience means death. Here, too, Little Flower’s skill means both advancement and danger when her work captures the attention of a nobleman. When he offers a potential escape, will Linjing protect or betray the girl who has lived beside her for so long? Yang’s book offers fascinating details into the values and traditions of this vanished world.
We jump to post-World War I Korea in ALL THINGS UNDER THE MOON by Ann Y.K. Choi. By the mid-1920’s Korea has already been occupied by the Empire of Japan. Though Kim Na-Young lives in a rural village with her best friend Yeon-Soo, the grip of occupation reaches even here. When tragedy happens and Na-Young’s father decides to send her away to an arranged marriage, she and Yeon-Soo choose to determine their own destiny, running away to the city of Seoul. Here, women can learn to read and write—and become part of the secret resistance network that passes coded messages through the back rooms of teahouses. Inspired by her great-grandmother’s stories, Choi weaves a masterful tale of a girl’s coming of age amid occupation and revolution.
Our final stop is post-World War II India in THE HENNA ARTIST by Alka Joshi. Shocking her village and shaming her family, Lakshmi leaves her abusive husband Hari and establishes herself in the Jaipur as a master henna artist and herbalist. Aided by her assistant, young Malik, she has achieved a good measure of success, gaining appointments with the city’s wealthiest and influential women, when the thirteen-year-old sister she didn’t know she had turns up, needing a home. Lakshmi struggles to balance helping the sometimes resentful Radha while continuing her business, creating innovative henna designs for her clients as well as selling contraceptives to wealthy gentlemen for their mistresses and fertility blends to wives wanting children. In an occupation where secrets are as much currency as coin and reputations can be ruined by spite and rumor, Lakshmi perseveres to build the best possible life for herself, Malik and Radha. Joshi paints a vivid and arresting picture of a country, its smells, foods, and culture, and a woman struggling to escape age-old tradition and live an independent life.
Get ready to leave behind your everyday twenty-first century world and immerse yourself in these vivid, detailed portrayals of fascinating lands gone by. Enjoy!
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
Award-winning romance author Julia Justiss, who has written more than thirty historical novels and novellas set in the English Regency and the American West, just completed her first contemporary series set in the fictional Hill Country town of Whiskey River, Texas.
A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist.
She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check her website for details about her books, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her latest releases.
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