After finishing the dreadful Lolita, I had to cleanse myself with a different book immediately. Two of the women in my reading club had just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and they both loved it. I borrowed it from my friend Nicole and started reading it Sunday morning. My day was relatively full. I had a shoot at 7:15am and had to process all the photos, feed David's meals, nurse him for his naps, play with him, work on the site and respond to the tons of emails sitting in my inbox. I started the novel and ended up doing nothing but reading. By, 10:30pm, I had finished the novel (and done all the necessary tasks of the day including processing my photos.)

This novel was wonderful. Light but not trivial read. Three- dimensional characters and a completely character-driven story. I learned a lot about Chinese culture I didn't know and confirmed some of the sad things I did know. I enjoyed every page of it and it was exactly what I needed after Lolita.