Welcome to Litsy!

Jialing is abandoned by her mother at age 7, becoming a bond servant (glorified slave) on the outskirts of 1900s Shanghai shortly thereafter. The story follows her youth as she struggles with both poverty and the prejudice of being mixed race. The book devolves into melodrama a bit, but has a strong ending that salvaged it for me.

#ReadingAsia2021 #China

Starting out #LitsySpringBreak by throwing back to January 2020, when I got to start my year reading a fantastic book on a beautiful #beach, blissfully oblivious to the year to come. (I highly recommend the book, it will transport you in time and place, and throw in a little magic on the way)

Another excellent read for #NewYearWhoDis from the excellent list of the excellent @TheKidUpstairs ☺️

I‘m not surprised that I loved it, since I‘ve read and loved two other books from Janie Chang. Really excellent historical fiction with a dash of magical realism. Loved the characters, the story, and the setting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first read of the year. 🐉
How gorgeous is the cover! 💚

Happy New Year to my Litsy family!! 🎊

#china #currentreading #greencover #historicalfiction #covercrush

Excited for January! Megan, your list looks amazing... I‘ve read and LOVED 4 of them (❤️s above).

I will be reading the 4 that were already on my tbr (⭐️s above) for sure, and as many of the other 8 from your list (plus 3 more books that are parts of series on your list) as I can get my hands on.

Really excited about the Canadian books to help me with #ReadCanada!

Thanks for another fantastic match, Alyisha! 🥰

And here it is, my #bookhaul from Powell‘s! I feel I was very restrained. I‘ve managed to reset my book buying tendencies a little so that I don‘t buy everything in sight, so I‘m glad about that. It was so nice to be back there again. I went to the Beaverton location since the downtown City of Books only has a few rooms open and nonfiction isn‘t accessible now. This way I had more breadth of selection genre-wise.

Gorgeous day to read outside!

I'm really enjoying this book. I've got about 80 pages to go and I'm planning to finish it today. Other things can wait.

My sense of time this summer is even more wibbly wobbly than usual... but I think we're around halfway through the #15books15weeks challenge, so I thought I'd check my progress so far. I've read 6, currently reading the 7th. 1-2 books behind pace, I guess. Will I catch up? We shall see...

@TheHeartlandBookFairy

Love Love Love...
A sad & A happy story...

#GoodReads2020Challenge

I wish this book was edited/shortened a bit (it felt too long) and I wish it had a more satisfactory ending... but it contained one of the most captivating and refreshing characters I‘ve read all year!! ♥️ Plus, the Chinese myths just draw you in!! And a beautifully woven story. It lost half a star due to the ending & editing, but I did really enjoy the magic of the myths written in this world. ☺️
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️1/2 out of 5

My list for #15books15weeks! The book a week summer reading challenge hosted by @TheHeartlandBookFairy - thanks for hosting!

This is my 3rd time playing and I haven't made it through my list yet, will this year be the year? I'm feeling it!

When you realize your to-read-next pile goes ROY-BI-, you might as well add a G and a V to complete the rainbow, right? I thought so.

#30JuneBooks - Green Books: Actually a green book located at 11:16pm without having to look further than the bedside nightstand. JOY!

Overall, this is an intriguing story that was thoughtful and well-researched.

LOVE❤️
This was such a great story. I am so glad it was my first book for 2018. It totally swept me up.
I highly recommend it. For fans of Amy Tan....this is a must.

Loving this book so far. ♥️It‘s warmed up to -26C (from -36C yesterday morning), so after my cozy lunch I will put on my winter gear and walk down the path to enjoy the beauty. If you don‘t hear from me again soon, I have frozen to death! 😂 It would be a real shame to freeze before I finish this book, so I will keep it to a very short walk.

#favoritesof2017 #BestOf2017
(In no particular order)

Some #redandgreen books from my shelves! #reindeerreads

I love the graphic design of the chapter pages in this book!

Love this cover design!! Looking forward to the book too.

My mom just gave me this one. Looks good!

What an absolute joy to hear Janie Chang read from Dragon Springs Road at tonight‘s #IFOA2017 #LitonTour event (though, Three Souls is still my favourite of her books)

I loved Chang's first book and bought this as soon as it came out but it's sat on my shelf since Feb. I've been desperate to dive into it but also terrified that I wouldn't be as enraptured with it as I was with Three Souls. Good news - I was.

I brought relatively few books with me to Nice so imagine my surprise when one of them was a #threewordtitle that I could use for #riotgrams! My luck on this is going to run out soon, I think I'll be catching up once I'm home again.

I'm travelling today and didn't manage to grab a #shelfie before I left home so this pic of my #TBR shelf from August will have to do. I haven't finished any of these since I took the picture and I've added a few.

I'm travelling until Oct 10, we'll see how I do with #riotgrams while I'm away!!

This is one day late, but here are some #greencovers and they are historical fiction so they also work for #stuckinthepast! #springishere #fallintobooks

The last 100 pages or so saved this one for me. Somewhere between pick and so-so. I loved her other book Three Souls so much more.

Lame for prompt but as good as it may get today...a crystal light lemonade mix during my better late than never lunch break #bookanddrink #summersizzlinbooks

Me: Oh, only 100 pages left. I'll finish this tonight. Mr. JSW: (rolls eyes) (Goes back to playing WOW)

I love Fox. "We Foxes have very sensitive noses." ?

Litsy #partyofone is in session!!

Hoping for great things. Trying to power through an old stack of TBR - have had this one since January!!

Last post tonight, I promise! I just wanted to take one last pic of everything @hes7 sent me all together. I have the biggest grin on my face! Im just so thrilled with everything, and completely touched by your thoughtfulness, Hallie. I can't thank you enough for this wonderful box full of goodies and bookish love! You're awesome! 💗💗💗 #SummerSantaGoesPostal #SummerSolsticeBookExchange
@BookishMarginalia

These are a few of the books I'm hoping to finish as part of my #summerreads. I'm really looking forward to all of them, I want to dive into every single one right now!

#junebookbugs

There's #somethingmagical about this book!!! If you've read it then you know ! ☺️
#riotgrams

Janie Chang weaves a charming fairytale relevant to the history and culture of the characters in her novel. I felt transported in time to Zhu Jialing's China whenever I picked up the book (and even lingered there awhile after putting it down). A very enjoyable read.

I enjoyed the rich historical detail, especially about the domestic milieu, for girls and women in early 20th-century Shanghai. I loved the central character, who was mistreated because of her mixed heritage, and I also loved her helper, a fox spirit with limited magical powers. Pleasing audiobook narration with tonal Chinese pronunciation by Emily Woo Zeller. 🇨🇦 #CanLit

Hauntingly beautiful, slow burn of a book about an era lost to history forever, for better or worse.

It will swirl you up in a trance-like fascination while also making you incredibly sorrowful for all the indignities women and girls have suffered throughout time.

I've already ordered Janie Chang's previous novel, Three Soul, based on the excerpt at the end and the beautiful way she immerses you in the worlds she writes.

Magical.

#openingpassages

#currentlyreading thanks to the book selection process devised by the lovely @saresmoore ✨

My boyfriend picked this one out for me the other day and I have no idea what it's about but he assures me it ticks quite a few of my literary boxes so I'm excited to dive in! (I'm doing the don't read the synopsis thing lately and am quite enamored with the way it's enhancing my enjoyment of most books)

(I'm also in 💚 with that cover)

Me and my reading buddy give this a definite paws up rating!

🌸New batch of D.C. books to read during our latest trip to this nations lovely capitol! Hoping to see lots of beautiful cherry blossoms while we're there! 🌸

There's a kitty hiding in this picture, I think she wants to go see the cherry blossoms too.

I'm starting this today! Anyone read it?

#marchintoreading #greencover can't wait to read this!!

I just recently picked up this book a few weeks ago based solely on the cover! #judgedbythecover #marchintorreading

This book was a slow burn for me. There was not a moment that I didn't enjoy it, but it definitely picked up at the end. It was beautifully written and I loved learning a little history along with a little mythology. It was a heartfelt and warm read.

"Everyone dismissed my outburst about a Door to the land of immortals as childish imagination, some game we had been playing." #friday56 #feistyfeb