The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan, 1989)

How I stumbled upon it: On a list of books you should read in high school but didn't.  You can find it here.

What it's about: It's the story of a group of Chinese mothers who are immigrants to America and the American born Chinese daughters that they raise.  All of their stories are so interesting and show the mothers' struggle to instill a sense of heritage in their daughters who are desperately trying to live their own lives their own way.  

What I thought: I loved this book!  It took a few chapters to get into it and to understand how the different perspectives were connected, but once you are a few chapters in it all starts to click. The individual stories were so thoughtfully written and it just made me want to go back to China again to relive the rickshaws and busy streets and smells of dumplings wafting across a market.  It was vividly told and desperately sad at times, but well worth the read!

You can get it here.