a quick read, i personally think this book had a lifespan that may be just about over (or already passed?). cross-cultural adaptation and inter-generational relationships are always dynamic and when they're well written, involving. overall, a good book to examine relationships from multiple sides and just how complex women can be in communicating! i read it because it had been recommended to me so many times by so many people, but i dont think i'll be recommending it to people the same way.

Mothers and daughters tell their stories in the chapters of this book. Each chapter is a different story, some sweet, some sad, some beautiful, but all lovingly interwoven to show two generations of women as they go through life.

The ``joy luck club'' is a mah jong/storytelling support group formed by four Chinese women in San Francisco in 1949. Years later, when member Suyuan Woo dies, her daughter June (Jing-mei) is asked to take her place at the mah jong table. With chapters alternating between the mothers and the daughters of the group, we hear stories of the old times and the new; as parents struggle to adjust to America, their American children must struggle with the confusion of having immigrant parents. Reminiscent of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior in its vivid depiction of Chinese-American women, this novel is full of complicated, human characters.

I have often re-read just the first page of this novel, because one of my favorite lines from any literature is, "she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow."

7/06

Yet another heartfelt book by Amy Tan. Really appeals to mothers and daughters, I thought.

Although I read this because it was a Binchy and I usually enjoy all her books this one left me a bit wanting.

The MacMahons are the central characters and even more so when Helen the wife and mother disappears.....everyone assumes that she has drowned in the lake. Thus begins a tangled, touching and sometimes tragic story of love, loss and misunderstanding.

The wife of a small-Irish-town pharmacist runs off with her old lover, but an unexpected series of events insure that she will never be able to return to her home again. The story, told from the POV of the woman & the daughter she leaves behind make this a hard-to-put-down book.

This is a novel in the form of a memoir. It chronicles the life of a young girl from her birth to marriage. Her family is poor & it is the women who struggle most to make a decent life for their families. Not as well-written as Ms. Gibbons other books but still interesting.

A young mother, expecting her first baby & also a mother to her husband's 2 sons learns that her own mother has a terminal illness. Her mother then comes to live with her family. The interplay between birth & approaching death, new life & the end of life is handled poignantly & with grace.

"Unless" is a word (a conjunction) that separates 2 parts of a sentence. Example: we will all live happy lives UNLESS... In this novel, Carol Shields fills in the blanks of what can happen as opposed to what we will assume happen. This is a sad & moving story of a woman writer's life. IT is also an object lesson on how easily life can turn from joy to sorrow unless...

it seems like a lot of people really love this book or really hate it. i am pretty indifferent toward it.

my first kingsolver since reading "bean trees" in high school. an impressive work.

Wonderful book - rich and different!

It was okay. The weird thing is that I have three sisters and each of the Price sisters corresponded to one of us (almost in birth order, too), which I didn't realize until I was about 4/5 through the book. Other than that, I didn't really care for the book. I've read worse, but I've also read better.

A missionary family goes to the Belgian congo in 1959 and stay for three decades. Kingsolver is an excellent writer. Also wrote: "Pigs in Heaven," "The Bean Trees," and "Animal Dreams."

This was required reading for my AP Lit class. I don't really like most religious books, but this one managed to keep my attention long enough for me to finish it.