***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

I don't know if you know this, but I love books. I love bookstores, online bookstores, used bookstores, and basically any store that carries books. I always have my wish list going on Amazon and I'm constantly looking at it to see if I should buy anything this instant. Lisa See's novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, was one of these books. I saw that it received so many good reviews and I knew that I had to read it, but for some reason it never made it into my cart. Then, one afternoon, I found myself in a used bookstore (how'd that happen?), and they had See's novel on the shelf. Even though there was no one else in the shop with me, I snatched it up like a hot cake.

This book was incredible. Very reminiscent of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, I was immediately drawn into the story of Lily, a young Chinese girl, who at the young age of 5 endures her foot binding, and ultimately meets with the girl who will become her best friend for life, Snow Flower.

The writing was beautiful and the story was very fast paced. Although it took me a while to read, I was sad to see it end. Much like Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes, the reader follows the main character through her entire life, witnessing not only all of her struggles and failures, but also seeing her love and succeed as a prominent woman of the time. The love between Snow Flower and Lily is immense - I can't imagine having only one friend throughout my life, but these two girls made it look worthwhile.

There were so many hard parts to read in this novel: one being the account of the foot binding. When I read, it's normally as I'm walking and my feet were cringing as I read about what could happen to these girls if their foot binding was done incorrectly. Reading about them walking around their solitary room as they waited for the bones in their feet to break makes me feel a little nauseous as I write about it!

Another really hard thing to read was the worthlessness of the girls of China. To this day, I can't understand how any child could be seen as worthless! The girls were told they would be worthless if they didn't produce sons. They were told to listen to their husband, listen to their mother-in-law, and rarely did you ever see a chance for a girl to stand up for herself and speak for herself. It was just so sad to read that these girls did not have the freedom that is so prominent these days.

It was hard to read about how Lily started off so poor, ultimately ending up so prominent, whereas Snow Flower was the complete opposite.

Ultimately, if you want to learn more about the culture of China, I would recommend this book. It even inspired me to pick up another novel of See's, so I guess I'll have to compare the two when I'm finished. If Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is any indication of See's other work, I'm sure her other novels are amazing as well.

This book is great combination of beautifully written words and a great story of sisterhood. The author has presented the bond between friends in a way that has not been explored in any recent bestsellers and yet, she is able to instantly break your heart with her poetic story.

For anyone who is interested in history, this book is also a good choice because it provides the prospective of a female who has had her feet bound for beauty. Never will you think of beauty as an easy opportunity. The author shows what great lengths women have gone through throuhgout history to become "beautiful".

This is the story of a young woman growing up in China during the time of the Emperors. We follow her through life has she undergoes the torturous procedure known as foot binding, how she's married off to a man her family chooses, and about her special relationship with another young girl not so different from her.

This book was so beautiful and moving, the imagry that Lisa See put into her story really brought the characters to life for me. I would be surprised if this was not one of those books that is remembered for years after the author. Eagerly looking forward to Lisa See's next book Shanghai Girls.

Lisa See's book "Snowflower and the Secret Fan" is just amazing - the description of the feet-binding of young girls in China is surreal. The 'binding' of the girls in other ways becomes the way to survive. The story is about two girls and how their lives intertwine and their families expectations.