Lady Tan's Circle of Women

This is only my second read of hers but Lisa See has already become one of my favourites. While I'm sure a great deal of research goes into her writing (I mean the author's note with the extensiveness of research and resources used mentioned is proof enough), it's the way she brings these characters alive, the way she captures the essence of humans in her characters, enabling readers to be transported to a different time, a different place. I like how her books allow us to experience the everyday of people so different, so hard to relate to or even understand, yet there's some part of us that can empathise and be grateful for the lives we lead.

This book took me back to 15th/16th C China or the era of the Ming Dynasty, introducing me to the very normalised then, horrendous now, tradition of foot-binding. Much of the book had content that frustrated me and angered me to the core sometimes, yet such was the norm of the times and I believe this book did a great job presenting a perspective that both experiences and witnesses a lot of pain. As someone who is currently interested in alternative medicine, I found all the instances mentioning the practice of healing the body as a whole with herbs and natural sources, identifying temperaments etc. quite interesting