Women of the Silk

My friend Kimberley was wondering what book I'd recommend for her book club. They don't want anything too dense or literary and please nothing with a lot of incest, drug use or slices of the bleak side of life. Hmmmm.

They do like historical fiction. The Girl with the Pearl Earring was a winner. With all this in mind I came up with the suggestion of
Women of the Silk, which takes readers to China before the revolution and into the world of the girls whose families sold them off to silk factories. The life parallels Northeastern mill girls. The details were fascinating and I felt I understood this era and social strata better. It's not sentimental like Memoirs of a Geisha is in spots. It's actually the first in a trilogy so you may follow Pei's life for decades more if you like.

Giving credit where credit's due my friend Kasia told me about this book and lent me book 2 which I finished and will return - soon.