"All the Flowers in Shanghai" by Duncan Jepson review

The book "All the Flowers in Shanghai" by Duncan Jepson takes place in China during the lifespan of a young girl named Feng who grew up in a modest home. After the death of her engaged sister, she is forced to marry into what would have been her sister's family. She soon finds out that being part of a wealthy family is harder than she ever imagined. As she ages she becomes hardened and makes many mistakes.

Though this is not my typical type of book I decided to read it because it fulfilled one of the requirements for my 2015 reading challenge. Obviously Duncan Jepson has the same initials as me. While I was trying to find a book to fulfill this requirement, all I could find were romance books. (yuck) I'm really not interested in those. This one caught my eye and the title just seemed like something similar to "Memoirs of a Geisha". It took me a while to read it all the way through since parts of it made me cry and other parts made me want to throw the book across the room. Overall I liked the book and would recommend this for my friends and family to read. I won't say much about the plot because I would give away too much with my rants.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Review

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden first caught my attention as a young girl in high school when I first saw the screen adaptation of the novel. I must say that it was one of the first things that piqued my interest in Japanese culture. 

In the book Arthur Golden brings out the voice and story of one of the most renown geisha in Japan, Nitta Sayuri. She (then known as Chiyo) was sold by her elderly father and ill mother to a geisha house when she was 9 years old along with her sister Satsu. She grew from being a maid to a free geisha by the time she was 18 years old. Her story was so captivating that at times I couldn't put the book down though my eyes kept closing for minutes at a time in the wee morning hours.

The character of Sayri (Chiyo) was written amazingly and I felt connected to her story as if it were my own at times. I could feel her heartbreak and her triumphs as if they were happening to me. It is a must read for anyone who loves a good story and a must watch in general. The movie is my favorite of all time and I think this book is right there with it.

My Top 5 Favorite Movies

Happy New Year!

I know I've been slacking on my blog lately but one of my new year's resolutions is to blog more often. I will be doing book reviews, make up reviews, updates on life and the like... Let's see how this goes.

One of my challenges this year will be a reading challenge. Those who know me well know that I love books. I love the feel, smell, look and taste of them... Well maybe not the taste... Anyway this is the challenge I'm going to be doing in 2015. Anyone is welcome to join me in doing so.

At the moment I'm reading "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. The review and checking off the applicable challenge requirements will follow as soon as it's finished.