Welcome to Litsy!

Started reading this. It's been awhile since I've read any non-fiction about China and now it felt like a perfect time. This book has true life stories from women of China collected by Xinran.

📘X (Sue Grafton)
🖊️Xinran (the only one on my list)
🎥X-Men: First Class
🎤Chitaozinho & Xororo 🇧🇷
🎶X Files Theme
#manicmonday #letterX

“The chicken in the coop has grain but the soup pot is near; the wild crane has none but its world is vast.”

“When you walk into your memories, you are opening a door to the past; the road within has many branches, and the route is different every time.”

'X' is the last letter I needed for the #AlphabetSoup author challenge. On the suggestion of a friend I downloaded this nonfiction book by Xinran, a Chinese journalist, who ran a radio show segment about Chinese women's lives. Over the years she recieved hundreds of letters that showed a glimpse behind the closely guarded veil.

I'm only 25% into the book and it's already gutted me. It's beautiful and tragic and absolutely brutal.

Who‘d be a bloody woman.
Heart breaking stories 💔💔

I really want this cozy reading day to last other day. 🙂
I chose this book because I needed one that has a title or author that starts with X--to wrap up a 2019 A to Z challenge (from @BookishMarginalia, I believe.) This isn't my usual fare so I took a chance and I'm so happy I did. I overuse ”illuminating” but this book is. These are incredible stories. And of only a FEW Chinese women.

Dropped off one book, picked up one book. #littlefreelibrary

Just making sure I have balance in my life.

A devastating and moving book about the experiences and power of women.

“Everybody says women are like water. I think it's because water is the source of life, and it adapts itself to its environment. Like women, water also gives of itself wherever it goes to nurture life....”

#WanderingJune | 3: #ChinaGirl

📷: Made with Typorama

This book is on my TBR! The stories are primarily drawn from interviews the author conducted during her time as a radio broadcaster in China in the 1980s, and I've read that the author had to leave China in order to write the book, which was published in Britain. #ChinaGirl #WanderingJune
@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

#chinagirl #wanderingjune
Still on the tbr 🤷‍♀️

Thank you to @Caroline2 and #newyearwhodis for putting this book on my radar. It is the devastating, brutal read that gives a voice to the unheard women of China.

Xinran was a radio host of a women‘s program in China in the 80s and 90s, shortly after the Cultural Revolution came to an end. She made it her mission to give women an outlet to share their stories. Every single one is almost unbelievable in its severity and heartache.

My #bathandbook tonight looks to be a good one!

A starkly painful yet lovingly honest glimpse into the lives of Chinese women from the 1950s through the 1990s. Xinran, a radio host and journalist, developed a deep passion throughout her life and career to track down and share the untold stories of her fellow women, a need perhaps spurred on by her own painful past, a long kept secret. This book was very hard to read at times, but so important.

A radio journalist gathers stories from women throughout China in the 20th century. From the rise communism and the Cultural Revolution to the 1990s; the treatment of women was brutal and heartbreaking. I'm surprised it's not been selected for Our Shared Shelf yet. The writing is beautiful; this is going to stay with me a long time! Highly recommend - 5 stars! ⭐️

I remember buying this book when I was planning to teach English in China over 10yrs ago! Yes, this book has sat on my TBR shelf for over 10yrs!!! 😱 my mission this year is to conquer Mount TBR and make sure I start with all the books that have been on my shelf for years! 👍🏻 (so far this one is really good btw 😁)

Well this a great first page...the author fights a mugger because her bag had her book in it!! ?? ? ?
"Of course, life is more important than a book. But in so many ways my book was my life."

My only reason for taking this out of the library was that the authors name began with an X. It has consistently surprised me and had me close to tears a number of times. How things like this can be normalised in any kind of society, I will never understand. I think this counts as a lucky find, though. #LitsyAtoZ

Some tough stories and a few that are more hopeful. Letter X accomplished for #litsyatoz and #litsypartofone resumed for a day.

TOKYO USED BOOKSTORE HAUL - BOOK 5 OF 15

I'd only vaguely heard of Xinran but when I read on the back that this is a series of profiles of Chinese women based on a radio talkshow for and about them which she hosted in China, I knew I just had to read it!

According to GOODreads, I have 37 books on my shelves with GOOD in the title. The first four I have read and really liked. The last three I have not yet read but I'm looking forward to them. #AprilBookShowers #titlewithGOOD

When China began to open up in the 80s, Xinran created a radio show to give a voice to previously silenced Chinese women. #thebacksofwomen #marchintorreading

Looking forward to reading this for #litsyatoz and #readharderchallenge book set 5000+ miles away. #booksbyasianwriters #readjanuary @RealLifeReading

Finished this on the Heathrow bus on Friday. It's a powerful and memorable collection of Chinese women's stories, mostly from the Cultural Revolution. (Top tip: don't read on a plane after a couple of British Airways strength gin and tonics 😭)