I was initially bored with the descriptions of stylish clothing worn by the "beautiful girl" sisters — 21-year-old Pearl and 18-year-old May. However, as I persisted listening to the CD of Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, I became totally immersed in the imagery of the sights and sounds of 1930s Shanghai. The sisters were somewhat "modern" Chinese girls, living with traditional parents, while hiding their modeling job for a local commercial artist. The two also enjoyed late night dining and entertainment.

Here is what Pearl said about her relationship with her younger sister May: "Whenever you have two sisters – or siblings of any number or either sex – comparisons are made. May and I were born in Yin Bo Village, less than a half day’s walk from Canton. We’re only three years apart, but we couldn’t be more different. She’s funny; I’m criticized for being too somber. She’s tiny and has an adorable fleshiness to her; I’m tall and thin. May, who just graduated from high school, has no interest in reading anything beyond the gossip columns; I graduated from college five weeks ago. "

When their father’s financial circumstances decline, Pearl and May are shocked and dismayed to learn that he has arranged marriages for them in exchange for monetary assistance. 

With the onslaught of war, the family is torn apart and nothing is ever the same again. Pearl and May discover troubling family secrets, lies, and betrayals as they face the harsh realities of coming-of-age in a war-torn world.  Eventually they both endure the often tedious, humiliating immigration process into the United States via Angel Island — only to face even more difficult challenges in a new country.

The bonds of love, friendship, and sibling rivalry were brilliantly exposed in Shanghai Girls. Share this gem with your sisters! Chock-full of universal themes worth discussing, I would recommend See’s engaging, thought-provoking novel for most book clubs. 

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Sauscony Valdoria is one of my favorite heroines, tough-minded and tender-hearted. Sauscony, nicknamed Soz, is great at math, science, assembling weapons, survival, and figuring tactics. She’s not as great at figuring out people, which can lead to some funny situations. She’s completely literal minded and embodies a series of contradictions.

Soz’s family rules great expanses of the universe, but lives in a rural castle on a protected world. She’s a military genius whose father expects her to get married and have babies. She’d rather run obstacle courses and fly fighter planes than talk about emotions or feelings. In another twist, Soz comes from a family gene-gineered to be the ultimate telepaths, which means she’s empathic to the nth degree. Soz is a super-soldier who feels the hatred of her enemies.

In Asaro’s universe, three interstellar empires share the universe … Earth, The Ruby Empire (Soz’s family), and the Aristo Traders. The Rhon telepaths (mostly Soz’s family) and the Aristo Traders are absolute anathema to one another. Where Soz and her family are extra empathetic, the Traders completely lack that quality. In fact, they achieve a sort of ecstasy from the pain of others, particularly from telepaths who can broadcast their suffering. This makes for some very intense scenes in many of books. Earth plays a sort of intermediary role, trying to keep the peace to varying degrees of success.

Schism is a great place to enter Catherine Asaro’s Skolian series because it introduces Soz as she leaves home for the military academy as war looms on the horizon. Her tale continues in The Final Key, Primary Inversion, and The Radiant Seas. Her story is as fascinating as her funny, strong, ironic character. Other books in the series advance the timeline while focusing on several of Soz’s relatives (parents, siblings, and cousins). Diamond Star, about one of Soz’s brothers and his rock-star career on Earth, was published recently.

Asaro is an award-winning Howard County writer with a Ph.D in chemical physics from Harvard University. Her books have believable hard science elements, along with strong romantic elements.

Kristen Blount  – Administrative Office

Inda opens with the kids’ first war game of the spring, where, according to local tradition, the boys attack and the girls defend. The girls win!

Indevan-Dal Algara-Vayir, commonly known as Inda, is the second son of the local prince. As such, he will defend the family’s lands while his older brother attends court and fights for the king. This model, however, is about to change and wreak havoc on Inda’s life.

In Inda’s world, the Mongol-like Marloven tribes, who essentially grow up on horseback, have conquered and married into more courtly, settled lands. In fact, two languages are still in use — one for court and correspondence, and another for war. It took me a while to figure out all the changing, multiple titles, but it helps build a realistic culture.

In Sherwood Smith’s novel, a rich world unfolds as she details the fairly unglamorous life of an academy cadet. Upon unexpectedly being invited — along with other second sons — to the royal academy, Inda turns out to be a military genius, with an ability to see the strategic picture, even while directing tactical maneuvers. What Inda often loses track of, though, is the political scene. A victim of said politics, Inda is exiled from his beloved homeland, and finds a haven aboard ship. His strategic skills and fighting ability stand Inda in good stead in his new life, but he never forgets home.

Inda’s adventures are the center of this sprawling novel, but it also includes developments in Marloven-Hess. I often found myself reading ahead looking for chapters with Inda’s friends from the academy, or his sister Hadand and the other girls. Smith does an excellent job of showing how different people excel in different kinds of intelligences: military, emotional, political, ship-faring, scholarly, and others. I like Inda’s sister, in part because of her ability to operate well on many of these levels.

This is a big, fat, high-fantasy novel, and I’ve barely touched on the bare bones of the story here. Inda begins a terrific series, followed by The Fox and King’s Shield, which has a wide cast of characters, adventures galore, and a plot with enough twists and turns to satisfy any fantasy reader.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

Author Helene Cooper is the White House correspondent for the New York Times. Prior to her current assignment, she was a diplomatic reporter and assistant editorial page editor for the same paper. The House at Sugar Beach chronicles her youth and coming-of-age.

Helene’s paternal and maternal ancestors were among the free blacks who emigrated from the U.S. to Liberia during the early 1800s. Helene was born and spent her first 14 years there. She and her siblings lived a relatively well-to-do life. Both of her parents were educated abroad, and her family owned homes in Monrovia and Spain. She attended private school and enjoyed regular family trips to the U.S. and other countries. Her story seems to be one of privilege as a member of the "Congo" tribe that was in power in democratic Liberia. Her family even took in Eunice, a "poor" girl from the Bassa tribe. Eunice, a few years older, became an "adopted" sister and confidant to Helene and her younger sister Marlene.

Excerpt:
Our house at Sugar Beach was a source of pride and of pain. It was a testament to the stature of my family in a country where stature mattered, sometimes above all else. Liberian society rivaled Victorian England when it came to matters of social correctness. In Liberia, we cared far more about how we looked outside than about who we were inside. It was crucial to be an Honorable. Being an "Honorable" – mostly Congo People, though a smattering of Country People were sometimes pronounced educated enough to get the title – meant you were deemed eligible to hold important government posts. You could have a Ph.D. from Harvard but if you were a Country man with a tribal affiliation you were still outranked in Liberian society by an Honorable with a two-bit degree from some community college in Memphis, Tennessee. Daddy was an Honorable with a proper college bachelor of science, but being Hon. John L. Cooper Jr. was a hell of a lot more important than whatever degree he got in America.

However, a coup in 1980 shattered the somewhat serene life of the Cooper family. Soldiers enter their home, and the unthinkable happens to Helena’s mother. War is hell. Once you start reading about this remarkable journey, you will continue until it is complete. Ms. Cooper’s memoir has rekindled my interest in learning more about the history of Liberia.

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Following up on her grandmother’s family stories, film-maker Ann Marie Fleming embarks on an extended and global search for the truth about her family, their history, and their experiences during the mid-twentieth century. She first showcased her findings in a documentary film, and in 2007, published The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, an “illustrated memoir” that is a remarkable hybrid of non-fiction, graphic novel, and exhibit catalog. Fleming’s family story has a touch of mystery, a dash of romance, lots of celebrity, and drama that is ideally suited to this unconventional presentation.

Throughout the book, Fleming interlaces her own story of research and discovery with the extraordinary biography of Long Tack Sam. Mini-comics present various family stories about Sam, his early life, and how he received his training as a magician and acrobat in China. Photo-journal sections provide biographies of Sam’s surviving contemporaries and Fleming’s principal informants. Old photographs, handbills, and posters show Sam at work and at the height of his celebrity as a vaudeville star in New York City in the early 1920s.

The story of Sam and his family has an international dimension that makes it engaging on another level. Hailing from China, Sam travels first to Europe where he meets and marries his Austrian wife, Poldi, and then, during the First World War, moves on to the United States. Sam’s vaudeville career in New York takes a big hit from the rise of the motion picture, and eventually the family tours Australia, New Zealand, and China to find new audiences, while also performing an annual show in Hawaii. World War II and the Communist Revolution in China further disrupt the family, as they experience these global events first-hand.

Spanning the world more than once, this story is so much more than a glimpse into the heyday of magic and the theater between the wars. Prepare to be amazed by The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch