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Friday, November 19, 2010

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Joy Luck Club



"The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum."

-- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

Amy Tan is one of those authors who is so in my consciousness that I think I have read more of her books than I have. This is probably her most famous, but I am just now getting around to reading it.
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7 comments:

  1. Carin Siegfried11/19/10, 9:20 AM

    Oh, it's a fantastic book! I'm so glad you're reading it. The movie is excellent too, BTW, although it only covered half of the stories from the book. I'm tempted to reread it myself.

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  2. Unknown11/19/10, 10:21 AM

    This is a wonderful book. The characters are endearing and their stories are very touching. I read this book years ago and will read it again soon!

    Enjoy!
    ~ Amy

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  3. Ali11/19/10, 3:23 PM

    I could never quite get into this one, but it was a long time ago when I tried. I think I have it somewhere, I should give it another go.

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  4. Shelley11/19/10, 4:57 PM

    I'm going to be starting this one on Monday to read on a trip to San Francisco. I have pretty high expectations--I loved everything else by her that I have read.

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  5. Gilion at Rose City Reader11/19/10, 5:14 PM

    Carin S: I just added the movie to my NetFlix queue. I always like to read the book first, although that was silly in this case since I could have watched the movie 20+ years ago and I wouldn't remember it now.

    Amy: It is a wonderful book. I didn't realize that it is really separate stories that make a novel. I've been reading a lot of those lately (Olive Kitteridge and Let the Great World Spin). I like this one tremendously.

    Ali: I thought I wouldn't be too jazzed about the mother/daughter theme, but this one sucked me right in.

    Shelley: Perfect for a trip to SF! Reading about Chinatown and other parts of the city makes me homesick for when I used to live there.

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  6. Bob Sanchez11/19/10, 5:51 PM

    I read The Joy Luck Club years ago, when I used to play chess. Amy Tan's character Waverly is a talented chess player, and the scenes in which she plays are, I think, the most poetic and beautiful descriptions of the game I've ever read.

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  7. Anonymous11/20/10, 3:28 AM

    I love, love that first line. I would love to live forever. Then, I could read every book in the world.

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