The Last Days of Cafe Leila

I received an ARC of this book through the Early Reviewers Club at Librarything. It is a story of three generations of the Yadegar family in post-revolutionary Iran.

Zod Yadegar has written his daughter Noor in California asking that she return home to Tehran where he runs the family business Cafe Leila.  She agrees to come and brings along her angry teenage daughter Lily.  Noor, a nurse, notices her father appears to be ill but is not aware how sick he is.  She soon learns he has terminal pancreatic cancer and decides to stay longer than the week she had originally planned to stay.  This, of course, upsets Lily who did not want to come to Tehran anyway.  While she is there, Noor gets reacquainted with longtime Cafe Leila employees Naneh Goli, Soli, and Ala who have always been considered family.

The family saga alternates between Noor's family problems, Zod's marriage and family life with Noor's mother Parvaneh, and Zod's parents Yanik and Nina who emigrated to Iran from Russia and opened Cafe Leila. Yanik and Nina created a tight family bond that begins to fall apart after Zod forced his children to leave Iran when they became college age and the country became too dangerous to live in. However, when Zod's kids return 30 years later the family bond appears to still be alive.

The setting of the restaurant and food is prominent.  All life problems seem to be solved by working hard to create an inviting place for their customers.  While Iran has changed over the years, Cafe Leila has not changed one bit and offers its customers a respite from a quickly changing society.

I loved this debut novel by Donia Bijan. The characters were loveable and I enjoyed reading about the history of this family through each generation's stories. The descriptions of the food served at the restaurant not only made me hungry but was also historical to the family.  Yanik brought his mother's recipes with him went he came to Iran.  Every aspect of this wonderful book is family related.

Highly recommended.

The Empress of Bright Moon

The Empress of Bright Moon is part 2 of a duology on the early life of Empress Wu, China's only ruling female.  The story picks up where part 1, The Moon in the Palace, ended with a dying Emperor Taizong and his son Pheasant,  formally Emperor Gaozong, being declared as his heir. Pheasant is in a relationship with Wu Mei, our protagonist.

When Pheasant becomes Emperor his uncle advises the court that Taizong made a will before his death installing the uncle as Regent over Pheasant even though Pheasant was an adult.  Pheasant is married to Lady Wang, now Empress Wang, who has been barren during their 7 year marriage. Empress Wang has become a bitter woman and treats the concubines abysmally, especially Mei whom she is jealous of. Mei has been able to produce 2 children for the new Emperor and is not only her rival but a rival of the new Regent. Mei is promoted to the Most Adored title (the Emperor's favorite) early in the story and is given another new title that is higher than the other high ranking concubines, Luminous Lady.  There are concubines titled as Talents, Graces, Beauties and Leading Ladies.  Mei struggles to obtain power as she battles her 2 rivals.

I have loved both of the books in the duology and am thinking about re-reading them soon.  They are that good. The female characters are strong but there are less of them in book 2.  The plot is mainly about Mei's problems with the Regent and Empress Wang as well as Pheasant's struggles with his Regent and the court in general.  The other high ranking concubines are not as central to the plot as they were in book 1.  Both books are well researched.  The political intrigue during the Tang dynasty and in the palace are represented well.

A must read for historical fiction fans.

The Moon in the Palace

This book is part 1 of the Empress of the Bright Moon duology.  It takes place in 7th century China and is a fictionalized account of the early years of China's Empress Wu, the only ruling Empress in China's history.

13 year old Wu Mei is excited to be chosen as a concubine for Emperor Taizong.  She believes that she can help her family regain its standing if she is able to impress the Emperor and become his Most Adored ie, his favorite.  It is hard to be summoned by the Emperor as there are many concubines and a bedding schedule that must be followed. Being young and unfamiliar with court rules and politics she is taken advantage of by another concubine named Jewel who takes Mei's place after Mei is summoned by the Emperor and soon becomes Most Adored.

Mei meets a boy at court called Pheasant and falls in love with him.  They secretly arrange to meet on several occasions. However, Mei continues to pursue the Emperor and receives several promotions and demotions that seem to be controlled by Jewel.  One evening while she is in the Emperor's bedroom she is seen by Pheasant.  Mei discovers that Pheasant is one of the Emperor's sons and is embarrassed by her actions. Still feeling a need to help her family Mei plays court politics to her advantage but continues to be challenged by Jewel.

I was spellbound by this story and read it in one sitting.  It was impossible to put down and I was up at 2 am trying to finish reading it.  The story is primarily about the political machinations of the Emperor's concubines as they befriend, betray and befriend each other again in order to gain power.  As such, there is alot of court intrigue as they battle each other to become Most Adored or even the new Empress.

What is unusual about the story is that there are many strong female characters. These concubine are no dummies and are more than adept at court politics. Other interesting aspects of the book are the rules concerning the Emperor's wardrobe and the running of the silkworm houses.  I especially enjoyed the information on how to raise silkworms.

All in all, The Moon in the Palace was a great read.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I am a fan of Lisa See and had to pick up her latest novel.  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows the life of Li-Yan, called Girl by her family as she is the only daughter in her family.  She is a member of China's Akha ethnic minority. They are animistic in belief and Ms. See covers their traditions in great detail. They live in the countryside in a remote village without electricity and running water in stark contrast to the majority of people in 1980s China and they all pick tea leaves for their livelihood.

Girl walks for hours each day with her family in order to pick pu'er tea leaves all day that are then sold to a tea collective.  Her mother is also the area's midwife and Girl is expected to learn this skill too. She is one of her school's best students and hopes to advance to higher education if her family will let her.  Girl wants to grow up and leave her village for a better life.

One day a stranger arrives looking for the rare pu'er tea.  Girl is asked to translate for her village leaders. Also at this time Girl begins to question the traditions of her village and after having a child out of wedlock refuses to kill the infant which society requires her to do. She drops her infant off near an orphanage in a nearby town and subsequently leaves her village to pursue her education and career. After getting reacquainted with the father Girl tries to get her daughter back but she has already been adopted by a California couple.  Both mother and daughter search for a stable family life through those they meet through their study of pu'er tea.

I loved this story.  While I am attracted to Asian fiction it still has to be well written to capture my imagination.  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane does just that with loveable characters and a compelling plot.  There is alot of information about the tea industry both locally and internationally which was enjoyable to read about.  The author also writes about her Chinese culture with its family traditions, government practices, religious superstitions, and ancestor worship practices.

A fabulous read!

The Tapestry

I decided to read Nancy Bilyeau's The Tapestry for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge after finding it at my public library.  It is a novel of Tudor England.

The story opens with Joanna Stafford, an ex-novice nun of a Dominican Order that was destroyed by King Henry VIII, vowing to live a quiet life weaving tapestries as a home business.  However, the king hears about her talent and summons her to his court to make a tapestry for him.  When she arrives an unknown assailant tries to kill her and the noblemen at court use her to further their plots.  Joanna finds that her friend Catherine Howard is present at court and is a favorite of the king while he tires from being married to his 4th wife Anne of Cleves.  Joanna becomes involved in court politics which she had tried to avoid but could not.

After reading this book I found out that it is the third novel in a series involving Joanna Stafford.  Of course, I now have to read the first 2 because The Tapestry was an engrossing story.  While I felt that the beginning was slow the author was probably introducing alot of background information from the earlier novels.  The story quickly picked up and I could not put it down.  I read it in one sitting.

The author provides a fascinating insight into the religious passions and politics of the era.  She shows the difficulties of being Catholic in a Reformed era with characters who have been displaced from the destroyed priories and monasteries by Henry VIII.

I highly recommend this book and give it 5 out of 5 stars.  It was a fabulous read.

Jade Dragon Mountain

I picked this book as a selection for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  It is the author's debut novel for a series featuring former Forbidden City librarian Li Du and takes place in China in the early 1700s.

Li Du has been recently exiled from China by the Emporer for being associated with traitors.  As he walks across China to leave the country he stops in Dayan near the Tibetan border where his cousin Tulishen is the magistrate.  Since the Emporer is expected to arrive in 6 days Tulishen has been planning to hold a festival for him where the Emporer is expected to show his subjects that he has control over the skies by predicting and producing an eclipse of the sun while he is there. While Li Du is there a Jesuit priest, astronomer Pieter van Dalen, suddenly dies.  The magistrate declares the death to be natural but there are signs that he has ignored indicating there was foul play. Tulishen does not want a murder investigation occurring near the time of the Emporer's arrival as it would upset the Emporer.  Li Du goes on his way but returns the next day asking his cousin if he can look into the priest's death. Tulishen gives him 5 days to come up with an answer before he has to leave again.

I loved this story.  There were interesting characters from Li Du and Tulishen to East India Company representative Nicholas Gray, Tulishen's consort Lady Chen, another Jesuit priest Brother Martin and assorted employees of the magistrate.  The historical aspect was well researched.  The author certainly knows her stuff.  Astronomy is prominent to the story and it added another interesting aspect to the plot.

This was an amazing read.  Highly recommended!

Pekoe Most Poison

I read Laura Child's latest tea shop mystery for the Craving the Cozies Reading Challenge.  It is the 18th installment of the tea shop mystery series and I have read every one of the books.  This is one of my favorite series.

In this installment of the series one of Charleston's wealthiest men, Beau Briggs, dies suddenly after drinking a cup of pekoe tea while at a rat tea party in his home.  Rat tea parties were prominent in Charleston in the mid 1900s and the waiters all wear rat headwear.  The main character, Theodosia Browning, owns the Indigo Tea Shop and is a guest at the event as is her tea master Drayton Connelly.  Her sleuthing begins immediately after Briggs collapses when she says that she thinks that the tea was poisoned.  With a reputation in the community for solving crimes Theodosia is asked by the victim's widow Doreen Briggs to look into his death.  So whodunit?  Was it the wife, the business partner, the neighbor or the publicist? Someone else?  You will have to read the book to find out.

One thing I like about Laura Childs' writing is that the crime occurs early in the story, usually in the first chapter. Some mystery novels don't have the crime committed until well into a third of the book.  I think that is a waste of paper. I want to know right away what crime needs to be solved so that the entire book is really about solving the crime.

The author also follows the cozy mystery formula perfectly.  What you get is a well crafted, fast paced story with several twists and turns and red herring or 2. This is must read for cozy lovers.

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