Read With Crystal Book Club: September Review + October Book Announcement

I’m thrilled that so many of you joined us for last month’s first ever Read With Crystal Book Club! I received message after message from people saying how much you enjoyed the book and love this idea — and that makes me so ecstatic!

If you didn’t know about the book club or you need a refresher, here are details before I share my review of September’s book and announce October’s book club pick!

How the Book Club Works

Here’s how it works:

1. I announce the book club pick for the month on the blog and on social media. You can buy the book online, from a local book store, get it from the library, or listen to the audiobook. You choose!

2. We read through the book that month. I may mention it here and there on social media or on the blog. I may not. It just depends!

3. At the end of the month, I post a post with my full review and thoughts of the book. I will invite you to share your thoughts in the comments on that blog post or in the post I share on social media.

4. That’s it! We’ll repeat this every month with a new book.

You can join us every month or just on the months that the book looks interesting to you. Whatever works for you — this is a no obligation book club!

What I Thought of September’s Book Club Pick

September’s book pick was Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. And I have SOO many thoughts on this book. It made me frustrated. It made me grateful. It made me sad. But I also loved the stories of women caring deeply for one another, at great risk to themselves to do so sometimes.

Why It Made Me Frustrated

I knew that women were oppressed and devalued in other cultures, but to read about how it really worked out in the day-to-day was so appalling! Like, I wanted to shake some of the book characters and be like, “Just stop it already! Treat her with respect. She is not any less worth of respect than you are!”

I also felt frustrated because the medical care was so terrible for women. The thought of being diagnosed by a doctor who would only talk to you through a screen and wouldn’t even talk directly to you but would have someone else be a go-between!!

Also, I could not believe how women were kept basically chained to their houses and rarely ever – if ever – saw outside the walls of their house! That was shocking to me and hard to comprehend.

In addition, I struggled with the parts that talked about how marriage basically meant you were completely cut off from your family and were now, in essence, the property of your husband’s family.

Why It Made Me Sad

Okay, I had heard of foot-binding before but I genuinely had never thought of what the process was actually like or how it would actually be crippling to a woman. And they did it just to look “beautiful” for their husbands — even though he never would actually see their feet because they always kept them in booties (I’m guessing because they actually looked awful!)

To think of the pain and discomfort this would put women through every single moment of every single day. It was so sad to me.

But not only that, the saddest part to me was reading about how the mothers were the ones who would do the foot binding to their girls and how hard this would be for them because of the pain they were putting their daughters through to basically break the bones and then wrap the feet to make them really tiny.

I researched online and here’s more on foot-binding (you can also find pictures but be prepared to be aghast!):

Foot binding was a historical Chinese custom of tightly wrapping young girls’ feet with cloth to break bones and create small, highly arched Lotus Feet. The practice lasted for nearly a thousand years before it was finally stopped in the 20th century. [1, 2, 3]

How the Process Worked

• Age: The process usually started when a girl was between four and six years old. [1]
• Soaking: Relatives soaked the girl’s feet in warm water or herbal mixtures to soften the skin. [1, 2]
• Bending: They bent all the toes except the big toe underneath the sole of the foot. [1]
• Wrapping: They used long cloth bandages to wrap the foot tightly, which broke the small bones and forced the foot into a high arch. [1, 2]
• Goal: The ideal target size was about three inches long, known as a “golden lotus” foot. You can learn more about the mechanics and history of this custom on Britannica. [1, 2]

Why It Made Me Grateful

I read the book thinking how grateful I am to live in a country and time period and marriage where I have so much worth, value, dignity, and respect. I think we can take these things for granted sometimes and studying different cultures and historical times can give us fresh perspective on how much we have to be thankful for.

I also thought there were so many beautiful parts of the book where other women were caring so deeply for one another, where men would buck the norm to take care of women and care about their needs, and where women would risk their lives for other women.

What did you think of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women? I’d love to hear! Tell us in the comments!

My IG Live With Lisa See

Psst! Do not miss my IG live with the author! It was incredible! Lisa See is a wealth of historical wisdom and her insights and perspective added such depth to this month’s book club!

Lisa has spent years of her life researching for her books and her passion for her characters is completely contagious! In fact, when we finished this live, I immediately wanted to go read all 12 of her other books!

A few of the topics we covered:

-How the practice of foot-binding was actually seen as something that would really elevate their daughter’s position and protect her in the long run.

-Why she spent 40 hours of research for one single sentence in her book.

-What it was like to try to write a book in the middle of a pandemic when so many options for research were not available.

-The level of isolation women felt in China during this time period but how they would build relationships with women and make the most of a life lived in an enclosed compound.

-How to more deeply appreciate our own circles of women.

Watch the full IG live interview here. I have a feeling you will want to read all of Lisa’s books after watching it.

October’s Book Club Pick

I’m excited to announce this month’s book club pick is Beneath a Scarlet Sky. This book is one I have had on my shelf for years, has been highly recommended to me over and over again, and one I have planned to read so many times.

Here’s the description from Amazon:

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

I figured I could selfishly pick it for book club this month so I would actually get it read! Get a copy of Beneath a Scarlet Sky here — or check your local library to get a copy.

How to Read Beneath a Scarlet Sky for Free

If you are someone who likes to read ebooks, you can get the Kindle version of Beneath a Scarlet Sky completely FREE right now through Kindle Unlimited!! (They are offering a free 3-month subscription to Prime Members and it’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited!)

Or, you can get the audiobook of Beneath a Scarlet Sky for free through Amazon Music (they are currently offering 3-4 months free and you get a free audiobook each month!)

Any questions? Ask away in the comments! Also, if you have suggestions for future book club books, let me know! I will be compiling a list!

Note: I will do my best to pick books that are clean (no bedroom scenes) and don’t have a lot of cursing in them. However, since I won’t have read the book before I pick it, I am not endorsing a book just by picking it. But I will do my best to research it to try to make sure it’s no more than a PG or PG-13 type book.