The Red Chamber

Reviewed by Alice StephensUsing the proverb “Women hold up half the sky” as his slogan, Mao Zedong launched a movement to raise the status of women in China shortly after the Communists took power in 1949. A series of reform acts allowed women to choose their own husbands, divorce, own…

Snapshots

…he purports to condemn. ~Alice Stephens The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel Unbridled 288 pp The Lola Quartet is a novel about the mistakes of the past, and the frustration and discouragement that youths face as they leave the nest and make their way in the world. At…

The Red House

Reviewed by Alice StephensSummer is coming and with it the prospect of vacation, and the piles of books that have been saved up to be read during those few, precious days of freedom. If vacationing with extended family, however, beware of packing Mark Haddon’s latest novel, The Red House, in…

The Orphan Master’s Son

…editorial assistant to copy editor to freelance travel writer, Alice Stephens has had a long and varied career working with the written word. She has recently completed a historical novel set in Nagasaki, Japan.

The Buddha in the Attic

Reviewed by Alice Stephens In the late 19th century, Japanese laborers were recruited to work the sugar plantations of Hawaii, and some of them made their way to the mainland as cheap labor for the farms and burgeoning cities of the West, particularly California. In 1907, the so-called “Gentleman’s Agreement”…