An evening with author Lisa See at Books and Books, Bal Harbour

All day yesterday we had unpredictable weather in Miami...But, something happened. Everything cleared up by evening and the drive to the new Books and Books in Bal Harbour was a breeze. I say a "breeze" because it's really nice when someone else -in this case my sister- is driving. Let's start by saying that I have attended three or four book release-presentations with Lisa See. She doesn't cease to amaze me. Every time, it feels like the first time. Every time I listen to her, I learn something new or think about something I had not thought about before. When I listened to her talk the first time it was about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I had a hard time listening to some things. It was hard to hear facts about foot binding and not feel the pain those women suffered. When I realized that See was coming to South Florida, I just knew our book club had to read her new book, Shanghai Girls and that it would be a great follow up to our previous one, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.That's why I insisted (with emails and texts) that our book club go. I knew Lisa See would not disappoint them. And boy did she deliver! She was insightful and gave us a visual picture of Shanghai in the 1930's. She also spoke about family stories, relationships and trips to China. Her mother is her mentor and a writer as well. Her writing work-style is inspired by her her and says that she has to write "a 1,000 words a day". This book she told us was about sisters -by blood- and also sisters of the heart. The turn out was good and the questions from the audience kept the presentation lively and fast paced. I have not read her latest book yet, but three of our members have, and they say they just couldn't put it down. They don't want to ruin it for me, I know, but you should see the look on their faces. I feel like their part of a secret society and they know something I have to know too! See understands emotions and relationships. I have seen it in her previous books and in this one is no different. You can tell she has a unique intuition -and psychology- about families rarely seen in other authors. I was surprised to learn that she has also written mystery books. And, yes...now I want to read those too! But to be totally honest, I do not know when because at the turtle pace I am reading, plus everything I want to read,I will have to stop working, and probably just dedicate my life to reading (LOL)! Not that I haven't thought about it...