Rating: 
Summary: lovely
Review: A lovely book about strong women. Just wonderful to read and terribly touching.
Rating: 
Summary: Grace and beauty
Review: A moving masterpiece. I am so excited when a book moves me like this. I am now reading the sequel. The characters are so real and so fluid. I really could hardly put the book down. You don't need me to tell you the storyline. Just trust what the others have said. This book will move you and open your heart. There is so much love within these pages. I feel so transformed from the reading. This story will stay with me for along time.
Rating:
Summary: Women of the Silk is a memorable treat for the reader.
Review: Gail Tsukiyama's beautifully written book is the poignant story of life in rural China in the 1920's. The characters are so finely crafted that the reader feels every emotion -- the joy, the heartbreak, the drudgery, and the intense friendship of women drawn together by the bond of the silk factory. Gail Tsukiyama is a true artist, using her pen to draw detailed pictures which will stay in the mind of the reader long after the final page has been reluctantly turned.
A novel by Gail Tsukiyama is a rare treat which would best be savored slowly, if only the storyline was not so compelling!
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Debut by Stunningly Talented Author
Review: I am a bit of a China-phile, so it was with great anticipation that I read Gail Tsukiyama's WOMEN OF THE SILK. Her spare writing style provides the perfect foundation for the spell she weaves in this story of sisterhood and self-discovery. Pei's journey from unwanted daughter to independent woman as war looms over China is a fascinating one, and Tsukiyama's first novel is impressive, however, I think her talent and story really comes together in her second novel THE SAMURAI'S GARDEN, which is dangerously close to being a perfect book. It is interesting to see how she develops as a writer from WOMEN OF THE SILK to her next novel. The seeds of brilliance that shine from these pages glow like pearls in THE SAMURAI'S GARDEN. Tsukiyama is an author not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting if you have an interest...
Review: I am fascinated by China. I admit it. I read everything I can about the country, the people, and the recent past - especially as it pertains to women in the society. So this book was something that met my criteria for a potentially good read.
I enjoyed the book a good deal....but more because I wanted to learn more about life in China than that it was a fascinating or particularly well written book. (Wild Swans, for example, I think would be fascinating whether you were fascinated by China or not.)
Rating:
Summary: Surfing the Book's Pages, Not the Internet
Review: I forced myself to stay off of the internet this summer (except for now, hee hee) in order to allow myself to read more novels. After finishing two other books, I decided to pick up a random book at the library and read it. I closed my eyes, and my finger lead me to a sweet little book. However, it looked too much like the one I just read so I looked one shelf above it. I spotted a seemingly delicate book, grabed it, and headed for the checkout line as the library announcement kindly warned me to get the heck out of there because they were closing.I'm so happy I chose this book! I would recomend this book to those of you who want something soft, elegant, and dream-like. Want to learn about another time and culture? This is your book. Feeling lonely and need some inspiring friends? This is your book. Feeling rejected from your family because you've just been thrown into a silk-making company and don't know where to turn? This is most definatly your book. I think this is my favorite book out of the last three I've read. I was really transported to the world of the story, and can't help to find the characters lingering in my mind days and weeks after I finished reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Surfing the Book's Pages, Not the Internet
Review: I forced myself to stay off of the internet this summer (except for now, hee hee) in order to allow myself to read more novels. After finishing two other books, I decided to pick up a random book at the library and read it. I closed my eyes, and my finger lead me to a sweet little book. However, it looked too much like the one I just read so I looked one shelf above it. I spotted a seemingly delicate book, grabed it, and headed for the checkout line as the library announcement kindly warned me to get the heck out of there because they were closing. I'm so happy I chose this book! I would recomend this book to those of you who want something soft, elegant, and dream-like. Want to learn about another time and culture? This is your book. Feeling lonely and need some inspiring friends? This is your book. Feeling rejected from your family because you've just been thrown into a silk-making company and don't know where to turn? This is most definatly your book. I think this is my favorite book out of the last three I've read. I was really transported to the world of the story, and can't help to find the characters lingering in my mind days and weeks after I finished reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Writing Simply is not as simple as she thinks...
Review: I found myself strongly put off by the author's writing, a stilted and cliche-riddled vagueness that drones on in identical bland fortune-cookie cadences from the narrator and every single character in the book. People don't talk like this, people don't think like this. There are authors who tell beautiful stories in a honed, simple lyrical style, but Tsukiyama doesn't pull it off. I hungered for a well-chosen detail, an authentic note, a human word.
(A tip for her editors - how anyone could allow an author in this day and age to describe the inhabitants of a village as "the village people" is beyond me. Folks, do you really want gay men in motorcyle leathers and other fun costumes intruding on the reader's consciousness at any point in this book?)
Rating:
Summary: China and the World of Silk Workers
Review: I have long maintained that one of the primary reasons to read a book is to learn something new. And nowhere is learning achieved more than in Gail Tsukiyama's novel Women of the Silk, her first published title. Not only does the author provide her readers with memorable characters but introduces us to the world of women silk workers and their sisterhood. Pei Ling is the first-born daughter of Chinese peasant farmers. Although her mother has been pregnant several times only Pei and her younger sister Li survive past infancy. When she turns 8, Pei is brought to an area of China known for their silk factories. Although she is unaware of what will happen to her once her father leaves, it is evident to the reader that she has been sold and her parents will receive a stipend for providing her as a silk worker. Pei is at first shy and lonely but slowly learns her job and makes friends with an older silk worker, Ling. After several years when Li become comfortable with her surroundings, Pei chooses to be bound to the sisterhood by partaking in the hair ceremony. Once this ceremony is over, Li will not be free to marry or work elsewhere but pledges her life to the Sisterhood of silk workers. Then as conditions worsen for the workers, it is obvious that change within the silk factories is necessary. And then when Japan begins to occupy China, the world Li and her sisters have known for so many years begins to crumble. For me as reader this was a wonderful title and one filled with many learning experiences. In the deft hands of Tsukiyama, I felt as though I was the silk worker learning my trade and making friendships with the other girls and women. This book is not to be missed and when you finish it, I hope you will consider reading The Language of Threads which continues the story of Pei as China is occupied during WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Wonderful Book
Review: I just finished reading "The Lauguage of Threads" and found it impossible to put down. A beautifully written story by a master story teller! I have to agree with another reviewer that I wish Gail Tsukiyama would write "a book a month"! Will look forward to her next endeavor!
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