Rating: 
Summary: a bit dissapointed
Review: I expected something better, and with a bit more history in it.
Overall, it is not a bad book. As an unwanted daughter who was scapegoat of my own family, I really felt pity for her. I can understand all too well how much it hurts not to be equally treated as other siblings. I've been through that too, and I wonder whether the pain of seeing my father give my sister money for icecream on a hot summer day while I received none will ever be completely gone. Whatever I did was never good enough, though I know for a fact that my father did show off in front of his friends with my accomplishments. When I got my PhD, my father never congratulated me but he bought drinks to everybody at work. What kind of behavior is that? But I learnt to let go, and forget about it. This is what author should do, too. The more you strive for love and acceptance from people who do not care about you, worse they will treat you. And that's that.I would also like to comment on what some people said about "there are a lot more children who were really abused, didn't have enough to eat, didn't get education, blah,blah". Emotional abuse is just as bad as physical abuse. I've experienced both, and if I'd had to choose between the too, I would choose latter. It isn't the point that there were orphans who had less food than the author, the point is that her family could very well afford to provide and they deliberately chose not to do so. And since she is chinese, in addition to feeling unwanted which is bad enough she had another thing to deal with which is very serious in chinese culture - loss of face. Which is the worst thing her parents could inflict on her. I would really like to see a memoir from her sister Susan. She is the real hero, she stood up for herself unlike the author who kept coming back for more abuse. When she accepted inferior job secured by her father over much better offer she got on her own, I just couldn't beleive it. She was at least wise enough to leave HK, but she made a mistake not to leave all that behind. I would also like to point out that, after leaving for quite a while in China and having had a chinese boyfriend who insisted that I should be more fillial in my contacts with my own abusive and dysfunctional family (to which I of course said no way!), I find her story quite beleivable. I know many people, some of which are middle aged, who strive very hard to win approval of their parents. I find it so bizzare that for a 30+ year old parents have final say on the issues of friends, job, marriage etc. They are still treated like children by their own families, and this results in really bizzare behavior. I don't think therapy will help much to Mrs. Yen Mah, she is a typical product of her culture. She is extremely lucky to have found a man so far removed from all that materialistic nonsense, manipulation and intrigues. What I felt the biggest fault of this book in addition to her complete lack of backbone and self respect was lack of answer to the question why. I don't think she will ever achieve true serenity until she finds the answer to that.
Rating: 
Summary: Adeline is a great woman
Review: This fabulous book is about the struggle of an unwanted Chinese daughter.I was really surprised by its quality since I bought this book just to kill my time.It's a very sad memoir and I nearly cried twice when I read this book.This book made
me feel very emotional till I threw this book on the table when I saw the illustration of Adeline's stepmom.This book is mainly about how Adeline had suffered mentally and how alone and unwanted she was before she became a successful woman.The
last part of the book was very captivating,about the legacy of Adeline's father and her cruel stepmom.You'd be grateful of the treatment that you receive from your family once you've read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant Memoir
Review: I've always wanted to read this book since I saw it on the bookshelves and I finally bought it. It is wonderful. I have read
a few Chinese (and other Asian) memoirs and this is one of the (if not THE) best ones I've read. This poignant memoir details
Adeline's life from when she was born and her mother died to when her tyrannical step-mother Niang dies. This book moved me
to tears on more than one occasion. Adeline went through such hardship, but she managed to triumph over adversity and make
her life a success despite the horrible treatment she received from her family. Despite all the abuse and abandonment she felt
Adeline still knows how to love and how to transform that love into written words. This is an excellent memoir and a must-read,
especially if you are into the memoir genre.
Rating:
Summary: Lifelong soul surgery.
Review: Having just finished this book hours ago, I could not wait to get online and 5-star recommend it to anyone out there in the wide world of amazon. What a fascinating book. One of the best memoirs I have ever read. In November of 1937, Adeline was born in Tianjin China. She was the fifth child (one sister, three brothers) of the wealthy businessman Joseph Yen. Two weeks after Adeline's birth, her mother died, and her Aunt Baba was put in charge of the household. Joseph soon remarried, and with this new "Cruella de Ville"-type stepmother came the lifelong soul surgery of the entire family. Her name was Niang. Her tyranny knew no bounds, but it seemed to focus upon Adeline, and from her earliest years, the child incurred the senseless vindictive wrath of Niang.
Horrible injustices and restrictions were placed upon Adeline. As you read the story you will be amazed that she survived at all. Niang and Joseph had two children of their own, who were shamelessly favored. The rest of the family were treated as servants, in comparison. Adeline is sent to lonely seclusion in a far-off Catholic boarding school, and during very important formative years, all family contact is severed. We watch as Adeline's father is forced to go along with Niang's ridiculous rules and regulations, and she succeeds in dividing the loyalties of everyone in the family. The story is heartwrenching. It's as though Adeline undergoes a lifelong soul surgery, repeatedly awakening from the anesthetic, only to collapse from the realized pain of reality. Many others have commented that this is a book with no happy ending. Certainly in the usual sense, there is no happy ending. For Adeline what was wrong never ever gets fully fixed, it only gets more and more broken. But the redeeming quality of the story is the remarkable absence of bitterness or revenge that we see in Adeline at the end of it all. She is the embodiment of forgiveness, generosity and love. At the same time we see the extent of damage that a self-centered, greedy, manipulative, venomous, vindictive person can inflict upon others. Throughout the story are a host of characters who fall somewhere down the middle, not exactly evil, but swayed by evil. Falling Leaves causes the reader to fully examine which type of person they themselves most resemble.
Rating:
Summary: my favorite book of all time
Review: I've read all of Amy Tan's book and hesitantly experimented w/ a new author .. I'M SO GLAD I DID-!! This is such an AMAZING book but may be hard for many to understand if one isn't familiar w/ the tradional Chinese values and secrets of "successful" families but it doesn't hurt to try. Ms. Mah truly showed me that one cannot win in the game of life if there are no obstacles .. in all, hope, patience, and determination will persevere. A MUST READ-!!
Rating: 
Summary: _FALLEN LEAVES: THE MEMOIR OF AN UNWANTED CHINESE DAUGHTER_
Review: Adeline Yen Mah's, _Fallen Leaves: _The Memoirs of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter_... is an incredible story. _Fallen Leaves_, would be a perfect book for adults who are very interested in the Chinese culture. However, teenagers with an interest in different cultures would also be able to appreciate the difficult life Adeline Yen Mah encountered. I would not recommend _Fallen Leaves_ for sensitive or extremely emotional adults. _Fallen Leaves_ was written in chapters. Each chapter includes another extraordinary tale of Adeline Yen Mah's life. Throughout the story, Adeline Yen Mah describes what it was like growing up in an unwanted family. Her mother passed away after giving birth to her and her family blamed and recented Adeline for her mother's death. Later, her father remarried. Adeline's step mother was controlling and emotionally abusive towards her. Her parents eventually sent her away to boarding school. Adeline Yen Mah was so unloved that people at the boarding school just assumed that she was an orphan. The story may seem, at this point, incredibly depressing but there was hope for little Adeline. Her one true positive feminine role model was her Aunt Baba. Adeline's Aunt loved her and helped her overcome the hatred and abuse from her childhood. Remarkably, with strength from her Aunt Baba, Adeline Yen Mah was able to become a physician and a writer. If that is not strength and determination, then I don't know what is. The one problem that I encountered with _Fallen Leaves_ was not knowing the exact order of events taking place. Although Adeline Yen Mah attempts to stay in chronological order, I often find my self having to look back at the chapters to determine when exactly an event was taking place. Overall, I enjoyed reading _Fallen Leaves_, by Adeline Yen Mah. The book was extremely inspiring and interesting at the same time. Reading _Fallen Leaves_ has given me a much greater appreciation for my parents love and respect....
Rating:
Summary: Wanting to be Loved
Review: This book was a touching story about a little girl who just wants to belong in her family. No one wanted her. Her parents and her siblings betrayed her along the way. No one showed real love to her. But, all of the injustice she endured makes her an admirable woman. Anyone with an interest in pre-communist China from the perspective of a woman, whether this is for a female authors class, a history of China, or even just someone looking for a different life than their own will find something to appreciate from this book. Adeline Yen Mah overcame so many obstacles with her parents, primarily her stepmother, and was still able to succeed as a prominent physician. Yet, there is a lack of emotion within the book. You don't get the sense that the writer really felt much; at least not much is described. Most events are just recorded as they happened, without dwelling on how they really affected her inside. However, she is recounting events that took place quite a number of years ago and details become fuzzy after a time. There was nothing off color or distasteful brought up in the book, which I appreciated. Though, some of the scenes between her and her parents were pretty ugly in terms of their mistreatment of her. Also, some of the discrimination she endured was not really felt by the reader. Each chapter was devoted to different parts of her life starting with a Chinese proverb relating to lessons she learned along the way, for good or bad. Some of these range from "Yang: Family ugliness should not be aired in public": her friends witnessed an ugly dispute between herself and her parents; "Climbing a tree to catch a fish": her aunt tells her to give in to her stepmother and accept her authority...she was making things much more difficult than they needed to be; and "Marry a chicken, follow a chicken": the man she married turned out to be a liar and a good for nothing. I found these very well timed and applicable. It added a nice touch to the book overall, as she did not just give simple titles to each chapter or no titles at all. Adeline Yen Mah showed that one could succeed even in the midst of political changes in her country, an uncaring childhood, and no support from anyone in her family. She inspired me to appreciate all of the love and support I receive everyday.
Rating:
Summary: moving yet uninteresting.
Review: Adeline Yen Mah's childhood story is moving. It is impossible to read her tale of abuse and terror without reflecting on the tenacity with which children hold on to their optimism. However, after the first hundred pages or so, though, my thoughts were along the lines of "All right, already! You were the poor abused martyr of the family; tell me something new!" In the future, when I decide to read books relating to Chinese family values and culture, I plan on sticking with Amy Tan's novels.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Heartwarming
Review: This book was by no means the best book I have ever read, but it is pretty close up to the top. I was searching through the "new books" section of my library at school and I saw "Chinese Cinderella" and decided to read it. I couldn't put it down I read for 3 hours straight and was memorized by it. I questioned my friend the librarian about it and said I should read "Falling Leaves", she let me borrow her copy and I started reading right away. This book I could not out down either. This story follows the life of Adeline Yen Mah a Chinese girl born into a very wealthy Chinese family (which is why her life wasn't AS BAD as she makes it to be). Her mother dies a little while after giving birth to her. Adeline's father remarried about a year later to a Eurasion woman about half of his age named Jeanne Prosperi. Jeanne came from a very poor family and wanted to be wealthy. Anyway, Jeanne (called Niang meaning "mother" from the children) treated her step children like dirt but treated the two kids she had with Adelines father like royalty (until later when she disconnects realtionships with here daughter Susan) Anyway I suggest you read Chinese Cinderella first because It focuses more on Adelines child hood and Falling leaves focuses on her later years. This was over-all and enjoyable story and I recommend it a lot!!
Rating:
Summary: Darkness and light
Review: The writing is not spectacular: Mah after all is a doctor, not an author. But the, episodic narrative, while plain, is well written. This book presents the story of a girl who endured unbelievable cruelty at the hands of her father, siblings, and most especially, stepmother, and yet grew up to be a kind and forgiving woman. The enormity of Mah's stepmother's cruelty left me in shock at times. "How could someone be that emotionally abusive?" I thought. How could any child grow up to be a well-adjusted adult when she was forbidden to go to visit the few friends she had, or to invite them to her home; when she was dropped off at an orphanage as punishment for some triviality; when her rich parents suggested she go to a bank to get a loan so she could afford to buy a plane ticket to the States, where she had a job waiting for her. These are just a few of the many examples that come to mind as I type this. Mah 's stepmother was, in short, pathologically cruel. And yet, as if to disprove all the nurture advocates in the nature/nurture debate, Mah grew up to be a forgiving, generous woman. As she reached financial security as an anesthesiologist, she used her money to help her siblings (and their children), though they'd done nothing but torment her for most of their lives. "Falling Leaves" is a example of how good people are simply good people, no matter how society treats them, and that evil people can be unbelievably dark.
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