These Are a Few of My Favorite Things 2023 Edition
Co-written by Rachel & Cascade Oppitz
Rachel’s Ruminations
My favorite fiction genres include historical fiction, romance, and thrillers; in addition, I love nonfiction health and self-help books. Lisa See’s latest masterpiece Lady Tan’s Circle of Women combines both historical fiction and medical elements. I have yet to read a book by See that I have not absolutely adored.
My daughter Cascade also enjoyed this book and recently wrote this article for our local Indie bookstore:
“This story follows the life of Tan Yunxian--a wealthy woman who lived in 15th-century China--and is inspired by the life of a real female doctor from that era. After her mother’s early death, Yunxian is raised by her grandparents; her grandmother has been practicing Chinese medicine for years and imparts her medical wisdom to Yunxian. Male doctors were never allowed to directly look at or touch women! While female doctors were not widely societally accepted, wealthier women could get away with practicing medicine and were often the only people who could help ailing women. When Yunxian comes of age, she enters an arranged marriage, joining a new home where her talents for medicine are rejected and ignored and her friendship with a young midwife is stifled. Slowly and in secret, Yunxian establishes her value as a doctor while learning how to become a respected female head of household and wife. I loved learning about traditional Chinese medicine, but I was especially fascinated and horrified by the depictions of foot binding, both how it was logistically done and how it changed the way women were able to function, as this was a highly sought-after standard of beauty that kept women physically weaker and less agile than men.”
See shares a statistic that about 10% of women died from foot binding and its complications! We cannot recommend this superb book highly enough and I can think of at least one person to whom I will be gifting this book for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, another book I plan to gift to many family members is Thielen’s latest cookbook: Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Authors. I have not spent much time poring over this collection yet but love the way it has been formatted from my quick perusal and I really enjoyed her previous memoir and cookbook.
Here are my other favorite 2023 reads which I have given 5/5 stars if you want some additional gift giving ideas:
Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez (romance)
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (thriller)
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angelina Boulley (YA thriller)
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (debut novel)
Big Tree by Brian Selznick (middle grade fiction)
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (literary fiction)
The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning (historical fiction)
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (historical fiction)
The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel (historical fiction)
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (romance)
The Push by Ashley Audrain (thriller)
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford (historical fiction)
Bio for this particular article:
Dr. Rachel Oppitz practices naturopathic medicine in Park Rapids, MN. Fellow bibliophile Cascade Oppitz recently graduated from Gustavus and currently works at Beagle and Wolf as a bookseller and the Park Rapids Library as a librarian.
