Reading In A Coffee Shop Bookclub

Let’s gather on a sunny Saturday morning, taste some rich coffee and yummy pastries and talk about this wondrous coming-of-age story infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, adventure, and fascinating, dreamlike twists.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

Let’s gather on a sunny Saturday morning, taste some rich coffee and yummy pastries and talk about this mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.

A novel that explores themes of art, power, and identity through the parallel stories of two women: Anita de Monte, a rising Cuban-American artist in the 1980s, and Raquel Toro, a contemporary art history student in the late 1990s.