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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
Wow, this was so good! What a story! And it’s like the ultimate cliffhanger.
This is a quick read that’s so interesting! Definitely recommend it to anyone!
[PopSugar Challenge 2023: a book bought from an independent bookstore]
This is a quick read that’s so interesting! Definitely recommend it to anyone!
[PopSugar Challenge 2023: a book bought from an independent bookstore]
Truly epic story about a woman’s love for a husband but also love for the people of Tibet and their traditions and values.
Deeply moving.
What incredible determination.
So inspiring to read about the Tibetan nomads and how they accepted a Chinese woman.
All the things she goes through to find her missing husband..
Just wow!
I loved this book!
Deeply moving.
What incredible determination.
So inspiring to read about the Tibetan nomads and how they accepted a Chinese woman.
All the things she goes through to find her missing husband..
Just wow!
I loved this book!
I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up for a challenge and it actually caught my attention. I love that we were able to follow the story of Shu Wen as she traveled far away to find her husband. I love hearing about all the people she met along the way and how she finally finds out what happened to her husband. I love that she was able to help reunite a friend with her lover. I was glad that she finally found peace and knew what had actually happened to her husband. I didn't think I was going to enjoy this biography but it held my attention.
Written as if it were non-fiction, but it was fiction. Really enjoyed the story unfolding.
This was a very interesting story of a woman whose husband was a doctor in the Chinese Army who went missing while deployed in Tibet. The woman, Wen, was also a doctor and joined the army so that she could go look for her husband. She spent decades in Tibet before she found answers.
emotional
medium-paced
This was a strong 3 for me, almost a 4 but not quite. I do think it will stick with me for quite some time. Already it is over a month since I've finished it and I still have FEELINGS.
The title of the book refers to a sacred funereal practice in Tibet, in which to honor the dead, the body is left out to be eaten by vultures and returned to the earth. The main character in the story, Shu Wen, is at first appalled by this practice when she travels to Tibet, and longs for the "more civilized" funerals back in her beloved China. But as she spends longer and longer in Tibet and gets to know the language, the people, and the culture, she comes to terms with this Sky Burial -- which is a good thing at the end of the story.
Shu Wen initially travels to Tibet in an attempt to track down her husband. The two had only been married a few months when he was whisked off in the Chinese military to help out in this harsh region. Eventually, she receives a message that he has been killed and she is heartbroken, but its lack of details compared to the other such messages she has seen make her wonder if he is actually alive and the military is covering it up for some reason. She is medically trained, so she joins the military herself and travels to Tibet in search of her husband's fate.
Of course, things do not go as planned. She is separated from her unit and on the brink of death before she is taken in by a nice family, with which she lives for many years despite her lack of knowledge of the native language. She makes friends, she learns more about the culture and people, she continues to search for traces of her husband in her spare time over the course of decades.
I guess the thing that astounds me about this story given that it is "true" (or, I suppose, true-ish ... it's based on a single long conversation [a:Xinran|104161|Xinran|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1241724782p2/104161.jpg] had with the real Shu Wen) is the tenacity and perseverance that Shu Wen showed. I believe most people would have given up much sooner ... most probably wouldn't have lasted a year before going home! But Shu Wen remains true to her husband over the course of decades, talking to his photograph at night, missing him, telling others of her love for him, searching for his fate. It's amazing to me, knowing they were only married a few months before he left, and even their courtship wasn't particularly long. I have to wonder if she wasn't more in love with the idea of him and the adventure of finding him than with the man himself... although that perspective ruins the romanticism of the story.
The book was really interesting from an educational perspective, though. The descriptions of Tibet and pieces of its culture from the 1950s to the 1970s were beautiful and interesting. And I learned some about the history between China and Tibet as well. It was an enjoyable story, easy to read, and most parts were very interesting.
If you're looking for something short and a bit different, I recommend this one.
The title of the book refers to a sacred funereal practice in Tibet, in which to honor the dead, the body is left out to be eaten by vultures and returned to the earth. The main character in the story, Shu Wen, is at first appalled by this practice when she travels to Tibet, and longs for the "more civilized" funerals back in her beloved China. But as she spends longer and longer in Tibet and gets to know the language, the people, and the culture, she comes to terms with this Sky Burial -- which is a good thing at the end of the story.
Shu Wen initially travels to Tibet in an attempt to track down her husband. The two had only been married a few months when he was whisked off in the Chinese military to help out in this harsh region. Eventually, she receives a message that he has been killed and she is heartbroken, but its lack of details compared to the other such messages she has seen make her wonder if he is actually alive and the military is covering it up for some reason. She is medically trained, so she joins the military herself and travels to Tibet in search of her husband's fate.
Of course, things do not go as planned. She is separated from her unit and on the brink of death before she is taken in by a nice family, with which she lives for many years despite her lack of knowledge of the native language. She makes friends, she learns more about the culture and people, she continues to search for traces of her husband in her spare time over the course of decades.
I guess the thing that astounds me about this story given that it is "true" (or, I suppose, true-ish ... it's based on a single long conversation [a:Xinran|104161|Xinran|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1241724782p2/104161.jpg] had with the real Shu Wen) is the tenacity and perseverance that Shu Wen showed. I believe most people would have given up much sooner ... most probably wouldn't have lasted a year before going home! But Shu Wen remains true to her husband over the course of decades, talking to his photograph at night, missing him, telling others of her love for him, searching for his fate. It's amazing to me, knowing they were only married a few months before he left, and even their courtship wasn't particularly long. I have to wonder if she wasn't more in love with the idea of him and the adventure of finding him than with the man himself... although that perspective ruins the romanticism of the story.
The book was really interesting from an educational perspective, though. The descriptions of Tibet and pieces of its culture from the 1950s to the 1970s were beautiful and interesting. And I learned some about the history between China and Tibet as well. It was an enjoyable story, easy to read, and most parts were very interesting.
If you're looking for something short and a bit different, I recommend this one.
emotional
informative
medium-paced
This book spoke to my soul. It is a stepping stone for me in understanding potentially why I have an unexplained love of all things Tibet. This book is a tale of one woman’s time and life in Tibet over a 30+ years as she sought answers in regards to her husband. This book is magical. It’s nonfiction that could be fiction just as easily and it made my heart happy and sad and many tears were shed. I highly recommend this one. It’s not long but it definitely leaves its mark! 5/5
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced