Suzi (k00kaburra) wrote,
Suzi
k00kaburra

Dragon Empresses and Tea

For some reason I keep hearing a phantom kettle heating up. I don't know why! As I am sitting here, typing on the keyboard, somewhere behind me I can hear the sound of water beginning to bounce off the sides of a metal kettle just before the steam rushes out of the spout fast enough to trigger the whistling that signals the boiling point. Yet when I turn around, there is nothing behind me except my father at the kitchen table testing something on his laptop computer. It's very strange. I ought to ask my father if he hears it, but I'm not sure I could even describe the sound to him.

This morning I finished Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck. I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to other people. The writing can be very dry at times, especially because Buck loves to focus on all the tiny details in a person's dress or building decorations. I enjoy that sort of obsessive attention to minutiae, but I know it would bore my boyfriend to tears. Tzu Hsi, the main character, is not a very likeable woman. She's cold, aloof, spoiled, and clearly thinks the world of herself. There has never been any as ambitious and power-hungry as she. Anchee Min's also written a fiction book about her called Empress Orchid; I'm going to try to get a copy of it off of BookMooch or Paperbackswap.

The phantom kettle stopped. I wonder what that sound was.
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 2 comments