Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book covers 20 years of the life of these 2 sisters, Pearl and May. Pearl -born in the year of the dragon and oldest of the 2, and May -a sheep and the baby of the family. The hardship they had to deal with over the 20 years from their lives in China to America during WWII. These 20 years covers from 1937 to the late 1950s up and past the second Word War.

As the oldest sister in my family, I felt the pain Pearl does and yelled at her many times for something dumb that she should not of done or something she should of done. I have lived through mine and see simarler ones that I know at one point I may of done the same. I see why she does some of the things she does for I can see her point, but I still know that she shouldn't have done when it comes to those points. I am also born in the year of the dragon and study the zodiacs, so I understand what is expected of the people burn in the year of the dragon. So I knew what to look for in curtain people when she called them by their zodiac.

There are points when she backs down and I yell at her to stand her ground but, I have done the same. So I understand her, I felt the pain/grudge for I know the feeling of backing down on something that you are good or would like to be good at, so that your little sister will be happy. If you could not tell, I also have a little sister that I have back down on things so that she could have what she wants and now that I am older I will fight for her to have that. For those who follow the Chinese zodiac, my sister is a monkey.

I feel that the author got the feelings between the sister as true as one can get! Older sister vs the younger sister, story as old as time and can be spot on or very wrong. The feelings that sister have for each other is hard to explain, you hate their guts but you will give them the moon if they ask. When reading the this book there were times that you would see the green eye monster come out of Pearl but then seeing that herself she would fix that and say something that you would think, "gee, I guess she work that out and things are okay between them with out letting May know she felt that way." But those feelings may "go away" they are never truly gone. Those feelings run so deep that you forget them and when something ells happens it just builds.

Being that this story is written in a 1st person the view we see is Pearl's, and her feelings on every matter. Even the fate that has been dealt to her. There were MANY parts that my heart bleeds for May for the things she had to do as well, seen from the eyes of her sister. And it isn't till the end of the book that we get to see May and what she feels on the things that she has had to do and how she herself sacrificed so that they could live on with a good life.

As I was reading this book, I could see my monkey sister and me in this life and many times throughout the book I would stop and think that this little sheep has to have some hidden strength that she hides, for my sister is the same way. I put the front that I have every thing under control but really it is all I can do from falling and that is times when I reach out my own sister and lean on her for her strength I am not sure she knows she has.

After reading this book I feel like I may know my monkey sister better, I see her in another way and I hope that after she reads this she will feel the same for her dragon sister for there are many things that Pearl and I both have felt, and made the feelings that much more real.

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House Plant - Prometheus

Not to long ago, -before this year's first frost- a lady I clean for gave me this plant they called Prometheus. It had a fall and looked a little worse for wear, but was still alive and needed a good home. For it was getting to heavy for them to bring in every winter and there was a bug/animal living in it and did not want it in their house.

Now, I have sucker written ALL over my face! I saw the plant and thought that it would look nice in my house. I thought, "I have 3 cats, they would get what ever thing lived in it!" But just encase, I left it out in the mud room/glassed in porch, where it was out of the house and protected from the frost. Which happened the night I took it home. (Talk about timing!) And there it sat til a few days ago when I had it placed in my room.

Since Prometheus has been sitting happily in front of my window, I have been battling cats who think it would be fun to chew on the leaves -not that they are ever feed enough food! And the urge to dig in it!! (By the way this plant is poisonous to eat for pet and humans.) But I sit by guarding Prometheus, making sure he will live to my next move!

As I sit by I wondered what type of plant it was, I had my guesses and thought to see if I could find it! My guesses that it was a palm of sort was off, the guesses that it was in the same family as another one of my plants that my mother killed, wrong. They were all wrong. The only one that was right was that it is a tropical plant of some kind. So I went from there. After searching all over gflora.com I looked in my houseplant book and saw a VERY small picture of a plant that "might" be it but still not finding it by the name in the book. So, I looked under one that I knew would be on there, philodendron. At the bottom of the page I saw Prometheus under the name "Philodendron bipinnatifidum (selloum)."

So there, I had a name of this unknown plant from the Araceae family but not enough info on how big this plant will get and what it likes. So I looked over google for this philodendron. I found this beautiful picture showing what my plant SHOULD look like!




 

But mine looks far from this......

Yeah, it has a long way to go before it gets back to its fulness that it had before it's dramatic fall. Well, I have something I get to strive to do with this lovely plant, Prometheus!

So on ward I went to find out how to keep this plant alive, that is when I read that this plant is poisonous to eat for pet and humans if eaten, and for some people may cause skin irritation or allergic reaction. For me, I can rule out the last part; I have handled the leaves to try to keep them out of the way of my cats. Wiki had little to say other then its history and its common use as a landscaping plant in Florida. It also said that this plant may take Approximately 15–20 years before it begins to have flowers on it, being it is potted. But the site I found most helpful to my quest was davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/37036/. There I found its other names, Tree Philodendron, Cut-leaf Philodendron, and Selloum. (the one in my book was Splitleaf Philodendron)  I also saw that it is a shrub, and can get as tall as 15 feet high and wide, I then recalled that I have seen this plant in Florida before. To give you an idea on size it is talking about......

 

THIS plant is the sad little thing I have sitting in my HOUSE!

Back to the idea of it having flowers I went looking for them, hoping that it would be like a Hibiscuses' flower. No such luck....

Words could not explained how I felt about this.....

At first I thought this was a bad joke, but as I read on blueboard.com, botanicalgarden.ubc.ca, and centerofthewebb.ecrater.com, this is the real flower that blooms in the summer at the base (it seems). So this... weird looking flower will be the flower that my dear plant Prometheus will someday have. (If he lives that long) 

To top that off, these flowers also produce heat when it blooms....