My biggest book to date

So I got a little behind this month but the adoption is a tiny bit more important. than some books. But do not fear I am still on a good pace for the year. For the first half of February I read Factory Girls: from Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang. It was a great read, the book follows rural teenage girls as they enter the factory life in Southeastern China and experience the city, boys, money, success, corruption and greed all in one chaotic burst. The impressive thing about these girls is how adaptable they are. It is at once impressive and saddening. They are so able to roll with the punches, but at the same time you realize that they are just becoming whatever they need to be to survive. At just 16, 18, or 20 years old these girls are not even able to be themselves, they may not even know who they really are yet. I am a sucker for tales of survival, however, so I obviously found myself pulling for the girls to both succeed and find themselves, and ultimately find truth and happiness, not in wealth but in something greater than themselves. If you have a heart for anything Chinese and enjoy a story from the point of view of real imperfect people looking to improve their lives then this is a book for you. It isn't full of riveting plot lines and contrived emotional jabs at your heart, it is just real human emotion played out in the factories that build our phones and coach bags, and knowing the struggles of people who build our phones can't hurt us in the long run.