Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

This is the fictional story of Lily and Snow Flower, two ladies in 19th century China. Through a matchmaker, they vow to be lifelong friends. They communicate through writing on a fan in the nu shu characters reserved just for women. This book goes into the lives of Chinese women during this period: footbinding, arranged marriages, social class, and the Taiping rebellion. Through all of this, Lily and Snow Flower remain friends until some miscommunication severs their relationship.

I found this book to be quite engrossing. It consumed the first day of my summer break. The descriptions about footbinding made me squirm. I don't know how accurate the descriptions of social conventions and rituals are, but overall, I thought this story was quite fascinating and also kind of sad.