Mingmei Yip. (2014). Secret of a Thousand Beauties. Kensington Books.

Mingmei Yip. 2014. Secret of a Thousand Beauties. Kensington Books.

Mingmei Yip, Secret of a Thousand Beauties. Kensington Books, 2014.

Mingmei Yip. Secret of a Thousand Beauties. Kensington Books, 2014.

OverDrive Product Record

sortTitle

Secret of a Thousand Beauties

crossRefId

1994738

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/6852-1/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/6852-1/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/6852-1/D9D/761/40/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/6852-1/D9D/761/40/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781617733222
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B00KFP7Y7C
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781617733222
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Mingmei Yip

id

d9d76140-2d6f-4e9d-a2c2-ee08b9a67920

title

Secret of a Thousand Beauties

starRating

3.6

dateAdded

2017-08-04T12:41:00-04:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=1994738
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: SecretofaThousandBea_9781617733222_1994738
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 985548
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781617733222
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 12/1/2014
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/secret-of-a-d9d761?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: SecretofaThousandBea_1994738
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
     2. • type: ASIN
        • value: B00KFP7Y7C
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 12/1/2014
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/secret-of-a-d9d761?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: SecretofaThousandBea_9781617733222_1994738
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781617733222
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 470237
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 12/1/2014
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/secret-of-a-d9d761?.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: family
2. • value: relationships
3. • value: Friendship
4. • value: literary fiction
5. • value: War
6. • value: venice
7. • value: translation
8. • value: royalty
9. • value: Historical
10. • value: romance
11. • value: sisters
12. • value: culture
13. • value: japanese
14. • value: Ballet
15. • value: dance
16. • value: Fiction
17. • value: novels
18. • value: Saga
19. • value: marriage
20. • value: love
21. • value: Coming of age
22. • value: Asian
23. • value: Epic
24. • value: Historical Fiction
25. • value: Drama
26. • value: England
27. • value: art
28. • value: Adventure
29. • value: magical realism
30. • value: french
31. • value: WWII
32. • value: Historical Romance
33. • value: painting
34. • value: Islam
35. • value: feminism
36. • value: spanish
37. • value: Family Saga
38. • value: tea
39. • value: Alternate History
40. • value: fiction books
41. • value: fantasy
42. • value: historical novels
43. • value: asian fiction
44. • value: historical fiction novels
45. • value: historical fiction books
46. • value: books historical fiction
47. • value: books fiction

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Yip, Mingmei
   • bioText: Mingmei Yip was born in China and received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. She has written for major Hong Kong newspapers, and has appeared on many national and international television and radio programs. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City with her husband. Her novels have been published in ten different languages and she is also an accomplished musician and calligrapher. Visit her at www.mingmeiyip.com.
   • name: Mingmei Yip

imprint

Kensington Teen

publishDate

2014-12-01T00:00:00-05:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

Secret of a Thousand Beauties

fullDescription

Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip's enthralling novel explores one woman's defiant pursuit of independence.
Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother's belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws' protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a "bad-luck woman," Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day.
In the city of Soochow, Spring Swallow joins a community of renowned embroiderers. The women work for Aunty Peony, whose exquisite stitching once earned her the Emperor's love. But when Aunty Peony agrees to replicate a famous painting—a lucrative assignment that will take a year to complete—betrayal and jealousy emerges within the group. Spring Swallow becomes entangled in each woman's story of heartbreak, even while she embarks on a dangerous affair with a young revolutionary. On a journey that leads from the remote hillsides around Soochow to cosmopolitan Peking, Spring Swallow draws on the secret techniques learned from Aunty Peony and her own indomitable strength, determined to forge a life that is truly her own.
Praise For The Novels Of Mingmei Yip
"A unique and enthralling style. . .flawless." –Baltimore Books Examiner on The Nine Fold Heaven
"Surprising and often funny. . ..Part epic, part coming-of-age story, part modern fairy tale." —Publishers Weekly on Song of the Silk Road
"A serious, engaging story of faith, devotion, and the commingling of cultures." –Booklist on Petals From the Sky

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     November 15, 2014
     Set in 1930s China, Yip's latest intrigue follows a runaway "ghost wife" as she finds a place in the world amid imperial loyalists and the rumblings of revolution.At 17, Spring Swallow is about to become a "ghost wife," married to an unborn baby (he died during a miscarriage) and tied to her "husband's" family. She runs away on her wedding day and is lucky enough to be taken in by Aunty Peony, who operates an embroidery studio. Spring Swallow lives and works there with the other sad-story girls, Purple, Leilei and Little Doll, while the imperious Aunty Peony teaches the ancient art of Su embroidery. They have a big commission from Peking and just six months to finish it, but Spring Swallow bristles at Aunty Peony's rules-among them a vow of celibacy-and finds solace in climbing a nearby mountain. She writes poetry on the rocks and is surprised to find that someone has written back. She and Shen Feng finally meet, fall in love and are separated in short order-he's a revolutionary on a mission. Meanwhile, Spring Swallow has been sneaking into Aunty Peony's room and rummaging through her things. She discovers a shocking secret: Aunty Peony was an embroiderer for the royal household and mistress of the last emperor of China. After a series of tragedies, Spring Swallow is once again destitute but is hired by an embroidery shop whose owner wants her for a daughter-in-law. But her new husband is a scoundrel, and after a miscarriage (of Shen Feng's baby), she is thrown out again, quickly finding a home with the Catholic missionaries and the love of an American priest. A runaway train of a plot, in which our heroine suffers four marriages, two pregnancies, three tragic deaths and too many coincidences in a two-year span to be believable, yet the narrative has a certain cheeky, boundless energy that propels the reader to a gratifying conclusion.

     COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     November 15, 2014
     Spring Swallow, a willful 17-year-old living in 1930s China, can't believe her wedding day has come to this. Betrothed to Wang Xing while they were both still in utero as a pact of friendship between their mothers, Spring Swallow expected that the marriage pact would dissolve after her groom's early death. Despite Wang Xing's death, their families decided the betrothal should remain unbroken. After fleeing her village on the day of the wedding, Spring Swallow finds shelter with Aunty Peony, an expert seamstress who has taken in a number of girls without homes in exchange for labor. Spring Swallow learns the highly detailed embroidery quickly, and her future is forever changed. Through the power of female friendship, self-determination, and guiding influences both spiritual and supernatural, this novel tells the inspiring, courageous story of Spring Swallow and her new sisters. Yip's prose is simple yet descriptive, immersing the reader in the sights, sounds, and smells of rural and urban China. Fans of Yip's previous novels and Anchee Min's latest memoir, The Cooked Seed (2013), will enjoy this emotionally poignant novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

popularity

108

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/d9d76140-2d6f-4e9d-a2c2-ee08b9a67920/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

d9d76140-2d6f-4e9d-a2c2-ee08b9a67920

starRating

3.6

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/6852-1/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/6852-1/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/6852-1/D9D/761/40/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/6852-1/D9D/761/40/{D9D76140-2D6F-4E9D-A2C2-EE08B9A67920}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Fiction
2. • value: Literature
3. • value: Historical Fiction

publishDateText

12/01/2014

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781617733215

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip's enthralling novel explores one woman's defiant pursuit of independence.
Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother's belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws' protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a "bad-luck woman," Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day.
In the city of Soochow, Spring Swallow joins a community of renowned embroiderers. The women work for Aunty Peony, whose exquisite stitching once earned her the Emperor's love. But when Aunty Peony agrees to replicate a famous painting—a lucrative assignment that will take a year to complete—betrayal and jealousy emerges within the group. Spring Swallow becomes entangled in each woman's story...

sortTitle

Secret of a Thousand Beauties

crossRefId

1994738

publisher

Kensington Books

bisacCodes

1. • code: FIC014000
   • description: FICTION / Historical / General
2. • code: FIC044000
   • description: Fiction / Contemporary Women
3. • code: FIC094020
   • description: Fiction / World Literature / China / 20th Century