Mindpieces

This is book embodies a collection of
personal tales that have bedeviled
Tongs mind for years. The stories
of two strong women who never
met each other but who became
the ancestors of the author and
her husband, are presented at the
beginning and the ending of the
book. Between the tale of the Chinese
Ng Shee, who established her family
in San Francisco and the tale of the
German Maria Korzelius, who kept
only two of her seven children alive
during epidemics, we find the stories
of other strong women.

Into the familiar histories of World
War One, World War Two, the 1906
San Francisco Earthquake, and several
other current events, Tong has woven
many stories that relate delightfully to
the readers own experiences.