I'm sucha sucker for Lisa See novels, but man she drags her ladies through the wringer! Wave after wave of painful events. China Dolls beings shortly before WWII and follows three women in San Fransisco as they attempt to make it in show business. I love the time period, the performance environments, the clash of rural and urban lifestyles, the energy of the era and location. It's also interesting to see her take on Chinese/Japanese relations at that time as well as the portrayal of Japanese internment. The only nagging bits were the frequent cat fights and betrayals among the trio. And I mostly managed not to cry while listening to this audiobook (or at least blamed it on slicing onions). (view spoiler)[But hello that flashforward to the late 80s and fella is using a computer! Early adopter like whoa. (hide spoiler)]