After reading - and loving - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (my thoughts here ) - a couple of years ago, when I saw that Lisa See was releasing a new book this year, I ordered it. The Island of Sea Women: A Novel .* And I'm so glad I did. I was coming off of a really disappointing read; this was quite the opposite. I devoured this book in just two days. And I am definitely going to read it again before I lend it to anyone! It is that stunning. If I had to pick a favorite genre, historical fiction is it. This is the story of two friends' lives erected on the framework of the historical matriarchal society where the women in Korea work as haenyeo divers. These women free-dive and harvest the ocean's treasures including abalone, urchin, and octopus. You see how their bodies have adapted to withstand the cold and the hardship when they are medically studied and tracked. The men stay home and watch the children. However, despite the matrifocal structure of the dive...