Janet Corbitt, WVNCC campus librarian for New Martinsville, is scheduled to present a book review at the New Martinsville Public Library on June 22 at noon. Corbitt has been a librarian at the college since 1999 and an avid reader her entire life.

“I have a fairly eclectic taste in books,” she said, “but I must admit to a real love for mysteries, especially the old classics. Agatha Christie, Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy Sayers are some of my favorites. However, I’ve chosen quite a different type of book to discuss at the meeting.”

Corbitt has selected the book Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang. This is a family history of three generations of women whose lives reflect the cataclysmic political and social changes that occurred in China from 1924 to 1978.

China’s increasing importance as both a political and economic power often masks the tortuous and painful path it took towards modernization and the great cost it inflicted on its people. Wild Swans is considered one of the finest descriptions of the impact of China’s internal revolutions on the lives of three ordinary women and their families.

Corbitt traveled to China in 1987 and her husband was a frequent visitor for over 20 years.

They have an extensive network of friends at all levels of society and have discovered over the years that all of them have stories very similar to those in Wild Swans.

She hopes that introducing this book to the audience will give them some insight into modern Chinese culture, especially from the woman’s point of view.