Chinese History

The Last Empress, by Anchee Min.

This novel is the sequel to Empress Orchid, which I read some time ago. She offers a rather more sympathetic portrayal of the Dowager Empress Cixi than I've seen before, but I'm not really well-versed enough in Chinese history to know who's right. This one, like all of Min's novels, is entertaining - which is really all one can ask of historical fiction.