I read Nicole Mones' first book, Lost in Translation, and knew that I had happened upon a talented and brilliant writer. She creates interesting and compelling characters and, like the previous reviewer said, puts you into their mind as you read, and immerses you into a new world and culture.

Having never known anything about porcelain, this book taught me so much without being preachy at all. Mones has a way of weaving fact into fiction so that it reads in an interesting way and becomes a part of the story. And that goes the same for the culture both of China and of the intricate world of porcelain. Who would have known that some of those pieces date back hundreds of thousands of years and are worth billions?

And weaved within all of the interesting backgrounds of history, art and culture, there are multi-dimensional characters who you will not want to see go, as well as stories of romance, of art theft and of a world so different from the one's we live from day to day.

The story primarily revolves around a woman named Lia who is a porcelain appraiser sent to look at hundreds of pieces of porcelain in China. While there, she teaches us all about the history of many of these pieces, as well as so much more. She also teaches about an "underground" world of people who smuggle such works out of China, and she begins a budding romance with a doctor who left the US and an unsettled past.

The intricacies of this book are as unique as the pieces of art Lia describes. You will not be disappointed, except to see it end. And you will be left with a story you won't soon forget, as well as insight into a world you might have otherwise overlooked.
I hope to see more work by this author soon!

Nicole Mones takes us back to China with her second book. If you are expecting a book similar to her first (Lost In Translation) then begin Cup of Light again. Mones shows her tremendous versatility as a creative writer of mystery and romance. Yet, as in her first book, the author displays her trademark ability to take the reader right inside her characters.
It is obvious from page one that Mones spent a great deal of time researching the Chinese porcelain world. Her writing style subtlety educates the reader as it draws you deeper into a multi-faceted mystery. Lia's recollections (from memory) of historical facts were fabulous. I found myself reading and re-reading them. She maintains the mystery surrounding the porcelain to the end of the novel, providing the readers with twists and turns to keep us guessing.
Are you tired of the man dumps woman, woman hits rock bottom, woman struggles and despite odds becomes rich and famous, man returns groveling only to be dumped by woman novel? Then get this book. Mones is a refreshing author who obviously understands that there are readers who want to think and be entertained at the same time. When is her next novel due? I await it anxiously! In the interim, Cup of Light gets my highest recommendation.

The key to this novel lies in its epigraph, a quotation from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French anthropologist and priest whose explorations of fossil hominids in China in the early 20th century forms the backdrop for this ambitious novel. "...it would seem that we have only got to look at ourselves in order to understand the dynamic relationships existing between the within and the without of things at a given point in the universe. In fact so to do is one of the most difficult of all things." Mones's novel is not only an anthropological, quasi-Indiana Jones search for relics (in this case, the remains of Peking Man), but it is also a novel about its main character's search to make the complicated connections de Chardin speaks about in the quotation. Alice is an American interpreter living in China in an unspecified time period close to the present. Alienated from her Congressman father because of his overt racism, Alice seeks to leave America behind and become Chinese. As she joins the search for the skeleton of Peking Man, Alice confronts her own demons. The book works at more than one level, but never fully succeeds as a thriller or as a character study. Nonetheless, the title captures quite well the difficulties of trying to move between cultures, never being sure what has been lost in translation. In fact, as wenavigate between the within and the without, don't we all lose something in translation, an insight the book portrays rather well. This is a novel worth reading and worth discussing with a book group.

A good, page-turning read to whisk you away to a foreign land full of mystery and romance. I thought it was a nice Eastern counterpart to the Western deserts of Ondaatje's English Patient, though certainly not as well written. I agree with other reviewers that suggest the Chinese phrases got in the way... and I understood them! I'd hate to think if one didn't. I appreciate Mones' way with characters more than her understanding of China-- like Alice Mannegan herself, she's more on the outside than she thinks. It's good to finally see China portrayed in a humanistic way, with each Chinese person as individual in a book written by an American. One final note: Amazon's review is terribly offensive-- "a yen for sex with Chinese men"? Hello? The yen is *Japanese*. You may think you're cute, but you're just being ignorant. and the rest of the review is equally offensive in its declarations of "authenticity." Keep that in mind when you read the book. All in all, it is a good book that doesn't deserve such a simplistic review.

This novel of the intersection of language, identity, cultures and sex in an archeological expedition in China today is one of the best I have read in quite a while. With the Jesuit rebel priest and anthropologist, Teilhard de Chardin, as the leit-motif behind most of the personal interactions. the reader is offered new insights into human as well as divine love.The protagonists are an American woman trying to get as far away as possible from her racist father and the culture he ordains, an American anthropologist trying to recover Peking Man to restore his career, and a Chinese anthropologist who has been traumatized by the Cultural Revolution (called the Chaos by Chinese today)and his wife's destruction by it.Alice Mannegan's attempts to become Chinese are doomed despite her proficiency in the language and knowledge of the culture and history of China. It's painful but enthralling to watch her try to come to terms with her father, her "true Chinese man" Dr. Lin, and her possible future in China. She is not the most likeable person, but she is not repellant in any way. Just foolish in her understanding of herself and her history.Adam Spencer the American anthropologist who hires Alice as translator is the least interesting. Dr. Lin and the many Chinese actors in this tale reveal a great deal about contemporary China which I daresay most westerners,including myself, do not know.The mystery and the history of Peking Man's discovery, disappearance and possible final end is exciting. One learns much Chinese geography, customs and traditions, the subtleties of Chinese ideas, and the difficulties of life there today. We are very different from one another and we Americans do not realize how fortunate we are.As one who has lived in a foreign culture, I understand some of the difficulties an expatriate faces. This is a grand book which leaves one feeling satisfied by the truth of the emotions revealed and by the resolution of the mysteries at the core. Read it, you'll like it.