Empress Orchid - Anchee Min

I don't know if you've heard of the books, but I've been reading the two books about China. The first one is 'Empress Orchid' and I'm currently reading the sequel, 'The Last Empress' - both written by Anchee Min. Basically, the first one is set in sometime in the 18th century China. This girl called Tzu Hsi, who's the daughter of a dead governor, is completely destitute and is helping her mother, brother and sister to carry their father's coffin into Beijing (then, Peking) only the coffin bearers desert them. Not good. But they manage to get to Peking and go to live with Tzu Hsi's uncle and his disabled son, Ping (or Bottle - Ping is Bottle in Chinese). Unfortunately for Tzu Hsi, the only way that her family can carry on living there is for her to marry Ping, which she doesn't want to do. But then, fortunately, she finds out about the competition to find the Emperor's royal wives and concubines. I can't remember it after that, but someone dies, she has a baby and someone tries to kill her. Mysteeeeeeerious. But yeah, they're good books - very interesting. I'm going to get some practice in at reviewing stuff, so don't count this as a real one!!