I hope your cultural events go well, desertblues. What an interesting job you have!
I am really enjoying this book. Having studied Chinese history from 1644 to about 1950 at University, I certainly had a negative impression of the Empress Dowager - hanging on to power at all costs, hating foreigners, etc. So this book is very interesting in giving such a different "take" on her. To start with, she must have been quite extraordinary to be able to engineer the coup after the Emperor died and had appointed the eight people who were going to be so disastrous for the Empire.
I'm being rather slow in reading it too - it's Spring here and there's lots of activity among the birds, which I like to get out to see and photograph!