The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

In my ponderings of what got me interested in Chinese language and culture I remembered a book that we read in High School:
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Here is a Wikipedia Article
giving an outline of what the book is about. I remember being
taken in by the beauty of the culture and reading about the
customs of the people. And I also remember being very hungry
for most of the novel, not only when the characters themselves
were starving, but also during the descriptions of food that the
author gives. One more thing I remember is the color red and how important it was in Chinese culture and for some reason
the image of red dyed eggs for the birth of a son is an image from
the novel that has always stuck with me.