In this entrancing memoir, Namu, a Chinese pop sensation, recounts her childhood on the shores of Lake Lugu in remote Yunnan. Her culture, the Mosuo, is matrilineal, where women have unusual freedom and power. Namu recounts too the tension between traditions and her own escape from her mother's home and village life in search of a career in music. Cowritten with anthropologist Christine Mathieu.  (CHN270, $14.99)

Yunnan