Pearl S. Buck is another good author: I've read The Good Earth, The Three Daughters of Madame Liang, My Several Worlds, and some collected stories ... My Several Worlds is a great book: her autobiography - her life was fascinating; she was an American, the daughter of missionaries who grew up in China and lived there when she was a young wife as well. The Good Earth won her the Nobel Prize, but I'd recommend My Several Worlds before it ... also her short stories; some of them are good. I like her style of writing: very simple and direct; it's kind of cleansing to read after you haven't for a while - at least I think so. At her worst she sounds old-fashioned and too simplistic, but I don't think they're real faults - she has some interesting things to say, and My Several Worlds in particular is definitely worth reading
