Snowflower and the Secret Fan tied (along with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak) for my top book of 2007, so I was very anxious to read the latest book by Lisa See. It did not disappoint. In fact, I am now fairly certain I will want to read most, if not all, of Lisa See’s works. Though I didn’t feel it was as good as Snowflower, I still thought it was excellent and will definitely be reading the sequel.
The novel takes place mostly in the 1940’s and 50’s, and I just love the sense of history in See’s novels. It was so fascinating to learn about the Chinese immigration process and the discrimination they endured, the dynamic of Chinatown, and the workings of the new Hollywood. Not to mention the intense relationship between Pearl and May, two sisters who are thrust into a completely new life with only each other as a reminder of the old. I also appreciate the female perspective on all their difficult situations.
Though I thought the ending of Shanghai Girls was a bit abrupt until I realized a sequel was in the works, I thoroughly enjoyed this story of sisters and the almost unbreakable bond they share. Reading a second novel by See made me even more interested in reading her non-fiction historical account, On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese American Family. I’m not a huge non-fiction fan, so that says a lot. I was surprised how much I enjoyed another Chinese family account when I read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, so I know it’s fairly certain I will like On Gold Mountain as well. Plus, it was heavily wishlisted on both PBS and Bookmooch, and that’s always a good sign.
Highly recommended.
2009, 336 pp.
[Disclosure: I received an ARC of this title from the publisher.]
I don’t know why I’m so interested in dystopian literature, but I am. Interested may be too mild a word. I am fascinated by books with dystopian themes and at least like most of the books I read in this genre.
I listened to House of the Scorpion on audio CD with my two teenage sons. Wow, what an incredible book! I didn’t love it as much as I loved The Giver by Lois Lowry, but it was still really powerful. There are so many issues to discuss in this book. My sons were anxious to talk about everything the book presented as well. Words cannot describe the satisfaction I get from listening to or reading the same books at the same time as my kids. I feel it’s even more important, not less, as they move into their middle teens. I highly recommend it.
It’s really difficult to describe the plot of this without giving too much away. I didn’t know much about the book when I picked it out for us to listen to — just that it was dystopian lit, so I’m hesitant to spill the beans on this one because I loved discovering it ‘fresh’ so to speak. Suffice it to say it’s an excellent YA dystopian book, and I will definitely be looking into more of Nancy Farmer’s work.
2002, 380 pp.
[Disclosure: I checked out this audio CD from my local library]
Unless is the worry word of the English language. It flies like a moth around the ear, you hardly hear it, and yet everything depends on its breathy presence.
I love Carol Shields’ writing. This is only my second novel by Shields, but I have also read about 1/3 of her short story collection (with plans to read the rest). The first was the Pulitzer-winning The Stone Diaries, which I also loved. Something about Shields’ writing just speaks to me. I can’t really pinpoint it exactly — I just know that I would very much like to read all of her works at some point.
Shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize, Unless is a story about a mother’s grief and pain over her daughter, who is not dead, or on drugs, but IS, by choice, a street beggar. Norah just suddenly dropped out of college and is now on the streets. Reta, the mother, is an author and a naturally happy person. Up until this point she hasn’t really had any difficulty in her life. In fact, during an author interview:
The radio host in Baltimore asked me — he must have been desperate — what was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. That stopped me short. I couldn’t think of the worst thing. I told him that whatever it was, it hadn’t happened yet. I knew, though, at that moment, what the nature of the “worst thing” would be, that it would be socketed somehow into the lives of my children.
Though Reta has been with her children’s father Tom since they met, they have never married. Their relationship is a good one, but Reta has strong feelings about feminism and the role of women in society. She suspects that perhaps part of Norah’s problem lies in this area. Reta writes (but never sends) letters to editors and the like when she perceives an injustice has been done to women. An example:
This will explain my despondency, and why I am burbling out my feelings to you. I am a forty-four-year old woman who was under the impression that society was moving forward and who carries the memory of a belief in wholeness. Now, suddenly, I see it from the point of view of my nineteen-year-old daughter. We are all trying to figure out what’s wrong with Norah. She won’t work at a regular job. She’s dropped out of university, given up her scholarship. She sits on a curbside and begs. Once a lover of books, she has resigned from the act of reading, and believes she is doing this in the name of goodness. She has no interest in cults, not in cultish beliefs or in that particular patronizing cultish nature of belonging. She’s too busy with her project of self-extinction. It’s happening very slowly and with much grief, but I’m finally beginning to understand the situation. My daughter Christine grinds her teeth at night, which is a sign of stress. Another daughter, Natalie, chews her nails. Women are forced into the position of complaining and then needing comfort. What Norah wants is to belong to the whole world or at least to have, just for a moment, the taste of the whole world in her mouth. But she can’t. So she won’t.
Another strong passage:
Because Tom is a man, because I love him dearly, I haven’t told him what I believe: that the world is split in two, between those who are handed power at birth, at gestation, encoded with a seemingly random chromosome determinate that says yes for ever and ever, and those like Norah, like Danielle Westerman, like my mother, like my mother-in-law, like me, like all of us who fall into the uncoded female otherness in which the power to assert ourselves and claim our lives has been displaced by a compulsion to shut down our bodies and seal our mouths and be as nothing against the fireworks and streaking stars and blinding light of the Big Bang. That’s the problem.
I could put a hundred quotes from the book in this review; it is a book I will definitely be keeping. If you haven’t read any of Carol Shields yet, I strongly recommend her as an author. If you’ve read any of her books yourself, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.
To make a mark, to see one’s name indelibly imprinted on a field! To be a Pasteur or a Von Behring, or a Salk, revered for saving lives, as Beethoven was revered for his profundity.
I had been wanting to read this book for a long time — ever since it was listed on the 2006 New York Notable list. I really didn’t know much about the book before reading it. I just knew that it was about a research lab and therefore had quite a bit of science to it, and that it was recommended by lablit.com, a site devoted to reading ’science in fiction’ books (not the same as science-fiction — see the site for more details).
I hesitate to tell too much of the details as I enjoyed going into the book ‘blind,’ but I will say I was struck by how well Goodman portrayed the characters in the novel. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses and Goodman showed both dimensions of each character brilliantly. I also thought the book was very readable for the amount of science involved, but then again I’m a geek that way. (If you love mice, though, I would recommend you think twice before reading.)
Goodman raises and illustrates some important ethical questions, and I was fascinated by the fact that the book appears to present both sides of these questions equally. I would have loved to have read this with a group of people who are interested in science and ethics.
All in all, I was impressed with Goodman’s novel and I will definitely read more of her work.
Of course it’s every peasant whose forgiveness must be sought. But the rabbi’s point is even more tyrannical: nothing erases the immoral act. Not forgiveness. Not confession.
And even if an act could be forgiven, no one could bear the responsibility of forgiveness on behalf of the dead. No act of violence is ever resolved. When the one who can forgive can no longer speak, there is only silence.
Fugitive Pieces is a must read for those interested in Jewish fiction or the history of World War II. The book is told in two parts. In the first we have Jakob Beer, rescued as a child from the forces of WWII by a Greek scholar. He struggles mightily with the memories of his parents and sister. They haunt him throughout his life, overshadowing even the good. In the second, we have Ben, the son of two Holocaust survivors. He is much influenced by Jakob’s poetry, which helps him understand his parents’ deep emotional pain, and, in turn, his own. In this regard, I found the second section a bit reminiscent of Maus. In both parts, there is always the question of whether or not the survivors really and truly survived or if they are hopelessly caught in their pasts.
I have a difficult time reading anything about the Holocaust, even if it deals primarily about the aftermath of the survivors. But, I feel it is extremely important for me to do so. I highly recommend this book if you have a similar interest in this topic.
I really enjoyed this small companion book the the Harry Potter series. The tales were wonderful, and so were the illustrations, which were also done by J.K. Rowling. There are five tales:
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
The Warlock’s Hairy Heart
Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump
The Tale of the Three Brothers
After each tale, we are privileged to get Dumbledore’s commentary about the story. I loved this. Not only did it bring some extra insight into the stories, but it was great to hear Dumbledore’s voice again. In “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” a son inherits his father’s pot and rethinks how he will act among the villagers. In the commentary, Dumbledore tells of a woman who tried to sweeten the story up by rewording the ending with the following results:
Mrs. Bloxam’s tale has met the same response from generations of Wizarding children: uncontrollable retching, followed by an immediate demand to have the book taken from them and mashed into pulp.
In “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” three witches seek to “fight their way to the Fountain, bathe in its waters, and receive Fair Fortune forevermore.” This story was my favorite of the five. It is also interesting to note that in the commentary, Dumbledore states that Lucius Malfoy’s objection to the book
…marked the beginning of Mr. Malfoy’s long campaign to have me removed from my post as headmaster of Hogwarts, and of mine to have him removed from his position as Lord Voldemort’s Favorite Death Eater.
“The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” is by far the darkest tale. In this one, a Warlock is determined to never fall in love; “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump” tells the reason why “no witch or wizard was ever persecuted in the kingdom again.”; and in “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” the siblings each meet up with Death and strike up a bargain with him.
I thoroughly enjoyed these tales, and I would love it if there were more at some point.
Wow, The First Part Last is an incredible book! I loved this story so much. I haven’t been so emotionally affected by a book in a long time — probably not since The Book Thief or The Time Traveler’s Wife. This title was definitely deserving of the 2004 Michael L. Printz Award, and I will be strongly encouraging my two teenage sons to read and/or listen to it.
Sixteen year old Bobby is raising his daughter Feather alone — well, primarily alone. Feather’s mother and her family aren’t in the picture and his own mother and father are “grandparents, not parents.” Although it is crystal clear that Bobby loves his daughter, he is exhausted and not prepared for what fatherhood entails. He does the best he can, though, and his character is admirable.
I listened to the audio of this book, and it is sooooooo good. The story is narrated by Khalipa Oldjohn, who did an absolutely wonderful job. It’s only on 2 discs and is 1 hour and 42 minutes long, so I strongly encourage you to take up the audio if it’s available at your library.
Highly, highly recommended for those who love young adult literature or who are participating in The Printz Project.
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman won the Newbery Medal in 1996. I listened to this one on audio, and the narrator did a fantastic job.
‘Beetle’ is an orphan girl who is a midwife’s apprentice. All the difficult aspects of being poor in Medieval times are aptly described in the story. There is hard work with very little benefit for Beetle, but yet she knows she is lucky to have her job. She learns midwifery from the very difficult Jane but thankfully doesn’t pick up Jane’s more callous traits. There are some very graphic birth scenes. I didn’t mind it as an adult who has had two children myself, but it may be a bit too much for very young kids. There are also some s*xual connotations in the book that were, to be fair, probably typical for the time period and setting.
One of the best things about this book is that Beetle (who later names herself more appropriately) finds her own inner strength and discovers what it is she wants out of life that is within her means. I really appreciated the book in that regard.
I guess there has been some controversy surrounding the book due to its more graphic content, but I think it is appropriate for 12 and up. I would encourage parents of younger children to read it first if unsure.
From a fearful height, a wandering light,
but does a star glitter like this, crying?
Transparent star, wandering light
your brother, Petropolis, is dying.
From a fearful height, earthly dreams are alight,
and a green star is crying.
Oh star, if you are the brother of water and light,
your brother, Petropolis, is dying.
A monstrous ship, from a fearful height,
is rushing on, spreading its wings, flying.
Green star, in beautiful poverty,
your brother, Petropolis, is dying.
Transparent spring has broken, above the black Neva’s hiss
the wax of immortality is liquefying.
Oh if you are star – your city, Petropolis,
your brother, Petropolis, is dying.
–Osip Mandelstam
Sasha Goldberg has a hard life in Asbestos 2, a dying town in Siberia. Her father has either disappeared or left his family, her mother is very high-strung and a bit crazy, and her community is almost completely in shambles. After securing a coveted position in a prestigious art school, Sasha, too, leaves it all to become a mail order bride to an American. In America, she learns English, lives in Arizona, Chicago, and New York, and tries to find her father. In doing all this, she is also trying to find herself and come to terms with her past and her homeland.
I could say so much more about the basic plot of the book, but I always hesitate to give away too many spoilers. Sasha was a very unique character, and I enjoyed reading about her and seeing her development from a young girl to a young woman. The imagery in the book was also done very well. The descriptions of the poverty in Asbestos 2 were especially convincing, and there is a scene at the end of the book that I found particularly chilling (but fascinating). In fact, the last few pages of the book impressed me enough to raise my rating from a 4 to a 4.5. I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in Russian history and/or the immigrant experience.
Most people either love Paulo Coelho’s writing or absolutely hate it. I haven’t seen many who have straddled the fence on this author. I’m in the former category, though I know quite a few people who don’t care for him at all. While some believe his writing is too simplistic, I, on the other hand, sometimes crave simplicity! I do quite a bit of heavy reading (though not recently), and it’s nice sometimes to curl up with one of Coelho’s books and know that I will probably read it in one sitting. I also believe his ’simple’ books have a much deeper meaning to them, and this story is also indicative of that.
One day a stranger comes to Viscos, an idyllic mountain town. The stranger has a plan to tempt the villagers with some gold. They only have to do one thing to get the gold, but that act is contrary to the basic character of the town’s residents. There hasn’t been any trouble in the village for years, and when Miss Prym, the local barmaid, is told of the plan, she is confident the villagers will be able to withstand the temptation.
The story raises the question of whether humans are generally good or generally evil, and also why God, if there is one, would allow evil things to happen to good people.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Snowflower and the Secret Fan tied (along with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak) for my top book of 2007, so I was very anxious to read the latest book by Lisa See. It did not disappoint. In fact, I am now fairly certain I will want to read most, if not all, of Lisa See’s works. Though I didn’t feel it was as good as Snowflower, I still thought it was excellent and will definitely be reading the sequel.
Highly, highly recommended for those who love young adult literature or who are participating in 
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman won the Newbery Medal in 1996. I listened to this one on audio, and the narrator did a fantastic job.
Most people either love Paulo Coelho’s writing or absolutely hate it. I haven’t seen many who have straddled the fence on this author. I’m in the former category, though I know quite a few people who don’t care for him at all. While some believe his writing is too simplistic, I, on the other hand, sometimes crave simplicity! I do quite a bit of heavy reading (though not recently), and it’s nice sometimes to curl up with one of Coelho’s books and know that I will probably read it in one sitting. I also believe his ’simple’ books have a much deeper meaning to them, and this story is also indicative of that.
