Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, is a novel set in Seattle in the early 1940's during World War II, but it is also told by the main character, Henry, in 1985.  Henry is a Chinese-American boy who goes to an otherwise all-white school on a scholarship, until a new student, Keiko, arrives.  Keiko is a Japanese-American girl who works with Henry serving food at lunchtime, and cleaning up after school.  The two become fast friends, but soon predjudices and the war interferes.  The story is about friendship and young love, but also intertwines the history of discrimination and the internment camps which even American born Japanese were forced to leave their homes and enter. 

I think this is my new favorite book.  Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down.  I have been fascinated by the interment camps ever since I learned about them in school, and to this day it amazes me that the United States thought it was acceptable to inprison thousands of Americans solely based on their ethnicity.  The story helped me to understand what these people had to endure, and what life must have been like.  At the same time, I was rooting for Henry as he faced all sorts of obstacles.  I liked the mix between his story as a child and when he was older.  I would definitely recommend this book, especially to people who are interested in World War II and what it was like in America at the time, but I do think everyone could find something they like about it.

Prayers for Sale, by Sandra Dallas

Prayers for Sale, by Sandra Dallas, is set in Colorado in 1936, and is a story about an old woman named Hennie, who lives in a mining town in the Rocky Mountains.  Life isn't easy for the residents of Middle Swan, and when a new couple moves to town, Hennie does her best to acclimate Nit, the wife, to the harsh conditioins of life in the mountains.  Hennie is a smart, resiliant woman who has lived through a lot and has the stories to prove it.  While helping Nit get used to the town, Hennie tells many of her stories, and the two women develop a friendship which both women rely on.

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time.  The storytelling is fantastic.  The author really throws you into the story, and uses the dialect of the time while still being easy to read.  Just when you feel like the story might get monotonous, the author goes into another of Hennie's stories, and you get drawn in again.  The story is woven together beautifully, and it paints a picture of how people lived in the 1930's, especially the harsh conditions of the time and location.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good story, and I would definitely read another of Dallas' books.

Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian

Wow, I am really behind in reading/blogging.  I will try to get better at it for the one person who is reading this blog!

Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian, is a book told in four parts, by four different people in the story.  It is somewhat of a mystery and a drama combined, telling the story of a family from Vermont whose experiences with domestic violence leave the woman murdered by her husband, and the husband ends up dead as well.  The scenario appears to be a murder/suicide, but at closer look, the investigators begin to have their doubts.  Their 15 year old daughter is left orphaned, and a famous author, whose parents were killed in a murder/suicide, comes in to console the teenager and the local pastor, who is extremely shaken up by the incident as well.

This is a difficult book to give a synopsis for without giving away too much of the plot.  It portrays the struggle and cycle of domestic violence well, which may be difficult to read at times.  The first two parts of the book were hard for me to really dive into, but the second half seems to redeem itself.  I found myself midly intrigued by this book, mostly because it was a mystery of sorts and I did want to find out how it ended.  I also feel like my opinion of this book may have been influenced by how busy I have been lately, and sometimes when that happens, it feels like a bit of a chore to finish a book.  It was interesting, but I don't think I would ever re-read it. 

Making Toast, by Roger Rosenblatt

Making Toast is a memoir written by Roger Rosenblatt, who's daughter Amy died unexpectedly and suddenly from a rare heart condition, while running on her treadmill.  Amy had a husband, Harris, and three children, Jessica, Sammy, and James (affectionately known as Bubbies), who are 6, 4 and one year old respectively.  When Amy died, Roger and his wife, Ginny, moved in with the grieving family to help them somehow rebuild their lives, and to be there for them in their time of grief.  This memoir details the everyday goings on of a family who has lost an integral member, and it shows how life goes on, and how young children deal with grief and loss.

This book is written in a different style than most memoirs I have read.  It isn't broken up into chapters, but instead is divided into small sections, where Roger tells stories of how the family merged into one cohesive unit for the children, and how the children reacted to finding their mother's body, dealing with her loss, and learning to accept the situation.  It is a sad yet sweet book, which celebrates Amy's life as well as memorializes her death.  The tales tell us that grieving is a long and difficult process, that it affects everyone in different ways, and that there is a way to move on from even the most devastating circumstances.

I would recommend this book everyone, but especially to anyone who might be dealing with a form of loss, especially if they have lost a loved one.  It shows us how resiliant people can be, and that even after an extremely sad event such as a mother's death, life finds a way to go on.

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Committed is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love.  Liz tells the true story of her life: a divorced woman with no desire whatsoever to get remarried, who met a man with the exact circumstances and views about marriage.  They fell deeply in love, and committed to each other without the need for a ceremony or vows, both knowing how difficult, messy and draining divorce can be on two people.  But here's the catch, Liz's lover, Felipe, is Brazilian and a citizen of Austrailia.  Felipe was staying in America with Liz for 90 days at a time, and would leave the country and return again, for 90 more days, as to follow the visa laws of the United States.  However, on one trip into the country, Felipe was detained, questioned, and then arrested and asked to leave the country.  He was forbidden to return until the two of them obtained a Fiance Visa, and then returned to get married.

Needless to say, Liz was not happy with this arrangement at first, but learned to accept it in order to be with Felipe.  She spends the most of the book telling the reader about different types of marriages she has researched, and she spoke with people from different cultures to try to understand how marriage is done in different parts of the world.

I took issue with a lot of this book.  First off, if you are that much in love with someone as she claims to be with Felipe, getting married should not provide the same effect as a death sentence.  I felt that Liz was extremely overdramatic throughout the book.  Felipe was made to leave the country, and yes, that does suck, but Liz went with him, and they traveled through Southeast Asia for most of the time that he wasn't allowed in America!  Somehow that doesn't seem so bad to me. 

Secondly, I felt the book was very self-indulgent.  Liz kept trying to figure out how to create her marriage and make it work.  Yes, I understand that marriage is a very complicated subject, and many people do it very different ways.  I do not believe that Liz needed to spend 279 pages trying to make up the rules for her own marriage.  I believe that is something that the readers did not really need to hear about at length.

Third, the book does not read like most stories, even when they are about real life.  Liz put so much historical information about marriage and many statistics in the book that at times it felt like work to read.  Don't get me wrong, I like learning about history as much as the next person, but when I am expecting to read a memoir-type book, I do not want to have to read a textbook.

There were a few things I liked about this book.  Liz's interviews with people from other cultures about marriage were fascinating to me.  Also the stories about her family and the marriages that took place through the generations were very interesting.  The ideas about marriage and how it has changed through history were good too, but less would have sufficed. 

Overall, it seemed like Liz was reaching to come up with enough to fill up a book.  I got the impression that she wrote a book because she knew people would buy it because the success of Eat, Pray, Love, and it was lacking in quality.  Her relationship with Felipe was not interesting enough to hold my attention for long, and the truly interesting parts of this book were few and far betweeen.  I had to push myself to finish this book, which generally isn't a good sign.  I don't think I would recommend this book, unless someone was planning on getting married and really wanted to know the history of marriage throughout different parts of the world, and more specifically in America.  However, I don't think I know anyone like that.

I suck at blogging!

Ok, this post is clearly not about a book, but about my inability to figure out a seemingy simple thing such as a blog.  I was looking at my drafts today and discovered that my first two blog posts had never been published!  Boy, did I feel silly.  So they are not in the right order, but the first blog post is about the book "A Long Way Gone," and the second one I wrote was about the book "Have a Little Faith." 

Oh, and if anyone can tell me how to underline text, it would be greatly appreciated!  Blogspot does not seem to have the underline icon, which is making me crazy, as I am blogging about books.  If anyone is actually reading this, thanks for putting up with me and my inability to do anything related to technology.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

A long way gone is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah, who grew up in Sierra Leone during their civil war. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel army that fought for 11 years in Sierra Leone, would raid villages, burn down people's homes, rape women and kill the villagers. Ishmael ran from these soldiers in order to stay alive and prevent being recruited as a child soldier. He spent time living in the forest, and traveling to different towns before he was finally recruited as a child soldier. In this book, he shares about his experiences as a soldier when he was 13-15 years old, and then his rehabilitation back into civilian life.

I was very moved by this book, and the authors descriptions of the horrific events that happened in Sierra Leone in the 1990's. He told his story truthfully and vividly, and I feel that it is a story that needed to be told, since I personally had not known about the events in Sierra Leone previous to reading the book. It astounds me that such devastation could still happen in the world today. It was hard to read at times, but you empathize that the author has been through, and hope for the future.

Overall, this book was fascinating. It kept me interested and intrigued, and showed me a part of the world that most people rarely see. If you are interested in learning more about the situation that happened in Sierra Leone or just would like to read an account on a child soldier, I recommend this book.

Oh, and on a personal note, I own a lot of these books that I am going to be reading, so if any of my friends are reading this and want to borrow any of these books to read, just let me know! Even if you don't live close by, I can mail them. Thanks for reading!

Have a Little Faith, by Mitch Albom

If anyone out there is actually following this blog, you might have noticed I have fallen behind a bit in my goal. Life has been a bit busy, but I don't see this as a problem, because if you know me, you know I read a lot, and if I am truly interested and enthralled in a book, I will finish it in a day or two. So here is my thoughts on the second book I have completed this year (not including my triathlon book!).

Have a Little Faith is a true story told by Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie. The story begins when Mitch's 82 year old rabbi, Albert Lewis, askes Mitch to eulogize him when he dies. Mitch agrees, as long as he can get to know Albert as a person, not just as a rabbi. Like Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch visits his rabbi and asks him questions about life, God, the goodness of man, and Albert's life, among other things. He learns about how the rabbi continues the traditions of his ancestors, finds pleasure in the simple things, such as adding cereal to oatmeal, and is truly there for the people he serves. Albert always keeps such a positive attitude, and even sings to the nurses when he is in the hospital.

Simultaneously, Mitch tells the story of another man, Henry Covington, who is a christian pastor at a church in Detroit, who feeds and shelters homeless at his church. Without giving too much away, Henry's background is one that you would never expect from a religious person. The story highlights the similarities between Henry and Albert, it looks at faith and tradition, and overall shows the goodness that people have inside of them.

I thought that Have a Little Faith was a fantastic read. It discusses the topic of different religions without being preachy at all, and it left me with the feeling that even though I don't identify with a religion in particular, I could see why it was so important to these characters. More importantly, the book showed how some people in the world truly believe in helping others, even though they don't have an obligation to do anything. What resonated with me were the stories from the homeless people, and the true acts of kindness in this book. It gave me a little more faith in humanity. It was a remarkable account of two lives, and it was a great, fast read.

You might be able to tell that I really like memoirs and true stories, but next on the lineup are two fiction novels, so I do vary it up a little.

Columbine, by Dave Cullen

The book Columbine, by Dave Cullen, tells the story of the Columbine school massacre, which took place on April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. It is a factual account of what happened that day, and also shares the events that led up to the massacre, as well as the aftermath and recovery process for the victims. The story is told from many perspectives, including the killers themselves (through use of their journals and videotapes they had made), the survivors, parents of both the murdered children and the children who survived, the FBI agent who profiled the killers, and the school principal. Since the Columbine massacre was so widely televised, I will skip the play by play of what happened and tell you my impressions of the book.

The book was not an easy read. It is a dark subject matter, and it took me much longer to read than a novel would have. However, it was extremely fascinating to read the background on Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who were the shooters. An agent from the FBI profiled the boys as best he could, through the videotapes, journals, and speaking with basically everyone they had interacted with. The boys had very different personalities, and the agent believed that Eric was a psychopath. The book dispelled a lot of myths about the massacre. The media had been quick to make assumptions, and in the long investigative process, the sheriff's department found out that a lot of them were just not true. Witness accounts are notoriously unreliable, and many students talked to the media, which created a lot of conflicting stories.

I would highly recommend reading this book. It was very well written and researched, and it shows how this massacre impacted so many lives differently. Also I found it interesting to read about the myths that the media had portrayed, and how most of them turned out to be untrue. I won't spell them out for you in here though, as not to ruin the book. If you remember the Columbine massacre or are at all interested in it, you should definitely read this book.

Belong to Me, By Marisa De Los Santos

Belong To Me is a novel following three characters who live in suburban Philadelphia. Cornelia is an artsy self proclaimed city girl, who just moved to the suburbs with her husband, Teo. She is not sure if she belongs, especially when the neighbors' first impressions of her are less than ideal. Piper is a self proclaimed WASP with a husband, two children, and a perfect home, who appears very shallow and judgmental of everyone around her. Dev is an intelligent teenager, whose single mother uprooted him from California without explanation and drove him across the country to the Philadelphia suburbs. Without revealing too much of the story, the characters deal with difficult transitions, loss of loved ones, and how families can adjust and make room for new members.

Belong to Me was an excellent novel, with characters that you empathize with and grow to love. The storyline is woven well, although at times I couldn't wait for another chapter told by Dev's point of view. The beginning was a little hard to get into, because the first three chapters, as told by different characters, did not feel very cohesive, but that soon changed as the story began to intertwine. It tells a story about families, and how they can survive and flourish even if they are not the most traditional. The story tells us that people make mistakes, but they can be rectified, and life goes on, even after the most dire circumstances.

This novel was beautifully told, and captivated me after the first three chapters. I had picked this one out not knowing anything about it, other than what the cover looked like. I would highly recommend it, and if you read it, let me know what you think!