Caleb's Crossing.

I don't think I have ever in my life seen a trailer for a book!

                                                       

 Caleb's Crossing

Geraldine Brooks

ISBN-10: 9780143121077

I absolutely loved this book! I have found personally I am drawn to historical fiction and this piece was a work of art. It is loosely based on the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck the first Native American Indian graduate of Harvard college. Geraldine imagined a story and wrapped it around his name. Aside from the sheer history of the Indian's of Martha's Vineyard there was another layer of interest reguarding English women in the early 1600's, a layer I loved almost as much as Caleb's story. It spoke much to education and the changing of ways. Some which seemed right and others not so much. For instance the instance on the ways of the times that said that women's minds were not made for "higher learning". Amazing such a thought ever existed in comparison to our day and age. The title of the book denoted Caleb's crossing from his Native American way of life to nearly fully enveloping the English way of life leaving his Native American history behind. It is a sad starting point to a time in history which virtually wiped out Native American's from their own land. According to Wikipedia it was 100 years ago that the last native speaker of Caleb's language died and even their language gone forever. I deeply loved this book. I did what I rarely do with a book, my eyes whetted up in the end, and I also went to Wikipedia searching for  bit more information about this story rooted in a shadow of the truth.

 "Every happiness is a bright ray between every gaiety bracketed by grief. There is no  birth that does not recall death, no victory but brings to mind defeat."pg 385

"I had begun this journey following him into the hidden corners of his world and here it ended with him crossed over into the brightest heights of mine." pg.385

The Litigators

The Litigators

John Grisham

ISBN: 978-0345530561

I love John Grisham's writings. However I must admit some of this literary risks fell flat with me. This book resurrected the old glory of John Grisham. I could see the character's in movies, played by a-list actors. Turned page after page propelled to finish up the story. There was not a whole lot of guess work in this book, it was straightforward. However, I enjoy reading a Grisham in between deep literary foray's to give my mind a break while still staying in the realm of the educated and coherent. I think this is pure Grisham and as I recommend his book this is at the top of my list.

Beautiful Ruins

                                                                   

Beautiful Ruins

Jess Walters

ISBN: 9780061928178

One of the best ways I can describe this book is, layers. Layer upon layers. I think one reviewer said the book was a miracle in writing. I would have to say I am amazed that this book came out of the mind of one person. I can see a whole round table of people not arriving at as great a masterpiece as this one writer has achieved. Amazing.

To me the story was about the mundane and the miraculous intertwined as a tapestry. How often do we all search for meaning in things in our life that look like a big pile of ruins. This book resurrects the ruin and helps you see their original purpose or redeemed purpose. 

This book was chalk full of amazing quotes, if you dare to read them you will get a gist of the actual story line devoid of the brilliant characters.

"There are only two good outcomes for a quest like this, the hope of the serendipitous savant - sail for Asia and stumble on America - and the hope of scarecrows and tin men: that you find out you had the thing you sought all along." Kindle loc. 4835

"Stories are people. i am a story, you're a story....your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes if we're lucky, out stories join into one, and for a while we're less alone." Kingle loc. 1131

"This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through you life." Kindle loc. 3728

There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us complete,. All the sadness of life lies in that fact. - Milan Kundera Kindle loc. 5555

If you dared to read those quotes. Those were the undercurrent of the messages in this book. Now, brilliantly weaved around it is a myriad of stories. Set in multiple countries, over decades. Multi generations, a historical novel, yet only briefly. Old Hollywood. Reality TV. A love story. Movie stars. A career pursuit. War. Peace. Secrets. Lies. Add the characters wrap them around the messages and scene's....... This book has it all in a way you've never seen it before.

You might feel like I have given too much away. That's the amazing glory of this novel. I think I just opened a teeny crack in. 

Highly recommend.

Moloka'i

Moloka'i

Alan Brennert

ISBN:0-312-30434

I was totally entrigued and captivated by this historical fiction novel. I had no idea such a place actually exsisted and this book brought it vividly to life. 

I enjoyed reading the book which was overtly sad. However when you added in the courage, conviction and passion of the lead character I felt more hopeful than hopeless. It was a relatively easy read. Never knew how to pronounce many of the Hawaiian names but that lent to the character of the book rather than distracted from it.

The story is about a young girl who contracts leprosy and is banished to a remote settlement on the island of Moloka'i in Hawaii. She lived out her life at the settlement being raised from her small girlhood by the nuns of Father Damien. Later she moved out to the community and a lovely story unfolds of a young girl coming of age. Then later an old woman seeking healing from a lifetime of loss.

I always love to pin down an excerpt from the book I feel like sums it up which follows below;

"I've come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death...is the true measure of the Divine within us. Some, like Crossen, choose to do harm to themselves and others. Others, like Kenji, bear up under their pain and help others to bear it.

I use to wonder, why did God give children leprosy? Now I believe God doesn't give anyone leprosy. He gives us, if we choose to use it, the spirit to live with leprosy, and with the imminence of death. Becasue it is in our own mortality that we are most Divine."

Religion was weaved in and out of the story with no real commitment being made by any of the characters to any specific belief, so the quotes above encompass so many aspects of this story.

I highly recommend reading this especially if you love historical fiction. If you don't, well may be this one will suck you in!

Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See

ISBN# 0812980530

This was a very good story. A lot of twists and turns. It definalty went in directions I was not expecting which was a good thing. I was a bit disappointed by the ending which seemed to just suddenly drop of. She could write a whole sequel to the book and it would mostly likely be as interesting as this one. Another aspect of this book I admired was the history of political events in China in the early 1940's. I feel like I got some good insight. I would recommend this book!

The Kitchen House
by Kathleen Grissom

ISBN# 978-1-4391-5366-6

This is the story of the life of a six year old indentured servant from Ireland who is orphaned and comes to live in tobacco plantation set in the late 1700's and early 1800's. She is put into the "kitchen house" which is the out parcel kitchen of the "big house". The story is told in her voice as well as the other kitchen house occupant, Belle, a slave who is also the big house's master's illegitimate daughter.

This story was amazing, even as I am thinking through what to write by way of review I see so many layers of this story and don't exactly know where to slice into. It was very complex yet in many ways simple. I love all the characters and was endeared to mostly all of them at different points in the story. Thought it was told through two character's voices I still wish others had told their stories as well because I was truly intrigued with the character development.

I read this story in record time, thinking with just about every page turn that "I just had to see what happened". I was amazed at some of the twist and turns, some with crept up on me with suprise and others which I dreaded once in the midst of it. I have to admit at some points I was disgusted not so much with the author but with the way things were and her accurate portrayal of them. I was also disappointed with naivety of one of the two main characters, yet at the same time I saw in her what I see in myself so many times, the ability to wishful think to get you where you think you'd like to be...only to be devastated.

I almost wish there were a sequel to this book. I was a bit disappointed at the frenzied and frantic end. And I would love to know how some of the beloved other characters fared.

"Albina," she said, "this I know. What the color is, who the daddy be, who the mamma is don't mean nothin'. We a family, carin' for each other. Family make us strong in times of trouble. We all stick together, help each other out. That the real meanin' of family. When you grow up, you take that family feelin' with you." Pg. 160

With that quote which encapsulates the jist of the story, I feel like "Albina" betrayed her "family". I was disappointed and disgusted with some of the choices she made. Yet the author had so endeared her to me, I also felt her pain and understood why she did some of the things she did. On pg. 300 she said "I was as enslaved as all the others." For some reason this was like a mental trick. You knew this white endentured servant was treated far differently than the others but yet again, she was enslaved to the old ways which kept her in her place. This led to one of the other major themes in the story of loneliness and loss. If you look at so many of the characters in this story you see their deep sense of loneliness. The master's wife who was so alone after loosing her children she became addicted to opium. The other main character's loss of her father and womanhood which led her to a married man whom she loved and loved her through out the story. Even his wife who in her loneliness turned to the mistress for a sense of sisterhood and common love. Layers upon layers.

I did love this story. I wish things had turned out differently. I can think of several places the author could have turned the story and made it more endearing to me, but alas....I only write a review.......

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

The Red Thread
by Ann Hood

ISBN#978-0-393-07020-0

I spent nearly ninenty percent of this book not really liking it. Just reading because it was so easy to read. One page led to another. I like books like that so I guess I liked it. I didn't necessarily like some of the stories intertwined throughout the book. This book is not one story, it is many and some of the stories repelled me rather than drew me it.

"Ordinary" families adopting little girls from China. Each of their stories, from their history to their fears and joys of adopting. Everyone who knows me knows my dream in life is to adopt. I feel like I am an "ordinary" family and the struggles I'd face were no where near some of the ones portrayed in this book such as adultery, loveless marriages, uninterested husbands, cold business like women. Not my cup of tea. I suppose the author could have choose the most extreme families to make the statement that everyone who is without a child and who wants one is able to have one. However some of the unsavory characters made me feel sorry for the children who were paired with them!

With that being said. I hit a point in the story where I just cried. It became tenderhearted and lovely.

"The sun shimmered outside the plane, sending bright light through the windows. In that light Maya saw it, that red thread, tangled and curved, connecting each baby to their mother. She blinked. The red thread glimmered then slowly disappeared. No matter how notted or entangled it became, at the end of it was the child you were meant to have." pg.302

So based on the Chinese tradition of the red thread, regardless of what I thought of the families depicted in this book, the premise was that it is meant to be that these children went to these families. I should add also entwined into the myriad of stories were the stories of the actual birth mother's which actually delighted and enthralled me. I also loved the story of the main character whose weary struggle with life was endearing.

I guess I would suggest this book. As much as I disliked it, I liked it. It is a very easy read, and surprisingly touching at times.