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.

Look Again

Look Again
by: Lisa Scottoline

ISBN#978-0-312-38073-1

The classic question, What would you do? Every single chapter has you asking, What would I do? Another good classic story, I thoroughly enjoyed. It also confronts the age old question of nature vs. nurture? I guess I have profound opinions of nature vs. nurture being raised in a family of adoption so I know what adoption can do. This is the adoption horror story!

Loved this quote....."I use to think that kids were like glass or something, that they'd break if you poured too much love into them. But they're like the ocean. You can fill them up with love and just when you think you've reached the brim, you can keep on pouring." pg. 338

Ultimately this story is about a mother's deep love for her child and an unimaginable situation. The whole story spanned a period that couldn't have been longer than two weeks. As you flipped the pages the days wore on one by one and I was completely sucked in! Very good book, highly recommended!!!!!!!!!!

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
by Diane Chamberlain

ISBN # 978-0778325314

An unsolved murder. A missing child. A lifetime of deception.......

Regret is one of my biggest fears in life. You can't go back and undo what has already been done. It haunts me and this book confronts regret with breathtaking boldness. I loved this book. It held my interest and only gained fury as I turned each page!

I also think this book had a lot to do with mother and daughter relationships and family secrets that blow you out of the water. I'll never forget a family secret that I stumbled upon a few years ago. I was going through an old chest of my grandmothers when I found an old tea stained bag filled with little wooden baby blocks. I rummaged more and found a birth and death certificate for a baby boy belonging to my grandmother, but not to my grandfather. My eyes were bulging out of my head! I could barely believe it. My grandmother had been married before my grandfather and had a little boy who died of SIDS. Its crazy when you open up a secret world to your past. This book's opening to the past was like a fault line opening up on the earth and swallowing everything you thought was real up whole, especially the relationship between a mother and a daughter!

I really loved this book. Just a good story. It had definite moral lessons criss-crossing all over it but they were not so deep or too hard won that you got lost in that. You got lost in the story which is a tell tale sign of a brilliant writer! Loved the book and highly recommend it!

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini

ISBN # 978-1-59448-950-1

"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." pg. 7

And so begins the painstaking haunting story of Mariam. I am totally drawn in from the get-go by Khaled Hosseini's story telling. I love how there is just the right balance of description and story line and you are never lost in either one, it just flows from one sentance to the next, one chapter the the next. It is simple and clear. I loved this story.

I did have to ask myself about half way through why I loved it. I was beginning to beg for relief in my heart wondering when the characters would ever have a break, or when ever the good would arrive on the scene. I had to remind myself that this story is the story of countless nameless and often faceless women in many oppressive Islamic societies today and I compelled myself to read on.

The story is really two main stories woven together in a brilliant way. It chronicles 30 years of recent political history in Afghanistan starting during the Soviet occupation through the over throw of the Taliban. It is amazing insight into what the Afghan people faced yet again with just enough Political and Religious information as to keep you interested but not loose you. You are able to fall in love with the country and loath in injustices all at the same time. I tell you this author is brilliant. I have to say for those disturbed by the story line of The Kite Runner, that this story is equally disturbing however deals more with domestic abuse rather than sexual abuse.

"this little girl will be a woman who will never let on that she too has had sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her......"Pg 355

This is "her" story.

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum

ISBN# 978-0156031660

I really liked this story. It was nothing like what I thought this story would be about. I was interested from the get go thinking it would be about Germans hiding Jews during the war. I was a far cry from this story line. However it intrigued me. As I read the story I thought often of the question, 'What would I do?' I think this question is what really hooked me into the story every flip of the page I heard the question ringing in my ears. I think it is easier said than done to look back at history and say 'I would have never....' This story challenged my thinking on the the Germans during the war. It gave me a personal look into the depths of their guilt and shame. I was frustrated most of the story that the mother in modern times refused to talk about the past saying again and again in the story, "The past is dead, and better it remain so." One time reminding me that wounds heal better when not picked at but left alone. I was very frustrated with that because I had an ache inside me to know the truth. Knowing the truth helped me to understand why some of the Germans did what they did, and I am not so much talking about what they did to the Jews directly but more so how a whole nation stood by and watched it happen. Evan as I say that I think there is no excuse, ever, but read the story....I was totally intrigued. I still am, I feel like even as I write this my mind is tumbling over a ton of questions and thoughts. Bravo Jenna Blum, you've captivated me, put me under Hitler's spell for a moment and really I don't feel quite the same as when I first picked up this book. I highly reccomend this book. It isn't as heavy as it sounds. At the core of the book its about a mother and a daughter's deep love for each other played out as each one confronts the past. I think putting war torn Germany and all that entails aside the story about a mother's past and moving forward raising her daughter is an every day story. How often do mother's pass on their past hurts and regrets to their daughters? How often does a mother not truly show the depth of her love to her daughter because the depth of her pain often feels far more real. There are parallels to mother's and daughter's everywhere. I guess that is why I really loved this story because at the heart of it all were real live human emotions captured for us by this author in tiny black and white print. Brilliant, intriguing and captivating.

The Associate
John Grisham

ISBN # 9870385517836

Grisham sucked me in again. I never feel disappointed with a Grisham novel. However, with that said, this was not my favorite of his. I was thrilled with where the book was going initially but felt in the long run it really went nowhere fast. I was disappointed in the end and even went back once or twice to see if I had missed something. I felt unfulfilled and left wondering, "What now?". My rule of thumb is when I feel a little overloaded that I read a Grisham novel because it is usually easy page flipping and outright story telling. There is usually no deep down moral lesson to grasp, although Grisham does aim at achieving a point or two. In this novel the main character Kyle is presented with a deep moral dilemma which gets compounded by yet another. Watching him get out of both was where the story found its footing. Grisham is always a recommended read, but again not my favorite of bunch.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman

ISBN# 0-374-52564-1

When I picked this book off a popular book club list I thought it was fiction, which I gravitate too most often, but in actuality it was a true story. It is about a little girl, Lia Lee who was born to Hmong immigrants in California. At the age of three months she showed signs of what the Hmong call quag dab peg (the spirit catches you and you fall down) or what we in the west call epilepsy. The story is an amazing study into a profound clash of cultures. The Hmong family clearly needed help and intervention with their daughter's condition, however never new he road before them would result in both Lia being removed from them by the state and unfortunately in the end Lia's brain death. The believed the western medicine was her ultimate demise. They believed a dab or evil spirit had stolen Lia's spirit as their own.

I found this story to be profoundly sad. The chapter detailing Lia's final seizure which killed her brain actually caused me to sweat profusely, become dizzy and finally put the book down for a break. The history of the Hmong searching for a place to belong was bittersweet as they had found a place to settle in peace but were far from at peace with a governmental system who views them as parasites to the "system" instead of the hard working, insightful people they were. Also a glimpse into a shameful health care system made my heart ache for the disadvantaged, which in some case seems to be anyone without a medical doctorate. There were a lot of tragic occurrences in this book and the author did a wonderful job exposing you to so much in an unbiased way. She played both sides of the fence brilliantly.

The book challenged me on two levels. First cross cultural understanding, one of my favorite studies on earth. This book just gave me more information about the basis of comprehending not only the Hmong but any culture which is different than my own. Secondly health care. I am stunned at the level of discord between doctor and patient. I am challenged to challenge any doctor who God should have come in contact with me to value my soul as well as my body!

This was an excellent book. It was a little slow in the beginning as I got use to how Anne Fadiman was presenting the story, but ultimately I found myself totally engrossed. A highly recommended read!

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

ISBN# 9780375842207

"It's probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler's reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me. A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human hear tis a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die." Pg 401

Brilliant book! I had no idea for quite some time who was narrating this book and when I thought I figured it out, I simultaneously thought I was wrong. Brilliant perspective.

The 'The Book Thief' was a book I automatically connected with due to my deep desire to devour words and the voyeur in me who want to peek into another world. It appeals immediately, if only in name, to book lovers. It does not disappoint. I did find my usual pace slowed a bit with this book, for several reasons but mostly because it is set in Nazi Germany and deals with issues of the Holocaust. In some ways I was almost fearful of what might unfold. Timid to hear some horror and have its words amassed as a picture in my head. So I picked it up and put it down, reading it over the course of a few months. Each time it sucked me right back in and was well worth the journey! It is a sad story, but I think reflecting back on it, it is a story of life. Life is the good, bad and ugly, brutal and beautiful. I think Markus Zusak captures this thought line brilliantly!

Ps. I love picking a qoute I feel encapsulates the book and love the one I found. I don't think it gives anything away, my apologies if it does.

Island of Lost Girls

Island of Lost Girls
Jennifer McMahon
ISBN 978-0-06-144588-0

Rhonda, the main character, opens the story with an abduction where she stands idly by and watches it unfold while doing nothing to stop it. As the story goes on you see that Rhonda is confronting adulthood while seeming to have one foot in the freedom of childhood. The bonds of relationships she has in her past are strong, idylic and tragically beautiful. She seems to want to move on in her future but the abduction forces her to look at her past and solve things that have been left alone. These things which have been left alone, some have been forgotten and pushed to the furthest corner of her mind while others are vivid memores begging for answers.

Jennifer McMahon weaves you in and out of the past in search of an answer for the abduction. You begin to see more and more that what happened in the past begins to be more and more important to solving the abdution as well as the protagonists inabiliity to act on issues in her future.

Its an interesting story. It was hard for me to get into the book initially. There is a bit of fantasy imgination accuring here and there and it was hard for me to understand how it pertained to the story. I am not sure I entirely understood even now, but that aside Jennifer McMahon was true to her style of building suspense that had me guessing repeatedly "whodunnit?" I really find it amazing that a book can actually leave you in the dark for so long and even side swipe your belief in the end. It seems suspence is a lost art these days, however this author should keep on keeping on at what she does best which is a good story laced with suspence. I am hooked.

Promise Not To Tell

Promise Not To Tell
Jennifer McMahon

Pg 1....."My name is Kate Cypher and I am fourty-one years old.

I killed someone tonight."

Those are the first words in this book. It sucked me in and I was literally devoured. I loved this book. I couldn't put it down, all in all I think it took me about four days to read all 250 pages. Its a different type of book, an actual ghost story. Most of the book the author toyed with you making you think there were ghosts everywhere. I didn't mind this, standing on the brink of fear stance, however I was a bit disappointed that an actual ghost did make an appearance later in the book. oh well, you can't win all the time every time. I wish the author could have solved the mystery in this book without it, but all in all it didn't disrupt the fact that I was swept away. Speaking of mysteries, I was totally amazed that I made it more than 80 percent of the way through this book without knowing "who-dunn-it". I think that was pretty amazing considering this was a book and not an episode of CSI. I think authors are apt to dispell too much early on in an effort to keep you interested but really they spoil things all to early. Jennifer Macon did no such thing.

East of Eden

East of Eden
John Steinbeck

Pg 1...."Salinas was surrounded by and penetrated with swamps with tule filled ponds and every pond spawned thousands of frogs. With the evening the air was so full of their song that it was a kind of roaring silence. It was a veil, a background and its sudden disappearance, as after a clap of thunder was a shocking thing. It is possible that if in the night the frog sound should have stopped, everyone in Salinas would have wakened feeling that there was a great noise. In their millions the frog songs seemed to have a beat and a cadence and perhaps it is the ears' function to do this just as it is they eyes business to make stars twinkle."

Pg...268 "I think this is the best known story in the world because it is every body's story. I think it is the symbol story of the human soul. I am feeling my way now - don't jump on me if I'm not clear. The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears"

This was my first attempt at a literary classic. I was sceptical. I thought back to my 'Of Mice and Men' days in high school and wasn't sure if I wanted to do this, but I did. I am so happy I did. I loved this book. I rank in among my all time favorites. I think the effectual pull of this book it that it was written so long ago but is equally relevant today. I was drawn into the dysfunction of the family amazed that things that happen now had happened then. I guess I look back in time and imagine an idyllic past that was perfect and crisp and clean. What 'East of Eden' spelled out is that human drama is common through out the ages. I was pleasantly surprised. From the first page of this book I was sucked in. I highly recommend it!!!!!!

Night

Night
Elie Wiesel

Pg 32....."Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget the little faces of children, whose bodies I saw turn into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never."

Pg 109.... One day I was able to get up after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto.

From the depths of the mirror a corpse gazed back at me.

The look in his eyes as they stared into mine has never left me."

'Night' is a book that is hauntingly sad. Its not poetic or polished up, it 100% real honest truth about the Holocaust. Its hard to imagine wanting to read this book, but its necessary. It is a very small book, and an easy quick read. You could probably read it in one sitting but for me its too intense. It took me three days, sometimes crying my eyes out. So why would you want to read it? To remember. To know. I highly recommend this book. I am not sure if there is ever a good time to read it. You just have to.

Where or When

I have always kept a diary per say of all the books I have read. I thought to switch from the paper sort to a web-log. I will go back at some point and re-list all the others I have read, but for now this is a new beginning and I just finished a book. So here it is......

Where or When
Anita Shreve

This book was about reuniting with your first love. Unfortunatly in the context of an adulterous realationship throwing caution and your kids to the wind. Needless to say I did not like this book at all. It was too sexual for a good piece of literature. Had I wanted what was in this book I would have went for a harlequine romance. The story was not good. I just don't really know why you would want to read this book??? Unfortuatly I did, but I don't know why.....