I can't believe that another year is over! Not as many books this month, or frankly blogging as I've been in the thick of the holidays and family time, but it has been a nice break, and I did read some pretty fantastic books this month. Here's the rundown:
The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore - historical fiction - five stars - This was such a great book to start off the month with. Based on the life of Donaldina (Dolly) Cameron, superintendent of the Occidental Mission Home, which rescued asian women from lives of prostitution and slavery. The book talks about how Dolly came to work at the home to begin with, originally agreeing to work there as a year, teaching embroidering/sewing, but then staying on and making it her life's mission. The book tells how Dolly and the Chinatown police squad would rescue women from the tongs, and how over time they had to be more and more creative to deal with the various legal challenges that occurred. Dolly had a wonderful vision for her work, and shepherded the home through the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake, rebuilding the home and also building homes for the young children who were rescued from slavery as well. An amazing story!
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - fiction - five stars - This is the story of a kidnapping gone wrong. In a South American country, famous opera singer Roxanne Coss has just performed at a birthday party for Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese businessman that the country is wooing, hoping that he will bring business to their country. In come a band of rebels, there to kidnap the President, who at the last minute decided not to attend the party. Now what to do? The book details the days and weeks following the botched kidnapping as the kidnappers and the hostages must live together to figure out a way out of this situation, to come to a new normal. The hostages get to know one another, the kidnappers get to know one another better, and the hostages and the kidnappers grow to know one another. The story did drag a bit in the middle, but it was a good one and definitely worth the read. I found out that the scenario is actually loosely based on actual events that occurred in Peru in 1996 which I now need to read a little more about.
Flush - Carl Hiaasen - juvenile fiction - four stars - Another of Hiaasen's animal stories, in this one Noah's father is in jail for sinking the Coral Queen, a casino boat which he says is dumping raw sewage into the harbor. This is in turn contaminating the local beach. Noah needs to get to the bottom of this and prove that the Coral Queen is actually to blame both in order to clear his father's name, but also to save his family as his mom has had it with his father's antics and is ready to file for divorce. As always, Hiaasen's characters are funny and endearing, a fun read.
Winnie's Great War - Lindsay Mattick - historical fiction - five stars - It was hard to classify this book since it's kind of history and kind of not. It's the story of the bear that Winnie the Pooh was based on. Winnie, short for Winnipeg, was a bear purchased by Captain Harry Colbourne, of the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade. Winnie was adopted by Henry at a train station while the brigade was en route to Europe, she traveled across the ocean with the troops and went through training with them, but when it was time to go to war, Henry dropped Winnie off at the London Zoo to keep her safe. It's there that she met Christopher Robin Milne. It's a vey sweet story, Carina and I both read it and loved it.
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng - fiction - five stars - The Richardson family lives in Shaker Heights outside Cleveland, they are solidly suburban, mostly happy, and predictable. Then Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl move into the Richardson's rental property and things change. Pearl and her mother's lives become intertwined with the Richardsons. Everything is fine until an old family friend of the Richardsons begin the process of adopting a Chinese baby abandoned at a local fire station. The mother, now wants her child returned and is a friend of the Warrens. Such an interesting look at people thrust into a difficult situation, their motives, the choices they make, and what follows. Excellent book.
The Nerviest Girl in the World - Melissa Wiley - juvenile historical fiction - four stars - This is one I had borrowed at the library for Carina. She liked it and I decided I should read it too. Kind of a cute book about a girl named Pearl who becomes a stuntgirl for silent films. It's a neat look at the early days of silent films as well as life on a farm in California during that time. My one complaint is that I feel like it went out with a whimper, the premise was good, and I enjoyed it, but it was almost like the author didn't really know how to end the book.
The Book of Lost Friends - Lisa Wingate - historical fiction.- five stars - I loved this book. I was so excited to read it, Wingate's Before We Were Yours was one of my favorites books from a couple years ago, and I was not disappointed. It was inspired by 'Lost Friends' advertisements placed in southern newspapers in the years after reconstruction. I'd never heard of these ads, but they were placed by African Americans looking for relatives, they would include details about their former masters, names of mothers, siblings, where/to who people were sold. The story is about Hannie, a girl who has essentially lived at the same plantation her whole life, working the land through reconstruction with a 'family' of other former slaves in order to own a piece of it after ten years. Her actual family was all sold off, and she hasn't seen them since she was a child. She inadvertently sets off on a journey to Texas, following the young miss of her plantation as well as the illegitimate daughter of the master. Along the way she learns about these ads and wonders if her family is still out there and could be found. The story is interleaved with the modern day story of Benedetta Silva, a first-year teacher in a rural school in Louisiana struggling to make headway with her students. A must read.
The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones - Daven McQueen - young adult historical fiction - five stars - Since Ellie is starting to get a little older, we're starting to delve into a little more YA reading. I've tried to steer away from YA in general just because I feel like you very quickly delve into waters that younger teens don't necessarily need to read about, so I've been trying to choose those books with care. This one was just so good. We both loved it. Ethan Harper, who has a white father and African American mother (who are divorced), got into a fight at school and was expelled. His father thinks he needs a change of scenery and sends him to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer, in rural Alabama. This segregated world is not something he understands, but then he meets Juniper Jones, a quirky local girl who is just as much an outcast as he is. She decides they should be best friends, and her friendship changes his life forever. Such a sad, sweet, story. A must read.
When We Were Young & Brave - Hazel Gaynor - historical fiction - five stars - I absolutely loved this one. It's based on true events about the children at Chefoo School, a school for missionary/diplomat kids in China. After the Japanese seize control of China, things at the school become difficult, they are essentially under house arrest, cut off from supplies and news, but then Japan attacks the U.S., and declares war on the U.S. and Britain, and things become much worse. The children and teachers are moved inland to an internment camp, through it all the teachers work to make sure that schooling continues, that the children maintain a sense of order and discipline. A wonderful story of perseverance, determination, and survival.
Love to Everyone - Hilary McKay - juvenile historical fiction - four stars - Clarry Penrose's mother died just days after her birth, and children seem to be an inconvenience to her father. Despite these challenges, Clarry is the sweetest, kindest, most overlooked daughter, sister, cousin, and friend. Set in the years around WWI, the book follows Clarry's childhood and path as she manuevers herself into an education and a life beyond what others picture for her. There's nothing particularly notable about this book except that it's just a heartwarming sweet story of a girl that you root for throughout. Lovely and sweet.
The Ickabog - J.K. Rowling - juvenile fiction - four stars - This book was a bit of a weird one for me. It was probably closer to a 3.5, but I rounded up. I think that part of the problem for me was that it felt a little bit disjointed and choppy, but that's by design. The book chapters were originally published weekly online. I think that if it had been written to be published as a book to begin with as opposed to a serial it would have flowed better. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, it just lacked some continuity for me. Anyway, it's the story of a country called Cornucopia whose king is a vain self-centered man whose authority has been usurped by his two 'best friends' who keep him occupied while they are running the country into the ground taxing the people based on the need to protect them from a fictional monster called the Ickabog. As a result, the once wealthy, happy, nation is impoverished. OK, but I had expected a lot more.
Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other - Ken Dryden - biography - four stars - I'm a huge fan of Dryden's The Game, and was really excited to see this newest book from him. Add to that the fact that the Detroit Red Wings are my second favorite hockey team, and I am a huge fan of Scotty Bowman. This was a really great look at Scotty's life and how he learned the game as well as he did, how he thought, etc. That said, while I enjoyed the book, it was a pretty dense and slow, sloggy read at times. Interspersed with Scotty's story, Dryden tells the story of the eight teams Bowman considers the greatest of all time. I found those chapters really interesting - the teams he chose and how he talked about how the team was formed, the buildup to that great year that they had, what things had to happen, which players had to come/leave, I thought those little mini histories were really fascinating. At the very end of the book though Dryden stages a sort of 'playoff' between those teams which I thought was kind of weird and just didn't really work. A slow read, but if you love hockey and history, it's definitely worth reading.
Lost of historical fiction this month. I think my favorites were The Paper Daughters of Chinatown, The Book of Lost Friends, and The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones. I've got a lot of work ahead of me as a whole bunch of library holds showed up. I just finished the The Daughters of Erietown, and I'm currently working on Agent Sonya. Hope you had a wonderful holiday and as always please share what you've been reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment