I'm on a roll! Yes, another great book. It's such a good feeling when I begin reading and get hooked immediately. And this book did just that.
It flips back and forth between 1945 Germany and 2007 El Paso. Reba Adams writes for a magazine and interviews Elsie Schmitt Meriwether. Elsie runs a German bakery in Texas, taking after her father who also owned a bakery in Germany. The novel takes us back to the last year of WWII. Elsie is engaged to a German soldier but secretly hiding a Jewish boy under the eaves in her bedroom.
Reba's fiance, whose parents came from Mexico, now works for the border patrol and is having a difficult time following the rules and sending mothers and children back to the hopelessness they had been trying to escape in Mexico.
Reba, herself, is trying to put her past and her father's suicide behind her.
The novel is told through several different characters and even some letters written to and from Elsie's sister who is part of the Lebensborn Program. I had never heard of this program in which good Aryan girls allowed themselves to become pregnant by Aryan soldiers to further the race.
Lots of threads to this novel but it isn't confusing at all.
The writing is fresh and filled with the aromas of German breads and pastries. It's beautifully poetic. Sarah McCoy's metaphors and similes are perfection.
I read many more books that are made into movies than I actually see the movies. But I definitely want to see this movie...mainly because Shailene Woodley, who plays the part of the main character's recovering-addict daughter, is an amazing actress. She's the star of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a TV series I'm going through on Netflix.
I was also attracted to this novel because it's set in Hawaii and we spent a winter there about twenty years ago. Just reading those Hawaiian names made me smile.
Matt King is a direct descendent of Hawaiian royalty and he has to make the painful decision of who to sell his inherited land to.
He also has another heart-breaking decision to make. His wife was in a boating accident and is lying in a coma. He has to decide when to pull the plug. In the mean time, he has to learn how to be a dad. His wife had always done most of the parenting and, now, he must be a role model for his two daughters: Alex, learning how to live without drugs, and Scottie, his impressionable ten-year-old.
Great characters. Great location. Great plot. I guess you can tell I loved this book!
How would you react if your child was accused of murder?
Andy Barber is an assistant district attorney. He, his wife, Laurie, and fourteen-year-old son, Jake live in a Boston suburb. One of Jake's classmates is brutally killed on his way to school and all the evidence points to Jacob. He is arrested and his father puts all his efforts into defending him.
The reader is kept in the dark as to whether Jacob is quilty or innocent so it makes it easy to identify with his father, who will do anything to protect his son. Unfortunately, his wife's emotions get lost in the process.
This is a disturbing novel but is compulsively readable. I taught middle school for seventeen years so felt compassion for Jake who had been bullied by the boy who was killed.
I also have two kids of my own and a granddaugter. Would I defend them as blindly as Andy Barber defended Jacob without any proof?
And how important is genetics in criminal behavior? Andy's own father is in prison for murder. Did Jacob inherit that gene? Did Andy? And does that matter at all?
This novel reads quickly but stays with you long after the last page.
Gosh, it feels good to be reading good books again!
I fell in love with the title of this novel and then fell in love with the book. Henry Lee is Chinese and has the proof; his father makes him wear an "I am Chinese" button. It's 1942 in Seattle Washington. Japanese are being evacuated to relocation camps. Henry's best friend is Keiko, a Japanese classmate.
The novel flips back and forth between 1942 and 1986, when Henry, mourning the death of his wife, Ethel, sees on TV that the Panama Hotel has been sold and the new owner, in refurbishing it, has come across boxes and boxes of items hidden there by the Japanese before being relocated. He looks for Keiko's things and opens the door to the past.
Beautifully written, this novel snatches your imagination right away and won't let go. I loved it!
Aaaaahhhhh, it feels so good to travel to Botswana, again! I've missed Mma Remotswe, Mr. JLB Matakoni, Mma Mikutsi, and all the rest of the characters in this series.
I've actually had this book for a while, now, but had to be in the right mood to read it. And, last week was it.
In this edition, Mma Remotswe has to solve the mystery of who is cutting the legs off a man's cattle, Mma Mekutsi is preparing for her wedding to Phuti Radiphuti, and Charlie, the mechanic apprentice, must deal with the birth of twin sons.
As always, the writing is sweet and the comments about life are simple and make so much sense.
Another predictable read from James Patterson. Jack Morgan owns Private, an investigative business. After a trip he comes home to find his ex-girlfriend dead in his bed. He's arrested for her murder and must spend the rest of the book trying to prove his innocence.
There are a couple other plotlines running through, too, but none are very memorable.
It's a good thing I decided to write about this book right away or I'd have forgotten about it entirely.
Somebody shoot me if I buy another James Patterson book, please!
Holy cow, I've been neglecting this blog! My granddaughter ended up staying with us for almost a month and I didn't have much time to read with her around...except for her books. We've been going through the Junie B. Jones series and read about ten of them. Love that Junie B.! Sometimes I get to laughing so hard, I can't read.
But she's gone, now, and I read a book in two days after she left. But, first, Kill Alex Cross. As is usual with a James Patterson book, this was a quick read. I read it about a month and a half ago so don't remember it very well; his books tend to all blur! I do remember that Alex must solve the disappearance of the President's two children. There was another part to the plot that put Alex's family in danger, too. Very typical but I do love his family.
I read good reviews about this book so downloaded it but, for some reason, I'm having a hard time finishing it. Margo is left parent less and takes off on the river to find her mother. She's a survivor and does what she has to do to make it through the winters which includes sleeping with whomever will protect her.
It's beautifully written but I can't seem to feel too sorry for Margo. I'm pretty sure I'll finish it just to find out what happens to her, though...one of these days!
I saw that this book is being made into a movie so thought I'd read it first. It's a series of letters written by Kevin's mom to her divorced husband a couple years after Kevin murders several kids in his high school. I love epistolary novels and, being a high school English teacher for 30 years, I also love stories about teenagers.
But, OMG!, Kevin's mom is so long winded! It's a very tedious read and I might get through it some day.
I get emails from Amazon almost every day offering their best books and this one was touted as the best for January so I downloaded it....and devoured it!
Hazel and Augustus are teenagers who meet at a cancer support group. Hazel has thyroid cancer with lung complications. It is terminal but she is buying some time with a new drug. Gus had his leg amputated and is doing really well. They are both quirky and fall in love even though they know they are only going to get hurt.
This is a wonderfully-written book. I gulped it! Both main characters are likable and, yes, I blubbered at the end.
So, now, I'm not sure what to read. I've got another James Patterson, Private #1 Suspect, and will probably go on to that one even though I'm getting pretty darn bored with his books.
I miss my Kylie girl and our nightly Junie B. Jones visits!
