A HUNDRED FLOWERS: A NOVEL (GAIL TSUKIYAMA)

Story Description: 

St. Martin’s Press|August 7, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-312-27481-8 

A powerful new novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution China, 1957.  Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society.  “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.”  Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao.  But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “re-education.” 

A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance.  But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg. 

As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling.   

Once again, Gail Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage. 

My Review: 

Magnificent story!  Kai Ying, Sheng and his father, Wei, live together along with Kai Ying and Sheng’s young son, Tao.  It is China, 1957 when Chairman Mao declares a new openness and honesty in society.  He says: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.”  Many people think it is just a trick and Kai Ying makes her husband promise not to get involved in any way.  Sheng, a teacher,  promises that he would never do anything to jeopardize their family.  Tao loves his father dearly and Kai Ying worries what he would do without him. 

Then just before Tao’s sixth birthday, on a hot July morning, Sheng is dragged away to a prison camp for supposed “re-education” for writing a letter criticizing and condemning the Communist Party.  Kai Ying, Wei and little Tao are beside themselves with grief and worry. 

One day little Tao decides to climb high up into the kapok tree that stands outside their family home.  He wanted to see the peaks of the mountains when he suddenly slips and falls thirty feet to hard concrete courtyard below.  His leg has been severely broken and he spends time in hospital as well as a long recuperation time at home.  Once the cast comes off he is left with a limp and when he returns to school he is teased terribly by former friends and it breaks heart.  His mother, Kai Ying is so upset for him and doesn’t know how to help him. 

While they were sitting in the hospital the day Tao broke his leg, Kai Ying notices a young girl about fifteen-years-old who was obviously pregnant and who had terrible acne.  Kai Ying felt very sorry for the girl and watched her off and on as she was thinking about what herbs and potions she could mix together to help the girl with her acne.  Kai Ying was the town herbalist and worked from her home.  Each morning she had people lined up at her courtyard gate waiting for the chance to talk with Kai Ying and tell her what their ailments where so she could make up something for a cure. 

A few months later on a rainy and stormy night this girl shows up at Kai Ying’s door in labour.  She had followed her home from the market several times so knew where she lived.  Kai Ying brings her into the house the delivers her baby on a rug in their living room.  Not having the heart to put the young girl out on the street, she allows the girl to stay with them and ends up teaching her about her herbal remedies. 

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, she has only had two letters from her husband, Sheng in an entire year!  A shadow of fear is always behind her and she struggles with wonder as to whether Sheng is still even alive. 

Each of these family members must try to carry forward and continue on with their lives the best they can, even though they are uncertain about their future and are wracked with their own guilt and painful secrets. 

Gail Tsukiyama has done it once again.  This was a powerfully written story.  I’ve read every novel she has written and have never been disappointed and this one was no different.  I seriously hope there will be a sequel to this story so we can find out conclusively what happens to all the characters in the novel.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone.  Thank you Ms. Tsukiyama for another most enjoyable read!! 

"Listen" to this "audio" clip!

http://media.us.macmillan.com/video/olmk/macmillanaudio/ahundredflowers.mp3



THE GOOD DREAM (DONNA VANLIERE)

Story Description:

St. Martin’s press|july 3, 2012|hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-312-36777-0 

From the new York times bestselling author comes a poignant, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel about an unlikely path to motherhood, and of two lost souls healing each other in 1950 Tennessee, a time and place that straddles the past and present. 

Ivorie walker is considered an old maid by the town (although she’s only in her early thirties) and she takes that label with good humor and a grain of salt.  Ever since her parents passed away, she has hidden her loneliness behind a fierce independence and a claim of not needing anyone.  But her mother’s death hit her harder than anyone suspects and ivorie wonders if she will be alone forever.  When she realized that someone has been stealing vegetables from her garden - a feral, dirty-faced boy who disappears into the hills – something about him haunts ivorie.  She can’t imagine what would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden.  But what she truly can’t imagine is what the boy faces, each day and night, in the filthy lean-to hut miles up in the hills.  Who is he?  How did he come to live in the hills?  Where did he come from?  And, more importantly, can she save him?  As ivories steps out of her comfort zone to uncover answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town – a community that would rather let secrets stay secret. 

My review: 

Sarah ivorie walker is in her thirties, is unmarried and just suffered the loss of both of her parents.  Even those closest to her don’t realize just hard her mother’s death has hit her.  But ivorie puddles along, tending her garden, milking her cow and driving into town to visit her brother’s story for groceries. 

One day she sees a dirty, emaciated, little boy stealing vegetables from her garden and wonders who he is?  Each day she watches for him to see where he goes and realizes he lives up in the hills.  Ivories thought of those who had lived up there had long ago gone but she quickly realized that wasn’t the case.  Ivorie could tell by the way the boy looked that he wasn’t well cared for and decided to do something about it.  I won’t tell you how she got him but once she did, she and this young boy began to build a bond like no other.

He couldn’t talk and every day ivorie would throw names out to him: “Donald, david, frank, buzz,” but the young boy only shook his head no.  She kept trying when one day they were out she waved to her old friend Pete and yelled “Hi Pete!”  the young boy began tapping her leg in excitement and making the sound he always made from the back of his throat trying to tell her something.  It suddenly dawned on Ivorie his name was Peter.  Ivorie and Peter were tickled pink to finally learn this information. 

As time goes on, the people of the town aren’t happy with ivorie’s decision to bring this young boy into her home to raise as her own son and they don’t mince words in telling her that.  One night the lights in her house went out while Peter was sleeping and ivorie walked to the back of the house to the fuse panel to check the fuses when she was attacked from behind in the dark, her face slammed up against the wall and only a male voice saying: “Get rid of the boy!”  ivorie’s face was terribly beaten-up, with a cut under her eye and bruises everywhere and a split lip.  She ran to her bathroom and cried.  The following morning she didn’t want to frighten peter so she told him she tripped and fell against the swings. 

As the story progress, ivorie  finally gets enough money so peter  can have the surgery that will finally allow him to talk after 8 years!  The bond that ivorie and peter develop is like none other.  I laughed, I cried, I sympathized, I empathized, and I cried some more.  There were many sad and dark moments in this novel but just as many happy moments that were true cause for the celebrations they had. 

I would highly recommend this book to everyone!!  I won’t forget ivorie and peter for a while.



OPERATION JONAH (ELISABETH MILLER)

Story Description: 

Strang Communications Company|January 15, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-59979-910-0 

Operation Jonah is a fictionalized account of the true story of one child’s abduction and the community that mobilized to find him and bring him home.  Surrounded by escalating violence in Africa, Bible translators Scott and Debra Warrington’s worst fears are realized when their 14-month-old adopted son, Dominic, is snatched from their arms.  The story makes international headlines, draws attention from heads of states, and sends shockwaves through the Warrington’s multi-racial community of friends.  Outraged, ordinary people rally together and find themselves pitted against extraordinary opposition:  an international crime syndicate, an impotent police force, corrupt officials, and a bitter biological father. 

My Review: 

A most intriguing story that had me holding my breath!  I was so worried for this child that you’d have thought I was the parent whose child had been abducted.  It was well-written and thoroughly engaging.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.



THE HAVEN: BOOK #2 IN THE 'STONEY RIDGE SEASONS' SERIES (SUZANNE WOODS FISHER)

Story Description: 

Baker Publishing Group|August 1, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-8007-1988-3 

When Sadie Lapp steps off the bus in Stoney Ridge after being in Ohio for the winter, she is faced with a decision – one that goes against her very essence.  Yet it’s the only way she can think of to protect a loved one.  Schoolteacher Gideon Smucker has been crazy about Sadie since boyhood.  But his response to her surprising decision undermines her own reputation – and his relationship with Sadie.  College student Will Stoltz is spending the spring at the Lapp farm as a guard for a pair of nesting Peregrine Falcons – courtesy of the Lancaster County Game Warden.  Will needs to get his life back on track, but his growing friendship with Sadie threatens his plans.  The lives of these three individuals intertwine, and then unravel as unexpected twists create ripples through the town of Stoney Ridge…and through Sadie’s heart.  Once again, bestselling author Suzanna Woods Fisher intrigues and delights with a story that explores the bonds of friendship, family, and true love.  Readers will enjoy every surprise in Sadie’s story as they search for the truth hidden within these pages. 

My Review: 

Sadie Lap has been in Berlin, Ohio for the winter and returned home on a bright, warm, spring day to a driveway full of people, satellite dishes, and t.v. cameras and crews.  Sadie is stunned beyond belief and being extremely shy is annoyed that she now realizes she has chosen the worst possible day in her life to “surprise” her family with her homecoming.  Sadie hadn’t told anyone she was returning home two weeks early.  As she stood there in awe with suitcases in hand, she suddenly heard the loud voice of her twelve-year-old sister Mary Kate calling “Saaaddddiiiieeee!”, then the warm welcoming of her father.  They explained to Sadie that a pair of peregrine falcons have nested on their farm which has brought the local Audabon Society, and everyone in town, and the t.v. crews to film this momentous moment. 

Will Stoltz, a charming and handsome young man has been banished for a semester from his college and sent to the Lapp farm to babysit the endangered peregrine falcons nesting at their farm.  Will would much rather be anywhere else until he meets Sadie Lapp. 

Gideon Smucker, a more quiet, awkward schoolteacher, has been in love with Sadie since they were children and is eagerly awaiting her return from Berlin, Ohio.  But does Sadie feel the same about him? 

Will and Gideon don’t care much for each other and at one point get into a physical altercation over their beloved Sadie.  However, it is little Mary Kate who creates some of the problems and a mistake over some petite fours that aids the controversy between the two men.  Who will win the heart of Sadie Lapp? 

This was a heartwarming and feel good story of faith, family, forgiveness and hope.  I would highly recommend this novel to anyone. 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".



THE LOST AND FORGOTTEN LANGUAGES OF SHANGHAI (RUIYAN XU)

Story Description: 

St. Martin’s Press|October 11, 2011|Trade Paperback|978-0-312-61415-7 

Li Jing, a happily married businessman, is dining at a grand hotel in Shanghai when a gas explosion rips through the building.  A shard of glass pierces Jing’s forehead, obliterating his ability to speak Chinese.  He can form only faltering phrases in the English he spoke as a child in Virginia, leaving him unable to communicate with his wife, Meiling or their young son.  Desperate, the family turns to an American neurologist, Rosalyn Neal, who finds herself as lost as Jing – whom she calls James – in this bewitching city, where the two form a bond that Meiling does not need a translator to understand. 

With gorgeous prose and a dazzling sense of place, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai introduces a brilliant storyteller, who shows us the power of language in both our public and our private relationships. 

My Review: 

This was an interesting read however I found it to be a bit too long.  The author could have shortened this story and still got her point across.  I felt she went into too much detail and almost kept repeating the same things over and over only in different ways.  I am glad I read the book, it just seemed a bit too long and I was thinking when is the end coming, let’s cut the on and on and get this finished up. 



TO LOVE AND CHERISH: BRIDAL VEIL ISLAND (TRACIE PETERSON AND JUDITH MILLER)

Story Description: 

Baker Publishing Group|August 1, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0887-4 

A story of romance and intrigue on a beautiful island resort from two bestselling authors, Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller.  

 When Melinda Colson’s employer announces they’ll be leaving Bridal Veil Island to return to their home in Cleveland, Melinda hopes her beau, Evan, will propose.  But Evan isn’t prepared to make an offer of marriage until he knows he can support a wife and family.  Evan works as the assistant gamekeeper on Bridal Veil but hopes to be promoted soon.  Letters strengthen their love, but Melinda remains frustrated at being apart from the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with.  Then she learns of a devastating hurricane in Bridal Veil and knows she must give up her position as a lady’s maid and make her way back to Evan. 

 The destruction on Bridal Veil is extensive, meaning every available person is needed to help with cleanup and repairs.  Melinda finds a new job on the island, but Evan seems even busier than before, meaning she still never gets to see him.  Has she given her heart to the wrong man?  And when Melinda overhears a vicious plot against President McKinley, who is scheduled to visit the island, is Evan the one she should turn to?  Will Melinda and Evan ever get the chance to stand at the front of a church and promise “to love and cherish?” 

My Review: 

Melinda Colson works as a lady’s maid for Mrs. Mifflin in their home in Cleveland, Ohio.  Currently they are vacationing at Bridal Veil Resort where they have a beautiful home but Mrs. Mifflin refers to it as a “cottage.”  Evan Tarlow works on the island as the assistant gamekeeper and he and Melinda are in love.  Melinda wants to marry Evan right away but Evan refuses as he wants to ensure that he can fully support a wife and a family before he commits himself. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mifflin decide to return home to Cleveland two weeks early as they are expecting some prestigious company and Melinda is just beside herself.  This means she has two weeks less to spend with Evan.  She finely breaks the news to him that she will be returning to Cleveland the following day and they promise each other that they’ll write constantly. 

While in Cleveland, Melinda learns there has been a devastating hurricane that has hit Bridal Veil Resort and she is totally panic stricken that Evan has been injured or worse.  Much to Mrs. Mifflin’s surprise, Melinda quits her job as her house lady, packs up her bag and returns to Bridal Veil Island.  Has Evan been injured? 

Melinda finds a job on the island and is pressuring Evan to marry but he remains committed that he won’t marry until he can support her and a family.  He is expecting to be promoted and hopes the promotion comes through or he won’t be able to afford to marry and he is busier than he was before and has little time to see Melinda.  She is worried that perhaps she has chosen the wrong man. 

News comes that President McKinley and his wife will be visiting Bridal Veil Island and shortly thereafter, Melinda learns of an assassination plot against the President during his trip to Bridal Veil.  Who should Melinda turn to for advice, her boss, Evan, or one of the investors? 

This was a beautifully written story that captured my heart right from the beginning.  The love between Melinda and Evan was so real.  The descriptive narrative in the book allowed me to picture in my mind’s eye Bridal Veil Island very clearly which always endears me even more to a story.  I felt apart of the people on the island.  I would highly recommend this novel to anyone. 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group". 



THE RELUCTANT MATCHMAKER (SHOBHAN BANTWAL)

Story Description: 

Kensington|June 26, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7582-5885-4 

At thirty-one, Meena Shenoy has a fulfilling career at a New Jersey high-tech firm.  Not that it impresses her mother and aunts, who make dire predictions about her ticking bilogical clock.  Men are drawn to Meena’s dainty looks and she dates regularly, but hasn’t met someone who really intrigues her.  Someone professional, ambitious, confident, caring.  Someone like her new boss, Prajay Nayak. 

Just as Meena’s thoughts turn to romance, Prajay makes an astonishing request.  He wants her to craft a personal ad that will help him find a suitable wife: a statuesque, sophisticated Indian-American woman who will complement his striking height. 

Despite her attraction to Prajay and the complications of balancing work and her “marriage consultant” role, Meena can’t refuse the generous fee.  And as her family is thrown into turmoil by her brother’s relationship with a Muslim woman, Meena comes to surprising realizations about love, tradition, and the sacrifices she will – and won’t – make for the sake of both. 

My Review: 

Meena is thirty-one-years-old and still unmarried.  Her mother is worried about the fact that she’s still single and that her biological clock is ticking away.  Despite dating, Meena, just can’t seem to find the man of her dreams.  Meena is just barely five feet tall but is very pretty and she thinks no man is going to want to marry a “midget.” 

Working at a high-tech firm, Meena accidentally crashes into her boss, Prajay Nayak one day while on her way to a meeting and falls to the floor.  Of course she is terrible embarrassed and people quickly crowd around her to find out if she is okay.  Meena can barely hold the tears back for the pain in her ankle when suddenly the water begins dripping out of her eyes and down her cheeks as she says: “I think I broke my ankle!”  Someone from the office runs downstairs to summons the doctor who works on another floor.  He examines Meena and discovers her ankle isn’t broken but she has a bad sprain.  He tells the people crowded around to carry her to a couch to lie down.  Without hesitation, Prajay, who is over six feet tall, picks Meena up and carries her to his office and lays her on the couch.  The doctor asks someone to get ice while he gives Meena some pain pills and writes out a prescription for her to get filled. 

Meena didn’t realize how strong and nice her boss really was until that day and has fallen head over heels for him.  After a short recovery period at home, Meena returns to work and Prajay asks her to come to his office after work as he wants to speak with her privately.  Meena thinks she is going to get fired for being off work.  However, Prajay has something completely different in mind.  He wants Meena to write him some personal ads to place on the internet searching for the perfect girl to become his wife.  He has some very specific instructions like she has to be at least six feet tall and well-educated.  He tells Meena that he will pay her the regular consultants fee for doing this for him.  Of course, Meena is devastated because SHE is in love with him but is afraid to tell him and now she must help him find the perfect wife!  How in the world is she going to cope with that?  While engaged in this duty for Prajay, Meena forces herself to date other men but just can’t get Prajay out of her mind and none of the men she dates measure up.  What is she going to do? 

This book clearly illustrates a young woman who is caught between her sense of duty and love.  It was a great read and I would highly recommend it to other people.