Book Review: Peony in Love

Peony in Love

Author: Lisa See

Published: Random House, 2007

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

This novel came into my possession while I was finishing up my graduate residency on Star Island. My room had no plug and I had only come with my kindle for reading material. Not a smart choice. I should have known better since it was my third time on the isle. Of course, I found myself in the small bookstore in the Oceanic hotel looking for a book or two to buy. Having enjoyed Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I decided to purchase another novel by her. I was not disappointed.

Peony lives a sheltered life in her family's elaborate house in seventeenth-century China. She will do everything her parents tell her to do, as is the tradition, including marrying a stranger. One night she sees a man and is overcome with a strong emotion: love. Unable to bear the the thought of marrying anyone but the man she meets in secret she plunges herself into despair. In both the world of the living and the dead, Peony's journey of love will bring desire, sorrow, pain and happiness. The words she wrote while she still breathed will become the last tangible part of her in the living world. 

See's ability to recreate China through her prose and setting is one of her greatest attributes as a writer. Readers will find themselves temporarily in China as they read this novel. They will learn about many cultural elements and beliefs as they find themselves crossing over from the world of the living to the dead with Peony. I would recommend this novel to anybody with an interest in Chinese culture who enjoys historical fantasy.

(#13 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Something Like Normal

Something Like Normal

Author: Trish Doller

Published: Bloomsbury, 2012

Genre: Young Adult ( PTSD)

Rating: 4.5/5

I received this book for free at my final residency for my MFA degree in a workshop presented by Katherine Nagler of Bloomsbury. The workshop was about the young adult market in publishing which I found interesting and informing. However, I was more excited at the end when she said students could take the advanced readers copies. Naturally, I ran up and grabbed one, not caring which title it was. I felt like I was a child again in elementary school. My school had a program where students each got a free book to promote the love of learning and literacy in young readers. I lived for those days. 

Travis returns home from Afghanistan. Not only is his best friend dead, but his home life is in shambles. He is haunted by the death of his friend and comrade. There is no peace for him except for when he is with Harper. Harper is a girl whom he wounded as a young teenager but as their relationship deepens Travis begins to look beyond his own hurt. Perhaps, in his shattered life, there is still a chance for a new kind of "normal". 

What I loved best about Doller's writing was the voice she created for Travis. Written in the first POV readers will be in Travis' head from the minute they read the first sentence to the last. I actually could not put this book down and finished it the same day I received it. For those looking for an emotionl, and raw voice of a young narrator this book is a must read. 

(#12 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Hushed

Hushed
Author: Kelley York
Published: Entangled Publishing, November 2011
Genre: Romance, 244 pages
Rating: 4/5

I picked up this psychologically intense novel on the recommendation of my friend Kimberly. I don't normally read romantic thrillers but I thought I would give this one a try. This novel certainly did deserve a chance because I enjoyed it from first to last page!

Archer loves his best friend Vivian and he would do anything to make her happy. Anything to set her free even if it means murdering all those who have hurt her. Vivian is self-centered but she is also broken. Nobody knows how broken. Evan is a new student at their university and befriends Archer with his shy, awkward ways. Soon the delicate balance Archer has in his world is rocketed by an earthquake of emotions, thoughts, and choices as he comes to know tenderness for the first time in his life. How will this triangle collapse?

What I loved best about York's writing was her ability to portray what a great influence Evan and Archer had on each other throughout the novel. From their first interaction the reader can sense the subtle change that starts to take place in Archer. Each meeting between these two characters only intensifies the emotion of the novel like a growing fire. Soon she has a forest fire and the reader will not be able to put down this novel!

(#11 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Gone, Gone, Gone

Gone, Gone, Gone
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Published: 2012, Simon Pulse
Genre: Young Adult, 251 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

Sometimes I buy a book on recommendation from my friend, Kimberly, who\ always seems to know which books are on the market. Since I thoroughly enjoy reading both young adult novels and yaoi mangas she pointed out the novel Gone, Gone, Gone at our last trip to the bookstore. Impulse buy? Yes, indeed.

Craig is broken without his broken ex-boyfriend. He find comfort in his pets and avoids most people with the exception of Lio. Lio feels alive when he is with Craig. He survived cancer while his twin brother did not. As sniper shootings begin in the DC area where they live the two teenagers struggle to make sense of life and love shooting victims die. What is the pain and joy of living?

What I enjoyed most about Moskowitz writing was her style of narration. She allows her readers into the minds of her adolescent male characters as they process the world around them. The individual characterization of each boy influenced the sentences she wrote and readers will find themselves submerged in Lio's and Craig's minds. The darkness and light the reader shares with each boy is indeed a privilege.

(#10 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: When the Emperor was Divine

When the Emperor was Divine
Author: Julie Otsuka
Published: 2002 (2003 by First Anchor Book Editions)
Genre: Historical Fiction, 144 pages
Rating: 5/5

Sometimes a person likes to forget their own history. Sometimes a whole country likes to forget what their nation did in the past.

Concentration camps. This noun is often associated with the horrendous holocaust of Europe during World War II. But has the USA and the world forgotten about the concentration camps for Japanese Americans? Told in five points of view Julie Otsuka brings to life the painful mistreatment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in her novel When the Emperor was Divine. If you had Japanese blood you were a terrorist, a spy, an enemy.

This novel is so emotionally revealing I felt ashamed. Ashamed for what the USA had done and the fact I had forgotten. World War II is an old wound between the country I am from and the other country I am fascinated with. I prefer not to reopen it too deeply but Julie Otsuka's novel has bled the wound with just the right words. Not enough to cause a gush of blame but simply enough to remind the reader of our country's own mistakes in history.

(#9 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Confessions of a Mask

Confessions of a Mask

Author: Yukio Mishima

Published: 1958, New Directions

Genre: Literature, Coming of Age (Japanese)

Rating: 4/5

Last summer my MFA mentor, Mitch Wieland, suggested I read the works of Yukio Mishima as I wanted to read Japanese literature. I purchased a couple of novels which were put into the pile of to read books. As I have confessed, I buy books faster than I can read them so Mishima's novels got buried. After reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood I knew it was time to give Mishima a chance.

Confessions of a Mask is the story of a young man who learns that he is unlike most of his adolescent  companions. Preoccupied with death and the brilliance of the male body Mishima's unnamed protagonist learns to live behind a mask. The complex social system of Japan bleeds from the pages as the MC struggles to become one with society both in his public and private life. 

The most gripping aspect of Mishima's writing was the interior monologue of the MC. I often felt myself becoming lost with the character's thoughts and emotions as he grows from child to young adult. Detached and unable to understand parts his world readers will find themselves feeling just as lost through the MC's thought process. The effect is successful as I began to question the sense of my own reality as I finished the last page.

(#8 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Are you a Book Whore?

When I was a child I was called a bookworm by my classmates. In first grade I was one of the "smart kids" in the advanced reading group. Every year through elementary school I looked forward to the Scholastic Book Fair which occurred conveniently in the fall after my birthday. There was also a program my school was part of where a couple times of year publishers donated books so each child could select one book for free. I have a distinct memory of several times when the librarian made sure she selected at least one novel that was horse related for me. In this way I acquired several books from the popular "Saddle Club" series.

At recess in middle school I spent my time reading. Through a combination of shyness social akwardness I found myself reading novels at lunch. During sixth grade I was nominated as "most avid reader" in the spring and that year I had spent our class Christmas party reading "Anne of Green Gables". The angst ridden air of teenagers did nothing to encourage my social awkwardness and I spent seventh and eighth grade going to the library and educating myself on Tudor England. Fantasy books became my refuge.

In high school I made some friends but I still preferred books to humans. During these years I discovered my love for historical fiction and began to read the works of Margaret George and Jean Plaidy. My interests in Japan also began to increasingly grow and I liked to read articles, essays, and informational books about this country.

College came and I found myself enjoying "Gilgamesh" and "Beowulf". I also started to read Japanese mangas like they were my drug. Trips to the bookstores with two of my friends became a weekly occurrence. I fell in love with yaoi genre in manga and became known as the "yaoi whore" to one of my friends. I bought books because I could and I wanted them. I blew school loan refund money on novels instead of sending it back to the loan lender. My books were consuming the floor of my room because I had run out of book shelf space.

Just a year ago my mother walked into my bedroom and proclaimed: 'You are such a book whore. How many books do you need?'

As many as I want and choose to keep. I buy books and manga faster than I can read them. I am a self confessed book whore. Who wants to go to bookstore with me?