Sunday Salon, January 24, 2010

I hope everyone had a great week and has fun plans for this Sunday. I have been worried about Mystery, but did manage to get to finish Jantsen's Gift by Pam Cope. This is an incredibly inspiring read. I will have a review out shortly.

I did not finish The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale, a huge disappointment. In all fairness, I am going to try and pick it up again, but I just couldn't concentrate on the story. The writing is vivid with minute details that capture each moment. Maybe their is just too much detail. Perhaps it is my stress over Mystery's problems that makes my comprehension difficult. My metacognition was drifting away as I would read entire pages and then say, "What did I just read.?" Then I would re-read passages over and over. Have you had any book like that recently? I just so wanted to like this book. The advance reviews are so positive, even as much as comparing her writing to Sara Waters. Well, hearing that as a huge Sara Waters fan, I wanted to read it. Has anyone read this yet? I am curious to hear your feedback.




It's been another pins and needles week for my furgirl Mystery. She had another seizure on Monday. Thankfully, I was home with it being a holiday. At first, judging from the symptoms my vet thought it was Anaplasmosis (tick disease). Her plalette count was really low and this time her seizure was longer. She was unable to walk straight for more than an hour, like she had had one too many martinis. On Friday, after feeding her heavy doses of antibiotics all week my vet called to say her tests were negative for any tick disease. So, back to square one, Mystery's seizures are true to her name, a mystery. Please continue to send her your healing energy so that my little girl gets better. Here she is today, looking like nothing is wrong at all.



Today I am going to be reading more of Island of Swans by CIJI Ware. I started this yesterday and can't put it down. It's a romantic historical fiction novel based on Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon. She marries the Duke of Gordon, thinking her childhood love has died. She is faced with an unthinkable shock when she learns that her first love, Thomas is alive, yet now she is married to Alexander, Duck of Gordon. Stay tuned, this book of 592 pages is so fun to read I am trying to savor it, but I am too anxious to stop.

Hope you enjoy your Sunday. :)

Review-Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

My review

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Jamie Ford
ISBN#0345505336
Ballantine Books
304 pages
rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a historical novel that takes place during WWII on the West Coast, when fears are acute and spies are imagined everywhere. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102 that was passed by Congress giving the government the authority to relocate first and second generation Americans of Japanese decent to internment camps. Even though they were told this was for their own safety, they knew they were being corralled, detained, watched.


Jamie Ford uses this newsreel of history as background, but the internment camps and the mass relocation of Japanese Americans are not the center story. His novel is a love story of forbidden love, parental pressure, prejudice and coming of age. This is a timeless tale of love for any age. For love knows nothing about race as the heart is what beats with passion.


In Seattle, in an area once called Japantown stands the deserted Panama Hotel, and Henry Lee is standing watch. The year is 1986 and Henry has lost his wife to cancer, he has a grown son Marty. Standing outside the hotel, he is reminiscing about the past forty years as he watches the workers carrying things out of the hotel. The once grand hotel was a condemned structure until recently bought. Now during construction on the renovation project a collector’s dream of memorabilia from the 1940s has been discovered in the basement. Henry remembers back to when the evacuees were restricted to what they could bring, many used the basement of the hotel and similar places for storage. He knows there could be something of value to him, but he won’t know what it is till he finds it. How strange.


The second part of the story takes place in 1942 when Henry is just a young boy. In 1942 Henry Lee, a Chinese American meets Keiko Okabe who is a Japanese American. They attend a white prep school and are subjected to racial ridicule because of their Asian appearance. Henry likes Keiko and they become friends. When his father, a Chinese nationalist finds out about their friendship he is furious and he forbids any further contact with the girl. As a result, communication breaks down between Henry and his father and conversations end. As the Okabe family gets ready to move to Camp Harmony, Henry and Keik o promise to remain friends and write.


I couldn’t put this book down! Jamie Ford’s love story between Keiko and Henry touched me deeply. He captures the feelings of the family prejudice and the difficulties anyone faces in a forbidden relationship as if he lived it. The struggle to gain acceptance and please everyone is bitter and sweet. As one who shared a similar fate, this story is a cherished gift like finding Sheldon’s broken record.


Memorable characters throughout support Henry including Mrs. Beatty, the cafeteria person at his school, who has a hidden heart of gold and Sheldon the sage old sax player of Jazz. A beautiful endearing story! Don’t miss this one. If you are participating in Naida’s Romance Challenge consider reading Jamie Ford’s, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.


Wisteria Leigh
January 3, 2008

Review-Lima Nights, by Marie Arana

Lima Nights,by Marie Arana, The Dial Press,pp,246pages,978-0-3458-2,
Release date: December 30, 2008

Lima in 1986 is a pluralistic society of race, economics and social class. Carlos Bluhm, white, married and father of two sons, comes from money and lives in a mansion. Maria Fernandez, a marginalized member of the city is a Peruvian with dark-skin who lives in the slums. She struggles to survive by working two jobs. At night, Maria works in a tango bar, where she is hired to dance with the male customers. The salacious dance club is in a seedy section of the city and Carlos happens to be there one night when Maria is working. After meeting Maria he becomes obsessed with a monomaniac drive to be with her. He even goes so far as to make a comparative checklist to weigh pros and cons between Maria and his wife. The game begins as Carlos wonders what can he be thinking? In his mind he knows they are diametrically opposed in all ways.

My favorite character was Maria who demonstrated a vivacious spirit and tenacious will, with a personality full of contradictions; complex yet simple, young yet wise, childlike yet mature, poor yet rich.

This book had me flipping pages frantically expecting a great finish, as the author crafted increasing suspense. As the story ended, I felt like I ran into a brick wall. Lima Nights is a wonderful sensual love story depicting racial and class prejudice and society’s intolerance. Arana’s obsessive lovers, have an allure and chemistry that will steam glass with their passion.

Romance Reading Challenge 2009-List

Here is my tentative and subject to change list. I also have a couple of back-ups listed because my personality won't allow me to pick 5 books.

1.Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
2.Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
3.The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
4.Into the Wildernes by Rosina Lippi
5.Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt (1991)

Backup possibilities
+Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
+Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
+Stardust by Neil Gaiman
+Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen