Have you read Shanghai Girls? I got that one from a library hold today and it looks pretty good. And then coincidentally I heard Lisa See being interviewed on NPR this afternoon.
I have Shanghai Girls but haven't read it yet. I need to stop reserving books at the library because it means I don't read the books I actually own!
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Originally Posted by Dizzy
I had a hard time getting into it as well, but by the end I couldn't stop raving about it. It's one of the best books I've read all year.
Okay, I've soldiered on with The Elegance of the Hedgehog and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't say I love it (and in fact, I kind of loathe the young protagonist) but I'm starting to get very interested in the relationships and where it's all going. Once the characters began to interact with others more, it got better. I still find it all pretty pretentious, but I'm hoping it all comes together in a way that makes it meaningful.
not sure if its been mentioned but i just finished this book. i enjoyed it. its bacially about a girl who lost her mother at a young and gets placed into the child welfare system. she gets into drugs and gang. its her memior and how she turns her life around.
while i really enjoyed the book - i wish there was more in the book regarding her recovery and thereafter.
I have this in my pile from the library! was wondering whether I should read it or not (sometimes all my reserved books from the library come at the same time, and made me not have enough time to go through them all.)
If any of you like historic fiction, I highly recommend Moloka'i by Alan Brennert.
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From Publishers Weekly
Compellingly original in its conceit, Brennert's sweeping debut novel tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa. Rachel Kalama is the plucky, seven-year-old heroine whose family is devastated when first her uncle Pono and then she develop leprous sores and are quarantined with the disease. While Rachel's symptoms remain mild during her youth, she watches others her age dying from the disease in near total isolation from family and friends. Brennert's compassion makes Rachel a memorable character, and his smooth storytelling vividly brings early 20th-century Hawaii to life. Leprosy may seem a macabre subject, but Brennert transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman's journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.
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Moloka'i is probably one of my all time favorite books. It is very sad, but such a compelling story. I recently finished Brennert's new novel Honolulu, and while it is very good, the story just isn't as amazing.
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Finished Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges - and Find Themselves by David Marcus which I found quite interesting. I went to college in Australia so it was a totally different process over there. I can't believe how tedious (may not be the right word i'm looking for but i'm sleepy right now) the process is here! having a good teacher also makes such a difference.
I just finished The Lost City of Z by David Grann and it was just ok. I was expecting something really adventurous and exciting, but the whole thing was pretty underwhelming. It also felt extremely over-edited.
I also read Blankets by Craig Thompson and loved absolutely everything about it! It's an illustrated memoir and is so heartwarming and sweet...I highly recommend it. It will take you all of an hour to read, though, so this is a rental.
Also recently read Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad and it was another that was just ok. I feel like he removed himself emotionally from what happened (understandably so!) that it made him almost incapable of writing a memoir about it. It's almost like he was just a bystander reporting on events, which doesn't make for a very good or touching memoir.
Now I'm reading The Slippery Year by Melanie Gideon and it's making me feel all angsty and fearful of getting to middle age...
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Not all who wander are lost. - J.R.R. Tolkien
I just finished The Lost City of Z by David Grann and it was just ok. I was expecting something really adventurous and exciting, but the whole thing was pretty underwhelming. It also felt extremely over-edited.
I'm reading this right now! I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Will have to report back when I finish it.
Moloka'i is probably one of my all time favorite books. It is very sad, but such a compelling story. I recently finished Brennert's new novel Honolulu, and while it is very good, the story just isn't as amazing.
Molokai was great! I had completely forgotten about that book...I read it a few years ago and sometimes I still think about it. What an amazing context for a story.
I'm reading this right now! I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Will have to report back when I finish it.
Yes, please do! I didn't *dislike* the book; I think I was expecting it to be something that it wasn't. I wanted the book to be a harrowing tale of survival and glory, narrated by Fawcett himself =) Obviously, that isn't going to happen, so I'm left wanting more. Perhaps it's that very feeling that has led so many people to follow his trail!
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Not all who wander are lost. - J.R.R. Tolkien
