Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

I finished this book this morning and it has been awhile since a book touched me so deeply on so many levels.  I was recommended this book by a man that has the rare ability to discern the beauty in all things.  I opened the first pages with great anticipation.  As those who know me well,  Know that I am a really fast reader.  I also retain a lot of what I read for a long time.  With this book it was the rare exception that I relished every single written word on the page.  It is a bit sentimental but that is part of who I am at the core.  I love connections that continue from the past to now to the future.

This book is set right after Pearl Harbor in the city of Seattle,  where a young Chinese boy, Henry, meets a young Japanese Girl, Keiko, at an all white school that they attend.  I love the poignant innocent friendship they have and the love and compassion they show for each other.  This book is told by a 50+ year old second generation Chinese-American. It is told in two different time periods, and flows back and forth between the 1940's to 1986 seamlessly. It is  also the story of the other relationships that the boy has: his Chinese parents, a local black jazz musician, and later with his own son and son's fiance.   It talked about the attitudes and superstitions of that time when the world was at war.  The realities of what happened to the different cultures and races of people.  The picture of the time was painted so well and beautifully that it felt at times that you could smell the salt from the sea and feel the humidity of the air.  The emotions of the young are so volatile and consuming that if you have every loved, lost, found, suffered, and found such amazing joy in a friend that you could feel it all right there.  

I did catch a couple of nuances that could not be,  for example the internet was not around in 1986 and neither were digital CD's.  But I am willing to forgive that because from the first page you are already rooting for Henry and wanting to know more.  The characters and story are just brilliant, captivating and entirely lovely.

Books that Made Me Who I am....

I saw this on Emily's blog and then on Caroline's blog and Loved this idea.. It started with the question

"What books influenced you the most growing up?"

Anything by LM Montgomery.. (my favorite is The Blue Castle and Kilmeny of the Orchard)

Little Women By Louisa May Alcott (there is a boy named Laurie in it)

Anything by Rosamunde Pilcher (my favorite is Under Gemini)

Where the Sidewalk Ends,  By Shel Silverstein

Charly By Jack Weyland and anything else he wrote up until about 1997

Scriptures 

Anita Stansfield,  I got her first book when I was 14

Rebecca By Daphne Du Meir

All the Ramona Books By Beverly Cleary

Jayhawk and Return to Red Castle By Dorothy Keddington

The Babysitters Club Series

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Reading List

I saw this on my friend Diana's blog and loved this. I seem to be seeing a lot of these lately. But it is fun and I love it.
So here is my list. Apparently the average adult has only read 6 of these books! How sad.

I have read 47 of them

If there are any I have not Italicize that are must reads please let me know

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*The ones in Blue are the ones I have read and LOVED
*Look at the list and bold those that you have read.
*Italicize those you intend to read.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (most not all) 
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

"I'd Really Like to Eat a Child"

We found the book "I'd Really Like to Eat a Child" by Sylviane Donnio at the library a couple weeks ago and WE LOVE IT! This was one of those lucky finds, that I saw just as we were leaving. Noah has been really into dinosaurs and crocidiles lately. The title was funny and it had a crocidile. Well, we hit the jackpot. We laugh and laugh.

It is about a little crocidile named Achilles, who eats bananas for breakfast. One morning he decides that he does not want to eat his breakfast and he wants to eat a child that day. His parents are beside themselves trying to get him to eat something, they tempt him with all sorts of treats etc but he is only wants to eat a child. He goes to the river for he is not feeling well and there meets a little girl. This is our favorite part about what happens to Little Achilles when he trys to eat a child. You really need to check this out at the library if you have any children.

It is a big joke at our house now, Mom or Dad will be overcome with the desire to eat a child. And we go in search of a child at our house. Noah thinks this is hilarious. We pretend we want to eat diffrent body parts of his. I give this book 5 stars for fun for adults and children alike.

Twilight Series

So this is my newest obsession. The Twilight Books by Stephanie Meyers. I never thought that I would be so obsessed with vampires and werewolves. At first I was a bit leary of all the hype, but I am riding the wave. After the first chapter of the first book I was hooked. These books are everywhere and the newest one hard to come by here in Utah. I finished the last book last night and spent a bit of a blissful afternoon talking to Carrie about all the finer points of Edward and the twists and turns of the plot. Thanks for sharing in my enthusiam. I cannot get these books out of my head. There are so many interesting and intriguing ideas that pull at my imagination. I love them

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

All Finished and it was totally fabulous. Thanks to my nice husband who let it all happen. It arrived in the mail late afternoon yesterday and he could see the desire in my face to read and let me. I laughed, I cheered, I cried, I squirmed and in between it all still managed to take care of my husband and son a little. Read it, Love it. Devour it. I Did!

Goose Girl

I know I just did a book post but I could not just let this book pass by. I swear that I read this book awhile ago but I must not have because it did not ring a bell as I was reading it. "Goose Girl By Shannon Hale," My friend Kristi recommended it to me after I read "The Star of Kazan". Thank you Kristi for this recommendation. I loved it. This book is probably in the top ten of my list so far this year. It is another Young adult fiction book. It is clean, fun, fantastic, original and riveting. I finished this book in a night and a day. I read it as I ate breakfast, as I did dishes, as I watched Noah in his Ninja classes, and any other activity that I could read and do it at the same time.

In the front jacket of the book it says 'She was born with her eyes closed and a word on her tongue, a word she could not taste. Her name was Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildrenree, and spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt's stories and learning the language of the birds, especially the swans. When she got older, she watched as a colt was born, and she heard the first word on his tongue his name, Falada.' Okay if that did not make you want to read the book, it totally should have. As the story moves on, you see as she struggles to find her place and all of her unusual talents and embrace who she it to become the leader of the people that she has made her own. This book is full of everything_ mutiny, murder, knights, magic, language, love, friendship, class issues, animals, betrayal, intrigue, disguises and the discovery that you can do more than you thought. I don't want to give to much of the plot away because it would just be to sad. But, I hope I have put enough enthusiasm into my words. I know I am not the most eloquent writer or speaker but I did love this book more than most. So Enjoy and let it quench your thirst for a good book

Star of Kazan

I just finished this book that is made for 10-16 year olds and I just adored it. It is an honorary Newbery award winner and a Parents Choice award for 2004. I randomly saw it on the shelf at the library and picked it up. So glad that I did. The characters are so loveable and the descritions are amazing. I loved her feelings and her insecurities and her moments of complete brilliance. I also loved that it was based in Vienna Austria in the time of the Great Emperor. I would encourage any girl to read this book no matter what age. I was just delightful.
Here is what was on the side about the book.
"Annika is a happy eleven-year-old foundling living with the cook and housekeeper who found her in a house in Vienna belonging to three eccentric, kindly professors. Bright, cheerful and ardworking, Annika nevertheless puts herself to sleep at night by imagining that her real mother will arrive someday and sweep her away to a wonderful life complete with dog. In the meantime, her rich nemesis across the square persuades her to take her place caring for her ancient, bedridden great-aunt stuck away in an attic. This elderly invalid, who becomes Annika's great friend, tells about her life in the theater and how she was given beautiful jewelry by admirers - including "The Star of Kazan."
When her beautiful mother does arrive, almost as she envisioned, Annika is so smitten that she refuses to accept the realities of her increasingly difficult life. Fortunately, because of her goodness, she always has true friends. With Annika suffering terribly and the plot twisting ferociously, this book will be beloved by its readers. It is a compelling read in which young readers will detect more than the naive main character, which ups the tension. This is an almost perfect children's book".
I agree with that last sentence.

Fitzwilliam Darcy Series

Oh, just typing the name Darcy makes me sigh a little bit. I love the book and movies from Pride and Prejudice. My friend Kristi introduced me to a trilogy called the Fitzwilliam Darcy Series by Pamela Aidan. It was fun to see the authors view on what Darcy was thinking through the courtship of him and Elizabeth. I liked hearing his thoughts about why he acted in a certain way, what he said to Bingham about Jane, what happened with Lydia and Wickham and a different view of the whole process. There are quite a few diffrent books out there expanding Jane Austen's book and I think these books do her credit. They stay true to the characters and their feelings and don't stray from the main objective of the book. I am really glad Kristi told me about them. I finished them at the beginning of last week and have wanted to post about them since. I had to return them to the library or I would have written some of my favorite parts that are not in the original. I realize that I don't post about books I don't like that I read (and there are some) so when I do post about them they tugged at me and inspired me in some way. So, Happy reading everyone

The Bonesetter's Daughter

I finished this book about 2 weeks ago and I am still thinking about it. Which I take as a good sign. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan is an astonishingly good book. It is a book about a Grandmother, Mother and Daughter relationship and the emotions, struggles and truimphs we have because of where we come from. It was fasinating to see these women connected and changed throughout their lives. It is set in China and San Fransico and crosses the time of when the Grandmother was born until present time. There is a bit of mystery and discovery in this book. The Mother writes her history in Chinese and little by little her daughter Ruth, pieces together her mother and Grandmothers life. I loved the language in this book. I am completely driven by characters and these women really tugged at me. I laughed and cried during this book, which to me makes it a good read. Unfortunetly, I have already returned the book to the library so I cannot put any of my favorite passages. I love history and the the discovery of your family stories. I recommend this book highly. There are no graphic descriptions just beautiful language.

In Search of Heaven

I just finished reading my favorite Authors, new Book "In Search of Heaven" by Anita Stansfield. She wrote a foreword to this book which is unusual. It intrigued me that she wrote this, She writes so much about human relationships and how our choices affect the outcome of our life. One of my favorite things about her books is her characters are real. They make mistakes and they face the consequences of those mistakes. In most stories people want happy endings and in her books they do always end happy but does not life also end up happy. The knowledge that we get to be with the ones we love in the end are what this journey we call life is about. So of course there will be hard times and struggles but with the gospel there is always light waiting for us. In her foreword she talked mostly about the intimate relationship of husband and wife and it sacred place in marriage and life. This made me even more intriqued than as usual, I devored this book.

This is what it says on the back of the book

"A strange and disturbing conversation overheard while secretly perusing the pages of the family Bible in the Barrington’s study . . .

A mysterious yet intriguing book of scripture left unattended on the street . . .

An elusive new religion that beckons from halfway across the world . . .

The daunting task of becoming the governess to the Barrington children . . .

A proposal of marriage without a declaration of love . . .

Thus begins an epic that takes a young woman from a position of servitude to unrelenting challenges that will test the very limits of her courage and faith.

With vividly painted settings that range from the wealth and grandeur of the Barringtons’ English estate to the vast uncharted vistas of America, you will be caught up in a saga rich with the promise of eternal implications."

Okay so I don't want to ruin the story. But I love Eleanore and her faith and courage in following what she feels the Lord is telling her. Eleanore loves book and "Upon entering the bookshop, she always had to close her eyes and take a deep breath, just to inhale the smell of books. Then she stood for a long moment and looked around, pondering all the magic within the pages of neatly organized books for sale." I do this also at the library or any book store and even the book section at Target. I just love books. So I was extremely happy that the book began with her search of a new book. And when she went to read the bible she "paused as if greeting an old friend." I feel like that with my scriptures before I open them. I am not an elequent writer, so I loved seeing some of my own feeling put into words.

The story does talk a lot about the husband and wife relationship and it sacredness. This was an arranged marriage which would be a challenge in itself. I loved how Mr. Barrington or James was understanding, clear and patient with his wife. She was so much younger than him. Their relationship was an amazing example of communication, honesty and overcoming unforeseen challenges. I gained some more understanding and a different perspective.

Eleanore taught me a lot and that is what I love about reading, is the learning and taking stock of my own feelings and life and my favorite part of reading in losing myself in story. This Anita book was so amazing but not has treacherous as some of her others. I cannot wait to read more of the Barrington Family saga, her website is on my links on the side. Happy Reading!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

I just finished reading a beautiful book called "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. I love reading book that are historical and tell something about a time and place I can't dream or imagine. The writing is exquisite, she paints pictures as a young chinese girl goes through life doing only what she know best. She is writing her memoirs as an 80 year old widow, thinking back on her life. It is fasinating to learn more about the culture of this time. And a little girls struggles to just be loved, feel love and figure out who she is.,

Here is one of my favorite paragraphs from the book

"I am still learning about love, I thought I understood it -not just mother love but the love for one's parents, forone's husband, and for one's laotong. I've experienced the other types of love-pity love, respectful love, and gratitude love. But looking at our secret fan with its messages written between Snow Flower and me over many years, I see that I didn't value the most important love--deep-heart love."

It was interesting to see how through her life she tried so hard to follow customs and be obedient and in the end she saw so many of her mistakes and her triumphs that we all have in life. And her regrets were only for the people that she loved and cherished. It was well worth the read and I read over different parts and passages afterwards.

Scarlet, Velvet and Pearls

My best friend Carrie gave me this book for Christmas "These is my Words". I throughly enjoyed and loved this book, I kept going back and reading passages from it. I loved the main character Sarah. The way they wrote this book as if it was a diary was really appealing. There were times you could taste the dirt, feel the fatique and smell the dust in the Arizona territory.

Here is one of my favorite sayings from this book by Sarah when they are traveling back to Arizona territory

"Something hit my bonnet, blowing in the wind. It startled me some but I was more startled when I grabbed hold of it. It is a piece of paper, but most important it is a piece of a book. A page from a story. It is page eighty-seven, and starts with, carried far out to sea. And the little boat went on into the gale, and ends with, beautiful woman clutched the letter to her bosom in fear as she saw, and then the page is finished and there isn't no more. On the other side is a little pencil picture of a big water and a little ship. I have read it over and over, trying to wish the rest of the story out of the page....She has a dress of scarlet velvet and pearls in her hair, and I don't know what that is either but it must be beautiful and someday I want a dress of scarlet velvet and pearls to put in my hair."

"Scarlet velvet and pearls" represents my yearning and desire for everything good, beautiful, and inspiring. I love being in beautiful places. I want to create a beautiful home and feel good in it. I love seeing beautiful creations. I try to design beautiful scrapbook pages and capture beautiful photographs. I love beautiful things. I like to see them, wear them, and experience them. I, like Sarah, someday want a dress of scarlet velvet and pearls to put in my hair.

I love her desire to read and have good things come into her life. She works really hard to make her life her own. She is constantly trying to educate herself, And treasures books just as much as I do. There are many more passages in this book that I adore.

Thanks for this beautiful book. It has become one of my absolute favorites. I know I will read it over and over as years og by