Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford 4

 

"Time and space is a hard one to deal with, let me tell you. Moving all the way up here from the South, I can testify to that one. People relations is hard business. Hard to keep that going. But don't give up, something good will come of it all---things have a way of working out just fine, you'll see."      -Sheldon Thomas, advice to Henry

In 1986, Henry Lee learns of a discovery in the old Panama Hotel, a Seattle landmark: abandoned belongings of Japanese families evacuated back in 1942. Henry is grieving the recent loss of his wife, Ethel, and reminiscing about a beloved friend of his youth, Keiko Okabe, a Japanese American. There is a souvenir of that long ago relationship that Henry feels may be in that collection in the hotel and he has a great desire to find it.

The story is told in a split narrative, past and present. In 1942, Henry, a Chinese American boy, and Keiko meet as scholarship students in a white school. They both work in the kitchen to earn their tuition, and both are bullied. They become very close and when Keiko's family is relocated after Pearl Harbor, Henry is devastated. They promise to wait for each other and write letters. And Henry's good friend, Sheldon, a sax player takes him to the internment camp in Idaho to visit her.

They lose touch over 40+ years, each moving on with their lives. And I will let you predict the ending or read the book to find out.

The book was well-researched, a sad reminder of an ugly time in American history, but I enjoyed it all the same. My rating is 4. I learned some things about Asian cultures and I liked the characters, Henry, Keiko and Sheldon, and even Henry's once-estranged son, Marty.

The Wager A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann 3

 

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned."

         -Samuel Johnson

In 1740 during a war with Spain, the HMS Wager with several other ships, left Portsmouth on a mission to capture a treasure laden Spanish galleon. The subtitle of the book provides more than a hint to the outcome. 

While attempting to sail around Cape Horn, an area known for dangerous weather, Wager is badly damaged and runs aground near Patagonia. The crew, greatly diminished by scurvy and starvation, lapses into anarchy. Captain David Cheap is seen as a tyrant, blamed for the wreckage and accused of murder, which brings on a mutiny led by the gunner, Bulkely and others.

After 5 years a small percentage of those sent out have returned to England in a few different groups. The survivors of one group are casting blame on the others and a court martial is held in 1746.

I didn't particularly enjoy The Wager but I found it interesting enough to rate it a 3. I read Killers of the Flower Moon by this author a couple of years ago and gave it a 4; a more relatable story to me but one that made me angry and sad.

I learned a few things about sailing in the 18th century that I didn't know like why British  sailors are referred to as "limeys," how the ship was known as a "wooden world," where the expression "under the weather" originated and the meaning of "walk up Ladder Lane and down Hemp Street" (to face hanging as punishment).

There were many quotes for me to choose from, the one I began with and this from Herman Melville: "Impracticable Cape! You may approach it from this direction or that---in any way you please---from the east or from the west; with the wind astern, or abeam, or on the quarter; and still Cape Horn is Cape Horn....Heaven help the sailors, their wives and their little ones."

I would recommend this nonfiction to readers who have experience sailing the ocean.

God's Country by William Kent Krueger 5

 

"You are who you always were. You have never been one thing. No human ever is. We are the lion and we are the lamb. We are the rock and we are the wind. We are the creator and we are the destroyer. You are no different."

    -Henry Meloux's advice to Cork

God's Country is the 22nd novel in the Cork O'Connor series and I have read, and enjoyed, them all! I had anticipated this one so long, I actually bought it for Kindle because I would have been on a longggg waitlist for a library copy. Maybe the first eBook I've ever paid full price for.

In this installment of the series, Cork sets out on a family trip (just the men and boys) into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. After a short time, signs of violence are noted, and Cork sends the family members home to summon law enforcement. Knowing his long-time friend, Cordell Bishop, is leading this suspicious group, Cork feels he must be in danger and so sets out to find and hopefully rescue him.

He finds the Kennedy brothers have basically kidnapped Cordell and are trying to force him to help them find their late father's stash of something apparently quite valuable. It is a dangerous choice Cork makes when he decides he must help his friend. As he gets to know the brothers, he faces not just his own survival instinct but also inner turmoil about how to treat the captors. He can't help but think of something Henry has mentioned before, an Indigenous saying: "There are two wolves constantly battling in the human heart. One is love, the other hate. Which one wins the battle? The one you feed. Always the one you feed."      

There are so many quotable passages in this book, it was hard to choose one, but I think I have started almost every Cork O'Connor blog post with wisdom from Henry Meloux. This time I included two. I am always in awe at Krueger's powers of description, making me wish I could see "God's country" in Minnesota, although not in the canoe trip he depicts in this novel!

Another thriller from this author, I rated it a 5 even though it wouldn't be among my favorites. This is the first in the series where I thought the end was a cliffhanger. Now we have to wait for book 23 to know how Cork handles his angst!

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe 3

 

"For five years, the Brettlers had spent an inordinate amount of time poring over the mystery of Zac's death, and their diligence had exposed, at least partially, a matrix of power and secrecy and corruption in contemporary London, a dimension of their own city that they had never recognized before now."

I recognized this author's name when I began to see this title on the Bestseller List. I had read 2 of Keefe's nonfictions---Say Nothing and Empire of Pain. Both were captivating and I gave them high ratings. I am giving this one a 3---it made me want to finish but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the other two. There were so many characters to keep track of and so many were evil. Much discussion of the financial world and corruption left me cold, not to mention an unsatisfying ending.

I think between the subtitle: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth and the quote above, you have a short summary of this true crime.story. Zac Brettler is the 19-year-old son of Rachelle and Matthew Brettler who has been leading a double life and getting mixed up with some dangerous characters. Zac is caught on camera pacing the patio of a luxury apartment some time before his body is found in the Thames. Keefe writes "A lot of people in London have a story like this---about a body in the Thames. Every year, thirty or so bodies are retrieved from its waters." Guess that explains the title.

Zac's death was thought to be suicide but the people who knew him best did not believe it. The investigation was far from thorough leading the Brettlers and this author to keep searching for clues.

A Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd 5

 

"Listen: I've mentioned that, as a dog, human relationships often befuddle me---they're overly complicated ridiculously intricate. Consider, dogs, for example. Consider, if you will, me: I either love someone, or hate them, or am indifferent altogether....

But when you get right down to it, when I love someone, I love them without ambiguity. That's how it is with dogs. But human relationships? Dio Mio...love between humans can be as clear as a muddy pond."

       -Cicero, from the novel

Unexpectedly this was one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a while. I generally do not read romances, and this one contains that element but much more. I am rating it a 5---well-written and so light and entertaining.

Josie Ballard is a young woman hurt by a philandering husband who takes off on a long-dreamed-of trip to Italy. Meanwhile, a "snobbish terrier of indeterminate breeding" named Cicero is wandering Pompeii, mourning the loss of his precious owner, Giorgio. When the two meet up, it seems a match made in heaven, especially when they are led to Hugo, Giorgio's estranged son. Can you say serendipity?

The chapters alternate between Josie's perspective and Cicero's narratives, which are very humorous. Made me laugh out loud at times.

I recommend this endearing story.

The Good Neighbor The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King 4

 

"His signature value was human kindness; he lived it and he preached it, to children, to their parents, to all of us everywhere who could take the time to listen."   -from the Epilogue

I am quite a fan of Fred Rogers. I have seen the film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" twice. My husband and I visited the Rollins College campus near our Winter Park home where we saw the wonderful statue of Mr. Rogers, a famous alumnus of the school. (see picture) I had enjoyed some of his telecasts of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood back in the day. He visited our Presbyterian church 20+ years ago and was so kind and friendly to our granddaughter who was with us.

Fred Rogers was so much more than a TV personality. He was a talented musician and composer, a puppeteer, an ongoing student of child development, an ordained Presbyterian minister, a writer and the founder and host of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" for over 30 years. He won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Above all, by all accounts of coworkers, employees, friends, family and acquaintances, he was a wonderful man---one in a million! I have often said that people today should do more channeling of their inner Mr. Rogers!

I have rated the biography a 4, not exactly a page-turner but very informative. It was inspiring to read of Fred Rogers' effect on people he met, both children and adults, and even Koko the gorilla.

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig 4

 

"Oh dear, Old Bean. Listen. You are at the end of your life and the start of your death. Your life flashes before your eyes. You linger where you are meant to linger. On scenes that provide as a whole, a complete representation of your life. But then, when the time comes, you get on board the Midnight Train and keep on chugging along the track. You don't stick around. Because as I told you, you can't be there when your living self falls asleep. You get on the train and then you wait for eternity."

    -Agnes Bagdale explanation to Wilbur Budd

I wasn't sure what I thought of this book at first; I don't read fantasy often. This one is pretty fantastical with Wilbur Budd dying near the beginning and then essentially travelling the Midnight Train through his life. I loved Agnes, Wibur's ghostly guide on the trip. Her philosophy of life provided so many profound quotes, I had a hard time picking one. Mostly because of this, I have rated the book a 4.

This is not an easy journey for Wilbur since he has to revisit some troubling times and some major regrets, particularly a broken relationship. Agnes keeps warning him not to make changes to the past lest it keep him from eternity but in the end, he can't resist.

Here are only a few of the passages I found so meaningful:

Music had a way of threading through decades like nothing else. A song, after all, was a needle pulling the thread of time, stitching disparate moments into something whole.

There were days in life that rolled by and were never really thought of again. And then there were days that were so beloved or important that they contained inside them everything that came after. Russian doll days that were always inside the expanding future.

Nothing ever just happened, realized the Ghost. Even the most reckless action was a consequence of what had gone before, just as every loud mistake in the world was the product of some quiet and secret pain.

Does any person in their youth truly appreciate the time they live through? Doesn’t the mundane starch of reality always turn to sugar with memory.

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout 3

"So blind we humans are---so blind. To each other and to ourselves, moving through life as though through shadows, putting out a hand in the dark and thinking we have touched someone. And maybe we have, as Artie did with Rhonda Lazarre that day. But mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of one another's selves, including our own. Thinking all the while that we can see."      -from the novel

The Things We Never Say is a short book, about 200 pages, with long chapters, only seven. I have rated it 3 since I liked it somewhat, didn't love it.

Living in coastal Massachusetts in 2024, Artie Dam is a high school history teacher, a popular one. As a former teacher myself, I found his relationships with students impressive. However, Artie hides a lot of emotions from others---loneliness, discontent, depression, even suicidal thoughts for a time. A potentially life-threatening accident changes him. Then he learns a family secret that throws him for a loop.

The time setting was interesting---presidential election 2024. Artie's reaction was similar to mine. "The election came and went. Half of the country was stunned, the other half jubilant."

Artie and I were in the former half. 

Basically, I found the book well-written but a downer.

The Guardians by John Grisham 5

 

"This can be a dirty business. We are forced to deal with witnesses who have lied, police who have fabricated evidence, experts who have misled juries, and prosecutors who have suborned perjury. We, the good guys, often find that getting our hands dirty is the only way to save our clients."

            -Cullen Post, from the novel

This is my third Grisham novel in a row. Might not have happened if The Guardians had not been a June Page Turners selection and had The Testament not been the best available in the cruise ship library. Of the three, I liked this one best for a couple of reasons. It reminded me of Framed, a nonfiction by Grisham and a co-writer, Jim McCloskey who heads up an innocence project of his own. I found it fascinating, if disturbing. Also, The Guardians is partially set in Central Florida where I live with mentions of familiar places like the Orange County Court House, a skyscraper in Orlando. I rate it a 5, definitely a page-turner.

Cullen Post is a former criminal defense attorney turned episcopal priest turned innocence lawyer. He works with a nonprofit, Guardian Ministries, out of Savannah. The novel focuses on two of his clients, innocent men falsely imprisoned: Duke Russell dangerously close to being executed in Alabama and Quincy Miller 20+ years in prison in North Florida for a murder he did not commit. Post puts in an incredible number of hours and miles on his old car traveling from prison to prison and finding and interviewing people involved in the original verdicts.

I can only hope there are numerous guardians like Cullen Post in America trying to right some terrible wrongs. Our U.S. justice system is far from just for some Americans, especially people of color and those without resources.

The Testament by John Grisham 5

 

"You die with eleven billion, and people care about your last will and testament. Especially if there's a chance that one of the world's great fortunes is about to be fed to the vultures. The tabloids were there, along with the local papers and all the important financial magazines. The three rows Wycliff had designated for the press were full by nine-thirty. The journalists had a delightful time watching the Phelans gather in front of them. Three artists worked feverishly."

           -from the novel

Troy Phelan is one of the richest men in the world and, nearing death changes his will in a very sneaky way. He has 3 ex-wives and many adult children who can't wait to get their hands on some of his great wealth, and it seems none of them are very deserving.

Nate O'Reilly, a D.C. litigator just out of rehab and way down on his luck is tapped to find the actual recipient of the Phelan fortune. She is Rachel Lane, Troy's illegitimate daughter about whom little is known except that she a missionary in a remote area of Brazil. 

Nate is lucky to survive a plane crash and boat problems in his search for the woman. Fortunately, he has a river guide named Jevy, who, by the way, adds some humor to a story that gets pretty intense.

I found this to be a page-turner; the rating is 5.

A Painted House by John Grisham 4

"I was scared and tired, almost faint again, and I just wanted everything to be normal, with the Mexicans and the Spruills out of our lives, with Ricky home, with the Latchers gone, with the nightmare of Hank erased from my memory. I was tired of secrets, tired of seeing things I was not supposed to see."

        -Luke, from the novel

I thought I had read this novel, but I really didn't remember much of it. It was not the legal thriller for which Grisham is best known. My rating is a 4.

The narrator/protagonist is Luke Chandler, a 7-year-old living on a cotton farm with his parents and grandparents in Arkansas. The setting is fall of 1952. Luke must help with the farm work but dreams of playing baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. As a former elementary school teacher, I tend to identify with youthful characters.

The Chandler family has little money and they depend on the cotton crop for a living. It is harvest time and they must hire migrants to help with picking in order to get it done in time. These would include a family named Spruill, folks they call "hill people" from the Ozarks, and a group of several Mexicans. At his tender age Luke is exposed to adult situations brought on by these two groups including violence and a sexual encounter. One can surmise the ill effects on him from the quote above.

A painted house of the title is a status symbol in this time and place because people like the Chandlers cannot afford paint and are looked down on by those who can. I will leave it for you to find out more about why the title is fitting.

The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers 3

 

"I'm just fumbling my way through like everyone else, trying to do my best. One thing I learned---well, two things: Work hard. And never give up."

       -Julia's advice to Trixie, from the novel

I began reading this book thinking it was a biography and not until the Author's Note did I know for sure it is a work of fiction. But A Conversation with the Author, the Credits and Acknowledgements made it clear the author had done mountains of research to make this part of Julia's story as authentic as possible. 

A good portion of this book was over my head and other parts were confusing. There are so many acronyms for WWII, the author included a dictionary at the beginning to define them, for example OSS, FANY, SEAC, SACO, WRENS and several others. I don't read many spy novels, making this more challenging reading. There were so many characters, I almost gave up trying to keep track of who's who.

Julia McWilliams aspired to be a writer in her youth but ended up with the highest clearance working for the OSS in exotic (and dangerous) places like Ceylon, India and China. She is described in various places and by different people to be strong, resilient, intelligent, organized, dogged and ambitious. Reading this, it is hard not to be impressed, and she certainly managed to survive a few life-threatening incidents. 

I wondered if I wanted to keep reading when Julia's future husband, Paul Child, appeared. They didn't like each other at first, so I had to continue to find out how they eventually connected. I am rating the book a 3 since I liked it enough to finish and I learned a lot but didn't enjoy it immensely.

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende 5

 

"But no crying. We have to be good. No, we're not lost. The wind knows my name. And yours too. Everyone knows where we are. I'm here with you and you know where I am. See? There's nothing to be scared about. Mama will be able to find us; she just has to call and ask Miss Selena or Tita Edu. We don't have to worry about the guardian angel either. She always knows where we are and she never goes too far away."      -Anita to her sister Claudia

I chose this book because I thought I had enjoyed another novel by this author but in looking at a list of her work, I saw nothing familiar. According to her bio she is known for magical realism, a genre that I don't always like. In this novel, it worked for me because it came in the form of imaginings of a traumatized child, her escape in a very real way. I've rated the book a 5.

This novel spans time and place by presenting the stories of Samuel Adler, sent as a Jewish child from Vienna in 1938 to London to avoid the Nazis and Anita Nogales, a 7-year-old blind girl brought from El Salvador by her mother and separated by the heartless U.S. immigration policy in 2019 of taking children from parents.

Anita's story reminded me of We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez about young people making their way north after fleeing a horrendous situation in Guatemala and trying to survive very dangerous situations to get to the U.S.

Other characters important to the plot are Selena Duran, a social worker who becomes very involved with Anita's predicament and Frank Angileri, a lawyer recruited by Selena to help with the needed legal work.

I loved how the two immigration stories are compared and contrasted and how Anita's story is woven into Samuel's. It was interesting being reminded of the onset of COVID 19 restrictions and the author reflects negatively on President Trump's first term because of his treatment of the pandemic AND his cruel immigration policies.

Amos Fortune free man by Elizabeth Yates 4

 

"You'd set all the world free if you could, wouldn't you, Amos?"    Violet

"Just the part of it that I can touch. That's all any man can do."     Amos

This book won the coveted Newberry Medal in 1951 so I knew it would be special. It was written for youth, but the story is universal. I am not exactly sure of the genre---biography, maybe fictionalized? It is based on an actual man who became known as Amos Fortune.

At-mun was prince of the At-mun-shi people in Africa when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Boston as a 15-year-old. Fortunately, he was chosen by a Quaker man who treated him kindly. Renamed Amos by his owners, he learned quickly, worked very hard and rose above his sad beginnings. He would finally purchase his freedom at age 60 and then proceeded to save his earnings to purchase two wives who did not live long and a third, Violet, along with her daughter, Celyndia, who became a great support in their home in Jaffrey, NH. 

Amos became a very well-known tanner and was respected by the community in spite of the prejudice toward blacks at the time. He continued to buy freedom for and help many people before he died at the ripe old age of 91. (Illustrated by the quoted conversation above.)

An inspiring story of resilience and generosity! Rating: 4

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 1

"Hateread--to endure a book in order to write a scathing review." I recently learned this term from Dictionary.com. Sadly, that is what I was doing while reading Our Man in Havana. I believe I read another novel by this author years ago and liked it. This one however was awful. I read some 40% and had no idea what was going on! I decided life is too short to keep reading a book I hated. A rating of 1. (You may notice I found no quote worth sharing!)

While looking for an image to include I saw a summary. Maybe if I had read that ahead of time the story would have made more sense, but I doubt it!

Heartwood by Amity Gaige 4

 

"Some lost people don't have the skills but instead they have something else. I don't know what to call it. Heart. They survive because of their love of life or of the dear ones in their mind. They stay present. They keep their eyes open. Often when these people are rescued, they report feeling a sense of wonder out there. For the moments they had left. For the privilege of being alive at all."         

           -Lt. Bev Miller, from the novel

Heartwood is the Page Turners' May selection. I am not sure I would have selected it, but it was a page turner, a fast-paced thriller. I am giving it a 4 rating.

Three main characters alternate their experiences in moving the plot. Lt. Beverly Miller is the Maine State Game Warden in charge of the search for a missing woman who has disappeared from the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail. It is a race against time to rescue her.

The missing woman is Valerie Gillis who is writing a letter to her mother which is actually like a diary. She was to meet her husband at a certain location but failed to show up. A member of the "tramily" (trail family) had to leave her and she is alone and lost and without means of communication.

Lena Kucharski is a 76-year-old woman living at Cedarfield Active Life Plan Community in Connecticut when she finds news of the missing woman and becomes fixated on the search. I found her interesting because I am close to her age and live in such a community. She writes about her scooter, the slowness of her neighbors (She wishes for a fast lane.), ladies who are into jigsaw puzzles and other things I see quite often where I live.

It was rather fascinating how the stories of all three women come together. The one thing I didn't like was the somewhat choppy writing style.

At first, I had a hard time getting into this story. I am not a true outdoor person so 'lost in the woods" is something I find hard to imagine. My husband, on the other hand, once dreamed of hiking the AT, as it is called in the book. I fondly remember reading My Side of the Mountain when I was teaching 5th grade. Lt. Miller mentions having read the novel in her youth.

I wonder what our group will have to say about Heartwood.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans 4

 

"If all of this amounts to you as nothing more than drivel, then you might also consider a simpler value of the written letter, which is, namely, that reaching out in correspondence is really one of the original forms of civility in the world, the preservation of which has to be of some value we cannot yet see. The WRITTEN WORD, Mr. Watts. The written word in black and white. It is letters. It is books. It is law. It's all the same. I had some notion of this from as far back in my life as I can remember, and I've been writing letters out into the world since I could form a sentence with a pen (age nine).

                    -Sybil Van Antwerp, from the novel

The Correspondent was highly recommended to me by a close friend, and I had seen it near the top of the Best Seller list for quite some time, so I figured it had to be special. This was the third book I have read lately in the epistolary style; the plot is revealed in letters written by and to the main character.

In 2012, Sybil Van Antwerp is turning 73 and experiencing a vision problem that will ultimately leave her blind. She is a divorcee, a retired attorney, an avid reader and prolific letter writer, thus the title. She is also wrestling with guilt from events in her past.

She writes letters, emails, and notes to, and receives responses from, her brother, her best friend, her neighbor, a suitor, a young man she is mentoring, and favorite authors, among others. It is fascinating to see how an author can establish a plot purely through correspondence. I am rating the book a 4. I loved the references to authors and books, some of which were familiar to me. I could empathize with Sybil since I am near her age and suffering my own infirmities. I thought it was not realistic that so many people in the 2000's would be writing letters, especially a next-door-neighbor. It does seem like a lost art, which is somewhat unfortunate.

Sinning Like a Christian by William H. Willimon 4

 

"If I were making a list of Deadly Sins, Greed would be at the top of my list. Maybe this is just personal, or maybe it is the result of living in this society. We tell the world that we go to war in the Mideast to bring freedom and democracy, whereas much of the world is convinced it's all about oil. Greed has a way of turning everything that's gold into dross. As James Ogilvy says, 'Greed turns love into lust, leisure into sloth, hunger into gluttony, honor into pride, righteous indignation into anger, and admiration into envy. If it weren't for greed, we would suffer fewer of the other vices.'"

       -from Sinning Like a Christian

Our pastors chose this book to inspire a series of Lenten studies. Since I would not be attending the classes, I purchased the book and took my time reading it, maybe a chapter a week. I found it easy to read, very interesting, even enjoyable. My rating is 4. The author shows his considerable knowledge of the Bible, quoting scripture as well as a number of theologians and philosophers on the subject of sin. He presents his commentary in a non-preachy, unthreatening way, He frequently includes some humor, often self-deprecating.

The subtitle of the book is A New Look at the 7 Deadly Sins. I liked the quote above because it lists all the 7 Willimon covers and shows how Greed is often the root cause of the other 6. I regret I didn't get to attend the classes at church to see how it was presented. 

Beach Music by Pat Conroy 5

Here is my post from August, 2017. I have just reread the novel and will add comments at the end.

"Once I was a wide-eyed captive of those times and there was no twelve-point program to wean me off the addiction to drivel I succumbed to during that dreary era of the Vietnam War. The greatest tragedy of that war was not the senseless death of young men on strangely named battlefields, but that it turned the whole country stupid overnight. It also made enemies of the closest group of friends I had ever known."
                                    -Jack McCall, from the novel

At 700+ pages, I thought I would never finish this one but I was determined to get to the end! I believe  it actually could have been about 3 novels. I am a huge fan of Conroy and this one did not disappoint. It definitely rates a 5 from me.

The protagonist is Jack McCall, a young father, who suffers the tragic loss of his wife to suicide and takes his daughter to Rome to live. He feels he is justified in leaving his home of Waterford, South Carolina, and the rest of his family behind. He seems to be trying to escape from the pain and hide from the past. When he receives word that his mother is dying of leukemia, he makes his way home where he must come to grips with many emotions he has tried to stifle.

Conroy is a storyteller extraordinaire and captivates with horrifying narratives of the Holocaust told by secondary characters of his parents' generation and descriptions of the 1960s and how the Vietnam War affected him and his peers. (See quote above) Even the flashback story of a fishing trip with his high school buddies---a trip gone very wrong---is quite intense.

Conroy is a gifted writer. I am in awe of his sometimes poetic descriptions of the Low Country that is so familiar to him personally. The chapters were long which I don't always like but it was a true page-turner, just the same. The abusive fathers of this story are reminiscent of characters in other Conroy novels and touch on autobiographical details of his own father (The Great Santini). Also the main character, Jack McCall, is a food critic and cookbook author and loves to cook. Conroy has also written a cookbook, The Pat Conroy Cookbook, and in South of Broad, protagonist Leo enjoys being chef for his friends just as Jack does in this novel.

I have yet to read all Conroy's work but I am getting there!

-------------------------

Second reading, April, 2026

As a big fan of Conroy's writing, I decided to reread this book. It didn't take long to realize it was SO LONGGG! Once I started reading though, I found I couldn't stop. I had forgotten so much of the plot (and subplots!) and I am so taken with Conroy's writing, I wanted to keep going. I think it took me 3X as long to read as most other novels.

At any rate, I am still rating it a 5. No need to say more; I would just be repeating myself.

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick 4

"Now we truly felt like family. I remembered that the first day we'd arrived, Zanhua had recoiled when Marsha tried to hug her. But now the two women had a long embrace, celebrating their collaborative motherhood. I wished that they could have really talked to each other about their lives and frustrations as young women, their sacrifices. And yet they seemed to intuit what they had in common. I thought I might have detected a tear in Zanhua's eye at saying goodbye again to her daughter."

           -from the author, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove

I doubt I would have selected this book to read; my nonfiction choices are rare. It was selected by our Page Turners for April and although it wasn't exactly a page-turner, I am glad I read it. My rating is 4.

The subtitle of the book is very revealing of the context: From China to America, A True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins. When Zanhua and her husband had twin girls they were aware of the single-child policy established in Communist China in 1979. In fact, they had already been fined for having multiple children and so they decided to give one twin to relatives, hoping to hide her from the Family Planning Police. Unfortunately, it worked only briefly and the little girl, Fangfang, is ripped from her aunt's arms and taken to a government facility. From there she would be adopted while still a toddler by an American family and end up with them in Texas.

One reason for my 4 rating is that I learned a great deal about Chinese history and culture. I knew a bit about the one-child rule (lifted in 2015, by the way) but not how children were stolen and basically sold to families who thought they were saving an orphan but not realizing the harm that was done to loving Chinese families.

Our book group gave the book an average of 3.9 and we had a very interesting discussion. Some of us, including myself, had personal stories of adoption to share. A few had been in China and shared experiences. We agreed the author's research was thorough and her reporting was honest. She certainly was the catalyst for the reunion of the twins as teenagers. I believe most of us were glad we read the book.