Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Library2Go Audiobook Spotlight~Is This Tomorrow by, Caroline Leavitt narrated by, Xe Sands

PUBLISHER--HighBridge Company
LENGTH--11 hrs and 26 mins
Description-
It's 1956, and working-mother Ava Lark and her son, Lewis, have rented a house in a less-than-welcoming Boston suburb. There, Lewis finds he is only able to befriend the other fatherless kids on the block, Jimmy and Rose. But when Jimmy goes missing, neighborhood paranoia ramps to new heights, further ostracizing Ava and Lewis.

Lewis never recovers from the loss of his childhood friend. In his twenties, he is a failure in love, living without direction, estranged from his mother. When Jimmy's disappearance is unexpectedly solved, however, Lewis, Rose, and Ava are thrown together once more to try to untangle the remaining pieces of the puzzle and reclaim something of what they have lost.

My Review:
This is such a unique tale, set in the 50’s divorced mother Ava and her son Lewis find it hard to fit into their Boston suburb because Ava is *Gasp* divorced so she must be a wanton woman after every man in town but that isn’t the case Ava is just trying her best for her and her son. Lewis has his own set of problems being the child of a divorcee’ but there are a brother and sister, Jimmy & Rose, that don’t have a father either and they bond and become best friends until the horrible day when Jimmy goes missing and everything changes.

This book is told from the perspective of an adult Lewis who has had his share of relationship problems with not only women he has dated but with his mom too. When the truth comes out about Jimmy’s disappearance things don’t become any easier for Lewis, Rose & Ava.

This was a complex story, filled with emotion, it is a family drama and a story of how friendships can change when something bad happens especially when you are young. I truly loved this book it is so well written that even though it isn’t an edge of your seat thriller type book it still grabbed me and I didn’t want to stop reading/listening. There were times when I thought if you people would just talk to each other maybe some of these long held misunderstandings could have been avoided but that is what made this book all the more real, these are real people dealing with huge events in the best way they know how and that isn’t always easy.

Who else but Xe Sands could pull off the raw emotion of this book, her narration was perfect she brought the emotions of every character to the forefront and I can’t imagine anyone else doing a better job at it. She was the perfect choice for this book!

This was the first book I have read by Leavitt but it will certainly not be the last!


4 ½ Stars

Friday, September 13, 2013

Library2Go E-Book Spotlight~A Bitter Veil by, Libby Fischer Hellmann


A Fascinating look at a time of turmoil in Iran with the fall of the Shah & the rise of the Ayatollah. This book felt very well researched and wasn’t a slam on an entire country or religion. We meet a young couple in love in America, Nouri  and Anna they are young and in love Nouri is Iranian but this makes no difference to Anna in fact she is looking forward to the day they make their home in Iran. However Iran is in the beginning stages of upheaval and when the Shah falls everything in Nouri & Anna’s life changes too and definitely not for the better.

I found this story fascinating in how fast people’s allegiances and loyalty and personalities changed with the revolution and how many different reasons for the changes. Anne married a sweet man in Nouri who was involved in human rights activism while he was studying in the US and even after they had gotten to Iran he seemed to still hold the same beliefs until after the fall of the Shah and Nouri is arrested he comes back a very different man and Anna’s whole life changes.

I don’t want to give too much away about what happens between Nouri and Anna but let’s say he becomes a different man than she married. The unrest in Iran is fascinating the way the people flip-flopped on what It was they wanted from their country it makes me wonder how different the middle east and Iran in particular would be now if the ones that wanted to embrace the modern and give the rights to everyone had won this particular battle.

In the author’s afterword she talks about interviewing many Iranian Americans for this story and I felt like this rang true to what I know of this time period. One thing the author said in the afterword is she is a crime writer and needed a crime but I kind of felt like the crimes were on the people of Iran although the crime did add to the ending and fit well in the story.

If you are at all interesting in this time period or setting or just a fan of historical fiction I would highly recommend this book.


4 Stars

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford -- 5 Stars

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford -- 5 Stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.
Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.
Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping book will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.

My Review:
As with Ford’s last book this is a bittersweet story that will give you such major feels. William is such a sweet kid, you can't help but love him and I just wanted to give him a hug. There are 2 characters that will stay with you long after you are finished and they are William and Charlotte, these two kids are so precious and so damaged by circumstance they will break your heart but they will also fill your heart with such feelings.

Willow/Liu Song is a memorable character too but although I did feel sorry for her, I didn’t have the same feelings for her as I did for William. Her story is a sad one but some of that sadness comes from the choices she makes, Yes, I know bad things happened to her and I know she had no choice in those matters but I think her later choices are the ones she felt the most guilt for and in some ways rightfully so. Yes, I know it is a different time and prejudices being what they were made things all the harder for her as a single/unwed Chinese mother in the 1920’s so I understand she did the best she could being so young and having no family to depend on. Ok, I am not going to say anymore you will need to make your own decision about how you feel about Willow.

I liked the alternating chapters as Willow tells William the story of his life before the orphanage and seeing it through his eyes as the story unfolds, as sparks of memory he had forgotten are reignited.

How come it is so hard for me to write a coherent review of a book I loved? This book made me feel so much, it is beautifully written; Jamie Ford has a great talent for taking a sad/bittersweet story and telling it in a way that you are not depressed when you are done with the book. There were a few times I had to put it down for a few moments, one moment especially and when you read the book you will know exactly which one I am talking about. But it just made the story more beautiful, and heartbreaking.

This is an amazing story, I for one absolutely loved it and I hope you will too. Beautifully, heartrending and heartbreaking but a story that will stay with you long after you are finished, I have such a book hangover from this book that I have not been able to start a new book yet, and for me that is a sure sign of a great book.


5 Stars