Author: Gail Tsukiyama
Published: 1991
Genres: Historical Fiction (China 1919-38)
Rating: 3.5
Summary
Pei is the third of five daughters born to rural parents in China. When the fortune teller reveals that she is unlikely to form a good marriage, she is sent to work in the silk factory to earn money for her family. There she grows up and forges a sisterhood amidst the reeling machines that reverberate and clamor in the vast factory from dawn to dusk. Leading the first strike the village has ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams, and friendship to achieve the freedom they could never have hoped for on their own.
Review
The novel is well-written, captivating, sometimes sensual, and often haunting. The girls form intense friendships in reaction to the second-class, property-type role they play in their male-dominated society. And, ironically, they end up better off than if they had remained with their families.
Notes
If you are looking for a light read with a happy ending, this isn't it! This book made me very grateful that I wasn't born in China in the early 1900s.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
My Name Is Mary Sutter
Author: Robin Oliveira
Published: 2010
Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War Fiction
Rating: 1
Summary
Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds.
Review
What began as a promising work became very disappointing about half-way through due to a very vulgar and frankly unnecessary scene involving a minor character. I did not finish reading it.
Published: 2010
Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War Fiction
Rating: 1
Summary
Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds.
Review
What began as a promising work became very disappointing about half-way through due to a very vulgar and frankly unnecessary scene involving a minor character. I did not finish reading it.
Buster Midnight's Cafe
Author: Sandra Dallas
Published: 1990
Genres: Fiction
Rating: 4
Summary
May Anna Kovacks was discovered on the dustry streets of Butte, Montana and went on to become a Hollywood star. War, fame, marriage, love, and heartbreak came and went. What never changed was the bond she shared with her two best friends, Effa Commander and Whippy Bird. When scandal, murder, and betrayal made a legend of May Anna, only Effa and Whippy Bird could set the record straight.
Review
This is a story of the brutal realities of life in the 1920s in the mining town of Butte, Montana. It is a story that includes the liquor, situations, and language you would expect to find in such a setting. It is a story of flawed characters doing the best they can with what they have been given. But above all, it is a story of friendships that last a life time.
Notes
This novel was particularly interesting to me because my great grandfather was a miner in Butte, and my grandparents met while attenidng high school there. If the characters in this novel were real, they could have been my grandparents' classmates.
Published: 1990
Genres: Fiction
Rating: 4
Summary
May Anna Kovacks was discovered on the dustry streets of Butte, Montana and went on to become a Hollywood star. War, fame, marriage, love, and heartbreak came and went. What never changed was the bond she shared with her two best friends, Effa Commander and Whippy Bird. When scandal, murder, and betrayal made a legend of May Anna, only Effa and Whippy Bird could set the record straight.
Review
This is a story of the brutal realities of life in the 1920s in the mining town of Butte, Montana. It is a story that includes the liquor, situations, and language you would expect to find in such a setting. It is a story of flawed characters doing the best they can with what they have been given. But above all, it is a story of friendships that last a life time.
Notes
This novel was particularly interesting to me because my great grandfather was a miner in Butte, and my grandparents met while attenidng high school there. If the characters in this novel were real, they could have been my grandparents' classmates.
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