Five Quarters of the Orange

Five Quarters of the Orange
(The Food Trilogy #3)
by Joanne Harris

Paperback, 320 pages

Published June 1st 2002 by Harper Perennial (first published 2001)

ISBN 0060958022 

My rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Finished Book:  June 26, 2011

About the Book
(Goodreads)
  
When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous Mirabelle Dartigen - the woman they still hold responsible for a terrible tragedy that took place during the German occupation decades before. Althrough Framboise hopes for a new beginning. She quickly discovers that past and present are inextricably intertwined. Nowhere is this truth more apparent than in the scrap book of recipes she has inherited from her dead mother.

With this book, Framboise re-creates her mother's dishes, which she serves in her small creperie. And yet as she studies the scrapbook - searching for clues to unlock the contradiction between her mother's sensuous love of food and often cruel demeanor - she begins to recognize a deeper meaning behind Mirabelle's cryptic scribbles. Whithin the journal's tattered pages lies the key to what actually transpired the summer Framboise was nine years old.

My Thoughts of This Book
It appears as though it took me a REALLY long time to finish. Unfortunately I had a lot going on between school, family, house, running schedule, etc.  I hated that it kept me from reading this book in one sitting! However...it is probably one of the best books I have ever read.

Loved this book.
Loved the time period.
Loved the character development.
Loved the writing style.
Loved the storyline.

This book had many characters.  Once you got a handle on all of the people, it sucks you in.  This author is incredible at placing you there, experiencing it, and smelling the food.  Yes.  I could actually imagine myself smelling the food.  This book gives you insight to what it would be like to experience WWII, living side by side with the German military.  What would you do?  Would you cooperate or make it clear you hated them for what was happening?  It's hard to say. 

Note:  I will read ANYTHING by this author!!!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford (Goodreads Author)

Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Published January 27th 2009 by Ballantine Books

ASIN B001NLL5AO

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Finished Book: April 7, 2011

About the Book
(Goodreads)
 
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

My thoughts on this book

This book had been on my To-Read list for a long time.  And I can proudly say that this was my first Kindle book I purchased.  My favorite genre of books is WWII fiction, so I couldn't wait to read this one.  It gives a different perspective of this time period.  Until a couple of years ago, I had no idea that Japanese internment camps ever existed.  I still question why this wasn't taught in History class??  These camps make me question what our government was thinking to lock up American citizens out of fear of the unknown.


The book has a delicate mix of historical facts and love.  It is a love story between two teenagers, one Japanese and the other Chinese.  It is an unlikely love, but one that endures through many years.  What I liked most about this book was seeing into what life was like for not only the Japanese, but the Chinese during this time.  Many of these people were born in America, but felt like foreigners in their own country.  Where did their devotion lie?  Was it to their ancestral country or here?

Great book!!

Torn Thread

Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About the Book: 
It is June 1943, and for four years the Nazi armies have occupied the Polish town of Bedzin.  Twelve-year old Eva, along with her father and her sister, have been forced to leave their comfortable home and move into a tiny attic in the Jewish ghetto.

But for Eva's life takes an even more terrifying turn when she and her sister are torn from their father and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp.  There, Eva is forced to spin thread to make blankets and uniforms for the German army.  As she struggles amid ever-worsening dangers to save her life and that of her sick sister, Eva's world tears apart like the weak threads on her spinning machine...

My Review:
As usual, I am a sucker for anything about the Holocaust and WWII.  I have been intrigued by this time period since I was in high school and college.  I am mostly of German descent, so it intrigues me.  It seems like I was always studying this time period every chance I got.  I was always asking the same question over and over.  WHY?  To be honest, no one ever quite knew or was bold enough to just put it out there.  The following excerpt from the Afterword of the book really hit home for me:

"Under Nazi rule, Germany conquered most of the nations of Eastern Europe, and proceeded to institute a reign of terror and mass extermination of the Jewish people in each country.  The Nazis also imprisoned or murdered members of other ethnic or political groups, including anyone they deemed undersirable to their plan for a "racially pure" Europe."  

So how does one justify in their mind that a race of people considered to be "God's chosen people" could be racially unpure?  I just don't get it and will never get it.  The book captures Eva's journey through the prison camp, trying to care for herself and her sister.  What popped out at me through this short book was the hunger.  They were so hungry and had to work so hard just to survive.  It is a story of love and devotion to family and faith.