false 7 51 51 true 5654146 read 0 true 1501051 currently-reading 0 true 1501050 to-read 37 false 4406535 fiction 11 false 4408096 culture 8 false 4406537 fantasy 7 false 4406556 nonfiction 6 false 4408095 race 5 false 4408120 religion 4 false 4332083 2009-books 4 false 4411200 jewish-life-issues 4 false 4408090 classic 4 false 4411263 asian-asian-american 3 false 4408085 self-help 3 false 4411183 politics 3 false 4410996 middle-eastern-issues-politics 3 false 4411140 autobiography-memoirs 3 false 4410945 historical-novel 2 false 4411047 holocaust 2 false 4410953 egypt 2 false 4411221 women-issues 1 false 4411411 mexico 1 false 4411100 native-american 1 false 4406555 history 1 false 4410989 philosophical-novel 1 false 4411324 germany 1 false 4411138 food-or-nutrition 1 false 4408122 existentialism 1 false 4411350 war 1 false 4408080 science-fiction 1 false 4411204 infertility---fiction 1 false 4411113 short-stories 1 false 4411242 special-needs 1 false 4410956 cuba 1 false 4408124 education 0 false 4408099 decoration http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47860030 to: China Boy (Paperback) by Gus Lee
bookshelves: 2009-books, asian-asian-american, fiction
Had I not persevered I would have dropped the book on the first chapter, but I’m glad I did. I didn’t like his writing style but the story spoke to me as I too am an immigrant and often have felt like a fish out of water not quite part of either culture yet more vested in this one than my native one. The hyperbolic humor was a bit of a turn off but the transcultural humor was familiarly gratifying. For example, after three girls, Kai-Ting’s mother desperately wanted a boy so she thought ‘reproductive thoughts” while looking at Rodin statues and plastering nude male art from Western artists all over her bedroom walls. She “would hum her favorite Christian hymns while looking at the pictures, praying in her wonderfully eclectic way to God Almighty, Michealangelo, and the Yin, the Goddess of Fertility. She lit joss sticks, with some difficulty, and closed her eyes, visualizing males babies.” She shelled peanut shells for the Watching Gods but also attend ended Episcopalian churches and over donated, murmuring “For my Son, whom You will give me, thank You.”

I’m not a fan of boxing but I understood how it served as a way for him to overcome or survive his circumstances and the culture clashes of not just being Chinese in America but Chinese in a difficult neighborhood…and as the background for his coming of age…still…the boxing parts weren’t very engaging for me and I can understand why other readers couldn’t see beyond it. I muscled through them to get to the better parts (and to understand the character better) but if finitely was a struggle and can understand why others put it down.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47344472 to: Gap Creek : The Story Of A Marriage (Oprah's Book Club) by Robert Morgan
bookshelves: 2009-books, fiction
I had no problems with the narrative voice, author's gender (and his ability to portray a young newly married girl from a rural area), or the string of unfortunate events (I don't mind slow, depressing novels), but the plot development (I was ok w/ the plot's structure up to and including the end) from the middle of the novel on was a bit disappointing...still...a quick satisfying read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11689419 to: Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood (Paperback) by Binjamin Wilkomirski
bookshelves: culture, fiction, holocaust
Turns out that this is fiction and not really a memoir. Apparently he is not even Jewish and according to the Culture Administration in Zurich and their research this is just a ``freely invented autobiography."

It pisses me off that someone would do this (somewhat disturbing) but I still found the book gripping so I'm keeping the four stars but if you are looking for an actual holocaust memoir then this is definitely less than one star. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46077933 to: Breaking Dawn (Twilight, #4) by Stephenie Meyer
bookshelves: fantasy, fiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46077919 to: Eclipse (Twilight, #3) by Stephenie Meyer
bookshelves: fantasy, fiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46077902 to: New Moon (Twilight, #2) by Stephenie Meyer
bookshelves: fantasy, fiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46077881 to: Twilight (Twilight, #1) by Stephenie Meyer
bookshelves: fantasy, fiction
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