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The Japanese Lover

I thought this book was going to be amazing.  The story seemed like it would be “The Notebook”-esque with forbidden loves and jumping between real-time and the past but it wasn’t.  It did jump around but the storylines just do not hold your attention.  The past features a young girl living with her wealthy uncle in San Francisco who falls in love with the Japanese gardener’s son.  The two are torn apart after the Japanese family is sent away to an internment camp.  In the present, the young girl is now an old woman living in a nursing home being cared for by a woman who has a past of her own.  

I found that the storyline featured in present time focuses too much on details about the retirement home and not enough on the love story for the reader to truly stay invested.  You don’t feel any emotion towards any of the characters.  The parts about the Japanese internment camps I did find interesting (having studied them in college).  If this book had been written differently it could have been wonderful.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

This novel includes maps!  I love maps.  I also love history, so this book was a no-brainer for me.  The first half of the biography goes by much faster than the second half.  The story begins when Catherine the Great is born and then takes the reader on her journey to Russia to marry the Prince.  Later, Catherine forces her husband to abdicate the throne so she can rule Russia by herself (get it girl!).  Along the way, you learn about her different lovers but the second half slows considerably detailing different wars, changing alliances, and rebellions. 

I did enjoy how the book explained other historical events happening simultaneously throughout Europe to help give the reader a point of reference. Catherine the Great is a fascinating person to read about, you learn just how much influence she had on Russia’s expansion in politics, the arts, and education.  If the novel had been a little shorter I think it would have earned 4 stars.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I am excited for this movie to come out, it looks like a superb cast.  The entire book is written in the format of letters and telegrams.  A cute, easy read to help gain even more knowledge of WWII but with much more light-hearted fare than a normal wartime book.

Juliet Ashton is a writer in need of a story to tell.  Events lead her to the island of Guernsey which was occupied by the Germans during the war.  To survive the war many residents of the island formed a book club and now Juliet wants to tell their stories.  The author makes a trip to the island and begins to become very attached to the project.  I promise the book is more interesting than I make it seem. 

Olive Kitteridge

Not a fan of this one. Each chapter usually features a different person in the same town where Olive Kitteridge lives.  Olive knows most of the citizens having been a math teacher at the local public school.  Many of the little stories leave you with questions that never get answered which drives me crazy.  Why did the son stab the woman a bunch of times? Who is this guy she is having an affair with? It is infuriating.  The reader doesn’t even like Olive as a character at all. Many of the stories become interwoven but the book still leaves you hanging.  Despite all the awards it received, I would say skip it.

Need more good books to read?  Check out what I read in February!