I enjoyed this book very much. I especially enjoy reading about WW II and I particularly liked reading the story from two viewpoints. Other than the attack at Pearl Harbor and its aftermath and how the characters dealt with their lives, not much happened. It was not a war story, but how war affected their everyday lives. The lion in the Lei Shop was part of the story in the beginning and the end, but basically it was Marty learning to understand the lion in the Lei Shop. A beautiful, gentle story!

I loved this story. I did not mind that the book was written in the present and in the past. I was always wondering what would happen next in either the past or the present. In the past, this is a story about a young girl who is trained as a house slave; in the present, this is a story about a young female lawyer who is helping to put together a case for reparations of descendents of slaves in the US. There are many stories being woven together to make this story; the author has done a fine job. However, there are too many coincidences, such as the lawyer's father is an artist; she accidentally meets a musician who turns out to be a possible descendent of the house slave; the lawyer collects a big piece of the puzzle in the form of a letter that has been hidden in a book. The history in this novel really makes it very interesting if you do not know much Civil War history; however that was one of my favorites parts of history in college which made this story all the more interesting----the buying and selling of slaves, the Underground Railroad--all a fascinating part of the South and our slave-owning past of the United States. This issue nearly tore apart our country. This novel is one of the best ways to learn about that past!

Gail Tsukiyama has done it again---written a most wonderful story. This is what I would call a "gentle" book........a book that "gently" tells you a story and "gently" brings you through some of life's worst moments and "gently" deposits you at the end, leaving you thinking "How wonderful is this story?"

The story starts in the late 50's in China during the Cultural Revolution. A little boy named Tao falls out of a Kapok tree in his courtyard of his house and breaks his leg. Then you find out that his father has been taken away from the home and sent to be "re-educated." The time line of the story is from July, 1958 to November, 1958, but in that time all the characters are are fully sketched and their histories are fully known. The story is told from the viewpoint of several characters: Kai Ying, the mother; Tao, the little boy; Wei, the grandfather; and Song, the Auntie. Also there is a side story of Suyin and her baby, a young 15 year old girl who is taken in by the mother.

The story builds until the grandfather confesses a secret that leads him on a journey and finally his return to the family home.

A beautiful, wonderful, "gentle" story!!!

The continuation of Sara Poole's character, Donna Francesca, the Pope's Poisoner, is an action-packed novel with handsome knights, ordinary citizens of 15th century Rome, smugglers of the world below that city, a priest who is not very holy, and Pope Alexander VI who is conniving and cunning and wishes to barter his daughter's hand in marriage to retain his office as Pope. Donna Francesca must find the priest who wishes to kill the Pope before he does so and in so doing determine which of the pope's sons is a loyal subject. This is a very well researched "page-turner" of the highest form and you are learning history, too! Incidental to the plot are historical characters such as Christopher Columbus and their Most Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, play parts as well, making this a lush, swashbuckling, historical tale.

A satisfying read as always! Jacqueline Winspear's new Maisie Dobbs mystery finds Maisie working for the British Secret Service on a matter concerning the Queen's best interest. The story takes place in the early 1930's as Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party are coming to power in Germany and beginning to raise the interest of Her Majesty's Secret Service. There are several subplots; in fact, almost too many--as Maisie drives her little MG between London and Cambridge and Ipswich and Eltham and Chelstone and back to London. However, by the end of the story, answers are found to some secrets, but leaving others unanswered and, thus, a new story.