I requested this book because I like reading about life in Alaska and how a person perseveres and survives hard times. However, I had a hard time getting interested in The Alaskan Laundry. The main character was not very likable or believable to me and there was too much detail about commercial fishing. It was evident from the author's information that he used a lot of his life and interests for the main character – living on a tugboat, working in the fishing industry, and boxing – but somehow those traits didn't work for an 18-year-old woman. The love story was compelling though and the plot moved quickly enough to keep me reading to the end.

I requested this book because I was born and raised in Oklahoma and like to read books that are set in that state. I was not disappointed with Maud's Line, the story of a young Cherokee woman's struggle to survive and make a life for herself on her family's small allotment of land. This little novel is full of historic details while weaving a story of love and the importance of family in difficult circumstances. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about Native American or Oklahoma history in a fictional setting.

Lizet Ramirez is a first-generation Cuban American, the daughter of parents who fled the Communist Castro regime to a new life among strangers in the United States. She is the first in her family to go to college and the first from her Miami high school to be admitted to an elite northern college. Her struggles and experiences during her freshman year coincide with a major news event in her old neighborhood – the rescue of a young boy from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean after his mother drowns in her attempt to escape from Cuba. This part of the novel is based on the true story of Elian Gonzalez but his name has been changed to Ariel Hernandez in the book. Lizet is torn between loyalty to her family and forging a new life and identity for herself. This was an interesting book, full of imperfect but likeable characters. The author realistically portrayed the difficult decisions and conflicting emotions of a young woman who is moving beyond her family and upbringing to a more educated and professional existence, once again among strangers.

This is the incredible true story of the kidnapping of a South Korean film director and his leading actress by Kim Jong-Il in the 1970's. At that time he was the son of the North Korean dictator and determined to market that closed society to the world through tightly-controlled award-winning films. The title refers not only to films but also to the fact that everything about life in the Hermit Kingdom was managed and directed to produce a certain image to its citizens. The author's description of the life of a typical North Korean should make anyone appreciate being born in just about any other country on earth. This was a very informative and well-researched book, hard to put down.

Life is great and the future is assured for senior surgical resident Steve Mitchell until inexplicable mistakes start happening causing serious complications for his patients. An investigation reveals foul play and, with his career on the line, Dr. Mitchell must figure out who is sabotaging treatment and what patient will be chosen next. The suspense in this book kept me reading even when I had to skim through much of the clinical detail (the author is a surgeon). The main characters were not very likable and I felt that Dr. Mitchell pretty much deserved whatever happened to him. I would recommend the book for a quick and easy read.

This is a novel about some of the children of imprisoned revolutionaries from the Iranian revolution when the Ayatollah Khomeini and his extreme Islamic followers seized power after the overthrow of the Shah. Apparently based on some of the experiences of the author's own family (she was born in 1983 in Iran, the same year as some of the characters), it describes in heartbreaking detail the consequences of a revolution that does not turn out as expected, even to some of the participants. Children being raised by grandparents while the parents are imprisoned, losing parents to mass executions, and being separated from early caregivers when the parents are released and choose to flee the country – all of these events leave scars that must be dealt with. Although well written and beautifully descriptive, this was a hard book to read, full of sadness and oppression and sorrow for a once-great country that is now a place of violence, fear and religious extremism.