This was a very enjoyable book. I've just recently started reading contemporary books from Japan. I loved the tone of the book, and the subject. There was intrigue as to do these health care workers really exist? How did they find them. All people seeking help were not especially keen on being prescribed a cat for their ailments, but eventually they start to pay more attention to the cat, and less to their problems. I enjoyed watching the patients learn to socialize with the cats, worry about them, and then thinking of them instead of their own problems. A great book.

A marvelous story where we learn of the circumstances surrounding Andrew Wyeth's masterpiece, Christina's World. Christina Olson has lived at the farm house all her life, kept there by limited opportunities afforded her due to a mysterious childhood illness. Andrew Wyeth's girlfriend introduces him to the desolate Maine region, and he becomes transfixed by the stillness, the weather beaten surroundings. As Christina becomes accustomed to this stranger in her house, she reflects on her life, on her long ago romance. Through Christina Baker Kline's prose we feel the loneliness of Christina and the despair and worry of Andrew, who is trying to come to terms with his desire to produce great art, and to stay true to his vision.

We are introduced to Ivan Isaenko by way of his diary. Ivan is a patient at the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children, which treats the medical conditions of children suffering from the effects of catastrophic radiation following a nuclear explosion in 1986. Ivan suffers with unformed or partially formed limbs, and has lived at the hospital since birth. The hospital is all that he has known, and through the years has developed a way to cope and catalog in his mind all that goes on. Then, one day, a young girl his age comes in, outwardly she doesn't seem to suffer through the disastrous effects of radiation, but is indeed very ill with leukemia. Ivan takes to his diary, to explain himself to his new friend Polina, and then to make sure he marks the time he has left with her.

The voice of this novel is that of a young man, suffering, then alive with caring for another person, a first for Ivan. The story is eloquently told, thorough exquisite writing we are there with Ivan in his wonderment, his brashness and his pain of loss. There are wonderful characters in this book, Nurses who are cruel and overworked, and nurses that touch Ivan and help Ivan come to terms with adulthood. I found this to be a quick read, and enjoyed the story immensely. In so many books that I enjoy I am hesitant to finish, worried that I won't be satisfied by the ending, but Scott Stambach gave Ivan justice at the end. This is a book that I highly recommend. You will laugh, cringe...and cry.

I love when a novel transport you to a time in history, smoothly, effortlessly, and M. J. Rose did just that with this novel. I found myself easily transported to Paris in the 1900's. I loved the idea of the stones holding messages for loved ones. The writing was crisp and vibrant and the characters were rich in details. I was immediately thrust into the story, and was surprised when I finished to learn that it was 2nd in a series (Daughters of La Lune) it holds up well as a stand alone. Highly enjoyable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was transfixed from the beginning. I began the story wanting to learn about Flannery O'Conner and found so much more. The tone was exceptional to me, it drew me in with it's Southern charm. Highly recommend this book.

This was a fascinating story on so many levels. A young black man struggles for his identity and finds it in the black culture of Hip Hop and BET television. While fitting into a crowd, a group he never gets to know his true self. When away at college he finds himself and learns to appreciate the structured, collegiate life his father was preparing him for since childhood. This true story is told in an easy tone, and brings back all the teenage struggles for acceptance and the awakening of adulthood. I would highly recommend this for a book group.

It's enjoyable reading and learning about a topic you haven't read about before. That's what I thought as I started this book. The book would have been better suited being told in some sort of linear fashion. I enjoyed the first chapter quite a bit, but the continuous back and forth of time periods, of museum and convention and personal interviews was jarring and repetitious. Throughout the book the author hints that she will attempt taxidermy herself, under the tutelage of seasoned professional. When the event finally comes (toward the end of the book) I had become bored and my interest in the beauty and science of the profession was waning. While i enjoyed the facts that were presented, I would have preferred a more familiar tone, and I would have loved to see pictures of the displays she discussed. I go away with an appreciation of the craft of taxidermy, and wished that i could also appreciate the authors craft of writing.