This is one of my all-time favorite books. The Count is an example of a person who knows how to live life. Despite confinement he loves his adopted family and friends, and finds pleasure in the simple aspects of human existence. History and culture are also abundantly represented in this beautiful novel

This book creates a flowing narrative of what it was like to be a Parisian woman immediately prior to, during, and just after World War II. We learn of many individuals stories, how they coped, what they lost, and how the proceeded with life after war, or didn't. The author clearly did her research, and presented a cohesive view of Paris society in all its layers, and encouraged the reader to contemplate the difficult choices faced by so many in such dire circumstances surrounding the Nazi occupation. However, I was hoping for a little more of a concentrated focus on fewer participants in the events described. Rather we are treated to a long, sometimes disjointed-feeling list of individuals and their experiences, although she was able to tie these short stories to a larger subject at hand--for example the experience of Jewish concentration camp survivors returning to their Paris homes. Altogether it was a good read, and very educational. I feel I've been to Paris in the 1940's and learned much about the various choices people were forced to make for survival of self, family, and country.

This book served to challenge my ideas about friendship, love, romance and self-regard. The central characters are drawn in such a realistic fashion the reader is drawn into a world that is new, but often familiar, an existence that is both painful and beautiful. Although there is plenty of ugliness in the story, the overall result is one of a sad but serene resolution and acceptance of things as they are. I will always remember this book.

This was a fun, quick read. It is a mystery set in London and the English countryside that is full of interesting characters, a plot that moves along steadily and not one, but two parallel evolving cases. The contrast between city and country living is explored, and tender family relationships are heartfelt. After the sleuthing is done, the feeling remains that people are basically the same regardless of the century.

This book almost reads like fiction, but is actually the very well researched and documented account of political abduction, coercion and deceit. If I hadn't read other, corroborating nonfiction about North Korea, I would be tempted to disbelieve this story. As it is, I find it fascinating and extremely chilling. An excellent read.

I gave this book three stars because I liked the descriptive talents on display here. The author describes food and the preparation of it in such lyrical terms I could almost see myself in Sirine's kitchen workplace, ministering to customers and guests with her irreplaceable talents, bringing lost bits of home to displaced Middle Easterners and others who come into the cafe. What I became tired of was the use of this story as a platform for thinly veiled political points designed to disparage the country (USA) in which the characters live. The atrocities that had forced many of them from their home country to this one, although committed by their own leaders, are blamed on shadowy American agents with no substantive historical argument regarding the rise to power of Saddam Hussein or his ruthless handling of the Iraqi people. Ultimately I was unable to relate to the love affair in the context of the Arab-American identity crisis experienced by Sirine, as it was so immersed in the local Middle Eastern culture and seemed to me largely separate from the surrounding American "melting pot" community.

This book begins as historical fiction and quickly morphs into a sic-fi adventure/thriller. The story is deftly told with humor and suspense. I plan to read Palma's "Map of Time" very soon too, as I'm sure I will enjoy it.

For me this was a bit of a surprise. I expected to read much of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. What I found was a personal journal of three generations of Tibetan refugees, including very interesting details of Tibetan culture and religion. I felt that the latter third of the book was the most richly described, possibly because this portion represented the author's personal experiences. A very interesting read.

The Year of the Flood is a futuristic, apocalyptic story with a set of fairly interesting characters. It is a companion novel to Atwood's Oryx and Crake, in that it shares the setting and some of the characters of this earlier novel. While I found Oryx and Crake to be a fascinating and rewarding read, The Year of the Flood was a little harder to get engaged with, and ultimately left me with less of a sense of awe at the author's tremendous imagination. I call it a small disappointment because I hold such high hopes for any novel by this author, but it is a worthwhile book.

This book offered an interesting historical perspective, that of the experience of German refugees facing the last days of the second World War. Also of interest is a recurring theme of journeying--away from home and life before the ravages of war, and toward an unknown future, or death. However, the flaws in the book all but outweigh the interest. The characters are hastily drawn and never developed satisfactorily. But the primary flaw in this novel is a narrative voice (and even dialogue) that clearly belong to a twenty-first century American male, which at best is distracting, and at worst is downright annoying. There are much better and more moving Holocaust novels out there.