What readers think of Love and Other Consolation Prizes, plus links to write your own review.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes, by Jamie Ford is a wonderful, tender historical historical novel. It is a bookend style that begins with the 1902 Seattle World's Fair and ends with the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The cast of characters is actually very small, but we get to know them very well. Their decisions are often based on other's happiness. They look for happiness without really knowing what it is.
This novel focuses a most unusual family bound by love and like purpose. We love them because they need our love. This book succeeds because we do. If I have a quibble with MS Ford it is with the pace of her narrative. A quickening might have enlivened several sections of this novel. Overall though, it is delightful and appropriate for younger and older readers and book clubs

This book is a real keeper for me- it will remain in my memory- not just as a book that I have read, but as a story that will "stay with me". It will be a title that I will keep on my list of books to highly recommend to friend and family.
Love and Other Consolation Prizes is a well written, moving book with three main characters that I really cared about. I am amazed that Ernest was based on real person. His story is incredible.
I really enjoyed the bits and pieces of historical events throughout the book~ they grounded the story for me.
Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the end of the book. I found those pages to be very informative and interesting.
I enjoyed the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. This book is another winner. Now I am really looking forward to reading Songs of Willow Frost. And I will certainly be on the lookout for other future titles by Jamie Ford!

Set between the two World's Fairs in Seattle, Ford tells a story of a young boy's arrival from China to Seattle's Red Light District. He creates a beautiful story of love between friends while giving a factual historical backdrop. In present day, Ernest's wife is suffering from dementia. His daughter is a journalist writing a story connecting the two world's fairs. It turns out to be Ernest's story. Does he want his wife to remember. Will it be painful or therapeutic for her? As we ask ourselves this question, Ford unravels the story for us. Chapters alternate between 1909 and 1962. Each chapter reveals something important to us, leaving us anxiously awaiting the next emotional detail. Readers are certainly going to be happy that Jamie Ford has given us another beautifully written novel.

Based on a true story, this book's background is the Seattle 1909 World's Fair and an orphan boy who is raffled off as the prize. The tale has moments of celebration, heartbreak, grief and friendship where you truly see that everything in life has a price. I loved Hotel on Corner of Bitter and Sweet and this is NO disappointment! Enjoy!

I'd prefer to give the book a 3.5 rather than the 4 I chose. I enjoyed the history in the novel as well as the experiences of races and classes in Seattle. I did find some of the characters in the Tenderloin hard to believe and not many that I cared about. It has taken me longer than usual to finish the book but the information regarding the World's Fair and the treatment of people of color was fascinating.

"The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" was one of my favorite novels. Naturally I had high expectations for this novel. Unfortunately, "Love and other Consolation Prizes" did not move me in the same way. While I did appreciate the novel's back and forth structure, the eloquent writing style, the satisfying character development and the rich historical detail, it won't make my list of favorite reads.

I really enjoyed this novel based in 1909 Seattle. You could really envision all of the events as if on a movie screen in front of you. I would recommend you read the book BEFORE it gets made into a movie! Excellent.

History and place seem to always be a part of Jamie Ford's stories. In this one, Ford takes us back once again to his familiar setting of Seattle, WA and a young boy. He has taken a rather horrifying event - the raffling off of a young child - and turned it into an uplifting story of the strength of the human spirit and our capacity to love. He uses the technique of skipping back and forth in time from 1909 to 1962, framing the story of Ernest Young, a young half-Chinese immigrant child, between two huge fairs - the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific and the Seattle World's Fair.

I so enjoyed this book and loved the character of Ernest.