Best Book of the summer. Bonnie Rawson recommended this book to me. It was available while I as waiting for other books, so even tho it didn't sound too interesting, I read it. And, I LOVED it. Maybe it's because my neighbor, Fred Calder, used to keep bees. Maybe it's because I have always found bees fascinating, but knew little about them. And, this book teaches A LOT about them and the art of beekeeping. But, it's more than that. It's a story about a young girl whose parents get divorced. She and her brother move with their mother from Vermont to California to live with her grandparents. There begins a very difficult life for Meredith over the next 12 years or so. Her mother stays in her bedroom day after day as the divorce totally sent her into a deep depression. Plus, I'm sure she has some very deep emotional trauma because her own father beat her - OFTEN as a child growing up. The mother is totally incapable ...
Four stars. I really enjoyed listening to this book - until the last couple of chapters. The ending was disappointing to me. But, before then....it's the story of a young Chinese girl sold into slavery so her mother can give her brother an education after the father dies. It's also a story of the lot of women - both poor women and wealthy women....subserviant to their husband and his wishes. It's also a story about having their feet bound. Which women THOUGHT made them more appealing to a man and a future husband. It's such a cruel cruel tradition and yet it persisted for so many years. There are two main characters in this story: Lingjing - the rich pampered lady and Little Flower, her servant. It's a story of jealousy, talent, poverty, pride and it is also a love story. Both women end up, after a series of unfortunate circumstances, in dire circumstances. Both are doomed to live a life of poverty working in a silk factory ow...
Talk about a fairy tale! That's exactly what this book is. It's the story of a father and daughter who travel the states in a school bus that has been converted into their home. The mother and two sisters were killed in an accident five years ago, and Coyote and Rodeo (daughter and father) will go anywhere but to their home in Oregon because of the terrible memories that they both have from there. Coyote (really Emma) learns that the park where she and her mother and sisters buried a memory box is being dug up and she tries to find a way to trick Rodeo into going home. Along the way, they pick up some unique characters - including a goat - and the adventure takes off. It's really quite silly, but tender. I give it 3.5 stars. Not my kind of book actually, although it has won several awards for YA lit.
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