Astonishing

Room by Emma Donoghue

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love everything about this book... the characters, the writing, the story, the voice. What makes all of the characters so believable is their imperfections. And other than the bad guy, who is really really bad, they all learn and grow as the story progresses. Emma Donoghue has gotten inside of five-year-old Jack's head... his voice is just perfect. And Ma, she's an amazing mother.

I would give this book more than five stars if I could.



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Ten Green Bottles

Ten Green Bottles by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is a really compelling story that needs to be told, but the telling of it was anything but compelling. Kaplan tells her mother's story in the first person, and does an admirable job of relating the extraordinary events of her life, one incident after another in a completely linear manner. Nini, (Kaplan's mother), manages to get out of Vienna with most of her family before the Nazis completely stop Jews from leaving. They go to Shanghai, the only country that will take them. But life in Shanghai is horrible and lawless, and the Japanese occupation forces are even more brutal than the Nazis. Amazingly, the family survives to make a better life in Canada. A better writer, or one who wasn't so emotionally tied to the protagonist, could have told this incredible story in a much more creative and interesting way and I suspect would have reached a larger audience.



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