Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet by Jamie Ford

The book tells the modern day story of Henry Lee and his relationship with his progressive son Marty. Their awkward bond magnified by the death of their wife and mother. Henry is struggling to find his way as a widower; his loneliness pulls him out of his home, out to walk in Seattle.

One day, Henry walks past the old Panama Hotel. The Seattle hotel has been boarded up since Japanese families were sent to internment camps in WW II. As Henry stops to watch, the new owner of the Panama discovers the treasures and belongings of the Japanese families; and specifically a parasol, which jolts Henry's memory back to Seattle in the 40's.

Henry is the only son Chinese parents who have instructed him to speak only "American" at home. That neither of them understands the language only serves to isolate the young boy. He is sent to an all white "scholarship" school where he is taunted for being Japanese (even though Henry dutifully wears the "I am Chinese" button his father gave him.). His life is miserable; everyday he gives his lunch to a street musician on the way to school to avoid being accosted by the school bully. The musician and he develop a sweet friendship, which lasts throughout the book.

Eventually a new student joins the school, a Japanese-American girl named Keiko Okabe. Keiko is proud to be American born. Happy to have found each other, struggling with the ways they are treated as second-class citizens, Keiko and Henry develop a friendship.

In the 1940's Henry's father is a Nationalist who remembers the history of the Japanese and the Chinese. He is unforgiving of a relationship between Henry and Keiko. On the other hand, Keiko's family welcomes and respects Henry in their lives. Eventually Keiko and her family are sent away to an internment camp, but Henry is determined and visits them. The two are eventually separated, but not before promising friendship without end.

The story follows the misery of prejudice and hate of the war. It keeps the theme of friendship alive with three very different relationships Henry forges. I liked this book. Well written and tied up nicely at the end.

The Fourth Perimeter by Tim Green

I've read a lot of suspense novels over the years. They tend to fall into three categories for me. On the one hand, you have those books you can't put down, well-written, entertaining, and intelligent. Second, you have those that are for one reason or another forgettable: ham-handed politics, poor plotting, lousy writing, etc. Then there are the ones in the middle: not particularly bad, but on the other hand nothing really to recommend them either. The Fourth Perimeter definitely fits into that category.

Kurt Ford is a former Secret Service agent. He left the agency, and founded a hi-tech security firm, and has made a few billion dollars running it. Now his son, following in his footsteps, has become a Secret Service agent too, and as the book opens the author shows you how a woman and her accomplices fake the suicide of Kurt's son, murdering him. You're unsure why.

Kurt, of course, is certain that his son didn't commit suicide, the way many parents are: he had no reason, he was cheerful, etc. He goes on a quest, first to figure out why someone would want his son dead, and then for vengeance once he begins to figure things out. It's a bit more complicated than this, but once you get started with the book it will all be fairly obvious.

I didn't hate this book. I also didn't like it much. There's a dead spot in the middle where Kurt "works" in his office all day, and yells at his fiance if she interrupts him. Neither the plot or the dialog is particularly interesting or intelligent. It's an alright book, but there have been many better.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

My humble opinion: This book was sweet, fluffy, airy, and simple. It was lighthearted and warm and reminded me of drinking a vanilla latte hold the espresso and triple the vanilla syrup.

The story: Cecelia Honeycutt loses her mother to an accident/mental illness and goes to live with her great Aunt in Savannah. No longer a lonely outcast she grows to love the many charming women who become her family.

Bad: Overuse of the word dappled- everything was dappled! Sun dappled, shade dappled, dappled dappled dappled. Her mother's mental illness was not believable- not at all, just wasn't. I would have done further research on what psychotic people actually act like. Since that part wasn't believable I didn't hurt with CeeCee the way I should have.

Good: The book was so predictable that it was comforting. The characters were cheerful and aside from some overused words the setting was described richly and realistically.

Bottom line: This will appeal to readers of Jan Karon, but those who are comparing this to Gone With the Wind and To Kill A Mockingbird have had too much Southern heat.

The Jazz Bird by Craig Holden

The Jazz Bird takes place in the 1920's in the midst of the prohibition. The story starts of with the murder of Imogene Remus, the wife of a convicted bootlegger. Her husband, George Remus, confesses as the killer but he seems like an unlikely suspect as he's always been deeply in love with his wife...

During the trial their story unfolds a twisted and complex tale of betrayal and manipulation...until the end when you find out the truth about what happened to their relationship and the day of Imogene's murder.

The characters are colorful enough to keep you reading but the ending goes no where. Entertaining but not dazzling.

A tragic love story and a fascinating insight into bootlegging. I gave it 3 stars because it was worth listening to (I did the audio tape version).

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

I had never read a Dean Koontz novel but the attractive cover of this one got a hold of me and I checked it out. Yes, the monk in the brown robe proved to be irresistible to me. The contents didn't disappoint me.

Brother Odd is one in the "Odd Thomas" novel series, featuring a young man who has suffered untold loss and who is a sage at the tender age of 21, Odd Thomas. In this installment of the series, Thomas' paranormal abilities - he can see dead people as well as a kind of "demon" that congregates in places that are about to witness death in a massive scale, not exactly a happy ability - take him to a Catholic monastery that is also home to an eccentric, world-famous physicist. This physicist, also a monk, has discovered a way to create things and even living beings out of nothing, utilizing a machine that amplifies his thoughts. But, in a plot element reminiscent of the 50's cult-classic SciFi movie, Forbidden Planet, the scientist wasn't counting on "the monsters of the id". Havoc ensues.

This is a breezy, easy read. The characters are simple and uncomplicated, but not shallow. You can read this in a rainy weekend. I do find Odd Thomas, however, a little "odd" in terms of his character and maturity, but maybe that's why he's named "Odd". The monastic life is presented in very general terms as a background for Odd's sleuthing and the scientist's deconstruction. The setup for the monastic characters is positive and respectful, but mostly impressionistic.

Oh, and there's also a "holy dog". I truly like how he paints dogs and captures their different moods and reactions.

Elvis and Frank Sinatra also appear - literally. The paranormal appears in right quantities without becoming occultic, or just for effect. In fact, I wonder if this kind of perceptions really exist and if actual people are endowed with them.

Odd Thomas is not religious, but he's somehow "spiritual". Catholicism is in the background but you don't get a real sense that Odd Thomas is Catholic.

I recommend the book. Great read, instructive, exciting, and peaceful.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

This is the story of Deo, a survivor of the Tutsi-Hutu genocide in Burundi and Rwanda and how he fared after escaping to America. Even though he was a medical student in Burundi, he started life in America as a homeless person living in New York's Central Park, who made a subsistence living delivering groceries. Through a series of almost miraculous encounters, he was able to lift himself up, graduate from Columbia University, and build a medical clinic in his native Burundi. Deo's is a life still in progress, and although his clinic is a triumph, we know he still has great things ahead of him.

Kidder's writing is very vivid and immediate, and is told from Deo's point of view, so you feel as if you are traveling and experiencing all this with Deo. In particular you feel that he's not much better off as a homeless person in America than he was on the run in Africa, except that in America no one is trying to kill him.

On the other hand, because events are presented out of sequence, the vivid writing does not build much tension--the narrative starts in 2006 with Deo's return to Burundi, so we know that he has survived all the events that are detailed later and has prospered in his new country.

Unfortunately about 2/3 through the book something happened. The author changed his writing style from third-person (from Deo's perspective) to first-person, and in my opinion, the story lost its fizzle.

That being said, I would recommend the book simply for the first 2/3 - I enjoyed it that much. Just be warned that you may leave the book feeling... fragmented.

Summerland by Michael Chabon

I found this book to be mediocre. The writing itself was beautiful at times. Chabon's knowledge of various folklore and legend was impressive, although I found his mix of them sometimes confusing. The four worlds was an interesting element, particularly given how Chabon used them to explain phenomena in our own. And of course, Chabon's love of baseball shone through brightly. Not being a baseball fan myself, I didn't find those parts particularly compelling, but the passion in them was undeniable.

The story, however, is why I hesitate rating this book higher. Many of the characters were fun and memorable - Ethan, Jennifer T., Cutbelly - but the "bad guys" were rather one-dimensional. Many of his minions, too, were much too black-and-white for my taste. The progression of the story chiefly annoyed me. The characters often seemed to advance more thanks to a series of fortunate circumstances than through any action of their own (Thor just happens to be a shadowtail, Pettipaw conveniently shows up at the right moment, the stick Ethan finds happens to be magical). It seemed heavy-handed.

All in all, I'd say that this book is probably pure magic to a baseball fan, but in terms of fantasy, it's nothing to write home about.