Book Review: A Map of Paradise by Linda Ching Sledge

A Map of Paradise: A Novel of Nineteenth Century Hawaii by Linda Ching Sledge, author of Empire of Heaven.

Publisher's description: With its green cliffs and silvery waterfalls, Hawaii offers radiant hope to Rulan and Pao An - exiles from China, immigrants with the will to succeed despite hardship and prejudice and enemies from their homeland. But his proud couple's hardest struggle will be with their own child - Mulan, called Molly.

Born in Hawaii's sacred hills, Molly grows to despise the old Chinese ways. Locked in perpetual combat with her parents,she is drawn into a dangerous love affair with a glamorous but decadent poet, a protege of the (Hawaiian) king. And even as he family's fortunes rise, Molly's mother watches in sorrow, fearing that her child will realize too late that happiness lies far closer to home.

Beautifully told, A Map of Paradise offers the colorful sweep of history with the satisfaction of characters intimately revealed.

My comments: The Chinese immigrant Pao An worked in California before joining his wife Rulan and their daughter in Hawaii, called the Blessed Isles. There they built a life for themselves and formed a community with other immigrants. The core of the novel are the love stories of young Pao An and his wife Rulan, of their daughter Molly and the half-Hawaiian poet she lived with and loved, and of the quiet boy Lin Kong, whom Molly had grown up with and many times spurned as an adult.

This historical novel describes the arrival of the Chinese as laborers for the sugar plantations in Hawaii in the mid 1800s, and of their gradual integration into the island economy as farmers, traders, and businessmen. The novel tells of the exhaustive work in forming a Chinatown community out of the two warring groups of Chinese - the Punti and Hakka clans.

The book also details the history of the Hawaiian kingdom and the dying off of important members of its royal family in the latter part of the 19th century, giving way to increasing American and British influence and control of the islands.

Rating: I gave this novel five stars for its descriptive storytelling and its detailed historical content on the Hawaiian kingdom and the settling of immigrants there in the late 1800s.

A Map of Paradise was printed in 1997 by Bantam Books. I read this book as part of a reading challenge, which requires 10 books on China or by Chinese authors, now through Sept. 1, 2010: The China Challenge. I also submitted it for the Chill Baby, Chill! review challenge and the 100 + Reading Challenge.

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The Sunday Salon: A New Year and a New Name

Happy New Year everyone! A new blog name for the new year - from Book Bird Dog to Book Dilettante. Hope you'll stay with me!

What is The Sunday Salon? Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. You can join in, too!


1. This past week I got very little reading done over the New Year holidays! I posted a review of The Tricking of Freya, a novel of Iceland by Christina Sunley, on Dec. 27 and then a Teaser Tuesday on Dec. 28 with my New Year's resolution to follow the healthy eating advice in the book, Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat.

2. Am almost through reading A Map of Paradise, a book of Hawaii in the late 19th century. It was the only book I managed to sneak in during the week.

3. I sent a list of questions for an interview with author Christina Sunley re her book, The Tricking of Freya, and I hope to post her answers this week. I also finished reading The Last Surgeon, a thriller by Michael Palmer, and still have to write a review.

4. Returned from Canada yesterday after five days of visiting and eating and found in my mailbox, appropriately enough, Denise's Daily Dozen: The Easy, Every Day Program to Lose Up to 12 Pounds in 2 weeks, a book from the Hachette group. This should go a long way to help with my new resolution for 2010 - losing all the pounds I gained the last three months in 2009!

6. Also joined four reading challenges -
Support Your Library Book Challenge,
2010 Flashback Reading Challenge
Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
and Chill Baby Chill! Reviews (this one runs to March 19, 2010)!

Good luck with your reading in 2010!

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Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences from your current read, and add the author and title for readers. Anyone can join in.

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen
by Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle, 2006

"I think vegetables can be scandalously scrumptious....The creamy yellow flesh of eggplant becomes meltingly tender and almost sweet when it's grilled, broiled, or pan-fried and then garnished with a tiny bit of freshly grated gingerroot and soy sauce."  (ch. 5)

"Nori seaweed was something we ate in Japanese dishes, never in a sandwich.... I went home and said to my mother, "Nobody puts seaweed in a sandwich!"

She said, "Well, seaweed is good for you, but I will try not to do it again." (ch. 1)

Comment: Found this 2006 book in my library. A look at Japanese home cooking and recipes for keeping trim. I can certainly use more veggies and miso soup with bonito fish flakes, seaweed, edamame, soba noodles, and tofu. I'm considering this for my new year's resolution :)

About the authors: "Naomi Moriyama was born and raised in Tokyo and spent childhood summers on her grandparents' hillside farem in the Japanese countryside, eating tangerines from the trees and fresh vegetables from the family garden....Naomi lives in Manhattan with her husband and co-author William Doyle and travels to her mother's Tokyo kitchen several times a year."

From the Delta Trade Paperback Edition, published by Bantam Dell.     

Book Review: The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

The Tricking of Freya: A Novel by Christina Sunley
Published 2009 by St. Martin's Press
Genre: fiction

Synopsis: Young Freya has been tricked more times than she likes, both in big and small ways. The biggest trick begins with an unexpected trip, when she is enticed by her aunt Birdie to travel with her for three weeks to the land of their ancestors, Iceland, supposedly to find the lost letters of their grandfather, the famous poet Olafur, Skald Nyja Islands.

The tricking of Freya involves a Wild Sheep Chase (a la Haruki Murakami) to Iceland - the land of elves, Norse gods, lava rocks, black sand, glaciers, and thick-furred Icelandic sheep. Freya normally lives in Connecticut with her mother Anna and only travels every summer to the small New Iceland community in Manitoba, Canada where her aunt and grandmother live. Freya is intrigued by her temperamental aunt Birdie, an aspiring poet who has manic highs and lows. In her good moods, Birdie teaches Freya the complex grammar of the Icelandic language and its folklore.

Following that first trip to Iceland with Birdie, a disastrous summer trip that seemed like a wild goose chase, Freya visits Iceland again many years later after Birdie's death, this time alone and to find answers about the past, the identity of a mysterious relative, and about the biggest trick of all that has been ongoing over the years.

Comments: The rich array of fictional characters created in the Icelandic community in Canada and in the homeland - from  traditional to progressive to manic personalities - makes this an engrossing story, expertly told. I came away with a better understanding of Icelandic culture, the land and language, and the history of Icelandic immigration to Canada beginning in the 1870s. In the book, Iceland is described as having the highest literacy rate of any European country and as a place that values its history and poetry, and the mythology of its Norse gods.

A saying I particularly liked was: Blindur er boklaus madur - blind is the bookless man.
The setting is an important part of the appeal of the novel. I was first attracted by the title and the cover, and borrowed the book twice from the library, finishing it in just a few days the second time.

To see the interview I did later with the author, click here for Interview with Christina Sunley.

Happy Holidays!

Courtesy of Dover Publications

Hope your spirits will be bright this holiday season! Happy Holidays, everyone! And may butterflies always frequent your garden!

In My Mailbox

I have my holiday reading cut out for me. Another book in the mail to add to the list.

Love in Mid Air: A Novel by Kim Wright, a romance
The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer, a thriller
truly, madly by Heather Webber, a romance
mennonite in a little black dress by Rhoda Janzen, fiction
The Cuban Chronicles by Wanda St. Hilaire, travel memoir

In addition, there are about four half-finished books that I also plan to finish, hell or high water, as the saying goes. I actually am enjoying them, not at all gritting my teeth while I read. They're interesting books; I'm just a Book Dilettante.

Book Review: Purged by Darkness by Michael Estepa

Purged by Darkness is a fictional account of gang life and the toll it takes on members, their families, and friends. Michael Estepa of Australia wrote the book based on his own experiences and based on extensive research on one type of gang organization, the Triads in Australia.

Product description:

In the gang lifestyle, honour and loyalty is what is expected of you. Fear, death and betrayal is what often follows. In this world, no one wins and all those involved, often find themselves in too deep to ever get out. The story revolves around six friends, as it follows their journey inside the organised crime syndicate, known as the Triads. With their love for each other and their loyalties not far behind, it is this same quality that will push their friendship beyond all limits. For this group of friends, it is all they have. Love is what keeps them together, but will it be enough to survive in a world where bullets speak louder than words and death awaits them at every turn?

Those who are interested in organized crime will find in this new novel a revealing look at life on the inside, with its perils and far reaching consequences.

Thanks to author Michael Estepa for a review copy of this book, published 2009.