Sunday Salon: Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang

Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang, January 10, 2016, courtesy of William Morrow. In early 20th century Shanghai—the novel follows a young Eurasian orphan’s search for her long-lost mother.

Where and What: I finished this last night and was pretty satisfied with the ending after a long journey with the young orphan Jialing trying to find her place during upheavals in China - the end of the Qing dynasty, the presidency of Sun Yat-Sen in a new republic, the warlord era, and the rise of the Nationalists.  

Themes include the harsh treatment of Eurasian children during those times and the plight of orphans. Jialing is rescued by Miss Morris, the headmistress of a missionary school, who pays Jialing's patrons to educate her at the school.

Themes of Chinese beliefs include the fox spirit who acts as a guardian and protector of Jialing during her young years.

Recommendation: Combine an intriguing story with history and romance, a story with twists and turns that is never predictable or boring, excellent writing, and you have a winner in this atmospheric historical novel. I gave it five stars on goodreads.

A new book that I plan to read soon:

Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen, February 28, 2017, Berkley.

About: one woman's journey of self-discovery set against the backdrop of a musical and social revolution.

When:  the middle of the twentieth century, the music of the Mississippi Delta arrived in Chicago.

What: Chess Records helped shape that music into the Chicago Blues

Who: Leeba Groski comes into her own as a songwriter and befriends performers like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. But she also finds love with a black blues guitarist named Red Dupree.

Conflict: segregated society, family conflicts, Civil Rights Movement

Two used books I bought yesterday:

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, September 1, 2004Themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations.

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown, August 19, 2014.
Theme: Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina, captured by a known violent man. Her husband Jeff reports her missing, as fog and ice encapsulate the mountainous wilderness.

Eager to read both books!

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date Also visit Mailbox Monday

Sunday Salon: Winter is Finally Here

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date.

The rain has stopped and the snow has started; flurries have left a thin layer of snow, but it seems real winter has arrived.

A novel with magic and fantasy by Laurent Gaude, Hell's Gate, in translation, arrived for review from public relations for Gallic Books. A Neapolitan taxi driver tries to bring his son back from the dead by searching for the entrance to the underground. This theme reminds me of the Italian poet Dante as well as Asian beliefs.

Great Books of China: From Ancient Times to the Present by Frances Wood, published December 13, 2017,  gives an account of the books, poetry, and important literature of China that describe the history and culture.

The title of this cozy, Twelve Angry Librarians, caught my eye. I can't imagine twelve angry librarians, at least not in the same space. The book is the eighth in the Cat in the Stacks series.

What's on your reading desk this week?  

Book Beginning: The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop, July 7, 2015 by Harper Paperbacks.
"...a saga of survival set during the 1974 coup d'etat in Cyprus that tells the intersecting stories of three families whose lives are decimated when ethnic tensions erupt into conflict." 

Book beginning:
Famagusta 15 August, 1972

Famagusta was golden. The beach the bodies of sunbathers and the lives of those who lived there were gilded by warmth and good fortune.

Fine, pale sand and a turquoise sea had together created the most perfect bay in the Mediterranean and pleasure-seekers came from all around the world to soak up its warmth and to enjoy the sensual pleasure of the calm waters that gently lapped around them. Here was a glimpse of paradise.

Page 56:
The (water polo) teams were mostly made up of Greek Cypriots, but some of the strongest players were Turkish Cypriot, and he often tried to persuade his youngest brother, Ali, to come down to the beach for a game.  

Victoria Hislop read English at Oxford, and worked in publishing, PR and as a journalist before becoming a novelist. She is married with two children.

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

First Chapter: The Oxford Inheritance by Ann A. McDonald

The Oxford Inheritance: a Novel by Ann A. McDonald, November 15, 2016.
Genre: suspense, mystery

First chapter:
Oxford in the summertime was a city under siege. They came from across the oceans, from Norway and Brazil, India and Japan: civilizations old and new alike, descending on the dreaming spires and neat, lush quads as a single invading army, sounding their battle cry in the chatters of foreign tongues, faces painted with warlike stripes of sunscreen zinc. Uniting to traipse the well-worn trail from the peaceful floral walkways of the Botanic Garden to the vast, soaring dining hall at Christ Church College, divisions of race and nationality blurred beneath the Union Jack baseball caps and souvenir sweatshirts....

Book description: "At prestigious Oxford University, an American student searches for the truth about her mother’s death in this eerie, suspenseful thriller that blends money, murder, and black magic."

MEME: Every Tuesday Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph or two, from a book you are reading or will be reading soon.
 

Sunday Salon: Rain in January

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date

It's been raining the past few days. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of snow.

 
 I'm reading Krazy: The Black and White World of George Herriman by Michael Tisserand, December 6, 2016, Harper in slow stages, reading carefully. 

An interesting biography of the creator of the Krazy Kat comic strip. I recommend it. 

I'm also half-way through Beasts and Children: Stories by Amy Parker, February 2, 2016, Mariner Books.
 
Excellent short stories of children with absent, neglectful, dysfunctional, or preoccupied parents, and the animals the children love or come in contact with.

Two new books arrived, one for a tour coming up.

Abby's Journey by Steena Holmes, February 14, 2017. A young woman's travels in search for answers.

Saving Abby by Steena Holmes is the book that precludes Abby's Journey. They can be read separately.

What are you reading this week?
 

Book Beginning: Beasts and Children by Amy Parker

Beasts and Children: Stories by Amy Parker, February 2, 2016, Mariner Books
Source: library

First story beginning: "The White Elephant"

Carline and I sat at the breakfast table dressed as the dancing ostriches from Fantasia. It was Halloween morning, 1967 - the last year of my family's unbroken life - and my older sister and I were having a fight with our mother. She had made these outfits for our schools' costume parade.

There are ten stories in the book.

Page 56 from the story, " Rainy Season."

Maizie gets away with familiarity because she's young and cute.

About the author: Amy Parker is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Michener Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin. She spent her childhood overseas among the diplomatic corps and is ordained in the Soto Zen monastic lineage. She lives in Wichita, Kansas.

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Choosing a Cozy by its First Lines

I have several cozy mysteries and I must choose which to read first. How to do this? By the cover, the title, the author, the series? I often choose by reading the first line. The one that grabs me quickest gets the first read. Here are a few first lines of some cozies. Which would you choose? 

Blown Away: A Kite Shop Mystery #1 by Clover Tate
The first rule about flying kites is that when the wind lifts them skyward, you give them line, not reel them in.

War and Peach: A Georgia Peach Mystery #3
by Susan Furlong

"I do say this election business has folks as divided as the states during Mr. Lincoln's war," one of the Crawford sisters was saying.
 

Mission Impawsible: Paws and Claws Mystery #4
by Krista Davis

By six o'clock on Thursday afternoon, one Gustav Vogel had failed to check into his room at the Sugar Maple Inn.
 

No Cats Alowed: A Cat in the Stacks Mystery #7
by Miranda James

"He's out there again, Charlie." Melba Gilley made the announcement as she strode hurriedly into my office at the Athena College Library. "Do you think we should call the campus police?"



A Wee Homicide in the Hotel: ScotShop Mystery #3
by Fran Stewart

Nobody expected to die attending Hamelin's third annual four-day Highland Festival.
 

Bookman Dead Style: A Dangerous Type Mystery
 by Paige Shelton

"It's my good luck you're here. I saw your shop last year but didn't have time to stop in. You have the best selection of this kind of stuff I've ever seen...." 

 

Which opening lines appeal to you?