Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

by Jamie Ford

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's novel, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel in what used to be Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. This takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

The reader gets to experience Henry's memories and emotions as an old man, as well as an innocent and frustrated adolescent (through flashbacks). The author does a great job in allowing the reader to feel the loss, hurt, and conflicted loyalties of this time in American history. It gives the reader a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war, even in the lives of the civilians at home. But even in this bitter time in our own history, we can discover something sweet.

Received 4 stars on Goodreads

When breath becomes air

When Breath becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor making a living treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. Just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.

We are all dying, but what if we knew when we were going to die. What would we do? What would be most important? and what doesn't matter anymore? When breath becomes air talks alot about death, but then turns to the purpose of life and what matters most.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both.

Received 4.5 stars on Goodreads.

A Gentleman In Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles

In 1922, three years after the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Rostov, a former aristocrat, is sentenced not to death but to house arrest; he is to live in the confines of Moscow's stylish Hotel Metropol-across the street form the Kremlin-for the rest of his life.

Rostov, a witty and loving erudite has never worked a day in his life and is ever the true gentleman. While living in the attic rooms, Rostov must experience the going's on in Moscow by reading the newspaper and via the reports from his friends on the outside. Unexpectedly, Rostov's reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. 

Full of humor and charm, with a wonderful cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel weaves an unforgettable story of what it means to be a gentleman with a purpose.

This books is a perfect read for any adult reader who wants to be entertained and uplifted. A Gentleman in Moscow can be found in the adult fiction section of the library and can also be downloaded from the e-book selection on the Overdrive website. 

Don't Forget!! Tonight!

Stories Under the Stars!

The Night Gardener

The Night Gardener

By Jonathan Auxier

Molly and Kip, recently orphaned, travel to England to work as servants in an old manor house.  This Victorian ghost story, is more than just a spooky tale, it's also a moral fable about greed and the power of story telling.

This ghost story is honestly, downright creepy in a good way.  The author says that the inspiration for his story came after reading "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury and the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

Fourteen year old Molly and her sickly younger brother Kip are newly orphaned, and fresh off the boat from Ireland.  In desperation to keep her and her brother off the streets, Molly is offered a position for them to be servants at an old manor, hidden deep in the woods.  Local villagers warn Molly to stay away from the manor, claiming that the woods are cursed.  But, with the only other option being starvation, Molly accepts, determined to make the best of the situation.

Molly and Kip arrive at Windsor Manor finding it to be a crumbling house that is nearly overrun by an enormous tree, its branches and roots cracking through every surface.  The Windsor family, a couple and their two children, have abnormally pale skin, their eyes and hair are the darkest of black.  Every night anyone sleeping in the house is haunted by nightmares, and Molly has spotted the shadow of a tall thin man who wanders the grounds at night.  But, whenever Molly or Kip mention that anything might be abnormal, the Windsors brush them off.

It is clear that something horrible is happening at this house and to its inhabitants.  Molly and Kip soon realize that if they are going to survive, they will need to solve the mystery of the night gardener, and break the curse that they have become part of.

This book is a perfect read for intermediate aged readers who are looking for something that will keep them up at night.  It also would make a great family Halloween read, if you're into that.  I would not recommend it to children under ten unless they don't seem to be phased by Goosebump books.

The Night Gardener can be found in the intermediate section of the library.  If you are more of a book listener, you can borrow the audio book on Overdrive from the Utah Online Library.

Teen Book Club Tonight!

Europe!

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese

By Michael Paterniti

In 1991, Michael Paterniti, while working in a gourmet deli, encountered a piece of cheese, this innocent encounter will eventually change his life.  Paterniti, as a journalist traveling all over the world for his job, can't stop thinking about that cheese, what made the cheese so special and expensive?  His research takes him to a picturesque village in Spain and introduces him to Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras and his telling room, a cave dug into the hillside, where villagers have gathered for centuries to tell stories, share secrets and drink wine.

The unusual piece of cheese was made from an old family recipe by Ambrosio.  It took him years of trial and error to come up with the perfect cheese. When Michael finally travels to Guzman, Spain, he falls in love with the beautiful village and the people. Ambrosio's cheese was reputed to be among the finest in the world and was said to hold mystical qualities.

This is a captivating story of happiness, friendship and betrayal. You can find The Telling Room in the non-fiction section of the library.

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