Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Singmuldeurui sasaenghwal/ The Private Life of Plants Author: Lee Seung-U (Inrae You Vinciguerra and Louis Vinciguerra translated the novel) ISBN: 078-1-62897-116-3 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Type of book: 1990s? injury, sins, atonement, relationships, star crossed lovers, love triangle, forbidden love, doomed tree myths, photography, mistakes, Korea, songs, symbols, secrets Year it was published: 2003 (2015 translated) Summary: The Private Life of Plants is about the ways in which desire can both worsen and mitigate our flaws. We meet amputee sons whose mothers cart them from brothel to brothel; we meet brothers who love their brother’s lovers, and whose lovers in turn are stolen away by the husbands of their sisters. Sexuality in all its ugliness and wonder is put under the microscope by Lee Seung-U, who reminds us that love may come in various forms, but that it is, nonetheless, a force that unifies us all … whether we like it or not. Characters: T...

Summary: When his father dies, Finn Reardon must support his family by selling newspapers on the streets of Manhattan, where he finds himself in the middle of the Newsie Strike of 1899. When Finn Reardon's father dies, he decides to support his mother and eight siblings by peddling newspapers on the streets corners of New York City. But when the two biggest newspaper publishers, Hearst and Pulitzer, raise the wholesale price that Finn and his friends pay for the papers they sell, the boys band together and go on strike. Susan Campbell Bartoletti brings humor and wit to this classic David and Goliath struggle between the Newsies and the newspaper publishers. I actually wasn’t really looking forward to reading The Journal of Finn Reardon by Susan Campbell Bartoletti because when I previously read The Journal of Jedidiah Barstow by Ellen Levine, I didn’t like it.  But, much to my surprise, I instantly connected with Finn and found myself enjoying the world of New York in 1899. S...

Summary: "Land of the Buffalo Bones" is the diary of Mary Rodgers, known as Polly. Promising religious freedom and fertile land, Polly's father, Reverend Rodgers, moves their Baptist community from England to the Minnesota prairie. After a treacherous journey across the sea and across this country, Polly finds that it is no paradise at all. Written with incredible heart and compassion, insight and sensitivity, Marion Dane Bauer has created one of the most sophisticated and courageous characters Dear America has seen. From the cover and the summary, I expected for Land of the Buffalo Bones by Marion Dane Bauer to be just like any other travel book so to speak, but I was surprised at the grit and reality written within the pages, as well as numerous hardships that the family has faced in living in Minnesota in the year of 1873 up until 1874. Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers and her family moved from Yeovil England to Minnesota in hopes of prosperity, and there might be a ...

Name of Book : Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America Author: Steven David Justin Sills ISBN:  9781475116243 Publisher: Alcibiades Press Type of book: Homosexuality, discovery of self, secrets, too intelligent Year it was published: Originally 2003 Summary: This story contrasts the lives of two people: Gabriele and Sang Huin in their search for finding their place in society without sacrificing individual liberty. Opinion: I hate being mean; yes I do, believe it or not, but for some odd reason the story angered me. I tried to read it, but there was something detestable about Gabrielle and Sang Huin that I merely skimmed through the whole book, and even that was more than enough. From skimming the author's previous works, one can tell that he's an extremely well-read and intelligent man, but his style is not for me, unless you enjoy running to a dictionary every minute trying to translate words such as lugubrious and so forth. Somehow the story is rem...

New dreams and old traditions flourish and clash when a Jewish girl and her family emigrate from Russia to America. For my take on the book, click here COMING UP 4 out of 5 (0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)

Play ball! That’s what the sixth-grade Buckman Badgers baseball team plans on doing. Eddie Malloy and Jake Hatford hope to lead their team to the championship game the last Saturday in May. But due to a mix-up, Mrs. Hatford has to run a yard sale for the Women’s Auxiliary of the Buckman Fire Department the very same day in their very own yard! Not wanting to miss out on the game, the family elects the only nonbaseball fan in the family, Wally, to stay home and help watch over the sale tables until they return. Wally’s ticked off. On top of that, Caroline Malloy has written and will perform a play for a school project and has roped Wally into costarring with her. Let Caroline think she’s so smart. Wally has his own reason for being in the play. It looks like the Hatfords could be totally humiliated after the girls stumble upon an embarrassing item from the boys’ past. Leave it to Wally’s secret plan to turn the tables on the girls’ scheme and prove who’s really in control! Boys rule...

Name of Book: Push not the river Author: James Conroyd Martin ISBN: 978-0-312-31153-7 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Part of a Series: Push not the river Type of book: Poland, Russia, Partition, 1779, 1791-1794, loyalty, secrets, betrayal, war, conflict, love triangle, feminist, destiny, fate Year it was published: 2003 Summary: A panoramic and epic novel in the grand romantic style, Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700s--a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are being torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, when Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known. With Empress Catherine's Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, ...

Name of Book: Picture Me Sexy Author: Rhonda Nelson ISBN: 9780373791194 Publisher: Harlequin Blaze Type of book: Photography, soul-mates, shyness, romance, adult Year it was published: 2003 Summary: You can't take the bed out of the boudoir... Delaney Walker has a secret. The celebrated designer of erotic lingerie is actually too "nice" to wear it. But when her fiance says "I do" to someone else, Delaney decides to change her image. And she's going to start by going through with the boudoir photos she'd arranged for her groom-to-be. Only, little does she guess that once photographer Sam Martelli sets eyes on her, he'll insist on putting himself in the picture.... Sam has photographed hundreds of beautiful women, but none have affected him like Delaney. Even before she strips down to just a whisper of silk, casting off her inhibitions as well as her clothes, he has to have her. And thanks to a power failure, he does...again and aga...