Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: The Aosawa Murders (Eugenia in Japanese) Author: Riku Onda (Trans by Alison Wats) ISBN: 978-1-912242-24-5 Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press, Kadokawa Corp in Japan Type of book: Japan, 1970s-2000s, murder, family, blindness, narrative, mimicking, truth, motivation, puzzle, poison, Kanto region, weather,  monologues, timeline, friendship, charisma  Year it was published: 2005, 2020 Summary: The novel starts in the 1970s when 17 people die of cyanide poisoning at a party given by the owners of a prominent clinic in a town on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. The youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. The police are convinced Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the t...

Title of the book: The Slave Author: Anand Dilvar Publisher: Shelter Harbor Press Publishing Date: 2005 (translated in 2017) ISBN: 978-1-=62795-104-3 Summary: "The Slave is a compact self-help book with exceptional accessibility and a profundity that encourages repeat reads." - Foreword Reviews A profound and paradigm-challenging book that guides readers through a transformative journey to personal freedom. Trapped in a vegetative state, following a terrible accident that has paralyzed his whole body, the narrator is unable to communicate with those around him. Cut off from family and friends so begins an inner conversation with his spiritual guide, a conversation which takes him on a journey of self-realization, bringing him eventually to a new state of consciousness, and an understanding of his deepest self. Written with an engaging simplicity, this is a truly profound book which can change your life. In fact to use the authors own words, it is desi...

Name of Book: The Lady in the Castle Author: Iny Lorentz ISBN: 978-1477826720 Publisher: AmazonCrossing Year it was published: 2005 Summary: Marie lives happily in Sobernburg Castle with her beloved husband, Michel Adler, a tremendous achievement for a woman who was once the "Wandering Harlot." The happy couple longs for a family, but when Michel is called to battle against the rebellious Hussites, they have to put those dreams on hold until- if they're lucky, Michel returns home. Soon after his departure, Marie is thrilled to find she is already with child, but this bright news is quickly tarnished by anxiety for her husband's return. News of him trickles in: first that he's been knighted for his exemplary courage in battle . . . and then that he disappeared without a trace during a grisly massacre and is presumed dead. Pregnant and alone, Marie's place in the world is once again precarious. Unwilling to abandon the hope that her husband ...

Name of Book: Girls for Breakfast Author: David Yoo ISBN : 0-440-23883-8 Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Type of book: Racism, growing up, friendship, love, girls, ethnicity, life, school, elementary school, middle school, high school, 1980s?-1990s? Year it was published: 2005 Summary: Drumstick legs, cherry-colored lips, dumpling cheeks...everything about them, he wants to eat up. But he's dateless and has been since he discovered girls in the third grade, and he's convinced himself that this is solely based on the fact that he's the only Korean American teenage in Renfield- the fifth richest (and WASPiest) town in Connecticut. In Nick's mind, he sticks out like a "banana in a wheat field." Now it's time for Nick to figure it out once and for all. Is it all in his head, or are his suspicions that his heritage is keeping him from a triumphant boob fest true? Characters: For me personally Nick is both a character I hate, yet I seem to unde...

Name of Book: Joheved Author: Maggie Anton ISBN: 9780976305057 Publisher: Banot Press Part of a Series: Rashi's Daughters Trilogy Type of book: 1069-1077, wine, France, Talmud, debates, life, education of women, gender bending activities, Judaism, Jewish vs christian life, survival Year it was published: 2005 Summary: The first two novels in a dramatic trilogy set in eleventh-century France about the lives and loves of three daughters of the great Talmud scholar In 1068, the scholar Salomon ben Isaac returns home to Troyes, France, to take over the family winemaking business and embark on a path that will indelibly influence the Jewish world-writing the first Talmud commentary, and secretly teaching Talmud to his daughters. Joheved, the eldest of his three girls, finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but, knowing the risk, she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to cho...

Name of Book: Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time Author: Lisa Yee ISBN: 978-0-439-62248-6 Publisher: Scholastic Apple Part of a Series: Millicent Min trilogy; Millicent Min, Girl Genius, So Totally Emily Ebers Type of book:   young adult, boy book,friendship, first love, interracial relationship,  Asian male/white female, 2000s, California Year it was published: 2005 Summary: "We interrupt your lives to announce Stanford Wong has flunked sixth grade!!!" All right, so maybe there hasn't been an announcement like that. But that's the way it feels to Stanford. He's used to being a hero on hte basketball court, where he's the first sixth-grader ever to make the A-team, and just getting by in class. But when he flunks English-Flunks it big time-and learns he'll have to trade basketball camp for summer school, Stanford freaks out. His friends can't know or they'll dump him. His had has to know and it's awful. The beautiful Emily E...

Name of Book: Hungry Tigress Author: Jade Lee ISBN: 0-8439-5504-X Publisher: Leisure Historical Romance Part of a Series: Tigress Sextet: White Tigress Prequel; Corned Tigress, Burning Tigress Desperate Tigress and Tempted Tigress sequels. Type of book: China, 1896-1898, Tigress, Tao, Adult, interracial relationship, Asian male/white female Year it was published: 2005 Summary: The Tigress: the counterpart to the "male" dragon; the Chinese symbol for female sexuality; a priestess of the Taoist sect seeking enlightenment through ecstasy. Joanna Crane joined China's Boxe Rebellion because of the emptiness inside her. SHe was tired of being her rich daddy's showpiece and had a hunger to do good. But when the rebels-anti-foreigner bandits with a taste for white flesh-turned out worse than their ruthless Qin enemies, her onyl hope was a Shaolin master with fists of steel and eyes like ice. A Shaolin master who was not what he seemed. He had no wi...

Name of book: White Tigress Author: Jade Lee ISBN: 0-8439-5393-4 Publisher: Leisure Part of a Series: Tigress Sextet. Sequels: Hungry Tigress, Cornered Tigress, Burning Tigress, Desperate Tigress, Tempted Tigress Type of book: Adult, China, Asian male/white female relationship, 1857-1897 Year it was published: 2005 Summary: The Dragon: the Chinese symbol of maleness, virility, power. The Tiger: feminity, fortune, desire. Two symbols. Two people. One all-consuming passion. Englishwoman Lydia Smith sailed to the Orient seeking her fiance. She found treachery instead. In seedy Shanghai, she was drugged, sold, and made a slave to a dark-eyed dragon of a man. But while her captor purchased her body, was that what he truly sought? He demanded not her virginity but her yin-the essence of her ecstasy-and there seemed no choice ubt to consent. What harm, Lydia wondered, was there in allowing him to pleasure her, to teach her, until she could flee? It was the danger-...

The Landscape of Twilight Twilight is written by Stephenie Meyer, and seems to have become a mania obsessive novel for women (and men) about an ordinary boring girl named Mary Sue*...oops, I meant Bella Swan, and how she meets and falls in love with a guy named Gary Stu (there I go again, I meant Edward Cullen). Umm, does this have a plot? The length suggests yes, but reading the novel, nope. This was published in 2005 by Little, Brown located in New York. ISBN: 0-316-01584-9 This novel is marketed towards everyone and appeals to almost everyone. The people who will dislike this novel are ones who read all sorts different books and possibly ones who have very very high degrees. (This novel should also appeal to women who love purple prose about nothing but men's bodies.) My first encounter with this novel happened few years back when I transfered from a two year college to a four year university, by a friend who loved it and read it, (and a former who hated the novel). ...