Svetlana's Reads and Views

Title of the book: American Dreamer; How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America  Author: Tim Tran (Tran Manh Khiem) Tom Fields-Meyer Publisher: Pacific University Press Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-1-945398-02-5 Summary: "American Dreamer" is an inspirational, first-hand account of the motivating power of an immigrant’s dream for a better life. From the rural Vietnam of Tim Tran’s childhood to his eventual escape to America and his rise as CFO of a multi-billion-dollar company, Tran’s memoir is a lesson in perseverance and ingenuity. After he initially left Vietnam in 1970 to attend American universities on a USAID scholarship, Tran’s sense of commitment led him home shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975. Suspected of being a CIA agent, he found life under Communism increasingly difficult and dangerous, and was forced to flee. During multiple attempts to escape, he encountered deceit, betrayal, and even murder. Finally, in 1979 Tran and his ...

Title of the book: Bound; a Daughter, A Domme, And An ENd-Of-Life Story Author: Elizabeth Anne Wood Publisher: She Writes Press  Publishing Date: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-63152-630-5 Summary:  What happens when a forty-something, feminist sociologist who studies gender and sexuality learns that her mother—a charming, passive-aggressive, and needy woman who hasn’t had a lover in decades—has started seeing men who wants to be bound, whipped, and sexually dominated? What happens when that same mother, shortly after diving into her newly discovered sexuality, develops a cancer that forces her to accept radical changes to her body, and then another that forces her, and everyone around her, to confront her mortality? In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she chronicles the last eight months of her mother’s life—a period she comes to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Woo...

Title of the book:  Signs in the rearview mirror; leaving a toxic relationship behind Author: Kelly Smith Publisher: Sunny Day Publishing Inc Publishing Date: 2018 ISBN: 9781948613019 Summary: What kind of person ends up in a toxic relationship? And why does she stay? This searingly honest novel answers both those questions head-on. Coming out of a failing marriage, Kelly turns to Gabe out of fear of being alone. Her gradual slide into danger is at once terrifying and inevitable, and the steps she takes to get out of it will both inspire and offer hope. Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) Buy the Book: Amazon ~ B&N ~ Audible Add to Goodreads Meet the Author: Boston born and raised, Kelly now makes her home in Austin,TX with her three sons and one amazing Giant Schnauzer, Bullseye. Kelly has written for Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, and hosts a podcast, Let's Get Wicked Deep. ​Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook Personal Opinion: Quite often, ...

Title of the book: Yummy me feels so good Author: Lion I am  Publisher: Funny Bird Production Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 9781647648381 Summary: Parents this book is a great way to explore and play with feelings together with your children. There are animal pictures that children can enjoy and talk about. This is a beautiful way for your children to make friends with their feelings and learn how to "play" with them. It's also a way to encourage us to keep remembering and returning to positive and nurturing feelings and memories. This creates healthy neural networks in our brains. Something as simple as remembering an animal or happy feeling can change our whole body chemistry. We can anchor happy feelings and memories in our neural networks by remembering them and "replaying" them to strengthen our "Happy Muscles". We probably all remember when we were young how feelings came and went quickly and didn't "stick" so much. A simple belly lau...

Name of Book: A goddess among men Author: Daniel Davidsohn  ISBN: 978-85-922784-9-6 Publisher: Self published Type of book: early 20th century to modern times, spun America, goals, ambitions, rubber plants, friendship, partnership, survival, upbringing, America, wealth, unsavory business deals, un-contacted tribes, Year it was published: 2020 Summary: From the primitive ruggedness of the Amazon rainforest to the privileged society of New York, three generations experience triumph and tragedy in this saga of loyalty, corruption, greed . . . but one woman has the power to change it all. In 1907, Julian Welch and Alan Reid meet by chance in the jungles of the Amazon attracted by the riches of the rubber boom. Pioneers in an era of uncertainty, they form an unlikely alliance and establish the foundation for a successful empire, Reid & Welch. However, with Julian's death, the empire is left to Alan, as is the responsibility for Julian's newborn daughter, Christel. Yet...

Title of the book: GenTech; An American Story of Technology, Change, and Who We Really Are Author: Dr. Rick Chromey Publisher: Morgan James Publishing Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-1-64279-671-1 Summary: Every twenty years a new generation rises, but who and what defines these generations? And could current generational tags mislead and miss the point? In this insightful analysis of technology history since 1900, Dr. Rick Chromey offers a fresh perspective for understanding what makes a generation tick and differ from others. Within GenTech, readers learn how every generation uniquely interacts with particular technologies that define historical temperament and personality and why current generational labels are more fluid than fixed, and more loopy than linear. Consequently, three major generational constellations emerge, each containing four, twenty-year generations that overlap, merge, and blend: The Audio Generations (1900-1950): Transportation-Telephone Generation (1900-1920), M...

Name of Book: Offerings Author: Michael ByungJu Kim ISBN: 978-1-951934-26-2 Publisher: Arcade Publishing Type of book: South Korea, finances, growing up in America, 1970s-1990s, father/son relationship, rescuing Korean government, debt, identities, culture, heritage  Year it was published: 2020 Summary: For fans of Chang-Rae Lee, Min Jin Lee, and The Big Short, a moving novel about love, sacrifice, ambition, and greed—and a financial crisis With the rapidly cascading Asian Financial Crisis threatening to go global and Korea in imminent meltdown, investment banker Dae Joon finds himself back in his native Seoul as part of an international team brought in to rescue the country from sovereign default. For Dae Joon—also known by his American name of Shane, after the cowboy movie his father so loved—the stakes are personal. Raised in the US and Harvard Business School–educated, Dae Joon is a jangnam, a firstborn son, bound by tradition to follow in the footsteps of his for...

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...

Name of Book: Between These Walls Author: Michael Newman ISBN: 9781525548840 Publisher: Friesen Press Type of book: Adolf Hitler, WWII, Israel, 1930s to 1980s, lawyer, Germany, powerlessness, victims, power, greed, inner circle, adoption, Judaism, friendship, paternal relationships, Egypt, hiding, secrets  Year it was published: 2020 Summary: In the dying days of WW II on the American occupied side of Germany’s Elbe River, US Army Medical Corps Colonel Samuel Singer comes upon the strafed wreck of a smouldering SS Staff car, with a badly injured driver, nearby a dead German Army officer carrying the ID of a Nazi war criminal, and a young blonde woman, also dead in the back seat. Forty-three years later, art curator Daniel Singer, the adopted son of Colonel Singer receives a mysterious package—a large brown envelope, sealed with security tape—from West Berlin. He can’t help but think that there’s something important within the envelope. But what? Daniel’s quest to lear...

Title of the book:  Perils and Pearls; In World War II, a Family's Story of Survival and Freedom from Japanese Jungle Prison Camps Author: Hulda Bachman-Neeb Publisher: Bristle Cone Press Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-0-578-56744-0 Summary: In World War II much of Asia fell under Japanese control after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. All non-Asians were imprisoned in concentration camps until August of 1945, the end of the war in the Pacific. This is the story of a Dutch family, resident in the Dutch East Indies, that fell victim to the Japanese occupation and was interned in jungle camps throughout the war. It tells the journey from riches to rags, from fear and suffering, to the joy of freedom and recovery. Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) BUY THE BOOK: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble Books-a-Millions ~ IndieBound ~ BookDepository Add to Goodreads Meet the Author: Hulda Bachman–Neeb was born in Indonesia of colonial Dutch parentage...

Title of the book: Bury Him; A Memoir of the Vietnam War Author: Captain Doug Chamberlain Publisher: Love the West Publications Publishing Date: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-950647-03-3 Summary: In this frank, engaging memoir, Captain Chamberlain chronicles the missions, personal courage and sacrifice of the Marines he was privileged to command; painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed. Nearly four decades later, Captain Chamberlain makes right what was wrong; brings closure to the family of a fallen and abandoned warrior; and attempts to put to rest the guilt which plagued his military career and life. Unlike most books on the Viet Nam War, this book is written at a tactical level by a Marine Company Commander who was there. Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) Meet the Author: Doug Chamberlain, the grandson of homesteaders in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, grew up with the "country values...

Name of Book: The Road to Urbino Author: Roma Tearne ISBN: 9781910709481 Publisher: Gallic Type of book: Sri Lanka, England, Italy, 1990s?-2017? Art, relationships, painting, barrister, dreams, immigration, living in Italy, Pierro della Francesca, unrequited love, Sri Lankan male/ British female, perception  Year it was published:  2012, 2020 Summary: A story of obsession, love and art set in Tuscany, Sri Lanka and London. Ras, a Sri Lankan who fled his country as a child following the violent death of his mother and his father's disappearance, has committed a crime. Dogged by his past and unable to come to terms with the killing of his mother, he struggles to make a new life for himself in the UK. Alex has loved Dee since he was 19 but failed to realise that it was a love he wouldn't find again. After Dee's marriage, he too struggles to build a meaningful life for himself. But when Ras' and Alex's lives connect, each man takes a new path culmin...

Name of Book: Blood Author: Maggie Gee ISBN: 978-1-909572-12-6 Publisher: Fentum Press Type of book: England, violence, comedy, family, bonds, mystery, modern times, attraction, support, dentistry, shady, Year it was published: 2019 Summary: Who attacked Dad? When a corrupt, brutal dentist, Albert Ludd, is found battered and bloody after failing to attend a memorial party for his youngest son, suspicion falls on the dentist's other children. Especially on Dad's middle daughter, 37-year-old buxom bruiser Monica Ludd, who was heard 'uttering threats' against her absent father. How come her car is found outside Dad's house? Why did she buy a large axe? And yet, Monica's a deputy head teacher... Blood is a Gothic black comedy seen through the eyes of six-foot Monica, who cannot help speaking her secret thoughts aloud and who has been banned by the principal of her school, from using social media. '"Parents are sensitive to abuse." ...

Name of Book : Like Water for Chocoalte (Como Agua para Chocolate) Author: Laura Esquivel (Translated by Carol Christensen, Thomas Christensen) ISBN: 0-385-47401-6 Publisher: Anchor Books Type of book: Mexico, Revolution, relationships, sisters, generations, forbidden fruit, desire, food, cooking, memories, magical realism, history, past Year it was published: 1989, 1992 Summary: Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, Like Water For Chocolate is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit - and recipes. A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has b...