Sweet Life -- Mia King

In Sweet Life, Marissa thinks she has it all. She has a great job, a smart daughter who is involved in all sorts of activities, a supportive best friend, and a good (if not perfect) marriage. Marissa's husband is suddenly transfered from New York City to Hawaii to manage a luxury hotel. This means giving up her job, and uprooting the entire family from bustling NY to the laid back "big island" of Hawaii.

You can imagine the generic chick lit events that happen: she doesn't adjust well to being an at home mom; their house is a bit more of a fixer-upper than they anticipated; her husband needs a break from the marriage. What will she do? How will she come through?

This book is a chick-lit romance. It was pretty predictable. That does not mean that I didn't enjoy reading it. It is well written and beautifully descriptive of Hawaii. It has a nice message of women working together. At first I was a bit put off by Marissa's reactions to the coffee barista and the sling wearing, long term breast feeding mom (hey, I was one of those!). But that was just to show how uptight she was, and how far she could come.

This book surprised me with a pro-Homeschooling message. As Marissa's daughter starts to take horseback riding lessons (which she likes much more than the upscale dance lessons she took in NY), she becomes friends with a girl who is homeschooled. The daughter soon wants to be taught at home as well. After gathering information and visiting the other homeschool family, Marissa ends up homeschooling her daughter. As a homeschooler myself, I was impressed.

So, Sweet Life won't change your life, but it will make you want to see the lava flows on the island of Hawaii. Find it at your library, or throw it in your cart when buying Christmas gifts on Amazon this month. It would be a great read for your Christmas break.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel --By Lisa See

As I was walking through the library, I saw Shanghai Girls on an end-cap. It had been on my "Amazon Recommends" list for a while so I decided to pick it up. I was excited to read this book, as I have not had the opportunity to read much about Chinese culture.

Shanghai Girls is the story of Pearl and May, and begins in pre-World War 2 Shanghai. May and Pearl are "beautiful girls": attractive women who appear in painted ads and calender pictures. These women are to be strong and healthy-- walking advertisements for happiness and prosperity in China. They are modern girls, shunning old fashioned Chinese traditions, attending college, and earning their own money. They have every intention of finding true love and marrying the man of their dreams.

Pearl and May's world is shattered when their father announces that he has lost all of his money, and that the girls have been sold into arranged marriages. Pearl and May are to move to America to be with their husbands. As they are preparing to escape, Japan bombs Shanghai. They are forced to flee the city and travel to Hong Kong. The road to Hong Kong is filled with war time atrocities, but somehow they make it and book passage on a ship bound for America.

The America that they find is not a land of opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Pearl and May have a long wait on Angel Island, where Chinese people are treated as lower class citizens. Customs agents are trained to seek out irregularities in immigrants' stories and send them back home. When they finally find their husbands in LosAngeles, Pearl and May find a world where Chinese are looked down upon and not allowed to own property.

Through WW2, and the anti-communist era the follows, the women try to find a balance the old and new worlds. Pearl finds strength in her mother's traditional Chinese customs as she raises her family. May embraces Hollywood, and tries to find ways to continue being a "beautiful girl."

I am not sure how I feel about the book. I didn't like how it ended, because it didn't. I purposefully saved what I thought to be the end of the book for a time when I could give it my full attention, only to find that there was no more story, only acknowledgments and blank pages. Is this for artistic purposes? Is a sequel planned? The prose itself was uneven. Parts of the book are lyrical and wonderful to read, while in other segments I found myself skimming over entire paragraphs. It was informative: the prejudices faced by early 20th century Chinese immigrants; the plights of the "paper sons" and their wives, here illegally, striving for a better life; the fear of being sent back to dangerous early communist China just because you bought the wrong newspaper or got into a feud with a neighbor who then reported you to the authorities.

In the end, I think I recommend reading Shanghai Girls. But not now, in the (hopefully) festive holiday season. Save it for a dreary January day when you are all snowed in.

Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris

Harper Connelly is another character from the mind of Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books. Harper was struck by lightning as a teen, leaving her with a unique gift: the ability to relive the last living moments of the dead. This gift can comfort loved ones of the deceased, mystify skeptics, and solve mysteries surrounding deaths. She and her step-brother/boyfriend, Tolliver, travel the country "reading" the dead for people who pay for their services. Grave Secret is the 4th book in the series, and I have read each. Harper, like most of Ms Harris' heroines, is a character that you look forward to reading more about.

The latest in the Harper Connelly series starts shortly after the third book, An Ice Cold Grave ends. Tolliver and Harper are traveling through Texarkana on their way to Dallas to visit family. They stop for a job commissioned by rich ranch owner Lizzie Joyce, who is intrigued by Harper's ability. The Joyce family, however, did not expect Harper to uncover secrets about their patriarch and his caregiver. It seems that the grandfather's death wasn't entirely natural, and the caregiver did not die of appendicitis as the family believed. These discoveries lead to a search for a missing baby who may be an heir to the family fortune.

At the same time, Tolliver's father is released from prison, which brings back memories of the past, including parental drug abuse and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Harper's sister. Tolliver's dad wants to reestablish contact with his family, including the Harper and Tolliver's young half sisters, and it is suspected that he may have ulterior motives.

The book is suspenseful and fast paced, characteristic of all Charlaine Harris novels. I recommend this book, and indeed the entire Harper Connelly series. I do wonder, however, if there will be more Harper books, as in Grave Secret, many issues were resolved, and ends were tied. If this is the end (unlike in the Shakespeare series) I will be satisfied. But I would enjoy reading more about Harper and Tolliver.