Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

Title: Sarah's Key

Author: Tatiana De Rosnay

Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0312370849

ISBN-13: 978-0312370848

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 320

Rating: ★★★★★

started: Aug. 30th, 2011

finished: Sept. 5th, 2011

A very sad story of during one of our disturbing history...

I've always been drawn to the literature written about the Holocaust and this book is definitely one of those books that I would have regretted if I hadn't read it. I thought I knew pretty much of what had happened back then but I guess I am still clueless since the story of Sarah's Key is completely new to me. It was a great book because it taught me something that I was totally oblivious to and because, although the story itself may be fiction, it had a great storyline. I loved how the author went back and forth in time to tell the story of the past and the present. Though I wished that the narrative could have been more affective if she had wrote it in first person instead of third for Sarah's part of the story, but that's just my opinion. The book totally transformed me to that time and situation while I was reading it, absolutely absorbing and therefore hard to put down. It was disturbing and unsettling to find out about the ugly history however, we should "remember (and) never forget" the hideous part of our history so that we never make that kind of mistake again.

Sarah's Key is based on a 10 year old girl named Sarah, who lives in Paris during the time of WWII.   

Night by Elie Wiesel

Title: Night

Author: Elie Wiesel

Genre: Autobiography

ISBN:0-553-27253-5

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 109

Rating: ★★★★★

started: Jan. 10th, 2010

finished: Jan. 17th, 2010

This is a memoir of Elie Wiesel, when he was 14 years old, his experience of the concentration camp how he survived the days, his wavering faith and loosing faith, his connection to his father, and the morales of people told through his eyes.

 I like reading books concerning the German occupation period. It always amazes me how people back then had such strength and hope, even though they were in an unbelievably devastating situation. Personally, if I had to live through that period I don't think I would have survived. Even the choice of death, I don't think I'm brave enough to make that choice. Though it is a dark part of our history, I believe that through those stories we learn and are able to become better.

1st to Die by James Patterson

TITLE: 1st To Die
AUTHOR: James Patterson
PAPERBACK: 456pages.

started: July 1st, 2009
finished: July 6th, 2009

Ok.. this is my very first series of The Women's Murder Club..

This is a page turner, and if you're into suspence and murder mystery then this you'll like.


The twist at the end was totally unexpected.
It's intense to begin with and the intensity of the story doesn't loosen up..


We do have good cop story mixed with love and romance in the middle.. a bit girlish some might say..

Though the story does end with some tragedy, they do close the case..

I saw the TV series, well, all of the ones that they've made...
and it does have a different basic plot line and where in the TV series 3 of them are already good friends and one joins in.. in the book only Claire and Lindsay are good friends and when Cindy becomes a friend, they make it into a club and have Jill join in later...


They way James Patterson laid out the foundation of the plot line couldn't have been better..


I did enjoy how the sotry was being built up.. and I can't wait for the second one, though I will take a break because I have another book that I wanted to read before end of this month: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. And it's soon to be in the cinema's.. so it would be nice to have read it and then see it.. ;)

June 28th Meeting

CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith

This book is a page turner... there were some times where I thought something was amiss.. but still it is a great thriller, nonetheless.

It took me on and off about 2weeks to finish it... yes, if you do have the time just for reading you'll probably be able to finish it in 2 days.. or if you're a fast reader.. even less. It's about 400 pages long or more I can't remember the exact number of pages.. but that's not really important.

Our meeting took place at our hangout "Take Urban" same time.. and there weren't many of us since Sandra and Susan were out of town.. WE MISS YOU GUYS!!! Mitzi, you're greatly missed, too.

So, there was Dana, Rebecca, Bernadette, and me.. just us 4 girls.. we had a little chit-chat about the book and after our little discussion we headed to the bookstore to pick out our next book.. and we did have some trouble choosing what to read.. but we did come up with the next 2 books. Our next book, for July 19th, is Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz. And our next one after that is called The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and we don't really have a date set for that one yet.. but we'll come up with one..

Hope you all have a great week.. Happy reading everyone!

"In the Company of the Courtesan" by Sarah Dunant

Title: In the Company of the Courtesan
Author: Sarah Dunant
Publisher: Random House (Hardcover)
Page: 371

My Rating: 5

Finally finished reading this wonderful book! After reading her other book "The Birth of Venus" I knew this would be another wonderful story and yes, it turned out to be right. It was fantastic, I absolutely loved it!

It's a story taking place in 16th century (Renaissance), first in Rome then to Venice... this was an intriguing book since I haven't read any book, well at least to my knowledge, on courtesans. I think I have seen movies but that also could be a mix-up. Anyhow, loved how the story was outlined. I loved the two main characters though I have to say I loved the narrator much more. It had it's twist and turns.

A partnership that does go so well like needle and string, however they do have their ups and downs. And La Draga a very interesting character in the novel, it would have been very different without her part.

The language that is used in the book is somewhat confusing since sometimes it's a bit to modern and somewhat vulgar at times and it does make me wonder if they really did use such language back in those days.

However, all in all, it was an excellent book and I did love the story that she laid out for us to picture in our minds.

I'm actually thinking of getting her other books, I think it's the private investigator Hannah Wolfe series. We'll see about that.


Some excerpt from the book
"... the more successful they are, the greater the danger: for, once life is comfortable, there is nothing to fear, nothing to fight for. Which means in turn that there is nothing to look forward to. Which, in a strange way, can make one think more keenly of death and yearn for some way of standing out against it, some hunge for an extravagance of feeling bigger even than death itself."

"... all fever has exhilaration inside its delirium, and fire consumes more than it warms. In the end there will be only ashes..."

"It is not what you might find there that scares you. You are too clever to enjoy the contempt that is shown toward you here and your appetite is, I think, too big to be agraid of new things. No. I think it is the sadness of who you would leave behind that stops you."

"Comfort Woman" by Nora Okja Keller

"Comfort Woman" is a story about a mother(Akiko, aka Soon-Hyo) who has a past she wants to keep hidden from her daughter,Beccah(Baek-hab), their relationship, and their struggle to survive.

I liked how the author used different aspect of culture within the story. Even though I'm not that familiar with Korean folklores and the customs, while reading the book it reminded me of what my mother used to tell me when I was little. I remember my mother telling me about the story of the frog, which did everything the opposite, when I didn't obey or did what my mother told me to.

It reminded me of the time how my mother seemed so angry and in pain at the same time when she talked about her mother being so obsessed with the shaman belief because she had lost so many children through miscarriages and at childbirth. Furthermore, her first born daughter was mute and deaf, my mother almost died from a dreadful fever and my uncle, the youngest and the only son, suffered from polio and as a result was crippled. My grandmother, may her soul rest in peace, was told by a shaman that she would have no luck in raising a child, that she was destined not to have one at all, did everything she could possibly do to have children and raise them healthy. Hence, my mother had to live all kinds of shaman rituals performed in the house and was dragged from temple to temple giving offerings to the gods.

The love a mother has towards her children and how protective she can become is portrayed in this book.

The hard part of reading this book was me trying to figure out all the Korean words that were written in italics, trying to make sense of everything knowing Korean. Also, the topic being on comfort woman, it did have some disturbing imagery that you just couldn't blot out. She described the awful part very vividly and she does that in ther other book "Fox Girl" as well. "Fox Girl" is a story of a girl who becomes a prostitute in a military camp town in the 1960s.

"The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho

The title of the book was very catchy and aroused my curiosity in wanting to read the book.
And that's probably why I had recommended reading it for bookleaves in the frist place. Also, the fact that the 2 books I've read of him was pretty good, I did expect it to be interesting. My final feeling on the book is I guess somewhat disappointing.

The first book that I've read by Paulo Coelho was the well known bestseller "The Alchemist". It was a very good story, a very good teaching and philosophy to be learned from the book. But something that people, or at least I, already knew of. The story was well told but there wasn't any surprise that really sparked my attention. It pretty much ended in how I thought the story would end. However, I do like this way of storytelling. That, I admire a lot and am very jealous of it.

The second book was "11 Minutes". This was very different from the first. It was a little less philosophical than the first and it felt more like reading fiction. (The first felt more like reading a story from the Bible, but that's just me) It was fascinating how he had set up the storyline and the character.

The third, which was "The Witch of Portobello" was much like the first, very philosophical and spiritual. A woman trying to find herself. A very mysterious woman by the name of Athena trying very hard to find the higher being.. Maybe even the purpose of life and being? I did like it overall, but it really irritated me at some point and I can't really pin point the reason of why it made me feel so. Perhaps it's because it didn't really give me a direct answer in what she, the heroine of the book, or me the reader was searching for. Or perhaps it was because it made me think more and question more. I did like the narrative style. The way he used different people to tell the story of the protagonist. It held my interest...

I do like his books (though there may be some disappointing aspects) and I don't think that I've ruled him out of my reading list yet. There still are couple of books that I do want to read by him, "The Zahir" and "Veronika Decides to Die" to be exact.
Though I don't think it will be soon... I know I will read it but not just yet...