Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang - the author had access to recently released documents which put Cixi in a new light. Previously, most of what was known about her was told by her detractors.
3 stars
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The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick - Bartholomew finds himself alone after the death of his mother. He doesn't quite fit into the world and begins writing a series of letters to Richard Gere as a way to cope. One of the characters in the book uses the f word in every sentence, almost like a tic. It irritates me that authors seem to do this for the shock value, it could just as easily have been strawberry. If you can't make your eyes whoosh over that word, you won't be able to enjoy the story.
3 stars
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A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash - two boys see something they shouldn't and several people pay the consequences. Although this story - evil backwoods Southern preacher - has been told ad infinitum, I really like this author's writing. There is some wandering into the past that made the story meander.
3 stars
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A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith - 13 years after WWI, the US government decides to send gold star mothers - those who have lost children in the war - to the cemeteries in France where those children are buried. Mrs. Blake joins a group of four other women on the journey. How the women mesh together and the people they meet on their journey is only part of the story.
3 stars
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The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida - written by an autistic 13 yo boy in 2007 and translated to English in 2013. It's written mostly in question-answer form, with the author telling why he does the things many autistic children do. Interesting, but he seems to think all autistic people think the same way he does.
3 stars
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After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story by Michael Hainey - the author was 6 when his father died and many of his questions were unanswered. As an adult, he begins to dig for the truth. Written in a sparse style that I liked.
3 stars
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Never Go Back by Lee Child - a typical Jack Reacher novel, with Jack fighting for the underdog and breaking bones in the process. This time it's himself he's trying to save from trumped up charges. I thought the end was weird.
3 stars
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