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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This historical fiction book covers a subject I've never thought about, and I bet most Americans haven't either, that of Japanese women who married American soldiers after World War II. The book is unnecessarily complicated, and it took a while to grow on me. The problem is there are essentially three stories going on, alternating chapters: The grandmother's after the war (which is the meat of the story and in many ways quite beautiful), the grandmother currently (somewhat interesting), and the granddaughter's (mostly confusing, irrelevant and distracting). In addition to the war brides, you get a sense of the loss of the war from the Japanese perspective. It would have been nice to have learned more about the American soldiers who married Japanese women, but it's the Japanese woman's story. The ending is rather abrupt and loose ends abound.
We listened on audio, but Goodreads doesn't list that edition. As far as the audio book goes, the Japanese accents make it hard to understand at first, but then, just as one of the grandmother says in a job interview, you get used to it.
We listened on audio, but Goodreads doesn't list that edition. As far as the audio book goes, the Japanese accents make it hard to understand at first, but then, just as one of the grandmother says in a job interview, you get used to it.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was so excited to read this because I had seen it in manuscript form for a committee I’m on, but I felt it was very debut, and boring at times. I liked the story and characters overall- especially the parts set in Japan, but it felt slow and sort of mundane at times.
The Turtle House is a beautiful debut novel that I was sad to finish. The stories of Lia and Mineko are artfully woven together. Not to wax poetic, but their stories move like currents in a stream. Sometimes they move at different paces, curl and eddy when the path changes unexpectedly, but always onward together.
I'm going to go nurse my book hangover now.
I'm going to go nurse my book hangover now.
How can a book epitomize Texas and Japan, a woman’s strength and weaknesses, a great love and disaster, the sweeping saga of a people and time who were swept away by their demigod into lands never imagined and a land of a people who’s strength is their diversity, if only they’d see it. Amanda Churchill has written just such a book, and the narration of it is grand and simple, landing just right. I loved the architectural elements in the story, building the turtle house as a frame around the reader and story, so symbolic of hopes and dreams, and yet also a haunting symbol of the yearnings of time past.
This is the story of Mineko. And it is the story of Lia. Grandmother and granddaughter, never particularly close but full of familial love, find their way, together, as they examine their own lives.
“Turtles are very good luck and mean a long life.”
This is the story of Mineko. And it is the story of Lia. Grandmother and granddaughter, never particularly close but full of familial love, find their way, together, as they examine their own lives.
“Turtles are very good luck and mean a long life.”
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated