The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

This novel was an interesting fusion of dealing with Alzheimer's and shocking history. The main character, Marina, is an old woman who is losing touch with the present while recalling in perfect detail her past experience as a museum tour guide in the Hermitage in Leningrad during World War II.

I loved the art described in the book. It was beautiful, and made me run to the Hermitage's website to get a better mental image of the paintings and the halls.

I was also intrigued by the siege of Leningrad, not something I have ever heard or read about. As the author says, "I had never been taught in school about the Soviet Union's role in the Second World War...I had never heard about the siege of Leningrad." One of the Russian women she spoke with responded, "But we stopped Hitler...Over 2 million people died." I was disturbed a bit by the fact that we DON'T learn this in school.

It was a great book. Read it.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I absolutely loved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It is a story about Henry, a Chinese American, who was born in the Chinatown of Seattle. The story is set in the 1940s and also in the 1980s as Henry is looking back on his childhood. Henry was raised by his strict Chinese parents to embrace his Chinese ancestry. Therefore, Henry becomes confused when his parents take him out of the Chinese elementary school he was attending, enroll him in an all-American elementary school, and then forbid him from speaking their native language of Cantonese and insist that he speak English at all times even though they can only understand a small percentage of English. Because his parents can hardly understand English and he cannot communicate with them in Cantonese, he feels completely isolated from his parents. Not only is he isolated at home but he is ostracized at his new elementary school so he feels very alone, until he meets a new friend.

His new friend, Keiko Okabe, is a Japanese American girl that is also enrolled in the all-American elementary school. Keiko is also ostrasized and forges a deep relationship with Henry. The two of them become very close despite the prejudices of the time period. As the friends grow closer and closer, all of the Japanese Americans were evacuated to internment camps by order of the government, despite the fact that many of them were American citizens. Henry is, of course, completely devastated but promises that he will find her again.

This book is amazing and I highly recommend it, especially if you like a little bit of history in your novels. Enjoy!