by Blair Brown, Isabel Allende
By coincidence, this was one of several works I've read in the past year set (or set partially) in the California gold rush of 1849. I'd say this is by the far the most successful. The others, by the way, are The Sisters Brothers, and the novelized version of Lola Montez' life. The title character...
I learned more about Chile, Chinese culture and the California gold rush than I have having read history books in school. Allende was not only informative but it was all detailed and beautifully told. I love how richly developed her characters are but I also found this a bit of a flaw as it took an ...
Usually I run from Oprah's book picks for many reasons, but because she is a well known Latina author, I wanted to read Allende and judge for myself.Her novel did not disappoint. For me, the time period and limited freedom for women was wonderfully demonstrated through Eliza. Women at that time wer...
A book-with-a-passport offering from Hayes - thankee:O)Everyone is born with some special talent, and Eliza Sommers discovered early on that she had two: a good sense of smell and a good memory.Didn't think for one minute that this would reach 3* goodness but it did... just!
The story begins in Valparaiso, Chile and is focused around Eliza Sommers. An infant Eliza was abandoned on the doorstep of Rose and Jeremy Sommers (brother and sister), and Rose raised Eliza as the daughter. One day, Englishman Jacob Todd comes to Chile, supposedly as a missionary out to convert th...
Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune starts out slow, but that doesn't last long. In fact, after the first one hundred pages, one might wonder how Allende was able to cram so much story in the remainder of the novel.Despite its brevity, Daugther of Fortune has an epic feeling. The story takes place ...
i first read this book 2 or 3 years ago and didn't like anything about it. i don't know what i was thinking. this time around, i thought it was great. i was so interested in the story and the characters. looking forward to the followup.
The book is interesting in its mix of cultures and races; English, Chiliean, and Chinese mainly. The book is really about the coming of age of Eliza Sommers, of how she grew to embrace her womanhood and herself as a person. However there are tangential background pieces of the people she is closel...
The five stars may be a little misleading, but aren't all ratings really? But this one in particular is based a very personal reaction/memory. Also, I know it's not hip or smart to admit to loving an author like Isabel Allende - even worse it's a damn Oprah book! The horror! But I can't lie - thi...
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