This powerful novel blew me away. I went into this without any real knowledge of Laos, let alone what life could have been like there in the 1960s. This story offers a startling picture of the time and place, but it is the intimate details and the perfectly rendered characters that keep you turning the pages. It is a painful read, but well worth it. Definitely need to go back and read some of Paul Yoon’s other books. Let me know if you have recommendations.
Opening Thoughts:
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark is a collection of stories based off the TV show Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2003 TV series.) It has 11 Short Stories all based off episodes from the TV show. with more view points that we didn't get to see in the show. One of the Short stories im are gonna look at is about Count Dooku.
Story:
Count Dooku was surprised attacked by the Republic.
Presentation:
I do like how these are in the characters point of view like Count Dooku. I also like how all the stories are based off the show. What I didn't like is how these are short stories, but it is a nitpick so I won't get crazy over it. I honestly liked this book.
If you are a star wars nerd or want to give your kid a star wars book to read. then this is the book for you!
4/5
I read this for my book club -- wasn't particularly interested in it going in, so not surprised it only earned three stars from me.
It's a one-day-long love story type of thing, all happening on the day before the female lead is set to be deported. Putting aside the fact that whirlwind, "instant" love stories don't do much for me, this book required a HUGE suspension of disbelief when it came to how much happened in this one day. Like, I don't know about you, but I get 24 hours in my days. These guys seemed to get like 85. The main characters were well-drawn and their relationship is something I maybe could have gotten behind if it had been more of a slow burn. And yeah, I get that teenagers feel epic love for someone they potentially just met, but I'm not a teenager anymore so I don't have to get behind it.
I did like the insight into the experiences of Korean and Jamaican immigrants. All the perspective hopping into minor characters' heads felt a little too artsy-fartsy for my tastes, like this book really wanted to be an indie film.
Well written and a good pick if you like this sort of thing, but it just wasn't for me.
This happened to comply with my Year of Expanded Reading goal to read books by non-white and/or non-American authors. Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author married to a Korean American, which shows how she could portray both perspectives with so much nuance and insight.
Yesterday, I took a day off. The official motto at my house was "Go ask your Dad". It was fabulous.
This little book was the perfect way to spend the day. It demanded to be devoured at once. I found that taking breaks longer than the amount of time needed to fill my coffee mug, really disrupted the author's flow. I found I had to go back and re-read a few passages if my break became too long. I found it was difficult to appreciate the structure of the book if you took too long between chapters.
It was a beautiful book about the Vietnam war and it's aftermath. Three orphans who are forced to find their way in a war torn country. A doctor who tries to protect them. It's got epic saga written all over it. However, I think Yoon would have lost something if this book had been any longer. Yoon has a gift. Anyone who can make the kind of impact he made in so few pages is nothing short of a genius.
I look forward to reading more of Yoon's work (as soon as I'm able to get back to a library). Asian culture is definitely something I don't read enough about. I don't think Asian authors and/or books get enough press in general. My goal of reading the Ultimate Historical Fiction list has made this painfully obvious.
Read 3/21/2020 - 3/21/2020
Book 20/75
Date Published: November 1, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Date Read: November 2, 2019
Blurb:
Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?
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Review
This was a fun trip through NYC with two clearly defined characters as tour guides. Natasha had the most flakiest dad known to mankind; Daniel was the second son who was thrust in the spotlight when the first born son turned out to be a bad bet. I loved these characters both as separate entities and as a couple. They were not complete opposites as the blurb makes the story seem - they just have different ways of handling the individual pressures in their lives.
I enjoyed the side chapters that delved into the history of topics brought up by Natasha and Daniel and the ones that showed a deeper history of their parents to explain why the parents were the way they were without letting them off the hook for their mistakes in their relationship with their respective children. The epilogue seemed a little too wish fillment/dreamscape, but this is a YA romance so I let it be.
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