I really wanted to like Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I went into it thinking this would be a new favorite book, that I’d rave about it to my friends, and that I’d be Jamie Ford’s newest fan and stalker. I even moved it up in the TBR pile based on this guest post! Unfortunately, the book wasn’t really to my taste.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is about Henry Lee, a Chinese American. It is 1986, his wife has passed away six months ago, and one day while he’s out walking, he passes a local landmark, the Panama Hotel, where he sees a crowd and finds out that the new owner of the hotel has found over 30 suitcases and personal belongings left by Japanese families in the basement when they were interned in the 1940s. A parasol with koi fish painted on it reminds him of a Japanese American girl he knew in 1942, a girl that he loved very much.

The narration alternates between Henry in 1986 and Henry in 1942.

Henry in 1942 is 12 years old and going to an exlusive school. The kids tease and torment him, but he’s learned to deal with it. It’s at this point that he meets a Japanese American girl, Keiko, about his age at school, who he becomes good friends with. Not long into their friendship, anti-Japanese sentiment comes to the point of rounding all the Japanese up and sending them to internment camps.

Henry in 1986 is getting over his wife’s death and trying to deal with a son with whom he’s never been close. When the Panama Hotel finds the personal belongings that had been left by some Japanese families, Henry starts wondering what happened to Keiko and goes to the hotel to see if her family left some of their belongings there. When he finds what he’s looking for, he’s torn between looking for her and leaving well enough alone.

I liked the idea of the story, though I found the execution to be clunky. Take, for example, the author’s writing. I felt that the author overused italics, as if he didn’t have enough confidence in his own writing to get the point across. Yes, I know that I use italics AND ALL CAPS, but I think there’s a difference between formal (i.e., novels) and informal (i.e., blog posts) writing, and when I write stories, I don’t use italics or all caps. I’m not saying italics or all caps can’t be used, just that if they are, they should be used sparingly and appropriately. Here’s a few examples:

Since when did special become such a burden? A curse even. There was nothing special about scholarshipping at Ranier. Nothing at all. Then again, he was here looking for someone. May she was special.

This is all from one page:

They found a lot of old things in the basement. Things from the war years.

…

“I’m looking for something,” Henry said.

…

Henry took a bite out of an egg custard tart, set it down, and pushed his plate away. “If I find something worth sharing, I’ll let you know.” Who knows, I might even surprise you. Wait and see. Wait, and see.

Marty seemed unconvinced.

“Something bothering you? You’re the one who looks like he has something on his mind – aside from studying and grade.”

…

“He’ll deal with it in his own way, and in his own time,” Ethel had said, shortly after she learned she had cancer. “He’s your son, but he’s not a product of your childhood, it doesn’t have to be the same.”

I just found it distracting. Or better yet, I just found it distracting.

The other thing that didn’t ring true for me is that the author had Henry and Keiko falling in love within one year. They’re only 12 years old, though somewhere in that year they both had a birthday, so at best they’re 13 years old. I just don’t think that being 12 years old and knowing someone for one year, even in the circumstances of World War II, means they can fall in love. But could they be good friends who remember each other for the rest of their lives? Absolutely.

Henry even starts courting Keiko, noting that at his age, his father was bound for America all alone. But just because his father was a “man” at 13, doesn’t mean that Henry was a man who was ready to court a girl. I know that even today kids have sex at that young age, but it still doesn’t make them ready. I understand that Henry’s father was married at a young age, but you can’t compare different generations because times are different and children grow up in different circumstances. With what the author presented to me, I didn’t think Henry was of courting age. Even though I can believe that was something that happened at that time, it wasn’t something that I found to be “romantic”.

So while I’ve outlined why I didn’t like the book, I’m in the minority. This book has been hugely successful as it was already into its SIXTH printing on March 18, 2009, which the author reported via Twitter. Please go check out the other reviews I’ve listed below, ALL of whom had nothing but nice things to say about Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

Rating: 75 out of 100

Author’s website | Powell’s | Amazon

Other reviews:

A Comfy Chair and a Good Book

Devourer of Books

Stone SouP

Educating Petunia

The Book Lady’s Blog

Lesley’s Book Nook

Bookworm’s Dinner

The Biblio Brat

Months ago I asked about interest for a possible book blogger retreat. There was definitely a lot of interest, but due to the vastness that is the United States, it’s really impossible to accomodate everyone. So for the first book blogger retreat, I decided we’d do it in Portland, Oregon, so we can have Powell’s at our disposal.

Sounding fun yet?

The date that I’m tentatively planning for is July 18 and 19.

I thought the days would be fairly structured, with authors coming (I don’t think we could get enough authors to do panels, so we would have to be content with an interview/Q&A set up) and panels of book bloggers. I haven’t talked to any authors yet, as I need to book a hotel first and firm up the date. The panels I was thinking the book bloggers could be on would include: branding yourself as an authoritative reviewer, how to review a book fairly, author/blogger relations, and what content you choose to put on your site. Three of those ideas are not my own, which is why they sound so good. I have a hard time “dressing up” ideas. I’m hoping there’s enough attendees so that the panel of bloggers actually have someone to talk to.

Bethany from B&b ex libris has a connection at Powell’s and is hoping to get us an insider’s tour. HOW COOL IS THAT? That’s something that would be an evening thing, paired with dinner or something like that.

ANYWAY, what  I’m asking is: Is there still interest in this? Is there anyone particularly good at planning that wants to help (I do have a few helpers right now, but the more hands, the lighter the work)?

::tap, tap, tap::

Is this thing on?

I know people have been waiting to hear about the read-a-thon, and after some work, the read-a-thon has it’s own site and a date for 2009! Mark your calendars for:

April 18, 2009

We wanted to let you know the site is up and running and plans are underway for (the newly renamed) Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. We can’t wait!

Silk by Alessandro Baricco is a wisp of a book. At 91 pages, the story is quickly told but will sit with you for a longer time than it took you to read it.

Herve (imagine an accent on the e) is a silk merchant in France in 1861, meaning he buys silkworms and spins the silk. At some point, many of the silkworms in western Europe are sick, causing them to die prematurely. Herve (continue to imagine the accent on the e), has to go further and further east to find healthy silkworms, until he eventually finds himself going to Japan.

On his first trip to Japan, Herve sees a young woman in the court of the man from whom he is to buy a batch of silkworms. What Herve notices about this woman is that she’s not only beautiful, but she’s not Asian. She manages to pass him a note, but as it’s written in Japanese, he can’t find out what it says until he gets back to France. This woman becomes his obsession.

I can’t tell you more without giving away the whole story, but I really enjoyed this novella. The story’s fairly simple, but deep and complex with characters that really stand out…like the guy who plays pool against himself, but so there’s two different “sides” he only uses one hand when shooting (i.e. he uses his left hand for one “side” and his right hand for the other “side”). While I didn’t love this book, the ending took me a little by surprise and really left me with some things to think about.

Rating: 88 out of 100

You can buy the book from Powell’s, Amazon, or any other bookstore.

Other (definitely better) reviews:

A Striped Armchair

Big Book, Big Evil

Bart’s Bookshelf

Jules’ Book Reviews

Reading Matters

(Sorry, but I had to repost this. Any comments that had been left on the post previously are gone. )

Melody tagged me for this penmanship meme…and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever been in my head when I would think about how jealous I was of so-and-so’s writing.

When I was first blogging, I hand wrote a blog post I meant to type up but never did. I looked for it after I got tagged for this but couldn’t find it. All I basically said was how I love various people’s handwriting and how I don’t like mine as much as I wish I did. I’ve even seriously considered buying one of those handwriting books to try to retrain my writing into something I would like more, but I’ve never followed up on that.

In fact, I’m SO anal about my writing that I did this meme twice! When I scanned the first page, the ink I used didn’t show up as well as I would have liked, so I did it again because then I could add in a few things I’d forgotten. Like the fact that I like to write 4s but not 2s.

Here are the rules:

1. Write down who tagged you.

2. Answer these:

• your name / username / pseudo
• right-handed or left-handed?
• your favorite letters to write?
• your least favorite letters to write?
• Write “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

3. Tag five persons.

Please participate if you’re interested! I won’t be tagging anyone, since I don’t know who’s into their penmanship like I am.