Book reviews

I realized that it's been awhile since I've written some book reviews so here are a few books that I've read lately. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See This book was fascinating to me.  It takes place in 19th century China and follows the life of one little girl from before her foot binding through her old age.  I loved reading about the culture and expectations of women in that time and it made me very happy for the changes that have happened since then.  I was fascinated by the description of foot binding too...I knew very little about it and had to look up some pictures to see if what I was imagining was what they did to their feet...it was worse than my imagination.  The characters are fabulous with enough detail and emotion to make them real. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein This book is written by the dog's perspective and I really liked his "voice" in the book.  It's basically his life experiences with his master Denny and how he's trying to prepare for his reincarnation as a human in the next life.  It was a really fast read and quite entertaining. 

Same kind of different as me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore  Wow, this book was eye opening.  It is the true story of the life of a man raised in the 1960's on a plantation in Louisiana.  He was essentially a slave because everything he had belonged to "the Man" and he worked basically to keep what little he had (sharecropping).  He finally gets fed up and hops a train to get away and ends up homeless.  His life changes when he meets the Halls and finds God. 

I get to choose our book club book for June and all three of these would be great discussion books.  There are so many good books I always have a hard time choosing.