Japanese Lover

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
321 Pages

"In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family--like thousands of other Japanese Americans--are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world. Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. "

Certainly a greatly hyped book, Allende fails to deliver memorable characters.  The quality of her writing is such that you will finish the book but it is definitely not something you would buy friends to read or make any best books ever list. 

Our Souls at Night

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
179 Pages

"A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future. In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with. Their brave adventures--their pleasures and their difficulties--are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature."

A short novel that is touching.  I enjoyed it in one sitting.

Almost Perfect

Almost Perfect by Diane Daniels Manning     321 pages

 I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I do. If the cover looks like something I would like, or the title intrigues me, then I try it. Usually I’ve made up my mind long before I read the back cover. There is no way I could resist the cute poodle puppy on the cover of this novel without bothering to read the synopsis.

 At the center of this novel are two flawed individuals: Seventy-year-old Bess and teenage Benny. I’m not sure that the author ever revealed his age, but if he’s over fourteen, he’s an extremely immature fourteen.

Bess is a bitter woman. For decades she enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the nation’s top Standard Poodle breeders. She dreamed of winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life, and even had the dog, McCreery, to do, too. Yet, she always held herself, and McCreery, back. A psychologist would say that she was afraid of success.  Maybe, maybe there were other reasons. Now she’s in the process of tearing down the famous Umpawang kennels. She’s gotten rid of all the dogs except McCreery and his puppy-son Breaker, who is the spitting image of his daddy.

Enter Benny. He’s new to the neighborhood. After a messy divorce, Benny is forced to go live with his father and new stepmother. He attends a nearby therapeutic school for his autism. The one thing Benny wants more in the world---besides his mother's and attention---is a dog. Dad says no, but Benny wants what Benny wants.  it has to be a real dog, too, not some poodle.

As he walks home from school one night, he hears a dog crying. Sure the dog is the perfect one for him, he tries to locate the source. There he winds up in Bess’s kennel.

The story that follows is an often hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking story of two people and two dogs who teach other that life has more to offer than what’s happening at the moment.

I highly recommend this book; I give it 5 stars.