"Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline. ****

• Audiobook
• Book Club selection
• English author
• Originally published 2013
• Historical Fiction - 75 years of operation, ending in 1929
• Links:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Train
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/
• Characters:
• Molly, doing community service with elderly Vivian
• Niamh {Neeve}, orphan on the train
• Review:  This novel of historical fiction opened my eyes to a part of American history I had never heard about, and for that reason alone this book is worth reading.   I must be honest and say that the plot was fine and the story was good, but those were far out shone by the historical aspects of the orphan train events. A very good read.

"The Dream Lover" by Elizabeth Berg ***

• Early Reviewer's edition for LibraryThing.com
• US author
• Originally published April 2015
• Imagined life of author George Sand
• Epigraphs:
• "The finest female genius of any country or age." -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• "She is beyond doubt or comparison the strongest woman and the most astonishingly gifted." --Franz Lizt
• "When my submission has been claimed, no longer in the name of love and friendship but by reason of some right or power, I have drawn upon the strength that is buried in my nature, I have straightened my shoulders and thrown off the yoke.  I alone know the latent force hidden within me.  I alone know how much I grieve and suffer and love." -- George Sand
• Review:  I must start with a disclaimer.  I had a terrible time reading and/or appreciating this book.  I spent way  too much of my time wondering what was "imagined" by the author and what was not..  I just was unable to suspend my desire to know more about George Sand and somehow disentangle that desire from the well written novel in front of me.  Elizabeth Berg's writing was very good, but I am a bibliophile and have really enjoyed Sands' writing. I now realize that I do not want to have to tease truth from fiction about someone so important, yet I couldn't let go and engage in the novel as a good story.  If that is not a problem you think you would run in to....by all means read this. 

"The Devil's Punchbowl" by Greg Iles ****

• Audiobook
• #3 in the Penn Cage series
• German author
• Originally published in 2009
• Review:  Grisly....yet exciting!  Gripping....yet horrifying! Oh well, just a typical installment of the Penn Cage series entitled "The Devil's Punchbowl".  I really enjoyed this story, although a few passages were difficult to read due to graphic sexual violence. There is something intriguing when reading about the lengths a person can go to on behalf of loved ones, and this suspense novel is centered on the theme.  I like to think my own sense of honor runs deep, but have never really had it tested.  Hmmm.....

"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" by Yiyun Li *****

• Rochester Arts & Lectures author, May 2015
• Chinese author
• Originally published in 2005
• Debut
• Short Stories
• "Extra":  A child and love late in life
• p.22..."The three thousand yuan of dismissal compensation is safe in the lunch pail, as are several unopened packages of socks, colorful with floral patterns, souvenirs of her brief love story."
• "After A Life":  loyalty after a life with another person
• p.26..."..Mr. Sua believes that for each drop of water one received, one has to repay with a well."
• "Immortality": a town's tradition of providing eunuchs, or "Great Papas" to the powerful
• Child born with face of the emperor...
• a scholar thrown in jail for predicting a population explosion and recommending population control
• Killing off of sparrows actually happened in 1958
• Great Papas reunited with their severed penises so they would be whole and go to Heaven
• "The Princess of Nebraska":
• Two people love the same man.....one's pregnancy provides hope
• "Love in the Marketplace": universal tale of mother/daughter relationship
• Sansan's plan to make it to America, as her lover betrays promise
• "Son":
• a "diamond bachelor"...living in America earning big dollars
• p.112..."What I'm saying is that many things are circulated and recycled.  Language is one of them.  Faith is another one.".....after becoming a disillusioned idealist
• p.112..."It's not easy to shut up in America.  They value you not by what's inside you, but by what's pouring out of your mouth."
• His mother once burned a Bible which had been a gift, and now she is converted
• p.126.."Her  god is just like a Chinese parent, never running out of excuses to love a son."
• "The Arrangement":  Loss of innocence
• p.135..."...being a woman is an illness"
• "Death is Not a Bad Joke If Told the Right Way":  passage of time, tact, how to soften loss
• child with two families, her own and the family of her former nanny
• Japanese brands are "the symbol of modern life in Beijing"
• Complicated rules of a good death v. a bad death
• p.177..."She was plump, and healthy, and never made a sound when Lao Da beat her for good or bad reasons, or for no reason at all.  Our wives are not as perfect."
• "Persimmons":  Life being squeezed like a soft persimmon
• "A Thousand Years of good Prayers":  the surprising arrival of love requiring a thousand years of prayers
• p.188...."Life provides more happiness than we know.  We just have to look for it."
• Intimate conversation is "like riding with an unreined horse, you don't know where you end up and you don't have to think about it".
• Review:  Are you curious about life in China?  Not the lives reported to us by the Chinese government, but as shared by someone who grew up there?  This collection of short stories, the author's debut and winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, is absolutely wonderful.  Each story offers up insight into the everyday lives of average Chinese, both in China, and after immigrating to the United States.  YiYun Li's prose is peaceful and eloquent.  The reader learns about the ways the Revolution impacts the daily lives and belief systems of the Chinese, from their beliefs of right and wrong to their beliefs about life and death.  The title story is exquisite in its simplicity and poignancy. Read this!!

"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard **

• Audiobook
• US author
• Originally published in 1974
• Review:  I am a huge fan of Annie Dillard, but this audiobook was unbearable.  I want to believe it was the terrible voice of the reader and not the content.  I will have to try this one as a book, rather than an audio.

"The Garlic Ballads" by Mo Yan *****

• Chinese author,
• Nobel Prize winner
• Originally published in 2006
• Novel was banned in China after Tienanmen Square massacre
• Epigraph #1:  "Northeast Gaomi township:  I was born there, I grew up there; Even though there was plenty of misery, These mournful ballad are for you."
• Epigraph #2:  "Novelists are forever trying to distance themselves from pollitics, but the novel itself closes in on politics.  Novelists are so concerned with 'man's fate' that they tend to lose sight of their own fate.  Therein lies their tragedy."....Joseph Stalin
• Setting: Rural Chinese Paradise County, 1987, after garlic glut on the market caused further economic troubles to an already poverty stricken population
• Characters:
• Gao Ma:  loves Jinju, 
• Gao Yang:  friend of Gao Ma, in prison with him
• Zhang Kou:  blind singer of garlic ballads, a stanza appears at the beginning of each chapter, his own rebellion and truth telling..... p.277.."So, subordinating his own safety to a love for his outcast companions, he sang a ballad loud and long to protest the mistreatment of the common people.", lingered as a ghost
• Fourth Aunt:  Jinju's mother, mourning husband's death while in prison
• Quotes:
• p.33..."This is, after all, a new society, so sooner or later reason will prevail."
• p.48..."The people's hearts are made of steel, but the Law is a forge."
• p.71..."...senior officials can eat like kings, dress like princes, and have the medical care of the gods.....But take a look at our old farmers.  They work all their lives.....and in their nineties they're still out in the field every day."
• p.76..."...sleeping on the damp ground in misty night air is an open invitation to leprosy"
• p.241..."It's not socialism I hate.  It's you (policeman as representative of the government) to you socialism is a mere signboard, but to me it's a social formation--concrete, not abstract.  It's embodied in public ownership of the means o production and in a system of distribution.  Unfortunately it's also embodied in corrupt officials like you."
• p.270..."The people have the right to overthrow any party or government which disregards their well-being."
• Notes:
• Concept of an underworld marriage, arranged marriage between two dead people, celebrated as a full fledged wedding...Junji married off by family to someone other than Gao Ma...devastated him
• Review:  A brilliant piece of subversive fiction which was banned in China, this novel was difficult to read because of the casual violence which permeated the story, within and between families, between individuals and between individuals and government representatives.  I literally could only read it in small doses.  However, the prose is evocative, stark, and lyrical. The plot is gripping, and the characters are fascinating.  Each chapter is accompanied by a stanza from "The Garlic Ballad" which tells the tale of the uprising.  The ballad was sung by one of the characters, a local minstrel, who died for his documentation of the events, perhaps a reference to government censorship.  So, if you like historical fiction, want a glimpse into the life of a Chinese peasant, are curious about socialism in China, then grit your teeth and dive in!

"Seven Up" by Janet Evanovich ***

• Audiobook
• US author
• #7 in Stephanie Plum series
• Mystery/Suspense
• Originally published in 2001
• Review:  Once again the wacky cast of endearing characters drew me in despite a plot that was a bit less interesting than some of the others.