One thing this books reminds me of is that we’re constantly being asked to make choices—some grand and some seemingly inconsequential—that dictate how our lives unravel, all the while knowing nothing of the impact our decisions will have. But that’s OK. Make your choice anyway, right now, in this tiny window of time. Logic has absolutely nothing to do with any of it, at least not once you get passed the rudimentary stages of knowing that fire will burn you if you get too close. In the end, drunk on our ignorant stupor of blind-sightedness, all we have are the messages from the heart. It’s not what you think is best, it’s what you feel is best.

Ah, the Victorian Age. How did we ever keep a lid on women’s sexual nature for so long? Warning, don’t play certain parts of this story in your car while you have the windows down. It took me several long seconds fumbling for the volume control while the person in the next car over got an earful of Victorian erotica.

Wax has no interesting characters, even when they should be. Sylvia, the closeted lesbian, or maybe she’s bisexual, is the closest we get. Either way, you would think it would be worthy, even revealing, to read how it might have been to live in an era, where being anything other than heterosexual needed to be repressed, hidden and denied for fear of societal reprisal. I suppose that would be far too interesting for Smith to explore.

I get a giddy thrill when Mabuhay Gardens gets mentioned in the book. It brings back memories of a much younger me dragging a friend there before it closed to listen to music I was hearing on college radio. She didn’t know what she was in for. I didn’t either. That was a different San Francisco then. Pre-earthquake and pre-revitalization. More grit and less glitter. The hippies were long gone, although the addicts remained. Music was still on vinyl, and streaming music was stuff of science…

The Dressmaker looks at morality but takes it one step farther. It makes the reader question herself. Can you condemn someone for making a decision in a life-threatening situation? Can you argue that there is no way you would have made the same or similar decision? I’m constantly questioning whether or not I would be…

The words paint vivid thoughts of calmness and serenity as I relive a journey through the narrow forest pathways of India. I write and read through the shadows of the forest canopy, slowly following the path this man took to open his eyes and mind to the nature of life. His discovery of the human condition, the slow steps he took from what was to what…

I’m having an unexpected reaction when the narrative’s perspective changes to that of an eleven-year-old boy. The voice, the diction and tone are completely believable. In other words, the young character feels authentic…

I love it when a book’s story aligns in real-time with parallels in my own life. I’m reading this book over Thanksgiving; a turning point in the book takes place over some spilled gravy during Thanksgiving dinner. Then in New York, pale Czech…

This is a story of marginalisation: marginalisation of Dominican immigrants in the United States, their marginalisation at home under the Trujillo dictatorship, and Oscar’s personal marginalisation from, well, pretty much everybody! By interrupting…

I am a future high school English teacher and I think that being able to cast aside judgments and expectations will be an important factor to being a successful teacher. Luna taught me several different things that I wish to bring into my classroom, the most important being that it is necessary to come from a place of understanding.