Moloka'i

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oi! This book is more of a 3.5 for me. It was a very good book but it wasn't the best historical fiction based on real events I've read. Again, it's a historical fiction and I learned something in our American history that I'd never known before and for that I'm grateful, but it just seemed to be missing something. Perhaps because it spanned the life of Rachel from age six to death it went almost too fast. I can't quite place my finger on why it just didn't hit the mark for me.

It starts in the later 1800's, before Hawaii had it's statehood. Many foreigners were arriving on the islands and because the natives had been so isolated, they were not immune to the diseases that the non-natives carried. This book focuses on leprosy, or Hansen's Disease as it's now called. These native islanders and a few foreigners were made to live on a peninsula, in an area called Molokai'a. The main character is fictional but the author states real life people inspired a lot of this story. I had never heard of this so it was certainly fascinating to read!

I'd still recommend this book though. It's a good history lesson.

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Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Mm, mm, mm, what to say about this book. May contain possible spoilers...

After I finished the book I read some other reviews and noticed a lot of people call it a series of short stories tied together by the books namesake, Olive Kitteridge.

Olive is an old woman who is either the main character in several chapters (short stories) or a sideline supporting character in some others. Olive is a crotchety old woman who snaps at her sweet tempered husband, is a distant mother to her son, and a force-to-be-reckoned-with citizen in her small town of Crosby, Maine. Overall I think Olive, while crotchety, is a woman who doesn't know how to communicate the softness that does exist in her heart.

I found the book to be depressing and moody. Everything from anorexia, hostage situations, marital affairs, suicide contemplation, divorce, death, etc. is touched on in this book. Olive, as I mentioned, seems to be somehow involved in each of these whether it happens to her or she is mentioned in or witness to it. The characters are all facing somber times in their lives be it the young and broken hearted or the old and broken hearted.

I do give it to the author that she writes about the ugly in people's lives and on some levels you can relate. But you also find yourself looking away as quite possibly any human would in the face of an awkward, depressing situation of a stranger (be honest with yourself on that statment).

I cannot recommend this book for three main reasons:

1) It's depressing (I do not like depressing books!). You'd have to be in the right mood to read it.

2) I had a hard time keeping up with skipping back and forth between present time and past memories, thinking I had missed a page.

3) Did I mention it's depressing?

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