It’s a Big World, Little Pig is book number two from figure skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi. This follow up to her Best Selling Dream Big, Little Pig follows Poppy Pig on her newest adventure- a trip to the World Games ice skating championship in Paris! While Poppy is of course, nervous, her family and best friend will support her. Poppy even gets to meet friends from all over! Some skate like her, and some prefer other sports, but they all get along. They all look different, are from different places, and are different animals, but they all love sports and want to be friends.

Children can benefit from Poppy’s determination and willingness to try new things and go new places. Leanrning about different cultures and people is important [Read more…]

I absolutely adored The Butterfly Cabinet– it was a real page-turner, and I could not put it down!  Set in Ireland about 100 years ago, this book is loosely based on real facts and a true crime that was committed. 
A mother kills her child- but was it an act of cold blood, or a mother trying her best to raise her child?  This is
abuse in the eyes of today- but in a different time…it’s so hard not to be judgmental!  Not being from that age or culture, it is impossible to see it with any eyes but my own- but I can try.  I empathize most with the maid and nanny (later on), whose views are most like my own, and whom I feel kindred with.

The book alternates between the mother of the child, and the maid who is telling the story.  One begins to understand the mother a bit more, about her life, as we read from her journal.  The maid is an enchanting character, one I was happy to hear from and get to know.  Haunting, sad- yet hopeful for the future- it broke my heart, and made me want to hug my own kids.  I loved the storytelling, the historical details of Ireland and the setting.  Fans of history, or lovers of all things Irish will say this is a “must read“.

I would buy this book in a heartbeat.  Well written, from the heart, and full of history drama, and suspense- even a happy ending, though tinged with sadness.  It is all we can ask for from a book, really. 

“Vivid, mysterious and unforgettable, The Butterfly Cabinet is Bernie McGill‘s engrossing portrayal of the dark history that intertwines two lives. Inspired by a true story of the death of the daughter of an aristocratic Irish family at the end of the nineteenth century, McGill powerfully tells this tale of two women whose lives will become upended by a newly told secret.”

This book was just enthralling- I could not put it down! I loved the pace, the flow of the book. It was well researched, but did not take on the tone of a history book. It was about a woman who was on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon during the Vietnam war, when Saigon fell. But it was not a war book- it was a family history- a short history of Vietnam. I found myself getting annoyed, at times, at the way people in the book thought or acted- but I had to remember that it was not my culture- not the way I was raised, not even my time period- so how in the world could I understand or make judgements? It’s important to remind ourselves of that with books like this, lest we lose the real meaning. My heart hurt for her, for so many others in the book. As an international volunteer, mostly working with children, certain parts of the book really broke my heart. As a history buff and hopeful PhD candidate in the future, it was an interesting book to read from the angle it was written. The traveler in me just wanted to go SEE it, go visit the places that sounded so beautiful, and read more about the legends in the book. I always have a hard time talking about books like these- that I love, but don’t want to give anything away because I don’t want to ruin it for you!
If you are a lover of history, of drama, of romance, travel, or just want a good, interesting read- this is one to pick up. I think by now you know I tell you my honest to word opinions- I think most people would love this book.

Here is a bit more information about Daughters of the River Huong–
Product Description: Daughters of the River Huong by Vietnam-born, Houston-based writer Uyen Nicole Duong is a richly woven tapestry of family, country, conflict, and redemption. A saga spanning four generations of Vietnamese women, we discover lives inextricably tied to their country’s struggle for independence. Narrated by the teenaged Simone, a girl who flaunts convention and enters into a forbidden relationship of love and sensuality, readers are drawn to the lives of four of Simone’s ancestors, from Huyen Phi, the Mystique Concubine from the extinct Kingdom of Champa, to Ginseng, the Mystique Concubine’s second daughter and a heroine of the Vietnamese Revolution. Duong tells a tumultuous story of power and lust that transports us from the Violet City of Hue to the teeming streets of a Saigon at war, from the affluence of Paris’s St. Germain des Pres to Manhattan. Love, war, capitalism, revolution—this novel delivers a chronicle of history as fascinating as it is memorable.

Disclosure- I received this book in order to facilitate the review.  All opinions are my own,
yours may differ.