Best of 2013 and Year-End Summary

I'm a bit behind, but I have finally put together my Best of 2013 List - whew, it was a hard choice! I read so many great books this past year.

All together, I read 79 books last year (that's 15 more than in 2013!). Here's the break-down:

• 32 were adult fiction
• 23 were teen/YA fiction 
• 16 were middle-grade fiction
• 4 were memoirs
• 4 were nonfiction but not memoirs

Of the 79 books, I listened to 12 of them on audio.

As always, I had a hard time choosing my favorites! In no particular order, here are my Top Ten of 2013  (you can check out my top ten list of kids/teen/YA books read in 2013 at Great Books for Kids and Teens).

• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
• Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver  
• The Invisible Wall and The Dream by Harry Bernstein (memoirs)
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 
• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker 
• The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain 
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
• City of Women by David Gillham 
• TheHousekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Agawa  

 And I couldn't resist a few Runners Up! I just didn't want to leave these out: The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, Redfield Farm by Judith Redline Coopey, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, and The Yokota Officer's Club by Sarah Bird

And, for a little extra fun, here are a few superlatives:

Best Book of the Year and Best Book by a New-to-Me Author:

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

(I agree completely with the Pulitzer committee - it blew me away - I am still thinking about it 8 months later!)

Best Book from an Old Favorite Author:

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

(just LOVED it and also The Bean Trees, read in 2012)

Best Audio Book of the Year: 

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  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne  

(I counted it as best audio for both adults and teen/YA)

 Best Memoir of the Year:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou  

(can't wait to read the rest of her memoirs!)

 

Best Nonfiction Book of the Year:

In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood 

You can also check out how I did on my 2013 Reading Challenges.

What were YOUR favorite books read in 2013?

Books Read in December

December, as always, was crazy busy, filled with travel, family, holiday celebrations, and more. Thank goodness for reading, to provide a small pool of calm in the midst of such hectic days! Here's what I finished reading in December:

• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, historical fiction (Utah)
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, audiobook (read by Jim Dale) (England)
• Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis, teen/YA novel (New Jersey)

• Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater, middle-grade audiobook (New Jersey)
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Agawa, fiction (Japan)
• Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, teen/YA novel

• Rotters by Daniel Kraus, teen/YA fiction audiobook (Iowa)
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris, short stories

So, that was 8 books total for December - a very good reading month for me! It was an all-fiction month, and I read 4 adult novels, 3 teen/YA novels, and 1 middle-grade novel. A whopping 3 of those novels were audiobooks (lots of time in the car traveling to see family!) I enjoyed all of these, and several were excellent, but I think my favorite on the month was The Housekeeper and the Professor. It was such a warm, gentle story that I wanted it to last forever.

Update on 2013 Reading Challenges:
I added just 1 new location to my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge (Utah). That brings my totals up to 27 states and 13 countries. I focused on clearing off those TBR shelves this month, with all 8 books I read from my own shelves (sitting there a year or more!), bringing my total up to 26 for the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I added 3 more audios to my 2013 Audiobook Challenge, and also added 2 more books to my 2013 Those Books I Should Have Read Challenge. I will sum up all of my reading challenges for the year, plus choose my favorites from 2013 in my next post.

What were your favorite books read in December? 

It's Monday 1/6! What Are You Reading?

Finally, a quiet Monday morning to myself! As much as I enjoyed the holiday season, I am also happy to be starting a new year and getting back to my normal daily routine. I am planning to review my 2013 goals today and set new goals for 2014. And, in the bookish world, I will post my Best of 2013 lists this week and decide which challenges to sign up for in 2014. So, let me know if you know of any good reading challenges!

Between holidays, travel, and snow days, the whole family was still off school/work most of last week, so we still had plenty of reading time:

• I finished Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris, a gift from my husband last Christmas, and posted a review. It is hilarious though also sometimes a bit gruesome and shocking. If you enjoy satire, it's a fun little book.
• I also finished Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, a YA historical novel and a Christmas gift from my husband this year! It was excellent, just like everyone had said, and kept me occupied all the way to Oklahoma and back last week.
• I am still listening to The Real Boy by Anne Ursu on audio, though not making much progress with the whole family at home every day. It's good so far.
• I just started The House Girl by Tara Conklin, another historical novel and my neighborhood book group's pick for January.
• My husband, Ken, finished Wool by Hugh Howley (a Christmas gift from me) and loved it. Now my son and I both want to read it.
• Ken is now reading another Christmas gift from me, Never Go Back, the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child.
• Jamie, 19, finished Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard. He didn't like the format at first but said it got better. I plan to read this one, too.
• Jamie is now reading The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, Book One in The Obsidian Trilogy, another fantasy series (his favorite kind of book!).

I managed to catch up on some blog posts last week while I was in Oklahoma:

First Book of the Year post

Review of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Review of Rotters by Daniel Kraus, a teen/YA award-winning audio book

Weekend Cooking post, including my recipes for Hoppin' John and Gumbo.

Review of Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am, a teen/YA novel.

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

What are you and your family reading this week? 

Weekend Cooking 1/5

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

Happy New Year!

We spent the first half of the week visiting my father-in-law in Oklahoma, and the last few days happy to finally be home! My cooking this week was all very traditional - almost entirely using my own recipes - because I wanted to make stuff that my FIL and my sons would all enjoy (and I wanted to fill his freezer, too, as he is 88 and can no longer cook for himself). So, we had classic chili, pork roast with mashed potatoes and veggies, and Hoppin' John for New Year's Eve (black-eyed peas for good luck!).

After arriving back home, I stuck with more traditional meals, perfect for the record-setting cold and snow we're experiencing: Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo (see recipe below), my own chicken and bean enchiladas (a family favorite!), and classic chicken stew with dumplings last night. My older son and I have been sick, so I have also been focusing on comfort foods!

Hope you enjoyed a lovely holiday season and are enjoying a great start to the new year!
 

Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 bag (about 8 oz.) frozen cut okra

2 teaspoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons flour

3 cans (14 oz. each) chicken broth

1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 package (12 oz.) chicken or turkey Andouille sausage (like Trader Joe’s brand) *

1 pound uncooked, peeled shrimp

4 cups cooked brown or white rice

* You can substitute 1 package (16 oz.) reduced-fat smoked sausage instead of Andouille sausage.

  

1.     Heat oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Sauté onion, celery, bell pepper, okra, and garlic until soft and tender. 

2.     Add flour and stir until heated through (about 1 minute).

3.     Add the rest of the ingredients, except shrimp and rice, and bring to a boil.

4.     Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.  Add shrimp and simmer 5 more minutes or until shrimp is cooked and pink.

Serve in a bowl, with 1/2 cup rice added to each serving.

NOTE:

This gumbo is mildly spicy, but if it’s too much spice for your family, you can substitute reduced-fat smoked sausage for the Andouille sausage.

© 2009 Suzan L. Jackson

Snapshot Saturday 1/4

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Here are a few photos from our New Year's Eve celebration and a snowstorm yesterday:

My sons and I on New Year's Eve at my father-in-law's

Bitter cold but the snow was pretty on the branches!

Our Christmas decorations looked nice against the snowy backdrop.

Happy New Year! 

Fiction Review: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

In an effort to try to read last year’s Christmas gifts before Christmas came around again, I recently read Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris, a slim novel of unique short stories that my husband gave me last year. I wish I hadn’t waited so long! This book is completely different than anything else Sedaris has written but still features his trademark sense of humor and absurdity.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is a series of brief stories about animals behaving like people, and Sedaris uses this vehicle to satirize various human behaviors in a way that is incredibly clever and often hilariously funny. For instance, the title story is about a squirrel and a chipmunk who are dating, much to the dismay of their families and friends. The first weeks of their courtship are exciting and passionate, until they realize they have little in common:

“The squirrel and the chipmunk had been dating for two weeks when they ran out of things to talk about. Acorns, parasites, the inevitable approach of autumn: these subjects had been covered within their first hour; and so breathlessly, their faces flushed. Twice they had held long conversations about dogs, each declaring an across-the-board hatred of them and speculating on what life might be like were someone to put a bowl of food in front of them twice a day. “They’re spoiled rotten is what it comes down to,” the chipmunk had said, and the squirrel had placed his paw over hers, saying, “That’s it exactly. Finally, someone who really gets it.”

Sedaris builds these stories so cleverly, often combining a well-known animal characteristic with some nugget of human behavior with hysterical results. I laughed out loud in the doctor’s office (much to my son’s embarrassment) while reading the story about the mother stork who doesn’t know what to say when her child asks where babies come from! Then there is the Irish Setter, known for loyalty, who stays with his wife even though she is a mixed breed with a foul mouth who has cheated on him with the English bulldog across the street.  Adding to the fun are illustrations by Ian Falconer whom I recognized as the illustrator of the acclaimed Olivia picture books the moment I saw his drawing of a pot-bellied pig. I just loved the satire and ingenuity of these stories!

Another story features a baboon hairdresser who is gossiping while grooming a cat, the migrating songbirds who brag (and complain) endlessly to their friends about their annual trip down to Central America, and the lab rat who believes all illness is caused by a negative attitude, right up until she is injected with AIDS (as someone who lives with a chronic illness, I especially liked that one). I kept imagining Sedaris encountering various boorish behaviors among the human race and translating them to the animal kingdom in these stories. I thoroughly enjoyed this slim volume of very clever and very funny stories that are wholly unique. Lots of fun.

168 pages, Back Bay Books

First Book of 2014!

Sheila at Book Journey is hosting a First Book of the New Year meme today - what fun! Head over there and check out her very cool photo collage of what everyone is reading for their first book of 2014.


As for me, as you can tell from the photo, I am reading Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, a YA historical novel I have wanted to read for a long time and received from my husband for Christmas. I'm enjoying it very much so far.

My First Book of 2014!

What are you reading for your first book of 2014?

Happy New Year!

It's Monday 12/30! What Are You Reading?

Happy Almost New Year! It's hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of the year. We've been busy this past week, with Christmas preparations, then Christmas, and then traveling to visit family. But, we all received books for Christmas, so we've been reading a lot, too, especially during air travel. Here's what we have been reading this week:

• I finished Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, book 3 in the Chaos Walking trilogy, on Christmas Eve and loved it! It was an excellent end to an outstanding series. I can't wait to read more from Ness.
• In between books, I read a few more stories from David Sedaris' Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, a unique collection of short stories about animals acting very human-like. I was driving my son crazy reading parts aloud to him while we waited in a doctor's office. C'mon, can you blame me? A stork mother who doesn't know what to say when her child asks where babies come from? That just begs to be shared - so clever and witty!
• I am now reading a book my husband gave me for Christmas, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, a YA novel I have been wanting to read for a long time. So far, it's just as good as everyone had said.
• I am listening to The Real Boy by Anne Ursu on audio. I am a big fan of Anne's novels, both adult and middle-grade fiction. My son and I loved her Cronus Chronicles trilogy. I had hoped to squeeze in one last audio book this year, but I think this will be my first audio book finished in the new year. It's excellent so far, but I don't have a lot of time to listen with my whole family around all the time.
• My husband, Ken, is also reading a new Christmas gift (from me): Wool by Hugh Howey. Both of us have been wanting to read this acclaimed dystopian novel.
• Jamie, 19, finished Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, volume one of The Riyria Revelations on his Kindle.
• On the airplane, he read another book on his Kindle, Bloodlust: A Gladiator's Tale by C.P.D. Harris. From what I could see from my seat next to him, it was pretty gory, with lots of battles, but he enjoyed it. The Kindle is a great advancement for Jamie, since he is such an avid reader that on one trip when he was in middle school, we discovered he had stuffed a giant compendium of all of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books/stories into his backpack and carried it through airports!
• Now, Jamie is reading Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard, a recent teen/YA novel we received for review that also caught my eye.

Not much time for writing last week, but I did manage one review:

Review of The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - highly recommended.

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

What are you and your family reading this week?     

Hope you have a fun New Year's Eve and a great start to the new year!

Snapshot Saturday 12/28

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it) and are preparing for a good New Year's celebration! It's been a whirlwind of activity for us, but we are enjoying lots of time with family.

Here are a couple of fun photos from our Christmas celebration:

My two sons on Christmas Eve - still not too old for us to read to them!

The "Before" shot - our living room all decked out

...And the "After" shot!

Since I so rarely appear in my photos, here I am (in red) playing Boggle with my son.

Enjoy this holiday week!

Fiction Review: The Housekeeper and the Professor

Both of my sons were assigned to read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa for summer reading in high school, and they both enjoyed the slim novel. I have had it on my want-to-read shelves for a while now and finally found time to read it recently. I loved this warm, gentle story about creating family.

The Housekeeper, a woman with a 10-year old son, tells the story of being hired to take care of a math Professor whose short-term memory is limited to the past 80 minutes, ever since he experienced a traumatic brain injury. Under the circumstances, this proves to be an unusual job for her, unlike any other in her long experience of housekeeping. Given his limitations, the Professor often has difficulty connecting with other people, but he uses numbers as a bridge. For example, when he opens the door to the Housekeeper (who has become a stranger to him again overnight) each morning, he greets her with some sort of numerical question, as on her first day of work:

“’What’s your shoe size?’

This was the Professor’s first question, once I had announced myself as the new housekeeper. No bow, no greeting. If there is one ironclad rule in my profession, it’s that you always give the employer what he wants, and so I told him.

‘Twenty-four centimeters.’

‘There’s a sturdy number,’ he said. ‘It’s the factorial of four.’

He folded his arms, closed his eyes, and was silent for a moment.

‘What’s a factorial?’ I asked at last. I felt I should try to find out a bit more since it seemed to be connected to his interest in my shoe size.

‘The product of all the natural numbers from one to four is twenty-four,’ he said, without opening his eyes. ‘What’s your telephone number?’

He nodded, as if deeply impressed. ‘That’s the total number of primes between one and one hundred million.’

It wasn’t immediately clear to me why my phone number was so interesting, but his enthusiasm seemed genuine. And he wasn’t showing off; he struck me as straightforward and modest. It nearly convinced me that there was something special about my phone number and that I was somehow special for having it.”

I could have gone on quoting from the book for pages! I hope this gives you an idea of the warmth and cleverness of this novel and of the special relationship that begins to grow between the Housekeeper and the Professor, even at this very first meeting. Despite his lack of short-term memory, the Professor uses his vast knowledge of numbers and math not only to reach out to the Housekeeper but also to tutor her. When her son comes along for the first time, the Professor is delighted with him and immediately nicknames him Root because his flat head reminds him of the square root sign (of which he is exceptionally fond).

As the novel progresses, the relationships between these three characters slowly grow and expand. Despite the fact that none of the characters in this novel has a name (except for Root’s nickname), the reader comes to know them and care about them. There are little math lessons sprinkled in among the story, as the Professor shares his knowledge with the Housekeeper and her son; many of these mathematical details are fascinating and little known.

I absolutely loved this book and never wanted it to end. It is about three people who create a family of their own and about what it means to live constantly in the present (incidentally, the Professor’s affliction is not fictional; there are really people with this condition, as described in Oliver Sack’s book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain). The characters are warm and endearing, and the story is gentle yet engaging. I can see why this novel has become a modern classic and why it is required reading now for many students.

180 pages, Picador (St. Martin’s Press)

 

It's Monday 12/23! What Are You Reading?

Whew. Things have been super busy here, as I'm sure is true for most of you, too! We've been traveling so much that all of our Christmas preparations got put off until this weekend, so we put up our tree (after it spent two weeks in the garage!), decorated it, put up our outdoor lights, decorated the house, hung the wreath, finished shopping, began to wrap gifts, and began to write out cards (which I bought back in November!). Today, I finished the grocery shopping, and we will bake cookies. Like I said, whew!

We still enjoyed some good books last week, though, amid the holiday hubbub:

• I am still reading Monsters of Men, the third and final book of the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, and it is just as fabulous as the first two books. I am near the end now and staying up much too late each night reading!
• I FINALLY finished listening to Rotters by Daniel Kraus, a teen/YA novel. It was one of the strangest and most disturbing books I have ever read...and I used to read a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz! It took me over two months to finish it. It's a good story but very dark.
• I have just started listening to The Real Boy, a middle-grade novel by Anne Ursu (on my way home from the store this morning, after I finished Rotters). I'm only on chapter one but am enjoying it so far. Anne Ursu is a favorite author of mine.
• My husband, Ken, finished World War Z by Max Brooks. Now we can watch the movie!
• Ken also read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn this week. This is the third of Flynn's novels that he's read, and I think he liked this one best.
• Jamie, 19, finished Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, Book 1 in The Broken Empire series. 
• Now, Jamie is reading Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, volume one of The Riyria Revelations on his Kindle. He says it's very good - he's been reading a lot while he's home from school!

I actually managed quite a few blog posts last week, in an effort to catch up:

Top Ten New To Me Authors Read in 2013

Top Ten New To Me Kid/Teen/YA Authors Read in 2013

Review of When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Review of The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley

Summary of Books Read in November (better late than never!)

Weekend Cooking post, with several easy, tasty, and healthy weeknight recipes.

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

What are you and your family reading this week?    

My husband and two sons decorating the Christmas tree.

Weekend Cooking 12/22

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

We had a busy week, but my college son was home, so I cooked some of his favorites for dinner.

We started the week with Shepherd's Pie, using an old recipe from Cooking Light from the early 90's (not online, unfortunately). This is my son's favorite kinds of food - basic meat and potatoes comfort food! We all enjoyed it.

Tuesday was a busy day, so I needed a super-quick meal. I made Penne with Sausage, White Beans & Spinach, one of my own creations. It is super simple and goes together in less than 20 minutes - see complete recipe below.

Thursday was even busier, so I decided to use the crockpot. I tried a new recipe from Cooking Light's Slow Cooker Tonight cookbook, Provençale Chicken Supper. It met my criteria for that night - just 1 instruction: "Add all ingredients to crockpot and turn on." I stuck to the recipe, except that I added several sliced carrots to the slow cooker to up the veggie content. My family loved it, though my son actually said it could use more veggies (that's what a mom likes to hear!). Best of all, I came home at 6 pm with dinner ready to eat!

Friday night, I made another family favorite that I have mentioned here many times before (because it really is one of our all-time favorite meals, so we eat it a lot): Red Beans & Rice, another of my own recipes (published in Family Fun magazine, February 2012). This one is literally a crowd-pleaser, so I made a double batch and served it Friday night when a couple of my son's college friends were over, and again Saturday night when one of my younger son's high school friends was here. This is one dish that no one in my family complains about when we have left-overs!

Hope you are enjoying some good food during this busy holiday season!

 

Pasta with Sausage, White Beans, and Spinach

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 16-oz. box whole wheat Penne pasta

1 medium sweet onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

12-oz. Package reduced-fat sausage, sliced (we like Trader Joe’s Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Sausage)

1 can white cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed

1 bag baby spinach, sliced

1 can petite diced tomatoes

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Sauté onion and bell pepper until soft.  Add sausage, beans, and spinach.  Stir fry until spinach wilts.  Add tomatoes, stir, and heat through.  Season with salt and pepper.

Drain pasta and dump back into pot.  Add contents of skillet and mix thoroughly.  Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese on top.

  © 2013 Suzan L. Jackson  

Snapshot Saturday 12/21

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Happy First Day of Winter! It is actually in the 60's here in Delaware today and supposed to hit the 70's tomorrow, but we've already had a couple of big snowstorms a couple of weeks ago - almost unheard of for December here! The snow cancelled school for days and stranded my husband and son out of town two weeks ago, but it did look pretty!

Our backyard covered in snow.

I love when the snow coats the tree branches.

The trees look like they've been painted white.

Blue sky begins to peek through after days of snow!

Our neighbor's snow-covered winterberry tree.

A snowy sunset.

Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend, whatever the weather is where you are!

Books Read in November

Oh, yeah, I am just a little bit late with my monthly summary from November. Things have been crazy hectic here the past few weeks. We cut down our Christmas tree two weeks ago and just finally had time to bring it in from the garage last night! Better Late Than Never is pretty much my life motto.

November was a rough month for me in other ways, but it was a good reading month! Here's what I finished reading last month:

• Tell Us We're Home by Marina Budhos, a middle-grade novel (New Jersey)
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, a hilarious satirical novel (Washington)
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, a powerful teen/YA historical novel (Lithuania)

• The Dream by Harry Bernstein, a memoir (Illinois)
• Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, a middle-grade novel (Scotland)
• The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Gownley, a middle-grade/teen graphic novel memoir (Pennsylvania)

 Lots of variety last month: I read a memoir, an adult novel, two middle-grade novels, a teen/YA novel, and a graphic novel memoir. My favorite book of the month? They were all good, but Between Shades of Gray completely blew me away! It is an amazing, powerful novel.

Update on 2013 Reading Challenges:
I added no new states to my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge, but I did add two new countries: Lithuania and Scotland. That brings my totals up to 26 states and 13 countries. Two of the book were from my TBR shelves, bringing my total up to 18 for the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge.

What were your favorite books read in November? 

Fiction Review: When the Emperor Was Divine

My high school son says he doesn’t like reading, but he raved about When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka when he read it for school last year. That is high praise, indeed, and I thoroughly enjoyed Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic, so I wanted to read this novel about the Japanese-American internment during World War II for myself.

The slim novel focuses on one family in particular who live in Berkeley in the early 1940’s. They are a fairly typical American family for that time, with a working husband, a housewife who takes care of her family, a 10-year old daughter, a 7-year old son, and a family dog. But they are of Japanese descent, so their whole world changes in an instant on a beautiful spring day in 1942 when the Evacuation Orders show up, posted on every available surface in town.

The mother/wife reacts calmly, methodically packing up a few essentials in suitcases, wrapping up and storing valuables, burying the most valuable items in the backyard, and burning all family photos, letters, and even her wedding kimono – anything that shows a connection to Japan. It is a surreal series of scenes and hard to imagine experiencing, but she remains calm, telling her children they will be going on a trip the next day.

The children take this news in stride and tell her that their teachers already told them they’d be leaving. Their father isn’t coming with them; he was taken away from their home recently, grabbed by serious-looking men in suits while still in his bathrobe and slippers and taken to a prison for suspected crimes against the U.S. The mother and her two children go to the train station the next day and begin a long, dirty journey across the country to an arid salt plain in Utah.

The mother and two children live in a tiny room in a huge internment camp under horrible conditions for over three years, along with thousands of other Japanese-American families who had done nothing wrong. Even after the family returns home after the war ends, nothing is ever the same for them, and they are treated with suspicion by their old friends and neighbors.

No wonder this book affected my son so deeply. It was an awful event in American history that is often glossed over.  This novel is written much as The Buddha in the Attic, in very spare prose, and with no character names. However, The Buddha in the Attic (which was written later but covers the earlier period of history) uses collective pronouns like we and our to tell the story of a whole generation of Japanese “picture brides” brought to America in the early part of the 20^th century, while When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of a national event by focusing on a single family. It is a sparsely told yet emotionally powerful story that has stayed with me (and with my son) long after we finished reading.

144 pages, Anchor Books (a division of Random House)