Judy King

What a wonderful book/audible listen

Revisado: 07-01-19

This book is one of my best lived of the year. I know nithi g of the history of the land that us now SriLanka... Thus story, is based on the events that took place under the cruel officer in charge of a small area during the early 1800s as a British colony.

While a few of the scenes and events were difficult to read, with the story focused on Peea, the youngest daughter of the chief elephant keeper...a position that put the family In The court of the soon to be deposed king. Thus child lived as a boy for the first 12 years of her life, and trained to work with the former kings herd and especially with the elephant calf that shared her birth day and was given to the family by the king.

Memories of this book and the people who live through it will remain with me for a long time.

Thrre were sections where the narration was brilliant and others that were faltering and just didn't work..... And while that wasn't perfect. It wasn't enough to bring the story down

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Favorite book of the year so far

Revisado: 06-03-19

What an unusual story and what great characters. I couldn't quit listening... I had to know more about my favorite new friends in Puerto Pesar, the Port of Regret, a sleepy, dusty Texas border town.... There's Dr Paloma Vega who has come home to be sure her beloved grandmother is recovering from the heart attack and that her out of control teenaged sister is reined back in. Add the Boston reporter in town to investigate reports that a portrait of long dead Euka Lee is crying real tears. And then the 90 year old Della Lee arrives back in town. Finally paroled after serving a life sentence for killing her younger sister, the beautiful and talented Eula, just hours after Dellas wedding to the former ranch hand. What a story this is. The characters are so rich and so true

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Great 1920s immigration story

Revisado: 05-27-19

What a lovely story reflecting Chinese customs and family interaction in the 1920s. These are characters I cared about.

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Heavy themes beautifully presented

Revisado: 05-07-19

Spousal abuse through the generations is an extended family create the hub of this story of redemption

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Beautiful focal point

Revisado: 04-28-19

There are do many books with WWII and the holocaust at their core. This one gives the reader a brilliant alternative angle and the lovely handcrafted silver memento at the center of the plot. Well done.

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utterly charming story

Revisado: 12-26-16

I am a sucker for a Christmas book and this is one of the best of the best. It is engaging, thought provoking , educational and delightful. This is destined to be an annual holiday classic for my December Christmas book reading binge

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I'm Missing Mazie

Revisado: 03-02-16

It's been 10 days since I finished listening to this book, and I think of my friend Maizie at odd moments in the day...as I wait for my coffee to finish brewing, as I fold the dryer load of warm towels, as I plunge my hands into the dishwater, I wonder where she is and how she is doing and if she is happy and content. In my mind she has continued beyond the confines of the book and tape and lives on from the 1930s and 40s right past my birth year and clear up until now, today, when in truth she must be 120 but in typical Maizie fashion she remains a clear and foxy 20-something selling movie tickets, looking after the men on the streets and ready for a night of dancing.

Drop by for coffee Maizie!

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A Rebel in her Time

Revisado: 03-02-16

Thousand Pieces of Gold, a middle class farmer's daughter in the China of the old days has her mother unbind her feet so she had help her father in the fields to avoid being sold away from the family, She bucks society at sever other crossroads and lives a life that is all her own and an example for many -- yes even in today's generation. As the author and reader re-create the crisp, clipped language and mannerisms typical of Chinese of the time, there is a coolness to the character -- an image well created and one that doesn't warm until the book is nearly ended. This is a great listen for a rainy afternoon and evening. Cuddle up with a quilt and a fire and the cat and get cozy and get to know this great, but simple woman.

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Picky, I know I'm Picky.

Revisado: 03-02-16

I really enjoyed this book -- the plot, the characters, the locale, the whole thing....BUT....Ms Andrea Bates needs to learn the pronunciation of the few Spanish words in the text correctly (unless of course, Spanish in NEW Mexico is pronounced differently than it is in "OLD" Mexico)

.As a writer and editor details are extremely important to me and as a US citizen living in central Mexico, near Guadalajara for 26 years, my Spanish pronounciation is good, even though my grammar is flawed.

Ms Bates just misses on a couple of words, but each is used multiple times and they grated, and made the back of my neck stiff.

First -- Brujas (witches, curanderas) is said bru-haas NOT Bru jaws as in the tape.

The second is Quinceareas, the celebration of the 15th birthday, and that number is the more commonly used slang for the event -- a girl has her "Quincea~nos" of just Quince. Actually that is the part of the word causing the problem -- Quince (15) in Spanish is not pronounced like the fruit, the quince. Any time there is a qui in a Spanish word, it is pronounced "key" So it could phonically be written keencee or the full Quincea~nos (with the tilde over the n) is pronounced Keencee anYos

I know, it's picky....but the first couple times she said Bru-jaws I didn't know what she was talking about.

Thanks for an enjoyable listen and if I could I'd give the performance 3.5, in spite of these words and the 3 or 4 times she had lost her place or fumbled on a word.

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Good look at the time/place

Revisado: 02-26-13

I found myself searching the internet when I finished reading this book -- I was that convinced that Rose/Rosa and Lars/Nils and John Barclay must be real people who lived through prohibition in California wine country.

Ms Chiaverini did a wonderful job of research for this fascinating story. I'll read this again...
And enjoy it again.

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