Skip to main content

How to be an American Housewife...

Just finished reading Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife. Wow. What a read. Couldn't put it down. About a Japanese bride and her military husband. Shoko tries hard, harder than anyone I ever knew, to be the perfect wife and mother in her new country. More often than not she believes she has failed. You'll learn through her trials and tribulations that this is not so. She succeeds very well as a woman who loves her husband and children more than life itself. Even when her spirit is tested as she faces death.

Great characters and beautiful writing, the first novel by Margaret Dilloway.

I'm not giving away any more of the story.

It touched my heart and soul and these characters are still ambling around in my mind several days after I put the book down.

Here's to a new year of great books, great writing, and most of all good health to us all.

Blessings, Barb

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. janisDecember 27, 2011 at 6:09 PM

    looks like I just added a book to my must reads:) Thanks Barb!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jackson ChroniclesDecember 30, 2011 at 12:54 AM

    How ironic! I am in the middle of reading a similar book but from the prospective of a Vietnamese immigrant child, Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen. Yes, the characters too do amble in the mind.

    At first I was not too enthusiastic... Chapters called Pringles and Toll House Cookies.

    But then through the eyes of a child like a housewife America is such a complex of cultures...how to cut meat with a fork and knife when all you know is chopsticks.

    Such a pleasure to find a kindred link through books.

    May the New Year bring you many peaceful moments of memories and lives of other cultures and thus in our own everyday lives we may find the increase in peaceful moments in whole world increase.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deb ShuckaJanuary 1, 2012 at 2:28 PM

    What better way to start the new year than with a great book recommendation. Thank you, and Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nancy M.January 3, 2012 at 3:58 PM

    Sounds like a good book! I hope you have a blessed New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth VollstadtJanuary 3, 2012 at 8:18 PM

    Sounds good. I'll have to get it. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Revolutionary New Diet...

Recently I went on a diet. Like most diets this one was scheduled around a major life event. My daughter's wedding. There would be no shopping for a mother-of-the-bride dress until the pounds came off. Typically I go on a diet on Monday and by Wednesday I've folded beneath the weight of a German chocolate cake. I've been hijacked by as little as a stale pink sugar wafer discovered in the dark recesses of the bread drawer. But this time things were going to be different. I could tell as I went to get the mail and discovered the first crocus of the season. Life was looking up. Even though an icy rain began to fall, my spirits weren't dampened. Not even when huge drops pelted me on the head and I had to dash inside. My latest plan would revolutionize dieting. If it worked for me it would work for the world. I smelled a book deal. I could see myself all made-over and liposuctioned sitting between Oprah and Dr. Oz. It was full speed ahead. Gone were those complex menus...
23 comments
Read more

Building a story vs building a house

My latest book! Dear Writer:  Writing a story is somewhat similar to building a house. Or not! Remember this: when we give a piece of our story to someone to read - we expect them to see the whole. It's like building a house and offering a single piece of lumber to another builder. “Here, see the house I'm building.” SOME CAN SEE IT AND SOME CAN’T. Here's the thing: MOST CAN'T. This step is as necessary to me as breathing.  I need to give you single boards as I create them. AND I expect you to be a visionary and say, “Why yes. I see.”   I need you to see how special the piece of lumber is that I'm using and to see that eventually I'll add more pieces to make the whole.  Choose people to read your work who like the kind of stories you write.  There are as many kinds of stories as there are houses to live in. If you give a brick ranch to someone who only appreciates a cape cod then he'll have a hard time fitting hims...
7 comments
Read more

MY HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 High School - Poca High School, Putnam County, WV What year was it? Fall 1960 - Spring 1963 What were your favorite bands, or singers? Sam Cook, Chubby Checker, Conway Twitty (It's only make believe), Johnny Rodriquez. Meatloaf. ELvis. What was your favorite outfit? Straight skirts, blouses, cardigans or jackets, little heels. Other Outfits? Jeans and a white Dr. Ben Casey shirt. What was up with your hair? Everything. I put peroxide on it. Lemon juice, thinking it needed to be lighter. I cut it, styled it, put it in a pony tail or a french twist. Hair was the most important thing in my life in high school. And hair spray, the stiffer the better. Who were your best friends? Patti Jones, Karen Mattox, and Susie Bailey all thru elem school. Then added on Donna Dailey, Sharon "Mouse" Hackett and Janice Wick and many others. Also Bonnie Kerwood who was older than me and lived near me so we hung out listening to records after schoo...
21 comments
Read more