A New York Times Bestseller and Pulitzer Prize Winner

This modern-day tale of an unlikely hero takes readers on the dark journey of a contemporary immigrant.

The novel’s main character, Oscar de Léon, is a “ghetto nerd” from a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Plagued by the fukú curse brought upon the aboriginal people of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, Oscar portrays himself as a hero in search of his personal Grail—a “pure and unadulterated love.” Obsessed with science fiction and fantasy, Oscar is alienated in his lower-class community. Throughout high school, and into his teaching career, he is the victim of the narrow perspectives of those without his imagination and vision.

Told from the point of view of Oscar’s sister Lola and his best friend Yunior, this tale of the search for redemption leads the reader through the darkest corners of a country under dictatorial control. Lola seeks her own redemption, away from her family and her heritage. She loves only her younger brother Oscar and seeks to protect him from the curse that tragically affects their family.

Yunior, his best friend and college roommate, does not quite understand Oscar, yet loves him just the same and sees that there is something within Oscar that begs to be understood. As the primary narrator of the novel, Yunior provides a loving portrait of a tortured soul within a tortured family. The redemption of Oscar’s “brief wondrous life” comes at a significant, but justified, price.

Available in BLRC: F DIA

A New York Times bestseller!

Henry Lee is still mourning the death of his wife when he learns that the belongings of Japanese Americans hidden in the basement of Seattle’s Panama Hotel for decades have been discovered. Henry is drawn to the basement, and what he’s searching for there opens a door he thought he had closed forever. The story switches back and forth between 1986 and the 1940s, when a 12-year-old Henry attending an American school (he’s “scholarshipping” as his father likes to say) meets another international student working in the school kitchen. Keiko is Japanese American, the enemy according to Henry’s father, but the two become best friends before her family is imprisoned in one of the relocation camps.

This book does a phenomenal job exploring the history and attitudes of this time period, and Ford’s portrayal of Seattle’s ethnic neighborhoods is amazing. But really, the thing that pulled me into this novel the most was the richness of the relationships — Henry and Keiko, Henry and his father, Henry’s mother and his father, and Henry and his own son. HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET looks at the best and worst of human relationships, the way we regard others, the way we find ourselves reenacting our relationships with our parents with our own children, the choices we make along the way. Mostly, though, this book reminds us that there is always room — and time — for forgiveness and redemption.

Available in BLRC: F FOR

Editors Choice – Historical Novel Society.

In 1888, 20-year-old Gertrude Bell is presented to Queen Victoria.  Gertrude is introduced to the Middle East two years later where she falls in love with the Third Secretary, who proposes to her. Since he’s far below her family’s financial status, her father withholds his consent. Gertrude returns home brokenhearted.

Gertrude travels extensively, learns Arabic, publishes several books, and becomes an expert on Middle East affairs. She meets T.E. Lawrence, who impresses her with his knowledge of Arabia. At the start of WWI, she is appointed to the Arab Bureau in Cairo and proposes a scheme to unite the various Arab tribes to fight on the British side against the Ottomans.

While this is a historical novel, Gold has done a brilliant job in setting up the plot and in covering both the Arab and Western points of view. Readers will hasten to learn whether Gertrude and Lawrence will be successful in their mission. And will Gertrude’s dream of uniting the Arab tribes to fight on the British side come true? Also, what happens at the end of WWI? The obstacles and jeers that Gertrude faced from the chauvinistic officers of that era, and her appropriate responses, are shown vividly. A superb account of a historical woman.

Avaialble in BLRC: F GOL