Moloka'i

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert; reviewed by Lizzy

       Moloka’i is beautiful—the book as well as the island. Alan Brennert follows the life of Rachel Kalama, who is diagnosed with leprosy at the age of six in Honolulu, 1891. Taken immediately from her family, Rachel is placed in Kalihi medical facility for a year before being transferred to the leper colony on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka’i for over forty years. This wonderful book follows Rachel through her years searching for love and life in “a place for the dead.”

      Moloka’i presented me with a glimpse at a life both strikingly similar to and yet totally different from life in the rest of the world. Just as I was forgetting that Rachel and her loved ones on Moloka’i had leprosy and becoming wrapped in their lifelike emotions, Brennert would gently remind me that all of these people suffered from “the separating sickness” that tore apart families with a mention of dying flesh on living bodies. Brennert skillfully brought Rachel to life and made me believe in her bravery, empathy, and capacity for love in impossible situations. Through love, death, and everything in between, Moloka’i retained a beautiful tone and kept me emotionally invested—I’ll admit I teared up at some points. I highly recommend this book to readers of all kinds. It's available at GGP now!

**This book is also very highly recommended by staffer Krystle!

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell; reviewed by Lizzy

     From The Very Hungry Caterpillar  to Harry Potter and everything I’ve read in between (and I’ve read plenty in my time—I work at a bookstore), I had never decided on a favorite book as a matter of principle: it was like choosing between my children. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell turned out to be the exception to my rule.

     The novel is ambitious and fantastic simply in the way it’s planned: in a mirror format. Cloud Atlas features six interlocking short stories, with the first half of each laid out from past to future chronologically, with the sixth section whole in the center, and then in reverse order again until the book finishes with the second half of the first story. I know—I was confused too. Each story is revealed to be within the next story somehow—as a diary being read, a series of letters, a manuscript, a movie, an “orison” (futuristic recording device), and a campfire tale. To interweave the disparate stories further, it is continually implied that each main character is really the same soul born again across time, space, gender, and age lines. For example, a young, bisexual British composer named Robert Frobisher is sort of the same person as a female restaurant clone in futuristic, “corpocratic” Seoul named Sonmi-451.

     Cloud Atlas is not an easy read, but I promise it’s worth the time. Mitchell has a talent for creating memorable, distinct voices for each of his characters while still showing the reader the links between them. Every time I read his novel again I find connections that I missed the last time around. Plus, it’s worth reading if you’re the kind of person who likes to read the book before seeing the movie. The “Cloud Atlas” movie stars Tom Hanks and Halle Berry and was released on October 26.

Reviews are up and running!

Starting today, this blog will be updated at least monthly with reviews by GGP staffers! The first, Lizzy's review of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, will be up later tonight.

Happy reading!