en-US Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:41:38 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 6443363 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian meets Desperate Housewives in this exploration of the booming business of Russian e-mail-order brides, an industry where love and marriage collide with sex and commerce.

Odessa, Ukraine, is the humour capital of the former Soviet Union, but in an upside-down world where waiters earn more than doctors and Odessans depend on the Mafia for basics like phone service and medical supplies, no one is laughing. After months of job hunting, Daria, a young engineer, finds a plum position at a foreign firm as a secretary. But every plum has a pit. In this case, it’s Mr. Harmon, who makes it clear that sleeping with him is job one. Daria evades Harmon’s advances by recruiting her neighbour, the slippery Olga, to be his mistress. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria’s job.

Daria begins to moonlight as an interpreter at Soviet Unions(TM), a matchmaking agency that organizes “socials� where lonely American men can meet desperate Odessan women. Her grandmother wants Daria to leave Ukraine for good and pushes her to marry one of the men she meets, but Daria already has feelings for a local. She must choose between her world and America, between Vlad, a sexy, irresponsible mobster, and Tristan, a teacher nearly twice her age. Daria chooses security and America. Only it’s not exactly what she thought it would be�

A wry, tender, and darkly funny look at marriage, the desires we don’t acknowledge, and the aftermath of communism, Moonlight in Odessa is a novel about the choices and sacrifices that people make in the pursuit of love and stability.]]> 342 Janet Skeslien Charles 1596916729 JG (Introverted Reader) 4
Full disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads

Really, this was 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because it's something I'm interested in.

I really liked Daria. She's a sharp-tongued, sharp-witted survivor. Throughout the book she changes in ways that follow a natural progression considering what she's going through. But I felt like the whole "a good man is hard to find and I'm so lonely" side of her got over-developed. That's all she thinks about. At one point, some friends of hers showed up at her house for a birthday party, and I was surprised that she had friends. All I'd seen up until that point was work, and all she'd thought about was work and love. Where did those ladies come from?

I really enjoyed reading about life in Ukraine. We have a surprisingly large community of Ukrainian immigrants where I live. They aren't mail order brides. Whole families come here to escape religious persecution, from what I understand. Anyway, I like listening to one of my co-workers, Sofiya, talk about her life in Ukraine. She never complains, she seems to love her native country, but in a roundabout way, she makes me realize again and again exactly how good I have it. She's only 21, so she never really knew life in the Soviet Union. But she still knows what it's like to be hungry, and her stories of selling old toys on the side of the road, trying to earn money for food, break my heart. I should add here that she comes from a family that seems to be hard-working and caring. But if there's no money, there's no money. She's very open about it all, but I don't even know enough to ask her intelligent questions. I feel like I have a bit more of a starting point after reading this. I feel like we've already had one good discussion because of this book.

The author did a great job of showing why some women feel like becoming a mail order bride is their only option. For various reasons, women outnumber men in Odessa. The men who are left, at least in the book, tend to be alcoholics, abusers, and/or criminals. There aren't any jobs available. Women must choose whether to stay in Odessa, a city they love but where they will never get any further ahead, or whether to take a chance on the unknown dream of America and an American husband. Through Daria's eyes, we see that it's not an easy choice. When former female clients call home with reports of abuse from their American husbands, we see that the dream can become a nightmare. Abuse is bad enough, but imagine being in a country where you don't speak the language, you don't know the system, and you don't know your rights. Terrifying.

Right after starting this book, I caught part of a documentary on TV about this very subject. Maybe I'm projecting my own feelings onto what I saw, but the combination of fear, hope, and uncertainty I saw on the women's faces made me feel for them. It got worse as I watched the soon-to-be husbands start to kiss, hug, and just generally hang all over these women whom they barely knew, and yet who would soon be their brides. The women looked very uncomfortable, but you could tell they were trying to hide it.

All of that came through here. I have to admit that I have the men who use these sites stereotyped as desperate, lonely men. I can't help but feel that they can't get a woman in their own country because there's something wrong with them. I'm sure I'm wrong--they can't all be like that--but this book didn't do anything to dispel that notion. They were all desperate lonely men who couldn't get women in their own country because something was wrong with them.

I've made this sound all serious, and it mostly was, but it had a few lighter moments. Daria's exchanges with Ukrainian men and her friend Olga could be pretty funny. And I'm ready to visit Odessa, based on the loving descriptions of the city found here. Apparently, they have Their climate on the Black Sea sounds positively balmy. Well, compared to what I think of when I think of the former Soviet Union, anyway! They have beaches as we know them! And I want to make my husband carry me up all 192 steps of the I probably shouldn't say that, or he'll never want to go!

If you're interested in Ukraine or mail order brides, go ahead and pick this up. It was a solid story, I felt like I learned a lot, and it would be great for a group discussion. Look how long I've rambled on here, trying to discuss it by myself without giving anything away!]]> 3.82 2009
author: Janet Skeslien Charles
name: JG (Introverted Reader)
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2009/11/03
date added: 2022/02/24
shelves: first-reads, 4_stars, z_author_american, fiction, womens_fiction, z_read_in_2009, reviewed, z_setting_ukraine, gave_away
review:
Daria just graduated with a degree in engineering, but in Odessa, Ukraine, jobs are almost impossible to find. She eventually starts work as a secretary for an Israeli import/export firm and as an interpreter for an email order bride company, Soviet Unions. Good men are hard to find in Odessa too, so Daria finds herself corresponding with a few men, even as some she already knows start to make advances.

Full disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads

Really, this was 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because it's something I'm interested in.

I really liked Daria. She's a sharp-tongued, sharp-witted survivor. Throughout the book she changes in ways that follow a natural progression considering what she's going through. But I felt like the whole "a good man is hard to find and I'm so lonely" side of her got over-developed. That's all she thinks about. At one point, some friends of hers showed up at her house for a birthday party, and I was surprised that she had friends. All I'd seen up until that point was work, and all she'd thought about was work and love. Where did those ladies come from?

I really enjoyed reading about life in Ukraine. We have a surprisingly large community of Ukrainian immigrants where I live. They aren't mail order brides. Whole families come here to escape religious persecution, from what I understand. Anyway, I like listening to one of my co-workers, Sofiya, talk about her life in Ukraine. She never complains, she seems to love her native country, but in a roundabout way, she makes me realize again and again exactly how good I have it. She's only 21, so she never really knew life in the Soviet Union. But she still knows what it's like to be hungry, and her stories of selling old toys on the side of the road, trying to earn money for food, break my heart. I should add here that she comes from a family that seems to be hard-working and caring. But if there's no money, there's no money. She's very open about it all, but I don't even know enough to ask her intelligent questions. I feel like I have a bit more of a starting point after reading this. I feel like we've already had one good discussion because of this book.

The author did a great job of showing why some women feel like becoming a mail order bride is their only option. For various reasons, women outnumber men in Odessa. The men who are left, at least in the book, tend to be alcoholics, abusers, and/or criminals. There aren't any jobs available. Women must choose whether to stay in Odessa, a city they love but where they will never get any further ahead, or whether to take a chance on the unknown dream of America and an American husband. Through Daria's eyes, we see that it's not an easy choice. When former female clients call home with reports of abuse from their American husbands, we see that the dream can become a nightmare. Abuse is bad enough, but imagine being in a country where you don't speak the language, you don't know the system, and you don't know your rights. Terrifying.

Right after starting this book, I caught part of a documentary on TV about this very subject. Maybe I'm projecting my own feelings onto what I saw, but the combination of fear, hope, and uncertainty I saw on the women's faces made me feel for them. It got worse as I watched the soon-to-be husbands start to kiss, hug, and just generally hang all over these women whom they barely knew, and yet who would soon be their brides. The women looked very uncomfortable, but you could tell they were trying to hide it.

All of that came through here. I have to admit that I have the men who use these sites stereotyped as desperate, lonely men. I can't help but feel that they can't get a woman in their own country because there's something wrong with them. I'm sure I'm wrong--they can't all be like that--but this book didn't do anything to dispel that notion. They were all desperate lonely men who couldn't get women in their own country because something was wrong with them.

I've made this sound all serious, and it mostly was, but it had a few lighter moments. Daria's exchanges with Ukrainian men and her friend Olga could be pretty funny. And I'm ready to visit Odessa, based on the loving descriptions of the city found here. Apparently, they have Their climate on the Black Sea sounds positively balmy. Well, compared to what I think of when I think of the former Soviet Union, anyway! They have beaches as we know them! And I want to make my husband carry me up all 192 steps of the I probably shouldn't say that, or he'll never want to go!

If you're interested in Ukraine or mail order brides, go ahead and pick this up. It was a solid story, I felt like I learned a lot, and it would be great for a group discussion. Look how long I've rambled on here, trying to discuss it by myself without giving anything away!
]]> 3124249 312 Gregory Maguire 0060548924 JG (Introverted Reader) 2 A Lion Among Men revisits the Oz of Elphaba Thropp and Wicked . This time the political maneuverings in Oz are told through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion, otherwise known as Brrr. The story begins when Brrr has tracked down Sister Yackle to the mauntery where she is trying to die. There is a lot of back story from both of them and then a lot of resolution in the present in the last hundred pages or so.

Let me say right up front that I won this in a So I hate to say it, but I really didn't enjoy this book. I liked Wicked and Son of a Witch , but A Lion Among Men just crawled along for me. I liked Yackle's parts of the story, but Brrr's just seemed to drag on and on. His story could practically have been summed up with "Wrong place, wrong time, story of my life."

Finally, around page 240 or so, the story caught up to the present and things got interesting. That far in, there was finally a synopsis of what had come before. It's been a while since I read Son of a Witch, so I'd been kind of lost throughout the book. It also probably didn't help that Brrr's purpose in visiting Yackle isn't revealed until around page 190. So it picked up and I enjoyed it--just in time to be left hanging, waiting for the next book.

Honestly, this felt like filler. I truly dislike reading books that don't serve much of a purpose other than to hook you into the next book, and that's how this felt to me.

The "witty dialog" between Yackle and Brrr mostly just fell flat. Here's an example:

"Is this germane to your investigation, or do I detect a particular interest in sexual jealousy? An uptick in your circulation? Some shallow breathing?"

"F**k you."

"If I'd only been so lucky."

That's about the way it goes.

I guess the upshot for me is that die-hard fans of the series will enjoy this latest installment. People who recall the storyline from the previous books better than I do will probably enjoy it also. But this is the end of the line for me and The Wicked Years. ]]> 3.33 2008
author: Gregory Maguire
name: JG (Introverted Reader)
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2009/02/09
date added: 2022/01/09
shelves: first-reads, fantasy, fiction, retold_stories, z_read_in_2009, reviewed, 2_stars, gave_away, z_author_american, arc, to_blog
review:
A Lion Among Men revisits the Oz of Elphaba Thropp and Wicked . This time the political maneuverings in Oz are told through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion, otherwise known as Brrr. The story begins when Brrr has tracked down Sister Yackle to the mauntery where she is trying to die. There is a lot of back story from both of them and then a lot of resolution in the present in the last hundred pages or so.

Let me say right up front that I won this in a So I hate to say it, but I really didn't enjoy this book. I liked Wicked and Son of a Witch , but A Lion Among Men just crawled along for me. I liked Yackle's parts of the story, but Brrr's just seemed to drag on and on. His story could practically have been summed up with "Wrong place, wrong time, story of my life."

Finally, around page 240 or so, the story caught up to the present and things got interesting. That far in, there was finally a synopsis of what had come before. It's been a while since I read Son of a Witch, so I'd been kind of lost throughout the book. It also probably didn't help that Brrr's purpose in visiting Yackle isn't revealed until around page 190. So it picked up and I enjoyed it--just in time to be left hanging, waiting for the next book.

Honestly, this felt like filler. I truly dislike reading books that don't serve much of a purpose other than to hook you into the next book, and that's how this felt to me.

The "witty dialog" between Yackle and Brrr mostly just fell flat. Here's an example:

"Is this germane to your investigation, or do I detect a particular interest in sexual jealousy? An uptick in your circulation? Some shallow breathing?"

"F**k you."

"If I'd only been so lucky."

That's about the way it goes.

I guess the upshot for me is that die-hard fans of the series will enjoy this latest installment. People who recall the storyline from the previous books better than I do will probably enjoy it also. But this is the end of the line for me and The Wicked Years.
]]> 348730 Alice At Heart as "a compelling, intricately plotted story of love and acceptance."

Alice At Heart is simply this: a rich, whimsical, intelligent and romantic launch for Deborah's WaterLilies series about the lives, loves, and dramas of a secret society of people endowed with supernatural traits in the water and a solemn mythology that insists they're descended from ancient (and not
stereotypical) "mermaids."

An earlier e-book edition from TimeWarner's iPublish division was published in Spring 2001; however, the BelleBooks collector's edition of Alice At Heart includes extensive new material added by the author, as well as original artwork and a classic 1920's Maxfield Parrish painting as the cover art.

With 1.5 million copies of her romantic Southern novels in print, Deborah has been named a top all-time author by Romantic Times. Her past and current titles include A Place To Call Home, On Bear Mountain, and Stone Flower Garden.]]> 320 Deborah Smith 0967303524 JG (Introverted Reader) 4
Let me say right up front that I won this book in a GR giveaway. I don't think that's affected my rating and review, but in the interest of full disclosure, there it is.

The book started off a little disjointed for me because I wasn't very clear about what to expect. But by the time I was 20-30 pages in, it was all coming together and I was starting to enjoy the book. It only got better all the way through. I liked the characters and the mystery of what happened the night a boat sank, 40 years ago. I liked the family histories and legends of the characters. I particularly liked the way that the fantasy element was woven in like it was no big deal. Just make this one little leap of faith and all of a sudden you've got the real world with a little more magic in it. That's always fun.

The book had a feel (but not a plot) a little like the movie Practical Magic and the book Garden Spells, with maybe just a little of the drama and mystery of The Pilot's Wife thrown in. Fans of these books would certainly enjoy this one.]]> 3.54 2001
author: Deborah Smith
name: JG (Introverted Reader)
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2008/10/20
date added: 2021/08/05
shelves: first-reads, fantasy, fiction, southern_lit, z_read_in_2008, womens_fiction, reviewed, 4_stars, gave_away, romantic
review:
Alice has always been the odd one in her small Appalachian community. She loves water, her hair grows incredibly fast, her feet are slightly webbed, and somehow her personality has just never "fit in." She's done her best all her life to blend into the background, but she gets quite a bit of publicity when she rescues someone. She hates being in the public eye, but ultimately it brings her to the attention of some women who can give her answers about her past and why she's so different.

Let me say right up front that I won this book in a GR giveaway. I don't think that's affected my rating and review, but in the interest of full disclosure, there it is.

The book started off a little disjointed for me because I wasn't very clear about what to expect. But by the time I was 20-30 pages in, it was all coming together and I was starting to enjoy the book. It only got better all the way through. I liked the characters and the mystery of what happened the night a boat sank, 40 years ago. I liked the family histories and legends of the characters. I particularly liked the way that the fantasy element was woven in like it was no big deal. Just make this one little leap of faith and all of a sudden you've got the real world with a little more magic in it. That's always fun.

The book had a feel (but not a plot) a little like the movie Practical Magic and the book Garden Spells, with maybe just a little of the drama and mystery of The Pilot's Wife thrown in. Fans of these books would certainly enjoy this one.
]]> 6533687 Simon Tofield's animations have taken YouTube by storm. Now, the feline Internet phenomenon makes his way onto the page in this first-ever book based on the popular animated series. Simon's Cat depicts and exaggerates the hilarious relationship between a man and his cat. The daily escapades of this adorable pet, which always involve demanding more food, and his exasperated but doting owner come to life through Tofield's charming and hilarious illustrations.]]> 240 Simon Tofield 0446560065 JG (Introverted Reader) 4
This was cute. I think every cat owner will recognize their cat in these pages. The way he's always begging for food, plotting to catch the local wildlife, ripping off his bell-collar, and just generally being a lovable, annoying furball are spot on. There's one section about the ordeal of getting the cat into the pet carrier and to the vet that I am going to show my aunt. She will love it! And does she have a story about that! Some things seemed a little familiar from Garfield (mostly the cat-as-birdhouse routines), but mostly this was original and funny. With his best friend the garden gnome and his arch-nemesis the porcupine in tow, Simon's cat will charm your socks off.

One thing that bothered me was that I wasn't sure where one little storyline ended and where another started. They weren't consistently the same length, sometimes there were several on a page, and sometimes one little story went on for pages. Maybe it was just me. But still--that's what knocked this down a star.

Overall, though, I recommend this for cat lovers. I'll be checking out the YouTube videos soon myself.]]> 4.31 2009
author: Simon Tofield
name: JG (Introverted Reader)
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2009/10/02
date added: 2009/10/02
shelves: first-reads, reviewed, 4_stars, z_author_british, fiction, z_read_in_2009, gave_away
review:
This is apparently based on some of the same name. I've never heard of it, but since I almost never go to YouTube, that's not saying much. Still, I saw the title on the and decided to enter to win a free book. I have a cat, and who doesn't love a good cartoon about cats? I was lucky enough to win a copy.

This was cute. I think every cat owner will recognize their cat in these pages. The way he's always begging for food, plotting to catch the local wildlife, ripping off his bell-collar, and just generally being a lovable, annoying furball are spot on. There's one section about the ordeal of getting the cat into the pet carrier and to the vet that I am going to show my aunt. She will love it! And does she have a story about that! Some things seemed a little familiar from Garfield (mostly the cat-as-birdhouse routines), but mostly this was original and funny. With his best friend the garden gnome and his arch-nemesis the porcupine in tow, Simon's cat will charm your socks off.

One thing that bothered me was that I wasn't sure where one little storyline ended and where another started. They weren't consistently the same length, sometimes there were several on a page, and sometimes one little story went on for pages. Maybe it was just me. But still--that's what knocked this down a star.

Overall, though, I recommend this for cat lovers. I'll be checking out the YouTube videos soon myself.
]]>