“I got a piece of tissue-thin airmail stationery and my husband’s fountain pen out of the desk drawer. Sitting down on the floor at the coffee table, I put the pen to my lips, thinking. From the garage, Charlie sang as he put laundry in the washer. One of my adult son Mike’s cats meowed at the screen door. I began my letter to Taro.”

How to Be An American Housewife
By Margaret Dilloway

Shoko is a Japanese war bride who at the start of the novel has one dream she still wishes to fulfill and that is to get in touch with her brother, Taro. After she married an American GI and moved to the States, Shoko’s brother cut all ties with her.

In the meantime, Shoko has tried to be the perfect American housewife. Her husband, Charlie, is a good man but perhaps doesn’t understand the alienation that Shoko feels in the new country and away from her family. She has never been able to go back to see them and now growing old and with serious health issues Shoko is desperate to go to Japan to see her brother.

Her doctor won’t allow that and Shoko asks her daughter to go in her place. Sue feels like she’s never lived up to her mother’s standards. She married the wrong guy, always at odds with her mother and now a single-parent but when she realizes that Shoko is really quite ill she knows she can’t say “no” to her mother and she and her young daughter embarks on a trip that will change their life.

The novel is broken into two sections, the first part narrated by Shoko and revealing the secrets of the life she had in Japan. At the beginning of each chapter a little advice note from an imagined handbook of how to behave in a new country sets the tone for the loneliness, confusion and adventures that await Shoko. The second part is narrated by Sue and tells of how she comes to learn more about her mother and herself while on her trip abroad.

This was quite an engaging debut which I found hard to put down but I just wish we’d heard all of the story from Shoko’s point of view. I understand perhaps it was set up this way to explore a mother-daughter relationship from both sides but Shoko’s part was really fascinating to me because it dealt with the customs and way of life in Japan during the war. Sue’s part of the story I found a little bit harder to get into although that may just have been because I found Shoko a much stronger character and one I wanted to keep reading about.

You can read about what inspired the author to write the book here. I read this book as part of the TLC Book tours and you can read more reader reviews of this book by checking the schedule here. Anyway, I hope you’ll add this book to your wishlist. I know, I’ll be looking forward to Dilloway’s next book.

We had a rainy afternoon today so it was perfect time to curl up with a good book. Well, two good books. I keep going back and forth between these two:

Awakening seems to be the perfect mystery book to get me out of the slump I’ve had with some mysteries lately. Manservant and Maidservant is for the Slaves discussion coming up July 31. Grab the book and join us.

Oh and I meant to mention that we finally did have our German bread on Monday. Warm from the oven and with Nutella, oh my goodness, so good. For a moment I felt like I was in Germany.

Ok, my books are waiting for me. What about you, what are you reading?

“The room was full of ghosts. Or so Felicity Johnson would have had him believe. Sir Maurice Newbury, weary from a day spent scouring the dusty stacks of the British Library, drummed his fingers on the table with a quiet impatience. The dinner party was not working out at all as he’d anticipated.”

The Affinity Bridge
by George Mann

Lucky for Sir Maurice life is about to get very interesting for him as he becomes embroiled in an investigation to uncover the murder of a policeman. He and his capable assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes, listen to tales of revenants, or zombies, walking the foggy streets of Victorian London. The people are upset and fear going out but before Sir Maurice and Veronica can make much progress they are summoned by Queen Victoria to investigate an airship crash.

London in 1901 is bursting with new inventions, some dangerous and others fascinating. The atmosphere simmers with excitement as the reader turns the page to see what new invention Sir Maurice will have to contend with as part of his investigation. How can he explain to Queen Victoria that her cousin’s death in the airship crash was human error when everyone knows the automatons that pilot the airships are infallible?

Sir Maurice and Miss Veronica although not having worked together for long quickly fall insync when it comes to the investigation. They rely on one another and although Miss Veronica may have more to learn about mystery solving she’s no simpering miss and just as bravely joins in on the action.

It’s a bit hard to review this book because there is just so much going on and I would hate to spoil the fun. As I neared the end I wasn’t sure how all the pieces were going to be pulled together and while I still think there were some loose ends, I think it’s easy to see that it’s probably because those will be used to build upon in the next installment, or at least I hope so.

This is my first Steampunk read but it surely won’t be my last. I just went along for the ride and had a great time. In case you don’t know, Steampunk is a subgenre of the Science Fiction usually set in the Victorian era and features futuristic technology. If you’ve not read anything in this genre, I do recommend this book. The characters were likable and the action was non-stop and I think it’s a great introduction into the genre.

Source: Advance Review Copy