2025 Library Love Reading Challenge

It's time to sign up for the ninth annual Library Love Challenge hosted by Angel’s Book Nook & Books of My Heart.  Joining the challenge is a way for readers to save money from purchasing books. I have not taken too many books out of the library since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel much better now about returning to my local library.

Getting a library card in most places is free.  So, if you love to read and/or listen to books then grab your library card and join the challenge.

THE RULES

1.  The challenge will be in three semesters.  What this means is more giveaway’s along with the Mini-Challenges throughout the year and the End-of-Year Check In.  You can join 1 or more semesters and participate in as many Mini-Challenges as you like.  I will be joining all three semesters.  For instance, the Audiobook Challenge will be June 1 – July 31.  The Library Bingo (with our COYER friends) will run September  1 – October 31. It’s up to you how much you participate and you can join anytime!  The SIGN-UP will remain open until December 2, 2025.  

➜ Winter Semester: Jan. 1st, 2025 – April 30th, 2025
➜ Summer Semester: May 1st, 2025 – Aug. 31st, 2025
➜ Autumn Semester: Sept. 1st, 2025 – Dec. 31st, 2025

2.  The goal is to find your love of your local library and to read at least twelve (12) books from the library, but you can read more.  While twelve is the minimum; there is no maximum limit.

3.  Any format will work for this challenge (prints, eBook’s, or audios) as long as you checked it out from the library, it counts.

4.  Books can be any genre (fiction, nonfiction, romance, fantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, etc.).

5.  Crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed, including re-reads.  The goal is to support your local library and save money.

6. Optional Reviews:  Write a review to enter the giveaway – 2 sentences or an essay, whatever works for you, but there is a minimum of 2 sentences.  Not sure what to write? How about something like; “The plot was a delight, but the characters didn’t capture me.” “I enjoyed the story and really liked the characters.”

7. Please use #LibraryLoveChallenge when sharing your reviews, library pictures, etc…

8.  If you are interested, we also have a Goodreads Group for the Library Love Challenge, where we talk, share, and discuss the books we snagged/read during the Library Love Challenge – Click Here

9.  If you are interested, we are offering up a Library Love Email.  This email will go out 4x’s during the year.  Everyone who signs up will get a confirmation email, you can unsubscribe at any time, including after signing-up.  This email will only feature the posts for the library love challenge – Click Here   http://eepurl.com/iAR7q6 

10.  You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you can track your progress on Goodreads, Instagram, Facebook, LibraryThing, etc…

11.  Grab the button above and write  a post saying which semesters (Spring, Summer, &/or Winter) you plan to participate in.  List your goal on how many books you plan to read for each semester.

12.  If you’re not a blogger you can help by posting on Social Media about the challenge.  Please link back to both hosts: Angel’s Book Nook & Books of My Heart.

 13.  In order to sign up for the challenge click here.

The Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood was published in 1987. While I love anything David McCullough has written, I skipped this one at the time of publication because it sounded too serious. I wasn't sure that I would enjoy a book on the history of a flood. The What's in a Name Challenge convinced me to read it. I needed to read a book for the category of a natural disaster. The Johnstown Flood is a story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America.

The publisher's summary:

At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation’s burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.

Graced by David McCullough’s remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.

OMG this book was boring. As I mentioned above I was not sure if I would like a book about a flood. However, every review that I read gave glowing remarks. I skipped many pages in the first third of the book. All I read here was descriptions of buildings and nature. There was no human story. As the flood began to happen the book became much more interesting. 

The City of Johnstown received funds from all over the country in order to rebuild. Private citizens as well as businesses mailed money. Just as people today donate monies to aid natural disaster victims, the citizens of the U. S. acted similarly in 1889. It must be part of the human spirit to provide assistance when it is necessary. Likewise, there was a fair amount of travelers to Johnstown to see what was left of the town and reporters published false reports about the disaster just as they do today. Preachers can't help themselves from preaching hellfire. Gossip prevails as people never change. 

There are photos at the back of the book of Johnstown both before and after the flood. It is easy to see how the coastline changed following the disaster but also that the construction of homes close to the water was a bad idea. Similarly, in the 1990s the Mississippi River flooded coastal Illinois and homes built in the flood zone were destroyed. I never understood why people bought these homes in the first place. They disregarded the physicality of the area just to have a waterfront home for a few years. 

I had to skip alot of pages to finish this book. I am rating it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Wrap Up of the 2024 Library Love Reading Challenge

When I signed up for this challenge a year ago I was not certain whether I would be taking many books out of the library.  I was still skittish about the pandemic and was afraid of catching something either at the library or from the books. The Chicago Public Library is my local library and way before the pandemic began the books that I withdrew smelled. My tally for the year is 12 books.

My Reads:

Oath and Honor - Elizabeth Cheney

And There Was Light - Jon Meacham

Happiness Falls - Angie Kim

Peach Tea Smash - Laura Childs

Shadow of Doubt - Brad Thor

A Death in Cornwall - Daniel Silva 

The Secret War of Julia Child - Diana Chambers

Hard Eight - Janet Evanovich

Seven Up - Janet Evanovich

Pink Lemonade Murder - Joanne Fluke

Key Lime Pie Murder - Joanne Fluke

Cinnamon Roll Murder - Joanne Fluke

Favorite Book:  Happiness Falls

Second Favorite Book:  Peach Tea Smash

Least Favorite Book:  Hard Eight

2025 Craving the Cozies Reading Challenge

I am participating in another Cozy book challenge and wasn't aware that there was a similar challenge hosted at the Escape with Dollycas Blog. I am planning on participating in this challenge too along with Cruisin' Through the Cozies Challenge. The Peckish level of participation is the level I am choosing for myself.  It requires that I read 1 through 25 cozies. I am impressed that there are levels for reading 200 books and wonder how many readers are signing up for those levels.

Challenge Rules

1.  The challenge runs from January 1, 2025, and ends on December 31, 2025.

2.  Choose the level at which you would like to participate:

Levels

Peckish – 1 – 25 Cozy Mysteries (my personal challenge)

Famished – 26 – 51 Cozy Mysteries

Yearning – 51 – 75 Cozy Mysteries

Starving – 76 – 100 Cozy Mysteries

Ravenous – 101 – 125 Cozy Mysteries

Voracious – 126 – 150 Cozy Mysteries 

Overindulged – 151 – 200 Cozy Mysteries

Pigged Out – 201 or more Cozy Mysteries

You can always go up a level but you can’t go down. 

3.  You can Feed Your Need To Read with print, digital, or audiobooks.

4. You do not have to post a review but the authors would appreciate it if you did.

5. You do not need to have a blog to participate. If you do have a blog, take the button above, put it on your blog, and post about the challenge. 

6. Join the Craving for Cozies Facebook Group and share your progress with everyone. 

7.  Follow Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book (right sidebar) for cozy giveaways and reviews.  

8. You can keep track any way you wish. You can even set up a special shelf on Goodreads.com to help you keep track! It is super easy, Just click the MY BOOKS tab at the top of the Goodreads page. When that page opens just click – ADD A SHELF in the left-hand sidebar. Title it Craving for Cozies Challenge and you are all set. 

9. SIGN UP HERE!

The form has a spot to request a copy of your responses so you can save it and be able to refresh your memory as to which level you signed up for.

10.  If you post about your books on Social Media, please use the hashtag #CravingCozies.

Wrap-Up of the 2024 Calendar of Crime Challenge

I LOVE this challenge!  Over the years I have found new authors that have become favorites. Last year wasn't great but most of the time this challenge is a huge success. See the links below for my 2024 reads.

Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble

The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen

Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Murder in the Tea Leaves by Laura Childs

An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly

A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

Knee High on the Fourth of July by Jess Lourey

The Sins of Our Fathers by Jody Vorra

Shadow of Doubt by Brad Thor

Peach Tea Smash by Laura Childs

Capture or Kill by Vince Flynn

The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak

Pike Island by Tony Wirt

Death at a Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

Favorite Book:   The Silent Patient

Second Favorite Book:  Her Every Fear

Least Favorite Book:  Capture or Kill

Wrap-Up of the 2024 Build Your Own Library Challenge

The focus of the 2024 Build Your Own Library was history.  There were no required number of books to read and I read six history books for the challenge. As you can see below my focus for the challenge was Japan. 

A History of Modern Manga by Insight Editions

And There Was Light by Jon Meacham

A History of Japan in Manga by Shunichiro Kanaya

The Real Watergate Scandal by Geoff Shepard

Okinawa by Susumu

Ogi:  A History of the Japanese Fan by Julia Hutt

My favorite book is A History of Modern Manga. It has more information about manga than a reader can possibly digest in any one or two or three sittings. It's a book that one will always have to refer to from time to time and it also is a great coffee table book. My least favorite book was Okinawa. This graphic novel was written for the Japanese people about the Battle of Okinawa in WWII and I took offense at the anti-American feel of the book. I probably should not have read it. Had I used my brain I would have realized the author’s perspective beforehand.

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

It's time again to sign up for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2025! The Intrepid Reader Blog is hosting this challenge again. This is probably my favorite challenge of all time and I learn something about history too. I am joining at the Prehistoric level of participation. It requires that I read 50+ books. Most years this has not been a problem. 2024 was an anomaly though because I only read about 12 books. 

Reading Challenge details

Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created where you can add the links for the books you have read. 

The Rules

1)  Everyone can participate! If you don't have a blog you can post a link to your review if it's posted on Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram or Amazon, or you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish.

2)  Add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky that will be added to the host's monthly post (please use the direct URL that will guide us directly to your review)

Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.)

3)  During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

20th Century Reader - 2 books

Victorian Reader - 5 books

Renaissance Reader - 10 books

Medieval - 15 books

Ancient History - 25 books

Prehistoric - 50+ books (my challenge)

4)  To join the challenge you only need to make a post about it, add your link in Mr. Linky of the challenge post or just leave a link to your blog if you are not yet ready to post about it yet. If you don't have a blog you can just leave a comment for this post saying that you are joining, and link to your Facebook, Goodreads or other social media page where you will be sharing your reviews.

5)  Don't forget to use the challenge hashtag #histficreadingchallenge, join in on the Facebook page, and grab your challenge badge.

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

I have wanted to read The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle for awhile now. The What's in a Name Challenge gave me the impetus to get a copy. The book meets the challenge requirements for the shape category and it was fantastic. The story concerns three women who lift the spirits of home-front brides in wartime Britain. Cloth rationing had left the brides with zero opportunity for getting a wedding dress so this group of friends begin asking for old gowns that they could mend for new brides. This story is based on a true event.

The publisher's summary:

After renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. Praying that her niece and nephew will be more hospitable than her brother had been, she arrives with nothing but the clothes she stands in, at a loss as to how to rebuild her business while staying in a quaint country village.

Her niece, Violet Westcott, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay—the village has been interminably dull with all the men off fighting. But just as Cressida arrives, so does Violet’s conscription letter. It couldn’t have come at a worse time; how will she ever find a suitably aristocratic husband if she has to spend her days wearing a frumpy uniform and doing war work?

Meanwhile, the local vicar’s daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair her mother’s gown, her only chance of a white wedding. When Cressida Westcott appears at the local Sewing Circle meeting, Grace asks for her help—but Cressida has much more to teach the ladies than just simple sewing skills.

Before long, Cressida’s spirit and ambition galvanizes the village group into action, and they find themselves mending wedding dresses not only for local brides, but for brides across the country. And as the women dedicate themselves to helping others celebrate love, they might even manage to find it for themselves.

I loved this novel! It is a heartwarming WWII story about how the women left behind coped with shortages and rationing. The focus of the story is the challenging shortages of clothes during the war. The story had an alternating point of view. There are chapters told from Grace, Cresdida and Violet’s perspective. Each woman grew exponentially during the war with Cressida’s encouragement that they find their own path. At that time in the world women did what they were told by their fathers. Their happiness wasn't considered in choosing a husband.

Grace, Violet and Cressida each had romantic interests. While it may have been predictable who they ultimately ended up with, I wondered about the thought process each character would have to go through in order to ascertain what they really wanted in life. As a seamstress myself, I love that as they grew in sewing skills they grew in confidence to make changes in their lives. Actually making those changes was difficult. Their predicament was whether to choose a different path than the men in their life dictated. It was exciting to read how Grace, Violet and Cressida grew in confidence to demand the life of their choosing.

5 out of 5 stars.

2025 Non-Fiction Reading Challenge

Once again the Book'd Out Blog is hosting the Non-fiction Reader Reading Challenge in 2025. The aim of the Nonfiction Reader Challenge is to encourage you to make nonfiction part of your reading experience during the year.  I am joining at the Nonfiction Nosher level of participation which requires me to read 12 nonfiction books.  I don't read much nonfiction but I believe that I can meet this challenge next year.  

HOW IT WORKS

You can select, read and review a book from the categories listed below during the year for a total of up to 12 books; OR select, read and review any nonfiction book. A book may be in print, electronic or audio format.

Choose a goal:

Nonfiction Nipper: Read & review 3 books, from any 3 listed categories

Nonfiction Nibbler: Read & review 6 books, from any 6 listed categories

Nonfiction Nosher: Read & review 12 books, one for each category

Nonfiction Grazer: Read & review any nonfiction book. Set your own goal, or none at all, just share the nonfiction you read through the year.

Categories:

History

Memoir/Biography

True Crime

Science

Health

Food

Travel

Garden 

Myth, Legend and Folklore

Islands 

How-To

Published in 2025

* You can choose your books as you go or create a list in advance. You may combine this challenge with others if you wish. Use your best good faith judgement as to whether a book fits the category or not.

* Where a book is identified by more than one category, it may only count for one, not both.

* You can read your chosen titles in any order, at any pace, just aim to complete the challenge by December 31st 2025

HOW TO JOIN

Create a blog post committing to your participation in this challenge. * If you don’t have a blog you are still welcome to sign up. You can create a shelf for the challenge at Goodreads, LibraryThing or Storygraph, or post via Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky etc. Just add your name and a link to your shelf/account in the sign-up.

The challenge will run from January 1st to December 31st 2025. Participants may join at any time up until December 1st 2025.

*if you would like an email to remind you to add your posts to the Linky please ensure you include a valid email address when you sign up.

Powered by Linky Tools

CLICK HERE to SIGN UP

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Each time you read and review a book as part of this challenge, please identify the post by adding either a direct statement and/or the challenge image badge to the post. It’s also helpful if you indicate the category the book fulfills.

Use the hashtag #ReadNonFicChal on social media. You can tag the host on Twitter:  @bookdout or Bluesky @shelleyrae.bsky.social or Instagram/Threads: @shelleyrae _bookdout or any of my other social media linked in my sidebar

Share your review with other challenge participants by including your name or blog name and the category with a direct link to your review in the Linky below. 

Powered by Linky Tools

CLICK HERE TO ENTER YOUR LINK 

Not sure how the Linky works? Click here for what I hope is a helpful pictorial guide (PDF)  

RIGHT CLICK OR LONG PRESS AND SAVE THE BADGE TO YOUR DEVICE

The Raven's Widow

The Raven's Widow is a historical biography of Jane Boleyn. Her sister-in-law was Anne Boleyn who became Henry VIII's wife. It was published in September 2022. I selected the book for the What's in a Name Challenge under the NFL Team category.

The publisher's summary: 

Jane Parker never dreamed her marriage into the Boleyn family would raise her star to such dizzying heights. Before long, she finds herself as trusted servant and confidante to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn—King Henry VIII’s second queen. On a gorgeous spring day, that golden era is cut short by the swing of a sword. Jane is unmoored by the tragic death of her husband, George, and the loss sets her on a reckless path leading to her own imprisonment in the Tower of London. Surrounded by the remnants of her former life, Jane must come to terms with her actions. In the Tower, she will face up to who she really is and how everything went so wrong.

This was such a compelling story! I did not know much about Jane Boleyn before reading this story. The author, Adrienne Dillard, added articles before it began and at the end giving the historical record concerning her. Basically, not much is known about Jane. There has been false information published about her in the past 20 years which Dillard corrects. That said, she has created a Jane Parker Boleyn character as a sympathetic as well as a dramatic figure. 

In this novel, (SPOILER ALERT) Jane stays true to her convictions. She continues to serve Queen Catherine while her sister-in-law Anne is flirting with Henry. After Catherine is removed from the palace Jane's husband, George Boleyn, convinces her to support Anne. Family ties are important not only to Jane but also to the rest of the Boleyn family. Jane continues to support Anne even after she is arrested and placed in the Tower of London. Jane escapes the death penalty while her sister-in-law and George are executed on the same day. Jane is assigned to serve the next queen Katherine Howard. 5 years later she must decide whether to save her life or tell the truth about Katherine. Jane does both but is sentenced to death anyway even though no one believes that she is guilty of treason. 

I liked this Jane. She was honest to a fault. Dillard did a fine job presenting her as this sympathetic character. Although the only real facts about Jane are that she married and cohabited with George for their ten year marriage, I like that Dillard wrote a novel correcting the historical record of Jane as a power hungry woman who hated her husband.

5 out of 5 stars. 

The Body in the Boot

The Body in the Boot was published in 2015 and is the first book in the Mac Maguire Mysteries by Patrick Walsh. I picked it for the What's in a Name Challenge under the footwear category.

The story follows Mac Maguire who had been the head of a London Murder Squad six months before the story began. He was a policeman renowned for his skill in solving the most difficult cases. Now a private detective and, after bereavement and pain, he doubts himself and is no longer sure if he has the will or the energy to make a success of his new career. His first case comes by chance as a mother’s grief sends him into a town’s red light district to find out how her daughter died. Lo and behold after a day in the morgue the coroner discovers that the daughter is still alive but in a deep hibernation sleep. Mac soon finds himself working with a team of local police detectives who are hot on the trail of a cold-blooded serial killer. Mac has to dig deep and rediscover all his talents in order to solve the case of The Body in the Boot.

When I began reading this novel, my expectations were low but only because I have never heard of the author or the book. I was sorely wrong! The story was one of the most exciting I have read in awhile. The tension was taut with twists galore as one dead body after another kept piling up.

There are 13 installments of this series to date and I am going to read them all. Author Patrick Walsh's character Mac Maguire is based on himself. Walsh suffers from chronic back pain and he wrote this trait into his character. I, too, suffer from chronic back pain and could relate to how Mac dealt with pain on the job. He was frequently laying down for an hour just as I do. I love that this character has a mobility disability. Walsh also writes the DI Biddie O'Sullivan mystery series. He lives in Birmingham, England where Mac Maguire also resides.

5 out of 5 stars.

12 Days of Mistletoe

This novel was selected for the Clock Reading Challenge. I am glad that I completed the challenge but don't want to do it again. It was hard finding books with numbers in the titles and I didn't particularly like most of the books that I read. However, 12 Days of Mistletoe was a delightful story.

The publisher's summary:  

I, Bonnie Miller, am no troublemaker. I’m just an anxious girl trying to keep my emotional support pup in a no-pets apartment building. But my downstairs neighbor is determined to be my personal Grinch and get us both evicted.

Just when I think things can’t get any worse, Elliot Eaton offers me a deal I can’t refuse. Suddenly I’m playing girlfriend and giving mistletoe kisses to my sworn enemy, all to keep my home.

Who knew that breaking one little rule would lead to a fan-mistletoe-tastic holiday?

12 Days of Mistletoe is a closed door, laugh out loud, warm your wintery heart romcom. If you need a book with all the feels, some mistletoe kisses, and lots of holiday spirit, look no further!

I don't usually like romance novels but this one was super cute. It has all the ingredients of my beloved cozies with a meddling grandmother and one of the main characters, Bonnie, uses a service animal; A nice touch in my mind. The story is told in an alternating format, from Bonnie and Elliott's perspectives. The pace is fast and every chapter provides embarrassment for both of them.  

A little more detail concerning plot is in order. Elliott is planning on buying this apartment building from his grandmother and managing it by himself. Bonnie has lived in her apartment for three years and has broken the rule prohibiting dogs. Elliott wants to evict her but his grandmother won't hear of it. She likes Bonnie. Grandma thinks the two of them would make a great couple and gives Elliott an ultimatum: be at her house every day for 12 days with Bonnie or she will not sell him the building. Elliott offers Bonnie a deal: pretend to be his girlfriend for two weeks and he will pay her rent in the next month. She takes him up on the offer. 

Of course, they are attracted to each other but do their best to resist temptation. Their initial meeting was awful and each had built up a hatred for the other. Well, it wouldn't be a romcom if they did not become an item. And they lived happily ever after.

5 out of 5 stars.

White Mulberry

White Mulberry was just published a few days ago on December 1, 2024. It is an Asian fiction story similar to Pachinko. It was inspired by the life of the author’s North Korean grandmother who was living in Japan in the 1930s and in Japan occupied Korea during WW11.

The publisher's summary:

Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.

1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.

In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.

As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.

White Mulberry is a heartwarming novel about two sisters who were separated by Korean traditions for women as well as the war in the Pacific. Miyoung and Bohbeh enjoyed growing up together and were close. When a stranger arrives in their village, he stays overnight in the family’s boarding house. During that first evening the stranger tells the girls' mother that Bohbeh would make a good wife for his brother who lives in Kyoto, Japan. I was shocked when mom agreed to let her daughter leave home with a stranger and forced her into marriage. I expected that there was no brother and that Bohbeh would be assaulted by this stranger. However, that was untrue.

Miyoung is the protagonist in this story. She was the youngest in the family and wanted to be educated. Tradition dictated that she marry after finishing primary school at 11. Miyoung became betrothed to a boy with pockmarked skin who she disliked. She got lucky when her parents finally agreed to let her travel to Kyoto and live with her sister while she attended middle school and high school. Miyoung was scared to travel the two days to get to Kyoto but Bohbeh helped her adjust to her surroundings. It's amazing that Miyoung excelled in school because she didn't know the Japanese language. The setup for the rest of the story is now complete. 

The setting is essential to the story. There is a huge contrast between the rural Korean village the family lived in and Kyoto. You cannot help but see how these communities impacted the lives of the sisters. Miyoung loved the simplicity of life in her village where she often climbed a mulberry tree. Both experienced discrimination, Miyoung particularly. They accepted their so-called inferiority to the Japanese, fearing retaliation. I couldn't understand why they acquiessed but then again I have never lived in an occupied country. I felt the fear they experienced in my own soul. 

White Mulberry is a wonderful family saga. If you enjoy these types of stories you simply must read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.