msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Looking for love in unusual places? I've assembled a group of picks that aren't your standard romance fare - although if it is cheesy romance that you need, I'll gladly be your supplier. In the historical fiction category are three unforgettable love stories, all of which happened to win the Booker prize: Richard Flanagan's heartwrenching The Narrow Road to the Deep North, A.S. Byatt's sumptuous and suspenseful Possession; and Peter Carey's unforgettable tale of misfit love, Oscar and Lucinda. In the YA lit arena, three sad love stand-outs all evolve around mixed race romance; Ashley Hope Perez's Out of Darkness, Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tigerlily, and Martha Brockenbrough's The Game of Love and Death will make your heart hurt just the right way. Only have time for a little love? Check out David Levithan's love lexicon, The Lover's Dictionary, Junot Diaz's smart and funny This is How You Lose Her, or Carlos Fuentes' thinly-veiled trib...

A sweeping, gut-wrenching, intergenerational, epic story of love, war, and the Armenian genocide that moves between modern day Bronxville, New York, and Aleppo, Syria, in 1915. After receiving a call from a friend informing her that a photo of her grandmother has appeared in a local newspaper advertising an exhibit about "the Slaughter You Know Next to Nothing About," middle-aged novelist Laura Petrosian begins to explore her Armenian roots, uncovering a history that is unsettling and complex. Flash back to 1915, and we meet Laura's grandparents, fresh out of college Elizabeth Endicott, who has accompanied her father to Aleppo as a volunteer for the Friends of Armenia, and Armen Petrosian, an Armenian engineer who has recently lost his family to the genocide. When the two meet, sparks collide, and a relationship builds against the backdrop of WWI and the decimation of one and a half million Armenians at the hands of the Turks. Stunned by the painful reality of her famil...

Reading HBB restored a bit of the faith I had recently lost in the Man Booker prize (it was shortlisted for the prize in 2011). A sweeping historical account of one man's journey from Baltimore to the wannabe jazz bars of 1930 Berlin to the streets of Nazi-occupied Paris and back again, fifty years later. This is the perfect read for anyone obsessed with Paris, jazz, or WWII. Give it to someone who enjoys all three and they will remember you for life. Click here for a full review . Grade 11+

Booklist Review: Luke’s Inupiaq name is “hard like ocean ice grinding at the shore or wind pounding the tundra.” But at Alaska’s Sacred Heart boarding school, which Luke attends with his brother, Bunna (a third brother is effectively kidnapped and sent to Texas), his name and the nuances of his culture aren’t treated as being important. It’s the 1960s, though, and the times are a-changing. In lovely, evocative language, Edwardson weaves Luke’s story of displacement, loss, and growth into those of his fellow students’ in a story about the collision of culture and the growing awareness of civil rights. It’s a testament to her skill that even clueless priests and sisters at the school come across as rounded characters; several of them are even aware that military experiments with radioactive drinks, allowed on native students, may be suspect. Some point-of-view changes from first person to third-person omniscient are jarring; nevertheless, this is an illuminating novel of changing perspec...

A bitterly sad historical novel about a largely overlooked event : the 1941 deportation and genocide of Lithuanians during Stalin's reign of terror. Fifteen year-old Lina's life path is forever altered when she, her mother, and younger brother Jonas are arrested in their home and sentenced to work to death in a Siberian labor camp. The opening scene is pure cinema as Lina's mother, given twenty minutes to prepare for their brutal journey, destroys the family china, smashing each piece on the floor, while terrified Lina forgets to change out of her nightgown as she scrambles to gather a few art supplies. When they arrive at the train station, their car is marked 'thieves and prostitutes,' and their horrific journey begins. Shelf this alongside The Diary of Anne Frank, and Adam Bagdasarian's Forgotten Fire for a study of genocide in the 20th century. Grade 7+

When 56 year-old Chinese-American widower Henry Lee hears that the belongings of several Japanese-American families interred during WWII have been discovered in the basement of the Panama Hotel in Seattle's International District, he decides to confront his past and goes looking for a trunk that may contain links to Keiko, his first love and best childhood friend. Told in alternating chapters between 1986 and 1942-45, this story not only describes the injustice of the Japanese internment during WWII, it also takes on father-son relationships, family ties, first love, and grief. HOTCOBAS would complement a study of social justice and makes the perfect companion book for a trip to Seattle. Don't miss all of the extras, including a teacher's guide, on Jamie Ford's website. Grade 10+