Book Review - How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

There are some books that after you read it, it stays with you for a very long time and this is one of them.  A beautifully written story about a Japanese woman name Shoko. She is very ill and she tells of her past, how she came to marry an American GI and her new life in America.  She also has a daughter Sue. Sue tells her story of growing up with a Japanese mother. In the end, they both do something that changes their lives forever.

 I will never forget this book, it will always be one of my favorites. I guess because it reminded me of me and my beautiful mother!  

About the book (from Amazon):

In this enchanting first novel, Dilloway mines her own family's history to produce the story of Japanese war bride Shoko, her American daughter, Sue, and their challenging relationship. Following the end of WWII, Japanese shop girl Shoko realizes that her best chance for a future is with an American husband, a decision that causes a decades-long rift with her only brother, Taro. While Shoko blossoms in America with her Mormon husband, GI Charlie Morgan, and their two children, she's constantly reminded that she's an outsider--reinforced by passages from the fictional handbook How to Be an American Housewife. Shoko's attempts to become the perfect American wife hide a secret regarding her son, Mike, and lead her to impossible expectations for Sue. The strained mother-daughter bond begins to shift, however, when a now-grown Sue and her teenage daughter agree to go to Japan in place of Shoko, recently fallen ill, to reunite with Taro. Dilloway splits her narrative gracefully between mother and daughter (giving Shoko the first half, Sue the second), making a beautifully realized whole.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

Author - Margaret Dilloway :

Margaret Dilloway was inspired by her Japanese mother's experiences when she wrote this novel, and especially by a book her father had given to her mother called The American Way of Housekeeping. She lives in Hawaii with her husband and three young children. Her blog, "American Housewife," can be found on her website, www.margaretdilloway.com. This is her first novel.

The Friday 56 and The Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy For Books and this is what she has to say about it:

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added! We get over 200 links every week!!

RULES:

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

1. Enter your book blog link in the Linky List below

In your link, please state the main genre that you review: eclectic, contemp. fiction, ya, paranormal, mystery, non-fiction, etc.

Please do not list every genre you review - if you are review a variety, please put eclectic! The Hop gets jumbled up if the title is too long, so please limit to one genre. I will be limiting the number of characters in the title to ensure the Hop doesn't look messy! Thank you!

Example: Crazy-for-Books (adult fiction)

NOTE: You no longer have to enter the length of time you've been blogging, but do let us know if this is your first time hopping with us!

2. Post about the Hop on your blog. Spread the word about the book party! The more the merrier! In your blog post, answer the following question (new question each week!). If you have a suggestion for a future HOP question, click here to fill out the form! Thanks!

This week's question comes from Elizabeth who blogs at Silver's Reviews.

When you write reviews, do you write them as you are reading or wait until you have read the entire book?

I definitely wait until I've read the whole book. Sometimes the book may start slow and boring but picks up steam and by the end your blown away or it could be a book that starts with a bang but ends up being bad. These scenarios have huge effects on the opinion of the book.

The Friday 56 is hosted by Storytime with Tonya :

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I can't stop talking about this book - How To Be An American Housewife. If you like Amy Tans books, you'll love this one.  A story about a woman's life growing up in Japan and marrying an American service man and her daughters story of returning to her mothers home town.

So this isn't the 5th sentence, its the 4th sentence . I couldn't just start at the 5th.

"Get away." She scolded me for letting him get so close. "You don't want to be tainted, do you? You can't get rid of an Eta touch."