The Printed Page

Title: Dragon House
Author/website: Dragon House/John Shors
Pages: 348
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: September ’09
Genre: Contemporary fiction

Dragon House tells the tale of Iris and Noah—two Americans who, as a way of healing their own painful pasts, open a center to house and educate Vietnamese street children. In the slums of a city that has known little but war for generations, Iris and Noah befriend children who dream of nothing more than of going to school, having a home, and being loved. Learning from the poorest of the poor, the most silent of the unheard, Iris and Noah find themselves reborn. Resounding with powerful themes of suffering, sacrifice, friendship, and love, Dragon House brings together East and West, war and peace, and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

Two words: Loved it! Absolutely loved it. This isn’t going to be the most articulate, proper book review you’ve read because the more I love a book the more trouble I have expressing just how much I loved it. Just to give you an idea of what went on my house when I was reading Dragon House and couldn’t tear myself away from these characters a conversation went something like this:

Hubby: What’d you do today?
Me: Read
Hubby: Did you do any laundry, like my golf shirts?
Me: Yep sure did (ugh! that’s what that buzzing noise was)
Hubby: What’s for dinner?
Me: Dinner? (dinner! uh takeout?!)
Hubby: did you grocery shop, by chance?
Me: Grocery shop. Are you kidding? (damn knew there was something else I was supposed to do)
Hubby: What exactly did you do today?
Me: I READ for pete’s sake. OK? Had my nose buried in a BOOK!

I couldn’t put this book down. I started this book Sunday afternoon and by Monday night I was done. I did the very same thing with his other two novels. I get so caught in the lives of his characters that everything else just goes by the wayside. I get wrapped up and lost in his stories. I find him to be a gifted storyteller. Whether he’s writing historical or contemporary fiction he draws me in and keeps me engaged with his stories until I turn the last page. Here’s my best recommendation: as soon as I finished Dragon House I wanted to immediately visit with Iris, Noah, Thien, Mai and Minh again. I wanted to continue reading about their lives and adventures. I want to know what the future has in store for them. My next best recommendation for his novels: now that I’ve read all three ~ Beneath A Marble Sky, Beside A Burning Sea and Dragon House I want to read, right now, what he’s working on next (The Wishing Trees). I don’t say that for a lot of authors. But I can’t wait to get my hands on The Wishing Trees. I wouldn’t feel this way if I didn’t enjoy his current and previous work so much.

If you’re not familiar with Mr. Shors novels I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to his work. It’ll take more an a handful of comments to do this so spread the word to your fellow readers. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of Dragon House to give as my copy is spoken for but I’ll do the next best thing. If a decent number of comments are left I will give away one copy each of Beneath a Marble Sky and Beside A Burning Sea. To get in on the fun:

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Let me know if you’d rather read Beneath A Marble Sky or Beside A Burning Sea; if either is fine let me know that too

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Closes Tuesday, 6/30/09 @ midnight MST.