The author tells such a sweet story for children who know Santa and have heard of Jesus but who may be confused of how the two mingle at Christmas. The author weaves a sweet tale simplifying that question and showing love of children. The illustrations are excellent. Please list the illustrator's name on the web site.

JoAnn Levy's insight into the people and times of the California Gold Rush is beautifully played out in this story of the resourceful Chinese immigrant, Ah Toy. We are transported not only to the raucous streets of 1850s San Francisco, but to the mind of a frightened Chinese woman who finds herself on foreign shores through events not in her control. Her victories over prejudice and poverty are testimony to a valiant spirit, and Ms. Levy's telling of the tale is convincing and heart-stirring. I could feel the dust from horse's hooves and smell the smoke from San Francisco's many fires, but most of all, I remember a woman with courage and resilience, and a sense of humor to get her through the long nights. An excellent read.

In Daughter of Joy, author JoAnn Levy brings Gold Rush era San Francisco to life with her story of Ah Toy, a Chinese immigrant. Ah Toy comes to California a slave, but her strength and courage spur her on to win her freedom -- both from the men who would control her and from her own fears. Daughter of Joy is a fascinating story which left me eager for more from this first-time novelist. Lovers of historical fiction won't be disappointed!

JoAnn Levy colorfully evokes the 19th century California gold rush through the eyes of a few Chinese immigrants, principally Ah Toy, a resourceful if often bewildered and sometimes terrified young Chinese woman in mourning for her big, unbound feet, with an idealistic love for a Chinese scholar and a cultural supposition that any man of importance can do as he wishes with her. Her prostitution is simply a practical job for her (she is puzzled by the western moral ethic); the real story is how she finds her own considerable strengths, becomes a guide and support to many others,and in the end turns out to be the heroine of her own life. You really cheer for her. Excellent color of the city which seems to burn down and be rebuilt every few months.

At the opening of "Mortals," Ray Finch is a happy man. He adores his wife, Iris. His work as a Milton expert at an elite school in early-1990s Botswana is really just a front for his real job, that as a contract agent for the CIA. He loves this job, and he also loves his handler. And you had better love Ray, because this book never gets out of his head.

Unfortunately, it is hard to love Ray. His level of self-absorption is extraordinary. In his adoration of Iris he wants her to exist only for him. When she seeks the help of a counselor for depression, Ray decides that she's having an affair with the man-she must be because his obsession with her should be enough to make her happy. He tries to get his creepy new CIA station chief to let him compile a file on the counselor, an African-American new to Botswana. The chief wants Ray to focus his attentions on a Botswanan recently returned from England whom Ray sees as not only harmless, but rather admirable. Ray begins to seethe.

And what does Ray do to help himself assimilate all these changes? He talks. Dear God, does he talk. Everyone in "Mortals" talks far too much. Ray and Iris indulge in these unbelievably boring talk-fests that I advise you now to skip if you want to survive the trek to "Mortals" last page. Neither of these people is interesting enough to make half, even a third, of what they have to say compelling, especially since Iris exists only through Ray's limited vision. Once Ray gets sent on a mission in the bush-and away from Iris-things pick up. Then the talking goes on entirely in his head, but it is tempered by your hope that something is actually going to happen.

"Mortals" works when it talks about African politics, history, customs, or traditions. You want to know more about the African characters, while you wish the expats would just shut up. The last third of the novel gels (Ray is literally gagged for part of it), but this is still a highly overrated and overhyped work that needed an editor's machete. At half the length, Norman Rush could have gotten his point across without taking advantage of the goodwill of readers who have waited more than ten years for a follow-up to "Mating."

Mortals is a novel about a lonely man whose only friend is his wife, and what happens to him both psychologically and in his real and adventurous life when he begins to suspect that the wife he adores, and depends on for his feeling of connection with the world, is in love with her doctor, a black American physician living in Africa (as do the man, Ray, and his wife, Iris. The novel takes place in the country of Botswana.) Ray's loneliness becomes understandable to the reader, he is a spy for the CIA. He has no close friends, mostly for this reason. There are other factors that isolate him. His only sibling, his gay brother, Rex, and he hate each other. All this is in the background of the obsessive love he feels for his beautiful, and intelligent, wife. She loves him, also. But... her feelings are more complicated than his--and her doctor fascinates her.

This novel is a story about obsessive love and jealousy, but it is also an adventure story and a political thriller. Rush seems to be interested in many philosophical and political matters, not to mention in literature and its effect on life. In the sections that interest you, you'll want more of this. In the sections that don't, you'll skim. Personally, I skimmed most of the parts about religion. Seemed interesting, but not necessary, in my opinion.

Mortals is worth reading for the prose style alone. It is amazing writing. The perceptions make you want to write things down so you won't forget them. But to me, the exploration of the relationship between a man and a woman was the most fascinating and memorable aspect of Mortals.

One other little thing that I enjoyed was the chapter devoted to "The Denoons" from Rush's previous novel, Mating. You get an update of what the heroine of Mating and her husband, Nelson Denoon, are up to and we (at long last!) learn that she does possess a name--Karen. It helped create a bit of continuity that I appreciated, and satisfaction in knowing what became of the characters.

This is a book that stays with you. It is both an education and a pleasure. I highly recommend it as a wonderful summer read!

Mortals is like a rich 19th Century novel. If you like those long books where it becomes part of your mind and life until you are finished reading, you'll love Mortals. If you like short books about nothing much, you won't. You can tell what I like. I won't ever forget the characters in this novel.

Rush is an American who lived in Botswana for a number of years, and these stories about expatriate life there bear the ring the authenticity that can only come from personal experience. The stories are slightly linked through shared characters, characters who find themselves changed by Botswana in sometimes surprising ways. Funny and tender, this book is an excellent window into living abroad.

I tried to read Mating when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, but like everyone else I knew, had to put it down because it was such rubbish. When I came back to the US, I was amazed and enthralled with Whites, a collection of lucid and often funny short stories. Mating has little or no foundation in reality (even some of the Setswana words he uses are incorrect or don't exist). Whites is a telling portrayal of expatriate life in Gaborone as it was in the late seventies and early eighties. Even though I lived in Gaborone from '95-'97, some of the stories still rang true to me. Don't waste your time on Mating, this is the book to read.

I served in the Peace Corps while Norm Rush was Co-Director of Peace Corps/ Botswana. Norm's book is an excellent protrayal of volunteers and other expatriates. Moreover, it is a terrific read. Although it is "fiction," I recognized all the characters as being "real." Nevertheless, although the book does ring true, it is not a complete portrayal of Peace Corps Volunteers and volunteers from other countries. What Norm doesn't decribe, probably because they are less interesting from a novelist's perspective, are the many volunteers who did their best to learn Setswana (the national language), who did their best to succeed in the culture, and who worked hard every day. Norm's book is excellent, and although fiction, it is an accurate protrayal of expat/ volunteer life, but it is not their whole story.

In contrast to Whites -- Rush's collection of interwoven and beautifully paced stories about life in Botswana -- Mating is an uncontrolled sprawl. But the book's lack of discipline is an outgrowth of the narrator's psyche. Deeply analytical, she subjects her own and everybody else's behavior to microscopic scrutiny, then writes down her observations with a compulsiveness that borders on hypergraphia. It seems less likely that her anthropology training has made her this way than the reverse: it is her overdeveloped perceptual and recording faculties that have steered her toward anthropology.

The narrator is not much of a storyteller. She doesn't seem to think in terms of dramatic tension -- cliffhangers, resolutions, punch lines, and all that. But she gradually builds up a vivid self-portrait, as well as a compelling account of her love affair with the equally complex character of Nelson Denoon. Her observations about the social dynamics of Tsau -- Denoon's not quite u! topian experimental village -- completely took me in.

In the course of the book, the narrator becomes a less and less reliable witness. As her partner's spiritual questing takes him into Zenlike realms that she herself finds unapproachable, it is left to the reader to decide whether Denoon is becoming genuinely holy or, as the narrator believes, going crazy. "Consciousness is bliss," Denoon intones. How crazy is that?

The wonder of Mating is that Rush has created a narrator who is so sympathetic, so intact and credible, that one is tempted to attribute the novel's strengths and weaknesses to this central character rather than to the author. She earned her American Book Award. So did Rush.

I understand people's irritation with certain passages in this book--there's no doubt that some of it is indulgent, even bloated--but I'm baffled by their complete inability to find the accompanying humor. Not to mention how they conflate the main character with the author. It's the character who is snobbish, judgmental, overly self-aware, difficult--and also funny! This book is a delight for the way it captures the very strange turnings of the mind. Abandon hope all ye who enter here for adventure! The action is minimal, although the author does wonderfully recreate the political and social milieu of Botswana. It's really a book about love and manners, a comedy about the absurd lengths to which we go to feed our obsessions with other people. Many critics have compared Mating to the work of Jane Austen. Norman Rush does indeed relentlessly understand, as did Jane Austen, the madness and delight of human relationships--and he dissects it for 500 pages. Now you know what you are truly getting for your money. Enjoy!

Mating has been my favorite book since I first read it in 1993. I've returned to it again and again, and it contintues to surprise me. No other narrator has seemed so real to me: I wish Rush had given her a name because I find myself quoting her internally so often. Hard to imagine a sequel to this book but I'd be first in line if it appeared. If you love big words and big ideas Mating will delight you. If political analyses bore you or you have an atrophied attention span, don't even bother.