The Jade Rabbit Paperback – Special Edition, August 23, 2011

"We regret to report that the large majority of the population finds the howl of a universe in pain to be wonderful background noise while shopping, golfing, and watching football..."In recent memory I've not read a book that captured the delicate balance between the dark forces of everyday life and the hope that keeps most of us going. Hope might not be the right word. I find it far easier to review a novel when it is seriously flawed, and extremely difficult to shower it with praise when it deserves it, as does The Jade Rabbit. I had zero expectations going into this story. It was a book I'd not have found on my own, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had it put in front of me by whatever cosmic forces it took.In my own efforts to depict the fragile zeitgeist of mankind, I find myself often relying on the absurd, or at least the quasi-unbelievable, to build the story around. Mark Matthews has left me envious, because in capturing the same he has told a completely realistic and beautifully crafted tale that exposes the best and worst in us all. The many underlying themes are woven together expertly, and as I continued my own mental marathon with Janice I couldn't help but wonder if the author himself had experienced all of this firsthand.There will be some who pass on this book, and that's fine-it may very well not be for everyone. But I do hope that readers will find it when they need it, even if, like me, they didn't realize how desperately they did.

This was something a little unusual for me to read, something I selected because it was free for my kindle and every so often you just want to read something a little different. And it engrossed me. I was interested in Hailey's plight, and indeed the whole situation of the Moonlight home intrigued me - it's not something I've ever read about - social work with strays and runaways and Matthews wrote it so authoritively one knew that he had worked in the field too. I also do not run, but the descriptions and detail seemed very convincing to me. Almost made me want to try - but I suspect even a fraction of a marathon would kill me. But what intrigued me most was that this was written by a man. And it is first person, from a woman's perspective. Yet it was utterly convincing and struck me as more real than many first-person woman's books I've read that were written by woman. So, good job Matthews, you obviously understand your genre and your subjects very well indeed. Sure, there were a few of the typos I've come to expect with kindle stories, but nothing unforgiveable and I certainly would recommend this to anyone who wants something a little bit different.

The premise of the book, with a focus on social work, is interesting, but the book itself is in desperate need of an editor. It flips between usage of Poppa and Pappa and has sentences that make zero sense. I also question if referring to someone who is Chinese as being "brown skinned" is culturally appropriate.

Since I am not a runner, some of the running descriptions seemed fairly long to me, but I just read through those to t=get to the other 2 story lines. The one about the actions and relationships between the main characters kept my interest, wanting to find out what would happen. The story line of her adoption as a baby in China kept popping up and some of her descriptions were a little hard for me to follow. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Basic story; young married woman (Janice) running a shelter for children. Janice was adopted from China as a baby and struggles with residual abandonment issues, and the kids she helps also are dealing with abandonment. Janice is a runner and she thinks things through and hears voices while running all to help her figure out her life. A good story, but really could have used some editing. Just dragged on in spots and I scanned some pages. Example, do we really need to know if she pooped before a race or the entire menu of what she ate? No typos and gramatical issues like some e-books but just editing for relevance and the pace of the book.

This book reminded me of the classic story (and film) "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" where a fatherless young man from a disadvantaged background decides to prove himself by becoming a champion distance runner for his school and rise above the class issues he faced. His inner struggles and how he pushes himself to take on the challenges of distance running seem to mirror the epiphanies that Chinese orphan and adoptee Janice Zhu Woodward, the feature character a/k/a The Jade Rabbit, experiences with her long distance running and marathon training. I was surprised this book was penned by a male author. Usually, men aren't that skilled at writing in the first person from a female POV.

This is a beautifully written book that deals with international adoption and the feelings of the main character, who, despite having a wonderful adoptive Mom & Dad, struggles with the same "whys" as many other adoptees. Also has an intriguing sub-plot related to her work, and an interesting back-story about marathon runners-in-training.Lots going on here, but this is not a fast-moving adventure story. This book is more character-driven, and flows through the story as time flows through the lives of the characters. Not my usual cup of tea, I'll admit; but I very much liked it. At least 4*, IMO.

Every time I read this book it made me want to go for a jog :). I picked this book because it was free for my Kindle. I like the tittle and the brief descriptions of it, although I found it to be a sad story, I really enjoyed some of the characters, specially Charline. There was too much running for taste but if you like training for a marathon and are into running you may like all the bits about that in this book. I really enjoy the marathon scene, it brought the whole book together for me.

Had a lot of trouble getting into the story, because I couldn't associate with the main character who I found a little two-dimensional.