Still Life with Husband by Lauren Fox This was a story about a woman both sure and unsure in her marriage. Her husband is ready to give up their city life and move to the suburbs and start a family and she is not in the same place. This leads to an affair with a man she meets through work. I didn't dislike the book but it turned from what could have been a good novel on the choices we make in life and love to more of a soap opera drama novel. I like this writer and enjoy reading her stories and I think overall some of the underlying story lines, for ex the relationship between the main character and her sister, were worth reading the book for.
The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes by Tess Uriza-Holthe This was a collection of short stories that wove together through train rides. I added it to my list after reading something else by this author and liking her style. I again really liked her style of writing and telling the story. I liked too the mental health component to the story, though it had me hoping that the inevitable would somehow change halfway through the book. I liked how the author added details to each story to connect them to one another, though the stories weren't necessarily told in order so you had to pay attention to connect the dots.
How to be Single by Liz Tuccillo Loved this book. It was a cross between "Eat Pray Love" and "Sex and the City" (At least the movie and TV versions) A single woman living in New York takes all her single friends out after one suffers a breakup in her marriage. The group of women only had the main character in common at the start of the novel. The night goes terribly and the woman decides to write a book on being single/marriage/love/etc in other cultures by traveling the world. The story is narrated through the main character and also chapters by the group of women she took out the first night in the story and how they all end up becoming friends as well. I loved the book, as I already said. The strong women characters and watching them learn and grow throughout was great. If I have one criticism it's that some of the story lines could have had more realistic endings to them. Overall though as a reader I feel for the characters and wanted them to get their happy endings.
Quotes: "How do we keep going when that's not what life has given to us? How do we date, having to act as if it's not the be-all and end-all in our lives, while knowing that one great date could change the course of our lives? How do we keep going in the face of all the disappointment and uncertainty? How do we be single and not go crazy?" "But if you consider how truly miraculous it is to meet anyone you want to go on a second date with, maybe they have the right idea. Maybe wanting to go on a second date with someone is proof that you might as well just get engaged, give it a shot, and nail that shit down."
The Sister's Antipodes A Memoir by Jane Alison This one had been on my list for quite some time. I always tried getting it at the library and was never able to find it. I finally realized why once I broke down and ordered it for pick up at the library. It's non-fiction and all the time I'd had it on my list I had thought it was fiction, oops! That being said the story line does seem like it would be something a fiction write would come up with. Two families, both American, but living in Australia working for the US Government. Two young daughters in each family and parents who basically swap partners and in turn the girls stay with their mothers but end up as sisters (when they used to be friends) and being raised by the opposite set of sister's father. What an incredible childhood to have. Add to that the complications of being raised overseas, then one family moving back to the US, specifically to the DC area, and also one of the couples succeeding in the second marriage and one that did not. Sure sounds like it could be a great fiction story but the constant reminder that this actually happened to these girls adds another quality to the story. I really liked the writer and admire her for her strength in all she had to go through. I liked to the reminder that our childhood and the tragedies of our life do not define us. We can still rise above all that happens to us or is thrown at us and achieve things we want to achieve in life.
Married Love and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley This was also a collection of short stories. The stories didn't necessarily connect to one another, they took place in different times and locations and with different characters. Although some of them were on love within marriage some of the stories were not. I think overall though the common theme was of love and how it shapes and changes our lives in ways we can't always see that it will do. I didn't dislike the book but it just wasn't that memorable for me unfortunately. And the problem I often have with short stories was definitely in place here, just as your getting to know the characters and becoming attached, boom new chapter. I imagine it isn't easy to prevent this, but some short story books have been able to get me interested and give me the closure needed to move to the next chapter, unfortunately this book did not do that.
American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar What a great book. Really loved the story line. It was one of those books you could not put down but also feared finishing because it was so good. It is the story of a young Pakistani American boy and a key moment that defined his becoming a man. The story starts with the young man away at college and falling for a girl but recounting this story from his youth to the young woman. We then are taken back to his childhood and get to read about his parents dysfunctional marriage and his upbringing. We as readers get to read about the young boys journey into his religion and what it means to choose to believe what your parents believe, or to choose otherwise. The family is visited by the mother's closest friend who is like a sister to her, who recently moved from Pakistan to America with her young son who then live with the family for a short time. The young narrator's life defining moment affects his family and hers forever.
I liked that most of the book was about this moment in his young adulthood, but that we got to see him as an adult at the beginning and end too. I liked the cultural elements of the book a lot, and could really visualize what the author was portraying. I loved the end of the book too, it wrapped the story up and gave the reader closure. So glad this book was on my to read list, and really hope it gets turned into a movie, as I suspect it will be or already is in the process of.
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal What an interesting read. This is a non fiction book that shares a very personal story of Wiesenthal's childhood. As a young boy living in a concentration camp, Wiesenthal is summoned to a hospital one day and taken to a young German Nazi's room who proceeds to tell him a story of killing a Jewish family. He then asks Wiesenthal to forgive him of his sin since he is dying and needs to be forgiven. Young Wiesenthal does not forgive the man but this moment of his teenage years sticks with him and he poses the question of what "you" would do in this same situation. The novel then has many responses from a variety of people including other Holocaust survivors and other famous prisoners of war and various other responders.
I spent a lot of the time I was reading the book trying to formulate my own answer to the question and the truth is I still don't have a clue how to respond. A lot of what I read about though in other's responses were things I had thought about and other things that did not cross my mind but really got me thinking. Some of the interesting points that were brought up: The solider asked forgiveness for this one particular event, what about all the other terrible things he did during the war? The difference between atonement and forgiveness and which was the soldier asking for and which can a mere mortal provide? How can one person speak for an entire population? Does it matter if one person can speak for an entire population, should he/she still do so? If the soldier is asking forgiveness on his deathbed presumably to make things better before going to God, shouldn't God, the Lord etc do the forgiving?
Other interesting points on the yes side were more related to the fact that if God would forgive what right does Wiesenthal have not to do so as well?
The other part of the responses that were interesting to me was all the cultural/religious significance to the answers. Even within a variety of cultures and religions represented the answers were more or less the same sort of responses. Overall very thought provoking and a great read if your in the mood to think. Heavy information, not a light read by any means.
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