The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong I like this author and reading about the Asian culture. I did not realize however when picking up this book that this was a non fiction work of her's telling her family's story. Her mother was the child of a her grandfather and his concubine, her grandmother. She shares the story of their marriage and her mother's childhood and then her own eventual birth and relationship with her parents and grandparents. I liked how the story wove it's way through several generations and countries with both a wife in China and a wife in Vancouver Canada. It was interesting to see the effects of multiple wives on a family and to face the reality of how it led to consequences across several generations. Though this book wasn't quite what I expected to be getting, I like this author and appreciated her willingness to share her family's deeply personal story.
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn Love this author. Love the ability she has to keep you guessing as a reader. Just as you think, here's what will happen next, it goes in a totally different direction. This author's ability to keep me turning the pages almost literally from start to finish is just amazing. The plot of this story was about a young woman who's family was murdered when she was a young child. She and her brother are the only survivors, her mother and sisters were found dead. Her father was in and out of the picture but was somehow cleared and her brother is charged with the murders and has been in jail since he was a teen and she was a small child. She testified against him as a small child. Now years later the money she collected as a child from generous people who felt bad for what happened to her is running out and she isn't sure what she will do as she has never been able to be a productive member of society.
She get's an offer from a club that investigates high profile cases and is able to make money by helping them to reinvestigate the murder case of her family since the public opinion seems to be that her brother was innocent. As she continues to stir up her past and unbury memories she had kept away for years she has to confront her past and what it will mean for her future. I loved the book but really did not like the ending. Although I was kept guessing the whole time and liked that it was unpredictable it just didn't seem realistic for me.
Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani I'm not sure if I realized when I put this book on my list that it was non fiction. I don't know how I could have missed that part of it but I either did or I forgot. It's the story of Identical twins, both creative and one who struggles with addiction. The author's sister, Cara, is raped and sinks back into her drug addiction until she unfortunately loses the battle to death. This is the story of both the sisters and also of the author trying to continue living her life when her twin's life has stopped. I found the family relationships, addiction, and trauma pieces extremely fascinating. I found myself asking questions I never would have thought of as I was reading through the book about the relationships we form with others. Losses are not measurable, but I cannot imagine the pain and suffering the author has gone through with living without her twin, and I so appreciated the author's brutal honesty in sharing her unique story.
A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama I'm still torn on this book. I liked the various stories within the story but also found it hard to follow and feel like if the author had focused in more on a central plot it would have been easier to follow. The book changes narrators frequently which added to the several stories happening at once and confusion of following. The story takes place in the late 1950s in China during the Mao years. The country is asked to provide new ideas and thought but then punished for doing so. One man who is punished is the father in the story who is imprisoned far from the family. His young son, a year into his imprisonment, climbs a tree in the front of the house and falls out badly injuring himself. The story then shares what each family member and a close family friend is experiencing and remembering during this changing time in their country. We hear the story of the grandfather of the story and his guilt for what is the climax of the story. We hear the story of the family friend and how she came to be involved with the family and her past story which has allowed her to later in life understand the meaning of family. We hear from the mother who has the burden of worrying about her son's injury and also about the whereabouts of her husband and what his imprisonment means for their family as a whole. We also hear hear from the son himself and see the confusion of a young child missing his father and having his whole world turned upside down. Overall I always like this author's way of writing, I'm just not sure this is or will be my most favorite of her books.
Smart Girls Like Me by Diane Vadino I can see why I added this book to my list but I think it must have been added years ago when I was in a very different place in my life. The plot is about a woman fearing disaster at the end of 1999 as we cross into 2000. The woman's best friend is getting married and she is not even in a relationship at the time. They are living in New York in their mid 20s and working on figuring out who they are and what they want out of life. I felt for the character's anxiety of losing friendships to marriages and being left out. I liked the literal "world is ending" timing. And I found the book and it's characters funny and easy to sympathize with. For me though, this is a book I should have read years ago when it was easier to relate. Now, having been through several friends weddings and in the middle of planning my own, I just couldn't relate on the same level anymore.
Carry The One by Carol Anshaw What an amazing concept for a story. This story follows the lives of a group of family and friends united in one tragic event. One of the sisters in the family gets married and as her sister and brother and 3 friends leave the wedding in their car to return to the city they collide with a child who unfortunately dies. The story then follows all of their lives, the sister who was not in the car and the siblings that were over the next several decades and shows how this one moment in their young lives changes the course of the future. The story moved fast, packing 30ish years into some 250ish pages. With very minor confusion the story flowed pretty well in spite of how much time was going by. Through births, deaths, love, life they are all carrying this incident with them no matter what happens. I really liked the concept and the story lines could have gone in so many directions but for the most part I found the ways they did go to be successful and realistic for the characters. Definitely adding more books from this author to my list.
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella So I'm in the midst of planning my own wedding and while I'm trying not to get so caught up in that that I lose sight of, well, everything else, I seem to recently have an eye drawn to anything wedding related, books of course included. I also have read this author in the past and while I haven't thought her works to be great pieces of fiction they do serve a simple purpose. The story is about two sisters, the younger one who thought she was being proposed to but was asked on a trip abroad. She then runs into an old boyfriend with whom she had a pact to marry at age 30 if neither had married by then. They decide to marry, quickly, and her older sister spends the book trying to prevent this from happening. The story was just too cutesy for me and over the top. It needed to be reined it but just kept more and more silly.
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min What a story. The author did a fantastic job of really painting such a picture for the reader using her words. The story is about a young girl who goes from being any young girl to the last empress of China. We are taken on the ride as she goes through the process of becoming one of hundreds of concubines to empress. The forbidden city details from her entering the city to it's total destruction are incredible. I also enjoyed reading about the good and bad of the relationships the concubines had with one another. The one part of the book that got a little confusing was that it took place over so much time. This made it a little difficult to follow at different points but it was easy enough to catch up as the author guided the reader through. I'm fairly certain this is a two book series and am looking forward to reading the next book.
Ninety Days by Bill Clegg I really liked this book. It's the true story of the author after getting clean and sober and struggling to stay that way. It shares his efforts to stay clean and sober for 90 days. We follow the author as he struggles to find a place to live, meet new social supports, and fight the hardest battle, to stay away from alcohol and drugs. What I liked was the honesty the author was willing to share with the reader. We don't get a rosy version of his first 90 days and the happy life he leads after he is clean. We get the gritty details of the struggle and the slip ups that occur that lead to having to restart the count to 90 days. We also get to know other "characters" that the author meets at his NA meetings who are going through similar struggles and see from the author's perspective their storeis as well.
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