The Dark Road by Ma Jian What a book. This tells the story of a Chinese family continually on the move escaping population laws. The story begins with the mother pregnant with a forbidden second child. The story is mostly narrated by the spirit of her unborn second child but is told over a period of time of several years. I am really torn on this book. I found it fascinating and a real page turner but it lost me about 2/3rds of the way through. It was all just a bit too much. I think many of the events could have happened to a family but it seemed more to me that they were events that happened to many families and were highlighted by the author to just this one family. It just became too much though and then I was ready to finish the book to see how it ended. I'm still a little confused on the ending too. I loved the culture and found the various tragedies heart wrenching. I also really found this author's writing style to be intriguing so I am excited to read more by her.
The First Affair by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus- I like these two authors and early in the summer I started picking up all their books that I hadn't read to read. This one wasn't really my favorite. Here we have a novel about a strong female lead character, and instead of giving her strength and individuality she gets into an affair with the president and we follow her through the difficulties of this. The book wasn't really that interesting and just didn't hold my attention the way I would have liked. Though I have to say this one was pretty easy to see from the cover and description that it would turn out this way and I should have known better.
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony- Well this was definitely my favorite book of the month. I read this book very slowly because I didn't want it to end. It's been on my list for a long time and it was a holiday present many months ago. I love love love elephants. This book is a non fiction work about the authors experiences raising a wild elephant herd in Africa. The book was the perfect combination of cool facts that I never knew before and really amazing stories. Stories that were heartbreaking and stories that were just wonderful. By the end of it I wanted to empty my bank account and move to Africa and have my own elephants. If you love elephants, or are in general an animal lover, great great great read.
Goodbye Columbus and Other Short Stories by Philip Roth- This read was recommended by someone else possibly for the city name but then it turned out the city wasn't the one I had anticipated. Overall a good collection of short stories that were slightly difficult to get into but then once I did get into them it was easy to flip the pages wanting to know what happened next for each character. Most of the stories were about young people and included some sort of struggling Jewish element.
Eighteen Acres by Nicole Wallace- I read about this book and liked the review and thought it had great potential. It's the story of the 3 women, 3 powerful Washington DC women. One is the first female president of the United States, one is the chief of staff, and one is a white house correspondent. I had such high hopes for this book being strong on feminism and showing women in positions of power. But what it wound up being was 3 stories of women and their love lives and balancing that with their careers. Big disappointment.
The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister- While I keep going back to this author for some reason, I really feel like all of her books are essentially the same with different character names. This one was a continuation of one of her earlier books. Her style is to have a commonality of the characters, in this case a restaurant with cooking classes, that allows them to meet and then each chapter is devoted to a particular character and shares their story. Sometimes the stories are then finished or given a conclusion in someone else's story line. I guess I just feel that the characters are only just developed and then it's time to move to the next. Even in this case where the story lines were continued from another book, there just didn't feel like there was enough time to get to know the character and get invested in what happened.
Insurgent and Allegiant by Veronica Roth- I don't know, I just wasn't impressed by the Divergent series. It's possible my hopes were too high for this as so many people had talked about it. I waited though through all three stories to find out the purpose for everything and to get hooked to the story and I never did. The last two books of the series are typical at war books in these recent trilogies. I'm writing this blog way late and several months after reading them and I can't even remember the very ending of the story. The only thing I can say is that I do think these books were written very visually and I am curious on how the movies are able to portray things and I don't often say this but I do think in this case the movies will be better then the books.
The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser- This is the true story of a woman who escaped the FLDS polygamist cult and her experience within. I was truly impressed by her first hand account and found it wonderful to watch her become such a strong adult. Her struggles as a child and her journey to finding her own way was sad to read about but also so moving to see the courage she had. The title refers to her numerous testimonies against FLDS members which led to their punishment for child abuse and to the fact that red was a "bad" color to wear in their church. Each time she got on the stand she wore red to face these men who had done awful things but would never be held accountable had she not had the strength to stand up for her convictions. A truly inspiring true story.
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian- I love this author. His books range from good to great to fantastic so even when they are just good I know a fantastic one is coming. This one was fantastic. I couldn't put it down. It weaves two stories together through time and many characters who somehow all end up intertwining. Part of the story takes place in 1943 while the war is going on in Italy and part takes place in 1955 post war recovery in Italy. For the most part the chapters alternated years and as the reader you get some of the pieces of the puzzle and then get to go back in time to see how those pieces got there. There is a lot of grief and sadness in the story but the novel ends with hope as a message.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Sunday, June 1, 2014
April 10
Flowers in the Attic, Petals in the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows by V.C. Andrews This series is one that I was actually re reading. I read it many years ago when I was probably a pre teen. I can see the appeal to a teen with the sex the scandal the trauma, but as an adult I don't know it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it being. The series follows the Dollanger family. 4 children, two teens and two younger children who are twins. The father of the family dies and with no where to go the mother takes the four children back to her childhood home. The children had never been there before and the grandmother and mother send them to the attic in the middle of the night when they arrive. The children learn their grandfather knows nothing about them and the mother tells them she has to win back his love before they can leave. This is supposed to be for days or weeks but turns into years. During those years the children suffer all sorts of abuse and become their own sort of family with an incestuous relationship forming between the oldest two. The second book follows the children's lives when they escape from the attic/ grandmothers home although much has changed for them. At this point only 3 of the 4 remain and we now follow them through trying to make their life goals and dreams happen. This is the part that bothered me was that after all they had gone through it was so simple for them to then simply get what they needed and wanted next. The third book follows the two young sons of the main character, Cathy and how all the family secrets and history affects them. The fourth book is about the whole family when Cathy's children are grown up and they have inherited the home the Dollanger's once lived in the attic of. The last book is a prequel and tells the young adult story of the grandmother who was an evil character for all four of the first books but is now the main character whom the reader finds sympathy for.
The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls I really like this author and though this book was not on my to read list, when I saw it at the library I grabbed it immediately. The story if of two sisters, one 15 and one 12, whose mother essentially abandons them and how they get themselves to their uncles home and then their coming of age story during this hard time. I liked the overall story and plot line but I couldn't really get into the story and I don't think I liked the ending as it just seemed abrupt and like there should have been more.
Becoming Sister Wives by The Brown Family This is the true story of the Brown Family. A husband with 4 wives. They have a show on TLC. I like the show a lot and didn't know they had a book so when I saw it at the library I checked it out. I liked the book, divided into different sections with a chapter by each of the wives and also by Kody, the husband. I think like everyone else I find the concept of polygamy fascinating and while the FLDS religion and practices makes me sick, I see the Browns as a very loving family with just a different belief system then my own, and I should clarify they are not part of the FLDS. I didn't learn a whole lot from the book that I didn't already know from the TV show, but there were some stories I didn't know and they went into much greater detail of their stories of how they all met one another. I also didn't know that one of the wives had actually somewhat left the family at some point and was considering making that permanent. I'm glad that didn't happen and that they were able to work things out. Overall not the best book I've ever written but a nice break and interesting to learn a little more about this TV family.
Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon This is the story of a 6 year old child who is abducted by someone wearing a rabbit suit. The only witness, the main character Rhonda, watches as this happens. The story weaves in past details of Rhonda's childhood and suspicion of who could have been in the rabbit suit is moved from character to character. Overall I like the suspense this author creates, but I don't think I liked the ultimate ending of the story. And while there were several stories really going on at the same time, they never really felt like they wound their way back to connecting to each other.
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian Loved this book. Love this author. This story goes back and forth from 2012 New York, with main character Laura who is Armenian, to 1915 Syria where a war is going on. The story moves back and forth giving just bits and pieces at a time with the reader frantically turning the pages to get the next piece to the puzzle. As a reader reading from what is present day, we sometimes get pieces to the puzzle before switching back to the past events story. I really loved the way Bohjalian told the women's story and realities of war and love. Great read.
Divergent by Veronica Roth This is the first in yet another teen series about the future where the world looks very different. This is about Beatrice who lives in the area that used to be Chicago in the future where her community is divided into factions. There are 5 factions and at age 16 every young adult takes an aptitude test of sorts to see which faction they are best suited for. They still then have the choice, at a choosing ceremony, to decide which faction they will ultimately choose. It's rare for the teens to choose a faction outside of their own though since it means they will have very limited contact with their original families as the factions don't tend to be involved with one another. This was the first of a trilogy so I'll have more to say next month when I finish the other two.
The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls I really like this author and though this book was not on my to read list, when I saw it at the library I grabbed it immediately. The story if of two sisters, one 15 and one 12, whose mother essentially abandons them and how they get themselves to their uncles home and then their coming of age story during this hard time. I liked the overall story and plot line but I couldn't really get into the story and I don't think I liked the ending as it just seemed abrupt and like there should have been more.
Becoming Sister Wives by The Brown Family This is the true story of the Brown Family. A husband with 4 wives. They have a show on TLC. I like the show a lot and didn't know they had a book so when I saw it at the library I checked it out. I liked the book, divided into different sections with a chapter by each of the wives and also by Kody, the husband. I think like everyone else I find the concept of polygamy fascinating and while the FLDS religion and practices makes me sick, I see the Browns as a very loving family with just a different belief system then my own, and I should clarify they are not part of the FLDS. I didn't learn a whole lot from the book that I didn't already know from the TV show, but there were some stories I didn't know and they went into much greater detail of their stories of how they all met one another. I also didn't know that one of the wives had actually somewhat left the family at some point and was considering making that permanent. I'm glad that didn't happen and that they were able to work things out. Overall not the best book I've ever written but a nice break and interesting to learn a little more about this TV family.
Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon This is the story of a 6 year old child who is abducted by someone wearing a rabbit suit. The only witness, the main character Rhonda, watches as this happens. The story weaves in past details of Rhonda's childhood and suspicion of who could have been in the rabbit suit is moved from character to character. Overall I like the suspense this author creates, but I don't think I liked the ultimate ending of the story. And while there were several stories really going on at the same time, they never really felt like they wound their way back to connecting to each other.
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian Loved this book. Love this author. This story goes back and forth from 2012 New York, with main character Laura who is Armenian, to 1915 Syria where a war is going on. The story moves back and forth giving just bits and pieces at a time with the reader frantically turning the pages to get the next piece to the puzzle. As a reader reading from what is present day, we sometimes get pieces to the puzzle before switching back to the past events story. I really loved the way Bohjalian told the women's story and realities of war and love. Great read.
Divergent by Veronica Roth This is the first in yet another teen series about the future where the world looks very different. This is about Beatrice who lives in the area that used to be Chicago in the future where her community is divided into factions. There are 5 factions and at age 16 every young adult takes an aptitude test of sorts to see which faction they are best suited for. They still then have the choice, at a choosing ceremony, to decide which faction they will ultimately choose. It's rare for the teens to choose a faction outside of their own though since it means they will have very limited contact with their original families as the factions don't tend to be involved with one another. This was the first of a trilogy so I'll have more to say next month when I finish the other two.
March 10
We Are Water by Wally Lamb I love this author and was so excited to see he had a new book out. It did not disappoint. I really loved the book from start to finish. This author has a way of telling a story within a story within a story... While I think there was a lot of detail to this book and possibly not all of it necessary to each character's growth, when I try to think of what to have edited out I'm just not sure.
The story is about a woman who after almost 30 years of marriage leaves her husband and is now getting married to another woman. We get to read the effects of this from her and his narration and also of their 3 adult children. While the novel begins with the weekend of their wedding, the book goes pretty far back in history to narrate the story at points and we also get a glimpse at the future by the end.
I loved reading about the ways the traumas of our childhoods and the mysteries of adulthood can come together in life. I had a couple issues with the ending few chapters of the book but I also can see why the author made the choices he made. Overall a great book with so many stories within the story and I can't wait for his next novel.
Lucky in the Corner by Carol Anshaw Not the best writing. Also some parts of this book were really unrealistic. This was a story about a young woman trying to navigate life in her early 20s. Lucky is her dog that has been her dog since childhood but is now nearing the end of his doggy years. The main character is living at home with her mother and her mother's partner after her parents divorced when she was in middle school. She is attending a local community college at which her mother teaches. She also finds solace in her uncle who is also a drag queen. Her father has remarried and has new children and she seems lost in the midst of all these grown ups who have changed so much in front of her. I really related to the basic plot of the story of the dog being with her for all these changes and what it meant to grieve the loss of the dog and find her way in the world. I wish the book had been stronger in some of the twists and turns it took and that the writing had been a bit better, but the concept sold me enough that I don't regret reading it at all.
Family Pictures by Jane Green Not so sure about this author anymore. Her books are good easy light reads but the descriptions portray more interesting plot lines then what actually happens. The story line ideas seem unique but never seem to come together quite the way they could to make the books stronger. The stories also then seem to turn in unexpected, but entirely unrealistic ways. This story was about two women each raising their children as almost single parents and the twist that brings them together. The man is leading a double life and very quickly the reader learns that the two woman share a husband/ father to their children. On it's own the plot line seems strong but the way the writer tells the story just didn't match what I was looking for.
The Most Wanted by Jacquelyn Mitchard I'm still torn on this book. I like the author and I think she is a strong writer but each of her books is just so different it's hard to get a read of who she is as an author. This was the story of a young girl in Texas who becomes pen pals with a prisoner which leads to an odd love affair. The story is told from the girl's perspective and with glimpses to the future thrown in as she looks back and shares her past story.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding Bridget Jones will always hold such a dear place in my heart. The first two books were so great. I was sad to learn (no spoiler here this is on the jacket) that Mark Darcy had died and now Bridget is a widow raising their two children in this book. I think it was a bold choice by the author to kill off the love of Bridget's life. The book was as funny as it was sad at first but in true Bridget Jones fashion she shows her bravery and her survival skills even in the most embarrassing or tragic situations.
The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure and The Kill Order by James Dashner Well this was an interesting series. The first book starts with the main character waking in a box and being lifted into a new environment. We follow him through his first few days in a complex community of young adults only and strange events that occur. As he learns about his new world even stranger things begin to happen and some of his companions begin to think he is the reason behind things though he has no memory of anything that happened before coming into the new environment. Through the series of all 4 books we learn that the earth had been through solar flares which has divided people into two categories. Those with what is called the Flare and those without. The characters are being put through challenges to determine the best outcome for those without the immunity to the flare disease. Basically another teen series about the future and how the need for the human race to continue on after some disaster or another. I liked the series enough and think it was really good at creating a visual picture of what was going on. The only part I disliked was the fourth book which was the prequel to the series. For whatever reason after racing through the first 3 books to see what would happen next, I just was not interested in the last one. It never really grabbed me the way the rest of the series did.
This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman Interesting concept for a book but ultimately somewhat forgettable. The story if of a family recently moved to a more wealthy part of New York City. The teenage son winds up in a social media sex scandal while the family is already going through the process of change from their big move. I think the concept of the story is going to become more and more relevant abut something about it fell a little flat for me.
The story is about a woman who after almost 30 years of marriage leaves her husband and is now getting married to another woman. We get to read the effects of this from her and his narration and also of their 3 adult children. While the novel begins with the weekend of their wedding, the book goes pretty far back in history to narrate the story at points and we also get a glimpse at the future by the end.
I loved reading about the ways the traumas of our childhoods and the mysteries of adulthood can come together in life. I had a couple issues with the ending few chapters of the book but I also can see why the author made the choices he made. Overall a great book with so many stories within the story and I can't wait for his next novel.
Lucky in the Corner by Carol Anshaw Not the best writing. Also some parts of this book were really unrealistic. This was a story about a young woman trying to navigate life in her early 20s. Lucky is her dog that has been her dog since childhood but is now nearing the end of his doggy years. The main character is living at home with her mother and her mother's partner after her parents divorced when she was in middle school. She is attending a local community college at which her mother teaches. She also finds solace in her uncle who is also a drag queen. Her father has remarried and has new children and she seems lost in the midst of all these grown ups who have changed so much in front of her. I really related to the basic plot of the story of the dog being with her for all these changes and what it meant to grieve the loss of the dog and find her way in the world. I wish the book had been stronger in some of the twists and turns it took and that the writing had been a bit better, but the concept sold me enough that I don't regret reading it at all.
Family Pictures by Jane Green Not so sure about this author anymore. Her books are good easy light reads but the descriptions portray more interesting plot lines then what actually happens. The story line ideas seem unique but never seem to come together quite the way they could to make the books stronger. The stories also then seem to turn in unexpected, but entirely unrealistic ways. This story was about two women each raising their children as almost single parents and the twist that brings them together. The man is leading a double life and very quickly the reader learns that the two woman share a husband/ father to their children. On it's own the plot line seems strong but the way the writer tells the story just didn't match what I was looking for.
The Most Wanted by Jacquelyn Mitchard I'm still torn on this book. I like the author and I think she is a strong writer but each of her books is just so different it's hard to get a read of who she is as an author. This was the story of a young girl in Texas who becomes pen pals with a prisoner which leads to an odd love affair. The story is told from the girl's perspective and with glimpses to the future thrown in as she looks back and shares her past story.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding Bridget Jones will always hold such a dear place in my heart. The first two books were so great. I was sad to learn (no spoiler here this is on the jacket) that Mark Darcy had died and now Bridget is a widow raising their two children in this book. I think it was a bold choice by the author to kill off the love of Bridget's life. The book was as funny as it was sad at first but in true Bridget Jones fashion she shows her bravery and her survival skills even in the most embarrassing or tragic situations.
The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure and The Kill Order by James Dashner Well this was an interesting series. The first book starts with the main character waking in a box and being lifted into a new environment. We follow him through his first few days in a complex community of young adults only and strange events that occur. As he learns about his new world even stranger things begin to happen and some of his companions begin to think he is the reason behind things though he has no memory of anything that happened before coming into the new environment. Through the series of all 4 books we learn that the earth had been through solar flares which has divided people into two categories. Those with what is called the Flare and those without. The characters are being put through challenges to determine the best outcome for those without the immunity to the flare disease. Basically another teen series about the future and how the need for the human race to continue on after some disaster or another. I liked the series enough and think it was really good at creating a visual picture of what was going on. The only part I disliked was the fourth book which was the prequel to the series. For whatever reason after racing through the first 3 books to see what would happen next, I just was not interested in the last one. It never really grabbed me the way the rest of the series did.
This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman Interesting concept for a book but ultimately somewhat forgettable. The story if of a family recently moved to a more wealthy part of New York City. The teenage son winds up in a social media sex scandal while the family is already going through the process of change from their big move. I think the concept of the story is going to become more and more relevant abut something about it fell a little flat for me.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
February- 4
The Paternity Test by Michael Lowenthal This book was not on my to read list but I saw it in the new books section at the library and to be honest the cover got my attention. This was the story about two men who are pursuing parenting through surrogacy. The men move from their city living style to more isolated suburban living but the book tells of their trial to change their lifestyle and decide ultimately what they want from their relationship and their lives. I liked the honest start to this book and the way the fathers fears of parenthood and giving up bachelorhood to be parents and to be monogamous with one another was portrayed. The book lost me a little somewhere in the middle where it started to get a little soap opera like and took a whole new direction. That being said the ending was as truthful as the beginning and though I don't feel like I got the story I was expecting, I think it's possible the characters went where they were supposed to go.
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver Hmm this is a hard one for me. I really like this author and the way she challenges me as a reader. I was very upset when I finished this book. Very upset with the ending (that I do not want to ruin in anyway as it was a shocker) but after thinking on it for even just a few hours that day I actually think the author is a genius. This is the story of a woman and her family. Her older brother comes to visit and has gained a lot of weight, morbidly obese kind of weight. The story then shares how this woman's life is affected by balancing work, attempting to help her brother, her marriage, and being a step parent. The overall message in the story is about the choices we make as we balance all our roles in life. We never know when we make the choices we make what the outcome will be. The lesson I took is that sometimes you have to make a choice and you can't always know what that outcome will be so you make the best choice you can and then later in life sometimes you can see maybe the other option would have been better but then again you can't rewrite the story at that point and things could still turn out exactly the same with just a different path getting you there.
News From Heaven by Jennifer Haigh I really liked this collection of short stories. They all took place in a coal mining fictional town in Pennsylvania over the course of many decades. There were some overlaps in characters from one story to the next but mostly with background characters which just made it a nice transition from one story to the next. There were certainly some stories that were better then others but overall this was a relatable book and I got invested quickly with the characters. The stories were often nothing spectacular, just short stories about everyday people but the authors way of getting the reader to see these characters as more was what made me like this book.
I am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates Not my favorite JCO book but a nice collection of short stories. It also wasn't very memorable. I think the common theme in all the stories was relationships within a family. The thing for me always with a book of short stories is that the author both gets me quickly invested in the characters but also wraps them up at the end of the story so I'm not wanting more. I think with the good stories that I liked in this book I just kept wanting more and with the ones I didn't like I just never got invested in the plot.
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver Hmm this is a hard one for me. I really like this author and the way she challenges me as a reader. I was very upset when I finished this book. Very upset with the ending (that I do not want to ruin in anyway as it was a shocker) but after thinking on it for even just a few hours that day I actually think the author is a genius. This is the story of a woman and her family. Her older brother comes to visit and has gained a lot of weight, morbidly obese kind of weight. The story then shares how this woman's life is affected by balancing work, attempting to help her brother, her marriage, and being a step parent. The overall message in the story is about the choices we make as we balance all our roles in life. We never know when we make the choices we make what the outcome will be. The lesson I took is that sometimes you have to make a choice and you can't always know what that outcome will be so you make the best choice you can and then later in life sometimes you can see maybe the other option would have been better but then again you can't rewrite the story at that point and things could still turn out exactly the same with just a different path getting you there.
News From Heaven by Jennifer Haigh I really liked this collection of short stories. They all took place in a coal mining fictional town in Pennsylvania over the course of many decades. There were some overlaps in characters from one story to the next but mostly with background characters which just made it a nice transition from one story to the next. There were certainly some stories that were better then others but overall this was a relatable book and I got invested quickly with the characters. The stories were often nothing spectacular, just short stories about everyday people but the authors way of getting the reader to see these characters as more was what made me like this book.
I am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates Not my favorite JCO book but a nice collection of short stories. It also wasn't very memorable. I think the common theme in all the stories was relationships within a family. The thing for me always with a book of short stories is that the author both gets me quickly invested in the characters but also wraps them up at the end of the story so I'm not wanting more. I think with the good stories that I liked in this book I just kept wanting more and with the ones I didn't like I just never got invested in the plot.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
January 2014- 6
Emily Alone by Stewart O'Nan This was a follow up to a book I read, I believe last month, by the same author called Wish You Were Here. This story follows the matriarch of the other novel, Emily, who is a widower nearing the end of her life and looking back on the life she has lived and forward to the time she has left. Her main companion, her sister in law, has a significant health problem at the beginning of the story and Emily is forced into more time alone then she has had in years. She is also forced into more independence as her sister in law is unavailable to drive her around and help her in the way she used to. I liked the novel a lot since the character was still fresh in my mind and while in the first book there were many narrators which gave the reader a more negative view of this character, in this novel she was the sole narrator and this gave me a as a reader the opportunity to see her in a new way and find empathy for her character. I can see why the author chose to revisit this character many years after the first novel was published, she did indeed seem to be an unfinished character.
Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard This book was about a young mormon woman who found her two youngest sisters dead after a mentally ill man winds up on her family's property and murders them. She narrates the story of her parents forgiving the man and moving on with their lives, having two sons after the deaths and moving their family forward. The narrator though, Ronnie, cannot forgive and move forward and instead begins to try to figure out how to seek revenge on the man who killed her sisters and destroyed her family. She follows this man out to San Diego where he and his family move after he is rehabilitated in a state mental institution and then released. She goes to EMT school after graduating high school early but is leading a double life while she is in school and figuring out how to seek revenge on the man who killed her sisters.
I liked this author from another book of hers I read some time ago but I didn't really like this book. It was flat and the character jumped all over the time and kept alluding to the big event that would happen and it just didn't flow right. I actually felt like it read like a young adult novel, which there is nothing wrong with, and I now find it interesting that in going to the authors website to link the book, she does in fact write young adult novels. It seemed to lack the character development and plot I remember from her other novel. I'll probably still give another of her novels a try before giving up on her but I wish I had read something else of her's and not this one.
Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway I really liked this book, especially for at least 2/3rds of it and the concept of it. This was about a young woman in New York trying to make it as a write. She winds up getting a temporary job writing an anniversary edition article for a magazine that yearly put out a 10 girls to watch article. Her task is to find previous winners and see where their lives are now. I liked the concept a lot and that this woman was a strong character. The uniqueness of each chapter discovering past winners of the contest and seeing where they were 10-50 years later was really interesting. Seeing how lives unfold and not always in the way one thinks they will through fictional characters was unique. For me the story lost it's positive storyline when it went too far in the romance direction and went from strong female role model message to, you need a man to be complete message. Pretty disappointing.
Marriage Matters by Cynthia Ellingson So here's the deal, I'm getting married in July and now when I go to the library and I see books with wedding related themes I grab them up. I must stop doing this. What a silly story this was. I should really have stopped reading it. While I appreciated the author's effort on getting us interested in the characters, the plot was so unrealistic it was impossible to imagine this happening. Three generations of women, one widowed grandmother, one unhappily married mother and one single granddaughter. All are suddenly planning wedding like ceremonies and decide to have one big happy ceremony all together. It was just a bit much. And I think honestly that each of the 3 stories on their own might have been okay but the combination all together just did not work for me.
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight What a story. From the beginning you know that Amelia a young high schooler is dead and her single mother is trying to piece together and solve the mystery of her death. We have the mother narrating from the present time and we have Amelia narrating in the past through her diary entries and text messages. I really liked the story and the ending was not as typical as I had predicted it to be. The writer wrote this in such a way that even knowing the girl is dead from the beginning of the novel, I kept wishing for some surprise change that would bring her back to life or even some twisted ending where she wasn't dead after all.
The Silent Wife by Asa Harrison Another really suspenseful good read this month. I threw this book on the ground after I read it but after thinking about it for a few hours after I realized that I actually really liked the book and how it ended. It's a his her's tale told both ways until the husband is dead. In hearing back and forth from the characters as a reader the sympathy moves back and forth with them until things take an odd twist with the husband not just being a cheater but having knocked up a younger college girl who happens to be the daughter of his best friend. The husband winds up dead and the rest of the novel follows the possibility of the wife having killed him. Overall I had some mixed feelings on this story but I liked the writing and I do think it's a worthwhile read.
Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard This book was about a young mormon woman who found her two youngest sisters dead after a mentally ill man winds up on her family's property and murders them. She narrates the story of her parents forgiving the man and moving on with their lives, having two sons after the deaths and moving their family forward. The narrator though, Ronnie, cannot forgive and move forward and instead begins to try to figure out how to seek revenge on the man who killed her sisters and destroyed her family. She follows this man out to San Diego where he and his family move after he is rehabilitated in a state mental institution and then released. She goes to EMT school after graduating high school early but is leading a double life while she is in school and figuring out how to seek revenge on the man who killed her sisters.
I liked this author from another book of hers I read some time ago but I didn't really like this book. It was flat and the character jumped all over the time and kept alluding to the big event that would happen and it just didn't flow right. I actually felt like it read like a young adult novel, which there is nothing wrong with, and I now find it interesting that in going to the authors website to link the book, she does in fact write young adult novels. It seemed to lack the character development and plot I remember from her other novel. I'll probably still give another of her novels a try before giving up on her but I wish I had read something else of her's and not this one.
Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway I really liked this book, especially for at least 2/3rds of it and the concept of it. This was about a young woman in New York trying to make it as a write. She winds up getting a temporary job writing an anniversary edition article for a magazine that yearly put out a 10 girls to watch article. Her task is to find previous winners and see where their lives are now. I liked the concept a lot and that this woman was a strong character. The uniqueness of each chapter discovering past winners of the contest and seeing where they were 10-50 years later was really interesting. Seeing how lives unfold and not always in the way one thinks they will through fictional characters was unique. For me the story lost it's positive storyline when it went too far in the romance direction and went from strong female role model message to, you need a man to be complete message. Pretty disappointing.
Marriage Matters by Cynthia Ellingson So here's the deal, I'm getting married in July and now when I go to the library and I see books with wedding related themes I grab them up. I must stop doing this. What a silly story this was. I should really have stopped reading it. While I appreciated the author's effort on getting us interested in the characters, the plot was so unrealistic it was impossible to imagine this happening. Three generations of women, one widowed grandmother, one unhappily married mother and one single granddaughter. All are suddenly planning wedding like ceremonies and decide to have one big happy ceremony all together. It was just a bit much. And I think honestly that each of the 3 stories on their own might have been okay but the combination all together just did not work for me.
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight What a story. From the beginning you know that Amelia a young high schooler is dead and her single mother is trying to piece together and solve the mystery of her death. We have the mother narrating from the present time and we have Amelia narrating in the past through her diary entries and text messages. I really liked the story and the ending was not as typical as I had predicted it to be. The writer wrote this in such a way that even knowing the girl is dead from the beginning of the novel, I kept wishing for some surprise change that would bring her back to life or even some twisted ending where she wasn't dead after all.
The Silent Wife by Asa Harrison Another really suspenseful good read this month. I threw this book on the ground after I read it but after thinking about it for a few hours after I realized that I actually really liked the book and how it ended. It's a his her's tale told both ways until the husband is dead. In hearing back and forth from the characters as a reader the sympathy moves back and forth with them until things take an odd twist with the husband not just being a cheater but having knocked up a younger college girl who happens to be the daughter of his best friend. The husband winds up dead and the rest of the novel follows the possibility of the wife having killed him. Overall I had some mixed feelings on this story but I liked the writing and I do think it's a worthwhile read.
Friday, January 10, 2014
December- 7
Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill What a story. This book is the true story of the niece of the current head of scientology. She has left the group as an adult but grew up in the church and shares her personal story of a childhood stolen from her and of her transition to the outside world. I haven't been a fan of scientology and have felt it was borderline cult for some time. After reading this book I am more then ever convinced of what a terrible group this is. It is worrisome to think that people get sucked in to this belief system and made me sad to think about what the believers had to gain from joining this group. I truly am impressed at the courage this woman had to speak out and share her story and her family's story. She has survived quite an ordeal and I hope she can now lead a more peaceful adult life.
The Pretty One by Lucinda Rosenfeld It's possible my expectations for this book were too high. I felt disappointed as it has been on my list for some time and I really thought based on what I had heard about it and read in the reviews that it would be great. The story is about 3 sisters and their roles in their family system. We follow them as adults struggling to help their aging parents and manage their own lives. I liked the writers style but I just felt the story was a little flat. It seemed to have potential but never really went anywhere for me. I got invested in the characters because the author gave so much to them, but took much time explaining them and suddenly the book had ended. Overall not a bad read but I think I just missed the point and for me the book wasn't that memorable.
Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan I like this author and hadn't read a book of his in awhile. This one has also been on my list for some time. It's the story of a family returning to their summer cottage for one last time. The family matriarch, Emily, has decided to sell now that her children are grown up, her grandkids are getting older, and she has been widowed. With her two grown children and four grandchildren and sister in law she heads to the cottage one last time to say goodbye. The book is narrated by each member of the family at different points and is broken into sections by days of the week that they are at the cottage. I liked the different narrators especially given that their were 3 generations of the family at the house. The sister in law also had her own memories of her childhood coming to the cottage with her brother and parents as it was their family cottage which gave the environment more dimension as well. The cottage was located on a lake in a small town that was going through it's own changes with developments and closings of pastime favorites such as the local mini golf course. The family is going through it's own growing pains with each member of the family reliving their memories in the cottage at different stages in their lives. We also see each member of the family evaluating their futures and what their family will look like without the patriarch and what that means for each family member.
Something else interesting to me is that we first meet Emily, the matriarch, as narrator and the author aligns the reader with the character but from that point forward you get a negative representation of this character from each other member of the family. It's clear they love her as their sister in law, mother, grandmother but it's also clear they all have issues with her personality. I found myself wondering throughout the book about this deliberate choice by the author. Overall I really liked the story and the growth of each character. I think the decision to only follow the family for one week was a good one but also left me as the reader wanting to know more but on the last hand just made so much sense in terms of what the author was trying to convey to us as readers.
Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster This author has been on my list for some time, not sure how she got on it. I liked the book enough, it's her own take on becoming an adult after already being one in age for some years. I liked her personal stories and I loved the sarcasm and the humor. I guess my problem is that it's about a month later that I'm writing this and I can't quite remember the book that well. It was basically a rant on things in life that bother the author and it was cute but it just had no real substance to it. I'm willing to give her another shot though and try another of her books because while I may not remember exactly what I read, I do remember smiling and laughing throughout the book which is telling in a different way.
The Week Before the Wedding by Beth Kendrick Again not my best pick. I must stop getting sucked in just because the word "wedding" is on a book. This was the story of a woman about to marry for the second time but running into her first husband during her wedding week. It was way too romance novel and unbelievable and over the top for me. The twist and turns didn't really make sense and I didn't really like the direction the author was steering us in as readers. The book was very predictable and just really didn't hold my attention throughout. It takes a lot for me to stop reading a book once I've started and while I didn't do that here, I was glad when I was done reading the book.
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova Really liking this author lately and her writing style. This book was about a high powered career woman balancing family and work until a tragic accident leaves her no choice but to focus on herself. She is in a bad car accident and while she survives she has a traumatic brain injury that literally leaves her neglected the left, hence the title. I had no idea this condition existed, while this book was fiction this condition is very real and was so interesting to read about. When the narrator wakes from the accident she can't see or feel or understand the existence of left. It was such a hard concept to grasp at first and I found myself throughout the book really trying to think about what this would mean for an individual and how it would feel to have this condition. While I liked the way the story was told and the forced reevaluation of life and having to go with the changes this accident made happen for the narrator, I disliked the eventual end of the book. It got a little too predictable and I wish it had gone in a different direction. The other thing I liked was the underlying story of the narrators own family history and the way the accident helped her to repair her relationship with her own mother.
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian This book was scary. I don't usually do scary. You will not find me at a scary movie. You will not even find me at home watching a scary movie. I really like this author so even though this book was a ghost story I still added it to my list. It also seemed to me from reading what it was about that it would be more suspenseful and borderline witch crafty then as ghost story as it was. It's the story of an airplane captain who's plan crashes into a lake when birds fly into the engines and he attempts to land the plan like Sully Sullenberger did on the Hudson river. His attempt however is not successful and 39 of the 40 something passengers die. The captain and his family move from their suburban home to a small town in the mountains to give him a peaceful place to recover from the trauma. He has a wife and twin young daughters who move with him. The house they find is an old house that needs work and that used to be the home of a set of twin boys, one of whom is thought to have killed himself in his teens. The basement has a locked door with 39 carriage bolt locks. The town also has "herbalists" who the reader soon finds out are thought to be witches.
It was a complex story and it took awhile to merge the two stories together. The story of the airplane captain dealing with his trauma and the story of the family moving to a new town and the potential influence of witchcraft. I really liked each story separately but felt that even once they merged together it turned in a direction I was not expecting, nor wanting the story to go. I also hated the ending. I had predicted a different ending and perhaps got caught in that and then when the story took a different route I was significantly disappointed. I do think though the author did a great job telling a ghost story and keeping the reader guessing and in suspense the entire way through the book.
The Pretty One by Lucinda Rosenfeld It's possible my expectations for this book were too high. I felt disappointed as it has been on my list for some time and I really thought based on what I had heard about it and read in the reviews that it would be great. The story is about 3 sisters and their roles in their family system. We follow them as adults struggling to help their aging parents and manage their own lives. I liked the writers style but I just felt the story was a little flat. It seemed to have potential but never really went anywhere for me. I got invested in the characters because the author gave so much to them, but took much time explaining them and suddenly the book had ended. Overall not a bad read but I think I just missed the point and for me the book wasn't that memorable.
Wish You Were Here by Stewart O'Nan I like this author and hadn't read a book of his in awhile. This one has also been on my list for some time. It's the story of a family returning to their summer cottage for one last time. The family matriarch, Emily, has decided to sell now that her children are grown up, her grandkids are getting older, and she has been widowed. With her two grown children and four grandchildren and sister in law she heads to the cottage one last time to say goodbye. The book is narrated by each member of the family at different points and is broken into sections by days of the week that they are at the cottage. I liked the different narrators especially given that their were 3 generations of the family at the house. The sister in law also had her own memories of her childhood coming to the cottage with her brother and parents as it was their family cottage which gave the environment more dimension as well. The cottage was located on a lake in a small town that was going through it's own changes with developments and closings of pastime favorites such as the local mini golf course. The family is going through it's own growing pains with each member of the family reliving their memories in the cottage at different stages in their lives. We also see each member of the family evaluating their futures and what their family will look like without the patriarch and what that means for each family member.
Something else interesting to me is that we first meet Emily, the matriarch, as narrator and the author aligns the reader with the character but from that point forward you get a negative representation of this character from each other member of the family. It's clear they love her as their sister in law, mother, grandmother but it's also clear they all have issues with her personality. I found myself wondering throughout the book about this deliberate choice by the author. Overall I really liked the story and the growth of each character. I think the decision to only follow the family for one week was a good one but also left me as the reader wanting to know more but on the last hand just made so much sense in terms of what the author was trying to convey to us as readers.
Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster This author has been on my list for some time, not sure how she got on it. I liked the book enough, it's her own take on becoming an adult after already being one in age for some years. I liked her personal stories and I loved the sarcasm and the humor. I guess my problem is that it's about a month later that I'm writing this and I can't quite remember the book that well. It was basically a rant on things in life that bother the author and it was cute but it just had no real substance to it. I'm willing to give her another shot though and try another of her books because while I may not remember exactly what I read, I do remember smiling and laughing throughout the book which is telling in a different way.
The Week Before the Wedding by Beth Kendrick Again not my best pick. I must stop getting sucked in just because the word "wedding" is on a book. This was the story of a woman about to marry for the second time but running into her first husband during her wedding week. It was way too romance novel and unbelievable and over the top for me. The twist and turns didn't really make sense and I didn't really like the direction the author was steering us in as readers. The book was very predictable and just really didn't hold my attention throughout. It takes a lot for me to stop reading a book once I've started and while I didn't do that here, I was glad when I was done reading the book.
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova Really liking this author lately and her writing style. This book was about a high powered career woman balancing family and work until a tragic accident leaves her no choice but to focus on herself. She is in a bad car accident and while she survives she has a traumatic brain injury that literally leaves her neglected the left, hence the title. I had no idea this condition existed, while this book was fiction this condition is very real and was so interesting to read about. When the narrator wakes from the accident she can't see or feel or understand the existence of left. It was such a hard concept to grasp at first and I found myself throughout the book really trying to think about what this would mean for an individual and how it would feel to have this condition. While I liked the way the story was told and the forced reevaluation of life and having to go with the changes this accident made happen for the narrator, I disliked the eventual end of the book. It got a little too predictable and I wish it had gone in a different direction. The other thing I liked was the underlying story of the narrators own family history and the way the accident helped her to repair her relationship with her own mother.
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian This book was scary. I don't usually do scary. You will not find me at a scary movie. You will not even find me at home watching a scary movie. I really like this author so even though this book was a ghost story I still added it to my list. It also seemed to me from reading what it was about that it would be more suspenseful and borderline witch crafty then as ghost story as it was. It's the story of an airplane captain who's plan crashes into a lake when birds fly into the engines and he attempts to land the plan like Sully Sullenberger did on the Hudson river. His attempt however is not successful and 39 of the 40 something passengers die. The captain and his family move from their suburban home to a small town in the mountains to give him a peaceful place to recover from the trauma. He has a wife and twin young daughters who move with him. The house they find is an old house that needs work and that used to be the home of a set of twin boys, one of whom is thought to have killed himself in his teens. The basement has a locked door with 39 carriage bolt locks. The town also has "herbalists" who the reader soon finds out are thought to be witches.
It was a complex story and it took awhile to merge the two stories together. The story of the airplane captain dealing with his trauma and the story of the family moving to a new town and the potential influence of witchcraft. I really liked each story separately but felt that even once they merged together it turned in a direction I was not expecting, nor wanting the story to go. I also hated the ending. I had predicted a different ending and perhaps got caught in that and then when the story took a different route I was significantly disappointed. I do think though the author did a great job telling a ghost story and keeping the reader guessing and in suspense the entire way through the book.
November- 9
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.
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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