June Book Review
I read a lot this month, even for me! I think it's because one week this month was spent at the beach, which always includes lots of reading time. As usual, there were a few audio books in the mix, too. The question I always get is "How do you read so many books?!" I attempt to answer that here.
Here's a look at the books I read in June 2018:
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massay 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
My review: I would’ve given this book a solid four stars, but about 2/3 of the way through I found myself thinking that the book needed some editing; it was starting to feel like it was spinning its wheels a little bit. That said, overall I really enjoyed this book. If you expect books to take you to a time and place completely removed from your regular life, you might enjoy this one. It takes place in Bombay, India in the 1920s, and the main character, Preveen, is India’s first female solicitor. The setting and the characters alone are reason enough to pick up the book! The storyline is also unique: as a woman, Preveen is the only person working on a case who can speak to the three Muslim widows living cloistered in seclusion after a crime takes place in their home. It was fascinating to read about the different customs and traditions of Hindus, Parsis, and Muslims living side-by-side in India during the early ‘20s, all while under white British rule. This book is technically a mystery, but it’s more literary fiction and less whodunit; the “mystery” is slow building and is the background to a richer story with good character development. It reminded me of the Louise Penny series in this way: Bombay seemed like a character in the way Three Pines is a character in those books. This is the first in a series; I will definitely read future installments.
How To Stop Time by Matt Haig 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: I really enjoyed this one! It was a mash-up of some of my favorite literary things: historical fiction, a philosophical look at the meaning of time, and the meaning of an individual human life in the scope of time. The author explores the human paradox of love: it always puts you at risk for devastating loss, but life is simply not worth living without it. And while none of us relishes the idea that we will one day grow old and die, he makes living forever seem so difficult that you’re almost grateful to know you’ll have a normal human life span. I know that sounds weird; read the book and you'll see what I mean. The book jacket description makes it sound like a cheesy time traveling love story; rest assured, dear readers, it is not. I thought the premise here was truly original, and I enjoyed it enough to maintain the necessary willing suspension of disbelief from beginning to end. If you’re looking for a unique piece of literary fiction, give this one a go.
There There by Tommy Orange 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: Whoa. This is the literary voice we didn’t know we were missing. Tommy Orange’s debut novel details the lives of 12 characters living out the Urban Indian experience as they make their way to the Oakland Powwow. The novel starts out like a collection of vignettes, but as the book progresses the characters lives intersect and overlap, and suddenly you’re reading a page-turner as you race to find out what will happen when all of these lives converge in one place. I’m still reeling from the ending and not sure what to make of it. This book will stay with me for sure.
I’ve never read anything like this. I’m ashamed to admit that when I think of “the Native American Experience”, I only think of life on the reservation, of rural hardship and poverty. I didn’t know anything about Urban Native culture. Once again, I am reminded of the importance of books; the best way to fully understand the lives and experiences of cultures outside of your own is to immerse yourself in the minds and hearts of other people through their stories.
A passage that will stay with me: "The wound that was made when white people came and took all that they took has never healed. An unattended wound gets infected. Becomes a new kind of wound like the history of what actually happened became a new kind of history. All these stories that we haven’t been telling all this time, that we haven’t been listening to, are just part of what we need to heal. Not that we’re broken. And don’t make the mistake of calling us resilient. To not have been destroyed, to not have given up, to have survived, is no badge of honor. Would you call an attempted murder victim resilient? When we go to tell our stories, people think we want it to have gone different. People want to say things like “sore losers” and “move on already,” “quit playing the blame game.” But is it a game? Only those who have lost as much as we have see the particularly nasty slice of smile on someone who thinks they’re winning when they say “Get over it.” ...If you were fortunate enough to be born into a family whose ancestors directly benefited from genocide and/or slavery, maybe you think the more you don’t know, the more innocent you can stay, which is a good incentive to not find out, to not look too deep, to walk carefully around the sleeping tiger. Look no further than your last name. Follow it back and you might find your line paved with gold, or beset with traps.”
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: This book will stay with me forever. I normally avoid books like this because they're just too hard to read, but I'm so glad I got over myself; her story is especially relevant now. If you are privileged enough to have been born in the West while the Syrian refugee crisis is happening and children are being held in cages at our US borders in 2018...well, we need to bear witness to these stories. We cannot become numb, and we cannot lose sight of what can happen when we forget our common humanity.
Having said all that, this book isn't especially graphic or horrifying. It doesn't need to be. Just hearing the basic outline of her story is enough to send your heart reeling. In fact, I got the sense that she might not have been ready to write this memoir quite yet. She is clearly still grappling with her life experience, from being a happy six year old child in a happy family in Rwanda to being separated from her parents and brother, migrating through seven African countries and their refugee camps with her sister, to finally ending up in the United States and getting a Yale education. The narrative jumps around in time, but you get the sense that is her real life experience, even today: one minute she is a young woman living in San Francisco flying on private jets to speak at national conferences, the next minute she is a scared little girl who fears everything she knows and trusts will be ripped away from her. It is the fabric of who she is.
She talks about Elie Wiesel's book Night and how much it meant to her; she read it countless times, and it was the first time she saw her experiences reflected back to her. So many people in America with kind and loving intentions tried to reach out and help her, but she couldn't let them in because they didn't understand her pain. Reading this book was her first experience in feeling truly seen. I love how this speaks to the importance of books (or any art, really). There is such power in reading someone's experience, seeing yourself reflected and saying, "Me too. I thought I was the only one."
The opening pages of the book tell how she first saw her parents during a surprise reunion on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 12 years after being separated from them during the Rwandan genocide. (I gotta say, Oprah doesn't look so good here.) She was invited onto Oprah's show because she was one of fifty winners of a high school essay contest about Elie Wiesel's book; Wiesel was a guest on that show. I'm so glad she got to meet him and speak with him at other conferences! The power of books! I have to wonder if other traumatized people will read her book and feel similarly seen.
There were a few passages in the book that really stood out to me:
"It's strange, how you go from being a person who is away from home to a person with no home at all. The place that is supposed to want you has pushed you out. No other place takes you in. You are unwanted, by everyone. You are a refugee."
"In the middle of that first night in the pastor's house, when I woke to go to the bathroom, I climbed the stairs, opened the refrigerator, and stared. I'd seen huge refrigerators like this one only in magazines, and on TV. I was amazed and impressed, and I could not stop thinking that if only our neighbors in the slum in Zambia could see this, they'd be so appalled. How could one place have so much excess while in another, just a plane ride away, people starved? Freddy had twiggy arms and a big round tummy from being malnourished. His body, here, now, would be fed and fixed. There were so many Freddys in the world."
I wish this young woman well. I cannot imagine going through what she's been through and seeing what she's seen. I hope our country will continue to provide safety and opportunity to refugees seeking asylum from war and violence. I hope we never forget how privileged we are by the sheer luck of where we were born. I hope we never forget our common humanity.
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: A weird little adventurous book. An extra star for originality. It reminded me a lot of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan, which I also really liked. Strange characters, an unusual premise, but at its heart it's a mystery, so you keep turning the pages because you want to know what happens. A fun read.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: This is a book that normally falls into all the categories that aren't for me: magical realism, teenage girl protagonist, and over 400 pages. Normally, I'd pass on this one. But I saw enough reviews from trusted sources that made me give it a try, and I'm so glad I did.
For me, the very best books are the ones you can truly get lost in; the ones where you rarely if ever pull yourself out of the story to say, "wait, what?", abruptly jerking yourself out of the story and back into your own head. Magical realism as a literary device tends to make me roll my eyes and keeps me from fully engaging with a story. Not so with this one. Somehow the author managed to deftly walk a tight line between magic and harsh reality, which helped me sink deeper into the main character's grief and pain as she grapples with her mother's suicide. Perhaps it's because grief is so universal and yet so individual: when you are deep in your own personal grief, there's no way to fully explain how it feels to anyone else. Yet anyone who has dealt with grief and loss can recognize it immediately, no matter what shape it takes. The author's handling of helplessly watching a family member sink further into depression was one of the most honest renderings I've ever read. I kept looking at the back flap and marveling at how such a young author could have so much wisdom.
This book is beautiful and sad and uplifting and stunning; the author manages to blend magic and mourning into something truly original. I've never read anything like it. This book probably isn't for everyone; I think it might not have even been for me if I hadn't been in the right mood when I picked it up. But if you happen to catch this book in the right spot in your life, you'll see this author managed to catch that rare literary lightening in a bottle.
The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: After all the positive reviews, I expected to like this book better. I really liked the premise, and it was definitely a page-turner that kept me engaged until the very end, which is why I’m giving it 3 stars. But ultimately, there were too many glaring flaws in this book that were hard to overlook. The novel starts out right out of the gate with characters doing things and making choices that I couldn't imagine anyone doing in real life. It felt like laziness on the part of the author: there was no character development to get the reader to see why these crazy choices were being made, they were just happening before I fully had my bearings in the story. There’s also a secondary story line that is just poorly developed and clunky, for lack of a better word. It distracts, rather than adds, to the overall narrative. And the ending? I don’t want to give any spoilers. But, what?! It was both abrupt and whitewashed. If you want a page turner that you can finish in a day with a unique premise, grab yourself a copy and take it to the beach. But if you’re looking for good literary fiction, look elsewhere.
Circe by Madeline Miller 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: I know nothing about Greek mythology. Like, zippy. I also haven't read her first book, Song of Achilles. Neither of these are hurdles that will keep you from enjoying this book. It took me about 50 pages to get into the story ("wait, who are all these gods?!"), but then the story took off and I was quickly turning the pages to find out what would happen next.
I don't normally turn to this type of book. Gods and demigods and mortals fighting out ancient grievances throughout the millennia just isn't my jam. My very favorite books are literary fiction that delve deep into the human condition. Bonus points if there is beautiful prose. Family dynamics, relatable characters, real life on the page are what make my book nerd heart sing. This isn't that kind of book in the usual sense, but in a way, at its core, it is. This is a sweeping epic, in the true sense of the word. It's also a compelling page turner. As I read this book, I kept thinking about ancient mythologies and modern literature and the clear human need for storytelling to make sense of the world around us. It's as old as humanity itself and clearly hardwired into our DNA. This book is a new take on the history of storytelling. So meta.
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan *Audible Version* 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: This book is exactly perfect for what it is: an addictive, campy, can’t-put-it-down read. I kept hearing about this book, but I finally decided to give it a try when someone told me she stayed awake on a transatlantic flight reading the whole thing, cover to cover. I listened to the audio version, and the narrator was FANTASTIC. She managed to do separate voices and accents for the book’s many characters, and she made an already compelling story flow seamlessly. If you’re looking for a summer read, or an audio book for your summer road trip, this is a great pick. Read it before the movie comes out this summer in August!
The Oracle Year by Charles Soule *Audible Version* 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: I liked this one okay. I listened to the audible version, and the description made it seem like the perfect audio book for me: a plot-driven narrative that would keep me engaged, but a unique premise that presented some bigger existential questions about time and religion and knowing the future, and how that would affect human behavior. It starts out fairly promising, but as the book goes on it devolves into your basic plot-driven narrative that you've read 100 times before. I kept reading because I wanted to see how it ends, but it wasn't anything outside the usual cliches. I think I would've liked it better if I went in expecting it to be just a page turner with little character development or big picture examinations. Instead, it is what it is: a regular old page turner, decently done if you like that sort of thing.
All The Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
*One More Page Daytime Fiction Discussion Group June Selection*
My review: This book blew me away. I don't know how to write a review without spoilers, but if you are looking for a good discussion book for your book club, this is it. I say this only if your group can handle complicated conversations about complicated issues. I also should warn you that trigger warnings abound here. Again, I don't want to say too much and give too much away. This book won the Book of the Month Club 2016 Book of the Year and was second place in the readers' selected Goodreads Best Fiction of 2016; it's clearly a reader favorite.
Aside from a compelling, original story, it is beautifully written with characters that will stay with me for a long time. I am not exaggerating when I say this book is haunting. It truly haunted me for weeks after reading it, and it was one of the best discussions we've had at our bookstore discussion group. I hope this author plans to write more books.
Everything Happens For A Reason And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review:I don't know why I am drawn to memoirs written by young-to-middle-aged women diagnosed with terminal cancer. Perhaps I'm looking for someone to cut through the distractions and bullshit in my own life, to distill it all down to the deep meaning I should be constantly focused on instead of worrying about what some troll said on Twitter, or the size of my thighs. But it turns out, these books are written by human women who react how I suspect I would: equal parts begging, ignoring, loving, weeping, googling, laughing, and raging against the holy unfairness of it all. This author is a professor at Duke Divinity School, so I think I was hoping for some spiritual insight to make sense of a diagnosis like this. I think I was actually expecting her to have the answers to the questions that humanity has grappled with from the beginning of time: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the innocents suffer? Or as she puts it:
"Why? God, are you here? What does this suffering mean?"
Spoiler alert: being diagnosed with a terminal illness does not make you a wise sage with the answers to the universe. It merely forces you to unflinchingly face the Big Questions. She does so bravely in this book, with no definitive conclusions. She desperately loves her husband and toddler son and she wants to stay here with them. She ends with a few helpful lists of what to say and what not to say to someone going through something like this. (hint: don't say Everything Happens for a Reason). Kate, I am so sorry this is happening to you and your family. It sounds so, so hard. You are a beautiful person.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: Five stars, of course. Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature for a reason: this book is beautifully written and subtly devastating. I read this book years ago, and recently I saw it sitting on my shelves and felt compelled to read it again. I think I have a better understanding of the upstairs/downstairs world of Britain’s “great houses” now after having watched Downton Abbey. I also have a better appreciation for the role of Head Butler, and for what it means for people to have dedicated themselves to a life of service in England.
The book is one man reflecting on his specific life experiences in a very specific time and place, and yet it also feels universal: who among us hasn’t reflected on past experiences and thought about what they could’ve done differently, pondered opportunities not taken, relived conversations while fretting over harsh words?
I can’t do this book justice. It’s one of those books that you sink into, feeling the beauty of the prose as you take in the story. The Nobel committee knew a good thing when they saw it.
The Choice: Embrace The Possible by Dr. Edith Eger 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My review: I normally wouldn’t have picked this up; I find Holocaust memoirs too difficult to read. But I read so many reviews about how this book is ultimately uplifting, and it is. There are no cliches or glossy happy endings: just the hard work of choosing to forgive and what the work of that looks like. I’m sure it was not easy for her to write parts of this book; what a gift this woman has given us.
