I have been a fan of Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) since her TED Talk on women in business. In it, she talked about the importance of women "taking a seat at the table" (quite literally, don't sit in the back of the room) and advised women "don't leave before you leave" (i.e., don't turn down a business opportunity because you envision a life situation in the future where you couldn't have that opportunity)
In this book, she expands her ideas around women in business, through a mixture of personal anecdotes, research studies, and ideas about how to improve. The book is pretty genre-less, not quite self-help, memoir, or business. It's a quick read, alternating among funny, eye-opening and at times repetitive.
At first glance what is most striking is the name-dropping Sandberg does: Larry Summers, Arianna Huffington, Meg Whitman, Tip O'Neill - she is definitely part of an academic and social elite, which has been a large criticism of the book. Another criticism of the book is that it is just part of the Facebook media engine. Well, ok. If it is, that's fine with me. My objection to the book were the parts where she encouraged women to change how they negotiate to fit into the system, rather than change the system.
Quarrels aside, I am on the eve of returning to work after maternity leave, and there were several specific pieces of advice I will hold on to from the book. Sandberg shared the advice she got from Eric Schmidt at Google - take a job for its growth potential, not its current state. She also suggests that while mentors and sponsors are important, the best way to find them is to excel at your work and they will find you. Finally, she shares the idea that if there is a work-life-balance accommodation you are looking for, ask: you never know, you might get it. I am fortunate to work in an organization that has (so far) been very comfortable as a woman. Now that I'm a mom, I hope that continues.
I don't think this was a perfect (or even that well-edited) book, but Sandberg is a great role model for me. To have her book come out while I've been on leave (and Marissa Mayer announce her pregnancy two weeks before I announced mine) has made the past year much less stressful than it could have been. With luck, the Lean In organization will effect change in my career, not just for future generations.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I thought Meredith had recommended this book to me but she says she hasn't read it yet so I'm not sure how it ended up on my book list. It was good, though - a creepy mystery story.
The story is about Nick and Amy, an unhappily-married couple who live in Manhattan. Shortly after moving to Missouri to care for Nick's ill mother, Amy disappears and Nick is accused of murdering her. Through Nick's narration and Amy's journal, the first half of the book tells the story of their relationship leading up to the current state of affairs. The second half the book, Nick and Amy alternate chapters, with Amy's part being in the present.
Neither Nick nor Amy is entirely honest with the reader, which is part of what makes this book so good. I love unreliable narrators. Whether he killed Amy is the least of what becomes interesting in the story.
Definitely enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down at times. I didn't love the ending but I did like the book in its entirety.
The story is about Nick and Amy, an unhappily-married couple who live in Manhattan. Shortly after moving to Missouri to care for Nick's ill mother, Amy disappears and Nick is accused of murdering her. Through Nick's narration and Amy's journal, the first half of the book tells the story of their relationship leading up to the current state of affairs. The second half the book, Nick and Amy alternate chapters, with Amy's part being in the present.
Neither Nick nor Amy is entirely honest with the reader, which is part of what makes this book so good. I love unreliable narrators. Whether he killed Amy is the least of what becomes interesting in the story.
Definitely enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down at times. I didn't love the ending but I did like the book in its entirety.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger
I saw this reviewed in the New York Times a few months ago so when it was on the shelf in the library, I grabbed it. I hadn't loved her previous book, The Dissident, but this was well-reviewed.
The story is about a man who meets a Bangladeshi woman on a dating website and brings her to his home in Rochester NY to marry her. The couple genuinely likes each other and seem to treat each other with respect. Over time, however, secrets emerge from both sides that threaten their marriage. The man's family life is more complicated than he lets on, and the woman has elderly parents in Bangladesh who are relying on her to help them immigrate as well as a former love interest.
While this book didn't have the drama of A Reliable Wife (it read more like something by Thrity Umrigar), it kept my attention, both as the story of an immigrant arriving in the U.S., as well as with the plot twists across the characters. I also enjoyed reading this because of its being set in Rochester, where Webster is from.
The story is about a man who meets a Bangladeshi woman on a dating website and brings her to his home in Rochester NY to marry her. The couple genuinely likes each other and seem to treat each other with respect. Over time, however, secrets emerge from both sides that threaten their marriage. The man's family life is more complicated than he lets on, and the woman has elderly parents in Bangladesh who are relying on her to help them immigrate as well as a former love interest.
While this book didn't have the drama of A Reliable Wife (it read more like something by Thrity Umrigar), it kept my attention, both as the story of an immigrant arriving in the U.S., as well as with the plot twists across the characters. I also enjoyed reading this because of its being set in Rochester, where Webster is from.
What was she Thinking? Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
I took Sasha to the library for the first time and picked out a few books to get back in the swing of reading. This title looked familiar to me, and indeed it had been shortlisted for the Man Booker a few years ago.
The story is about a teacher named Sheba at a small school in England who has an affair with a student. It is told by her friend Barbara, who is secretly writing an account of the affair. Sheba is married with two kids, while Barbara is single. By the end of the story (told in flashback, so this is revealed at the beginning), Sheba's secret is out and she is vilified in the press and separated from her family.
Barbara's telling of the story is eerie - her unemotional character reminded me of Kath in Never Let Me Go, and early in the book it is hard to tell if it's because she is acting like a reporter, jealous, or for some other reason. It's also one of those books where the story is about Sheba but the protagonist is someone else - in this case Barbara. By the end of the book, Barb's actions are far more interesting than Sheba's.
I liked this book and read it quickly. My only disappointment was not connecting more with one of the characters, although I believe that to be an intentional choice on Heller's part.
The story is about a teacher named Sheba at a small school in England who has an affair with a student. It is told by her friend Barbara, who is secretly writing an account of the affair. Sheba is married with two kids, while Barbara is single. By the end of the story (told in flashback, so this is revealed at the beginning), Sheba's secret is out and she is vilified in the press and separated from her family.
Barbara's telling of the story is eerie - her unemotional character reminded me of Kath in Never Let Me Go, and early in the book it is hard to tell if it's because she is acting like a reporter, jealous, or for some other reason. It's also one of those books where the story is about Sheba but the protagonist is someone else - in this case Barbara. By the end of the book, Barb's actions are far more interesting than Sheba's.
I liked this book and read it quickly. My only disappointment was not connecting more with one of the characters, although I believe that to be an intentional choice on Heller's part.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Panther by Nelson DeMille
Jo was reading this when she visited after the baby was born and I figured its airport-read style would be good for my sleep-deprived ever-shortening attention span. Little did I know that she left her copy with my parents for me, and they would schlep it from Florida up to Boston. I bought my own copy - which was a hefty 800 or so pages.
This is the next book in the John Corey series that follows the irreverent retired NYPD detective and his FBI wife Kate through their work on an anti-terrorism task force. While it is not necessary to have read The Lion, or any of the other previous books in the series, to appreciate this one, it does make it more fun.
In this book, John and Kate (yes, John and Kate, sans Eight) go to Yemen to hunt down "The Panther" - the operative believed to be behind the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 Americans. Teamed up with some other Americans from the CIA, they embark on a dangerous plot to draw out The Panther in Yemen, a country where they find you can't trust anyone.
I had fun reading this book. Corey's persona can be a little annoyingly flip at times, but that's part of his charm. The story itself was great - with lots of intrigue, great new characters, and the element of surprise. I will look forward to the next DeMille book, the plot of which was teased in the last scene of this book.
This is the next book in the John Corey series that follows the irreverent retired NYPD detective and his FBI wife Kate through their work on an anti-terrorism task force. While it is not necessary to have read The Lion, or any of the other previous books in the series, to appreciate this one, it does make it more fun.
In this book, John and Kate (yes, John and Kate, sans Eight) go to Yemen to hunt down "The Panther" - the operative believed to be behind the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 Americans. Teamed up with some other Americans from the CIA, they embark on a dangerous plot to draw out The Panther in Yemen, a country where they find you can't trust anyone.
I had fun reading this book. Corey's persona can be a little annoyingly flip at times, but that's part of his charm. The story itself was great - with lots of intrigue, great new characters, and the element of surprise. I will look forward to the next DeMille book, the plot of which was teased in the last scene of this book.
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
This is the fourth book in the Outlander series by Gabaldon. The series follows the story of a woman named Claire who time travels from post-war Europe to 18th-century Europe and falls in love with Jamie, a man in the past.
SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS.
I liked this book progressively more as I read it. Weighing in at 800+ pages, it was not a quick read, and the first few hundred pages follow Claire and Jamie as they settle in to life in rural North Carolina. I started to feel like the story was really contrived - they had gone from Scotland to France to the Carribean to the U.S. over the past few books, and I was starting to feel like it "jumped the shark."
However, Gabaldon had some great ideas in mind and the book got a lot better. Introduced in a previous book, Brianna (Claire and Jamie's daughter) takes a more central role in the story, as she continues to research her parents' story in the past. Her love interest, Roger, is also prominent in the story. It was nice to have a new set of characters to root for along with my old favorites.
I had bought this book with plans to read it around the baby's birth - I ended up starting it before she was born and the picking it up when she was about two months old. The next one in the series will probably be a summer vacation read for me.
SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS.
I liked this book progressively more as I read it. Weighing in at 800+ pages, it was not a quick read, and the first few hundred pages follow Claire and Jamie as they settle in to life in rural North Carolina. I started to feel like the story was really contrived - they had gone from Scotland to France to the Carribean to the U.S. over the past few books, and I was starting to feel like it "jumped the shark."
However, Gabaldon had some great ideas in mind and the book got a lot better. Introduced in a previous book, Brianna (Claire and Jamie's daughter) takes a more central role in the story, as she continues to research her parents' story in the past. Her love interest, Roger, is also prominent in the story. It was nice to have a new set of characters to root for along with my old favorites.
I had bought this book with plans to read it around the baby's birth - I ended up starting it before she was born and the picking it up when she was about two months old. The next one in the series will probably be a summer vacation read for me.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Liars and Outliers by Bruce Schneier
Disclosure: I received a discounted and autographed copy of this book in exchange for writing this review.
Interestingly, that deal plays very well into the theme of this book - subtitled "enabling the trust that society needs to thrive", Liars and Outliers is about how trust is created, enforced, and betrayed. Bruce Schneier (who I've been a fan of for a long time, scroll down in this post for a short review of his previous book, Beyond Fear) is a security expert, initially cyber-security, although his blog and books have now broadened to be about security in general. He's written a lot about changes in security since 9/11, highlighting how many measures are "security theater" designed to make us feel more secure rather than actually increasing security.
So offering a free book in exchange for a review was a big experiment on his part. And the model his book explains around why we trust people would indicate that some Societal, Moral, Reputational, or Institutional Pressure compelled me to follow through on my commitment to write this. (It was moral.) In fact, a large section of the book explores each of those types of pressure with examples ranging from Worldcom to child labor. He provides a model of what the interests and norms are in a society and then the things that challenge and enforce them. This model is revisited many, many times throughout the text.
The remainder of the book discusses what security systems exist to enforce these norms, and how these models and ideas are implemented in organizations of different sizes, ranging from small groups to large institutions. Schneier draws on a variety of current examples (Facebook privacy and the TSA) as well as classic game theory (Prisoners' Dilemma).
There is a lot to like about this book: it provides a model that explains how society functions and why we trust certain people and entities. In fact, the reason it took me so long to write this review (I received the book months ago) is that I recently had a baby. As we've hired people to care for our daughter, I was acutely aware of what made me trust different caregivers. Reputation in some cases, a personal recommendation in others, a recommendations from a group I trusted for another case. In what I consider to be the most important decision I've made in years (who cares for my child) I naturally relied on many of the pressures Schneier highlights.
What I found hard about reading this book was the sheer number of examples he used in every chapter. Rather than analyze a few familiar examples in great depth, he chose to pepper each chapter with what felt like dozens of small examples and name-drops. I would have enjoyed a more in-depth analysis of just a few examples to better understand the systems he was explaining. In some cases, he returned to the same ideas repeatedly - like Prisoners' Dilemma and the Hawk-Dove game (another game theory model) - and I found that valuable. But in many chapters he jumps from one example to another each paragraph, which I found a less effective way to make his points.
Overall I'm glad I read this book but I didn't enjoy it as much as I do his daily blog posts. Perhaps if I were not as close a follower of his, more of the ideas would have been new, and the examples more illustrative.
Interestingly, that deal plays very well into the theme of this book - subtitled "enabling the trust that society needs to thrive", Liars and Outliers is about how trust is created, enforced, and betrayed. Bruce Schneier (who I've been a fan of for a long time, scroll down in this post for a short review of his previous book, Beyond Fear) is a security expert, initially cyber-security, although his blog and books have now broadened to be about security in general. He's written a lot about changes in security since 9/11, highlighting how many measures are "security theater" designed to make us feel more secure rather than actually increasing security.
So offering a free book in exchange for a review was a big experiment on his part. And the model his book explains around why we trust people would indicate that some Societal, Moral, Reputational, or Institutional Pressure compelled me to follow through on my commitment to write this. (It was moral.) In fact, a large section of the book explores each of those types of pressure with examples ranging from Worldcom to child labor. He provides a model of what the interests and norms are in a society and then the things that challenge and enforce them. This model is revisited many, many times throughout the text.
The remainder of the book discusses what security systems exist to enforce these norms, and how these models and ideas are implemented in organizations of different sizes, ranging from small groups to large institutions. Schneier draws on a variety of current examples (Facebook privacy and the TSA) as well as classic game theory (Prisoners' Dilemma).
There is a lot to like about this book: it provides a model that explains how society functions and why we trust certain people and entities. In fact, the reason it took me so long to write this review (I received the book months ago) is that I recently had a baby. As we've hired people to care for our daughter, I was acutely aware of what made me trust different caregivers. Reputation in some cases, a personal recommendation in others, a recommendations from a group I trusted for another case. In what I consider to be the most important decision I've made in years (who cares for my child) I naturally relied on many of the pressures Schneier highlights.
What I found hard about reading this book was the sheer number of examples he used in every chapter. Rather than analyze a few familiar examples in great depth, he chose to pepper each chapter with what felt like dozens of small examples and name-drops. I would have enjoyed a more in-depth analysis of just a few examples to better understand the systems he was explaining. In some cases, he returned to the same ideas repeatedly - like Prisoners' Dilemma and the Hawk-Dove game (another game theory model) - and I found that valuable. But in many chapters he jumps from one example to another each paragraph, which I found a less effective way to make his points.
Overall I'm glad I read this book but I didn't enjoy it as much as I do his daily blog posts. Perhaps if I were not as close a follower of his, more of the ideas would have been new, and the examples more illustrative.
Friday, February 22, 2013
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
I usually don't like to read so many books by the same author so close together, but I was 9 months pregnant, perhaps a little grumpy, and the idea of another gothic-style mystery cheered me up.
Like the other two novels of hers that I read, this book takes place in a few time periods. In one, a young girl witnesses her mother commit an act of violence. Fifty years later, she is at her mother's deathbed and decides to investigate that incident from her childhood - which takes the reader back to London - WWII. As she unravels the intrigue behind her mother's first love and famous neighbor, she uncovers family secrets and a dramatic story.
I liked this book a lot. There were some good plot twists, interesting characters, and a great job of moving between the different stories. There are ways in which Morton's books share similarities, but they never fail to keep me engaged, and I never guess the twists that she puts in the stories.
Like the other two novels of hers that I read, this book takes place in a few time periods. In one, a young girl witnesses her mother commit an act of violence. Fifty years later, she is at her mother's deathbed and decides to investigate that incident from her childhood - which takes the reader back to London - WWII. As she unravels the intrigue behind her mother's first love and famous neighbor, she uncovers family secrets and a dramatic story.
I liked this book a lot. There were some good plot twists, interesting characters, and a great job of moving between the different stories. There are ways in which Morton's books share similarities, but they never fail to keep me engaged, and I never guess the twists that she puts in the stories.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Meredith recommended this to me and then it was also a NY Times Notable book for 2012. (That Meredith, she is always ahead of the game!)
The book is about a group of soldiers who are home - briefly - from Iraq as war heroes. They have a little time with their families and a little time touring, parading, at the White House, and at an NFL game. Billy (the title character) struggles with whether he feels like a hero or not, and how he feels about his imminent return to Iraq.
The situations the soldiers are in while they are home creates a very satirical look at how we recognize and reward armed service. There are characters in the book - caricatures really - who exalt the soldiers without really understanding what their sacrifices and hard work are. Fountain creates some really cool word images in the book to represent these conversations.
I liked this book, and appreciated reading it while it was relevant to current events. It did a good job of satirizing not war itself, but the inadequate yet overblown responses that many of those at home have towards soldiers.
The book is about a group of soldiers who are home - briefly - from Iraq as war heroes. They have a little time with their families and a little time touring, parading, at the White House, and at an NFL game. Billy (the title character) struggles with whether he feels like a hero or not, and how he feels about his imminent return to Iraq.
The situations the soldiers are in while they are home creates a very satirical look at how we recognize and reward armed service. There are characters in the book - caricatures really - who exalt the soldiers without really understanding what their sacrifices and hard work are. Fountain creates some really cool word images in the book to represent these conversations.
I liked this book, and appreciated reading it while it was relevant to current events. It did a good job of satirizing not war itself, but the inadequate yet overblown responses that many of those at home have towards soldiers.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sheryl K's Top Books of 2012
Hello readers - here we are again at the end of another year.
Lots going on in our household - the night before Webster's graduation from his Babson MBA program, we found out we are expecting our first child! (EDD 1/25/13 - yes, soon!) Over the summer, Webster joined an early-stage startup based in Palo Alto and is loving it. I am leading a small team of technical marketing professionals at Dell and continue to learn a lot and thrive in the role. Lucy is doing great.
My parents continue to snowbird between NJ and Florida, and fortunately were safely in Florida during Hurricane Sandy. Jo lives in Manhattan and is an attending at NYU Hospital, which is finally re-opened since the hurricane. We lost my grandmother a few weeks ago and while it was sad, I reflected a lot on the 98 years she did live.
On to the books! I read 37 books this year, 10 of them non-fiction. Right now I have books on my library queue that won't come up until after the baby arrives - we'll see how that goes, but I have faith that I'll always be a reader. The baby has his/her first few books already - a set of my old Golden Books that my mom had saved, and The Giving Tree and Goodnight Moon from Webster's parents.
Omitted from the following list are three books that are part of series that I am reading: Voyager, WWW:Watch, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
Top Fiction:
Say You're One of Them - touching set of unrelated short stories about children in Africa.
Reamde - for geeks only - huge adventure story about when real life and online life collide.
Fiction Runners-up:
QBVII - classic courtroom drama set in the shadows of the Holocaust
World Without End - long-awaited sequel to Pillars of the Earth
Unaccustomed Earth - short stories about people reconciling modern lives with Indian childhoods
Distant Hours and The Forgotten Garden - two books by Kate Morten that are well-written gothic-style mysteries
Lady Matador's Hotel - linked short stories all taking place in a hotel in an unnamed Latin American country
The Disappeared - story about a woman who falls in love with a man still haunted by his family's past in Cambodia
Buddha in the Attic - linked short stories about a set of women who are Japanese mail-order brides
My Life on a Plate - funny story about the mishaps of a slightly-overweight mom, reminiscent of Bridget Jones
My New American Life - the first few years of an Armenian woman's life in the United States, and her relationship with the Armenian community
The Love Wife - a family struggles to accept a new member of the family from China, as requested by the matriarch's dying wishes.
Top Nonfiction:
Pack of Two - Caroline Knapp's examination of her relationship with her dog.
Revolution - a woman's memoir of leaving college to join "the revolution" in the 1980's in Central America with her boyfriend.
Longitude - the story of how someone came up with an ingenious way to measure longitude at sea.
Happy 2013 to all!
Sheryl
Lots going on in our household - the night before Webster's graduation from his Babson MBA program, we found out we are expecting our first child! (EDD 1/25/13 - yes, soon!) Over the summer, Webster joined an early-stage startup based in Palo Alto and is loving it. I am leading a small team of technical marketing professionals at Dell and continue to learn a lot and thrive in the role. Lucy is doing great.
My parents continue to snowbird between NJ and Florida, and fortunately were safely in Florida during Hurricane Sandy. Jo lives in Manhattan and is an attending at NYU Hospital, which is finally re-opened since the hurricane. We lost my grandmother a few weeks ago and while it was sad, I reflected a lot on the 98 years she did live.
On to the books! I read 37 books this year, 10 of them non-fiction. Right now I have books on my library queue that won't come up until after the baby arrives - we'll see how that goes, but I have faith that I'll always be a reader. The baby has his/her first few books already - a set of my old Golden Books that my mom had saved, and The Giving Tree and Goodnight Moon from Webster's parents.
Omitted from the following list are three books that are part of series that I am reading: Voyager, WWW:Watch, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
Top Fiction:
Say You're One of Them - touching set of unrelated short stories about children in Africa.
Reamde - for geeks only - huge adventure story about when real life and online life collide.
Fiction Runners-up:
QBVII - classic courtroom drama set in the shadows of the Holocaust
World Without End - long-awaited sequel to Pillars of the Earth
Unaccustomed Earth - short stories about people reconciling modern lives with Indian childhoods
Distant Hours and The Forgotten Garden - two books by Kate Morten that are well-written gothic-style mysteries
Lady Matador's Hotel - linked short stories all taking place in a hotel in an unnamed Latin American country
The Disappeared - story about a woman who falls in love with a man still haunted by his family's past in Cambodia
Buddha in the Attic - linked short stories about a set of women who are Japanese mail-order brides
My Life on a Plate - funny story about the mishaps of a slightly-overweight mom, reminiscent of Bridget Jones
My New American Life - the first few years of an Armenian woman's life in the United States, and her relationship with the Armenian community
The Love Wife - a family struggles to accept a new member of the family from China, as requested by the matriarch's dying wishes.
Top Nonfiction:
Pack of Two - Caroline Knapp's examination of her relationship with her dog.
Revolution - a woman's memoir of leaving college to join "the revolution" in the 1980's in Central America with her boyfriend.
Longitude - the story of how someone came up with an ingenious way to measure longitude at sea.
Happy 2013 to all!
Sheryl
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker
Another NPR find - this one someone I heard on The Moth and I think I also heard on This American Life.
Elna is a Mormon from the West Coast who moves to New York City to go to college and ends up living there for several years in her early 20's. This is a collection of essays about her life in the city as she struggles to figure out how much of her Mormon background she wants to carry forward in her adult life. Many chapters read like "No Sex and the City." Others are more about her jobs (among others, at FAO Schwartz and Nobu) or her family relationships.
This was definitely a quick read that kept my attention. Baker is a funny writer, able to see humor in her own misadventures. Her ongoing conflict between the secular and the traditional is well-described and it is easy to empathize with her.
Elna is a Mormon from the West Coast who moves to New York City to go to college and ends up living there for several years in her early 20's. This is a collection of essays about her life in the city as she struggles to figure out how much of her Mormon background she wants to carry forward in her adult life. Many chapters read like "No Sex and the City." Others are more about her jobs (among others, at FAO Schwartz and Nobu) or her family relationships.
This was definitely a quick read that kept my attention. Baker is a funny writer, able to see humor in her own misadventures. Her ongoing conflict between the secular and the traditional is well-described and it is easy to empathize with her.
Learning to Die in Miami by Carlos Eire
Oops - this memoir is a sequel to a book I read last year but forgot to review at the time! I had heard Carlos Eire interviewed on NPR and thought his story was interesting.
The first book was called Waiting for Snow in Havana. In that book, Carlos is growing up in Cuba in the late 1950's and early 1960's. His privileged and sheltered childhood comes to an abrupt end when he is among 14,000 chilren airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the U.S. upon Castro's ascendance.
This book picks up with Carlos adjusting to life in the U.S. He is shuffled among family friends, foster homes, and other living arrangements, sometimes with his older brother and sometimes alone. The title of the books is an allusion to his belief that "Carlos" from Cuba has to die for his American "Charles" or "Chuck" or other identity to emerge. While the first book told a lot of his childhood, this one talks about him mostly as a pre-teen and teen, and flashes forward many times to his life as an adult.
Unlike other memoirs I've read that have been written in more than one part, these two books were very similar in style, tone, and composition. I enjoyed Eire's style in fact - it was unusual - the books being written more as a reverie, a collection of memories, than as a straightforward linear narrative. Eire was very poetic in places, very sad in others. This was not a laugh-out-loud set of books, but I did learn about an immigrant experience I was unfamiliar with, and was compelled to read the second one.
The first book was called Waiting for Snow in Havana. In that book, Carlos is growing up in Cuba in the late 1950's and early 1960's. His privileged and sheltered childhood comes to an abrupt end when he is among 14,000 chilren airlifted out of Cuba and sent to the U.S. upon Castro's ascendance.
This book picks up with Carlos adjusting to life in the U.S. He is shuffled among family friends, foster homes, and other living arrangements, sometimes with his older brother and sometimes alone. The title of the books is an allusion to his belief that "Carlos" from Cuba has to die for his American "Charles" or "Chuck" or other identity to emerge. While the first book told a lot of his childhood, this one talks about him mostly as a pre-teen and teen, and flashes forward many times to his life as an adult.
Unlike other memoirs I've read that have been written in more than one part, these two books were very similar in style, tone, and composition. I enjoyed Eire's style in fact - it was unusual - the books being written more as a reverie, a collection of memories, than as a straightforward linear narrative. Eire was very poetic in places, very sad in others. This was not a laugh-out-loud set of books, but I did learn about an immigrant experience I was unfamiliar with, and was compelled to read the second one.
The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli
Soli's previous book The Lotus Eaters was one of my favorites, so I was excited to read this 2012-published novel by her. I liked it - it was really good.
The story starts with the main character, Claire, experiencing a tragic accident in her family on the farm they own and run. Years later, her marriage has fallen apart but she remains on the farm, even though her family moves away. When she is diagnosed with cancer, she hires a young woman named Minna to help her around the house. While Minna is a good caretaker, she begins to exhibit unusual behavior and her past slowly comes out throughout the story. Claire and Minna's relationship develops into something Claire does not expect, and becomes the focus of the majority of the book.
This book was haunting - when Minna's back story comes out, it is touching and surprising and violent. Similarly strange is Claire's acquiescence to a lot of Minna's idiosyncrasies. Whether either of their backgrounds justify their behavior throughout the story is perhaps the biggest question left with the reader at the end of the book.
The story starts with the main character, Claire, experiencing a tragic accident in her family on the farm they own and run. Years later, her marriage has fallen apart but she remains on the farm, even though her family moves away. When she is diagnosed with cancer, she hires a young woman named Minna to help her around the house. While Minna is a good caretaker, she begins to exhibit unusual behavior and her past slowly comes out throughout the story. Claire and Minna's relationship develops into something Claire does not expect, and becomes the focus of the majority of the book.
This book was haunting - when Minna's back story comes out, it is touching and surprising and violent. Similarly strange is Claire's acquiescence to a lot of Minna's idiosyncrasies. Whether either of their backgrounds justify their behavior throughout the story is perhaps the biggest question left with the reader at the end of the book.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Falling together by Maria Dos Santos
This was another book I picked up at the library without any recommendations. It was an easy read although also complex.
The story follows three college friends: Pen, Cat, and Will. After college they become estranged from each other, then many years later Cat "summons" Pen and Will to their college reunion. I'll reveal that they both decide to go, but to tell you any more would ruin the sprawling, multi-layered, story that spans continents and decades. The book tells the story of their friendship in college, the events leading up to their estrangement, and their developing relationships in the current time, after the college reunion.
Overall I enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading it each night before bed.
The story follows three college friends: Pen, Cat, and Will. After college they become estranged from each other, then many years later Cat "summons" Pen and Will to their college reunion. I'll reveal that they both decide to go, but to tell you any more would ruin the sprawling, multi-layered, story that spans continents and decades. The book tells the story of their friendship in college, the events leading up to their estrangement, and their developing relationships in the current time, after the college reunion.
Overall I enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading it each night before bed.
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
Many years ago I read Practical Magic by Hoffman and really enjoyed it - it became a movie in the '90's too - with Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. When I saw this book by the same author at the library, I picked it up.
This book is about a family of women, each of whom has a special talent - for example, knowing if someone is lying. When Stella comes of age and finds out that her talent is clairvoyence, she is put in a difficult situation when she sees her father commit a crime in the future. Once a series of events comes from this, she goes to live with estranged grandmother, complicating things for her mother.
I liked the mix of supernatural and "normal" worlds - not too science-fiction, but certainly a required element of the plot. I also liked thought the characters were well-developed and strong. It wasn't the most memorable book I've read recently, but I did enjoy it.
This book is about a family of women, each of whom has a special talent - for example, knowing if someone is lying. When Stella comes of age and finds out that her talent is clairvoyence, she is put in a difficult situation when she sees her father commit a crime in the future. Once a series of events comes from this, she goes to live with estranged grandmother, complicating things for her mother.
I liked the mix of supernatural and "normal" worlds - not too science-fiction, but certainly a required element of the plot. I also liked thought the characters were well-developed and strong. It wasn't the most memorable book I've read recently, but I did enjoy it.
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