Review: The Blinds

The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was about a town where people who were criminals or witnesses can go, get their memories wiped, and live "normally" for the rest of their lives. The novel had a very colorful and well-developed cast of characters, and did a good job setting up the town and the situation before diving into the mystery and action than dominates the second half of the book. I predict this becomes a mini-series on NBC :)

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Review: A Guide for the Perplexed

A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I did not "get" this book at all. It was a free PJ Library book, and I chose it from a few options. It was about a famous computer genius who gets kidnapped in Egypt, and a parallel story about a scholar in Egypt (100 years earlier) looking for ancient manuscripts purported to be written by famous Jewish scholar Moses Maimonedes. I didn't care enough about any of the characters to propel me through the book. And the technological tie-ins were not that interesting, neither was the parallelism of the stories. All in all, not a good read.

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Review: The Windfall

The Windfall by Diksha Basu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was another Book of the Month Club choice. I liked it. It was about an Indian couple who move from a comfortable neighborhood to an affluent one after the sale of their husband's Internet business. It also follows their son's life in America. It was funny at times, and romantic. Also satiric and a great depiction of sudden wealth and how it can change families. In some ways it reminded me of The Wangs vs. the World in its depiction of an Asian family and the havoc money wreaks on their families.

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Review: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I just adore everything that Anne Lamott writes. And shame on me that I don't appreciate how she and her editors group her essays, either by book or by section, I just gulp them down. This didn't disappoint - she writes more about her finding her own faith, about her relationship with her son, and with her church, all her "greatest hits," but in a familiar way (like a new U2 album that's great but the same as their old ones). She truly is my therapist when I can't see my actual therapist. And she'd say she's Christian, but I think she's more Human than anything else.

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Review: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the Book of the Month Club's Book of the Year for 2016 and it didn't disappoint. I'm not sure I liked anything as much as this since A Little Life. That still trumps anything else I've ever read, but this was itself amazingly written, complete with empathetic characters and a truly beautiful story. It is about a young girl who is befriended by one of her meth-cooking father's employees, and how he impacts her life. While certainly morally confusing at times, that is part of the beauty of this book - not how it glorifies morally ambiguous decisions, but how it presents them as they are, with conflict and all.

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Review: Stranger, Father, Beloved

Stranger, Father, Beloved by Taylor Larsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bought this book at the Book Loft in Columbus OH. The premise was interesting: a man sees his wife talking to a guest at a party and decides that she is supposed to be married to that man, rather than him. However, the book is an *incredibly* slow read about his descent into self-imposed exile and self-pity. While some of the characters were interesting (most notably, his daughter Ryan), in general the pace was too slow to appreciate and the resolution completely unsatisfying.

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Review: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really interesting and honest read. I decided to read something by Roxane Gay because I've recently read both Lindy West, Jessica Valenti and Rebecca Solnit, and wanted to continue rounding out my modern feminist exposure.

This book is a memoir by Gay about her life being overweight - "morbidly obese" as her doctor tells her at one point. She talks about trauma from her teenage years and how it triggered her to have an (over)eating disorder that has followed her and shaped her entire life. It reminded me in several sections of Appetites: Why Women Want in its blending of memoir and social commentary on women's inability to both express and get the things they want. It also helped me find compassion for overweight people; her descriptions of what it is like to be overweight and sitting in an airplane seat, a subway seat, a folding chair, was harrowing and definitely changed my point of view on it.

Brava, Roxane, a beautiful life to share.

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Review: The Girl Who Slept with God

The Girl Who Slept with God by Val Brelinski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was on a business trip to Denver, and noticed this book at Tattered Cover Book Store. It was pretty good! It's about a religious family whose eldest (and most devout) daughter goes on a missionary trip to Mexico and comes back pregnant. She claims it is God's baby, and her parents send her and her middle sister to live in another town, ostensibly in shame over the pregnancy.

The best part of this book was the character development. Each character was really well-thought out, and detailed. The story moves a bit slowly in places, but overall I enjoyed reading the book.

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Review: Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World

Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World by Susan Silverman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got this book complimentarily from PJ Library, a Jewish-themed organization. The rating of 3/5 is not a reflection on Silverman as a person - I admire her unconditionally. She is a rabbi, and along with her husband, they've built an amazing family - three biological daughters and two sons, both adopted from Ethiopia. The things they've navigated, as Jews, as a family, and as parents, are enormous and they do it compassionately and with great thoughtfulness.

I was, however, disappointed with some of the writing. It was honest, and straightforward, both of which I appreciated. I just thought it could have used some better editing - more even editing throughout the book to be precise. I felt like the first two-thirds held my attention, then the remainder of the book was rushed. Memoirs in general seem to suffer from this more so than novels since some of the events have taken place further in history than others. Still, it was choppy to experience that as a reader.

That aside, I'd still recommend it for its unique story of parenting.

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Review: The Leavers

The Leavers by Lisa Ko
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a Book of the Month selection, and I was glad to have chosen it. It follows Deming, a boy from childhood to adulthood, as he copes with separation from his mother as a young child, when she lives in America, trying to earn enough money to support him, while he lives in her childhood village in China. Once he comes to the US, they make a life together in New York City, but he is again separated from her at age eleven, when she mysteriously disappears from her job at a nail salon one day.

Deming ends up adopted by a WASPy couple in a small suburban town, and while they do their best to be good parents to him, he never fully belongs to them. The rest of the book tells the story of his search for his birth mother, for his identity, and for solace - of any sort. Well-written with compelling characters, this was a winner in my book.

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Review: Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Glass Castle is one of my favorite memoirs, so when I tried this book a few years ago and couldn't get into it, I was disappointed. This time around I got into it, and enjoyed it. This book is a "novelization" of Walls' grandmother Lily's life. I went into it hoping to understand how Walls' mother became the woman she was, the neglectful parent depicted in The Glass Castle.

However, I soon forgot that goal and got lost in the wild, wild West of Lily's life. From her childhood on a ranch to her attempts to get an education, her failed first marriage and her unwavering bravery and pluck, every page of this book was engrossing and entertaining. I don't know what it would be like to read this not having read Glass Castle first, though I suspect it would still be good. As a companion book, it's spectacular.

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Review: American War

American War by Omar El Akkad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was spectacular. I really enjoyed it - it was a Book of the Month pick. It takes place starting in 2074, in an America that has experienced a 2nd Civil War. This 2nd War is because of fossil fuels, the two factions differing in whether to use renewable energy sources or not. Most of the story follows Sarat, a young woman who grows up in the post-war era, following her from the south through a refugee camp, prison, and ultimately revenge - if not outright redemption.

While a timely commentary on climate change, this book is much more - it is also brilliant social commentary on war, politics, and individual responsibility. Well-written, with memorable characters and plot.

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Review: The Wangs vs. the World

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm rating this book 3 out of 5 with an acknowledgement that I wanted this to be as good as Crazy Rich Asians and it wasn't. It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't the fun, wild ride that is.

This book is about a self-made Chinese-American businessman who loses everything - goes completely broke. His (second) wife and children are used to living in luxury, and overnight they must give up their house in Southern California, their expensive schools and cars, and their pride. What keeps them afloat is the belief that there is ancestral land in China that belongs to them, and he decides to go seek it out.

I liked most of the characters (except for the ones I wasn't supposed to like, which I, appropriately, disliked), and the writing kept the book at a good pace. However, I didn't like how the plot came together in the end, which took an otherwise good idea and left me with a mediocre experience.

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Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Admission: I missed this book when everyone else read it, 10 years ago. It was like that Sex and the City scene where they wonder why they stopped drinking Cosmopolitans, and realize they stopped "because everyone else started." I thought it was over-hyped self-help so I ignored it.

Big mistake - turns out I loved this book. I reminded me of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail in its generosity with inner voice, and I felt like I really got to know Gilbert. I wouldn't say she is as good a writer or as calming a soul as Anne Lamott, but she's on the road to that for sure.

The book is divided into three sections. After the end of her marriage, which Gilbert's initiation of doesn't make it any less difficult for her, she travels to Italy and EATS her way to comfort, then India where she learns to PRAY at an ashram, then Indonesia where she falls in LOVE. (Get it?) While there are some boring passages and some hippy-dippy passages about meditation, all in all the book moved pretty quickly and was a lovely memoir.

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Review: The House of Journalists

The House of Journalists by Tim Finch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. I found it at the library and thought it was one of those hidden treasures. The premise was great - journalists from different countries living in exile for political reasons all found a temporary home in a building in London. The characters had rich back stories, though some with stories that read more like exile tropes than unique narratives. That aside, there was intrigue, a really interesting collective voice, and some mystery. However, the plot and payoff just didn't live up to its setup. I wish it had - there was a lot of great stuff here to work with.

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