Review: The Sacrifice of Tamar

The Sacrifice of Tamar by Naomi Ragen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book - knowing Ragen to be a well-respected author and amateur sociologist when it comes to the Orthodox Jewish community - but I didn't. It is about a woman named Tamar who is married to a well-respected scholar in her isolated ultra-Orthodox community. Tamar is raped early in the book, and the results of that incident follow her through her life and that of her family.

What I did like about the book was that her two best friends represented two alternative approaches to Judaism within the Orthodox community. Still, I found the character development weak, the plot predictable, and the community in many ways reduced to the archetypes and stereotypes already familiar to me. The writing was easy to follow, but not good enough to make up for the other shortcomings.

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Review: China Rich Girlfriend

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was fabulous fun, just like Crazy Rich Asians, Kwan's first book in this series. Most of the same characters were back from the original story, and there are more great examples of scheming, outlandish displays of wealth, and gossip - more than even the characters know what to do with. Though the book jacket summarizes the book as being about Rachel's finding her birth father, that is just one of the four or five intertwined plots within the book. Couldn't wait to read this each day!

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Review: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina

Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would give Copeland 5 starts as a person, but her autobiography only earned 3. She is one of the first only black soloists in a major ballet company, and her life is amazing - she began ballet quite late (as an adolescent) but had a natural gift for it. The book tells the story of her discovering ballet and training under several teachers, being pulled between professional success and family as a young woman, and then succeeding as a ballerina at a level few ever reach, particularly black women. I enjoyed learning about her and reading her story, but didn't think the writing was very good. There were parts I would have wanted to know more about that were omitted, and places where more detail or color would have made it a better story. That said, she is an icon and I have a ton of respect for her as a person, so I'm glad I know more about her life.

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Review: The Indian Bride

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this at the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale this summer. It's a mystery, about an awkward Norwegian man who marries an Indian woman abroad. He eagerly awaits her arrival in Norway, but on the day she is due to show up, the body of a battered foreigner is found near his house. The story is about him and about her, but also about the detectives who investigate the crime as well as the town itself, and its secrets and characters. Just one of those good books that is somewhere between a mystery and a novel, kept me thinking and kept me reading.

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Review: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think it was the election that did it - that pushed me towards several non-fiction books and a search for some hints on faith. Anne Lamott isn't Jewish (and I am) - far from it, she goes to a Church and talks about Jesus and God as if they are her neighbors - but she has faith, and I needed a good dose of that. She is the best example I have found of Brene Brown's gospel of vulnerability. She completely opens herself up to the reader, sharing all her failures, foibles, and doubts, while simultaneously displaying her faith. Not a blind faith in a traditional god, but a questioning and malleable faith in something palpable and engaging.

Anyway, I love her. And I loved the essays in this book that dive into these ideas.

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Review: Love Warrior

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love love love love loved this book. I am a hug fan of Melton's and was so excited to hear her speak at the Massachusetts Women's Conference just weeks after reading this. She is a recovering addict who has generously shared her ongoing life story through her blog and several memoirs. I did not love her first book - finding it a bit repetitive from her blog, but this one was really good. I find her as a person (and her books) to be so honest and revealing and true, while also being rooted in her faith. She refers to Anne Lamott (whom I've also been reading) as her patron saint, and I love that and think she is like my generation's Anne.

In this book, Melton covers the breakdown of her marriage. But she starts with her wedding day and chronicles pieces of her story I had not heard about or read before. She's funny, honest, neurotic, and direct.

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Review: The Summer Before the War

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I truly loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand so I was excited to read this by the same author. It wasn't quite as ... zippy? ... as Major P., but I enjoyed it. It is about a small English town right before WWI breaks out. A young woman arrives to become the local school's Latin teacher, and her arrival is just one of several catalysts for change and politics in the town. This book had a great sense of time and place, and the frustrations of British manners. There were juicy characters, interminable committee meetings, and enough plot twists to keep me busy. While a little long in places, it more than made of for it with its charm. Were you in an intergenerational book club, this would be a delightful choice.

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Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was unlike anything I've read lately (although not altogether different in theme from The Circle), and yet somewhat reminiscent of The Thirteenth Tale or even The Da Vinci Code. Yet smarter than all three of them.

It was a mystery, sort of, but also a fable. It followed a young man who, victimized by the internet economy, takes a job in a bookstore. However, the bookstore turns out to be an outpost of a secret society, and he begins to unravel the story of, and puzzles within, the group. It's a story about the tension between old and new, progress and history, and machine learning vs human ingenuity. Truly a book for our time, and one I will remember for a while.

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Review: Modern Lovers

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book well enough - an easy read but well-written and well-developed. It is the story of several friends who had been in a band in college. One woman breaks out into general fame, then dies young. Years later, a movie is produced about her, and the rest of the band, now "grownups" with families, problems, and marriages, need to consent to their music and likenesses being used. I liked the characters and the neighborhood they lived in, and I appreciated how well the plotting was done.

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Review: Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new friend (Liz) recommended this to me. It's a memoir of sorts - or at least a meditation on society told through one women's point of view. West is a comedian, one who is physically and personality-wise large. She writes about how women are expected to be neither of those things, and how society treats them (us). I found the first few chapters difficult to relate to, as she references several characters and people I didn't really know. However, as she continues on, she makes some very astute and sadly unfortunate observations about how we treat overweight people and how we treat women who speak their minds.

The final section of the book was a retelling of a story I had heard on This American Life, of her finding and confronting an Internet troll who was abusing her online. No less shocking in print, it's a remarkable story of anger, hurt, and reconciliation - sort of. Overall, a really interesting read as a woman in today's world.

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Review: The Girls

The Girls by Emma Cline
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was one of the "it" books this summer, but I didn't love it. It was memorable, and well-written, but it left me feeling - icky? Maybe that is a good thing, and a testament to the book's accomplishing its goal. The story follows a young woman whose rocky adolescence leads her to a cult. While she is taken under the wing of the cult's leader as well as a powerful ally of is, she somewhat remains on the outside, still connected to her family and comfortable way of life. She narrowly misses being involved in a violent crime, and that - the crime, as well as her lack of participation - defines the rest of her life.

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Review: Commonwealth

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I mean, I just adore Ann Patchett. She writes such rich characters and puts them in such impossible situations. In this book, a set of step-siblings who spend summers together encounter tragedy together, which they each bury in their minds. However, as an adult, one of them falls in love with an author and tells him the story - which becomes the basis for his bestseller. This book spans many decades and several generations, from the affair that breaks up a first marriage to the children and grandchildren who come after. I got lost in this book - in a good way.

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Review: Fates and Furies

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oooh this one was a doozy. I loved it. It told the story of a married couple, first from the husband's point of view, then from the wife's. And after reading her telling, you realize that nothing was quite as simple as it seemed in his telling. The characters were great, and the plotting very intelligent. It was a kick to get to the second half and hear her point of view. There was also a Greek chorus of sorts who butt into the story now and then, which I found amusing and clever. Part Gone Girl Gone Girl, and part A Reliable Wife, maybe?

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Review: Rich and Pretty

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an easy read, and an enjoyable one. It follows two friends, who have known each other for most of their lives, as young adults. One is planning a wedding, the other perpetually single, and their friendship ebbs and flows through several big and small occurrences. I thought the author did a great job of depicting the complexity of adult friendships and their imperfections. I really liked the character development and the development of the relationship the women had with each other. This could be a great beach read that surprises you with substance, or an easy, more literature-y book.

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Review: The Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was great. I have always loved Atwood's speculative fiction, and this was no exception. It follows a couple who is really struggling in a post-apocalyptic world, who decide to join a commune. The commune seems to offer a stable and comfortable life, with the simple odd exception that each month the community members take turns being imprisoned. While it is significantly better than their life "outside", as they discover the truth about their new environment, they realize that nothing is as perfect as it seems. Atwood's writing, characters, and plot development were, as is usual, extremely well-done.

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