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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Review: The Wanderers

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read about this book on the "Don't Mind the Mess" blog, which is often a good source of recommendations. This one, not so much. While I thought the premise was great - famous astronauts were spending 18 months in a simulation of a journey to Mars in preparation for an actual mission - and the characters appropriately complex and compelling, the book just didn't come together for me. I enjoyed reading about each character's back story, and I also liked reading about the "mission," training, and challenges. But I didn't really "get" the ending, or appreciate the book once I was done with it.

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Review: The Mothers

The Mothers by Brit Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bennett's book kept my attention for sure. This was about a young woman in Southern California, who is part of a religious Christian community. When she gets pregnant from the pastor's son, he and she, and several other characters in the book, make decisions about her pregnancy that have far-reaching impacts over decades. I thought the writing was really good, and I also appreciated the character development. There was a "Greek Chorus" who told of the background, not dissimilar from the writing in Fates and Furies, which I thought was a nice touch.

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Review: Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a quick read - very well written, somewhat poetic even, but short. It was about a set of girlfriends coming of age in Brooklyn in the 1970's. As many young friendships ultimately fall apart, these do, which you learn early, as the current day is interspersed with memories of the past. There are first best friends, feelings of belonging, and betrayals. A beautiful portrayal of both childhood and growing out of it, this book captures that nearly perfectly. Brooklyn as a place also becomes a character as their neighborhood changes with their growth towards independence.

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Review: Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was an eye-opener. Feldman grew up as a member of the Satmar sect of Hassidic Judaism, which could hardly be called even a branch of the same religion I practice as a modern Reconstructionist Jew. The Satmars live a very insular life, with no outside influences (like secular books or music), and strict gender roles that are governed by male (of course) rabbis. She decides to leave the sect, and her husband, but the majority of the book is about her life in the sect before she leaves, and how she makes the decision to do so.

I thought I knew a lot about Judaism, but the traditions, rules, and customs in this sect blew me away. The example that most sticks with me is that Feldman recounts the rule that when a woman is menstruating she is considered "unclean" and can't touch her husband - even casually, like in the process of passing him a plate at dinner. In fact, she can't pass him a plate at dinner. She must put the plate down, then he picks it up. When her period is over, if she has discharge, her husband brings a pair of underwear to the rabbi, who determines if the discharge stains indicate it is indeed actually over. Really.

There has been some criticism of her depiction of the community, but even if a fraction of what she writes is true, and I believe it to be much more than that, she is a brave and unusual soul indeed.


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Review: Happy All the Time

Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book exclusively because Anne Lamott told me to, and I try to do the things she tells me (and everyone) to do.

It was sweet - it reminded me of some of Betty Smith's lesser-known books (like Joy in the Morning, perhaps) in its simplicity and directness. It was published in 1978 and is more straightforward and direct than many novels written today.

It is about two couples who are friends, and is simply the story of each of their lives leading up to and including their finding each other, falling in love, and getting married. None of the four of them is perfect, but none is tragically flawed either, so this becomes, at its core, a love story. Where more modern fiction sees neuroses and flaws as downfalls, this book lets the characters embrace those things - and thus each other.

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Review: Every Kind of Wanting

Every Kind of Wanting by Gina Frangello
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new friend Liz recommended this to me, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The premise seemed unnecessarily complicated and "Portlandia"-ish: when a gay couple decide to have a baby, they use an egg from one of their sisters, and then a gestational carrier who is an old friend of the other's from high school. The book jacket described this as the raising of a "community baby," but I found it to be much much more.

What I liked most about this book was the characters. There are four incredibly well-developed characters, each with backstories and motives. Then there are at least five other characters with their own histories and stories. This mastery of character development probably most reminded me of This is Where I Leave You.

I did enjoy the story as well, but this was one of those book that was more about the journey than the destination.

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Review: All Grown Up

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I joined Book of the Month Club and I'm not sure I've learned how to pick the right book each month. This was my first or second pick, and I didn't love it. It's about a single woman in NYC, somewhat self-absorbed, whose brother and his wife have a baby with a chronic and life-shortening condition. Told in (confusing) vignettes, the book jumps around different parts of their lives, building characters through fragments rather than full character development. The main character isn't particularly likable, nor was the non-linear plot compelling in its presentation.

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Review: Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act

Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a memoir about a man's attempt to address his hoarding. Prompted by his exasperated girlfriend and her mother, Yourgrau decides to investigate hoarding - its history, famous hoarders, and different treatments - in an effort to, quite literally, clean up his act. He is in some ways successful, thought moreso in his delving into his own underlying issues from which his hoarding sprouted than in understanding it more broadly. I applaud his sharing of this experience with readers, but found some of the book purely self-indulgent. His self-awareness only sometimes made up for that.

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Review: The Woman in Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beach read to be sure, but one I enjoyed. This story is about a travel writer who gets her big break - an assignment to report on the experience of being on a luxury yacht. She observes what she thinks is a murder, but all the evidence disappears, and she is questioned as being mentally ill. It was fun to play along, and decide if I believed her or thought she was losing it. While not exceptional in its writing, the plot and character development were well-done. I looked forward to reading this each night.

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