Crazy Rich Asians

Author: Kevin Kwan
First Published: May 2014
Publisher: Anchor
Series: Crazy Rich Asians #1
527 pages (paperback)

Rachel Chu is an ordinary Chinese-American 30-something woman, a professor of economics at a New York University. For the past two years, she has been dating Nicholas Young, a fellow professor at her university. Their relationship has been fantastic. Now, Nick has invited her to attend the wedding of his best friend Colin in Singapore. Rachel is a tad hesitant at first, because traveling to Singapore certainly means meeting all of Nick's family as well -- but hey, maybe it's about time she did. And anyway, what could possibly happen, really?

Instead of an ordinary vacation, Rachel is wholly unprepared for the world of crazy rich Asian people. Turns out Nick comes from an extremely wealthy, multi-billionaire family. They are very old money and can trace their family tree back generations. Nick doesn't think it's a big deal, but Rachel is stunned. The wedding they're going to? The biggest, fanciest wedding in the Asian world, covered by magazines and newspapers! To make matters difficult, Nick's entire family, excluding a select few, are incredibly snobby towards Rachel. Rachel isn't rich and "doesn't come from a good family". The family plots to break up Nick and Rachel, while at the same time, Nick falls deeper in love with his girlfriend and plans to propose soon.

As an Asian person myself, it was so fun reading this book. I did not think any of it was offensive. Actually, it's clear the author really understands what very traditional Asian elders are like! This is not a book about "regular" rich Asian people. This is a book about the extremely, extremely wealthy, the kind who are just bordering on royalty; the old money types who look down on the nouveau riche. It's a crazy, humorous take on the super elite of the Asian world, with a culture that prizes sons and family names. If you've ever watched an Asian TV drama, this is sort of like that, with a lot of stinking rich people and brand names thrown around.

Though I found the story very entertaining, I did have a few qualms with the book. Now, I didn't expect any deep and profound characters or anything like that, especially since this book is classified as humor (?), but I really didn't feel much between Rachel and Nick. They're happy and in love, I am told, but I didn't feel like they were. Everybody else, I don't care, but since they are the main characters this story was revolving around, I did expect their love to feel more ... genuine? This may have something to do with the fact that for a lot of the story, the characters are not actually with one another (physically, not emotionally).

The thing I disliked the most was the ending. What kind of ending was that?! Absolutely nothing was resolved; in fact, there were several cliffhanger-type endings. It was all rather abrupt and left me very unsatisfied.

Regardless, I quite enjoyed this book and am glad that there is a sequel. Actually, that's probably why the ending was so sudden -- it'll all be continued in the next book, I bet.

My Rating: 4/5

The Storyteller

This post first published March 17, 2015.

Author: Jodi Picoult
First Published: February 2013
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
460 pages (hardcover)
 
Another Jodi Picoult book for me, this time it’s The Storyteller. The dust jacket summary of the novel didn’t really say much about what this book is about. I thought it was a book about euthanasia at first. Turns out it’s something completely different. It’s actually a World War II related story. I have sort of mixed feelings about the novel, now that I’m finished. Some parts were extraordinarily excellent; other parts were quite dull and cliche.

The Storyteller starts with Sage Singer, a young woman who is a baker. She’s a loner who has taken to working/baking through the night and sleeping through the day. Her only friend is Mary, who is also her boss. She dates Adam, a married man, because if he ever left, well, she could say she didn’t lose someone she never truly had. She has been harboring a lot of guilt ever since her mother died, for which she blames herself for. She attends a grief therapy group, where she doesn’t participate all that much to be honest, but still finds herself frequently going.

It is at the grief group she meets Josef Weber, an elderly 95 year old man, who is beloved by the small town. They strike up a friendship of some sort and it is then that Josef confesses something incredible to Sage: he is actually a former SS Nazi officer. He then proceeds to ask Sage for a huge favor — to end his life. Sage is Jewish, you see, and Josef hopes to gain forgiveness from what he has done during the war and to be put out of his misery, so to speak.

With this book, it feels like all the good parts are in the middle. The beginning and the end were really quite lackluster, in my opinion. I feel like Sage’s ex-nun of a boss and co-worker, the whole ‘Jesus bread loaf’ subplot, etc. that was present in the beginning was made intentionally quirky to try to make the beginning more interesting. Which didn’t really work for me, it just seemed kind of strange. Also, Sage and Josef’s relationship wasn’t really explored too much in depth. Like, he meets her a couple times then drops this HUGE bomb on her, “Oh and by the way, could you please kill me because I really want to die.” And then Sage kept entertaining the idea! What the heck?!

The middle of the book was a different story though — literally. We have two ‘biographies’, one from Josef’s time as an SS Nazi officer, and one from Sage’s grandmother as a concentration camp survivor. Hands down, this part of the book was the best. It was super interesting read about World War II from two vastly different perspectives. Lots of emotion combined with wonderful prose led to a very late night where I could not put the book down. Now, I’ve read a few things around the Internet where people were saying small parts of Picoult’s story aren’t historically accurate but I think I’ll give her a pass on it because she’s not normally a historical fiction writer. Might even be her first try, as far as I know. Anyway, from what I’ve read, it’s really small, minor details, so I’m not going to be super nitpicky about stuff like that.

Threaded throughout the entire novel, is another story that is written by Sage’s grandmother. Without mincing with words, it’s essentially a vampire love story, that she wrote during her time in the concentration camp. There’s supposed to be some allegory comparing the Nazis to vampires or something, I think, but I didn’t really get it. It wasn’t really a good story, to be honest. Every time I encountered another small section of the book dedicated to continuing this vampire story, I was tempted to just skip it over. I probably could have, but I also didn’t want to miss anything.

After the fantastic middle portion of the book (which is the bulk of the novel), we come back to the present day where Sage has enlisted Nazi hunter (a federal agent), Leo. Okay, here’s where the story went all wonky again and just felt too Hollywood for my liking, if you kind of know where I’m going with this. Sage and Leo fall completely in love with one another. Sage ends up doing Josef the favor and helps ends his life. Which I think was moronic; after all the trouble she went through trying to get him to confess to certain crimes and stuff so that Leo could arrest him or whatever, Sage just does her own thing and kills him anyway. And how was she planning to get away with this murder?! Because like it or not, it’s still murder and it’s not like Sage is a mastermind criminal. Someone is definitely going to figure out that Sage did it.

Anyway, I have gripes with this book, if you can’t tell. However, I cannot stress enough how wonderful and emotional the historical portions of this book were. It did feel like it was two/three separate stories wrapped in one book. I don’t feel like this is one of Jodi Picoult’s best novels but it was okay. If are a Jodi Picoult fan, I am sure you would read this anyway. If you are looking for a WWII novel, there are better ones out there, I would think, but this one is pretty good if you ignore the present-day parts.

My Rating: 3/5

Lone Wolf

This post first published March 10, 2015.

Author: Jodi Picoult
First Published: October 2012
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
421 pages (hardcover)
 
First of all, bloggity-life-update stuff: It’s been an incredibly long time since I read a book and posted a review here! Hello, hello, I’ve returned! It’s been an embarrassing 6 or 7 months since I read a book (to completion — I have a few unfinished books lying around that I just didn’t get around to finishing). My previous post was about how busy I was settling into a new job/career, which I think I’ve most settled into now. Not to mention also preparing to move (first time homeowners, hooray!) So it’s been a crazy year all around, and I must confess, besides time constraints, I was also kind of getting a little bored of reading. I know, what a terrible thing to admit to on a book blog! I was exploring some new hobbies (fishkeeping) and also rekindling my passion for old ones (video games), so reading just kind of … dropped off the radar for a long time. I was also reading a lot of one genre, mainly fantasy and historical fiction on royalty, so I was feeling quite burned out. All the books I picked up started to feel a tad too similar to one another. Guess you gotta branch out sometimes. Even though I love fantasy and historical fiction (or fantasy historical fiction, haha), I’ve realized it’s important to read other stuff too. Anyway, moving on to the review …

I need to catch up on Jodi Picoult books! This one is called Lone Wolf and it came out about 2-3 years ago. Like all of Picoult’s books, the dust cover summaries always sound kind of boring but I’ll try to make it a bit more interesting. Luke Warren is a renowned wolf expert who literally lived with wolves for two years in order to fully understand and study them. His extreme passion for wolves has, unfortunately, been a heated topic with his family, who feel he may love the animals more than them. He had divorced from his wife Georgie several years ago, at the same time his then-18 year old son Edward left home to become the estranged son. He lives in a trailer near his wolf conservation park (theme park thing?) with his daughter Cara (6 years younger than Edward) and his wife Georgie has since remarried lawyer Joe Ng and had twins. Presently, in the book, Cara is 17 (and 3/4 she will tell you!) and Edward is 23.

That’s the background. The story starts with a terrible accident in which Luke is driving his drunk daughter Cara home from a party she wasn’t supposed to be at when the truck smashes into a tree. Cara makes it out fairly alright, with a broken arm, bruised ribs and a concussion. Luke, on the other hand, is in a vegetative state, kept alive by a ventilator and a feeding tube.  The whole family gather together immediately, daughter, ex-wife and estranged son, at his bedside but days pass and the prognosis is extremely grim. As his next-of-kin, Edward finds himself in a position to make medical decisions for his father, but his choice of whether to keep Luke alive via ventilator and tube feedings clash directly with Cara, who wants to keep him alive as long as possible. The family comes under extreme pressure as Cara is sure Edward is just looking for an excuse to kill their father, while Edward is sure Cara is too blinded by survivor’s guilt to grasp the reality of the situation.

What is it with Jodi Picoult’s books?! You start reading one and all of a sudden, you find yourself 100 pages in and it feels like only 5 minutes have passed. Her books always suck me in quickly, and Lone Wolf is no exception. In particular, dealing with the ethical and legal stuff that has to do with keeping patients alive through mechanical means is really interesting to me as a nurse (even though I’m aware this is all fictional). Maybe that’s why I liked the story so much. Also, because Jodi Picoult books always have to have some sort of legal battle going on, I love hearing both sides of the argument.

The downside is that in this book — for me, in any case — it was really clear which side had better arguments and I think this came down to the characters. Cara was extremely immature and I have no idea why anyone would entertain anything she says, especially as she was caught lying multiple times in the story. She was also bordering delusional with her great hope that her father would come back alive, and just didn’t seem to be able to grasp the consequences of her actions. For goodness’ sake, she tried to get her brother thrown in jail and when confronted, all she could say was that she wouldn’t have let anyone actually put him in jail, she’d just recant what she said if it got to that point. Seriously?! And here she is trying to prove to everyone she is mature enough to be appointed her father’s decision maker. Why anyone would even begin to think that’s a good idea is beyond me.

I ended up rooting for Edward to “win” just because I couldn’t stand the idea of Cara “winning’. Edward wasn’t a spectacularly built character either, but he was alright. Even though he was gone from the family for the last few years with extremely minimal contact, I didn’t believe he was trying to pull the plug on his father as an act of revenge, as Cara tries to tell everyone. Even though I think his reasons for running away from home in the first place are kind of overly dramatic for what it was, he played a good ‘tortured soul’ character in this novel and I ended up sympathizing a lot more with him than Cara.

Towards the end of the novel, I was beginning to become worried about what the result of the legal battle was going to be. Okay, so here’s the thing — every time I read a Jodi Picoult novel (or almost every time … every time I can remember, anyway), the ending has always been utter crap. I’d become angry and think, “Are you serious?!” because the legal battle(s) will usually end in such a way that I just cannot believe it. So I was thinking that the whole time and just bracing for some shitty ending like Luke magically regaining consciousness despite ALL the medical staff saying it’s pretty darn impossible due to damage to a very vital part of your brain. I really did not think a positive, “miracle” ending suited this story. I guess this is a spoiler, but I am glad the book ended the way I thought it should end, on a more realistic note.

My Rating: 5/5

Lady of the English

This post first published December 17, 2012.

Author: Elizabeth Chadwick
First Published: 2011
Publisher: Sourcebook Landmark
514 pages (paperback)

Lady of the English is about Empress Matilda, from the 12th century. I know the gist of her history — her father, having no male heir, wanted his daughter to have the English crown, but her cousin Stephen (the closest male heir) took it instead. The result was years and years of warring for the throne, ending with Matilda’s son, Henry II, as king. Even though I had a small amount of historical knowledge on Matilda already, the story still felt excitingly unpredictable. I was absorbed into the story and quite addicted.

This book follows two ladies during this time period, actually. The first is Empress Matilda. She is the daughter of King Henry I of England, and had been married off to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor — this is how she became known as the Empress. Her husband, whom she loved dearly, unfortunately died and the two did not have any children. Her father summoned her back to England where he decided that she will be his heir, as his only son (and Matilda’s brother) had died years ago. All his lords and barons were made to swear fealty to Matilda three times. Matilda herself was married off to Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, in order to strengthen England and her own power.

However, Matilda and her father fought frequently. When he died, one of the witnesses to his death stated that Henry actually dissolved his lords and barons of their oaths to Matilda. Her cousin, Stephen, quickly took over the throne. No one is a hundred percent sure if Henry truly dissolved the oaths or not, as the witness is questionable, but regardless, what happens now is nearly two decades of conflict and battles for the English throne. Matilda feels robbed of her inheritance, but it is hard to find support when you are a woman in such medieval times.

The other lady this book follows is Adeliza, Henry I’s second wife and Matilda’s stepmother. Adeliza is actually a year younger than Matilda. Adeliza is, in many ways, the complete opposite of Matilda. She is humble, very religious and knows her role as a woman, wife and queen. However, Adeliza can sense that Matilda is destined for the English throne and offers her all the love and support that she can. The contrast between the two women is perfect, showing that there are many ways one can be a queen, and a powerful woman, in the 12th century.

There was a lot of love, lust, betrayal and a whole slew of emotions when reading this novel. One thing I gleaned from reading this book is that it was a difficult time to be a woman back then, especially if you want power. It is so easy to portray Matilda as a villain in history. True, Matilda is portrayed as stubborn with a hardened will in this novel, and I’m sure some of the characters would not hesitate to call her nasty names, but she is also a loving mother and loyal friend. She is intelligent, ambitious and knows exactly what she wants, but she is also aware of the disadvantages she has being a woman in this time period. In this novel, she is aware she may be overcompensating by being “manly” sometimes, but then she is thought of as an unnatural woman. However, if she acts womanly, people see her as weak. She just can’t ever seem to win! I think all of this brings some understanding to Matilda’s character, and why she seems angry all the time.

Between Matilda and Adeliza, Matilda definitely came off as much more interesting to me, although I really liked Adeliza too. Adeliza is so kind-hearted and thoughtful that she seems almost too good to be true. It is hard to dislike Adeliza’s character. However, her part of the story seemed more like background stuff while Matilda was heavily in the forefront.

I really enjoyed this story and portrayal of Matilda, and I feel like I learned a lot in the process, even though this is a fictional novel. I had no idea that when Matilda married the Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, she was 22 and he was only 14! Wow, talk about awkward.  I was really interested in how their relationship was going to pan out with such a large age difference between the two. The age difference wouldn’t matter as much if they were both adults, but at 14, Geoffrey is pretty much just a kid. Geoffrey seemed to be extremely mature, in that he understood the political significance of his marriage to Matilda, and immature in that he was a bratty wife beater. I was mildly surprised that after their rocky start, they ended up having a rather civil and successful relationship. I don’t think they are quite as different as they think they might be, and their similarities is what what makes the two of them to become a force to be reckoned with.

There’s a lot of political things happening in this book, but it was easy to understand and follow along. The story is very well done and I was absolutely addicted to reading it. Even after reading this book, Matilda’s presence looms large in my mind. The ending was a bit “meh” to me, but overall, the entire book was wonderful and I heartily recommend to others, especially if you love historical royalty fiction like me. I think I have a new favourite author!

My Rating: 5/5

Tigers In Red Weather

This post first published December 9, 2012.

Author: Liza Klaussman
First Published: July 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
269 pages (eBook)
 
I’m not really sure what caused me to pick up this novel to read. I first saw it at the bookstore, and quite liked the cover. Reminded me a bit of The Great Gatsby. The title was also quite intriguing — tigers in red weather? What could that mean?  Anyway, I eventually got the novel and read it. While at first I was kind of “meh” about it, the story really grew on me and I ended up really liking it. I have been ruminating on the story ever since I finished it — so much betrayal, guilt, love and lust. Everyone’s hiding something, from someone else or from themselves. It starts off rather light hearted but snowballs into an intense drama.

Tigers In Red Weather is a story set in the mid 40’s to late 50’s time period. It spans two decades, give or take, and follows five main characters. The novel is split into five parts, one for each of them. Nick (who is a woman — that threw me off in the beginning, when I didn’t realize she was a woman) and Helena are cousins and best friends. They enjoy spending their summers at Tiger House, a family-owned estate. Their life seems perfect, what with the ending of World War II approaching: Nick’s husband, Hughes, is coming back from war and Helena is soon to marry her own husband and move to glamorous Hollywood.

However, life is not as wonderful and perfect as it seems. Hughes has come back a changed man and Helena’s husband, Avery, is a sly and untrustworthy figure. A decade later, the cousins reunite at Tiger House, now each with their own child: Daisy (Nick’s) and Ed (Helena’s). They throw a party, not knowing that that night, everything in their lives was going to change. A murder happens, the victim being the maid of a neighbour’s, and everyone’s secrets and guilts begin to leak out, spanning another decade.

The story does not move forward in time in a straightforward manner. It generally moves in one direction, but also hops backwards into the past and then back into the present, and occasionally into the future. This created a very suspenseful atmosphere in the book, although at first I didn’t realize there was a ‘mystery’ involved so I didn’t understand why we were jumping around time so much. Besides suspense, there is also an element of horror although I would not go so far to classify it as horror. More of a “something is not quite right” element, really. It’s not evident at first. It kind of creeps up on you. At first you don’t think anything is off, just a little odd. Then you have a sense something is not quite right, which slowly but surely makes you feel kind of chilled, until at last the truth comes out. Perhaps sharper readers would have caught on earlier to the truth/secret, but I did not see it coming and when it was all revealed, I was quite surprised because when I first started the book, I had no idea it would head in such a dramatic direction!

I liked this book because I felt it struck a good balance between character development and plot, not too much or too little of either. The characters in particular were lovely. Each one was flawed in their own unique way, fighting their own demons. It’s definitely a grim story despite the summery-looking book cover. The characters are all miserable but hiding behind lies they’ve told themselves (or things they have convinced themselves of being the truth).  It’s just all very well done in my opinion, the characters all captured my interest one hundred percent. In particular, Ed was fascinating and what compelled me to keep reading because he seemed to be the biggest mystery of all. He was the last perspective introduced in the story so you don’t get to find out his thoughts and feelings until the end, so for the longest time, I was just guessing as to why Ed was the way he was, and what really happened that midsummer night with the maid’s murder.

Tigers In Red Weather is a fascinating read and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, I’d definitely recommend you check it out.

My Rating: 4/5

The Casual Vacancy

This post first published November 26, 2012.

Author: J. K. Rowling
First Published: September 27, 2012
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group
426 pages (eBook)
 
The most anticipated book of 2012! At first I wanted to read it because I am a fan of Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling.  I know, I know, everyone said not to read it if you’re doing it just because it’s by J. K. Rowling, but let’s face it — there’s no other real reason to read it except for that one reason. If that cover said someone else’s name on it, I doubt many people would even glance at it. Then, I changed my mind and I didn’t want to read it because I found out the plot synopsis and it didn’t sound interesting to me at all. I mean, even the cover is pretty boring. I think, eventually I would have succumbed and gave the book a try, but anyway, the real reason I read this book is because it is the November book of my book club.

The Casual Vacancy is a grim story about a little, tiny town called Pagford. Barry Fairbrother, a member of the parish council suddenly dies of a stroke in his very early forties, leaving a ‘casual vacancy’ on the council. Quickly, various members of the town begin to run for the empty spot in the upcoming election. On the surface, it seems like the casual vacancy is the only issue at hand, but Barry’s death reveals the many, many problems and unhappiness that various townspeople have with their own families, with their neighbours, with their own children, with their parents. The Casual Vacancy is a dark and realistic portrait of human unhappiness, frustration and loneliness.

I have mixed feelings towards this book. When I first started this book, maybe for the first half or so, I was really bored. There’s just no other way to put it, sorry — I was bored. I know character-centered stories aren’t normally my cup of tea, but I’ve enjoyed a good handful of them before so it’s not that I don’t enjoy them, I’m just picky with them. This character-centered novel was simply not capturing my attention though. There were so many characters introduced at once that I couldn’t keep track of them. I got Samantha and Shirley mixed up a lot, even up to the end of the novel. Several characters have nicknames so it threw me off a bit to remember two names for one character when I already have so many to keep track of. I did like how there were many perspectives, from adults to children, but the story flits from character to character so often that it isn’t until two-thirds of the way through that I feel I really start to get to know the characters and how they tick — the ones I could remember and tell apart from the others anyway.

The story did get more interesting and picked up some more pace once the computer-hacking stuff begins (you’ll know what I’m talking about if you read it). And then from there, the story got more and more depressing and tragic, in an interesting way. I really was quite absorbed into the story in the last 100 pages or so, and I feel the last 100 pages really redeemed some of the boring-ness I felt for the first half of the novel. The ending made my heart clench up, it was quite sad, and if I was the type of person who easily cried when reading or watching movies, I think I would have. I think the best part of this novel are the teenager characters Rowling presents. She’s really quite good at writing about turbulent and angsty teens. It’s no surprise to me that all the best scenes in the novel involved the teenager characters, especially the ending. (And on that note, while I liked the ending because it got quite an emotional response from me, I’m not quite sure what I was supposed to take away from the ending. It felt like quite a hopeless and depressing ending).

As for complaints that Rowling “tried too hard” to be adult in this book, such as using swear words and having sex in the novels and stuff, I think that’s just silly. Thousands of other adult novels have swearing and sex in it, many of them to much worse degrees than what is presented in The Casual Vacancy. I think anyone complaining about the adult content in this book needs to stop thinking of Rowling as a children’s writer and comparing her older works to this one. The Casual Vacancy is meant to be a realistic and grim picture of human relationships and those things are a part of real life. For all it’s worth, I commend Rowling for trying to write something completely different from Harry Potter.

Overall, I still have some mixed feelings towards the book. I thought the beginning was sluggish and dull, but the ending half was actually quite interesting, in a rather morbid way. I don’t think I would ever re-read this book though. It’s nothing like Harry Potter at all, if that is your only reason for reading this book. If you are a person who enjoys books about character development and “life stories” kind of novels, this is a book for you. If not, I would be kind of wary about picking it up.

My Rating: 3/5

The Other Boleyn Girl

This post first published October 6, 2012.

Author: Philippa Gregory
First Published: April 2001
Publisher: Touchstone
Series: The Tudors #2
661 pages (paperback)
 
Been wanting to read this book for quite a while now. I ended up watching the movie before I read this book. I liked the movie, even though it felt a bit low budget. Anyway, I was pretty excited to read this book. I discovered it’s very different from the movie but I still ended up really liking it. (As a side note, you do not need to have read other books in this “series” to understand the book).

If you know anything about this period of time, then you will have a good idea of what this book is about already. The story is from the perspective of the rather passive Mary Boleyn, who comes to the English court at the mere age of fourteen and captures the attention of the King, Henry VIII with her beauty. Mary comes from a very ambitious family, who sees this as an opportunity to further their station. They ruthlessly push Mary into the king’s arms, and the two fall in love. But when Mary becomes pregnant with Henry’s child, they can no longer have one another as they usually do and Henry drifts towards Mary’s sister, Anne, instead. Henry thinks he’s fallen in love with Anne, but really, he is still falling into the Boleyn family plans.

Anne is completely different from Mary. Anne is strong-willed and self centered. While Mary resigns to the fact that she has lost the king’s favor, Anne fights tooth and nail to keep Henry’s interest as other noble families try to push their beautiful daughters forward. However, Anne is not satisfied with mere interest. She is probably the most ambitious Boleyn family member and she is aiming for the highest rank — to become Queen of England. Thus Anne becomes a driving force behind Henry’s decision to break away from the Roman church so he can divorce his wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry her instead. As Anne rises higher and higher, Mary finds herself sinking lower and lower. However, Mary is the one who becomes truly happy whereas Anne finds herself isolated and sad.

I really enjoyed this novel by Philippa Gregory, though that isn’t much of a surprise; I tend to fall in love with all her works. As I say with all historical novels — if you’re really picky with historical accuracy in fiction then you probably shouldn’t read this book though, and go get a biography instead (really, I don’t understand people who read historical fiction and then complain that it was too fictional)! I personally enjoyed this book a lot, it was full of twists and turns, though compared to the other two works of her’s that I read (The White Queen and The Red Queen), I liked this one a little less. I’m not sure why; like I said, I really enjoyed it but there’s something about it that didn’t grip me in quite the same way as the other books. I think it says something that I read The White Queen and The Red Queen fairly quickly, but The Other Boleyn Girl was was spread over a week’s time. The latter half of the book, when Anne kind of took over the story, got a lot more interesting though and I plowed through the last 250 pages. Even though the story had little similarity to the movie, it made me want to watch it all over again.

The characters are a bit one dimensional, I admit. Mary is portrayed as a very kind and passionate girl who just wants love, but is used by her family members for the betterment of the Boleyn name. She doesn’t have much of a backbone and rarely stands up for herself. Anne is portrayed as, simply put, a bitch. She was bossy, arrogant and plain mean. I haven’t read enough history on these two figures to have a clear idea of what most historians portray them as, but I’m sure they were not as black and white as Gregory presented them in this book. It certainly made it difficult to feel sorry for Anne near the end of the story, if it was written with that intention. For me, the entire journey to the end had me thinking, “Well, I know Anne will get her just desserts in the end, so joke’s on her” because truly, her character was so unlikeable. As for Mary, I did wish her character happiness, though it was a bit half hearted on my part. I mean, I think I understand why they were both presented as such extreme characters; to highlight the differences between the two sisters … but perhaps it was just a tad overdone.

The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical novel about love and lust, loyalty and betrayal in the world of royalty. From the viewpoint of Mary, this book tells the story of two sisters who rise and fall in opposite directions. It is, overall, and exciting story and I imagine it would be especially so for those of you who don’t have an inkling as to what happened during this time period in England (although, if you are such a person, I do recommend educating yourself on the real historical facts afterwards — it’s really very interesting!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book to others!

My Rating: 4.5/5

The Red Queen

This post first published September 25, 2012.

Author: Philippa Gregory
Series: The Cousins’ War #2
First Published: 2010
Publisher: Pocket Books
464 pages (mass market paperback)
 
I’m a sucker for historical royalty fiction, so I’m trying to explore more of Philippa Gregory’s works. I’ve read The White Queen by the same author (see my review for it here!), and that book, along with this one, The Red Queen, tell the story of the War of the Roses from both sides of the battle. The White Queen was about Elizabeth Woodville, who married into the York family. The Red Queen stars Margaret Beaufort who is from the Lancaster family.
In the beginning of this story, the Lancaster family is in control of England, with King Henry VI on the throne. Margaret Beaufort is the king’s cousin. Either the king or Margaret needs to produce a son to continue the Lancaster line. The king and his wife do manage to give birth to a son, as well as Margaret, who names her baby boy Henry after the current king. Margaret is a very devout and religious person and strongly believes that she is going to be guided by God to continue the Lancaster line. From a very young age, Margaret is convinced that her hero, Joan of Arc, speaks to her and will help her son Henry to the throne. However, when the York family overthrows Henry VI and takes over, Margaret finds her faith tested. She decides she will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the rightful family — the Lancasters — take back the throne, with her son as the king.

Even though I already know everything that’s going to happen, for the most part, since this is kind of the same general plot as The White Queen, just from the perspective of the other side of the war, I really thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really interesting reading about the War of the Roses from the Lancaster side after being so emotionally invested into the York side. If you’ve already read The White Queen, then perhaps you, too, will also have thoughts such as, “Oh, how can I possibly like the Lancaster side after reading about how horrible they are from Elizabeth Woodville’s perspective?”

Well, to be honest, The Red Queen didn’t actually make me more sympathetic to the Lancaster cause. I still found myself quite sympathetic with the York side. This is because I found Margaret Beaufort’s portrayal in this novel quite negative. She was mean and arrogant! This doesn’t mean I think she’s a bad character or anything. She’s wonderfully written to elicit feelings of shock and disgust from me. With all that said, being wonderfully written doesn’t make her a likeable character, haha. I still liked Elizabeth Woodville a lot in this book, even though Margaret tries to vilify her. The funny thing is, I know that usually, Elizabeth is portrayed as a seductive, amibitious temptress  and Margaret as a pious, loyal woman!

Even though I really disliked Margaret Beaufort in this book, I still had a great time reading about the War of the Roses from the Lancaster point of view. It’s also nice being introduced to her son, Henry, in a less spontaneous manner (I remember in The White Queen, I thought Henry’s entrance into the story was really abrupt. I was like, “Where did this guy come from?”) and I found I quite liked Henry a lot. I never find out too much about him since this book centers on Margaret and she spent many, many years separated from one another, but he struck me as a pretty nice guy. It’d be cool if Gregory writes a book about him! Although I think she mainly focuses on female historical figures. Still, one can dream.

If you read The White Queen and liked it, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the story from the Lancaster perspective! If you’ve never read either, it really doesn’t matter which one you read first. I highly recommend this book!

My Rating: 5/5

Life Of Pi

This post first published September 8, 2012.

Author: Yann Martel
First Published: September 2001
Publisher: Vintage Canada
356 pages (paperback)

My sister nagged me to get this book. “It’s soooo good,” she gushed. But I ignored her for the most part, since we tend to read different kinds of books, and also the title made it sound kind of religious-y or some sort of spiritual book, which I am really not that into. Then the movie trailer came out, and again, my sister started up with her you-should-read-this-it’s-so-good thing again. She never really provided a reason why she thought it was good, I just kind of went out on a limb here and decided, fine, I will read it.

Well. This turned out to be one of the most awesome books I’ve ever read.
Life Of Pi is about a boy named Pi. He lives in India, is the son of a zookeeper and believes and practices three religions at once (calling himself a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim). One day, his father decides that they should sell the zoo and move to Winnipeg, Canada. They sell most of the animals to zoos in America and board a large cargo ship with their animals to North America.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the ship sinks and animals are all let loose and running around in a panic. Pi luckily escapes the ship in a lifeboat, only to find that it is also refuge for an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra and a tiger. As the lone lifeboat drifts aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean, the inhabitants of the lifeboat dwindle down to just Pi and the tiger.

You might be thinking how can a story about a guy and a tiger drifting in the sea for 227 days can possibly be interesting but it was surprisingly hard to put down. I read this book originally as a commuting book — it has clear writing and is easy to read and understand, which is one of my ‘requirements’ for being a book worthy of commuting — but when I got to part two (the part where he is adrift at sea), I couldn’t wait till the next day to continue the story on the bus. I had to keep reading it now!

The ending is a twist. I’m not going to reveal it (though skip this paragraph if you wanted to know nothing about the ending at all), but I really liked the ending despite the feelings of conflict it created in me. I think the ending is supposed to make you think about God (or religions) and even as a non-religious person, it made me think a little bit about God and philosophy and all that kind of stuff. The moral, to me, seemed to be saying, “If you can believe this story, you can believe in God too, no?”

This is one of those books that can be deeply meaningful and thought provoking. Definitely highly recommend!

My Rating: 5/5

Empress Orchid

This post first published July 27, 2012.

Author: Anchee Min
First Published: 2003
Publisher: Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin)
Series: Empress Orchid #1
368 pages (paperback)
 
It took me way longer than it should have to finish this book — not because I found it uninteresting (quite the contrary actually) but because I have been distracted by computer games. Ahhh. Anyway, if you keep up with my reviews, you probably noticed I’ve become quite enamoured by historical fiction. Mostly European, but I’m trying to read some about China/Asia too.

This book, Empress Orchid, takes place in the 1800’s in China, when it is under a Manchu dynasty. It is about the last empress of China, Orchid (or Cixi/Tzu Hsi), and how she went from a lowly country girl to becoming an empress of China: her life story. Orchid starts out as the daughter of a low ranking official who had been fired from his job and died. Struggling to survive, Orchid, her mother and siblings are in the care of an uncle, but the uncle wants to marry Orchid to his mentally challenged son. To put off the marriage, Orchid decides to try out for the “auditions” to become a concubine of the Emperor. Anybody trying out for the “audition” cannot marry during that time period.

Unlike European royalty who marry other royalty from other countries, in China, the emperor would marry a wife (or rather, wives) of some rank who is also of the same background. The Emperor at the time was Manchu Chinese and so was Orchid. Though Orchid’s father had fallen on hard time and eventually died, she still had some ranking to her. The auditions are mentally fatiguing and Orchid is scrutinized in every possible way. But somehow, she makes it past the rounds and becomes a concubine of the emperor. However, to survive in the royal court, Orchid knows she needs to win the Emperor’s favor. But some wives and concubines can be married to the Emperor forever and never even meet their husband. There are 3000 of them, after all.

I thought this book was great! I don’t really know anything about Orchid and though I have some very basic understanding of Chinese history, the 1800s was a mystery to me. Orchid is traditionally presented as a power hungry, “evil” concubine who brought the fall of the entire dynasty, but this book portrays her as a smart woman who cared for her husband and her son, who wanted the best for China and was unfortunately surrounded by other schemers. I can definitely see how she can be portrayed “evilly” too, but I do quite like this portrayal of her: she isn’t perfect, not some saint like the other empress, Nuharoo, and I can see how the other characters would have seen her as a meddling woman. At the same time, she is strong of will and has strong family values. She was a woman trying to speak her voice in a culture dominated by men, and these men viewed her as a threat.

Though I enjoyed the entire book thoroughly, I thought the beginning half of the novel was a lot more interesting than the latter half. The first half was about her as a young teenager, living in near poverty with her family, and then working to become a concubine of the Emperor. The latter half was about her as an Empress and trying to fight against the manipulative Chief Eunach who wants power for himself and firmly believes that women should just stick to domestic issues and leave the politics to the men. I’ve never been a person who was that interested in political-ish stuff so I was a little less interested, relatively speaking. With that said, that Chief Eunach really annoyed me — what a wonderfully written villain, haha.

This book isn’t a part of a series, per se. There is a sequel, The Last Empress, which I imagine is about Orchid’s reign as an empress (I believe she eventually becomes the sole ruler). I’ve heard it isn’t as good as this first one, but I do still want to give it a try! I really enjoyed this book and I feel like I learned lots, not just historically but also culturally. Definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in reading historicals or books about different cultures.

My Rating: 4/5

The Alchemist

This post first published July 17, 2012.

Author: Paulo Coelho
First Published: 1988
Publisher: HarperSanFransisco
167 pages (paperback)
 
This book is pretty famous and I think it has reached “classic” status despite being just a little more than two decades old. I enjoy reading classics and “must-reads”, so when I saw a used-but-great-condition copy of this book at the thrift store, I figured it was time to give this book a shot. I was expecting to be really moved or swept away by the book, since there are so many professional reviews singing its praises. However, I felt kind of underwhelmed instead. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t think it was as great as others said it would be. Overall, though, I did enjoy it, just nowhere to the extent I thought I would.

The Alchemist is about a young shepherd who lives in Spain. After visiting a gypsy fortune teller, he is told that he should travel to the Great Pyramids of Egypt in order to seek his treasure. During his journey, the shepherd meets an old king, a crystal merchant, an Englishman, his one true love, and an alchemist. To get to Egypt, he has had to work hard for money and endure the merciless desert.
The entire book reads sort of like a children’s fairy tale or fable, for adults. It’s a pretty short book, for one, and the writing style is simplistic and straightforward in the way many children’s books are. The story is also one that contains a moral or inspirational message in the end. This is by no means a complicated novel with deep and profound prose. This is a simple story with simple messages, like follow your dreams, listen to your heart, your home is where your treasures are, and so on and so forth. With that in mind, I didn’t find the book revolutionary or deeply inspirational because such messages have been embedded in countless stories before The Alchemist, many of which I read as a child.

I think the best way to describe this novel is that it’s cute. It has good, if not overly familiar, inspirational messages. I think if you are experiencing troubles in your life, or if you’re down on your luck, you may take away more from this novel as it almost feels like a self-help book. In my own personal life, I’m quite happy and am indeed working towards my life goals and dreams, so there is not much in this book that left a mark on me. Basically, when I read it, I read it only to enjoy the story. I did end up enjoying it, in the same way I could go and read a novelized version of Cinderella (or some other fairy tale) and enjoy it. I didn’t really feel like I read a novel, more like a fairy tale.
The one message this book tried to express that I didn’t quite agree with was that everyone has a destiny and the universe will help you reach your dreams as long as you have faith. It just totally doesn’t mesh with my own life philosophies, it feels way too idealistic and simple.

Overall, it was alright. I kind of liked it, though I’m nowhere as impressed as I was told I would be.

My Rating: 3/5

Shanghai Girls

This post first published July 12, 2012.

Author: Lisa See
First Published: 2009
Publisher: Random House
Series: Shanghai Girls #1
400 pages (mass market paperback)
 
Another fantastic book by Lisa See. As with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I could not put down Shanghai Girls once I started reading!
Shanghai Girls is about two sisters — Pearl and May — who are living in Shanghai during its height in 1937. Shanghai is the “Paris of Asia” and the sisters enjoy being “beautiful girls”, being painted for calendars, going to night clubs and dressing in the most fashionable clothes available. Suddenly their whole world is turned upside down when their father has gambled away their fortunes and is forced to sell the girls as wives to a wealthy Chinese family living in Los Angelos, to pay his debts. The girls stubbornly hold onto their modern ideals of love and marriage and refuse to go until the Japanese invade and bomb the city. With absolutely nothing left to lose, the girls make the incredible journey across the ocean to the United States, hoping their husbands and in-laws will take them in. Once there, the two girls must cope with becoming American, as well as racism and the wars.

I kind of like these riches to rags stories Lisa See comes up with, set against the backdrop of China. I was really hopeful for this to be a great book since I loved Snow Flower and the Secret Fan so much, and I’m happy to say I am not disappointed in the least. Again, Lisa See has created a powerful story of sisterhood and female friendship across the lifespan. Things change in life, people experience good and bad luck, but the two protagonists in this book make it through with incredible resilience. Although … at times, they did sort of annoy me with how spoiled they seem! But then again, they were rich, lovely girls to begin with, it’s probably very surreal falling from such a height.

I particularly enjoyed this book because the theme of children thinking they are so modern while their parents are too traditional and backwards is one of my favourite themes to read about. I think all kids of all backgrounds, growing up, want to break free from their parents’ strict rules and traditions as much as possible, believing they are part of a newer, more modern generation. You can see that clearly in this novel, especially when Pearl and May are told their father has arranged marriages for them. They are truly horrified, thinking, “Who has arranged marriages anymore?!” and continue to dream of marrying their one true love instead. When Pearl’s daughter, Joy, grows up, she also tries to break away from Pearl, claiming that Pearl is too backwards and overly Chinese. Pearl realizes that this is exactly how she felt about her own parents. It’s like a vicious, continuous cycle — kids are always going to think they’re “better” in some way to their parents.

The book also provides insight to the hardships the first immigrants to the United States experienced. While this book focused on the Chinese, I think the difficulties they faced are similar to what any group faces. Outside of Chinatown, the girls are faced with hostility and discrimination. Just finding a house to live in is a great ordeal. The only place they can live peacefully in is Chinatown, but they are forced to wear “costumes” — their traditional Chinese clothes — instead of Americanizing themselves with Western clothing. Even worse is when the States is fighting against Japan, and later, China, and the Chinese in Chinatown are regarded with suspicion — never mind the fact that they’ve lived in America for over ten years now without any problems; everyone thinks every Chinese is a spy.

This book is full of emotions and like with See’s other book, I was completely drawn into the characters. There were a few parts of the book that lagged a bit, but they were far and few, in my opinion. I did think the ending was rather abrupt, and I would have been totally disappointed in it had I not already known that there is a sequel to this book, Dreams of Joy (which I have sitting on my bookshelf, hopefully to be read soon!)

My Rating: 5/5

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This post first published July 10, 2012.

Author: Lisa See
First Published: January 2005
Publisher: Bloomsbury
333 pages (mass market paperback)
 
My very first Lisa See book — and certainly won’t be my last! I am loving historical fiction lately, though I’ve mostly stayed around Europe, so I’m glad to be venturing out into Asian territory. Specifically, in this book, it is China.  I am Chinese (in appearance, though culturally, I’m very North American), so I immediately felt a bit of a connection with the story and slid into the culture presented in this novel easily. I thought this was a great way to learn more about the country my parents’ families are from, and it really was a fantastic read. I was absolutely captivated by the beautiful story that had my heart aching for its characters by the end.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is about a girl named Lily, who, at the beginning of the novel, is 80 years old and is reflecting on her life and her past, knowing she will probably die soon. Lily started off as the second daughter of a farmer. One day, the local diviner and matchmaker tell her family that if Lily’s feet are properly bound, she will have perfect little feet and be eligible for marriage into a higher-status family in the future. In 19th century China, foot-binding is a common practice. Little girls’ feet are bound with cloth in such a way that the toes are bent under the foot until eventually the bones break and stay that way. The smaller the feet, the more fashionable, beautiful and desirable a woman is.

Foot binding is agonizingly painful, but Lily has her laotong, her “old same”, Snow Flower, to share her experience with. A laotong is essentially someone you are friends with for life, but deeper than a friendship, even deeper than a marriage, and it is ‘official’ with a contract and everything. It is only because Lily has such perfect feet that Snow Flower is able to become laotong with a lowly farmer’s daughter, for Snow Flower is actually from a much higher status family. The two girls form a deep relationship as they experience foot binding together, as well as learning nu shu, the secret women’s writing. Together, they share their life in nu shu written on a fan. However, when the two girls’ fortunes reverse, their relationship changes. Suddenly, it is very difficult to stay laotong with one another, even though they try their hardest.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it nearly non-stop, only putting it down when I had to go to work. I finished it pretty fast, since it is not very long, but wow, it was such a journey. You follow Lily and Snow Flower through their whole lives, from when they are little girls to old women, and it is really a very touching story about the love and deep friendship between women in that time period in China. Back in those days, especially in the more rural parts of China, girls were considered useless and only sons are desired. I suppose a bit of that sentiment still exists today in China, from what I know, but it has definitely improved a lot compared to the 19th century. As a 21st century reader, reading about two “useless” girls coming together and both trying to find their place in their families and in a community that simply doesn’t value women, was heart breaking. But even though this book takes place in a time when women are not considered important at all, from this novel, I could see that women are proud of themselves and what they are able to do to serve their families. Lily, in particular, reached almost cold-hearted levels of pride in herself. She always talked about doing her duties as a wife, mother and daughter-in-law and pushed it on Snow Flower too, who tried her best to follow Lily’s example. It was difficult though, because the two girls’ positions have reversed completely and in extreme degrees. Sometimes I felt Lily was too harsh, but then I have to remember that this was the way it was back then.

This book is also very rich in cultural details. Even though I am Chinese, I really don’t know that much about China’s past and older traditions and customs. It might have been a little easier for me to slip into the world in this book since I am not completely unfamiliar with it, but at the same time, there were many things I didn’t know and was astonished to discover.

As a random side note: I find it kind of ironic how in one of my recent book reviews, I briefly mentioned not liking movie poster book covers. Then I read my copy of this book, not knowing that I had a movie poster book cover! (My copy doesn’t have that “Now a major motion picture!” circle on the right, as in this picture; it has it written in smaller letters at the bottom of the cover). I really like this cover too, so I feel almost a bit conflicted … haha! I guess movie poster book covers can work out occasionally.

A powerful and beautiful story, I recommend this book to everyone!

My Rating: 5/5

The Lost Souls of Angelkov

This post first published July 9, 2012.

Author: Linda Holeman
First Published: July 3, 2012
Publisher: Random House Canada
560 pages (paperback) 
 
This book was an impulse buy from Wal-Mart (30% off books’ cover prices, woohoo!), but I’m so glad I did it because I fell in love with it! What interested me was the fact that it took place in 1860’s Russia. I am really enjoying European historical fiction lately, particularly the 1500-1800s, so when I saw this book, I knew I wanted it right away. It was a bit risky since I didn’t know anything about the author and it is such a new book that there are hardly any reviews on it on Goodreads, but I took the chance and it turned out to be an amazing read.

The story takes place in 1860s Russia, under the reign of Tsar Alexander II. Russia is experiencing a social revolution during this time period thanks to the Emancipation Reform of 1861, which meant that many serfs were allowed their freedom and granted the rights of a full citizen of Russia.
The entire novel revolves around this one event: the Count and Countess  of Angelkov’s son is kidnapped from them by their ex-serfs (though they don’t know who did it for a while; they thought it was the Cossacks). Even though serfdom was abolished, many were still landless, poor peasants and their situation did not improve one bit; many harbored resentment towards their former masters and now acted on their feelings. Antonina, the Countess, slowly spirals into despair, becoming an alcoholic. The Count falls ill and becomes of no use to Antonina and the entire estate slowly heads toward bankruptcy. Other characters include Lilya, Antonina’s maid who is in love with Antonina and is jealous of anyone who seems to have her mistress’ affections; Grisha, the steward of the estate who regrets being involved with the kidnapping scheme greatly; and Valentin, an attractive and talented violinist who befriends the Countess during her time of crisis.

A great chunk of the book is devoted to exploring the back stories of each of the main characters. At first I felt a bit like the story was a tad disjointed because there is such a significant amount of writing devoted to explaining each character and how they came to live at Angelkov, so soon after the beginning.  I suppose what I wanted was for the back stories to blend in with the story a little better: it felt like the book consisted of “kidnapping (50 pages) — backstories (200 pages) — resume kidnapping story (200 pages)”.  However, each character has a very interesting story so it was a pleasant detour, if you can call it that. Actually, as I continued reading, I realized this book isn’t really about the kidnapping — it’s about the characters, and so, the so-called “detour” is actually vital to the story.

Even though I wanted the book to go back to the kidnapping story, I was not unhappy with reading about the individual characters’ pasts. Each one is so fascinating and it was really great to read about how the Emancipation Reform affected everyone on all levels. Freeing the serfs sounds great on paper, but many of them don’t feel any difference in their situation since they have no land or money anyway. They’ll have to just keep working for their master anyway. For the nobles, they begin to lose so many serfs that they can’t keep all their land, especially with the high land taxes the tsar has set, so they end up having to give away pieces of land anyway, and downsizing a lot. This book was such a great way for me to learn about this time period. Even though it is all fictional, its point is the unrest that followed such a social revolution affects everyone, and nobody comes out as a clear winner or loser.

The kidnapping is obviously what this whole novel revolves around, even though I didn’t feel like it was the focal point. The kidnapping felt more like the background on which all the characters are introduced to the reader. This is more of a character driven story, which I am usually not the biggest fan of (I’m very 50/50 on such stories), but this one had me sucked in and I was up reading this book until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, the kidnapping did provide a very exciting element to the story. The whole time I wondered if Antonina would get her son back or not, if she would ever be reunited with him. So even though this is a character driven story, I think it can be rather plot driven as well!

I highly recommend this book, it’s a great novel and I felt it was written in a very engaging and easy-to-read manner. Such a great book!

My Rating: 5/5

A Reliable Wife

This post first published April 28, 2012.

Author: Robert Goolrick
Published: April 2009
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
320 pages (eBook)
 
The April book of my bookclub :) It was one I suggested, although I didn’t really know what it was about. I had seen it a lot at bookstores and the premise sounded interesting — a man, Ralph Truitt, puts an ad in the newspaper seeking for a reliable wife.  The year is 1906. The story opens with him receiving his wife-to-be, Catherine, at the train station in a small, snowy Wisconsin town. Neither of them know what to expect from one another. Little do they know that both of them want to use one another for their own plans. The resulting story is one about secrets, about coming to terms with our pasts, and finding ways to redeem ourselves for the future.

This is most certainly a character driven story. If you are someone who enjoys action-stories or stories with a lot of twisty plots, you might not be happy with reading it about character emotions, motives, their fears, their wants, and so on. I am definitely a person who loves drama and action type plots, so this kind of story did feel a bit slow to me. However, it is nice experiencing a different type of story every now and then, and A Reliable Wife does a good job really delving into the psyches of the characters, in my opinion.

With that said, I was a little surprised that all the characters’ psyches seemed to revolve around sex! Sex and sexual passion was used very frequently to describe the characters in all sorts of ways. For example, near the end, one of the main character’s self pity was described using sex as a metaphor. I’m not in any way some sort of prude, but I think the sex stuff could have been toned down by a lot. It seemed to be the thing on everybody’s mind, regardless if it actually made sense or not. With all that said, however, I hesitate to call this book a romance, even with all the sex and, yes, love involved. It’s simply not the focus of the story, in my opinion.

As for the characters, what I liked about all of them was how they were all shades of gray. No one character was completely all good or completely all bad. All of them have their fair share of issues, and it was really hard deciding which character I felt more sorry for. If you’re planning to read this book, be prepared to exercise your sympathy and empathy skills! I, personally, found it quite easily to pity Ralph. Even though he grew up in a privileged household, his issues with his parents, his first wife and son were all very traumatizing on the man and he has been so full of regret for years.

To wrap this up, if you are prepared for a story that revolves around people and their thoughts and emotions, then I think you will find A Reliable Wife a pleasant read. I admit, I was not wow’d by the book, but I did find it enjoyable and would recommend it to people who like character-driven stories.

My Rating: 3/5

Pretty Little Liars

This post first published August 27, 2011.

Author: Sara Shepard
Published: October 2006
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Pretty Little Liars #1
286 pages (paperback)
 
Pretty Little Liars is not a book I would usually read. I’ve seen it many times in stores, and — I admit — it’s the kind of book that looks like garbage. It just looks like it, I’m sorry! Even though I frequently read books that involve teenagers, I don’t normally read books that I think are just about a bunch of bickering girls in high school because it’s not my thing. Well, this book does involve a bit of that, I won’t lie, but Pretty Little Liars was surprisingly good! I ended up liking it quite a bit despite going into it thinking, “I probably won’t like this very much”. I picked it up to read (I live like, 3 minutes from the public library) after my friend Marjorie gave it a shot and ended up quite liking it. And I trust Marjorie’s opinions on books so I decided I had to read this too.

I think this has become a guilty pleasure series for me.

The story begins with five close friends in the 7th grade — Ali, the “ringleader” of the group, and Hanna, Emily, Spencer and Aria. They’re all great friends, but there seems to be a little fear of Ali as well, because she knows a secret about each one of her friends, a secret that they don’t want anybody else to find out. Even worse, the five of them have a group secret, a terrible one that involves a terrible prank gone wrong that they told no one.

However, one day, Ali mysteriously disappears after a sleepover party.

Three years later, the girls are entering the 11th grade. They more or less have stopped being friends ever since Ali became a missing persons case. They have each moved on and found new friends. But now, each one of them are receiving mysterious messages via text messaging and e-mails from someone who is haunting them with their secrets, and seems to be tracking their every move.
I’m not going to pretend this is a stellar piece of literature because it’s not. It’s quite the opposite of stellar literature, actually. It is, however, addictive and easy to read — perfect for those summer days where you’re just feeling too hot to move much (which is the circumstance I was in when I read this, heh). The characters are quite easy to relate to. I don’t mean directly — how many of us are (or were) rich girls from rich families attending a rich private school? — but I’m sure many of us have had to dealt with boys, self-esteem, insecurity issues, living up to your parents’ dreams, avoiding rumours from your peers, etc.

While I didn’t really like any of the characters, and I can’t say I had the same high school experiences as them, the characters (like Marjorie mentions) reminded me of how idiotic one can be when they were in 7th grade, or 11th grade. 7th grade is around the time girls start taking an interest in boys (as opposed to “ew! cooties!”) and I still remember how boy-obsessed me and my own friends were during that time — embarrassing memories, to be sure. Anyway, two of the girls in this book are actually admirable in some ways — they are A students who are aiming to be the best they can be. So it’s not just silly teenagers doing silly things :P

There is quite a bit of underage drinking, sexual scenes and smoking of pot in this story. While I do not condone such behaviour for middle-and-high schoolers (mostly middle-schoolers; I always figure high schoolers are old enough to make their own decisions, and drinking never seemed that bad to me but that may be because up here the legal drinking age is 19 (the characters are 17/18)), I disagree with the reviews I read that this is not a realistic portrayal of 7th/11th graders. Actually, I think it is realistic. Obviously not every kid does all this stuff, but you’d be surprised how common this kind of behaviour is in kids these days — and it’s happening at even younger ages, shockingly enough. I never did any of that kind of stuff because I hung out with a different circle of friends, but I heard of many kids from my old schools who did. Anyway, if that kind of stuff bothers you, I don’t recommend reading it.

But! If you don’t mind that kind of stuff, then you are in for a suspenseful story! It’s a light hearted and fun story, the kind you don’t really want to put down because you’re just so intrigued by what’s happening between the characters. There actually isn’t really much gossiping or backstabbing or catfights between the characters at all. Instead, it is about four girls who are, in a way, trying to “discover” themselves and their true passions … while their past keeps haunting them.
I can honestly say I really enjoyed this book! The ending was really great too, it was something I never predicted. The book ends in a way that it gives you a sense of closure, but also leaves enough room open for sequels. And I know this series has quite a bit of sequels — and I’m going to read them all! (Eventually).

My Rating: 4/5

Coffee At Little Angels

This post first published August 23, 2011.

Author: Nadine Rose Larter
Published: May 2011
Publisher: Katalina Playroom
188 pages (eBook)
 
I was asked by the author to review her novel, Coffee At Little Angels a month ago. The cover is really cute and the story sounded like it would be something bittersweet to read, something that may make me feel warm and fuzzy inside by the end. What I actually ended up feeling was indifference when I finished it. I tried to like it, but I just couldn’t really get into the story.

The story takes place in South Africa, and involves eight characters who are all of the same circle of friends back when they were kids, living in a small town. The characters are all adults now (their 30’s, perhaps?), living in different places and haven’t spoken to each other for years now. They all receive word that their friend, Philip, has died in a hit-and-run and fly back to their small town for the funeral. It becomes clear that there’s a lot of unresolved issues between the friends and as the funeral nears, they learn to deal with them.

This story is most definitely character-driven than plot-driven. That’s kind of where my problem began. There are seven first-person perspectives in this book, and none of them felt very distinctive to me. When I read a chapter, sometimes I would forget whose perspective I was in, because all the perspectives sounded so similar. Each character’s voice was eerily similar to each other. The fact that this story is driven by the characters and their memories and problems with one another was kind of lost on me because I couldn’t even tell them apart sometimes. The fact that the perspectives switch with some frequency also made it difficult for me to distinguish them.

The relationships between the characters are drama filled. They haven’t seen each other in ages, but now having to see one another, their old high school drama comes back and the story had a lot of You left me for her and I never knew about this and You never told me that kind of stuff. It was interesting to read, but their problems never really made me feel emotional the same way the characters did. I really liked the idea of a bunch of friends reuniting after years of being apart, even if it’s something as morbid as a funeral, but somehow the drama didn’t have the effect on me that I wish it did … and I usually love drama-filled stories.

However, this story did have many redeeming qualities. Even though I couldn’t tell the characters apart much of the time, the story and the characters felt very real. I loved how they would run off on tangents when monologue-ing — there’s a bit of the  stream of consciousness effect happening here. And there are many, many wonderful and profound realizations the characters make that reveal the fragility and strengths of relationships.

There are good things about this book, but also things I wasn’t too crazy about. I think what it comes down to is a preference thing. Coffee At Little Angels ended up not really being my cup of tea, personally, but I did think it was overall okay.

My Rating: 2/5

Misconception

This post first published July 13, 2011.

Author: Christy Hayes
Published: June 20, 2011
Publisher: Self-published
244 pages (eBook) 
 
I received this book free of charge in exchange for a review. It’s the first time I’ve ever read a book by a self-published author and I was actually kind of excited about it. While I admit I didn’t end up exactly gushing over this book after I finished, I feel like I’ve been introduced to a new world of books and I think I might be interested in reading more self-published works in the future.

Misconception centers around the Kelly family: a wife, husband and two boys. The story kicks off quickly and we encounter the main conflict of the book quickly: Pace Kelly is pregnant despite her husband, Jason, having gotten himself a vasectomy three years ago. However, despite the evidence, Pace really didn’t cheat on Jason. Jason finds it very hard to believe Pace though, because after getting his vasectomy checked out, it’s confirmed that there’s nothing wrong and he shouldn’t be producing any babies. The relationship between Pace and Jason steadily spiral into a depressing state, with both sides having serious trust issues.

Pace and Jason’s relationship is the bread and butter of this story, and it’s their drama that kept me turning the pages (figuratively; it was an eBook so I suppose I should say scrolling the pages? Hehe). I personally think it would have been more interesting if the third person narrator was less invasive in the characters’ thoughts, because I think it would have been intriguing if the reader wasn’t sure if Pace actually cheated or not. I think the “mystery” would have been great incentive for readers to glue themselves to the pages  … or maybe that’s just me. I enjoyed reading about their drama-filled relationship for the most part, what with the accusations being thrown around, the e-mail snooping and the classic hiring of a private detective to spy on the spouse. I love, love, love drama (probably why I devour Jodi Picoult books like there’s no tomorrow) and I think Misconception pulled it off without being too unbelievable and making eyes roll.

Besides the Kellys, Pace’s parents, Colin and Tori, are also central characters in this book. Colin is a famous senator and Tori is, well, his trophy wife, I suppose you can call her. Tori was my least favourite character however. Not because of her person, but more because of her character. There was something inconsistent in her character, I felt. I think it is especially noticeable when the narrator narrates from Tori’s perspective, then switches and narrates from another character’s perspective but Tori is still in the scene. She felt like two different characters sometimes.

The plot is drama-filled and moves along at a good pace, which I liked. There is one thing about the plot that kind of threw me off a bit though. I could be wrong, but to me, Pace and Jason’s relationship is the main focus of the story. So I was a little thrown off that the climax of the story dealt primarily with Colin and Tori, while Pace and Jason just kind of made up in the background. With that said though, I did actually quite like the ending. I am a little confused as to why the focus was on Pace’s parents instead — but that may be because I misinterpreted Colin and Tori’s importance in the story. Okay, I admit it, I didn’t find them that important. But back on track, I did like the ending. I thought it was fitting and climatic and didn’t have a denouement that overstayed its welcome (which is something that really bothers me in books haha, but I’m glad I didn’t have that issue here).

There are some technical things like typos (rare) and awkward sentences, so I think Misconception could benefit from a thorough editing, but I didn’t want to be all nitty-gritty. Overall, this is an okay book. I feel a bit mixed about it, but it’s really not bad. I think if you like family drama sort of books, you should check it out (the author’s website shows the places where you can purchase it).

My Rating: 2/5

My Name Is Memory

This post first published on June 25, 2011.

Author: Ann Brashares
Published: June 2010
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
324 pages (hardcover)
 
I wanted to read a book that I’ve heard nothing about before. When I went to the library, I ended up taking out this book by Ann Brashares. It turns out she’s the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series as well, which I’ve never read but am under the impression that it’s quite popular, so I had high hopes for this book to turn out good.

This is a love story that literally spans multiple lifespans. It begins with a high school girl named Lucy who has a crush on the aloof Daniel Grey. On the night of prom, they have a private conversation where Lucy discovers Daniel is not really who he seems. He calls her Sophia and insists they used to know each other, which scares and confuses her. They don’t speak again after that night, but their feelings for one another continue to linger and haunt them.

Daniel does know Lucy though, from his past lives. His soul continually reincarnates and over the span of over a thousand years, and he has, time and time again, fallen in love with the same girl, the same soul. We are able to see the story of Daniel and Sophia/Lucy unfold over the many, many years. Unfortunately, it seems that every time he somehow manages to meet up with her, fate somehow pries them apart, or simply present unfortunate circumstances.

I thought the story premise sounded very intriguing. When I actually started reading it, it took me a while to really get into it though. Especially when Daniel starts narrating about his and Sophia’s relationship right from the beginning. I guess I didn’t really get how he fell in love with her — it’s more or less explained as a love at first sight thing. I guess I’m just a cynic, or nit-picky, whatever. Love at first sight is my least favourite reason as to how two characters fall in love with one another, personally. Especially in this case, it’s supposedly the foundation for why he decides to pursue Sophia’s soul over fifteen hundred years! Not to mention that in that first lifetime when he first met her, he saw her for maybe like … ten minutes. And never even spoke to her.

But once I got into the story, and got over the flimsy love-at-first-sight reasoning, I found I really, really liked this story. It’s not a dramatic, intensely passionate romance story though. It’s more slow-paced to me, and mellow, but a very sweet, almost cute, romantic story.  As Daniel continues to narrate his story of how he meets Sophia in every lifetime of his, the love between them builds up slowly but strongly. Despite the love-at-first-sight concept, the relationship between them slowly comes into being, giving it something of a natural feel. My favourite is his lifetime from during the World War I period when he was a soldier and she was a nurse. It’s a little bit cliche I suppose, a little Atonement-like, but I still thought it was romantic, and Atonement is one of my favourite books anyway ;)

At the same time Daniel narrates, there is a second plotline that takes place entirely during the present time, with Lucy trying to deal with her feelings for Daniel even years after graduating from high school. It had very small mystery elements, what with Lucy trying to figure out what her feelings with Daniel are really all about, since she can’t seem to get over him years later, not to mention a slightly creepy fortune telling session and mysterious hypnosis session. I can’t decide which plotline I liked better — they eventually meet up at the end of the book — but I thought they meshed together very well.

The ending is left kind of ambiguous, the kind where you can debate with someone else as to what you think really happened at the end. I didn’t really like that, to be honest, and I’m not just saying that because I wanted a definite ending. It just kind of left the story feeling anti-climatic.
Regardless, I really loved this story and would definitely recommend it to people who like a good ol’ love story. It’s easy to read, accessible and is a very solid book to me.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Sing You Home

This post first published June 9, 2011.

Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: March 2011
Publisher: Atria Books
466 pages (hardcover)
 
There’s just something about Jodi Picoult books that are so easy to pick up and read and become immersed in the story, even if the story isn’t very good. Luckily, however Sing You Home turned out to be quite the interesting novel, a fantastic read and for once — I even liked the ending!
Like with many, if not all, of Picoult’s books, this one is full of explosive drama, a courtroom battle and children in peril as well (sort of). The story in Sing You Home involves Zoe and Max Baxter, a middle aged couple who both have infertility issues. They have been trying to have a baby for nearly a decade now, and have been using in vitro fertilization for the past five years. When their last attempt results in a stillborn child, Zoe wants to keep trying but Max has had enough. He loves Zoe, but her obsession with having a child has drained him and he wants a divorce.

After the divorce, the two go on separate paths and realize different things about themselves. Max starts becoming a heavy drinker, but thanks to his religious brother and sister-in-law, he finds Jesus and lets him into his life, becoming a born-again Christian himself. Zoe befriends Vanessa Shaw, a school counsellor, and their friendship blossoms into a full-fledged relationship.
After Zoe and Vanessa marry, they decide they want a baby, but of course, since they are both women, they need to look into other methods. Zoe remembers her three cryo-frozen embryos leftover from when she and Max were doing in vitro fertilization and decides she wants to implant them in Vanessa, who is young, fertile and likely able to carry their baby to term. When Max is informed, however, he is horrified. As a devout Christian now, he abhors the idea of a child of his growing up in a house with two mothers. Instead, he would like to see his “pre-born children” in the care of his brother and sister-in-law, who have also been having infertility issues. Thus, the two go to court to battle over the embryos.

I actually really liked this story. I thought I wouldn’t because at first the story sounded almost ridiculous, when my sister told me what it was about. I guess the part that boggled my mind initially was, how could an agnostic man suddenly become an obsessed Christian practically overnight and how could a woman who has had never even thought about other women sexually suddenly become a lesbian overnight? It sounds kind of sudden, but it somehow works out. Jodi Picoult has a strange sort of magic when she writes characters; they feel so real to the reader that whatever happens, it seems like that is the perfect logical decision for that character to do.

If you’ve ever read any of Picoult’s other books, then you probably know what I’m talking about when I say this was an addictive read, as well as one that was able to evoke many emotions, especially regarding the subject matter. I found it sent a really strong message about the role of religion (specifically, Christianity) in the acceptance of gays in society; it’s no secret, to me, which side Picoult sides with, and she expresses herself with this story. There’s an attempt to give the Christians a voice in the matter of homosexuality so it doesn’t appear as if the story is totally one-sided, but they come off as obsessive religious people instead, to be honest. Kind of unfair, I guess, since I know not all Christians are crazy obsessive.

Particularly with the ending, I think that sent the strongest message of all. Now, if you’ve ever read one of my blog posts regarding a Jodi Picoult book before, you’d know that typically I end up despising the ending of her books. I don’t know what it is, but somehow she always seems to end her books with an ending that makes me want to bang my head against a wall twenty times. Not this time though. I actually thought the ending was very fitting with the direction the book was heading in, and I was a satisfied reader at the end.

The one thing that drove me crazy about this book was the timeline. Max and Zoe have the stillborn, get divorced, go their separate ways and find their new lives, Zoe gets remarried, they go to court and battle it out … all in a matter of about five or six months. That’s really weird to me, and just seems way too fast. I live in Canada so I don’t know about American laws, much less the individual laws of each state, but don’t you have to separate for at least a year before officially divorcing? Not only that, but Zoe meets Vanessa, moves in together and gets married within two months, and they decide to have children? Holy moly, talk about moving fast in a relationship, especially considering how Zoe just got out of a nine year marriage! Lastly, somehow I doubt a court case such as this would only take a few months to settle, especially considering how big of a deal it was made in the book (media coverage and crazy reporters and everything). The time was the one thing in this book that really bothered me, but I think Picoult had to rush things because frozen embryos don’t stay frozen forever, only about a year or so, and they are the whole point of the plot.

Okay, I lied; there’s one more thing that bothered me about the story and it was Max’s relationship with his sister-in-law, Liddy. It just seemed totally left-field and unnecessary, but as it was a really minor part of the story, I’m not going to let it bother me too much.

I didn’t bother with the soundtrack CD that came with the book, so I can’t comment on the accompanying music, but overall, the book was a great read and sends strong messages about not only religion and homosexuality, but about family and love as well.

My Rating:4.5/5