My July Reading Projects

It has been a busy month for reading - nothing like reading outside in the summer! Here's what I've covered.

Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein

This is a somewhat predictable Holocaust book, but it was decently written and easy to read.  The story centres on Hetty, a young girl growing up in Leipzig under Nazi rule.  Her father is a relatively high ranking local SS officer and the family is very loyal to Hitler.  At the start of the book Hetty worships a photo of Hitler that hangs in her bedroom and can't wait to join the Nazi youth group for girls.  Hetty's older brother joins the Luftwaffe and her mother does everything to satisfy her husband - though French by birth she readily adopts Nazi German ideology.

The problems start for Hetty when she re-encounters Walter.  He was her brother's best friend in childhood and had, in fact, saved her from drowning when she was very young.  She has always admired Walter and now her feelings, and his, become deeper.  The problem is that Walter is Jewish.  He was thus dumped by Hetty's brother and her parents have forbidden her from seeing him.

Much of the book centres on how Hetty's thinking evolves as she starts to see the world through Walter's eyes.  She suddenly can't see the differences between Jews and Aryans.  Her continued relationship with him makes her very wary of trusting anyone - her family, the staff in their household, friends from school, and neighbours.

As she starts to change her views, she struggles to save Walter and his family from their inevitable fate - and to protect herself in the meantime.

In the epilogue to the book we find out how everyone fared following the war.  I won't give it away here...

Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer

This is a typical summer release for Thayer - a Nantucket based romance novel.  I personally love to escape into this kind of book in the summer, but if you're the type who needs a more serious read, this is not the book for you.

Lisa Hudson is a divorced woman in her 50s who has been getting by raising her two children who are now adults living off island.  So no one is more surprised than she is when she falls for a Mack, a contractor who she hired to work on her house, who is 10 years younger than her.  She is even more surprised that he's interested in her.

Their relationship is complicated when Lisa's daughter returns from Cambridge, having been dumped by her boyfriend, and her son, who is a bit aimless returns to the island from his surfing bum life in LA when he gets injured. And, of course, he reconnects with the girl he longed for in high school - none other than Mack's daughter.

When Lisa's daughter connects with a man who has come to the island to launch an environmental campaign, there's love in the works for the whole family.

It's predictable, easy reading and, for me, lots of fun.

Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory

Guillory has become a recent favourite of mine for rom-coms and this book didn't disappoint.  As an aside, I like how all the characters in her books are loosely related even though they are all definitely standalone books rather than a series.

In this book, Olivia Monroe has just moved to LA from New York to start her own law firm with a friend (after burning out in the big firm environment and wanting to be her own boss).  Her personal life is far from top of mind when she meets Max in a hotel bar.  She's drawn to him despite herself and they spend the whole night flirting before going their separate ways.

Alone in her hotel room, Olivia discovers Max is none other than Maxwell Powell, California's hot shot junior senator.  So she thinks that's the end of that given his reputation as one of the country's most eligible bachelors.

Some time later she goes to a fund-raising event and Max is the keynote speaker.  To her surprise he remembers her and seems happy to see her.  For his part he is thrilled to have encountered her again as he had no way of tracking her down after their first encounter.  So he sends her cakes which they had discussed...

Despite Olivia's hesitation they begin a relationship which is at first kept undercover.  Eventually they decide to go public and of course the expected complications arise.  They work through them and everything ends well as it should in a good rom com!

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

After all the fluff I'd been reading (see above), this book was a real change. And it was a very positive change at that!  I loved this book - and it was so eye-opening I think it should be required reading for all Canadians.

The book examines the lives of Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie.  All of them were snatched from their families as young children and held prisoner in residential schools until they turned 16 when they were let loose with little more than a bus token (or in a couple of cases managed to escape).  All of the children (and their peers) suffered tremendous emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the priests and nuns in the residential school.  They were also denied any ongoing relationships with their families and thus really had very few memories of how a functioning family relationship should work.

All of the kids end up in Vancouver's East Side - struggling to make ends meet and with addiction and mental health issues.  For some of them, it is the return to their Indigenous culture which brings about stability and, frankly, sanity.

The book alternates telling the story from the perspective of each of the characters.  Sometimes there is a bit of back and forth in time as we learn what happened from a new character's perspective.  But, the story is still very easy to follow - and gripping.  While not graphic per se, the descriptions of what happened in the residential school are extremely disturbing as is the impact of the school on the kids' entire future.

I strongly recommend this book for greater insight into this ugly piece of Canada's past - and to get a glimpse of the strength of the survivors.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

This book had a kind of interesting premise - Bea is a plus-size fashion blogger who is making quite a name for herself.  She gets a lot of exposure when she writes a negative post about the lack of diversity on a Bachelor like show called the Main Squeeze.  

Following the post she is approached by the new producer of the show to be the star. She is promised the men will be diverse and, even if she has no intention of falling in love, it will be great for her brand.  So she agrees.

When she first meets the men she is unimpressed with their "diversity" - while they are of varying races, only one is slightly overweight and the others are all like fantasy men in Bea's mind.

So we are taken through her good times and bad, her humiliation and empowerment, dates in magical places and in her home town and those of several of the men.  And we see whether Bea is able to find love or stick by her plan to avoid it at all costs.  What I liked about the book is that it was not predictable (or maybe in the end it was, but along the way I was never sure which way it would go).

Again this is a fun and easy read.

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan

This was also kind of a fun one.  Georgia Young is a twice divorced optometrist in her mid-50's, mother of two and grandmother of two (and counting).  She feels stuck in her life - she has not had a relationship in years, she's bored with her job and she's tired of her big house.

When a patient comes in, who happens to be the daughter of one of her old flames, she discovers he has died.  She regrets that she never told him how she felt about him - so resolves to find all of her past loves even if it's just to tell them what they meant to her. She also decides to sell her house and quit her job...

I sometimes got a bit lost with all the men she was tracking down, but otherwise the book worked well.  There were some quirky characters, including Georgia's 80 something mother who is remarrying, her best friends and even her twin granddaughters.  

As she moves through all her old flames, and even meets a couple of new men, we find ourselves rooting for her - to either find love or decide she's happy enough without it.

While I enjoyed this book, I wouldn't say it was the best of the rom-coms I've read this month.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Since I am such a huge fan of "beach reads" I obviously couldn't resist a book by this name.  And while it was a rom-com in a way, it was far less conventional.

January Andrews is a successful romance writer who is having trouble writing her next book as she's lost her faith in love.  Her father recently died and at the funeral she discovered her father had been having a year's long affair and her mother knew about it.  She finds out when the other woman shows up with a key to a beach house January didn't know he had, and a letter from her father.  Her mother refuses to talk about it.

January had always thought her parents had the ideal relationship - they were always dancing and holding hands.  If that wasn't true, she no longer believes in happily ever after so how can she write about it.  Desperate for money, and needing to meet a deadline, she moves to the beach house and tries to sell everything in it (without looking at the master bedroom yet) and to get writing.

She quickly discovers her neighbour is Gus Everett - a writer she knew in college who writes literary fiction.  She still feels the sting about remarks he made about her writing in college and is not thrilled to see him there.  But it turns out he is also struggling to write - so they make a bet.  They will each try to write a book in the other's genre - the first to get published wins. And they will spend Fridays learning how to research literary fiction and Saturdays training in romance writing.

But this wouldn't be a beach read if the true story wasn't about the developing relationship between January and Gus - and the predictable bumps in the road.  After all that's what readers of beach reads expect.

Again, I liked this book - it was well written and engaging - but it wasn't my favourite.  In some ways I think it just tried too hard to justify being a beach read.

A Few More Books...and finished the library reading challenge

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

So finally got to my annual summer Elin Hilderbrand new release - and it was definitely a good one. Modelled on the movie, Same Time Next Year, the novel tells the story of the 28 Labour Day weekends that Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud spend together.

They first meet when Mallory inherits a house on Nantucket from her aunt, a lesbian who was rejected by the rest of Mallory's family when she came out. Mallory hosts her brother's bachelor party on the island and Jake, his college friend is in attendance. For a variety of reasons they are left alone for most of the weekend and develop a strong bond. Though Jake returns to his life, and his girlfriend Ursula, who becomes his wife, he promises to return every year no matter what. And despite near misses, he does.

In between visits Mallory becomes a teacher at a local school, develops close friendships and has the odd relationship but never anything permanent. She also has a son - since his father is a bit of a surprise, I won't give that away. The novel starts in the last summer when her son is asked by Mallory, who is on her deathbed, to call a number in a drawer. When he does, to his surprise, Jake answers. By this time Jake's wife is running for President and Mallory's son had no idea his mother knew him.

While Mallory and Jake are obviously deceitful, they come across as good people who have this one flaw - and you really wish they could have just ended up together (at least I did). While we get the details of many of the summer visits, some of the chapters deal only with what is going on in Mallory or Jake's lives during the rest of the year.  That way we get a more clear picture of who they are. We also see that they stick by their vow only to contact each other at another time in the event of marriage, pregnancy or death.

I like how Hilderbrand started each chapter with references to what was going on in the year of the chapter - everything from politics, to music, TV and movies. It was particularly poignant how 2001 only dealt with 9/11 since that was such an overarching story in that year.

All in all a great book, though quite a sad ending.

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

While a historical book, it reads like an adventure or thriller which makes it easy to read despite its length. The book covers two of Churchill's years as the British Prime Minister, 1940 and 1941. The years are crucial as it is then that the UK is under air attack by Germany (particularly what became known as the London Blitz) and feels the threat of a land invasion.

The amount of research Larson did is immense.  In the foreword he states that every work in quotation marks came from someone's diary; while every facial or body language reaction was recorded by someone at the time. And through these sources he paints a detailed picture of the Blitz, Churchill's family and political life, Churchill's decision making process, including his approaches to President Roosevelt, and even Nazi strategy.

I found this highly educational - while I knew about the Blitz in a fairly general sense, I had no idea of the details. Larsen filled in the blanks with times, places and extent of the damage. It also taught me about many larger aspects of the war that I had never considered (e.g. a lengthy section about what happened to France's naval ships that were at sea when Germany successfully invaded).

Personally I enjoyed the details about Churchill's family life, as well (most gleaned from diaries maintained by his youngest daughter, Mary). I felt it humanized the book.

While this is a long book, I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this era in history. As I said, because of the way it is written, it reads more like a thriller than a dry history book.  I found myself anxious to know what happened next (even though, of course, none of it is truly a surprise).

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Since this book is probably universally known, at least amongst English language readers, I won't spend that much time on it.  I chose it for the last category in the library reading challenge - a book that is older than you are. Having seen the latest movie last winter, and come across a 150th Anniversary Edition while browsing a New York City book store, I decided to reread it. It was, of course, at least 40 years since I last read it.

Looking at it in today's light, it is hard to imagine that this was intended for children (or even young adults). The language is just so dense - though the subject matter is appropriate.  It is also so blatantly moralizing that I'm not sure how young adults of the day could stand all the messages being hammered into their heads.

That being said, it's a classic, and everyone should probably read a classic now and then.  This edition also contained very helpful brief essays at the end putting several themes into context (e.g., women as writers, religion, poverty, the Civil War). Remembering the context makes it easier to digest the blatant sexism.

The Lies that Bind by Emily Giffin

I quite enjoyed this latest novel by Giffin.  I don't want to give a way too much (the lies in the title are best unravelled as you read), but I will give a brief review.

In the spring of 2001, Cecily, a woman in her late 20s, cannot sleep because she is reeling from a recent break up.  So she gets up and goes into a local dive bar for a drink.  When she is about to dial her ex, Gavin sneaks up behind her and tells her not to do it - somehow surmising her intent. She complies and they spend the night together (as friends) - and develop both a deep emotional attachment and physical attraction.

Over the course of the summer their relationship grows, despite Gavin travelling to London with his ill brother. He returns on September 10, 2001 and spends a few blissful hours with Cecily before leaving her while she's still asleep.  And then the worst happens - after the planes fly into the twin towers Cecily cannot locate Gavin.

After several days of searching she sees a missing person poster with his face on it.  She calls the number on the poster - and this leads her both to continue her search for Gavin and to question how well she actually knew him.  Multiple layers of secrets are revealed (some hers and some Gavin's) by the end.

As an aside, one of my favourite characters was Cecily's gay best childhood friend.  He was warm, funny, supportive and the kind of friend everyone should have.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I partly turned to this book to fulfil my reading challenge category of a dystopian or utopian book and partly because I have read all of the Hunger Games books so was curious about the prequel.

I must say I did enjoy this book though I didn't love it - while Collins' writing is very strong and approachable, I think I preferred the other books in the series. My biggest disappointment was the ending - it was almost as if when the author got to the last 20 pages or so she felt pressured to rush to the end.  Everything just seemed to take a turn way too quickly - though ultimately the turn they took was not a surprise to readers of the whole series.

This book goes back 64 years from the original Hunger Games books to examine the early life of Coriolanus Snow, who was the villain in Katniss Everdeen's world. Snow's illustrious family, which now consists of only his grandmother and his cousin, has fallen on hard times as a result of the war with the districts. Snow is obsessed with regaining their former wealth and grandeur and hopes to do so by being a mentor to a tribute in the annual hunger games.

He is somewhat disappointed when he is paired with a long shot - the girl tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray. However, her sense of style wins him over and the two must work together to give her a chance to survive. Snow does everything possible to make it happen which captures the attention of the extremely weird head games master, Dr. Gaul.  She eventually figures prominently in his future.

Snow's competitive personality is contrasted with that of his classmate, Sejanus Plinth, who is empathetic and horrified by the hunger games events.

I don't want to give away the main plot which of course centres around what happens in the Hunger Games arena.  Suffice it to say there is action, mayhem, murder, blood and gore and ultimately a winner.  The outcome for Snow is not necessarily what he expected either.  

The book does provide a vivid picture of the implications of abuse of power and control, particularly on how it can mold young minds.

If you liked the rest of the series it's worth trying this one.

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

I always eagerly anticipate my annual Jennifer Weiner fix, and while I didn't like this as much as last year's Mrs. Everything which I thought was probably her best, this was still a really enjoyable read.  It was part romance, part mystery and all round easy entertainment.  I finished it in the course of a day.

The novel is narrated by Daphne who is a plus-size Instagram influencer and part time babysitter.  For middle and high school Daphne attended a prestigious private school on scholarship because her father was a teacher.  There she befriends Drue - a beautiful but very mean rich girl.  Although Drue constantly takes advantage of her, Daphne can't resist the allure of being in her circle and is constantly drawn back in despite the warnings of one of their mutual friends (who is now Daphne's roommate).

This toxic relationship lasts until Daphne's sophomore year at college when she and Drue fight in dramatic style.  The altercation is filmed and launches Daphne's influencer career - she also decides to make peace with her body weight which gives her a huge boost in confidence.

Six years later Drue walks back into Daphne's life and asks her to be her maid of honour at her high profile society wedding. Again going against her roommates advice, Daphne is sucked in and agrees. She feels she now has the confidence to protect herself from being used.  She also makes it into an opportunity by agreeing to wear clothes designed by an online designer and to post about her experiences at the wedding.

The night before the wedding everyone heads to rented mansions in Cape Cod for the festivities.  There Daphne meets a mystery man, Nick, who she fears is too good to be true.  Even more surprising events take place - which I won't give away.

The remainder of the books surrounds Daphne's efforts to solve the mystery of the various happenings in Cape Cod.  It then turns into more of a mystery/adventure story and the romance moves to the back burner though does not disappear.  I would say my biggest criticism is that I couldn't quite believe how Daphne made the leaps in logic necessary to solve the mystery.  Although, admittedly because I read the book quickly, maybe I missed some of the connections. Despite that, I really enjoyed the story.

I also want to point out a couple of side stories which I really enjoyed.  Daphne's relationship with her parents, especially her father, was enviable.  I loved how they supported her unconditionally and particularly enjoyed her weekly restaurant adventures with her father. I also liked how Weiner wove in Daphne's experiences when she was child and her grandmother spent the summer with her and put her on a forced diet.  It was a great illustration of the lasting impact of early body image criticism.

For me this is a must read - but I again caveat that with the fact that I love anything Weiner writes.

Another Two Months in Quarantine - Lots of Books!

Because I have had so much time to read, I've actually read a ton of books, but haven't made the time to write about them.  Just so I can keep on top of this, I wanted to post, but you might find my reviews are a little shorter than usual.

Celestial Bodies by Jukhah Harithi

This was a very interesting book by an Omani author (in fact the first female Omani author to be translated into English). It looks at the lives of three sisters who have grown up in a traditional family that gets caught up in a wave of modernization that hits to country. In fact, the older generations of the family were slave owners (and slaves) while the younger ones strain against the rules imposed by religion and tradition, especially when it comes to accepting arranged marriages.

The narrative jumps around in time and place and, at times, is a bit hard to follow.  The family tree at the beginning of the book was an essential reference - I had to look back at it constantly.  The matriarch of the family is Salima, who survived a difficult childhood and now clings to the wealth and stability she's earned.  Her husband, Azzan, is more of a dreamer and drawn to the moon goddess (it's frankly a bit unclear if he's actually having an affair or merely spends time in nature away from his family).

The family's three surviving daughters are Mayya, who accepts an arranged marriage to Abdallah (who truly seems to love his wife, though she doesn't necessarily see it).  The narrative also explores their three children - London, a modern woman who is fiercely independent though not untouched by men who want to keep her in her place; Salim, an irresponsible young man; and Muhammed who has special needs.

The second daughter of Salima and Azzan is Asma who is obsessed with books, but ultimately accepts an arranged marriage too.  Finally, there is Khawla, the youngest and most beautiful.  She promised to marry a cousin when she was very young but he emigrated to North America.  She patiently waits for him to return - which he eventually does, but the reunion is not exactly what she expected.

The other characters in the book are slaves such as Zarifa - while not officially a member of the family she has been intricately involved in the family's history.

The narrative weaves together the lives of the characters to give us a very vivid picture of an old village being dragged into modern times.  But the drama is not all political - there is murder and intrigue in the family's personal history too.

The book takes time and attention, but is a worthwhile read.

The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This was a really interesting read about family, and how everything can fall apart in an instant when tragedy strikes. The Olanders appear to be an ideal, global family living in suburban California.  Jaya is the highly cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat who has lived all over the world. Keith is an ambitious banker, but came from humble beginnings in working class Philadelphia.  They meet while Keith is on a business trip in London, fall in love, marry and move to the US.  There they have two seemingly perfect children - Karina, now a teenager and Prem, the baby, now 8 years old, and doted upon by his parents and sister.

When tragedy strikes, the family begins to fall apart and we see how each of the family members moves in their separate ways.  The chapters are narrated by each of the family members in turn and cover about a decade.  Pref's chapters are merely observations of the rest of the family, but we see how Karina first thrives at university then falls in with the wrong crowd, Keith takes a chance on his job that doesn't go his way, and Jaya turns to a religious guru for guidance.

I don't want to give much more of the plot away as there are some surprising turns.  But I recommend this one if you like books about family dynamics.

Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival from within the Camp by Eddy de Wind

This is a true account by a survivor of Auschwitz and is as heavy as it sounds. Eddy de Wind was a doctor who worked at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. His mother had been taken to this camp by the Nazis, but Eddy was assured by the Jewish Council that she would be freed in return for his labour at the camp. He later found out that she had already been deported to Auschwitz.

While working at the camp, Eddy falls in love with and marries Friedel.  About a year later they are both deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival they were immediately separated though, among the luckier ones since they were not immediately exterminated. Eddy was forced to work as a medical assistant in one barrack while Friedel became a subject of Nazi medical experimentation in another barrack.

This diary was actually written by Eddy while at the camp - in the weeks leading up to the liberation by the Red Army. He gives detailed accounts of his work, the maltreatment of prisoners, his continuous efforts to communicate with Friedel and his hope that they (and their love) will survive.  He also gives an account of what happened upon liberation.

While none of the content is particularly surprising to those who know anything about Auschwitz, it is nonetheless interesting to read a first hand account.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This is not at all the type of book I would normally pick up, but I needed to read something for the library reading challenge that was based on a fairy tale, myth or legend.  This one caught my eye while browsing in a New York City bookstore (when that was still an acceptable activity...). This is based upon Mexican folklore.

Here, Casiopea Tun and her mother are treated horribly by their more wealthy relations who never approved of Casiopea's father. Casiopea essentially serves as her grandfather's maid and is constantly taunted and abused by an older cousin, Martin. In a minor act of rebellion Casiopea opens a forbidden chest in her grandfather's bedroom where she finds what, on first glance, appear to be merely bones. In fact, she has freed the injured and imprisoned Mayan death god, Hun-Kame.

For the rest of the book Casiopea is taken on wild adventures through Mexico and into the US by Hun-Kame.  She is pursued by Martin who is enlisted by Hun-Kame's evil twin.

While the skilled prose and exciting narrative made this a fairly easy read, I'm not sure I would turn to this kind of book again without the prompting of a reading challenge or otherwise.  I prefer books more grounded in reality.

Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali

This is quite an interesting memoir which is actually written while the author is living in a homeless shelter in Toronto.  As a young boy, he is taken from his mother by his father, first to the middle east and then sent with his step-mother and step siblings to the Netherlands.

Ali is treated terribly by his step-family - and his father only makes brief and unhelpful appearances in his life.  Despite that, in the Netherlands as a child and young teenager he does make some friends despite moving around frequently.

Eventually, however, the family makes its way to Canada.  There Ali has a harder time fitting in and turns to partying and drugs to escape his difficult family life.  This leads to an inability to excel in school or hold down a job and, eventually, the homeless shelter.

The mere fact Ali was able to write this book - which is well written - shows his strength and resilience.  It also shows how a child with such promise can be broken by abuse, isolation and racism.  Hopefully, this book has served as a turning point for Ali as he definitely has what it takes to live his best life.

No One is too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

This one was also for my library challenge - a book about climate change. It is a collection of speeches by the teenaged climate change activist.  They are somewhat repetitive - though I suppose that's not surprising given they were speeches to different groups but intended to deliver the same message.  Again, not something I would normally read as I think it's easier to pick up her message using social media, but it was a quick read if the topic is of interest to you.

Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor

This was a really interesting book, and very easy to read. Siblings Ralph and Shelley and Ralph's friend William are living on an indigenous reserve in Ontario.  When they are pre-teens they befriend Danielle, an odd girl on the reserve who has a tragic family history and doesn't seem to have any friends or family support now.

When Ralph and Shelley's mother gets the idea to have local children pain pictures on a kitchen wall Danielle astounds everyone with her rendition of a magical horse.  She repeats the magic more than once, but then her abusive family whisks her away to Toronto and the children never see her again.

Years later, while working as a police officer in Toronto, Ralph comes across a graffiti mural that so closely resembles those childhood horses that he's convinced it must have been drawn by Danielle. He tries to enlist the help of a homeless man to track down the artist, but is not successful.

The narrative also tells us a bit about the adult lives of Ralph, Shelley and William.  While there's not a lot of heavy action, I recommend the book for those who are still interested in coming of age stories with a twist.

The Hate U Give by K.J. Apart

I chose this book for my young adult reading challenge category even before this topic came roaring back into the news with recent events.

Starr Carter lives in a poor black neighbourhood, but when a childhood friend is killed in a drive-by shooting she and her siblings are sent to a fancy, mainly white private school.  She is skillfully balancing both lives until she is in a car when another of her lifelong friends is shot - this time by police.

At first, amongst her school friends, Starr tries to deny knowing the victim, but she eventually realizes if she doesn't speak up the world will only see the skewed version of her friend being offered up by the police and the media. She realizes she must speak up even if it's putting her family in some danger as violence emerges in the wake of the shooting and a drug lord who her friend had ties to sets his sights on Starr.

This should be a must read for everyone in the current environment of police shooting unarmed, black youths.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

This was quite a fun book in the midst of all the heavier reading I've been doing (see above...).  Nina Hill is the consummate introvert - she works in a book store and is happiest reading at home with her cat or participating in trivia challenges with her close friends.

But two unexpected events force Nina out of her comfort zone.  First, the father she never knew dies and includes her in his will.  She is thus introduced to several of his subsequent wives, their children and grandchildren, giving her a huge family she never knew about.  While some of them are suspicious of her motives (which is weird since she didn't even know about her father and certainly didn't seek out his fortune), many are excited to meet her and happy to bring her into the family fold.  Even more surprising is how several of her half siblings share some of her personality quirks - as did her father apparently.

Second, her trivia nemesis, Tom takes an interest in her.  And despite her better judgment, she is interested in him too.  After several false starts Tom and Nina find they have more in common than trivia competitions.

Not deep, but fun and well written.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

I hesitated to read this book given its mixed reception, but ultimately picked it up to satisfy my reading challenge category, a book about current events.  And I'm glad I read it - I really enjoyed it.  Now, I'm not sure it's all terribly realistic, but me that didn't detract from the interesting narrative.

Lydia lives with her husband and young son, Luca, in Acapulco at a time when the city is becoming more and more dangerous because of drug cartels. Despite that they have a happy life - Lydia runs a book store and her husband is a journalist. While working at the store Lydia develops a close friendship with Javier, a well read and charming customer.  Only months later does she discover he is the leader of a new drug cartel that has taken over the city.

When Lydia's husband writes an expose about Javier, she thinks it is balanced enough that Javier will accept it. But, for reasons she only learns much later, he is so incensed by the article that he shoots her whole extended family - only she and Luca hide and are able to survive. (I'm not giving anything away - this happens right at the start).

Lydia immediately knows she and Luca are in danger and they make a run for it trying to get to the US. The entire narrative surrounds their difficult escape - as they travel on the roofs of cargo trains to their destination, and then undergo a dangerous hike with a smuggler, we meet the honest migrants they befriend along the way; as well as the less honest ones (who are often in government or members of cartels, infiltrating to thwart the migration).

The book is well written, the drama is fast paced and the characters are multi-faceted. While I think some of Lydia's narrow escapes are a bit hard to believe, overall I enjoyed the book.

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

Frankly I found this book a bit too weird for my taste.  When Lydia's husband is killed in a car crash she is devastated and withdrawing from the world.  At the urging of her family she takes sleeping pills to help her cope.  Whenever she takes them, she dreams of a parallel world where her husband is still alive.  The lives of others are also altered in the parallel world (for example in the real world her sister has a healthy baby while in the alternate world she miscarries).

In the real world, Lydia eventually decides to travel abroad to spend more time in the alternate world.  But there she begins to come to terms with how things are in the real world so she returns to her regular life.

As I said, I just found this too strange, but if you like the idea, the book is well written, just not to my liking.

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

I quite enjoyed this book.  It is set both in the present day US and 1950s Tehran.

In 1953, 17 year old Roya meets an idealistic and politically active boy, Bahman, in a stationery shop.  Over books and stationery they fall in love and eventually become engaged.  The engagement is encouraged by Roya's family as well as Bahman's father.  But Bahman's mother, who suffers from mental illness, disapproves of the match as Roya's family is less well off than hers.

At one point Bahman disappears and Roya has no idea what has happened, though she knows he is alive as he sends her notes which she picks up in books at the stationery shop, with the assistance of the shop owner.  The last note says he wants to meet her at a particular square and they will immediately get married.  But Bahman doesn't show up.

Years later, Roya is married to someone else and discovers Bahman is alive and in a US nursing home.  She decides she must visit him to find out what happened on that fateful day.  Through narrative which moves back and forth in time we find out what happened too.  There are also some chapters even further back in time that tell us about the bookseller's early life which ends up being pertinent to the 1953 story.

The story is interesting and there are a lot of fascinating and likeable characters - both in Tehran and in the US (though there are some unlikeable characters too).  I definitely recommend this book.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I hadn't read this book before so when I saw it at a used book sale last fall I jumped on it.  Then I decided to read it for the "classic" category of my reading challenge.  And, boy you can see why it's a classic.  The language of the book is masterful.  And while magical realism is not my favourite, I still had trouble putting this book down. As an aside, I only learned in reading the afterword to this book that a it is responsible for introducing the concept of magical realism to English readers. The novel tells the story of 100 years in the fictional South American town of Macando.  In particular we see it through the lives of multiple generations of the Buendia family - one of the founding families.

Because many of the children are named after their parents and grandparents, the reference family tree at the beginning of the book was vital for me to keep track of everyone. I wouldn't say the story is confusing, I just sometimes had to remind myself which generation I was reading about as it did jump backwards and forwards a bit.

Through just one family, the author manages to touch on global issues like religion, politics, war, imperialism, science and invention and more. There is really no way for me to summarize what happened - it's just too much. All I can say is that if you're in the mood for a classic, and haven't already read it, this one is worth it.

Calm the F*ck Down by Sarah Knight

I picked this book up to fit the category of a book you found helpful.  And while I wouldn't describe the advice in this book as life changing, I did pick up a few tips for managing low level anxiety (particularly the type that keeps you up at night).

The author readily admits she is not an educated expert - she is rather someone who suffers from anxiety sharing strategies that have worked for her. This is not the book for you if you are struggling with serious anxiety - you should seek professional help instead. But if you just feel anxious sometimes you might get the odd helpful hint here.

I should note that the book is full of exercises - I didn't bother doing them - that's just not my thing.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim

This is another book that was just a little too weird for my taste.

When Natalie Tan's mother dies, she returns to San Francisco's Chinatown after many years of estrangement.  Against her mother's wishes she had left town to go to culinary school - where she flunked out.  She then spent several years floating from place to place, working in restaurants and never really developing any serious attachments.

She is originally resentful of her neighbours as she thought they left her all alone to deal with her mother who suffered from serious agoraphobia.  Instead she finds they were providing all kinds of behind the scenes support.  She also learns her mother has left her her late grandmother's restaurant and recipe book.

All sounds normal so far - but then Natalie decides that she has to use cooking as magic to address issues in people's lives.  And there is another whole weird bit involving her father which I won't reveal in case you want to read the book, but it was just too far fetched for me.

I don't really recommend this.  It did include many recipes which may or may not be legitimate - I skimmed over them so don't really know.

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

I'm not sure where I heard about this book, but it was a pleasant surprise. It takes place in alternating chapters in the present and in the late 1950s.

In the present, Beth Walsh's father is dying and is moved into a long term care facility.  Beth, mostly because she is suffering from postpartum depression and wants an escape from her infant son, offers to clean out the family home.  There, behind a locked attic door, she finds a hoarder's den that is uncharacteristic of her otherwise neat and organized father. More mysteriously she finds a series of notes that appear to be from her mother - each attached to an abstract painting that her father seems to have recently painted.

Beth and her three siblings had always been told their mother died in a car accident when they were toddlers, but the notes suggest something more sinister may have occurred. There father, now struggling with dementia, cannot tell them anything.

In alternating narratives from the perspective of Beth in the present day and her mother and aunt in the past, we are able to piece together what actually happened to her mother.  The children also learn that there is more to their father than they thought.

In addition to being an interesting family mystery, the book does an excellent job of addressing postpartum depression and the devastating effects of the lack of birth control and safe abortions in the 1950s.

I found this book to be really interesting, well researched and well written.

Quarantine Reads

You would think with being stuck at home and social distancing I would have time to update this blog, but somehow the days just run away from me.  That doesn't mean I haven't been reading though - here are the books I've read over the last 6 weeks or so.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
While I enjoyed this book, I found it extremely disturbing so if graphic child physical and sexual abuse is too disturbing for you to read about I would skip this one.

This is the story of a 14 year old girl who her father calls Turtle.  She lives alone with her father and he has been raping her for years.  He has also convinced her she is worthless and she has internalized that.  For much of her life her only friend has been her grandfather.  A kind teacher suspects she is being abused and tries to intervene but Turtle feels she doesn't deserve the help and also fears what her father would say if he finds out she sought help so she ignores the teacher.

One thing Turtle has learned from her father is how to survive in the wilderness.  While out wandering one day she meets two boys who need her help finding their way back to civilization.  One of them, and his mother, knew her mother and they try to talk to her father to get her help, but he of course refuses to let them in.  The other, Jacob, becomes enamoured with Turtle and they start to spend time together.  When Turtle's father finds out Jacob wants to take her to a dance he beats her badly.  Fearing he will come after Jacob next, Turtle refuses to see him anymore.

Then, Turtle's grandfather dies, causing her father to disappear for months allowing Turtle to reconnect with Jacob and live a relatively peaceful life.  But when her father returns, with a young girl he picked up along the way and is now abusing, it sets in motion a chain of events where Turtle has to use her survival skills to save herself and the other girl - regardless of the cost.

Turtle was an amazing and resilient character, but as I said above, the violence was a bit too graphic for me at times.

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
The library recommended this book of essays to fulfil the reading challenge - "a book that made me laugh".  And this book really did that.  Ellis grew up in the US South and was hardwired to behave with southern gentility and decorum.  But, she was astute enough to realize that bringing this behaviour to her life in Manhattan led to numerous hilarious situations.

In short essays she describes how she used her manners to fend off a potential kidnapper, respond to a sewer rat wandering the street, stay happily married and be the perfect guest.

The book is well written, easy to read and fun when you need to boost your mood.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones 
This is an earlier novel by the author of the bestseller An American Marriage, and I enjoyed this one just as much.

The novel is set in Atlanta in the 1980s.  Dana Yarbaro grows up knowing her father, James Witherspoon is a bigamist.  While already married to another woman, James marries Dana's mother, Gwendolyn, when she becomes pregnant with Dana.  Shortly after his first wife gives birth to another daughter, Chaurisse.

While Gwendolyn, and by extension Dana, are aware of, and obsessed with, James' wife and other daughter, Chaurisse and her mother know nothing about James's other family.  With the help of a lifelong friend, who is also in love with Gwendolyn, James works hard at keeping his two families apart. But, Dana finds away to befriend Chaurisse, and meet her mother, without their knowing who she really is.  Much of the story focuses on the lives of these two girls - and how James tries to balance his love for two women - and what happens to everyone when the truth comes out.

This is an interesting narrative - you would think James would be despicable, but he comes off as sympathetic though obviously very misguided.  The two daughters and the two mothers are equally sympathetic and well developed characters.

The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith
At first I thought this would be yet another Holocaust story with little to add to the literature.  But in fact it had an interesting twist.  The story was told from the perspective of three characters - the first is Marijke, a Dutch woman who is sent to a concentration camp for her participation in the Dutch resistance.

In hopes of saving her life, and thus reuniting with her husband, Marijke agrees to work in the camp brothel.  There she is patronized by a high ranking Nazi, Karl.  Though married, Karl becomes attached to Marijke and at least once saves her from cruel punishment in the camp.  However, the relationship is sort of disturbing given he needs Marijke to act like she is in love with him and undermines her efforts to reunite with her husband.  By the end the reader does learn the fates of Marijke, her husband and Karl.

The interesting twist is the third perspective - alternating chapters explore the life of Luciano in Buenos Aires in 1977.  He is arrested and tortured for his sexual orientation and his political activities.  This story is actually a bit more interesting than the more unbelievable concentration camp narrative, but though the relationship between the stories is revealed by the end, it still was a bit disjointed.

I think the idea of this story was strong, but the execution wasn't great.  It was hard to believe the concentration camp narrative which just seemed too contrived.  And the relationship to the Argentina story was just sort of dropped in at the end when there was opportunity for better foreshadowing and more detail.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
I avoided this book for a while because it was hyped by sources I usually don't agree with (e.g. NYT Book Review), but in the end I tried it and, while I didn't love it, I'm not sorry I gave it a chance.

The first half of the book is written from the perspective of a doctor, Toby Fleishman.  He has separated from his wife and is enjoying a life of no strings attached sex with women he meets through "dating" apps.  In the middle of the night his soon to be ex-wife drops off his two children and disappears.  Toby is left scrambling to take care of his kids on a day to day basis and to figure out where his ex-wife has gone and what happened in his marriage.

So in this part we see everything from Toby's perspective, except sometimes the narrative changes, with little warning, to be from the perspective of a friend Toby knew in his youth.  It sometimes takes a while to figure out we are seeing Toby through her eyes rather than his own, but it works.

Toby definitely comes off as narcissistic though, through his own eyes, is clearly the victim of this ex-wife who thinks he was a loser for just being a doctor and not making the fortune she is in business.  He also believes he was always by far the more attentive parent - while maintaining a prestigious position at a NY hospital.

The second half is written from the perspective of Toby's ex-wife, Rachel (again with interruptions from Toby's old friend).  This part of the book turns everything we thought we knew on its head.  We realize things in the marriage may not have been as Toby perceived them to be.

I thought this was well written and I enjoyed it more than I expected to - the characters were all equally likeable (or not).  I was also forced to really think about what was reality when I saw it through the eyes of people with polar opposite perspectives.  I thought the weaving in of a third perspective was done in a very creative way - again ensuring that I had to read carefully.  I found this wasn't the kind of book where you could skim over parts or you would never figure out what was going on.  I'd say the biggest disappointment was the ending - but I won't reveal that.

The Lost Sister by Andrea Gunraj
This was a really interesting local novel.  Sisters Alisha and Diana are the daughters of immigrant parents from the Caribbean living in Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood.  Their father works hard to provide for the family and their mother, and her sister and best friend, dote on the girls.  Diana dreams of going to medical school - and is a star student and athlete who is popular and strains against the social restrictions placed on her by her doting parents.  Alisha looks up to Diana and wants to be just like her - she even pretends she wants to be a lawyer in an effort to attract her parents' attention.

One day Diana disappears and Alisha has information about the events leading up to her disappearance that she keeps from her parents and the police.  This weighs on her and is noticed by Paula, a woman who volunteers at her school.  The two develop an unlikely friendship which is partly explained by the guilt Paula feels over her relationship with her estranged sister.

In alternating sections of the book we learn more about Paula's childhood.  She lived in Nova Scotia and she and her sister were taken from her unwed, prostitute mother and placed in the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children.  There she is abused and neglected and kept separate from her sister.  This harsh upbringing has a significant impact on Paula's current life and helps her to relate to Alisha's difficulties.

This was a well written account of the difficulties faced by immigrants to Canada, as well as the tension between immigrant parents and their Canadian born and raised children.  While the Nova Scotia portion was partially based on true events, I found it was less well developed than the current day sections.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
This is a long family saga - while overall I liked it, I thought it could have been a bit shorter.  It was also one of those stories where bad things kept happening and I often found myself wondering when this family could finally catch a break.  I realize it may be realistic in times of occupation, war, etc., but sometimes it was just a bit much.

The story starts in the early 1900s in Korea, on a small island near Busan.  There, the disabled fisherman, Hoonie and his wife Yangjin have only one child who survives infancy, Sunja.  Sunja is doted upon by her parents, but works hard helping her father sell his fish and her mother run a boarding house.  When Hoonie dies of TB while Sunja is a teenager, the two women are left to keep things running.

They do a good job until Sunja gets pregnant by a man she has fallen for, who happens to already have a wife and family in Japan.  While he offers to support her and the baby, as long as she remains his mistress, that's not the life she wants for herself so she refuses.  Instead she agrees to marry a boarding house guest, a sickly Christian minister who is going to Japan to join his older brother and lead a congregation.

The minister knows of Sunja's pregnancy and agrees to treat the baby as his own, which he does.  So Sunja and her husband travel to Japan.  The book then covers the story of their lives, the lives of his brother and sister-in-law, the son Sunja has from her first relationship as well as a son the couple have together and, eventually, their grandson.

There is great detail about the lives of both Koreans and Christians in Japan - and the terrible conditions they live in.  Even generations in they must repeatedly make the case for their right to live and work in Japan and are treated with contempt by many Japanese people.  They are also unable to return to Korea due to the political uncertainty there.

The title, Pachinko, is the name of a popular gambling game - certain members of Sunja's family eventually make their fortunes in Pachinko.  Since it is reputed to be tied to organized crime, it is one place Koreans are allowed to freely work.

Again, it took perseverance to get through the whole book, but I think was worth it.  Just make sure you have time and patience going into it - this is not a light holiday read.

Rue des Rosiers by Rhea Tregebov
I picked up this book because it is written by a Winnipeg Jewish author and covers themes I find of interest.  It was an easy read, but a bit disappointing.  I found the writing style a bit simplistic and amateurish though the story was compelling.

Sarah is the youngest of the three Levine sisters.  She was born and raised in Winnipeg but is living in Toronto now.  She is "wasting her life" according to others in it as she dropped out of university one course shy of graduating is working for a landscaping company.  She is also involved with a successful lawyer but is having trouble committing to him (she's reticent to spend a whole night with him).  She is oddly superstitious, keeping a penny given to her years before by a Holocaust survivor she met in a Holocaust course at university - she turns to the penny to make her decisions.

Sarah's middle sister also lives in Toronto.  She is a lesbian and ardent feminist who is always trying to loop Sarah into her causes.  They fight over Sarah's future and have a very strained relationship.

Sarah's oldest sister still lives in Winnipeg and is suffering from depression following a miscarriage.  When she ends up hospitalized Sarah goes to check on her and loses her job in the process.  With no job she decides to join her boyfriend in Paris where he is headed to work on a deal.  In Paris she sees anti-semitism up front which brings back memories of the Holocaust course and the survivor who gave her the penny.

She wanders the gardens of Paris trying to figure out her future and then is a victim of a terrorist attack which helps her gain some perspective on her future.  These things all happen a bit too quickly and conveniently for my liking, but it does make the book shorter I suppose.

Not a terrible book, but not great.  If you're interested in the subject matter it's probably still worth it. It's also good to support local authors.

Grand Union by Zadie Smith
This is a collection of short stories, which is not my favourite genre, but I read this to fit the category in the library reading challenge.  While I liked a few of the stories, a lot of them went over my head.  I don't know if I'm not the target audience, or I'm just not astute enough, but I would finish some and really have little idea about what I'd just read.

That being said, there were a few stories I liked - one about an aging transgendered woman in New York trying to buy a corset, another about Brexit era Brits on the lazy river ride at a Spanish resort.  Smith certainly knows how to address issues of race, class and gender in a literary fashion.  She just might be a bit too literary for me.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

As always I was captivated by Isabel Allende's writing - her style really appeals to me.  And while it took a couple of chapters to get into this book, once I did it was hard to put down.

This book covers the lives of a family from the time of the Spanish Civil War to the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.  The narrative begins with Victor Dalmau, a medical student in Barcelona whose studies are interrupted by the Civil War.  He takes a position as a medic for the Republicans and is best known for massaging a young soldier's heart on the battlefield and bringing him back to life.

Victor's musician father and activist mother have taken in a young musical protege, Roser, who falls in love with Victor's soldier brother.  Roser is pregnant with his child when he is killed in the war.  As Franco's forces advance on Barcelona, Victor, Roser and Victor's mother are forced to flee to France with the assistance of an upbeat but rather corrupt ambulance driver that Victor had befriended on the front.

Along the way and upon arrival in France the four are separated and Victor and Roser find themselves in separate concentration camps.  But when reunited (and I'm not giving this away, it is on the book jacket), they are given the opportunity to leave France on the SS Winnipeg - a rescue ship organized by the poet Pablo Neruda and destined for Chile.  In order to ensure their passage, Victor and Roser marry and Victor agrees to look after Roser's son as if he were his own, at least until the boy is an adult.

Ensuing chapters deal with the life Victor, Roser and their son make for themselves in Chile.  They develop successful careers and make powerful friends, including Salvador Allende (who is the author's cousin).  However, when Allende is assassinated and Pinochet takes over Victor and Roser find themselves fleeing a fascist dictatorship yet again.

As the years progress, Victor and Roser come to realize theirs is more than a marriage of convenience and they end up together into old age.

I don't want to give too much more away, but there are a lot of interesting twists as Victor and Roser lose and then rediscover people along the way.  I highly recommend this book, particularly to fans of Allende's other works.