Behold the Dreamers - United States (New York City)

Publication Date: Aug 23, 2016

Pages: 400

Date Started: Aug 12, 2018

Date Finished: Sep 16, 2018

I read this book for the library book club to which I belong - it wasn't a book I suggested and I'm not even sure who did suggest it, but I am so glad that it was selected. I tend to read mostly fiction, mostly by white male authors and mostly centered in the United States/England (maybe Canada, Ireland or some Scandinavian country thrown into the mix) so reading a book by a young African woman from Cameroon was something that is definitely outside my wheelhouse. (I like throwing that word out whenever possible - apologies!).This world is so big and there are so many stories that need to be heard. This is one of them.

I travel a bit for my job, just domestically with an odd trip to Toronto or Ottawa, Canada thrown in. And in the course of those trips I get to talk to cab drivers, Lyft drivers and hotel staff (not just the ones when you check in, but those that are in housekeeping or catering) and the overwhelming number of these people are immigrants - hardworking and humble. Often doing the types of jobs that most people born in America do not want to do as they feel it is too beneath them. These immigrants work long hours and work hard, and probably don't get paid enough. And that's just the hotel staff that I have interacted with. There are probably hundreds of stories like that in any city that I don't even think about: fast-food workers, landscapers, bus boys in restaurants, janitors, health-care workers, migrant farmers who pick cherries in Michigan and salad in California, and scores of other workers in the United States.

I try to talk to these workers, find out where they come from, what made them want to come to the United States (specifically the city we are in) if they have family back home, etc. The amount of time I have to talk to them depends on where we are and what they are doing - a cabbie driving me has more time to talk than a hotel worker who is setting up food for our company event. I don't know if these workers are legal (like Neni) or have overstayed a visa and are trying to obtain asylum (like Jende) but I do know that they come to the United States because the job opportunities are better in the United States than they are in their home country. And in spite of all the problems our country has had in the past and is currently having, they WANT to be here.  I find that inspiring and a bit humbling. Of all the countries they might choose to go to they choose the United States.

And Jende and Neni's story resonated with me when I thought about why they came to the United States, and why initially, both fought so hard to stay here. Neni wants to become a pharmacist and Jende has a good, steady job driving around a Lehmann Brothers executive. All seems to be looking bright for them. But we soon learn that Jenede's asylum fight is not going to end well and Neni will not be able to return to school to pursue her dream of becoming a pharmacist and ultimately, the family will need to return to Cameroon.

Jende loses the drive and the hunger to continue to "fight the fight" and resigns himself to the fact that he will not be able to win asylum and slowly becomes to accept that he and his family must return to Cameroon. Eventually, he looks forward to the return and is happy that he will be back home among friends and family, and given the amount of money they have saved up, will go back a wealthier man than he was when he left.

Neni, on the other hand, does not want to leave America and all that she has learned to love and all the potential that is within her reach (for herself and her children). Her feelings are probably best summed up by this passage:

“They would lose the opportunity to grow up in a magnificent land of uninhibited dreamers. They would lose the chance to be awed and inspired by amazing things happening in the country, incredible inventions and accomplishments by men and women who look like them. They would be deprived of freedoms, rights, and privileges that Cameroon could not give its children. They would lose unquantifiable benefits by leaving New York City, because while there existed great towns and cities all over the world, there was a certain kind of pleasure, a certain type of adventurous and audacious childhood, that only New York City could offer a child.”

I won't spoil the book by revealing what happens next, but I would be interested to learn if Ms. Mbue has any plans to write a sequel - to follow the next chapter in the family's life.

Here are reviews by Kirkus Review,  NPR review and - the Atlantic which may be more eloquent than me. All in all, this is a good book and I think people should read it to try to get a better understanding of what many immigrants have to go through to come to this contry, and how they feel. We have a lot to learn from them and this book is a good start.

We Were Liars - United States

So, I don't usually link to a bunch of resources (other than maybe Goodreads or Kirkus Reviews) but for this book I think having links to some outside resources might be good so I will pepper them throughout this review.

I first read this book

Publication Date: May 12, 2014

Pages: 240

Date Started: July 13, 2018

Date Finished: July 22, 2018

shortly after it was released in 2014, after I received an excerpt in the mail, probably 1-3 chapters. And after quickly reading those few chapters I was hooked. I enjoyed the plot and was I was so surprised by the ending.

Fast forward about 4 years and I recommended for the library book club that I belong to - in large part because I only remembered the ending and how unexpected it was. And how much I enjoyed it. But upon a second reading, I got so much more out if it than I did the first time around!

First, I completely forgot about the allusions to Shakespeare's King Lear. The family patriarch, Harris Sinclair, who built up the family money and whose attitudes permeate the entire fictitious Massachusetts-like island, is King Lear. Carrie, Penny and Bess, the three daughters of King Lear - except unlike the play, all three daughters kowtow to Harris in order to stay in his good graces - and hence, benefit from his fortune. Listen to e. lockhart discuss the writing style and also read  about the King Lear allegory.

And then there are the reflections of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and the star-crossed lovers represented by the character of Gat Patil (representing the Heathcliff character) and Cadence (Cady) Sinclair Eastman our migraine prone protagonist (playing the role of Catherine). Here's a blurb by e. lockhart on why/how she included an homage to Wuthering Heights in the storyline.

And it was only upon this second reading that I came to appreciate how the book was written: the fact that there were a lot of "liars" in the book - Cady, the cousins, the sisters; the sometimes dis-jointed and schizophrenic narrative which reflected the mind workings of Cady; the fairy tale-like stories that were included in the four chapters and finally, the "signs" that e. lockhart cleverly laid out along the way which, only in hindsight, give the reader a clue as to the traumatic event that led to Cady's physical issues.

Here are some reader's group questions to think about. I think my favorite is: What five words would you use to describe this book? Mine would be: clever, multi-faceted, creative, powerful, thought-provoking (ok, maybe that last one is stretching it). What five words would you choose?

The Wife Between Us - (United States, New York)

Kirkus Review

Started: July 5, 2018

Finished: July 7, 2018

Setting: New York, Westchester NY

Pages: 352

Publication Date: Jan 9, 2018

I read a LOT of hype about this book before I decided to read it. It seemed that almost everyone mentioned that they were "blown away by the ending," or  "they didn't see the ending coning." And I thought that it was just some bit of hyperbole.

And then I read it. And must add my "WOW!!" to the list of reviewers. I was completely blown away by the ending and did not see it coming. I did NOT anticipate the twists and turns the book took. And while I thought I knew where the book was going, I was completely gobsmacked when would get to the end of a chapter and find out that it had changed course and "what" I thought was going to happen and "who" was going to be behind it was completely off base.

Honestly, I could go on and on about the book, but there are so many good review out there (see the Kirkus review linked here) that I'm not sure I could add much to the chorus.

Run, don't walk to read this book. You'll be glad you did.

The Coroner's Lunch - (Laos)

As I am trying to read detective books set in foreign lands, it seemed natural that I would get around

Started: June 26, 2018

Finished: June 30, 2018

Setting: Laos 

Pages: 287 (epub)

Publication Date: April 7, 2015

to reading a book by Colin Cotterill, with his main character being Dr. Siri Paiboun living in Laos.  Siri is a wise-cracking coroner who happens to have mystical powers which enable him to talk to dead people. And it's this talent that helps him solve crimes perpetrated by the living. It's pretty good premise for a detective series of books. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I liked it as well as the numerous other readers on Goodreads. While I appreciated the humor in the book, at times I though the story lines were too complicated and as a result I got lost. I did appreciate the way the author wove in tidbits of history regarding Laos, Vietnam and American activity in that area during the 1960-1970s. And he did it in such a way that I realized I was learning without feeling like I was being taught.

But, at times I felt too lost in the book and where it was going. There is chapter or two where Dr. Siri is visiting a Hmong village, and while I found that interesting, it was too filled with the mysticism that seems to be central to Dr. Siri's character, and (unfortunately) I floundered there. I appreciate that he exposed me to elements of that part of Asia which I would otherwise never know about about, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Not sure that I would read another in his series, but if I did, it might been of the later books, if only to see how Siri has developed as a character, and how Cotterill has developed as a writer.

Kirkus review

The Good Son (South Korea)

I think I first learned of this book from a crime book blog I recently started following - Crime By The Book. What attracted me to reading the book was probably the fact that it was a translation of a book originally written in Korean. There are tons of translated crime books from Nordic writers (Jo Nesbo and Yrsa Sigurdardottir, to name two) but I had never run across a book from a South Korean author and a female to boot. The author, You-jeoung Jeong has been described as a South Korea's version of Stephen King - high praise indeed. So while I am not by any stretch of the imagination a Stephen King expert, though I do recall reading many of his books in high school (Cujo, The Stand, It) I will do my best to provide by review.

Started: June 17, 2018

Finished: June 24, 2018

Setting: South Korea

Pages: 320 (epub)

Publication Date: May 3, 2018

The Good Son tells the story of You-jin, a 25-year old living with his mother in Seoul, South Korea. He wakes up one morning to discover his mother dead at the bottom of the stairs. She has been stabbed and her throat cut. You-jin has no recollection of what could have happened. He does not remember hearing any disturbances during the night. How could something this horrendous happen? And who did this? As the story unfolds we learn that You-jin has had a few "episodes" - seizures really, where he cannot recall blocks of time. Could this have happened here? And if so, what could have led up to this event?

Over the course of three days, in flashbacks we learn about You-jin, his family and events that unfold themselves in You-jin's mind and we start to have a better understanding of things. How there are two sides to every memory.

I originally gave this 3-stars in Goodreads, because I thought it better than "OK" but not "Great" as many reviewers have pegged it. But on reflection I start to wonder if my 3-star rating should not be upgraded to 4-star? I'm still not sure that it is worth a 5-star rating (at least for me) but as I reflect on the book and the ending, perhaps I have not been as generous with the rating as I should have been. I did like the ending, especially because I did not see it coming (I actually thought it would have another ending) and because it provided a great "twist." This may be one of those books that needs to sit with the reader a bit after you finish it in order to fully digest the story and how well the author was able to tell the story.

So, would I recommend this book? Yes, if for no other reason than the ability to read what many have labelled a psychological thriller from a talented female writer from South Korea. Would I be interested in reading more books from her? Definitely. OK - I think I just convinced my self to upgrade it to 4-stars.

Before I Let Go (United States-Alaska)

Started: April 2018

Finished: DID NOT FINISH

Setting: USA-Alaska

Pages: 358 (hardcover)

Publication Date: Jan 2, 2018

Right off the bat I should admit that I did not finish this book. As I write this review I am about 1/2 way through and will probably not bother to finish it. Why?? It's just too heavy and overly dramatic for me. It's not so much about the issue that one of the main characters (Kyra) has to live with (we learn in flashbacks that she is bipolar) but rather the writing style. And how there seem to be scenes involving another main character (Corey) that repeat themselves over and over and over again - like a bad soliloquy that is repeated with interludes to break them up. And it all plays out against the backdrop of a remote Alaskan town named Lost Creek.

If you go to Goodreads you will find many reviews, so I won’t go into the details or premise. In reading other reviews on Goodreads I see that others also had issues with this book – though to be fair, people also liked it.

I wish I could better articulate what it is about the book (at least what I have read to date) that I do not like. I mentioned above that it is too heavy. Actually, the main character Corey is too heavy and overly dramatic – too intense. Her angst over what happens to her friend Kyra is over the top. Her reactions seem to me too extreme. And too intense. She professes to care about Kyra and is heartbroken about Kyra’s life. But we learn that while Corey was gone from Lost Creek, she (gasp) got enmeshed in her own life away from Lost Creek and developed friends and had a life and did all those things you are supposed to do when you are young and leave a small town for a better opportunity. And in the process she didn’t keep in contact with Kyra as much and as often as she planned to. It’s a perfectly natural reaction, she got a life. But once she returned to Lost Creek, she begins to (almost) punish herself. She blames herself for leaving Kyra, not keeping in touch more, not being there for her. And when she comes back, she tries to solve the “mystery” of what happened to Kyra after she left, as though she is THE ONLY ONE who can do that.

It’s almost as though the author is trying too, too hard to make us care about Corey. And as a result, I just don’t care – not about Corey, not about Kyra, not about the people of Lost Creek, not about any "mystery" surrounding Kyra and definitely not about finishing the book. Sorry, I wish I could leave a different more positive review but I have to honest. There are too many books waiting to be read and I can’t waste any more time on this one.

To Say Nothing of the Dog - England

Started: March 24, 2018
Finished: April 8, 2018
Setting: England
Publication Date: Sep 12, 2013
Pages: 493 (Kindle)

I belong to a library book club that meets monthly. And while I don't always enjoy all the books that have been chosen (sometimes I can't even finish them) I do appreciate the variety of books that we have read over the years. We overwhelmingly seem to read fiction, with a smattering of non-fiction thrown in from time to time, like a cleansing of the literary palate.

Our April book is a rather well-known sci-fi... (TA DA) →→→→

Now I have to admit that the title certainly caught my attention, and a simple Google search gave me some basic information about the book, the plot, the author and even some of the references to other classic books and authors in English literature (such as Jerome K. Jerome's  <I just LOVE that name 😊 > "Three Men in a Boat" and Golden Age mysteries such as Dorothy L. Sayers' "Gaudy Night" - neither of which I have read).

I am not going to repeat the plot summary of To Say Nothing - you can read it here - which is part of the Oxford Time Travel series of books by Connie Willis. But I will leave you with a few initial thoughts about the book (based on my reading as of March 18, 2018) including plot and characters.

First, this book was at a bit of a disadvantage from the beginning because the book I read right before it (as a fluke BTW) was Jodi Taylor's "Just One Damned Thing After Another." "Just One Damned Thing..." is part of the Chronicles of St. Mary's series, and the premise is virtually identical - in the future time travel is very possible and is used primarily by historians to allow them to go back in time and view historical events and monitor them to gather more details, observe and just be a part of them while remaining on the periphery. They can't change events or history (though one could argue that their very presence there does just that, even in very minute and (mostly) innocent ways). I really, really liked the pace of Taylor's book, as well as the characters, their backstories (to the extent revealed) and the plot. So when I discovered that I would be reading a similar book I was bemused, to say the least.

Sunday, April 8, 2018 UPDATE - Well, I finally finished the book. And just in time, as the book club that I am reading it for meets on Wednesday. Despite the fact that I found the concept of being able to go back in time and (possibly) being able to recover lost works of art and articles of historical importance in order to bring them back a very interesting plot device, I found her book, the characters, the use of comedic devices (which I did not find all that humorous) and the writing added up to a big "MEH."

Part of that may due to the fact that I could never quite understand the "logic" that Willis used to explain things, especially in the last two chapters of the book. I generally don't have any issue in suspending disbelief about something (like time travel) but in order to do that I have to have some basic, rudimentary understanding of the explanation being given. If it gets too scientific or too complicated, I think I start to shut down and can't recognize even the slightest possibility of the explanation being plausible. And that may be more my problem as a reader than the author's as a writer. 

And that's what happened for me in the last two chapters. The ways that characters explained the incongruities that may (or may not) have happened; the events that may (or may not) have played a role in history; the way I felt that Willis tried to tie up what may (or may not) have been loose ends just did not make me feel satisfied as a reader. 

Overall, I found "Just One Damned Thing..." which is part of the "Chronicles of St. Mary's" series much, much better. Better writing, better plot, better characters and better use of humor. Oh - and if I COULD go back in time, I would, if only to make the choice of not reading this book by Willis.