Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Good History (9/28/2024)
This was an interesting book about a period of time I didn't know much about - Harlem in the early 1900s. Jessie Redmon Fauset is an important historical figure who we should all certainly know more about, and I'm glad I learned about her and her work at the Crisis. I loved learning about the early years of writers whose names are now well-known, but I found myself unsympathetic to both Jessie and W.E.B. DuBois. They were both doing wonderful things for a great cause, but were they "good" people? I don't really think so. And the book was a bit drawn out and boring at times for me. Overall, I thought this book was interesting, but I didn't really enjoy it.
The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl
by Bart Yates
Loved this! (6/4/2024)
What an interesting premise for a book. A day here and another day there. Some important days some ordinary days. But put them all together and they make up the very long, very strange life of Isaac Dahl. I loved the story and the way the booked flowed, even though it jumped by 8 years every chapter. If you want to read a book that tells a life story in an interesting, historical manner, read this book!
Bad Animals: A Novel
by Sarah Braunstein
Just Okay (1/6/2024)
After reading a brief description, I really wanted to love Bad Animals. It sounded so interesting and fun. But I didn't love it. It was good, but not great for me. I didn't really like any of the characters (well maybe Willie) and all of it just seemed so unbelievable. I did like the writing style, but just not really the story itself.
Daughters of Shandong
by Eve J. Chung
Excellent! (12/3/2023)
This is the story of Hai, the oldest child of a wealthy family from Shandong, China. In the 1940s, China was a patriarchal society, and the book begins with Hai's third younger sister being born. Her father's family was not happy. When word came that the Communists were arriving in Shandong, Hai's grandparents, father, aunt, and cousins left Shandong for safety. Hai, her mother, and sisters stayed behind to "protect" the family property. The story weaves in the injustices experienced by women in that society; the struggles Hai, her mother, and sisters went through while trying to reunite with the rest of their family; and the pains of life during wartime.
The book is well written and details a piece of history that I personally never knew much about. The story is that of the author's grandmother, but not written until her grandmother had passed away, so the book is fiction and the stories are not first-hand accounts. Eve J. Chung did a wonderful job honoring her grandmother with this amazing story of her life.
Day: A Novel
by Michael Cunningham
Day A Novel (11/2/2023)
This book was beautifully written, but I didn't enjoy it. We all just lived through the pandemic, you'd think there would be something in the book that I could relate to. There was not. The adults were all self absorbed and unhappy. There was little communication between family members. No one was endearing. There were no characters that I really even liked (well, just Violet). There were many parts of this book that I am still confused about after finishing it, and many other parts that didn't seem relevant to the rest of the book at all. Overall, it's just a book about a bunch of egocentric people who don't really care for one another, and what a day in their life is like before during and after the pandemic.
Digging Stars: A Novel
by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Family Dynamics & Astronomy (7/15/2023)
This is the story of Athandwa, a girl from Zimbabwe who follows in her father's footsteps to study Astronomy in the US. Along the way we learn about her family dynamics - a distant father, a "step family", her "Uncle C"; and the differences between her father's life in America and her life with her mother in Zimbabwe. There was a lot of interesting science woven throughout the book, which I enjoyed. But even though there were a lot of great characters, I felt some of the storylines were one dimensional or were just wrapped up without a thorough understanding/explanation.
The Long Ago: A Novel
by Michael McGarrity
Just Okay (3/26/2023)
I liked the idea of this book, but I didn't find it to be particularly well-written, a lot of the dialogue was very simplistic. The premise of a bad family situation, with the brother enlisting in the army and then the sister leaving town seemed believable enough. But why didn't Barbara just move in with the aunt and uncle she loved so much? And why wouldn't she tell anyone she was leaving? And how could she have no contact with her family for years and not believe that she had worried anyone? And why would she put her aunt and uncle down as her address when she moved when she hadn't spoken to them in years? These are just a few of the questions I had that made the story less realistic for me. I enjoyed the characters of Ray & Beth, and John & Neta. Also Steve, Dean, and Al. But many of the characters and situations just seemed to me to be flat and one-dimensional, like Manning & Culbertson. To me this book was just okay.
The All-American: A Novel
by Joe Milan Jr.
All American? (2/15/2023)
Bucky is a high school running back from poor, rural Washington state. The All American does a wonderful job of showing us his family's struggles and understanding how Bucky feels like football is the only way out. When he is sent back to Korea, a land he was born in but does not remember, all he wants to do is get back to the US and play football. But, as time goes on, Bucky learns to appreciate what Korea has to offer and the life he has there. Yes, Bucky was sometimes an unsympathetic character when he acted like a rash teenager, but he made the best of a truly terrible situation. The author really made the reader understand Bucky's horrible, unfortunate struggles, and what it's like to get deported from the only home you have ever known. I really enjoyed this book, it opened my eyes to a situation that I am very unfamiliar with.
Iron Curtain: A Love Story
by Vesna Goldsworthy
Behind the Iron Curtain (1/11/2023)
The Iron Curtain was an very interesting book. I wouldn't call it a love story at all, despite the tag line. It's a book about Milena, a "red princess", whose father was influential in the communist overthrow of an unnamed eastern bloc country. She starts out as an entitled, spoiled child and the book follows her growth into an independent, strong adult. I really enjoyed the descriptions of life behind the iron curtain, I was surprised by a lot of it. I found myself needing to look up a fair number of words, which is not typical for me. Some of them were Britishisms, some were probably Slavic words that didn't translate well to common American words. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
Clytemnestra: A Novel
by Costanza Casati
Great Greek Mythology (11/27/2022)
Clytemnestra is the story of a Greek princess/queen, the tragedy and happiness of her life. I enjoy reading Greek mythology, but do not know much about it, except for the major stories. It was fun to read about some of the well-known "major players" as minor characters in Clytemnestra's story, and to read more about life in ancient Greek times.
Clytemnestra's story is fascinating. She is a princess, whose sister is called the most beautiful woman in Greece. She is her father's favorite, yet he plots against her happiness to ensure his own power. She is strong, yet has only as much power as a woman can at that time. She is incredibly protective of her siblings and children, but is unable to save them. Being a woman in ancient Greece could not have been easy, even for a princess or a queen, and Clytemnestra had to make some difficult decisions in her lifetime, many of which were not well-regarded by those she cared about.
I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend it highly, especially to anyone who likes to read mythology.
River Sing Me Home
by Eleanor Shearer
A Different View of Motherhood (9/2/2022)
This book looks at slavery from a completely different perspective. Everyone knows slavery was horrible and wrong, but have you ever thought about it from the perspective of a mother? Not only is she working all day in the fields under unbearable conditions for people who treat her as less-than-human, but also one day she comes home from the fields and her child has been taken away, sold to another plantation who-knows-where!
This is the story of Rachel, who escapes her life of slavery. She realizes that she wants, she needs, to find her children. She won't rest until she knows what happened to the five that survived childhood and were taken from her.
I really liked this book as it's not like any story I've ever read before. Most of what I've read on slavery is takes place in the southern United States, this book takes place in the Caribbean. I've read about people whose children have been taken and the families try to reconnect. But this book takes place in such a different time, when Rachel had to risk her life just to start the search, and had to keep from being found as well.
I liked the writing style, but sometimes found the events int he story to be a bit over-simplified. I find it difficult to believe that Rachel might just run into one of her children just by walking down the street in a new town. But I could overlook that because Rachel was such a relatable person and I really wanted her to find all her children, be happy, and for them all to live together and be free.
The Family Izquierdo: A Novel
by Rubén Degollado
Not for Me (8/12/2022)
I love short stories, so I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I did not. I didn't find a cohesiveness to the stories, except that the characters were related. But because there are so many family members, some characters only appear in one or two stories and the reader doesn't learn their connection to anyone else. And there are main characters from stories that don't even appear on the family tree!
I didn't find many of the characters relatable or endearing, and I felt that mental health issues were attributed to situations that belie their importance. Life has its ups and downs, but there were very few happy stories about the Izquierdo family in this book. Some people might find the stories more relatable and not mind the disconnect, but it just wasn't for me.
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