March 2019

A Woman is No Man ny Etaf Rum
Prediction: this book should be long- and short-listed for every major book award in 2019, and should win at least one if not more. Yes, this book is THAT good. Set in both Brooklyn and Palestine, it is the story of three generations of Palestinian women: Fareeda, the grandmother trapped by circumstance of war; Isra, a daughter of refugees, who knows only the confines of her home in Palestine yet follows a stranger in an arranged marriage to America; and her daughter Deya, who questions the plans for her future, who lives in America but is not of America, who wants to find her voice in a voiceless society. This book will take your heart and squeeze it until you cannot breathe, it will make you weep, it will make you stronger, it will give you hope in a hopeless world, it will move you like no other, it will leave your jaw on the floor as you slowly read the final paragraph. Do not miss this book.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Yes, I have read every one of See's fiction books; some are my all-time favs, some were just fine. This one though...more than fine. This novel centers around the matrifocal society of Jeju, an island off the coast of Korea, and is utterly fascinating, heart-wrenching, and inspiring. Lisa See is the master of flushing out female relationships and she has created an extraordinary friendship here. Mi-Ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, shunned by the village women yet taken in by the head of the haenyeo collective and taught the skills of sea diving. Young-sook, the collective head's daughter and heir-apparent, forms a deep bond with this outsider. Shown through flashbacks of the 1930's during the Japanese era of colonialism, the years of WWII, the terrible times of civil war, and ultimately the present days when the society of the haenyeo has irrevocably changed. The haenyeo have been studied, examined, tested, you name it for many many decades; their ability to dive deep over and over in frigid waters, to test the boundaries, to support their families is truly breathtaking. This book has seared my heart and will not be forgotten any time soon.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Let me preface this review with the fact that I am not a huge music fan. I listen to books, not songs. Yet this tale of a 1970's rock band is an obsessive page-turner. Reid pulls us in through her unique plot design - documentary style as she 'interviews' the band, family members, and managers to tell the tale of how this rock band hit it big. Her characters are shockingly well-developed, considering we only get to know them through their conversations with the documentarian asking the questions: the handsome hunk of a lead singer, his addictions and drive steering the wheel at all times; the young singer, wealthy, off-the-rails, driven; the sidekick brother who never gets the girl; the disgruntled bass player; the sassy drummer; the independent, knows-what-she wants key boardist; the supportive wife; the stressed-out manager. This cast of characters is unique and utterly fascinating. One can see the train wreck coming and it just does not matter. This book is a winner:)

The Huntress by Kate Quinn
The author of The Alice Network is back with another WWII thriller involving spies, Nazis, and badass women...does it get better than that? The plot line moves through three different perspectives: Nina, the Russian 'witch,' as she relates her time during the WWII as a bomber pilot; Ian, a former famous war-time journalist now turned into a Nazi hunter; and Jordan, the young Boston girl, dreaming of work as a professional photographer, but stuck in an antique store with her new stepmother who has some secrets. This book is incredibly well-researched, using fascinating tidbits of history to weave a story of great tension and mystery. The characters are rich and complicated, leading to a more than satisfactory ending. If you like historical fiction mixed with some mystery this book is definitely for you.

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
In a follow up to her first big hit The Ghost Bride, Choo has written a lyrical tale of spiritualism and mystery in Malaysia. Using two characters to tell the story, the reader is immersed in a mystery, the underworld, and even a little romance. First is Ren, an eleven year old houseboy who has 49 days to find his dead master's finger and reunite it with his master. Enter Ji Lin, a girl who dances with strange men at a parlor in order to pay off her mother's mahjong debts who becomes the recipient of...yes, a finger. I know, sounds weird, but it is laced with magical realism and the mystery of Chinese cultural beliefs in Malaysia, as well as the legend of tiger men (think werewolves but in striped form). Somewhat slow, but a beautifully told tale that will take one far away from the present world.

The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor
Having loved her debut book, I was anxious to dive into Tudor's latest. Set once again in a small English town, the main character returns to his childhood town to teach in its mediocre school. Joe rents the cottage where a terrible murder has just taken place,  a former teacher killed her young son and then herself. Lovely digs, right? Yep, it just keeps getting creepier as Joe finds strange beetles in the home, encounters his former mates who no longer see him as their friend, rediscovers the mysterious hidden tunnels and caverns at the coal mine, and is haunted by the disappearance and eventual death of his own sister years ago. My problem with this book is that it seemed as if it couldn't decide between a mystery and horror, and admittedly, I am not a big horror fan. Ultimately, I was entertained but not completely satisfied.

February 2.0

Daughter of Molokai (Molokai #2) by Alan Brennert
It has been fourteen looong years since Molokai hit the reading world, finding fans everywhere. Finally, the sequel has been written and it will satisfy and entrance those of you who loved the first book. Long ago, a young girl was dropped on Molokai, suffering from leprosy, left to survive on her own. Along the way, Rachel found special people who showed her love and courage. In this sequel, we follow her daughter, Ruth, taken from her parents, and ultimately adopted by a Japanese family, eventually moving to California. We see the overt racism during the 1930's and 40's, ultimately leading to the internment of Japanese. I found this to be the most powerful part of the book, detailing the horrors in the camps that quite often are white-washed. Much of it brought up the topical news of today as we see refugees vilified and children locked in cages decades after Executive Order No.9066. Brennert is a master of drawing his readers into his characters and creating a sense of family between his imagined people and his readers. Sometimes, sequels are written to merely take advantage of a 'hit' quickly; this sequel seems to be written because so much more is left to be told. Well done!

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts
The fourteen Oz books by L. Frank Baum were my favorite childhood companions; Dorothy, Ozma, Polychrome, et all were my best friends, the four quadrants of Oz existed in my mind, and the Nome King haunted my nightmares. In other words, I was obsessed in the way that the millennials love Harry Potter. So this book, detailing the life of Maud Baum, Frank's wife, was just the ticket I needed to return to childhood. Born during the Civil War, Maud was raised by a rather famous suffragette, having both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at her wedding. Maud was intelligent, adventuresome, and independent, much like the young girl characters Frank created for his stories. Author Letts sprinkles a plethora of wonderful Oz trivia throughout the book (though I suspect only geeky readers like myself picked up on Jim the Cab horse from Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz book), takes us into the filming of the famous movie, and it is fascinating to see where some of Baum's more fantastical ideas originated. Extremely well-researched, if a bit saccharine in spots, this is an intriguing story. If you too loved Oz and all its inhabitants and love historical fiction, you will not go wrong with this book.

No Exit by Taylor Adam
Wow, just WOW. This debut by Eastern Washington University graduate Taylor Adam deserves to be called a 'thriller' - I could not put this book down. Here's the premise: Colorado college student Darby Thorne is on her way across a snowy mountain pass to try and get to her mother's deathbed. Stopped by the terrible weather, she takes refuge in a rest stop where she spies a caged child in a back of a van. Nuff said...wouldn't want any spoilers to ruin this roller coaster ride of a story. Is it always plausible and logical? Nope. Is it engaging and entertaining? Yep. Will you be able to put it down...not a chance.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
An earlier book by the author of An American Marriage, this book shows Jones' early writing chops. She is truly the master at creating characters who engage, anger, and entice you into their lives, as well as the relationships among these characters. In Silver Sparrow, two families exist, two wives, two daughters, yet only one husband and father. Only one family knows that the other exists, that one marriage is a sham, that the husband divides his lives between two, that the daughters are not equal in love and treatment. A deeply intimate look into two family's lives in Atlanta will give your brain food for thought, as well as any book club.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
The title was enough to put me off for awhile, yet this has been a very popular read for the past year - a Reese Witherspoon book club choice no less. I should have picked it up sooner, as it is far more than its title. The plot line follows a young Sikh woman who lives in London and is struggling to define her life. Having dropped out of law school and asked by her sister to help find her an arranged marriage, Nikki gets pulled into teaching writing classes at the temple. Yet what she finds is so much more: an eclectic group of widows, all seeking love, connection, excitement. As the story unfolds, each character gets defined further and we see where life may take Nikki. Yes there's a bit of romance, a bit of mystery, some cultural information - ultimately a quite entertaining read:)