Behold the Dreamers
By Imbolo Mbue
A very readable book that looks at the lives of a Cameroonian immigrant family struggling to survive in New York and get documentation so they can stay in the country.
The American dream is what motivates the family to come to the U.S. and to New York, but as they find out, sadly, the American dream is really that, just a dream, and far from reality.
Finally, after enduring hardship, the reality of their situation becomes obvious, and they return "home".
Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: Yes.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
#12 Remembrance
Remembrance
By Alistair MacLeod
A single short story, bound as a very small book. The story tells of three generations of men on the day of remembrance. The grandfather remembers when he fought in WWII, and how it changed him and his family, and succeeding generations.
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: A quick read. Lest we forget.
By Alistair MacLeod
A single short story, bound as a very small book. The story tells of three generations of men on the day of remembrance. The grandfather remembers when he fought in WWII, and how it changed him and his family, and succeeding generations.
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: A quick read. Lest we forget.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
#11 The Good Sister
The Good Sister
By Chelsea Bolan
An interesting novel about a Mexican family who run a bar/restaurant on the Baja for foreign tourists. The family comes from Mexico City to the Baja to get away from the city, and become successful. However, success soon unravels as the father alienates four out of his five children, as well as his wife due to serial affairs during their marriage. The youngest daughter is banned from the family home after she is raped by her brother-in-law, and the older sister defies her father to look for her.
Interesting, as it looks at life in a resort town through the eyes of the local people, the hardships of life in Mexico City, prostitution, and what Mexicans will do to get into the U.S.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27169764-the-good-sister
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: A decent read. A positive ending, about forgiveness.
By Chelsea Bolan
An interesting novel about a Mexican family who run a bar/restaurant on the Baja for foreign tourists. The family comes from Mexico City to the Baja to get away from the city, and become successful. However, success soon unravels as the father alienates four out of his five children, as well as his wife due to serial affairs during their marriage. The youngest daughter is banned from the family home after she is raped by her brother-in-law, and the older sister defies her father to look for her.
Interesting, as it looks at life in a resort town through the eyes of the local people, the hardships of life in Mexico City, prostitution, and what Mexicans will do to get into the U.S.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27169764-the-good-sister
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: A decent read. A positive ending, about forgiveness.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
#9 The Wangs vs. the World
The Wangs vs. the World
By Jade Chang
This was a fun read. Very intelligent writing, looking at the lives of a Chinese immigrant family in the U.S. It talks about identity, how identities change with the first generation, and the downfall of the patriarch of the family who loses the millions he made in his cosmetics company through bad business decisions and the crash of 2008.
Very readable, though nothing particularly special.
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: Sure, why not.
In a somewhat similar genre are the books, "Crazy Rich Asians" and "China Rich Girlfriend". These two novels are about the lives of nouveau ultra-rich Asian families from China, Singapore and Malaysia. A third book in the series has just been published, "Rich People Problems". These books read like fantasy fiction, but I'm sure there is a lot of reality in the way these ultra-rich people live, and that what was interesting for me: how they think about money and spend it: the shopping, the houses, the cars, the decor, the handbags, the jewelry, the family ties, old and new money, etc. Fantastical, yet undoubtedly many shades of reality.
Recommended:
Crazy Rich Asians
China Rich Girlfriend
By Jade Chang
This was a fun read. Very intelligent writing, looking at the lives of a Chinese immigrant family in the U.S. It talks about identity, how identities change with the first generation, and the downfall of the patriarch of the family who loses the millions he made in his cosmetics company through bad business decisions and the crash of 2008.
Very readable, though nothing particularly special.
Rating: 3/5
Recommendation: Sure, why not.
In a somewhat similar genre are the books, "Crazy Rich Asians" and "China Rich Girlfriend". These two novels are about the lives of nouveau ultra-rich Asian families from China, Singapore and Malaysia. A third book in the series has just been published, "Rich People Problems". These books read like fantasy fiction, but I'm sure there is a lot of reality in the way these ultra-rich people live, and that what was interesting for me: how they think about money and spend it: the shopping, the houses, the cars, the decor, the handbags, the jewelry, the family ties, old and new money, etc. Fantastical, yet undoubtedly many shades of reality.
Recommended:
Crazy Rich Asians
China Rich Girlfriend
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Some Non-Fiction
100 Million Years of Food
By Stephen Le
An interesting concept, but I just skimmed through the main ideas of this one, and read the final chapter.
Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast
By Ken Forkish
A nice look at the basics of bread making, including yeast and sourdough cultured methods.
By Stephen Le
An interesting concept, but I just skimmed through the main ideas of this one, and read the final chapter.
Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast
By Ken Forkish
A nice look at the basics of bread making, including yeast and sourdough cultured methods.
#8 The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
by Rachel Joyce
Very readable and well written, interesting contrasting sections, between the present and past, finally bringing the book to a startling ending on the very last page! The sections are short, keep you reading and the plot moving forward. I think the portrayal Queenie's last days, as she is dying of cancer in a hospice are particularly well done.
However, I think the book should be renamed, "The Final Confession of Miss Queenie Hennessy." The story looks back to the time twenty years earlier, when Queenie was in love with a married man for the four years that they worked together. Forbidden love, that's the only love in the story, and she never got over it. Her memories of those years lead up to her final confession, in the last days of her life, when she finally admits to herself how much she hurt the man she "loved" from afar and his family. Her lies and deceit, not just to do with her love of this man, are the burden she bears for the rest of her life. The end of the book, in my mind, is the final retribution for a woman who's actions were so destructive. Though the book is very well written, I didn't like the main character at all, or the "love" story.
The book is a parallel narrative to the author's first book, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", and the action takes place when Harold Fry is walking from south England to the north to see Queenie. He asks her to wait until he gets there, and this becomes a theme in the hospice.
Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: Most reviews of the book are positive. Well written. Sure, read it, but read "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" first, or read both at the same time…….
by Rachel Joyce
Very readable and well written, interesting contrasting sections, between the present and past, finally bringing the book to a startling ending on the very last page! The sections are short, keep you reading and the plot moving forward. I think the portrayal Queenie's last days, as she is dying of cancer in a hospice are particularly well done.
However, I think the book should be renamed, "The Final Confession of Miss Queenie Hennessy." The story looks back to the time twenty years earlier, when Queenie was in love with a married man for the four years that they worked together. Forbidden love, that's the only love in the story, and she never got over it. Her memories of those years lead up to her final confession, in the last days of her life, when she finally admits to herself how much she hurt the man she "loved" from afar and his family. Her lies and deceit, not just to do with her love of this man, are the burden she bears for the rest of her life. The end of the book, in my mind, is the final retribution for a woman who's actions were so destructive. Though the book is very well written, I didn't like the main character at all, or the "love" story.
The book is a parallel narrative to the author's first book, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", and the action takes place when Harold Fry is walking from south England to the north to see Queenie. He asks her to wait until he gets there, and this becomes a theme in the hospice.
Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: Most reviews of the book are positive. Well written. Sure, read it, but read "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" first, or read both at the same time…….
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