Book Review: The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok
Publisher: ‎ William Morrow
Publication Date: October 10, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth—another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter.

Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She’s even hired a nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it’s a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city—separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.

Jasmine Yang comes to New York City from China to try and find her daughter Fifi, who was adopted by an American couple because of China’s one-child policy. Once she finds her daughter, she plans to take her away. But first, she has to find a way to pay back the snakeheads that helped make her trip to America possible. She’s undocumented so it will be difficult for her to find a job.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Whitney, Fifi’s adoptive mother, is unaware of Jasmine and her plans. She’s preoccupied with her career and marriage, both of which are falling apart.

The Leftover Woman was beautifully written and intricately plotted. I had no idea how the author could possibly wrap things up until she actually did at the very end. I was very satisfied with the ending – I never could have guessed how it all came together. It’s one of those books that if you reread it, you’ll notice things you didn’t notice the first time that will make you say, “Ah ha – that was a clue!” Even though The Leftover Woman is not a thriller, there were a few plot twists that surprised me. Highly recommended.

***The Leftover Woman was one of my October 2023 Book of the Month Club selections. You can join Book of the Month with this link and get a hardcover book for only $5 with no obligation to continue your membership.***

Halloween Book Review: Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publication Date: 2006
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Funny, sexy, cheerful Milagro de Los Santos has a degree from a Fancy University (F.U.) but can’t seem to hold down a good job, sell her eccentric horror stories, or have the sort of relationship suitable for the sincere and serious young woman she’s trying to be.  Then at a book party for her pretentious ex-boyfriend, she meets Oswald, a fabulous man who tells her he’s interested in her writing. A mad kissing session leads to a fall, cut lips, and an accidental exchange of blood.

For the first time in Milagro’s life, she becomes sick…really, weirdly sick and has cravings for raw meat and an aversion to sunlight. The ex-boyfriend kidnaps her, accusing her of being a vampire, and the fabulous stranger’s family comes to her rescue and takes her to recover at their wine-country estate.

Oswald’s family thinks she’s a trashy golddigger. She thinks they’re awfully snobby for people who claim not to be vampires, but merely to have a genetic “condition.” Oh, and fabulous Oswald is already engaged to an equally fabulous woman, Milagro’s ex-boyfriend is still hunting her down, a decadent aristovamp visitor  has taken a special interest in Mil, and she’s lost her apartment.

Can she be sincere and serious long enough to defeat her powerful enemies, save her new friends, and get back in time for cocktails at Casa Dracula, the place she’s come to think of as her home?

Milagro meets Oswald at a book party for her jerk of an ex-boyfriend. They end up making out so heavily that they both fall down and cut their lips, exchanging blood. The next day, Milagro falls ill. Her symptoms include craving raw meat and sensitivity to sunlight. Her ex kidnaps her and tells her she’s a vampire now. However, Oswald’s family rescues her and takes her to their estate. The family insists that they are not vampires and neither is she. They say they suffer from a genetic condition and she has a virus.

The writing of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula was not the greatest – many cliché metaphors and whatnot. (Also, the word transvestite is used several times. I don’t think that word is okay to use now? This book was published in 2006 though, so it was probably okay then.) But I know the focus for these types of books is plot and I did think the story was amusing. I know nowadays, most romance readers want spice so fair warning: There is zero spice in this book. All love scenes fade to black. Lastly, I always like to document whenever Unitarians are referenced in popular culture since we so rarely are. When Milagro is trying to talk a girl out of being a Satanist, she says, “And you should find a decent religion. I’ve heard great things about the Unitarians.” Thanks, Milagro!

This book is the first in a series of four. I’m still deciding whether or not I liked it enough to read book two. This book doesn’t end with a cliffhanger so I feel pretty satisfied.

Book Review: How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair
Publisher: 37 Ink
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.

How to Say Babylon is Safiya Sinclair’s memoir of growing up in a strict Rastafarian household. I learned so much about that culture – all I knew up to this point was that Bob Marley was a Rastafarian and that smoking pot has a role in it. Safiya was not allowed to cut her dreadlocks or wear pants. Her father was intent on making sure she wasn’t corrupted by the outside world – what he called Babylon. She wasn’t allowed to have friends who weren’t Rasta. When she starts attending an elite private school on scholarship, she’s made of fun of by the other kids for being what they call a dirty Rasta.

Safiya’s father also beats her and her siblings when they disobey him, even for minor infractions. The belt he beats them with hangs up where it’s visible and can remind everyone of what’s coming for them if they act up. When Safiya gets older, her mother helps her submit her poetry to competitions and she becomes a fairly well-known poet in Jamaica at a young age. You can tell reading this book that she is a poet. Her prose is beautiful – so descriptive. The book reads like a novel. I had to keep reminding myself I was reading a memoir. Highly recommended.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)

Book Review: Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: September 5, 2023
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description

Yara Murad has worked hard to outrun the demons of her tumulous childhood in Brooklyn. Now ensconced in suburban North Carolina, Yara has achieved everything she aspired to: She is highly educated and teaches art at a local college. She is also a wife and mother, raising two precocious daughters with her businessman husband, Fadi. But her marriage is nothing like the high-conflict relationship she witnessed between her parents as she was growing up, and she knows her life is world’s better than her mother’s, with the kind of freedom her mother had only dreamed of.

Yara is growing more and more unhappy with her life. Her goal before she got married was to have more autonomy in her marriage than her mother did. She agreed to marry Fadi only if she could go to college and then get a job after they married. That kind of freedom is rare in her culture. She slowly realizes she is not as free as she thought she was. She went directly from her father’s control to her husband’s control. Sure, her husband is more permissive than her father was with her mother and her, but permissive is the keyword. She still has to ask him before she can do certain things. The breaking point comes when she wants to go abroad as a chaperone on a student trip and Fadi says she can’t. There is also an incident at her workplace and she has to go to counseling because of it.

Evil Eye was an authentic portrayal of depression and how it can cause both sadness and anger. It’s also about the struggle that women have to balance family and work life. In Yara’s case, she actually wanted to work more but her husband would only let her work during the hours that their kids were in school. She feels adrift.

I liked Evil Eye but I thought it got a little repetitive. That may have been the point though. Yara feels like her life is on autopilot, doing the same thing day after day. I feel like I got the point though and it could have been trimmed up a bit. That’s a small quibble though. I do recommend Evil Eye. I liked it enough that I recently bought Etaf Rum’s first book, A Woman is No Man and I can’t wait to read it.

Evil Eye was my Book of the Month selection for September. You can use my referral link and get your first book for $5 and free shipping with no obligation to continue your membership.

Book Review: The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed

The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees
Publisher: Alcove Press
Publication Date: October 10, 2023
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Thirty-three-year-old hijabi Sana Saeed has put away her childhood dream of ishq—an all-consuming, sweeping love. The arranged dates she’s agreed to have failed time after time, and she has responsibilities to consider—namely her sweet, autistic younger brother, Zia. Sana and Zia are a package deal, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But their traditional mother won’t allow Sana to be named as his future guardian . . . unless she’s married.

When Daniel Malik walks into Sana’s office at the Department of Environmental Conservation, she’s astonished—their childhood friendship has been a cherished memory ever since a feud between their families put an end to it eighteen years ago. But there’s no chance of them becoming close again; Daniel may be as hot as a Bollywood heartthrob, but not only is he Sana’s new boss, her mother would disown her if she ever brought him home.

With the clock ticking, Sana agrees to a marriage arranged by her family. She’s seen plenty of arranged marriages grow into love; maybe that will happen for her too. But when a high-stakes case at work forces Sana and Daniel to team up, they find themselves less able—and willing—to play their parts of “good desi children.”

Now Sana must make a choice: family and security, or the one man who claimed her heart long ago.

Sana Saeed is in her 30s and still not married, which is stressing her mother out. In addition, she won’t appoint Sana her autistic brother’s legal guardian unless Sana is married. Sana loves Zia with all her heart and eventually agrees to an arranged marriage to Adam. Just as she does, her childhood friend Daniel enters her life. Sparks fly but their families are feuding and would never approve of the two of them having a relationship. What’s Sana to do – stay with the practical Adam or risk it all to be with Daniel?

This was a cute romance. A tad predictable but I think most romances are, aren’t they?

SPOILER ALERT: I was actually rooting for a different ending. I thought Daniel was a jerk and couldn’t see what Sana saw in him. Adam was so sweet and seemed perfect for her. Even so, I enjoyed this book.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)

Audiobook Review: Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
Narrator: Almarie Guerra
Publisher: Scholastic Audio
Release Date: April 7, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business.

Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late.

Lucely is the only one who can see the ghosts of her ancestors. When they start to seem sick, she’s worried that they will disappear. She and her best friend Syd find and cast a spell, thinking it will help the ancestors. But instead, it unleashes a lot of evil spirits. They must enlist Syd’s grandmother Babette to try and banish the evil spirits before Halloween or they may destroy the town.

This is a great middle-grade book for Halloween. It’s spooky and suspenseful but not enough to give kids nightmares or anything. The audiobook was a quick listen. Recommended.

Audiobook Review: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
Narrator: Kevin R. Free
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: March 27, 2018
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only 29 years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. 

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor Black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence – full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next 27 years he was a beacon – transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, 54 of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and best-selling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015. 

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic 30-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy. 

This program includes a foreword written and read by Bryan Stevenson.

I recently read Lara Love Hardin’s book The Many Lives of Mama Love, in which she wrote about co-writing The Sun Does Shine with Anthony Ray Hinton, who was falsely convicted of murder and spent 27 years on Death Row before he was exonerated.

When Hinton was 29 years old, he was arrested for murdering two people. Even though he had a rock-solid alibi, he was found guilty and sentenced to Death Row. This was due to an incompetent court-appointed attorney and corrupt law enforcement officers and Attorneys General, who cared more about a conviction than making sure they had the right person. Through it all, Hinton maintained a positive attitude and even helped keep his fellow inmates’ spirits up. Eventually, he was put in touch with Bryan Stevenson, the attorney who founded the Equal Justice Initiative and wrote the book Just Mercy. It was Stevenson who eventually won Hinton’s release.

I learned a lot about the legal system reading this book and what I came away with is most of it is complete BS. The simplest things take years to get done and half of it doesn’t even make sense. The disregard for human life – Black life to be specific – was horrifying. Sentencing a human being you know is innocent to death just to get the case closed? Disgusting. And if you don’t have money, you can forget about getting a fair trial. I know there are some good public defenders out there but I think most of them are just phoning it in to get the case over with. I know Hinton’s sure was. I think I could have done a more thorough job. Now that I’ve read this book, I want to read Just Mercy, which I actually have on my bookshelves. I wonder if Stevenson writes about Hinton’s case – it would be interesting to hear his perspective.

Hinton is an amazing man who deserves the very best in life. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Random House Audio
Cast List: Daisy Jones, read by Jennifer Beals; Billy Dunne, read by Pablo Schreiber; Graham Dunne, read by Benjamin Bratt; Eddie Loving, read by Fred Berman; Warren Rhodes, read by Ari Fliakos; Karen Karen, read by Judy Greer; Camila Dunne, read by January LaVoy; Simone Jackson, read by Robinne Lee; Narrator/Author, read by Julia Whelan; Jim Blades, read by Jonathan Davis; Rod Reyes, read by Henry Leyva; Artie Snyder, read by Oliver Wyman; Elaine Chang, read by Nancy Wu; Freddie Mendoza, read by P.J. Ochlan; Nick Harris, read by Arthur Bishop; Jonah Berg, read by Holter Graham; Greg McGuinness, read by Brendan Wayne; Pete Loving, read by Pete Larkin; Wyatt Stone, read by Alex Jenkins Reid; Hank Allen, read by Robert Petkoff; Opal Cunningham, read by Sara Arrington
Release Date: March 05, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Daisy is a girl coming of age in LA in the late ’60s, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s 20, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the ’70s. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Daisy Jones and the Six is the story of the 60s and 70s rock band The Six and their eventual lead singer, Daisy Jones. The band bears a striking resemblance to Fleetwood Mack – I’m not sure if that was intentional or not. Billy, the lead singer, is a hard-partying drug addict. When his wife becomes pregnant, he knows he has to sober up and become a better man. Daisy Jones is the it girl of the moment. She wants to be a songwriter and write and perform her own songs. A record producer pairs her with The Six and magic happens. However, there is tension between Daisy and the rest of the band, primarily Billy.

Daisy Jones and the Six is written as an oral history, which made it perfect for audio. It’s read by a full cast and was like listening to a play – really well done. I was pleasantly surprised. Malibu Rising was the first TJR book I read and I didn’t think it lived up the hype. Everyone told me to give Daisy Jones a try anyway. It was also super-hyped when it came out so I was nervous. But I really liked it and will definitely read more of TJR’s books. People love her so maybe Malibu Rising was a fluke.

Recommended – especially on audio.

Book Review: The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: August 1, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards.

Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly finds the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder to become the “shot caller,” showing that jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.

When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, prove to herself that she is more good than bad, and much more.

Lara Love Hardin seemed like she had the perfect life but behind the scenes, she and her husband were doing heroin. She was stealing credit cards, even from her neighbors, to fund her habit. It doesn’t take long for her crimes to catch up to her.

She’s convicted of thirty-two felonies – each transaction on each card counts as one crime. Although the maximum sentence was several years in federal prison, she is able to get a deal and serve around a year in jail. Even with a relatively short sentence, life in jail is still hard. Luckily, Lara learns to navigate the system quickly and becomes known as Mama Love to her fellow inmates because of the good advice she gives them and her caring nature.

After Lara is released she faces one obstacle after another. It was eye-opening how hard it is for former convicts to find a job and housing while keeping up with all of the required appointments for drug tests and with probation officers, etc. Lara is white and was coming from a place of privilege when she was released. She earned a master’s degree and was a business owner before she became an addict and she still struggled immensely after her release. I think it would be near impossible for someone without an education to stay out of jail after having been once. Also, if she were Black, I’m sure her sentence would have been much longer.

Eventually, she finds a job with a literary agency and works her way up to being a successful ghostwriter. She still has to work through the shame and guilt she feels about being an addict and being away from her children while in jail. As an aside – her husband (now ex-husband, thankfully) was unbelievably terrible. When she was in the hospital with an infection, he came to visit her and shot heroin into her IV! That’s just one example. Ugh.

I found Lara’s story inspiring. I was impressed with her attitude. She took full responsibility for her actions and didn’t make any excuses. I learned a lot about how the judicial system and prison work, especially what happens after someone is released. I’m glad I chose The Many Lives of Mama Love as my Book of the Month pick for August.Highly recommended.

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Book Review: Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
Publisher: Penguin Classics: September 29, 2009
First published in 1973
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In October 1967, one year after the founding of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton was involved in a shooting during which an Oakland police officer was killed. Newton spent three years in prison before being released and having his charges dismissed, and his jailing brought cries of “Free Huey” from supporters around the world. This engrossing and well-written autobiography recounts the forming of a revolutionary and shows how the degrading and psychologically destructive penal system forged Newton’s already growing spirit. When Newton was a child, his father instilled in him a sense of dignity and pride; as an adolescent, he was torn between religious principles and life as a hustler; as a young man, he founded the radical Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale, and finally, in solitary confinement in the Alameda County Jail, he reached deep within himself to find the strength to face adversity; and even death without fear.

I didn’t know much about the Black Panther Party or Huey P. Newton before reading this book – only what I was “taught” in school. And I don’t think Huey P. Newton was mentioned at all. He was an amazing human being. He was functionally illiterate when he graduated from high school and taught himself to read using Plato’s Republic. Not Dick and Jane – Plato! After that, he read widely and formed a lot of the Black Panther’s philosophy from the books he read – Karl Marx, Mao Zedong and the like. He was very intelligent and a great strategist.

In many ways, Black people’s interactions with the police have actually gotten worse since that time. The Black Panthers openly carried firearms in public. Can you imagine if Black people tried to do that today? They also carried law books with them and would read from them to police officers when police officers were trying to wrongly arrest somebody something or otherwise violate a person’s rights. If a Black person tried to pull out a law book today during a police encounter, it would not go over well. The policeman would get mad and the situation would escalate. But back then, it actually worked sometimes.

Sometimes the Black Panthers would come across a policeman stopping a citizen and they would stand at a distance with their weapons to let the police know that they were being watched. Today, people do the same thing by pulling out their cell phones to record these situations. It’s sad that over forty years later, the police still need bystanders to hold them accountable for their behavior.

I learned a lot about Newton and the Black Panthers from reading this book. I still have more to learn and plan on seeking out more books about this topic and time in history. Highly recommended.