Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: January 17, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Set during the partition of British India in 1947, a time when neighbor was pitted against neighbor and families were torn apart, award-winning author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel brings to life the sweeping story of three sisters caught up in events beyond their control, their unbreakable bond, and their incredible struggle against powerful odds.
India, 1947.
In a rural village in Bengal live three sisters, daughters of a well-respected doctor.
Priya: intelligent and idealistic, resolved to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor, though society frowns on it.
Deepa: the beauty, determined to make a marriage that will bring her family joy and status.
Jamini: devout, sharp-eyed, and a talented quiltmaker, with deeper passions than she reveals.
Theirs is a home of love and safety, a refuge from the violent events taking shape in the nation. Then their father is killed during a riot, and even their neighbors turn against them, bringing the events of their country closer to home.
As Priya determinedly pursues her career goal, Deepa falls deeply in love with a Muslim, causing her to break with her family. And Jamini attempts to hold her family together, even as she secretly longs for her sister’s fiancè
When the partition of India is officially decided, a drastic—and dangerous—change is in the air. India is now for Hindus, Pakistan for Muslims. The sisters find themselves separated from one another, each on different paths. They fear for what will happen to not just themselves, but each other.
Set against the backdrop of The Indian Partition in 1947 that created Pakistan, three sisters are also searching for their independence. Priya wants to become a doctor, like her father, virtually unheard of for a woman in the 1940s, Deepa falls in love with a Muslim man, which as a Hindu herself, is strictly forbidden. Jamini walks with a limp and wonders if she’ll ever get married and have a family of her own. And she happens to be in love with Priya’s fiancé. When the result of the partition is widespread violence, pitting Muslims against Hindus, their family is torn apart.
This book has it all. Richly developed characters and a fast-paced plot that had some surprising turns. I also learned a lot – I didn’t know much about the history of The Indian Partition.
I chose this book because I loved Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s book Oleander Girl. I’m happy to say I loved this book too. Highly recommended.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
April 6th, 2023 in
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Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: July 6, 2021
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.
The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.
Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father’s criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
When partners Derek and Ike are murdered, their fathers take matters into their own hands to investigate what happened. Neither father was accepting of their sons being gay and must deal with the fact that now it’s too late.
The crime element of this book was well-done with nice twists. I thought some of the dialogue bordered on preachy, but perhaps that’s what some people who will read this book need. While I didn’t think it quite lived up to the hype when it first came out, I did enjoy reading it. Recommended.
April 3rd, 2023 in
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Publisher: Celadon Books
Publication Date: May 11, 2021
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written―let alone published―anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.
Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that―a story that absolutely needs to be told.
In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.
As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?
Jacob Finch Bonner is a washed-up author who teaches writing a local college. One day, Evan Parker, one of his students, tells him that he’s written the perfect book with the perfect plot. Jake is dubious but after he reads it, he agrees. He’s sad and jealous that one of his students is a better writer than he is. When he hears that Evan has died, he decides to publish Evan’s book as his own. It makes him rich and famous. Then one day, he gets an email that says, “You are a thief.”
The Plot was so good. It is Jake’s story but it also has excerpts from Evan’s book. It really is the perfect plot – tons of twists that I did not see coming. I don’t want to spoil anything for you – just read it and see for yourself!
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
Publisher: PUSH
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’re thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents’ rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school. But Ben’s attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan’s friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life. At turns heartbreaking and joyous, I Wish You All the Best is both a celebration of life, friendship, and love, and a shining example of hope in the face of adversity.
I decided to choose a book about a nonbinary person for the Transrights Readathon because that’s probably the
identity that’s hardest for me to wrap my head around. And reading is a great way to gain understanding. I Wish You All the Best is a young adult novel about Ben, who is kicked out of their house when they come out to their parents as nonbinary. Like, kicked out so fast they don’t even have time to grab their phone or their shoes! Luckily, Ben finds a pay phone and calls their older sister to come to get them. She left their parents’ oppressive household ten years ago and never looked back.
Ben starts a new high school in the town their sister lives in but is still afraid to come out to their new friends, in part because of how traumatizing coming out to their parents was. They have panic attacks and are in therapy. Eventfully, they start medication as well.
This book was so well done. The author is nonbinary as well and their author’s note explains how they have drawn on their experiences as well as the experiences of others to tell this story. This book will lead to greater understanding for those people who want to learn more about what it means to be nonbinary and will make any nonbinary readers feel like they are not alone. Highly recommended.
March 27th, 2023 in
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Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 13, 2017
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Publisher’s Description:
Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her 20-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.
Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected – and exciting – kind.
As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s “moral police”. But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife – a modern woman like Nikki – and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.
Nikki comes from a Sikh family but she has bucked tradition. She lives alone and works at a bar. To earn extra money, she takes a job teaching creative writing at the community center, but the Sikh women who take the class think they signed up for a class to learn better English. Nikki ends up teaching them how to write stories that are erotic fantasies. The men of the community find out about this and are not happy about it.
There is also a mystery element to this book with a twist that surprised me. And if you’re unsure about erotica, that part of it is pretty tame. It’s not 50 Shades of Gray. I also learned a lot about the Sikh religion and culture.
Recommended.
March 23rd, 2023 in
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Today while scrolling through Instagram, I learned that this week is the Transrights Readathon. I had no idea that such a thing existed but I’m excited about it. It was started just this year by trans author Sim Kern, author of Depart, Depart and Seeds for the Swarm. Several independent bookstores have suggested reading lists on their web pages and/or in-store displays of books by trans authors. You can participate by reading books, donating money to trans rights organizations, or both. This article from Book Riot has more details about it.
In perusing my Goodreads shelves, I found that I am lacking on books by transgender authors so I will be reading at least one this week. On my shelf, I have just three, and two are by the same author.
Melissa (formerly titled George) is a middle-grade book about Melissa, a fourth-grader who was born a boy but knows in her heart that she’s a girl. She hasn’t told anyone, not even her best friend. Every day is a struggle. She comforts herself by looking at the models in her secret stash of fashion magazines when she gets home from school.
The fourth-grade school play is Charlotte’s Web. Melissa desperately wants to play Charlotte and decides to audition for the part. She knows she’d be perfect. Unfortunately, her teacher is not open to a “boy” playing a female role.
Gino has several middle-grade books that look really good.
Secondly, I have two books by Jennifer Finney Boylan. The first is Parenting in Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders. It’s a memoir of her experience was parenting her two boys as a male while going through transition to a female and then as a female. She has a previous memoir, She’s Not There, that is the detailed story of her life as a transgender person and her transition to female. I haven’t read that book yet.
The other book I’ve read by her is Long Black Veil. It’s a novel and completely different from Stuck in the Middle. Long Black Veil starts off in 1980 with six friends sneaking into a closed, run-down prison. They get locked in and one of them goes missing. Thirty-five years later, her remains are found and her husband Jon Casey is the prime suspect of her murder. His old friend Judith can attest to his innocence. We meet Judith in 2015 after the remains are found. Her connection to Casey is actually more of a mystery than who the murderer is.
What trans authors do you like? Leave your suggestions in the comments – I’d love to hear your recommendations!
March 20th, 2023 in
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Spare by Prince Harry
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: January 10, 2023
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.
For Harry, this is that story at last.
Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.
At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.
Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .
For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
By now, we all know, I love a dishy, celebrity memoir. Prince Harry does not disappoint. He starts at his childhood, before his mother’s death. He was traumatized by having to walk behind her coffin at her funeral. I had always assumed that he and Prince William wanted to do that. He’s honest about his wild party days – the drugs, the Nazi uniform scandal, etc. He also goes into quite a bit of detail about the time his nether regions got frost bite which, I could have done without!
A lot of the book is about his time in the British military. I didn’t realize that he was more than just a ceremonial soldier. He actually had several confirmed kills and I think that has affected him more than he thinks it has. He also writes about his former girlfriends, not just Megahan Markle. Of course, their relationship and their departure from Britain are the last part of the book. She was treated so horribly by the British press.
Even though he had a ghostwriter, (J.R. Moehringer) the memoir is written in a conversational style that sounds like I imagine Harry sounds when he’s chatting. I think that Royal followers will thoroughly enjoy this book. I feel like he addressed almost every scandal he’s ever been a part of and told his side of the story. Highly recommended.
By now, we all know, I love a dishy, celebrity memoir. Prince Harry does not disappoint. He starts at his childhood, before his mother’s death. He was traumatized by having to walk behind her coffin at her funeral. I had always assumed that he and Prince William wanted to do that. He’s honest about his wild party days – the drugs, the Nazi uniform scandal, etc. He also goes into quite a bit of detail about the time his nether regions got frostbite which, I could have done without!
A lot of the book is about his time in the British military. I didn’t realize that he was more than just a ceremonial soldier. He actually had several confirmed kills and I think that has affected him more than he thinks it has. He also writes about his former girlfriends, not just Megahan Markle. Of course, their relationship and their departure from Britain are the last part of the book. She was treated so horribly by the British press.
Even though he had a ghostwriter, (J.R. Moehringer) the memoir is written in a conversational style that sounds like I imagine Harry sounds when he’s chatting. I think that Royal followers will thoroughly enjoy this book. I feel like he addressed almost every scandal he’s ever been a part of and told his side of the story.
Highly recommended.
March 20th, 2023 in
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The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Publisher: Celadon Books
Publication Date: May 31, 2022
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?
A complex novel that builds slowly and deliberately, The Latecomer touches on the topics of grief and guilt, generational trauma, privilege and race, traditions and religion, and family dynamics. It is a profound and witty family story from an accomplished author, known for the depth of her character studies, expertly woven storylines, and plot twists.
I picked up The Latecomer because I loved Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel The Plot (review hopefully coming soon.) The Latecomer is not a thriller like The Plot but I liked it just as much. It asks the interesting question about how it feels to be born from the “leftover” embryos after your parents go through IVF, several years after your siblings have been born. What would your life look like if you had been one of the triplets instead of the much younger singleton? It’s also about sibling dynamics. The triplets do not get a long at all, dashing their mother’s hope that they would always be a close family. That’s one of the reasons she decided to have a fourth child, thinking it would bring everyone together.
I really enjoyed The Latecomer. I could relate to the mother wanting her children to stay close to each other and to her. I have four kids and I hope they stay close. And my youngest is nine years younger than his closest sibling so he’s kind of a latecomer as well!
Jean Hanff Korelitz is on her way to becoming one of my favorite authors. Highly recommended.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for reveiw.)
March 15th, 2023 in
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Yearbook by Seth Rogen
Narrator: Seth Rogan and cast
Release Date: May 14, 2021
Publisher: Random House Audio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Seth’s Description:
Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”)
I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day.
Yearbook is a collection of memories written by Seth Rogan. The audiobook is narrated by him and a cast of 80 other narrators, including Rogen’s mom and dad, Nick Kroll, Jay Pharoah, Jason Segel, Dan Aykroyd, Ike Barinholtz, Simon Helberg, Tommy Chong, and Billy Idol.
This is the kind of celebrity memoir I live for. Not only does he dish all the dirt, but he does it in a hilarious way. After you listen to the time he met George Lucas, you’ll never view Star Wars in the same way. He compares one studio executive – who he names – to the devil incarnate.
Not only that, he is very candid about his love of drugs, mostly pot and mushrooms. He has some very funny stories about things that happened when he was high. To be clear, he does not have a drug problem, he just appreciates them when he uses them.
There are childhood anecdotes as well, and he makes them interesting. In many celebrity memoirs, the childhood stuff is boring but not his. I didn’t know he started doing stand-up comedy when he was only 14 years old!
I actually listened to this book last year (I’m so behind on reviews!) but I liked it so much that my husband and I listened to it on a recent road trip. He enjoyed it too and it made the time pass quickly. Highly recommended.
January 17th, 2023 in
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Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The One Where I Was Disappointed
I love Friends. It might be my all-time favorite TV show. I was counting down the days until Matthew Perry’s book came out – he’s the first one of the six friends to write a book. Well, boo on me. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as disappointed in a book!
I knew he had a drug problem but I had no idea how bad it was. He’s basically been using drugs his entire adult life with only brief stints of sobriety. That’s not what turned me off though. It’s that he takes almost no personal responsibility for his addictions and blames everyone else. He repeatedly refers to having abandonment issues because he flew on an airplane once as an unaccompanied minor. Come on!
At one point he was taking up to 55 painkillers a day. If you’ve ever taken even a normal amount of them then you know they can make you a little constipated. So imagine what 55 a day will do to you! He ended up needing major bowel surgery and had to have a temporary colostomy. As an ostomate myself, I was really angry that he said his bag broke all the time and that doctors should be able to make a f**king bag that works. I have never had one break – they do work if you’re not a whiney baby who doesn’t learn how to take care of yourself properly. He said that the reason he finally quit drugs was that his therapist told him if he didn’t, he might have to have a permanent colostomy. It’s good that he quit but there are worse fates in life than having a colostomy. And that’s the end of my rant about that!
The timeline was confusing, jumping all around. There was some dirt and behind-the-scenes info, which I always appreciate. He kept saying that he wrote the book to help people but I got the impression that he’s very newly sober and his track record is not good. If I were an addict, I think his book would make me feel worse, not hopeful! I think die-hard fans of him or Friends will get something out of reading it but keep your expectations low.
December 5th, 2022 in
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