Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Ifemelu is a young Nigerian woman who, after 15 years in the U.S. is making her way back home to Nigeria.  She has always been outspoken and has found blogging to be a surprisingly lucrative outlet for her poignant observations and strong opinions about race and racism here.  Something is missing, though, and she finds that she cannot deny her urge to return home to Nigeria.  As she prepares to leave, she arranges to get her hair braided and as she does she reminisces to herself about the significant relationships in her life — the love of her life Obinze, her other romantic explorations, her Aunty Uju and her dear nephew Dike — and it seems to fortify her for her journey home.

This is an elegantly written book with a lot of content.  It is a story about life in Nigeria; the struggle of the immigrant in a foreign land; and class, gender and race relations and tensions — I felt that I learned a lot about Nigerian culture and life there.  Ifemelu is also an exceedingly honest, blunt character who gives voice to the idea that racism has not been conquered but rather there is a pervasive anger that it exists at all.   Her character gives a sympathetic means of expressing these ideas and you can see from where they emanate.   The story is also overwhelmingly a love story, with a romantic tension that stretches through the whole book.   In this there is a universality about the book that any reader can relate to.

I think this is a beautiful story that has enormous weight and depth to it.  It is long, but each page is full of meaning.

 

The Silkworm by Robert Gilbraith (JK Rowling) (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Once again, JK Rowling hits it out of the park with this somewhat creepy, very suspenseful and fun murder mystery.  Our detective, Cormoran Strike (introduced in the first book in this series, The Cuckoo’s Calling) is approached by the wife of an eccentric author because her husband, who is known to go missing for a few days at a time, has now been missing for about 10 days.  This is problematic, mainly because their daughter, who has special needs, requires constant care and she is having trouble managing without her husband.  Even while everyone surrounding the author feels as though his absence is routine, Strike is suspicious and in spite of himself cares what happens to the wife, even as odd as she is herself.

The detective and hero of the story, Strike, is a completely fallible and endearing character whose complicated past keeps him very real, even as he solves a very tangled web of a murder.  His assistant, Robin, also becomes a more prominent character in this book and their relationship is quite tender even as it is innocent.  As always, Rowling manages to write an intricate plot even as she develops wonderful characters.  You can’t help caring deeply about what happens because they become your friends!

I can’t wait for the next one!

Thrive by Arianna Huffington (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This non-fiction book by the founder of the Huffington Post,  is a treatise on creating a balance in our lives.  Huffington makes a well-argued point that we are so bent in our society on achieving success as defined by money and power that we lose sight of what can make us actually happy — which she suggests are well-being, wisdom and wonder.

Taking care of ourselves physically and emotionally, she argues, is the most important.  Getting adequate sleep, exercising, meditating, taking time away from our technological tethers are all key factors in fostering actual happiness.  Huffington pushes for a change in culture away from the macho attitude of bragging about all-nighters in the office to one where time off taken to re-charge is respected.  She argues for balance, for spiritual fulfillment, for volunteerism as a means of achieving success as she defines it.

I think Huffington’s ideas are valuable and well-fueled by research.  Maybe I also like it so much because I’ve chosen the less academic route in my career in order to find this balance.  I do think it’s a hard thing to achieve in our high-powered, high-tech world.  But it is an important goal, balance.

I think this book is a good gift for all the workaholics that we know!

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Gilbraith (JK Rowling) (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This is a fun read!

   Cormoran Strike, an endearingly flawed private detective with a complicated past, is hired by a lawyer named John Bristow, to investigate his sister’s death, which had been ruled a suicide.  Bristow, distraught over his supermodel sister’s death, does not believe the suicide theory and convinces Strike to pursue the real killer.

   In usual JK Rowling form, the writing is crisp, witty, and engaging and each of the characters is so genuine.  Strike, in particular, evokes such sympathy, affection, and respect, as he goes about his cleverly conducted inquiry with a Columbo-like air of feigned innocence.  In going into Strike’s own story, Rowling makes the mystery almost personal and gives it much deeper dimension.

   And of course, as it is a mystery, the story itself runs through twists and turns and occasionally takes the reader completely by surprise.  It actually made me wonder why I don’t read mysteries more often!

   I’d hurry and read this one — it’s a great summer read and it’s already the end of July!

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This is a very unusual story of an unlikely couple who have run away from an institution where they’ve been living in order for the woman to give birth to a baby girl.  They seek shelter from an older woman named Martha, who takes them in.  Unfortunately, almost immediately, they are pursued by the officials of the institution, who capture the woman, while the man runs away.  Fortunately, they do not seem to be aware that there ever was a baby, and the parting secret words of the woman to Martha are “Hide her.”  The rest of the story is the unfolding of the lives of these characters and the impact that this one even has on each of them.

This is a difficult book to read in that the experiences of the characters are difficult.  There are some moments that are uplifting and hopeful but many are discouraging.   What is important about the book is that it does give the reader an appreciation for the long struggle of those with disabilities to gain rights and access to appropriate treatment.  Prior to the exposure by the media and a few concerned individuals, these people were all too often locked away in dilapidated conditions and physically and mentally abused.  As this book begins in the late 1960’s and ends in the 2000’s, it follows the progression of society towards more acceptance and nurturing of children with special needs as opposed to ostracizing them.

The book is a little awkwardly written, but it attempts to provide the thought processes of those characters with disabilities.  Sometimes it achieves this and sometimes it just feels awkward.  But there is suspense and there is a lot of human drama that engages the reader and kept at least me interested in the story.

Interesting book, but not a must-read.

 

Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Another fun book to add to your list of lighter, summer fare!  When Grace finds her husband having sex with her personal assistant and in her fury drives his very expensive sports car into their pool, she is sentenced by the judge to a “divorce recovery group.”  It is here that she meets her new allies who really do support her through the unfamiliar terrain of going through a divorce and landing back on her own two feet.

What makes this book fun is really the multiple lines of the story.  There are different relationships that develop among the characters who I felt I came to really like, there is an illegal scam to be uncovered, and of course, a romance that is budding even from the group itself.  And the outrageous behaviors of ex-spouses taking revenge also add a sometimes comedic/sometimes tragic note to this story.  In any case, there were a number of times I had to exclaim out loud at this book!

If you’re on your way to the beach be sure to pack this book next to your towel!

The One and Only by Emily Griffin (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Shea is a football fanatic in a small town in Texas, who has found herself stuck in a small-time job , with a small-town relationship. Her best friend’s father, the coach of the local college football team whom she has idolized, suggests to her that she needs to get out of her rut.  In the process of making some needed changes, she sort of comes full circle in discovering what she really wants in her life.

With her usual uncanny ability, Griffin scooped me right up with this very engaging story.  Her characters are smart and sassy and there is a lot of humanity in them as well.  There are real conflicts with real layers just as in real life, but there’s just enough glamor mixed in to make it fun to read.  And even though I know nothing about football -it’s got to be one of my least favorite sports! – I still was able to follow the gist of what was going on.

Basically a great summer read – perfect for the beach, which exactly where I read it!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This non-fiction book is the story of Henrietta Lacks, made immortal by her cervical cancer cells that were essentially stolen from her and used for medical research without her consent or knowledge.  Known only as HeLa cells for many years, the cancer cells divided at such a steady, rapid pace that they were essentially the earliest and most successful cells to be grown in a lab.  Since they were so hardy, they were able to be cultivated and shipped around the world and used by researchers to conduct studies and develop medical breakthroughs never before even imagined.

Unfortunately, though, the fact that they were taken from a real person with a life and a family was pretty much ignored.  The uncovering of this story by the author became a revelation to both her and to the family and she reveals the impact of this as the story unfolds.  There is, in the telling of this injustice, a chronology of sorts of many other injustices and the resultant development of informed consent for medical research.  (One horrifying fact this book reveals is that our country had developed laws regulating the treatment of animals in research even before we had laws protecting humans!  Imagine that!)

It’s a very personal story, particularly as it relates to Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter, and a very public story as it relates to the history of medical research.  It does jump a bit from topic to topic and the writing is a bit choppy, but it is a fascinating and honest story nonetheless.

A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

For a long time I put off reading this book…  The topic here, sex trafficking of minors, is not for the feint of heart.  Or for anyone with a heart, really.  On the other hand, it’s probably one of the most important topics we could be reading about.  It is a billion-dollar, world-wide nightmare for millions of underaged, vulnerable children and women and we need to understand the problem fully.

This also happens to be an incredible book.  The story is about 2 Indian sisters, Ahalya and Sita, who, after a tsunami has drowned their whole immediate family, are kidnapped and sold into slavery.  Meanwhile, Thomas, an American lawyer who is going through his own emotional crisis, is sucked into the sisters’ plight and plunges through a fight to save them.

There is utter suspense, there are twists and turns, and there is an emotional roller coaster the reader rides on that makes it absolutely impossible to put this book down.  Furthermore, I have to admit that a book has not made me sob like this one did in quite a long time.

It’s an important book for all of us to read and I’m glad I finally did.  Now we have to see what we can do to end this hideous crime!

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (migrated from bookblogger)

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

This gorgeously written novel is the story of Alma Whittaker, the physically and intellectually imposing daughter of a self-made botanist/pharmacist, who has a forceful need to understand their world.   Circumstances of her childhood, such as the adoption of a second daughter by her parents, and the development of her only friendship as a child, prove to have an enormous impact on the course of Alma’s life and shape the woman and scientist she grows to be.  Her life experiences take Alma and the reader to fascinating places with unusual characters and lead to some extraordinary ideas on Alma’s part.

It’s the elegant use of language that really makes this book stand out.  The imagery is stark and beautiful.  The characters are colorful and the settings often exotic. Alma is an extremely sympathetic character, in spite of all her awkwardness, and I felt myself rooting for her almost out loud at certain moments.  There is also some very interesting historical fiction and quite a bit of science to the plot and I never felt bogged down by it.

This book is smart and interesting and altogether unique. Try it!