49 & 50

The forty-ninth book I read this year was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was this book that I cuddled up with on Christmas Eve, reading to my heart's content while the snow fell outside. And what a glorious day that was. I think books 6 and 7 are my favorites of the series, and boy, does JKR end with a bang. 

I don't think there is another series that leaves me feeling quite like this one does, when I finish it. There's an internet e-card that circulates Pinterest in various forms that always says something like, Here I am... mourning the deaths of fictional characters while life goes on around me. Or... Just finished another book series and now I don't know what to do with my life. &c.

That's kind of how it is for me with HP. I love the series; I hate that it has to end. I want to read ALL ABOUT THE 19 YEARS that happens after the end of the main story and the start of the epilogue in Deathly Hallows. I feel like I'm saying goodbye to my friends when I shut that book. Deathly Hallows definitely gets 5 stars. If I had more time, I'd was poetic about all the best parts. Alas, I must proceed to book 50.

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The fiftieth book I read in 2012 as The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. As I mentioned in my review on Goodreads, somehow I confused this book with a different title and mistakenly thought I'd already read it. I'm glad I discovered the error, though, and got the chance to read this one for real. I give it 4 stars.

Let me start by saying that this is one of the saddest books I've ever read. I'm going with 'sad' even though I've heard other readers vehemently protest that designation and say it should be called melancholy. Melancholy is fine, too. But back to the point. Seriously, Ms. Roy, I don't think it could get much more depressing.

If you aren't a fan of books that don't end in sunshine and roses, or even have the slightest glimpse of a ray or a petal, this is not the book for you. Me-- I really appreciate well-written books of any type. If it makes me feel as deeply as this one did, I'm not really concerned about the fact that the story is terribly tragic. I'm just grateful for the experience.

Roy's writing style is haunting and beautiful. The narrative skips around in time-- in the interview at the end, she mentions that the book starts at the end and ends in the middle. This is very accurate. She includes enough foreshadowing that you know a little about a lot of things that are going to happen, you just don't know exactly when and how. For impatient readers, this could be problematic. I happened to like how she set it up. I admit, at times I had to stop and figure out where in time the next section of the book was before I could continue. It wasn't terribly off-putting for me, but I think for some it might be.

Because I don't even know how to give a brief summary of the plot without spoiling it, I'll borrow one.

"Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing "big things [that] lurk unsaid" in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest." -- back cover

Some of my favorite parts of Roy's writing:

"...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again." 

 "What Esthappen and Rahel witnessed that morning, though they didn't know it then, was a clinical demonstration in controlled conditions (this was not war after all, or genocide) of human nature's pursuit of ascendancy. Structure. Order. Complete monopoly. It was human history, masquerading as God's Purpose, revealing herself to an underage audience.

There was nothing accidental about what happened that morning. Nothing incidental. It was no stray mugging or personal settling of scores. This was an era imprinting itself on those who lived in it. 

History in live performance.

If they hurt Velutha more than they intended to, it was only because any kinship, any connection between themselves and him, any implication that if nothing else, at least biologically he was a fellow creature-- had been severed long ago. They were not arresting a man, they were exorcising fear. They had no instrument to calibrate how much punishment he could take. No means of gauging how much or how permanently they had damaged him.

Unlike the custom of rampaging religious mobs or conquering armies running riot, that morning in the Heart of Darkness the posse of Touchable Policemen acted with economy, not frenzy. Efficiency, not anarchy. Responsibility, not hysteria. They didn't tear out his hair or burn him alive. They didn't hack off his genitals and stuff them in his mouth. They didn't rape him. Or behead him.

After all they were not battling an epidemic. They were merely inoculating a community against an outbreak."

48: Graceling

Slowly but surely, I will catch up on my reviews. Unfortunately, I don't think I will complete 52 books by next Tuesday. I'm reading the 50th now. But I'm not crushed-- I fulfilled the spirit of my goal and read a LOT this year.

Book 48 was Graceling by Kristen Cashore. I give it 4.5 stars.

In the world of Graceling, some individuals are born with two different colored eyes. This is the mark of a Graceling, one who has a gift or special ability, also known as a Grace. Graces can be anything from mind reading, to being exceptionally good at climbing trees, to being an excellent swimmer, to being a super human fighter. Gracelings usually aren't born with two different colored eyes-- this happens sometime after birth and reveals the Graceling, but sometimes it takes even longer for the Grace to make itself known. Parents and others must be watchful to discover the nature of the Grace. In some areas, Gracelings are feared or shunned; in others, revered.

Katsa, our main character, is believed to have the Grace of killing. In other words, don't mess with her. She is the niece of a king and has been essentially taken as his property, to do his dirty work throughout his and other kingdoms. If the king wants someone punished, he sends Katsa. She comes to a deeper understanding of what her Grace actually is part way through the book, and I'm glad the author chose to clarify/modify it. I wasn't altogether satisfied with the idea of her Grace simply being a superhuman ability to kill.

The main story of the book involves Katsa and her newfound friend and fellow Graceling Po, as they work together to save Po's niece from the clutches of a very bad man. There is much action, intrigue, and yes, some love.

It took me a bit, but I really liked the world Cashore created. I dove into the story and couldn't wait to find out how it would resolve. The one thing I am slightly disappointed about, after finishing, is that it appears the second book in the Graceling Ream series has nothing to do with Katsa and Po. I really grew to like those two and I was eager to read a sequel that continued their adventures together. Oh well.

The strongest criticism I have read in regards to this book deals with what some perceive as Katsa's anti-man/anti-marriage attitude. I can understand where these readers are coming from, but I don't agree whole-heartedly. In this book, Katsa has spent most of her life at the mercy and whims of her uncle, the king. She is, for all practical purposes, his property, and believes she must do as he bids. This means using her Grace to punish people with whom the king disagrees, whether they are in the wrong or not.

Part way through the book, with the help of Po, Katsa comes to realize that, in part because of her powerful Grace, she doesn't have to submit herself to the king. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that she decides to leave the king's service. She finally, for the first time in her life, feels like she is in control of herself. She begins to learn who she really is and make her own choices. This freedom strengthens her resolve, which she apparently has held since she was young, to never marry. Even after falling in love, Katsa refuses to agree to marriage. She ends up in what could probably be called an open relationship, and I think these plot choices are what angered some readers.

I disagree with the criticism for a few reasons. First, while the book doesn't exactly spell it out, it seems that the society Cashore created is meant to be similar to a medieval society, at least as far as the standing of women goes. They are more property than anything else. Because of the way Katsa has lived under the thumb of her uncle, she has never wanted to deliberately give herself as property to another man, even as a wife. This attitude is prevalent throughout the book and forms a pretty big part of Katsa's personaity, but I wouldn't characterize it as anti-marriage. I would say it is anti-subjugation of women. If Katsa didn't have to worry about being used and controlled, she wouldn't have the aversion to marriage that she has. It's not that she hates men, after all, she does fall in love. It's that she wants to be in control of herself and her Grace. Who can blame her for that? I don't think Cashore was trying to make a statement about modern day marriage at all, as some readers have inferred.

I'd definitely recommend this if you enjoy YA fantasy fiction. I plan to read the next two books.

47: Divergent

Divergent
Veronica Roth
4.5 stars

This is a YA book that I've heard a lot of hype about, but hadn't gotten around to reading. A friend in the ward so highly praised it that I finally went and placed a hold on it at the library. My number came up a lot sooner than expected and I picked it up and read it in about 2 days. It's not a short book, but it is a quick read.

Divergent belongs in the category of dystopian fiction-- the world, or perhaps only the U.S., or perhaps only Chicago, IL, has presumably been through some sort of catastrophe or breaking of society as we now know it. I say this because the setting is a future Chicago and references are made to Chicago landmarks, but there's isn't mention of anywhere else or whether the same social structure exists elsewhere.

This is one of the only issues I had with the book, but it's a fairly prominent issue and one that keep the book from being, for me, fantastic. I think books in this category need to have a solid foundation. For one, I want to know more of the why and how and when and, in this case, the what, that caused the societal breakdown and eventual rebuilding. Here, there is literally nothing. Perhaps these details are addressed in the other books, but if that is so I would have liked Roth to at least hint of that. As is, it's way too conspicuously absent for my taste.

To continue with the set-up, in this future Chicago, society is divided into factions: Abnegation, Erudite, Candor, Amity, and Dauntless. After the breaking of whatever sort occurred, people divided up into these factions based on which human flaw they believed led to the downfall. E.g., members of Abnegation believe that selfishness was at the root of the downfall of society, and thus the faction now holds selflessness above all. Erudite believes that ignorance was the problem, so they value knowledge. Candor-- honesty. Amity-- peace. Dauntless-- bravery.

Each faction is responsible for certain jobs in the city, but this isn't explained super well. Most important to this discussion are Abnegation and Dauntless, which take care of volunteer work/cleaning and rebuilding, and security/protection, respectively. Truth be told, it seems that Dauntless are more or less the goths you remember from high school, mixed with some UFC and Evil Knievel. (No, really.)

Our main character is Beatrice Prior, a 16 year old girl born and raised Abnegation. The coming-of-age ceremony in this Chicago takes place at 16, when youth take an aptitude test designed to tell them which faction they truly belong in, and then make their choice of which faction they want to join. The test doesn't dictate your choice; it is merely supposed to reveal your true self. Beatrice's aptitude test yields surprising and mysterious results and for several reasons she ends up choosing to leave Abnegation and join Dauntless.

Most of the book deals with the fierce initiation process Beatrice-- now going by Tris-- goes through in the Dauntless compound. Along the way she learns more about herself, her test results, and the true inner workings of society. Things are definitely not what they seem, and it becomes clear that Tris may be one of the few who can make a difference.

I give this book 4.5 stars. I was uncertain through most of it whether I'd really love it or not, but the ending was well done and it came together for me. Although there are some glaring problems for me, I am not letting those affect my rating much because a) it was really fun to read, and b) as I said, the holes may be addressed/explained later. I'll give it a fair shake.

Some of the story was kind of predictable, but I was also taken by surprise more than once. There are some questions I have about Tris' family-- her mom especially-- that I'd really like to be answered in the following books.

The love story involving Tris is not overwhelming-- definitely not the focus of the book-- which I really appreciated, but it also wasn't as well developed as I'd have liked. I get kind of annoyed when two characters are suddenly smitten with each other and the author hasn't really given a lot of foundation. (At least in Twilight you know exactly why Edward is obsessed with Bella-- after all, she's like his own personal brand of heroin.)

This is Roth's first novel and I'm excited to read the second installment, Insurgent, as well as the third that is supposed to come out next fall.

46: Mudbound

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
4 stars

My feelings about this book fluctuated quite a bit as I read. I started out loving it. I was convinced it was going to be a five star book. Then I kind of hit a snag and wasn't digging it as much... but in the end, I ended up loving it again.

Sometimes, when I don't like the choices that the author makes with the plot, I let it cloud my judgment of the work at large. I think that's what happened here. I was a bit disappointed with the way some of the characters went-- I wanted them to make better choices, really-- but I have to admit that the book is quite well written, very engaging, and moving. People do bad things all the time. The author wasn't advocating these bad things, she was merely depicting them. That is to say, if you are of the "I won't read books that have 'bad' things in them" persuasion, this book is not for you.

Mudbound is set in the deep South, post WWII. The chapters rotate through first person narrations from several characters, a format choice that I really, really appreciated. I loved getting the different sides of the story from the different characters and getting to hear the unique voices.

Laura is into spinsterhood at the ripe old age of 31 when she finally meets and marries Henry McAllan in Memphis, Tennessee. She is drawn into a life she never imagined when Henry spontaneously buys a farm in rural Mississippi and takes her and their two daughters down to live in a ramshackle old house without indoor plumbing. What's worse, Henry's cantankerous and downright mean father, Pappy, comes to live with them. He is a source of constant irritation for Laura-- and pretty much everyone else he comes in contact with.

Henry's new farm comes preloaded with tenants-- sharecroppers-- some of whom are white and some of whom are black. One of the African American families is the Jacksons. An unlikely friendship between their oldest son and Henry's younger brother, both of whom return from fighting in WWII around the same time, will leave these two families forever changed.

This book deals heavily with racism. There is a lot that ain't pretty, but that's the way it was (and still is, in parts). It also deals heavily with war and the challenges faced by young veterans returning to "normal" life. These are two themes I really enjoy reading about-- they are difficult, and heavy, and they weigh on the mind, but they are real. Some of the characters in this book reminded me strongly of people in my own life. It is a book that made me think.

Content advisory: some language, some sex, nothing graphic or gratuitous IMO.

43, 44, & 45

So, I am trying to get caught up on my reading as well as my reviewing-- obviously. With just 4.5 weeks to go in 2012, I need to go pretty quickly if I'm to accomplish my goal.

Books 43 and 44 were Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the Half Blood Prince. As I've said before, I've really gotten into this re-reading of the HP books. I like to call OOTP the book of Harry's angst, and HBP is a punch in the gut. Both excellent. I may change my mind at some point, but I'm pretty sure HBP is my favorite of the series. I love seeing all the scenes in the Penseive of Tom Riddle's past. I love that Harry and Ginny finally find each other. I never get used to Dumbledore's fate. Well done, JKR. 4.5 and 5 stars.

Book 45 is Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris, quite a departure from most of the books I've been reading lately. This book was recommended to me by a woman in my RS book club, after I mentioned that I'd read and loved The Kite Runner. We were discussing how that book had helped us to learn more of a region of the world that is pretty foreign to most Americans, and she said she'd recently read several books by Ferraris and had really enjoyed the setting of Saudi Arabia.

Zoe Ferraris moved to Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War with her then-husband, a Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin. She lived in a very conservative Muslim community with his family, experiencing a side of the world that is totally unfamiliar to my American mind. The same area she lived in is the setting for Finding Nouf, which is a murder mystery/detective novel. The main character is a very devout Muslim man, and most of the book is told from his perspective-- which I found very enlightening. I obviously don't share his beliefs, but it was very interesting to me to get a glimpse into his thoughts and views, particularly on the very strict rules and laws regarding the conduct of women in that society and male-female interaction.

This book was rewarding for me as I am constantly on the lookout for ways to expand my understanding of the world and viewpoints that differ from mine. I want to know how and why other people believe things and live in ways that I can't fathom. I don't expect to be persuaded, I just want to understand. A lot of the things I learned from the book about how women are required to live over there made me sad, but I'm grateful to have a better understanding nonetheless.

I give the book 3.5 stars. While fairly well-written with some interesting plot twists, it is Ferraris' first novel and it shows. She has written two other novels in the same setting, both in the same genre as this one, and I would like to read at least one of them.

I'd sure love to read some more reviews, contributors. What have you been reading?

40, 41, and 42

Book 40: Son by Lois Lowry

The final installment in The Giver saga. I have to say this is my favorite of the last three. It was very well written and engaging. I can't say much about the plot because I wouldn't have wanted to know anything before I read it, so I will only give you bare bones. The story focuses on a girl named Claire, who is a contemporary of Jonas in the setting of The Giver. The book is divided into three parts. The first part is set in the community Jonas and Claire spent part of their childhood in. The second part is in an entirely new community. And the third part returns us to the setting of the community that was introduced in Messenger. There are a few inconsistencies in this book (meaning details given that differ from details given in one or more of the preceding books), which I noted but was not extremely bothered by. All in all, nicely done, Lois. I highly recommend this book and give it four stars. Also, after reading this one, I am kind of tempted to reduce my rating of the other three books to 3.5 or 3 stars. This one was just that much better, in my opinion.

Book 41: Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Let me just say that I forgot, repeatedly, that this was not a memoir. After I read the blurb about Jean Kwok on the back of the book, including that she immigrated to the US, lived in Brooklyn, worked in a sweatshop, etc., I somehow decided that she had decided to write her own story. So, it reads like a memoir or autobio, in other words, but is, in fact, a novel. I liked the writing style, but...

it was also a double edged sword for me. See, I was fascinated by Kimberly's stories. And I'm sure quite a few of them were taken from Jean's own childhood/adolescence. But I want to know what was true and what was made up for the book. I am kind of driven crazy by not knowing.

I give this book three stars. I really liked it and was able to finish it pretty quickly. I was disappointed with how Kwok chose to wrap up the story in the epilogue. The choices the protagonist made there seemed very out of character and kind of put a bad taste in my mouth. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable read. I'd especially recommend it to readers who enjoy the stories of immigrants and/or foreigners experiencing America for the first time.

Book 42: re-read of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Loved it. What can I say? I am a huge HP nerd. I have never loved a YA series as much as I love this one, and I don't think it's premature to say I never will. This book is the start of the giant installments. Books 1-3 are seriously puny compared to books 4-7. This book is also where it really starts to get emotional for me. Seeing Cedric die, watching Voldemort return, noticing the beginning of the tension between Hermione and Ron, Harry giving his bag of 1,000 galleons to Fred and George... man, it gets me every time. :) 5 stars.

38 & 39: Some fun with Lois Lowry

I recently discovered that the fourth installment in Lois Lowry's saga that began with The Giver was released.  I had put the second and third books on my reading list long ago, but it wasn't until I heard about the fourth, Son, that I knew it was time to finish the series. I love The Giver. It's been one of my favorite YA books since I was young myself. I think Lois Lowry has a real gift for writing-- Number the Stars is another incredible read that I need to revisit. 

Thus, for my 38th and 39th reads, I submit Gathering Blue and Messenger. Both of these novels are very short and very easy to get into. I read them both in my spare time over the past two days. I give both of them  a solid four stars, particularly for readers who have read and enjoyed The Giver.

For any who haven't read The Giver, which I hope is none, Lois Lowry sets the story at some future time, presumably after catastrophes of some form have drastically changed life as we know it. In The Giver, the main character is Jonas. He lives in a society that is highly controlled, everything is regulated. People are given jobs or callings, and he ends up with a very important one. The vague ending of TG was frustrating for many, but I actually kind of liked it. I don't struggle with uncertain endings like many people do. Nevertheless, I was beyond excited that she continued the series.

In Gathering Blue, Lowry centers the story on a girl named Kira. I went into the book assuming that she lives in a different part of the world from where Jonas lived in TG, though I didn't really have that confirmed until the end when Jonas' existence is briefly hinted at. Kira's society is nothing like Jonas' was, but probably equally as harmful. GB focuses almost entirely on Kira's role in her town, her special gifts, and on the struggle of being good and true when all around you is darkness and despair. At the end, you don't know exactly how but you know Kira is going to do great things.

Messenger's main character is a side character from GB named Matty. Lowry said in an interview that Matty had been one of her favorite characters in GB and she was excited to write another installment that would bring him back and further develop his character. Messenger also features Jonas from TG and informs the reader about what he's been up to since the end of TG. It's pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie. In the course of this book, Matty discovers he also has a gift and uses it to change his surroundings. Though I can't go into the plot very much without spoiling, both of these are so short that if you are interested you could have them read in a few hours.

I'm diving into Son today and will probably review it shortly. I can't wait to see how Lowry wraps the story up.

Re-reading continues.

For my 37th read of 2012, I reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'd definitely say that out of the first three HP books, this is the one I had forgotten the most about. It was so fun to read.

And Blogger managed to lose the post I just wrote. It was nothing profound, but ugh, I hate redoing these.

**Note: I didn't skip 36. That was Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, the book I received at our last Book Exchange Party. It was wonderful, but Kristen read it before I did and has kindly agreed to review it on the blog; thus, I will say only that I give it 5 stars.**

But back to HP. Re-reading HPatPOA was almost like reading it for the first time. Some awesome plot points, like the story behind the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack, for example, had faded from my memory. I love Professor Lupin, and I really love Sirius Black, so being reintroduced to them was wonderful. And, as much as I love the HP movies, it was good to get back to the original story, just as JKR wrote it. I guess that's it for now. I just love HP.

The Prisoner of Heaven-- #35

The Prisoner of Heaven (TPOH) is the third (and I believe final) installment in the story that started with The Shadow of the Wind (TSOTW), by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which I reviewed earlier this year. TSOTW was followed by The Angel's Game (TAG), reviewed here.

TPOH is much shorter than the first two books. It mainly focuses on revealing the history of one of the main characters of TSOTW, Fermin Romero de Torres. Fermin's sordid history is only hinted at in TSOTW, so it was really nice to finally know more about what made him such an intriguing character. Fermin is also intertwined with Isabella, a main character from TAG, so this installment helps round out what we know about her, as well. And of course, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books makes an appearance, although it is not until the very end.

This book was a pleasant and engaging read. I'd put it probably close to the level of TAG, and give it a good 3.5 stars. TSOTW set the bar so high that pretty much nothing else Zafon writes is going to compare, but I'm glad he went ahead and added the two subsequent books. Reading this one reminded me how much I want to go back and re-read TSOTW.

I wasn't particularly ecstatic about how Zafon chose to end this story in the epilogue. The end of the book itself seemed to hint that all was well with everyone, a nice resolution. It wasn't sugar-coated or unrealistic, it had just wrapped things up pretty darn well. But then the epilogue came along and strongly hinted that more adventures in violence and revenge were ahead. I don't necessarily think that Zafon is going to write more to the story; I just think for some reason he wanted to leave it on that note. Which I could have done without.

Anyway, I stand by my recommendation last time-- if you read any of the books, read The Shadow of the Wind. If you love it as much as I did, you'll probably seek out and read the next two. That is all.

What are all of you reading? Anything? Anyone?

34: Something Missing

Something Missing
by Matthew Dicks
3 stars

This is a charming book and a very quick read. It was picked for my Relief Society's book club for October, and I read it in just the past few days.

The main character is a neurotic thief named Martin. He is a career criminal, but not what he likes to call a 'smash and grabber.' Instead, Martin's OCD tendencies and savant-like genius help him bring an incredible sense of order to his life's work: stealing items from his "clients" that they will never notice have gone missing.

Martin's client list has been the same for years, though it does grow on occasion. He vets his clients thoroughly, only selecting married couples who either have no children or are empty-nesters. Not too wealthy, certainly not poor. He scopes out potential clients until he knows enough about them and their schedule to make an educated decision about whether they should become part of his list. Once a client has been accepted, Martin visits regularly, inventorying their pantries and cupboards, their medicine cabinets and jewelry boxes-- after gaining entry to their homes via spare keys that he has made, of course.

Following a strict and detailed set of rules, Martin spends no more than 15 minutes in a client's home. He never speaks inside a house, just in case a recording device is on (either accidentally or purposefully). He is meticulous about wearing latex gloves, a hairnet, and plastic moccasins over his shoes, and he never carries any identifying information that could accidentally be left in a house. He never visits the same client twice in one day.

Once he knows a client well enough to determine which item will never be missed, he begins his pilfering. Martin takes anything from cans of tomato paste, to half a bottle of laundry detergent, to a book of stamps, to crystal vases and diamond earrings. His system is so well thought out that he has never been caught, and probably never even suspected. He makes sure to only take items that will either go unnoticed or the absence of which will be attributed to absentmindedness or a spouse. He is brilliant at what he does.

Until the day he breaks some of his rules. Martin has been visiting these clients for so long that he feels he knows them. He has grown a strange sort of affection for most of them. And when a situation arises in which he thinks he can help one of them, he knows he must do so. This sets off a chain of events that Martin certainly never predicted and is not prepared for. As the back cover says, "Something Missing is a hilarious, gripping, and often profound novel about a man used to planning every second of his life who is suddenly forced to confront chaos and spontaneity."

I really liked this book. It was engaging, and I wanted to know what would happen next. Some of the detail in the writing was a little tedious, but I think the author meant to give the reader a look into Martin's OCD, and just how meticulous and repetitive a lifestyle like that can be. I grew to like Martin, even though at first he kind of grated on me. If you need a quick and enjoyable read, pick this one up.

33: A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace
John Knowles
2 stars

I finally finished this book. It took me 2 months. I just couldn't get all the way into it... and at the end, it fell sort of flat for me. I like what I think the author was trying to say, but I just don't think he made a slam dunk with this one. Which may be against the grain, because apparently this is a pretty popular book for high school English classes, though I never read it-- never even heard of it, actually, until this past summer.

This book is set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of WWII. Two boys, best friends (kind of?), have a tumultuous summer punctuated with a terrible accident (or was it?), and then an even more tragic autumn. They have it rough, these boys. Everyone knows they are basically being groomed to enter the military as soon as they are of age. There is this Great War hanging over their heads, but it doesn't seem real to them. They keep hearing about it, but they don't really get it. And of course they don't. They are children. War is incomprehensible to all but the few who have seen it and lived to tell. This is the aspect of the plot I could get behind. I could feel the pressure hanging over them, and the bewilderment of not really knowing what war is, what would be expected of them, even what they were being sent off to fight and possibly die for.

Gene and Phineas are presented as best friends and polar opposites. Finny is the BMOC, the jock, the uber talented, handsome daredevil. Gene is the introverted intellectual. He does what Finny says, most of the time grudgingly. Finny thinks they genuinely like each other, but the reader is (or at least I was) left wondering what was really going on. Their friendship is never very convincing to me. It feels forced-- the author says it's so, so it is, but I wish I could have believed it. The story is told from Gene's point of view and it's clear from his inner monologue that he has some serious ill feelings towards Finny that are never fully resolved. In fact, the main conflict in the book is actually an "accident" that befalls Finny that Gene causes. When it happens, it happens because Gene, always quietly simmering in anger at Finny, suffers a momentary lapse of reason. He acts without giving a thought to what the consequences could be. A really stupid whim, in other words. This action sets off a chain of events that affect everyone.

If you read this book in high school, I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it then. If you've read it since then, I'd be even more interested to hear if you liked it. For me, I could take it or leave it. 2 stars.

32: Young Men and Fire

Young Men and Fire
Norman Maclean
3 stars

If you aren't familiar with Norman Maclean, he is the author of A River Runs Through It, which you are more likely to be familiar with-- at least the movie version. I've read some of Maclean's other work, and this non-fiction book has been on my to-read list for years. I'm glad I finally checked it out, though it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

In 1949, a crew of 15 Forest Service smokejumpers descended on what they thought would be a routine fire-fighting operation in Mann Gulch, a remote location in the Montana wilderness. Two hours later, all but three of these men were dead. The real story of what happened in that gulch is what Maclean sought out to discover and record for posterity. On the surface, this book delves deeply into fire theories and wind speed and all sorts of things I would never have learned about had I not read this book-- but on a deeper level, this book is about life, and dying, and youth, and old age, and humanity. That may sound like a cliche, but it's true. Maclean wove quite a bit into his telling of this tale.

From a Goodreads summary:

These first deaths among the Forest Service's elite firefighters prompted widespread examination of federal fire policy, of the field of fire science, and of the frailty of young men. For Maclean, who witnessed the fire from the ground in August of 1949,  and even then he knew he would one day become a part of its story, it is a story of Montana, of the ways of wildfires, firefighters, and fire scientists, and especially of a crew, young and proud, who "hadn't learned to count the odds and to sense they might owe the universe a tragedy." This tale is also Maclean's own, the story of a writer obsessed by a strange and human horror, unable to let the truth die with these young men, searching for the last - and lasting - word. A canvas on which to tell many stories, including the story of his research into the story itself. And finally Nature's violence colliding with human fallibility.      Haunted by these deaths for forty years, Norman Maclean returned to the scene with two of the survivors and pursues the mysteries that Mann Gulch has kept hidden since 1949.  From the words of witnesses, the evidence of history, and the research of fire scientists, Maclean at last assembles the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy; in his last work that consumed 14 years of his life, and earned a 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award.       The excruciating detail of this book makes for a sobering reading experience. Maclean -- a former University of Chicago English professor and avid fisherman -- also wrote A River Runs Through It and Other Stories , which is set along the Missouri River, one gulch downstream from Mann Gulch.

One of the most fascinating parts of the Mann Gulch story is a controversial decision made by the crew foreman when it became clear to him that he and most of his crew would not be able to make it to the top of the ridge ahead of the quickly spreading fire. He decided to light what is now known as an escape fire ahead of the fire coming up behind them, and lie down in the hot ashes to let the other fire pass over. He tried to get his crew to enter his escape fire, but in the chaos and fear, not a single one of them listened to him. As a result, all the rest of the crew (save two who had made it to the top of the ridge ahead of everyone) perished.  While escape fires are now recognized as a legitimate means to escape death in such situations, at the time of the Mann Gulch fire they were not. The foreman acted on instinct alone. How differently things could have turned out if his crew had followed his orders.

I noted in my Goodreads review of this book that I have come to the conclusion that Maclean's writing is an acquired taste. Some of it I don't connect with-- he uses a lot of imagery that doesn't resound with me. But he also, every now and then, busts out a gem that leaves me thinking. And so I keep coming back for more. This book, I'll admit, was kind of slow at times. There is one pretty technical section that I nearly didn't get through, just because I'm not that into the science side of fires. I was fascinated with the human side of the story, though, and that kept me going. I'm glad I finished it. It gets a solid three stars from me.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite parts, found at the end.

"I, an old man, have written this fire report. Among other things, it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men whose lives I might have lived on their way to death. I have climbed where they climbed, and in my time I have fought fire and inquired into its nature. In addition, I have lived to get a better understanding of myself and those close to me, many of them now dead. Perhaps it is not odd, at the end of this tragedy where nothing much was left of the elite who came from the sky but courage struggling for oxygen, that I have often found myself thinking of my wife on her brave and lonely way to death."

More re-reads and a few nearly-dones.

This is going to be a quick catch-up post. Life has been a whirlwind-- I feel like it's still the beginning of August in my mind, and yet here we are on September 14.

I re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 30) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 31) in the past few weeks. It has been yearrrrrs since I read HPs 1-3. I decided it was time to dive back in and re-read the whole series, and I am so glad I did. I just love it so much. It was so neat to go back to the very beginning, which I haven't thought about in a long time. I wish I could somehow erase the rest of the story from my memory and read them for the first time again. One thing I am especially enjoying is how funny Fred and George are. I kind of forgot all the funny dialog from them that is woven throughout the books. They are so awesome. Both get 5 stars from me.

As for other reads, I am nearly done with A Separate Peace and Young Men and Fire, both of which will be reviewed soon. I am also re-reading The Poisonwood Bible for book club, but I imagine one of the other writers of this blog will finish it and review it before I do, so I may not do a full review of that one.

I should be almost done with my 36th book right now, but I'm only almost to 34. I do have two new library books waiting for me to dive in, though, and I might just be able to get caught up at some point. (Probably not.) If only there were more hours in the day... or Vivian would let me read as long as I want. haha.

What are you ladies reading these days? Anyone?

Book 29: The Angel's Game

I have fallen behind on my reading, mostly due to falling asleep every five minutes. With a slight increase in energy this past week, I dove into The Angel's Game and finished it fairly quickly. It is nice to have another book done, though if I were on schedule I'd be in the middle of my 31st book right now.

TAG is a sort of prequel to The Shadow of the Wind, which was my tenth read of 2012 and which I reviewed here. I say it's a sort of prequel because, while you go into it knowing that it is connected to the first book, you don't exactly understand the full connection until the end, and even then the connection isn't as deep as in most prequels. I'll just say that some of the characters are the same, and The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which was introduced in TSOTW, plays a role in TAG, as well.

TAG uses the same setting as TSOTW, a dark and sometimes mystical Barcelona. The way Zafon describes the city is at times breathtaking and/or frightening. (And it must be said again, the woman who translates his work really does a phenomenal job.)

At the center of the book is a man named David Martin, a writer of penny dreadfuls who longs to write something truly meaningful. When an opportunity comes along to do just that, David takes it, unknowingly entering into way more than he bargained for. Soon drawn into a decades old mystery, David can't rest until he knows the truth. Zafon unfolds a mystery within a mystery again in this book, taking the reader on quite the ride. There are many surprises along the way-- I definitely didn't see the end coming.

I gave TSOTW five stars and I wouldn't change that rating now. TAG, however, didn't leave quite the same impression on me. It's definitely enjoyable, but it's a much darker book, which I wasn't expecting. Towards the end of it, it seems like every chapter ends with a death-- and these aren't gruesome, gory detailed deaths, which I appreciated, but man, the body count is high.

Additionally, Zafon introduces a few little things into the story that never fully get resolved, in my opinion. They aren't major plot elements that leave the reader feeling confused, but there are a few questions I would have liked answered.

My rating for this book has to fall somewhere around a 3.8. I can't give it a full four stars-- I just don't think it quite makes it. But it's not a three star read either. Can you tell I am conflicted?

There is a third installment to this sort of series called Prisoner of Heaven that I am very excited to read. I have heard great things about it.

One recommendation-- even though this book is sort of a prequel, if you are at all interested in reading anything by Zafon, please start with The Shadow of the Wind. It is a fabulous introduction to Zafon, his beautiful, gothic Barcelona, and The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. If you enjoy that one, definitely read this one next. If not, you won't be missing out by skipping this one altogether.

Book 28: When She Woke

When She Woke
Hillary Jordan
3.5 stars

I finished this book before we left on vacation last week, but it's been really hard to figure out what to say about it. It started off awesome. The middle was good, but not quite as strong. And the ending... well, I have to say it veered way off course.

When She Woke is a futuristic retelling/revamping of The Scarlet Letter. Hannah Payne (Hester Prynne) is a young churchgoer who has an affair with her preacher Aidan Dale (Arthur Dimmesdale). In this version of the story, Hannah becomes pregnant and decides to abort the child rather than shed an incriminating light on Dale, who is very much a public figure. I found a review of the book that sums up my feelings exactly, so I am going to post it here and link back to the user on goodreads:

From Jeanette:

This was a four-star book until the last 80 or so pages, and then it lost its way. So 3.5 stars it is. 

The novel starts off strong with a tale of private shame made very public, and gleeful cruelty masquerading as religious piety. I saw some spooky parallels with the way Warren Jeffs was controlling the FLDS Church a few years ago. 

Jordan takes the basic themes from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and brings them into the future with the addition of abortion and extreme fundamentalist rule. Hannah Payne (Hester Prynne) and Aidan Dale (Arthur Dimmesdale) have had an affair. She's a young innocent parishioner. He's a married preacher with a huge following and a spotless reputation. Hannah has aborted their love child. Instead of a scarlet letter, she is punished with a scarlet body. 

In this version of America, most criminals serve out their sentences among the general populace rather than behind bars. Their skin is "melachromed" red, yellow, green, or blue, depending on their crimes. Being marked in this way makes them outcasts, subject to derision, physical attacks, and even death threats. Prison would seem a more merciful punishment. [I will add a note here, to clarify that Hannah is melachromed because, in this future America, Roe v. Wade has been overturned and abortion is illegal. Her crime is therefore akin to second degree murder.]

After her initial chroming and public humiliation period, Hannah stays in a halfway house meant to prepare her for re-entering society as a "Red." She then makes a series of stops along a sort of futuristic underground railroad. Here is where the novel begins to go off the tracks, so to speak. It slowly collapses on itself with a tedious journey and a rushed ending that is too inconclusive to warrant the buildup. The quick foray into lesbianism is awkward and unrealistic, and thus feels obligatory rather than purposeful.

I was disappointed that Hannah didn't emerge more strengthened by her ordeal. I think Jordan hoped to show a transformation from a mousy, obedient evangelical girl into a fearless, bold, and resourceful woman. Whatever transformation does occur is too fast to be plausible. Hannah never quite reaches the state of maturity and self-knowledge we might wish for her. She's left mired in that late-adolescent stage of defiance versus dependence. 

I do recommend the book, despite my middling rating. Just don't expect a strong finish to match the powerful beginning. 


And that is pretty much how I feel. I loved the idea for the story, and I was so excited to see what would happen. But I was left feeling very unsatisfied at the end. Jordan didn't seem to be pushing a pro-choice agenda here-- even Hannah believes throughout that abortion is wrong-- but I feel like the agenda she did have was so unclear and muddled by the end as to be unrecognizable. Which is really too bad, because this story had a lot of potential. 


Be warned-- as noted above, there is a quick foray into lesbianism toward the end. It was completely out of character for Hannah, IMO, and just weird. It's not graphic, but I can see it offending some. 

Another re-read of another great book.

I was given a copy of Catching Fire, the second installment in the Hunger Games trilogy, as a birthday present. Since Vivian did me the favor of opening it early, I couldn't resist re-reading it.

Book #27
5 stars

And to tell you the truth, I think I like it more than the first one. I definitely liked it more this time around than I did when I first read it, just like I liked my second read of The Hunger Games more than my first. I really think that's because I just read them way too quickly when they came out. I didn't let anything sink in. I just had to know what was going to happen.

This time, I let myself absorb more and think about it, and it was awesome. I still got through it really quickly, but not because I was sprinting. I could see Peeta and Katniss more clearly than before. The characters really took off for me this time. Haymitch also grew a lot in my mind. He definitely reveals some extra layers here.

I can't wait for the film adaptation to come out next year. As I was reading, I couldn't help but speculate on who they will get to play certain characters. Finnick and Johanna may top that list. Also, Wiress and Beetee. Any ideas?

Bleed for Me

Book #26
Three Stars

I delved into a genre that I normally don't pay much attention to: the crime/detective/murder mystery sort. These seem to be a dime a dozen. There are so many authors who pump these books out like it's nothing. Maybe that's why I've never been really drawn in. I don't know. But somewhere along the way, this book was recommended and I decided to give it a shot.

The author is Michael Robotham. He has been an investigative journalist in Britain, Australia, and the US. He  created a character named Joseph O'Loughlin, a psychiatrist who sometimes helps the police out, and who has gotten himself and his family into more than one close call because of this. I didn't know this before I read it, but Bleed for Me is actually the fourth (I think) Joe O'Loughlin novel. I added the others to my to-read list so that I will have the info easily accessible, but I haven't decided yet whether I will read them.

I think Robotham is a good writer. He kept me engaged. He knows how to twist a plot. This particular plot goes a little something like this:

A teenage girl-- Sienna, a troubled friend of his daughter-- comes to Joe O'Loughlin's door one night. She is terrorized, incoherent-- and covered in blood. 

The police find Sienna's father, a celebrated former cop, murdered in the home he shared with Sienna. Tests confirm that it's his blood on the girl. She says she remembers nothing.

Joe O'Loughlin is a psychologist with troubles of his own. His marriage is coming to an end and his daughter will barely speak to him. He tries to help Sienna, hoping that if he succeeds, he will win back his daughter's affection. But Sienna is unreachable, unable to mourn her father's death or to explain it.

Investigators take aim at Sienna. O'Loughlin senses something different is happening, something subterranean and terrifying, to Sienna. It may be something in her mind. Or it may be something real. Someone real. Someone capable of the most grim and gruesome murder, and willing to kill again if anyone gets too close.

I won't lie, the plot gets gritty at times. It deals with some unpleasant characters and some even more unpleasant goings-on. But I think that is the way of things with this genre. I will say that insofar as Robotham deals with some pretty sensitive topics, he does so very tastefully. He could have filled the book with a lot of gory and lascivious details-- had plenty of opportunities to-- and he didn't. I was grateful for that. As far as content, I think there was one brief sex scene and a smattering of swear words. I didn't feel like anything in the book was gratuitous.

If you are into this genre, pick this one up and you won't be disappointed. I think I would have given it at least four stars if this were my cup of tea. As it's not, I will go with three stars.

 

 

And the 24th spot goes to...

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel
Melanie Benjamin
3 stars

I wanted to love this book. I really did. It came highly recommended. It is about a fascinating person from American history. I thought, why not? And, after reading it, I am willing to bet that most, if not all, of you would like this book a lot if you gave it a chance.

But I found out something about myself as I read this book. Something that I am glad I learned and that forces me to give this book three stars instead of four. That something is that I don't like a fictionalized "autobiography" of a real person.

Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump Stratton Magri, aka Vinnie, was born October 31, 1841, in Middleborough, MA. Fully grown, Vinnie stood 2'8". She had what was then known as proportionate dwarfism. In other words, she looked like a perfectly formed adult female but was just extremely small. This turned out to be quite the lucky break, because proportionate dwarfs were looked upon with curiosity instead of disgust and/or revulsion. For this reason, she was able to have quite a successful life in show business, whereas those with disproportionate dwarfism were typically relegated to the side show and clown acts.

via

Not a whole lot is known about Vinnie's life, mainly the bare bones. She wrote a few chapters in an attempt at an autobiography, but she was not very detailed or open about her feelings and experiences. The author of this novel did do a lot of research and probably found out all she could about Vinnie, and then filled in the gaps with her own creative ideas.

What results is actually a good story. It was a good idea, and Benjamin did a good job with what she set out to do. I think she's a marvelous writer. She created a great personality for Vinnie-- it was a believable narrator throughout.

But it kind of drove me crazy, page after page, that I was reading a novel instead of a non-fiction autobiography. I just wanted to know what REALLY happened. I like learning about people and things. I love a good autobiography-- well-written and engaging. And thus I discovered that I don't like this genre.

So much of Vinnie's life is fascinating to me. Although she was sheltered in her youth, she became a school teacher at a young age. Feeling the itch to travel, she left home and worked on a showboat for about three years before going under contract with P.T. Barnum. Barnum, as you may know, was single-handedly responsible for the fame of Charles Stratton, aka General Tom Thumb, and many believe that it was Barnum who orchestrated the wedding that eventually took place between Vinnie and Charles. The Stratton wedding was the long-ago version of last year's Royal Wedding. Yes, it was that big. It took place during the Civil War and even took top billing in the newspapers for a few days.

via

All in all, I can't help being a bit disappointed after finishing this book, but it's not because of the book. I really wanted to love it, but I just couldn't. If you don't have this same hang-up, I highly recommend this book. You'll probably love it. If you like knowing that what you're reading about a real person is actually the truth, well, you might want to read a different book.

And now that I think about it, I think I actually would have loved this book if Benjamin had taken pieces of Vinnie's life and used them when she created a different person, some other proportionate dwarf, named something else. I've read and enjoyed novels that were "inspired by the life of" or some such. But trying to pass this off as "my best guess" of what *really* happened, and even calling it "The Autobiography..." just didn't work for me.

#23: Running for the Hills

Running for the Hills: Growing Up on My Mother's Sheep Farm in Wales
Horatio Clare
Rating: 3 stars

This is a memoir written by a man who grew up with only his mother and one brother on a sheep farm in rural Wales. And we're talking REMOTE, here. Out there. In the boonies.

Here's a brief sketch. Horatio Clare was born in 1973, in London. Before he was born, his parents met in London and got married. His mother, Jenny, got the wild desire to buy a farm out in the country and live there. His father desperately loved Jenny, and so went along with this scheme, doing everything in his power to make it work.

For quite a while, they still lived in London and only went up to the farm on the weekends. They slowly got to know their neighbors, some of them hilarious characters. They learned how to care for sheep, and this book spares no details. The beautiful landscape bewitched them all, and Clare's descriptions don't disappoint. He is a very gifted writer.

Ultimately, when the farm began hemorrhaging money and the Clares would not be able to sustain it without going into even more debt, Horatio's father tried to convince Jenny to leave the farm. She flat out refused. She chose the farm over her husband, and a life as a single mother over life as a family. This split took place when Horatio was still very young, and the memoir is laced with his regret and longing for the childhood with a father that he did not get to have.

How did I like this book? Well, the writing is Grade A, Top Choice. I love Horatio's words. I fell in love with the little sheep farm, the crotchety old neighbor Jack who really has a soft heart, the family's two dogs. It was an enchanting story to read.

But. Jenny's decision angered me. Jenny, for me, was not a sympathetic character in the least. I spent a lot of my reading wondering how she could be so selfish. Yes, I can understand to a certain extent her desire to raise her boys out of the world, on this remote sheep farm. I can admire her strength and tenacity. I really do think she did some incredible things. She learned sheep farming from scratch and really grew to love the animals as her own.

But to refuse to see reality, to let your husband walk away after he tries everything to keep your family together! And then to raise your boys to believe that he just up and left you. To tell them that he was selfish. My, my, my.

Above and beyond that, by staying on the farm, Jenny put herself and her two small children at great risk. The book doesn't try to sugarcoat things. Horatio and his brother Alexander were often underfed. There were many months when the money almost didn't or didn't make ends meet.

A single female in a rural area is very vulnerable, however strong she may be in other areas of life. More than once, Jenny was cornered and propositioned by a lonely/widowed farmer. It wouldn't have taken much for one of them to refuse to take her 'no' for an answer. She would have been powerless to stop him.

Furthermore, rambling around, over the hills at night during birthing time for the sheep had dangers all unique.  Had something happened to Jenny while her two young boys slept alone in their little shack, who's to say how they would have gotten help.

Add to that Jenny's affair with the husband of a friend towards the end of the book and you have a real winning mother figure.

Rant over.

If I can set aside my frustration with Jenny-- after all, this is a review of the book, and shouldn't be a review of Jenny's decision-making ability-- I really enjoyed this book. The story drew me in and I wanted to know what would happen to the Clares. As I mentioned, Horatio's writing is splendid. I have recommended this book to my own parents, mainly because I think my dad would love the writing and the descriptions of Wales, and my mom was raised on a sheep farm herself. If you think the story sounds interesting, by all means read it. You will likely not be disappointed.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother -- #22

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua
Rating: 3 stars

I have very conflicting feelings about this book. I tried to let it stew over night so I would be more prepared to write this review today, but it only helped marginally. Ah. Where to even begin?

Amy Chua is the eldest daughter of Chinese immigrant parents. She wrote this book as a way of trying to explain what it is to be what she calls 'a Chinese mother,' though she readily admits that there are mothers (and fathers) of all ethnicities that have the qualities she is labeling Chinese. It's just that Chinese mothers are way better at it. And possibly were the first to ever act like that. Or something. Just look at all the Chinese kids who are super musical prodigies and ridiculously smart at such young ages! See?!

OK, joking aside, I completely acknowledge that there are TONS of extremely gifted and talented and hardworking Chinese youth. I will also acknowledge that it is very obvious that these youth, wherever they are raised, have different childhoods than what I'd call a typical Western childhood. I imagine that Chua's depiction of Chinese motherhood is accurate and that Chinese mothers really are the driving force behind much of the successes enjoyed by these prodigies. (I hope that the majority of these children are at least mostly enjoying the ride, and I hope that they are able to look back on their childhood and feel good.)

None of that is what I have a problem with.

My problem lies in Chua's attitude throughout this book. She is alternately a martyr and a saint, whimpering about how her life is so hard because it has to be that way, because she must be a "Chinese mother" and so she doesn't get to just have fun with her daughters like Western mothers. She must endure them hating her so that they will have a better future. She must have shouting and screaming and death threat matches with her second daughter who refuses to practice the violin... for six hours straight. She must literally call her daughter 'garbage' for being disrespectful, because that is what her father did to her and look how she turned out. Right?

Further, she is completely and unabashedly ethnocentric. She pulls no punches with this-- she thinks the Western style of parenting is lousy and creates lazy and ignorant adults. I think it's fine and well and good to think that the way you were raised is awesome, but when you let that bleed over into thinking that other parents are bad parents because they have play dates? Um, it's time to reevaluate. How about recognizing that different is not always worse? Sometimes it's just different.

Third. She claims repeatedly that she does everything she does for her daughters-- not a bit of it for herself. But I just don't buy it. Two examples stand out to me. The first is when her second daughter is slowly starting to rebel against the craziness of her Chinese mother. Lulu happens to play the violin, an instrument Amy selected herself and forced upon Lulu at a very young age, and one that Lulu happens to excel at. But by the time Lulu is 12 and 13, she is really starting to strain against her mom's method of parenting. She wants to be able to make her own decisions some of the time. And it is also at this time that Amy decides, of course, the next thing to do is force Lulu to audition for Juilliard's pre-college program-- a super exclusive and hard-to-get-into program for young musicians. Lulu isn't planning to become a professional violinist. She isn't planning to go to Juilliard. She is having a hard time even maintaining the drive to continue in her youth orchestra. Amy doesn't want any of those things for her either, but Amy presses onward, even though Lulu's private music tutors don't think she is ready. When people ask Amy why she is doing this, why she even wants Lulu to audition for the program, Amy has no answer. She doesn't know why she is forcing this upon her daughter. Huh?

The next scenario happened roughly around the same time, when the family took a vacation to Russia. There they are, the first afternoon, sitting in a cafe in Red Square. When Amy and her husband Jed decide to order caviar, Lulu says she doesn't want any. She's 13. That seems like a reasonable response, right? But Amy flips. She orders Lulu to eat it. She threatens Lulu. She tells her she is a horrible daughter. FOR NOT EATING ANY CAVIAR. Amy pushes Lulu so hard that Lulu breaks. She yells and throws glasses. She has had it. And then Amy gets up and runs away. Runs away, across Red Square. Because she was unable to force her daughter to eat a piece of caviar, and so she has failed at motherhood.

By this time, I am convinced that Amy is convinced that being able to control your children is what it means to be a good parent. And so she is continuously making decisions for her girls and just expecting them to do whatever she wants. Even eat some random caviar in the middle of Russia. That has nothing to do with her daughter's futures or how talented they are, yet Amy cannot handle them saying no to her. There is story after story where Amy just decides what Lulu is going to do, so many small things that wouldn't affect anything if she just let Lulu have her way, but she can't back down.

The good news is that by the end of the book, Amy has figured out that the Chinese mother method of parenting is not a good fit for Lulu. Her older daughter, Sophia, has no problem with it. She has always done as Amy asked and she has the honors to show for it. She has the personality for it. Lulu does not. And so Amy is finally able to transition into a slightly different style of mothering for Lulu. She even lets Lulu cut down on her violin studies so that she can pursue tennis, something she has chosen for herself. It is a pretty satisfying transition to watch (read), even if the journey is harrowing.

My main question after finishing this book is, what are Chinese mothers in China like? I know not all of them can be like Chua describes here. Is this mainly a Chinese-American way of mothering? It kind of seems that way. Is it because they feel like they have something to prove? At points in the book it seemed like Chua was leaning towards that idea, but she never comes out with it. So I don't know.

I thought the book was fascinating, even if it was infuriating at times. I think my jaw dropped more than a few times, reading about how Chua regularly treats her daughters. I have to give her credit for laying her life bare like she did. That can't have been too easy. She knew she would come under intense criticism when this book hit the shelves. The Western way of parenting is just so radically different-- honestly, I think a lot of Western parents (and children) would label abusive much of what Chua labels good parenting. Me? Well, I don't think Western parenting is perfect by any means. I certainly don't think Chua's method of parenting, whether you call it Chinese or not, is perfect by a long shot. As usual, the truth/ideal is somewhere in the middle.

I agree with Chua that most children don't/won't want to do something unless they are good at it, and they will not get good at it unless they work at it, and they don't/won't want to work unless they are good at it. It's a downward spiral. So, if you really want your child to excel at something, at least at the beginning you are going to have to be the driving force behind their practicing. I see the logic in that.

I don't, however, see the truth in the belief that if your child is not playing at Carnegie Hall by the age of 14, she hasn't succeeded. Or that if your child ever gets an A- she has dishonored her family. I'm just not going down that road. And I think Vivian is going to turn out fine. Play dates and all.

3 stars-- I liked it. Read it someday.