Finally a book I really liked! After so many bad novels, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, is a welcome delight. This is the story of Kimberly, an 11 year old Chinese girl who comes to Brooklyn from Hong Kong with her mother, only to live in the projects and spend her days working in a sweatshop beside her mother. She doesn’t speak a word of English or understand anything about American culture when she arrives. However, Kimberly is extremely…
I so much enjoyed the beginning of this book, that I had high hopes for finally sinking my teeth into a good story. Aimee Benders novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake tells the story of eight year old Rose Edelstein who discovers she has a very unusual gift. She can feel the emotions in food when she eats it- how the cook was feeling when they made it, where all the ingredients come from, if a person is sad, rushed,…
I am happy to suspend my disbelief when reading a story, and I even try really hard to believe in all the characters. I come in giving the author the benefit of the doubt. But Sena Jeter Naslund’s new novel Adam & Eve stretched beyond my capacity to forgive it’s weaknesses. The story is about Lucy, wife of a scientist 10 years in the future who is murdered for his discovery of extra-terrestial life (she wears his much sought after flash…
Swamplandia! is the amazing new novel by Karen Russell. It’s been a long time since I’ve come across such an original book with such compelling characters and great writing. I was immediatley pulled into the story of 12 year old Ava Bigtree and the Bigtree family of alligator wrestlers in Florida. Ava is wise and strong beyond her years, but she is still just a girl. I felt as if I travelled deep into the swamp with Ava on her…
Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela is a wonderful novel set in northern Sudan and Egypt during the 1950’s, when Sudan was gaining it’s independence from Britain. This is a deeply moving story of the Abuzeid family led by Mahmoud Abuzeid, the patriarch, with his 2 very different wives (one very traditional and one modern) and their children and extended families. It highlights the cultural differences between Muslims in Sudan and Cairo at the time. The novel is inspired by the life…
I love Amy Tan, so I was excited to read one of her more recent novels, Saving Fish From Drowning. Although this was a departure from her usual subject matter, I really liked this novel. It is narrated by a very fiesty ghost named Bibi Chen, and follows the journey of 12 travellers into China and Burma on what ends up being a very unexpected experience deep in the Burmese jungle. The book brings to light the plight of the…
The Rice Mother by Rani Manica drew my attention because it is written by a Malaysian woman and the story is set in Malaysia. This alone is a rare treat and not something we often get to read. The novel tracks 4 generations of a Tamil family from Ceylon living in Malaysia, starting with Lakshmi, the indomitable rice mother herself. She is married off under false pretenses at only 14 to a much older man and sent to live with…
For a first novel, Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg is quite brilliant. It is set during a long drought in the Arizona desert and there are two main characters here, Katherine, (referred to only as Girl or Darling or Daughter) and the landscape itself. Katherine marries Son when she is only 17 and they live together in the old adobe house with his parents on Old Border Road. She soon finds she is spending most of her time with her…
I am a big fan of Anne Rice, especially the Vampire Chronicles, so I was looking forward to the latest from her. Of Love and Evil is the second novel in her Seraphim Series (somehow I missed the first one.) This slim little novel is what I would call Anne Rice-lite. This is the story of Toby, a hired assasin who has changed his ways, and with the help of the angel Malchiah he is given the chance to do good…
I really liked the first half of the novel My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares. I love the premise of retaining one’s memory from life to life as you are reincarnated in a different body each time. It reminded me of ‘Interview with a Vampire,’ or ‘Highlander.’ Even though those characters are immortal, Daniel, the main character in this novel shares many characteristics with them. Such as learning many languages through the centuries, playing many instruments, stockpiling wealth, knowing science, history,…