Review: The Hope Chest (by Viola Shipman)

My Rating:  3.5 stars

I actually struggled a bit with the rating for this book. On the one hand, this book didn’t blow me away or impress me from a literary aspect or make me reflect on a deeper level like most of the books I rate 4 or 5 stars usually do. However, it also doesn’t deserve a low rating either (for reasons I’ll talk about below). In the end, I settled for 3.5 stars, with the “disclaimer” that if you’re trying to decide whether to read this book or not, I would say go by the review comments rather than the star rating.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was an easy read, very simple in its message of hope and love and the meaning of family. As described in the summary, this book is about Mattie, an elderly woman battling ALS, and her devoted husband of 50 years, Don, who is unable to imagine a future life without his soulmate and the love of his life. A young single mother named Rose is assigned as Mattie’s caregiver and together with her 7-year-old daughter Jeri, they help the elderly couple find hope and faith again. There is also Mattie’s hope chest and all the heirlooms in it, which play a central role in connecting everyone together.

From a literary standpoint, this book is well-written and flows amazingly well despite jumping back and forth between different time periods (seems like the switching of timelines back and forth is a technique of choice for many authors nowadays). The author is descriptive and makes each scene come alive, to the point that I felt like I was watching a movie in my head. Yet, the dialogue is simple enough that it is easy to understand and most importantly, doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story. Though the story itself is not necessarily unique and doesn’t stand out amongst the many similar-themed stories out there, it was written well enough to evoke an emotional response from readers like me who may not have connected deeply with the story, but still found it moving and heartfelt. In terms of the characters -- though all of them were likable and easily relatable, I kind of felt that the author went a little overboard with a few of the characters and the roles they played in the story, which caused some of the characters to come across as a not quite believable. Luckily this did not affect the flow of the story much.

One thing about the book that made me struggle with the scoring was the predictability of the story and, in a way, the over-simplicity of the storyline. From the first page, I pretty much already knew what was going to happen and by the end, all the pieces of the story pulled together exactly the way I thought it would. Though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se, in this instance it did take away some of the fun of reading a book and being (pleasantly or unpleasantly) surprised at things that happen outside of what is expected. This was one of the main reasons why, despite enjoying the book and liking the story and characters overall, it was hard for me to get too excited about this book or give it a higher rating than I did.

 Received advance reader's copy from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley (expected publication date: March 21st, 2017).

(Read in February 2017)

Review: Almost Missed You (by Jessica Strawser)

My Rating: 4 stars

I can't remember the last-time I pulled an "all-nighter" to finish a book that I just couldn't bring myself to put down. Well, that's exactly what I did last night – and the book was Jessica Strawser's debut novel Almost Missed You. From the very first page, I was drawn into the story of Finn, Violet, their son Bear, their friend Caitlin, and the ill-fated vacation that went horribly wrong. With each turn of the page, I was on edge to find out what would happen next.

The premise of the book seemed simple enough : a loving husband and devoted father (Finn) all of a sudden decides to abandon his wife (Violet) on the beach during a family vacation and disappears without a trace, taking their 3 year old son (Bear) with him. The wife is clueless as to what happened until she returns to the hotel room and sees that only her own belongings remain – every single item belonging to her husband and son are gone. From there, we are thrown into a gripping tale of love, betrayal, friendship, forgiveness, and most importantly, the role of fate and its ability to change people's lives forever.

This book is amazingly well-written, which is why I was quite surprised (ok, I guess "shocked" is more like it) to learn that this is the author's first book. The story is tight and the events that unfold are told through the revolving perspectives of the 3 main characters -- Finn, Violet, and their best friend Caitlin – with a timeline that switches back and forth between the present (the incident with Finn abandoning Violet and taking their son) and the past (how Finn and Violet first met and the start of their relationship). Each chapter is written in such a way as to only reveal a few hints, clues, slight details on what possibly motivated Finn to do what he did, with everything eventually coming to a head once the truth is revealed and long-held secrets are finally out in the open. As I was reading, I actually felt like I was working a jigsaw puzzle, with each chapter revealing a new detail in the lives of the characters until ultimately, all the pieces fall into place in a non-traditional sort of way.

My only issue with the book (and the main reason I gave a 4 star rating instead of 5) was the ending, which was a bit too ambiguous in my opinion. While the ending did make sense, especially given the overall theme of fate, coincidence, and missed connections, I wasn't really sure by that time whether I should be happy at the way things turned out or sad at all the sacrifices that were made to get there. And this could just be me, but I kind of sensed that the ending might have hints of a possible sequel, which I hope I'm wrong about because I'm not fond of sequels for one, and two, the story as written is powerful enough as is without need to further complicate things.

This is a great piece of contemporary fiction that is at once engaging, suspenseful, emotional, yet at the same time very much relatable, especially for those who may be going through similar issues in life. Highly recommended!!

Received advance reader's copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley (expected publication date: March 28, 2017)

(Read in February 2017)

Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (by Susan Cain)

My Rating:  4 stars

I’m not a fan of writing reviews on non-fiction books, as I tend to only read these types of books on subjects that interest me (or if I’m “required” to read for work, like all those Business books for example) and find it quite difficult to “briefly” summarize my thoughts in the short expanse of a book review. This is especially true when a nonfiction book I read is not just informative, but also insightful, impactful, and causes me to think differently about certain aspects of my life. Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking definitely falls into this category!

I’ve long known that I am an Introvert, which is one of the reasons why I was attracted to this book. However, going into it, I wasn’t really expecting to gain much, as I thought that this book would be very similar to others I’ve read on the same topic, most of which were informative but not what I would deem “enlightening.” Well, this book turned out to be very different from what I expected as far as “self-help” books go. Through meticulous research, interviews, as well as her own knowledge and experience, the author presented a very thorough account of what introversion is, its roots and history, pros and cons, and how it stacks up in comparisons to extroversion. While there were definitely some parts of the book that were way too “scientific” for my tastes, which made those sections a bit of a chore to get through, the author made up for it, in my opinion, through the various stories she recounted of her interactions with real-life introverts and extroverts (ordinary people whom she either met in the process of doing research for this book or friends/acquaintances she knew from before) as well as examples from the lives of famous public personalities such as Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Warren Buffett, Dale Carnegie, etc. I also appreciated how the author not only shared her own struggles in the area of public speaking but also personally got involved with attending workshops and motivational events to gain firsthand experience that she incorporated into the book. Though I didn’t always agree with some of the points that the author made, I respected the fact that she was able to back up those points with arguments that were both thorough and made sense.

For me personally, as an Asian-American working in the Corporate world, I was especially able to relate to the sections where the author discussed introversion and extroversion as it pertained to the business world (more specifically, to “Corporate America”) as well as to Asian culture. I gained quite a bit of insight in areas that, coincidentally, I had been struggling with recently. Of course, I’m not saying that this book is the solution to all of the issues I’ve been challenged with (nor do I expect it to play such a role), however the insight I’ve gained from reading this book has helped me put some things in perspective, and in turn, gives me a different angle with which to approach these issues.

Overall, this was a delightful read and a highly recommended one, regardless of whether you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert. The author covers both traits in enough detail that it is actually not necessary to identify with one trait or the other in order to gain something from this book. I’m actually recommending this book for some of my colleagues to read, as I feel it is more useful in the business sector than some of the traditional business books we are usually told to read (books that I find are generally less interesting and less engaging)!

(Read in January/February 2017)

Review: The Idiot (by Elif Batuman)

My Rating: 4 stars

"A portrait of the artist as a young woman." This first line from the book's summary is spot on! 

The young woman in this instance is Selin, an 18-year-old Turkish-American entering her first year of studies at Harvard. The book starts off with Selin standing in line during first day orientation on campus, waiting to get her new email address, a free dictionary, and an abundance of "printed material" that, as far as she was concerned, really were not worth standing around in long lines for. From there, the book goes on to chronicle pretty much every aspect of Selin's college life – from finding her dorm room and meeting her new roommates (who are polar opposites in every sense of the word) and then agreeing to disagree on how best to "decorate" their new shared quarters, to taking placement tests and signing up for classes in subjects that she (and no one else for that matter) had ever heard of (i.e. Constructed Worlds), taught by eccentric professors who come off as pretentious and self-absorbed, to subsequently meeting and befriending an internationally diverse group of classmates (i.e. Hannah from Korea, Svetlana from Serbia, Ivan from Hungary, twins Kevin and Sandy from China, etc.). This is basically the pattern throughout the entire book. Nothing much happens -- there are no profound revelations, no exciting story arcs, plot points, or anything of that nature. Rather, this book talks a lot about the mundane, day-to-day experiences that Selin encounters and through her own narration, we essentially accompany Selin on her "journey" of self-discovery as she recounts how these experiences help her learn more about herself. 

This book was very different from most of the other books I've read with a "coming of age" theme in that the story was told in a subtly sarcastic yet humorous way. I don't like books that try too hard to be funny, so thankfully this one was not like that at all. Selin as the narrator relays her story with a deadpan humor aspect to it that makes some of the things she says and does extremely funny without meaning to be (for example: the whole "controversy" over putting up a poster of Albert Einstein in Selin's dorm room was hilarious). It's been awhile since I've read a book that made me chuckle every couple pages!

What I loved most about the book was actually how much I was able to relate to Selin as a person. Her self-effacing personality, her indecisiveness in wanting to do certain things but ends up going the opposite direction due to overthinking things, her "doing what she is told" approach – reminded me a lot of how I was back during my own teenage years (and made me grateful for how I am now). I also found it interesting that the time period in which the story took place (the mid-1990s) mirrored my own college years as well! The nostalgia I felt with all the memories of my own college days definitely contributed to this book being such an enjoyable read for me.

With all that said though, I do agree with other reviewers that this book might not be for everyone. As much as I was able to relate to Selin, even I got annoyed at times when she would overthink some small thing for the umpteenth time (especially as it pertained to her relationship with her friend Ivan) and sometimes I felt like yelling at her to just "move on." Some parts of the book also went off on philosophical tangents that quite honestly were hard to follow. However, I was able to overlook these flaws (and a few others) due to the overall impact and relatability of the story.

Received advance reader's copy from Penguin Press via First-to-Read program

(Read in January/February 2017)

Review: Last Things (by Betta Ferrendelli)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

This was a book I became aware of while browsing Kindle's lending library – upon reading the summary, the story sounded interesting so I decided to check it out. Overall, the story itself was not bad – in fact, there was actually a lot of potential for this to have turned into something great. Unfortunately, due to poor execution, a story that would have otherwise been emotionally moving and heart-wrenching turned out bland and lacking in emotional depth (for me at least).

To me, the main problem with this book was the writing, which was very inconsistent and distracting. Some parts were written in a way that felt choppy and abrupt while other sections I felt attempted to go the "literary" route with overly descriptive paragraphs that were unnecessary and didn't do much to further the plot, but then there were other parts that flowed well. This made the story come across as being all over the place and "true" character development swallowed up by stuff that didn't need to be there. All the characters in the book endure one dramatic/tragic event after another and I'm sure the expected reaction from us as readers was to sympathize and feel for them, to be moved by their plight, to applaud their ability to overcome in the face of adversity and the relationships that formed as a result. I'm sorry, but throughout the entire time I was reading, I just couldn't get into it – I found it difficult to connect with the characters on an emotional level, even though I know I was supposed to (and from the many glowing reviews this book received on Amazon, it sounded like everyone else did feel an emotional connection except for me). The main characters themselves, despite being inconsistently developed, were actually likable enough – the friendship between Bridgette and Alexis was admirable, Eda Mae and Blanche were there when they needed to be, and the little girl Eden was indeed very sweet. However, the situations they go through were too contrived, especially as it relates to the main character Bridgette – it was almost like the author was trying to throw every bad thing possible at this character and show how she was still able to rebound from all of it and therefore make the better person she becomes at the end more significant. In a way, it was too formulaic and predictable to be believable. I also felt as though Bridgette's story wasn't actually being "told" in the relatable way that it needed to be, but rather, it was merely being "reported" by an outside party similar to what we would see in a newspaper article.

Overall, I felt like the author tried too hard to give us an emotionally packed story and in doing so, crammed way too many "heavy" emotional topics into the story without giving adequate time to explore each one and tie it back to the development of the characters. Also, the last third or so of the book was essentially "fluff" that I ended up skimming through, as I felt like the author had already said everything she had intended to say a few pages back and so the rest was unnecessary – the loose ends could've been tied up in another page or two instead of dragging on for another 3 or 4 chapters.

Basically, I don't regret reading this book and I definitely don't feel it was a completely wasted effort, but if the book had gone on for longer (324 pages was way too long as it is), I very possibly would've abandoned it in favor of a better written book (and one that didn't have as many grammar/spelling/sentence structure errors too, though it wasn't significant enough of an issue to make the book unreadable for me).

(Read in January 2017)