Review: Book Lovers (by Emily Henry)

My Rating:  4 stars

Recently, aside from reading a lot of non-fiction books (mostly related to my writing project), many of my fiction reads have been on the "serious" and "heavy" side.  Don't get me wrong though — I'm not complaining, not in the least, especially since all of those reads have been good ones.  Coincidentally though, I've also got a lot going on right now, both at work and in my personal life, resulting in fatigue and exhaustion from my stress levels being at a consistently high point.  Because of this, I felt like I needed a little bit of a break from heavier reads at the moment — I wanted something light and warm-hearted, with "feel-good" vibes that I could count on as a guarantee to lift my spirits. In going through my shelves, I came across the latest Emily Henry rom-com Book Lovers, which I had bought when it came out back in May, but hadn't gotten the chance to read yet, so I decided to go for it.  It turns out this book was the perfect choice, as it provided the exact "pick-me-up" that I was looking for, but also had emotional depth and well-drawn characters (two elements that are always important to me).

While it's true that I'm not usually a fan of romances because most are too trope-heavy for my tastes (plus I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to this love and romance stuff), there are times when I come across a romantic tale that meets the moment for me timing-wise and this was definitely one of them.  I had actually read both of Emily Henry's previous rom-coms (Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation) and while both were enjoyable overall, I didn't take to either of those books the way I did to this one.  Perhaps it's because the main protagonist in this one, Nora Stephens, is a character I could actually relate to: a career woman who works hard to build a financially secure life for herself in order to ensure her family is always well-taken care of, but at the expense of her own hopes, dreams, and desires.  In addition to constantly "fixing" everyone else's problems while neglecting her own, Nora also sacrifices her dream job as an editor in favor of one as a literary agent that pays well, but is cutthroat and requires her to work constantly.  She also doesn't allow herself to have a love life because that would require too much emotional investment — something she doesn't have time for anyway but also because letting her guard down and allowing her vulnerabilities to show are absolutely not options for her (as she mentions herself at one point, she hasn't cried in over a decade because it's not something she can afford to do).  I actually saw a lot of myself in Nora, which is probably why I was able to resonate with her character so deeply.  Of course, it also made me root for her and Charlie even more, despite the fact that I already knew they would definitely have a happy ending no matter what (this IS a rom-com after all).

One of the things that has become a "trademark" of sorts with Henry's books is the witty banter between the main couple in the story and in this one, there was plenty of it, which I loved.  The banter between Nora and Charlie was funny, smart, and oh so satisfying to read — I can't remember the last time I had so much fun following two characters' back-and-forth dialogue. 

Another dynamic that made this book more endearing to me than Henry's previous rom-coms was the relationship between Nora and her sister Libby.  I love the way Henry wrote their relationship — each scene where the two of them were together, there was a genuineness and ease to their relationship that jumped off the page for me (not to mention that it made me wish I had a sister).  

In addition, I also enjoyed the "bookish" thread that ran through the entire story.  Aside from having both main characters work in the world of book publishing, there were also many book references, quotes, and puns that book nerds like me are sure to appreciate. 

This was definitely my favorite of Emily Henry's rom-coms and while it didn't change my sentiment toward rom-coms and romances in general (I'm still not much of a fan), it was absolutely a welcome departure from my usual reads.  I also just found out that Henry has a new book scheduled to release in April of next year — that one doesn't have a bookish vibe like this one, but I still look forward to reading it.

Review: Indelible City (by Louisa Lim)

My Rating:  4 stars

I had read Louisa Lim's previous book about the Tiananmen Square Massacre a few years back and one of the things I remember most was how succinctly Lim was able to convey the "collective amnesia" approach that China used to essentially "erase" the incident from its history. Even though that book was written in 2014, I never actually knew of the book's existence until June 2019, when I accidentally stumbled across it and decided, given the familiarity of the subject matter, I just had to read it.  As I mentioned in my review of that book, reading it couldn't have been more timely, since it happened to be right in the middle of the protests in Hong Kong over the extradition law. Coincidentally, now 3 years later, Lim has come out with yet another timely book, this time about those exact events that occurred in Hong Kong in 2019, but also covering the historical details that led up to it. This new book, titled Indelible City, obviously hit much closer to home for me, since I'm from Hong Kong and continue to be intimately connected to the city where I was born, even though it has now became a place that I no longer recognize.

To say that this book is about the protests though is a bit inaccurate, as it's actually about much more than that.  The first half of the book covers the history of Hong Kong, from when it became a British colony in the late 1800s up through the handover back to China in 1997 as well as the immediate years after through the early 2000s.  Interwoven throughout this narrative are background details related to Lim's own experiences as a mixed race Eurasian child who wasn't born in Hong Kong, but grew up there and also lived most of her life there.  Also woven into the narrative is the story of the King of Kowloon, which most Hong Kongers are likely familiar with, but not to the level of detail portrayed in here.  This first half of the book I actually loved because of the way Lim was able to clearly convey the unique history, culture, and identity of Hong Kong — which, to me, is important due to the lack of books out there (written in English) that authentically tell the story of Hong Kong (case in point: I've been searching for these types of books most of my reading life and continue to do so).  Up to this point, the majority of the narratives out there about Hong Kong are either told from the Western perspective or from the Mainland Chinese perspective — both of which are tremendously flawed and rife with biases that favor the side telling the story.  This book is unique in that it is one of the few books out there where the narrative is actually from the Hong Konger's perspective (and Lim definitely did a great job in the book explaining why this is of such huge significance).  I can't emphasize enough how satisfying it is to read about something I'm so intimately familiar with (in this case, the story of Hong Kong) and to see it actually done right — the details from the geography of the city, to the people, the culture, the language, the values that we hold dear, etc — things that someone from the outside who isn't connected to the city would have a difficult time truly understanding. 

Having said all that, the second half of the book was more of a tedious read for me, especially the section that covered the politics-heavy period from the Umbrella Movement in 2014 up through enactment of the national security law in November 2020.  Of course I understand the necessity of including these events due to the outsized role they play in Hong Kong's identity and history, and I definitely appreciate the amount of detail that Lim uses to relay the story — but for someone like me, who 1) hates reading about politics, and 2) was already more than familiar with all the details of those events as they occurred due to my connections to the city (it's not an understatement to say that I lost countless hours of sleep endlessly monitoring the protests and everything that was happening on the ground in Hong Kong at that time) — so seeing all those details rehashed all over again made my head hurt, to be honest.   Again though, this is strictly just me — others who may not be familiar with Hong Kong or the events that occurred the past couple years will likely find these details useful.

I could actually go on and on about this book, as there is so much in here worth bringing up, especially in the context of how much of what Lim writes about actually echoes my own experience of Hong Kong.  But I will refrain, as I prefer that people read this book for themselves first — if anything, for the foundational knowledge that it provides about a city that is often misunderstood.  This book is rare in that it actually gives voice to people whose opinions, throughout history, aren't usually heard or counted: those living in Hong Kong who have no choice but to accept (whether willingly or unwillingly) their fate of forever being rendered invisible.  To me, this aspect alone makes this book worth reading.

Review: Reading Like a Writer (by Francine Prose)

My Rating:  4 stars

As I mentioned in an earlier review of a different book, I was inspired to finally start my book writing project a few weeks ago and while it's been slow-going (and most likely will continue to be), I'm glad I decided to start working on it rather than continue to hold off until I have "more time."   Because of this, I've been trying to squeeze some books about writing (most of which I've had on my TBR for ages but just never got the chance to pick up) into my reading schedule, as I wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of inspiration.  One of the books that a writer friend pointed me to as a "must-read" is author Francine Prose's bestselling classic Reading Like a Writer:  A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. I had actually never heard of this book prior to my friend recommending it (and I'm also not familiar with Francine Prose as a writer — I had heard of her, but had never read anything by her), but as soon as I saw that title, I just knew I had to pick it up right away – which I'm glad I did because there were so many insightful ideas in here!  

 

Prose starts her book with a question that has been asked many times over the years and to which there technically isn't a straightforward answer:  "Can creative writing be taught?"  While Prose never attempts to actually answer this question directly (which makes sense because, in my opinion, it's impossible to answer simply "yes" or "no" to this particular question), she does use her own experience on how she "learned to write" to explain her thoughts on it.  I'm not going to even attempt to summarize the entirety of her experience / thoughts (it's not possible to anyway), but I wanted to share a few quotes that essentially form the premise of what her book is about.

 

• "Like most – maybe all – writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books."
• "In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and re-read the authors I most loved.  I read for pleasure, first, but also more analytically, conscious of style, of diction, of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring a plot, creating characters, employing detail and dialogue.  And as I wrote, I discovered that writing, like reading, was done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a time."
• "I read closely, word by word, sentence by sentence, pondering each deceptively minor decision the writer had made."
• "What writers know is that, ultimately, we learn to write by practice, hard work, by repeated trial and error, success and failure, and from the books we admire."
• "And so the book that follows represents an effort to recall my own education as a novelist and to help the passionate reader and would-be writer understand how a writer reads."

 

In the version of the book that I bought, there is a reprinted interview in the back that Francine Prose did with The Atlantic in July 2006 (around the time the book first came out) where she adds additional insight about why she wrote this book, which  I feel are worth sharing as well (if you do decide to pick up this book, I strongly recommend getting the version that has the interview).

 

• "If I had to really characterize the book, I'd say it's about the pleasure of reading and about learning to write."
• "For me, writing this book was a pretty passionate endeavor.  What I'm hoping is that some of that passion gets through.  Because it seems to me that the most important thing in any discussion of reading and writing is that intense commitment to the whole process."

 

The following is one of my favorite quotes from that interview.  In response to the interviewer's question referring back to another interview that Prose did back in 1998 where she said that she became a writer because she was an avid reader, so she would often get perplexed by the fact that some of her students who wanted to be writers either weren't actually reading or weren't reading passionately:  "That hasn't gotten any better, let me tell you.  In fact, I can look back and identify a few incidents that led up to my writing the book….I don't quite get it.  On a very basic level, I can't figure out why people would want to write unless they like to read.  I mean, what would be the point?  For the incredibly glamorous fast track lifestyle?  I don't think so." (The wit in those last 2 sentences made me chuckle!)

 

One of the things I like about this book is that, despite the title, it doesn't actually read like a "how-to" guide on writing.  Prose doesn't tell the reader how to write or what words to use / not to use, etc.  Rather, she takes some of the basic elements of story writing (i.e. sentence structure, character, details, etc.) and, using excerpts from works by other authors (both classic and contemporary, but mostly classic), illustrates how they utilized those elements in their writing. Personally, I found this method useful, though of course, depending on what you're looking for in books of this nature, this could be a huge turn-off for those who prefer a more traditional "how-to" approach — which is why I feel it's necessary to mention so that if you plan to pick this up, you know what you're getting into.

After showing us many examples of writing that did a good job of demonstrating the particular element the chapter focused on, Prose caps it all at the end with the assertion that there is actually not one "correct" way to write, which I found interesting.  She writes:   "And actually, many things that we ourselves consider indispensable for a work of fiction may turn out, the more we read, to be superfluous.  If the culture sets up a series of rules that the writer is instructed to observe, reading will show you how these rules have been ignored in the past, and the happy outcome.  So let me repeat, once more:  literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none."

 

By now, it's probably quite obvious that I got a lot out of this book.  Having said that, of course the book wasn't perfect and there was definitely room for improvement in some areas in terms making the book more readable and accessible overall — i.e.: some of the excerpts used were a bit too long, and in some cases, a little repetitive in illustrating a particular element; also would've preferred a better balance between excerpts from classic works and ones from more contemporary works — but definitely not a dealbreaker in my opinion. 

Not only did this book provide me with some great reading and writing advice, it was also funny and engaging, which I totally was not expecting.  I actually wish that I had read this book way back when it first came out, as it probably would've motivated me to start my book project earlier.  I especially appreciate the fact that Prose's overall message with this book is so simple (how to read like a writer), yet still tremendously helpful.  Case in point – I don't remember which section I was reading exactly, but as I put the book down for a quick break after finishing one of the chapters, I was hit by a sudden bout of inspiration and instead of picking up the book to continue reading right at that moment (which was my original intention), I ended up spending that time working out a scene that I had struggled with writing earlier.  

 

After reading this book, in addition to inspiring me to want to apply some of these concepts to my own reading and writing life, I'm also eager to check out some of Francine Prose's other works as well!

 

 

Review: Signal Fires (by Dani Shapiro)

My Review:  5 stars

It's not often that I find myself at a complete loss for words after finishing a book, to the point that I have to sit with it for a few days in order to form any semblance of coherent thoughts to actually put down on the page. That's how awed I was by Dani Shapiro's latest book, Signal Fires (her return to fiction after 15 years).  Though I had not read any of Shapiro's fiction or non-fiction works prior to this (something that I intend to rectify of course), I decided to pick this one up because of strong recommendations by a few book friends who said I would probably love this because the writing style is reminiscent of one of my favorite authors, Fredrik Backman.  And they were right, of course, as I did end up loving this one!

This book is one where it's best to go in knowing little to nothing about the plot in order to get the full emotional experience of it (though with that said, I do think that the publisher did a darn good job with the summary, which came across to me as carefully crafted with particular word choice in mind so as not to give away certain important plot points).  This is a character-driven story through and through (which I love!), but uniquely told in a nonlinear format that jumps back and forth between multiple perspectives as well as timeframes.  Usually, books of this nature (told from multiple characters' perspectives plus jumping back and forth in time) don't work too well for me, as it's distracting and often interrupts my reading flow — but for some reason (and surprisingly), it didn't bother me in the slightest with this book.  In fact, I barely noticed the unusual structure as I was reading, only figuring it out when I finished the book and was getting ready to write this review — undoubtedly a testament to Shapiro's mesmerizing and exquisite storytelling.  Indeed, I could not put this book down once I started it, nearly foregoing sleep just to finish it.

As mentioned earlier, I love character-driven stories, which was definitely an advantage going into this one, but even without that predisposition, I probably would've fallen in love with all the characters in here anyway based on the way they were written.  My favorite character was definitely Waldo, but Ben and Theo also stole a piece of my heart with their story arcs.  Even Shenkman and Sarah, two hugely flawed characters who tried so hard to do the right thing in the hopes of turning their lives around, got to me emotionally with their struggles, to the point that I was rooting for them as well.

Emotionally, there was actually a lot to unpack with this story and if I'm being honest, I would say I'm not quite ready to move on from this one yet (though I know I need to given the pile of books I have yet to get to).  I admire and appreciate the way that Shapiro was able to take life's most ordinary moments (moments we often take for granted) and build them into a story so rich with emotional nuance and poignancy. This was a quiet but powerful story, with an undercurrent of sadness throughout that broke my heart, yet at the same time, there was also an overarching message of hope and love that balanced things out so beautifully.  

Needless to say, I recommend this book wholeheartedly, though be prepared for the emotional journey that it will take you on.  For me personally, I intend to delve further into Shapiro's backlist books when I get a chance — can't wait!

Review: Now is Not the Time to Panic (by Kevin Wilson)

My Rating: 4 stars

"The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers.  We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us."

The plot of Kevin Wilson's latest novel, Now Is Not the Time to Panic, revolves around this phrase in a huge way.  Of course, how and why this phrase is important is not going to make sense to anyone who hasn't read the novel and I actually don't plan on revealing too much of the plot in this review, as the unique nature of this book is that you need to read it for yourself in order to see where the story takes you.  All you need to know is that majority of the story takes place in Coalfield, Tennessee in 1996 and the two main characters are sixteen-year-old misfits Frances "Frankie" Budge and Ben "Zeke" Brown.  Frankie and Zeke, two lonely teens from broken families, meet for the first time during the summer of 1996 and, largely left to their own devices, work on a "project" together that ends up changing their lives.

With two teenage protagonists at its core, this is no doubt a coming-of-age story, but it's one unlike anything I've ever read.  I will admit that, at first, I worried about whether the story would have too much of a YA feel to it, and while there is definitely some "teenage angst" with the characters, the way it is written feels very clearly "adult" to me.  Kevin Wilson has a unique way with words and with that, is able to tell a compelling, original, and emotionally nuanced story quite effortlessly.  Indeed, there were so many different emotions that went though my mind as I read this one — it was heartwarming, yet also heartbreaking; funny at times, but also sad and serious when it needed to be; weird to the point that, at times, I honestly wasn't too sure what I was reading, but yet some parts were so familiar and relatable, I found myself nodding in recognition;  there were moments of sweetness (though not the overly saccharine kind), but also moments that were anger-inducing where I couldn't help but shake my head at how things got that way.  

One of the things I loved most about this story was how realistically-rendered the characters were.  Wilson didn't shy away from writing about the "messiness" of his characters' lives — which, in doing so, reflected the realities of ordinary life in a universally resonant way that made it easy to connect with the characters despite a reader such as myself having completely different backgrounds and experiences than them. 

I definitely recommend this book, but want to also put in a word for the Author's Note, which I feel is just as much of a "must-read" as the book itself.  It was of course interesting to read about the inspiration for this story, but more importantly, the insights it provided enhanced my understanding of the story, which I always appreciate.  After finishing this book, I immediately put Wilson's other works on my TBR — hopefully I'll be able to get to those soon!

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.