Review: Family Lore (by Elizabeth Acevedo)

My Rating:  3 stars

I read Elizabeth Acevedo's YA novel-in-verse The Poet X in book club a few years back and absolutely loved it.  I loved the book even more after I got the chance to watch an author talk that Acevedo did where she read an excerpt from the book out loud (with her being a poet, this was a wonderful treat that definitely enhanced my experience of the book).  Given this admiration for Acevedo's previous work, I was of course excited when I heard she would have a new book out this summer and that it would be her first novel for adults.

Family Lore is a story about a Dominican-American family told from the rotating perspectives of the Marte sisters — Matilde, Flor, Pastora, Camila — and their daughters Ona and Yadi.  Written in a non-linear format, the story is centered around the living wake that second eldest sister Flor decides to throw for herself to celebrate the long life that she has lived.  While this request may not be particularly unusual, it sets off anxiety and panic within this family because of the special "gift" that Flor possesses:  the ability to "see death" — that is, to predict (in some cases, to the exact day) when someone will die (the premonition comes in a dream to her). Whether Flor saw her own death or someone else's, she refuses to say, which has the family speculating as to the motivation behind the wake.  Flor's sister Pastora also has a "gift" of her own — the ability to "see truth" whereby she can tell just from the way someone talks and the tone of their voice whether they are lying or not.  So the family looks to Pastora to hopefully talk to Flor and get some answers— but instead, Pastora chooses to confront oldest sister Matilde about her unfaithful husband Rafa, whose philandering ways Matilde has tolerated for decades.  Meanwhile, their next generation, Yadi and Ona, have their own struggles and issues that they are secretly dealing with.  In the three days leading up to the wake, some things happen that lead the various characters to reminisce and reflect about their pasts, with a few "secrets" that undoubtedly spill forth in the process.  This is the part where the story jumps back and forth not just between time periods (past and present, though without specific timeframe), but also between settings, with scenes taking place in the Dominican Republic as well as in the United States (specifically in New York).

This was an interesting story that I found to be beautifully written with prose that was both poetic and lyrical.  With that said however, the format, unfortunately, didn't quite work for me. First, there were way too many characters, all with their own unique backstories that were told in alternating chapters non-chronologically, which made things hard to follow.  As I was reading, I was having a hard time keeping everyone's story straight, which was frustrating (though it helped that Acevedo included a character table at the front of the book, which I had to refer back to more often than not). The other aspect that I felt didn't really work were the snippets of commentary from Ona that were inserted throughout the story.  Ona's character, an anthropologist, interviewed various members of her family for a research project she was working on, and excerpts from those interviews were woven into the story — which I didn't mind, except that I felt those most of those snippets and segments didn't contribute much to advancing the plot, and given the non-linear nature of the story, it just made things more confusing (for me at least).  Thirdly, the story felt too scattered, with multiple threads that seemed to go in different directions, and while the threads did come together at the end, once I got there, I still felt like I didn't really know what was going on (and it also didn't help that the ending itself felt too abrupt and ambiguous, which made an already complicated structure even more confusing).

Overall, I felt that this story had potential, it's just that it was executed in a way that was more complex than it needed to be.  I did find several of the sisters' backstories interesting, especially in seeing how some of the things that happened in their lives shaped who they eventually became — but it felt like too much to explore all at the same time.  Perhaps a better approach would've been to focus only on one or two main characters' arcs rather than try to cover everyone's story all at once. As a whole though, I did appreciate what Acevedo was trying to do and indeed, there was much that I did enjoy about the book, but unfortunately, the tedious and frustrating reading experience won out in the end.

Though Acevedo's first foray into adult fiction didn't quite land for me, I continue to be an admirer of her YA works, with The Poet Xremaining an unforgettable favorite.  I also continue to look forward to any future works she might come out with, be it YA or adult — though hopefully the next adult one will be a better experience.

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.

Review: Emma (by Jane Austen)

My Rating:  5 stars

I've been in a nostalgic mood lately and felt compelled to revisit some of the entertainment that had given me so much joy in my youth. Back during my school days, I was always an avid reader who pretty much read everything under the sun and never had a preference for any particular author or book.  That all changed when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time in eighth grade and fell in love with Jane Austen's unique sense of humor as well as writing style.  Up to that point, I had already read a fair share of "classic" novels, but it wasn't until I encountered Austen's work for the first time that I realized reading classics could actually be so much fun.  Austen was the first author I remember publicly declaring as a favorite (to the point that I was nicknamed "Austen fangirl" throughout junior high and high school).  While my "favorites" list has expanded to include plenty of other authors over the past three decades, Austen has remained, without a doubt, at the very top of that list (a position that I don't foresee ever changing).

So I guess it should come as no surprise that, to satisfy the nostalgic itch to re-immerse myself in Austen's world, I decided to enroll in a class about Jane Austen  that I had come across recently.  The first book we explored in class was Emma, the "comedy of manners" that happened to be one of the few Austen works that I had never read in its entirety.  Reading Emma for the first time was a delight!  Of course, it was very different from P&P (which will always be my all-time favorite Austen work), especially with its focus more on language and prose than plot.  Also, in another departure from P&P, the main characters here (including our main "heroine" Emma Woodhouse) were less likable, and could even be considered "annoying" at certain points — but yet, despite their flaws, you can't help rooting for them by the end of the story.   For me, this is one of the brilliant aspects of Austen's writing — the way she is able to make her characters memorable to the reader, even the unlikable ones.

There is so much that could be said about this book, especially in comparisons to Austen's other works. This, for me, is one of the joys of studying an author in depth and seeing how their style evolves (or doesn't) across their works.  One of the things that has always stood out to me about Austen's works is how each re-read of the same novel still manages to feel different — for example, you catch things that you might not have noticed the first go-round, or some scenes / dialogue take on a different meaning upon re-reading.  In that sense, Austen's writing is nuanced, yet not complex to the point that it it takes a lot of brainpower and deep thinking to understand what she is trying to say.  While I don't plan to re-read Emma any time soon (mostly because I have an overflowing TBR stack that I need to get through), I am looking forward to staying in Austen's world a little longer by exploring (and in some cases, actually re-reading) some of her other works in the coming weeks.

Review: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (by Satoshi Yagisawa)

My Rating:  3 stars

I was drawn to this story initially because of the bookish premise.  After twenty five year old Takako loses her boyfriend and her job in the span of a day, she has nowhere else to turn — so when her uncle Satoru invites her to stay in a room above his Morisaki bookshop in exchange for helping him watch the shop several hours a day, Takako agrees, even though she has never been a reader and has no interest in books.  When she arrives at the location of her family's bookshop in Jimbocho, she finds that the area is actually a book lover's paradise where "everywhere you turned, there was another bookshop."  At the Morisaki bookshop, Takako is (literally) surrounded by books day and night — not surprisingly, she also encounters various people who love to read.  Pretty soon, Takako experiences for herself the healing power of books, but more significantly, her stay at the bookshop ends up changing her life in ways she never thought possible.

This was a simple, quiet story filled with eccentric yet endearing characters that you couldn't help but love — for me, these were the main strengths of the book.  Unfortunately, the execution didn't quite work for me, as the writing felt choppy and stilted, with some sections sounding really awkward to read.  The pacing also felt off, with the two parts that the story was divided into feeling like two different books, which kind of threw me off a bit.  I'm not sure if something was lost in translation or the original work was written this way, but I just felt like there was more potential to the story than was tapped into.  And I must admit that I was a tad disappointed with the second half of the story veering away from the bookish aspects that played such a huge role in the first half.

Overall, this was an "okay" read.  I enjoyed some aspects over others and definitely felt the first half of the story was much stronger. This is an instance where I wish I knew Japanese so I could check out the original work and see if the experience would be different.  Ah well, that's how things go, I guess.

Received ARC from Harper Perennial via NetGalley.

Review: The Postcard (by Anne Berest)

My Rating: 4 stars

This was a unique read for me — not in terms of subject matter of course, as I've read plenty of books over the years about World War II from various perspectives as well as about the Holocaust. Rather, the "uniqueness" of this particular reading experience had to do with the format of the story, which was a combination of historical fiction and autobiography that I honestly had never encountered before. The formatting of the story wasn't exactly seamless, as the switching between first, second, and third person narrative, plus some of the dialogue and wording used made it relatively easy to tell which parts were historical and which parts were biographical. Also, there were quite a few references to exact addresses, dates, titles, and direct quotes/references from research material inserted throughout the story (especially in the first two-thirds of the book) that sometimes made it feel like I was reading a history textbook instead of a novel. Though these things were distracting and did take me out of the story at times, fortunately the storytelling overall was compelling enough that, after awhile, I became absorbed in the story and stopped thinking about the format as much.

The story is actually based on the author Anne Berest's own family history and the mysterious postcard that her mother Lelia received in January 2003 with four names on it: Ephraim, Emma, Noemie, Jacques. Ephraim and Emma Rabinovitch were Lelia's grandparents (her mother Myriam was their eldest daughter), while Noemie and Jacques were her aunt and uncle (Myriam's siblings) — all four of them had died in Auschwitz in 1942. Lelia's mother Myriam had survived the war, but had died 8 years prior (in 1995). The postcard is put away in a drawer and forgotten about until years later, when something happens in Anne's life that moves her to investigate the origins of the postcard (who sent it and why). With the help of her mother Lelia as well as several others, Anne sets out on a journey to piece together her family history in the hopes that it will lead her to the truth.

Given the subject matter, this was undoubtedly a difficult read at times. The scenes describing the atrocities of war and the aftermath were especially hard to stomach, to the point that I had to put the book down for a bit to regain my bearings in order to continue on with the rest of the story. Majority of the story took place in France and there was a lot of detail about the French government's role in helping to perpetuate the Holocaust through their actions of arresting and deporting Jews (oftentimes in collaboration with the Nazi regime in Germany) — which was an interesting angle that I haven't seen explored often.

The novel itself was actually written in French originally, but the English translation was so well done that it was honestly hard to tell (if I hadn't already known going into this one that it was a translation, I would've never guessed). Like I mentioned earlier, this one actually crossed several genres (historical, contemporary, literary, biography, etc.) but the "mystery" at its core, with Anne trying to find out who sent the postcard, was one of the elements that kept me turning the pages. Also, despite the page count (my hard cover version was exactly 475 pages), plus I had figured out early on who sent the postcard and why (I was actually surprised how spot on my theory was), at no point did that diminish my appreciation of the story.

Again, with the heaviness of the subject matter, this was not an easy read by any means and not surprisingly, it did take a bit of an emotional toll on me. Nevertheless, I still recommend this one, as it's both a necessary and timely read given some of the things happening in society currently. I'm glad I ghost the chance to read this and I hope more people will as well.

Review: Good Fortune (by C.K. Chau)

My Rating:  4.5 stars

As a long time Jane Austen fan, I've re-read her most popular (and well-known) novel Pride and Prejudice more times than I can count since encountering it for the first time back in 8th grade (don't ask me how long ago that was, lol).  Given how much I love P&P (it's definitely one of my favorite novels of all time), I've always been extremely wary of any books that attempt to retell or reimagine the classic in any way, shape, or form — that is to say, I try to avoid reading any retellings as much as possible.  With that said, there are occasions (albeit rare) where I'm drawn to a book precisely because of its P&P and/or Austen adjacent angle and end up really glad that I decided to give the book a chance due to how much I enjoyed the experience.  C.K. Chau's debut novel Good Fortune, a contemporary retelling of P&P set in New York's Chinatown, fit the bill perfectly. 

I was actually first drawn to this book out of curiosity, as I was interested in seeing what a Chinese-American spin on P&P would look like. Then, after I read the premise, I was even more interested, as I saw that the book would combine several things that were long familiar to me — the Pride and Prejudice story, Chinese culture and traditions, an immigrant family story, cultural identity, and best of all, an entire cast of characters who were all ethnically Chinese (with the exception of one character).  Once I started reading the book however, I was even more delighted to discover that the family at the center of the story (as well as most of the major characters) were all from Hong Kong (my birth city), and more importantly, the entire story would be permeated with not just Chinese culture, but more specifically Cantonese culture (which is what I grew up with and know very well).  I can't emphasize enough how rare it is to see Cantonese culture — my culture — represented so authentically in a mainstream American novel (and it's even more refreshing to see both the good and the not-so-good aspects represented).  I loved how Chau was able to seamlessly work in so many elements from a culture that I was more than familiar with:  the family-run Chinese restaurant where everyone was expected to chip in to keep the business afloat; the nosy and gossipy neighborhood aunties with their relentlessly prying questions (one of my favorite scenes in the book was during Alexa's wedding when the 5 Chen sisters were forced to politely endure the way-too-personal rapid-fire questions from a bunch of oblivious aunties — a "ritual" that I've endured countless times growing up, lol); the Cantonese turns-of-phrases sprinkled throughout the dialogue (in addition to the actual Cantonese words, I got a kick out of seeing colloquialisms such as "ai ya" and "aa" and the "la" at the end of some sentences); the descriptions of local Cantonese cuisine and dishes that, frankly, made me salivate; the Hong Kong pop culture references (I laughed when I saw TVB dramas mentioned at one point in the story); and what I loved most of all, the weekly Cantonese family tradition of yum cha (aka dim sum) — in one (amongst many) of my favorite scenes, Chau perfectly captured the "mad chaos" yum cha experience as we Cantonese are used to experiencing it: the standing room only wait amongst a sea of people for your number to be called, the musical chairs dance / fight for a table, the designated person in the family responsible for chasing down the aunties with the dim sum carts, then getting back to the table only to find that the only food left is whatever you have in your hand (which you had to claw tooth and nail to get), the entire meal taking up most of your morning, only to leave hungrier than when you first arrived…my first thought when I read that entire scene was that only someone who grew up immersed in the Cantonese culture could write a scene like that (needless to say, I LOVED IT!!!). 

Of course, what would a P&P retelling be without the P&P story elements?  In this aspect, I felt that Chau did a brilliant job.  It was fascinating to see how she brought the story from 19th century Regency England to 21st century contemporary America, while also adapting to the modern sensibilities of the times.  Most of the characters we're  familiar with are here (though some with different names and backgrounds):  the Chen family headed by the father Vincent (who, like Mr Bennett, is constantly seeking peace from the chaos of the household), the mother Jade (a high-strung hypochondriac), and 5 daughters Jane, Elizabeth (nicknamed LB in the story), Mary, Kitty, and Lydia;  Darcy Wong, his sister Geo (short for Georgiana); his friend Brendan Lee who has 2 sisters named Caroline and Louisa; Charlotte Luo (LB's best friend); Geoffrey Collins (yes, that Collins), who is the only non-Chinese character in the story; Lady Catherine (yes, there is a character actually named "Right Honorable Lady Catherine") and of course, the main villain Wickham (though he is not called anything close to Wickham in the story, but P&P fans will instantly recognize him as the Wickham equivalent). In terms of plot points, Chau definitely adapted the story to modern times — replacing marriage proposals with job offers, an email confession instead of a handwritten letter, fundraising galas instead of elaborate society balls, etc. (just a few examples). And YES, Pemberley absolutely makes an appearance (but you will have to read the book to find out how and what).  Oh and there is PLENTY of Austen-style humor in here too (gosh, I can't remember the last time I laughed so often while reading a novel).

A quick mention regarding our favorite couple (how could I resist?) — the Elizabeth in this story was actually more "bad-ass" than Austen's original version, which I found interesting and cool (I ended up liking this version of Elizabeth as much as I did our beloved Lizzie).  In terms of the character of Darcy in this story — he was ok, but it was honestly hard for me to picture a Chinese Darcy…regardless though, I think it's going to be a losing battle no matter who tries to "become" Darcy, as whenever I hear that name, the only face that will forever come to mind is Colin Firth's (lol).

By now, it's probably pretty obvious how much I loved this one (though part of me is still a bit surprised).  While it's not necessary to have read Pride and Prejudice prior to reading this one (since the story works pretty well on its own), the reading experience is definitely a lot more fun and enjoyable if you're familiar with the original story (and it's a bonus if you're familiar with the culture aspects as well).  This clever and charming story ended up being the P&P retelling that I didn't know I wanted to read.  I can't wait to see what C.K. Chau has in store for us next!

Received ARC from HarperVia Publishing via NetGalley.

Review: The Brightest Star (by Gail Tsukiyama)

My Rating:  2.5 stars



I had read Gail Tsukiyama's previous novel,The Color of Air, and absolutely loved it!  With that book, I was captivated by the beautiful, atmospheric writing as well as the emotionally poignant story that I sometimes still think about even now.  So of course, when I learned that Tsukiyama would have a new novel out — and it would be about one of the most important trailblazers for entertainers of Chinese descent in Hollywood, Anna May Wong — I was, of course, excited beyond words.  Not surprisingly, I had high expectations going into this one and was expecting to love it as much as I did Tsukiyama's previous work. Sadly, that didn't turn out to be the case, as this book ended up being a huge letdown.  My first thought when I finished this book was that it couldn't have been written by the same author as The Color of Air, as the writing style and execution here stood in such stark contrast, it honestly baffled me.  

One of the biggest problems I had with this book was the way that the story was told. Narrated from Anna May Wong's first person point of view, the story starts off in 1960, when Anna May is making a comeback from semi-retirement and is on a train across the country for a press tour to promote her latest film.  She brings with her a stack of notebooks where she has written down her life story and as she starts reading them on the train ride, the timeline switches to 1913, when Anna May is 8 years old.  From there, she takes us pretty much year-by-year through every aspect of her life, from when she was a child who would sneak off to watch movies, to her early days in Hollywood, to the height of her career and the last days of her life.  In the process, every single movie that Anna May had been in — whether as an extra or with a significant role — is covered in great detail (in addition to basic movie facts such as who the director was, the names of the cast members, where and when the movie premiered, the reactions from audiences and critics, etc., there were also details on how she got each part, what led up to it, how she was treated and how she felt, what the aftermath was, etc. etc.)  Normally, first person narrative wouldn't be a problem, but in this instance, the voice was incredibly stilted and devoid of emotion — to the point that I felt like I was reading a long-form Wikipedia entry of Anna May's life (except told in first person). Also, the way nearly every acting venture and personal milestone in Anna May's life was recounted chronologically, and in exhaustive detail, made the story feel repetitive and tedious — I felt like I was reading about the same things over and over and over again, just with different people involved (and sometimes in different cities).  I actually started to get bored about half way through the book and resorted to skimming whole sections so I could get to the end faster.

Another problem was that this story did not read like historical fiction at all.  While it was obvious that Tsukiyama did a lot of research on Anna May's life, the way the information was presented felt like I was reading a history book, which definitely did not work for me.  I hate to say it, but the lack of emotion and atmospheric nuance (which I expect in historical fiction) made it feel to me as though the author simply took all the notes she had, organized it chronologically, changed the voice to first person, put in a prologue and epilogue, and voila, a retrospective of Anna May's life in book format. 

To me, this book was a missed opportunity. Executed differently, this story had the potential to be a powerful expose of the entertainment industry and the way it treated/still treats people of color.  It also had the potential to be a moving story about a fascinating woman of color who struggled pretty much her entire career (and life) to gain acceptance into a notoriously misogynistic, biased, unforgiving industry — and the sacrifices she had to make in order to pave the way for other Asian entertainers who would come after.  Instead, we got a robotic, paint-by-numbers recounting of Anna May's life that lacked emotional depth — plus I felt like most of the information in this book, with the way it was presented, I could've gotten myself by spending a few hours searching the internet, which honestly adds to the disappointment.

Since I've enjoyed Tsukiyama's previous works, I hope this book was an anomaly and that her next one will go back to the style that I'm used to seeing from her.  

Received ARC from HarperVia via NetGalley.

Review: The Secret Book of Flora Lea (by Patti Callahan Henry)

My Rating:  4.5 stars

This was a captivating story about two sisters who are sent to the English countryside during World War II as part of Operation Pied Piper, a government mission to evacuate children from the cities to keep them safe from bombings.  In 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel Linden and her five-year-old sister Flora Lea are taken in by the Aberdeen family (Bridie and her teenage son Harry) at their cottage in Binsey, a charming little hamlet along the River Thames. To keep her little sister entertained and also to distract her from the devastating realities of war, Hazel makes up various stories for Flora — one in particular is a fairytale about a secret, magical world called Whisperwood that the sisters could escape to in their imaginations. One day though, while the kids are having a picnic near the river, Flora Lea disappears and when her stuffed bear is found half-buried at the mouth of the river, she is presumed to have drowned.  Devastated and consumed with both grief and guilt for not keeping an eye on her sister, Hazel leaves Binsey, burying her memories of the town and the happy life she had with Flora and the Aberdeens forever. Twenty years later, in 1960, Hazel has rebuilt her life in London, working at a rare book shop and largely putting the past behind her — that is, until the day she unwraps a first edition copy of a book entitled Whisperwood and the River of Stars, written by an American author named Peggy Andrews. Hazel is bewildered, as she never told anyone about the secret world she made up, which only she and her sister knew about.  With a glimmer of hope that her sister might have survived after all, Hazel embarks on a quest to find out the origins of the book, which involves dredging up past hurts as well as revisiting past relationships that she had long left behind.  But as Hazel digs deeper into the past in the hopes of finding the truth about her sister's disappearance, it threatens to unravel the current life that she painstakingly built — a cost that Hazel must decide if she is willing pay, especially as it could ultimately lead to a dead end.

I really enjoyed this charming yet poignant story written by an author whose many works I've heard of but didn't have the chance to read until now.  The beauty of this book is in the way the author, Patti Callahan Henry, takes a made-up, mystical world and combines it so seamlessly with real-life historical events to create a story that felt original and inventive, yet at the same time, also felt informative and authentic to the time period.  I definitely felt transported and immersed in both the world of Whisperwood as well as the countryside setting juxtaposed against the backdrop of the realities of war in the city.  The combination of these elements worked well and also made the story stand out from other works of historical fiction.

This was a book that I couldn't put down as soon as I started reading it.  I was completely invested in the "mystery" of Flora's disappearance and how that related to the Whisperwood book, to the point that I found myself reading late into the night so that I could find out what happens.  While there were moments where I thought I had guessed the "truth" and how the ending would turn out, I was actually surprised time and time again by the turn of events, which made this a compelling read that kept me turning the pages.  I also appreciated how there was a good balance to the story in that it didn't lean overly on being too heavy or too lighthearted, but rather a steady combination of both — a balance that is usually not easy to achieve with stories set against WWII.  To be honest, a story like this one could easily go sideways, but in the hands of this particular author, it was perfect.

It's hard to say too much about this book outside of the basic premise without giving something away, so I will keep this review short and sweet.  I definitely encourage reading this one and letting the delightful story (as well as the endearing characters) sweep you up. Highly recommended!