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)

Review: All the Light We Cannot See (by Anthony Doerr)

My Rating:  5 stars

I find this review a bit difficult to write because honestly, I don’t know where to start!  All the Light We Cannot See is like no other book that I’ve read before. On its surface, this book is about a young German boy with a talent for fixing radios and a blind French girl who possesses a curiosity and courage way beyond her years – both thrown helplessly into a world torn apart by war and devastation and the impact this has on their lives. But this book is so much more than that! It is about survival, love, courage, family, friendship, etc but on a deeper level, it is also a "study" on human nature and what it means to "do what is expected" versus "do what is right."

The author Anthony Doerr has a masterful way with words – the richness in detail with which he describes every character / event / scene in the book paints a vivid picture of what life was like in the midst of war, yet he does so in a manner that does not take away from the story itself. He does not bog the story down with long, tedious paragraphs or pages and pages of detailed description that make readers like me want to just skip ahead to the actual story and not bother with the details. Instead, he uses brevity as a powerful tool – in just a few words, short phrases, sometimes not even complete sentences, he is able to bring to life not only his characters and the situations they encounter, but also draw the reader into their world to experience it for ourselves. As I was reading, I actually felt like I was being transported back to that time period (mid 1930s to 1940s), walking alongside the characters, seeing what they were seeing, feeling what they were feeling. The atrocities of war described in the book were very harsh and very real, despite this being a work of fiction. I actually winced during some of the parts where an atrocity was being described and had to set the book aside for a few minutes to calm myself. I’ve read other books in the past about his time period, about World War II and the atrocities of war, but none of those books had the impact this one did. Thinking about it now, I realize why: those books either use WWII merely as a backdrop without going into much detail or if they do, the events are portrayed in a way that makes it feel like a story or a recounting of history – as a reader, you are told what happened during that time period but don’t really feel a connection to it. This book, in its uniqueness, actually makes you LIVE that history rather than just read about it.

The other unique aspect to this book was the storyline involving the cursed stone, which brought an unexpected element of suspense that still blended in perfectly with the rest of the story. In the hands of a less capable author, incorporating this part of the story might ruin the book entirely, but with Doerr, this is definitely not the case – he is consistent with the details as well as the storytelling and incorporates this arc seamlessly throughout the book. I found myself at the edge of my seat at certain points wanting to find out what happens next -- whether the stone would be found, whether certain characters would get caught, etc. I enjoyed this part of the book immensely!

My only “complaint” about this book would be in its structure, as the story is told in different timeframes and switches back and forth after every couple chapters. This interrupted the flow a bit and did slow me down at times when reading, since I had to go back and re-read certain parts in order to remember where the previous timeframe left off. It also caused a little bit of confusion for me initially with some of the characters who were already part of the story when the book opens but then are introduced for the first time when things switch back to the earlier timeframe, then it picks up with what happens to that character from the later timeframe when it switches again. Not a show-stopper by any means of course, but I think the book would’ve been easier to get through if it didn’t switch back and forth. I'm pretty sure there was significance to structuring the book this way but unfortunately it was lost on me.

Despite this long review that I just wrote, I actually don’t feel like I did this book any justice. In fact, no review can do this book much justice because it is a book that can’t just be “described” -- you basically have to read and experience it for yourself. For me personally, I loved this book and I know this is a story that will stay with me for a long time to come. I can totally see why this book won a Pulitzer Prize – absolutely well-deserved!

(Read in January 2017)

Review: Me Before You (by Jojo Moyes)

My Rating: 4 stars 

I actually read this book last summer during some down time I had while waiting for my flight at the airport. I will admit that amongst all the choices of books at the airport bookstore, I chose to read this primarily out of curiosity, as I had heard about the "hype" surrounding this book (especially the debate over the topic of assisted suicide, which plays a key role in the story) and wanted to see for myself what the commotion was about. Surprisingly, this actually ended up being an enjoyable read for me – a book I finished in one sitting because I just couldn't bear to put it down. While the story itself is not unique and the writing not particularly profound, I couldn't help being drawn into the main character Louisa Clark's supposedly "ordinary" world and seeing how her life changes after she meets Will Traynor. To be honest, neither Louisa nor Will were particularly likable characters (though in the case of Will, there really wasn't much character development at all outside of the surface-level stuff) and more often than not, I actually disagreed with the viewpoints and actions of both characters – yet somehow I found myself "rooting" for both of them and hoping that things would turn out well for them in the end. It's hard to explain and there is no rhyme or reason for it….simply put, that's just the way I felt by the time I got to the end of the book.

In terms of the writing, one of the things that I felt the author Jojo Moyes did a relatively good job with in this book is striking the right balance between lighthearted humor and the seriousness of some of the characters' situations. There were funny moments that made me smile and serious moments that got me teary-eyed, but both were appropriately balanced without going overboard in my opinion. True, there were inconsistencies with the writing and some parts of the plot weren't very logical (for example – the often-mentioned part about how Louisa could become Will's caretaker given her obvious lack of basic qualifications), but overall, the story still worked, which I guess is the most important selling point of the book.

As for the "debate" concerning the ending and the type of message it supposedly sends – well, for me at least, it was a moot point, since I didn't take this book that seriously to begin with. From the moment I started reading, I approached this book as a "casual read" to kill time and never expected to get anything profound out of it – by the time I reached the end of the book, my sentiments were still the same. Taking the story purely by itself (stripped of all moral debate and personal feelings), I actually felt the ending made sense given the events that led up to it. With that said, if the book had been written differently – like perhaps telling the story from Will's perspective rather than Louisa's and making his inner struggle between the life he had before versus after the accident be the primary focus – my opinion would definitely be different.

Overall, I would categorize this book as a worthwhile read with a good story, decent writing (with some of the dialogue being quite memorable), and somewhat relatable though not necessarily realistic characters. Regardless of its flaws, I still enjoyed the book and don't mind reading it again in the future.

(Read in August 2016)

Review: The Painted Veil (by W. Somerset Maugham)

My Rating:  5 stars

I’m quite stingy when it comes to rating books and normally would not give more than 4 stars, even for a book I thoroughly enjoyed. However, in the case of W. Somerset Maugham’s classic The Painted Veil, the first thought that came into my head after finishing the book is that this is a masterpiece that absolutely deserves nothing less than 5 stars!

The entire book is beautifully and tightly written, using what I would categorize as “classical” language, but in a style that is simple and easy to understand. Maugham did a fantastic job telling the story of how the main character Kitty Fane’s adulterous affair and the aftermath of it causes her to re-assess and make changes in her life that she never thought possible. In all honesty, from the beginning of the story to the very end, I did not like Kitty one bit. I felt she was silly and foolish (and vain, immature, self-centered, etc.) and even when she “changes for the better” later on, I still couldn’t bring myself to like her. No doubt that Kitty grew a lot after her experiences in China, but I actually still saw a bit of the same characteristics in her, albeit to a much lesser degree. As I was reading, my feelings towards Kitty went from despising her in the beginning to pitying her later on in the story (the pity comes from acknowledgement of the fact that, in a sense, part of her plight truly WAS due to societal conventions and how she was raised).

Since I read this book for one of my book clubs, I don’t intend to write a long review on it, as I prefer to save more in-depth analysis for when we discuss the book. However, for anyone who may be considering whether to read this book or not, my response is a wholehearted YES! The amount of ground that Maugham was able to cover – love, betrayal, redemption, society norms and conventions, culture, marriage and relationships, religion, gender roles and stereotypes, class structure, etc. – in such a short book (my Kindle version was less than 200 pages) is not only astounding but also extremely rare. Don’t let the “classic” label fool you into thinking this will be a difficult book to get through because it definitely won’t be – this book is an easy read, yet still invokes much insight into numerous topics that are still relevant today.

Lastly, I know there was a movie adaptation of this book that came out around 10 years ago, but I actually don’t plan on watching it, at least not any time soon. I’m very particular when it comes to book to movie/tv series adaptations, especially ones that turn out to be very different from the book due to changes made by the producers/directors. I don’t want my memory of the book to be ruined if I end up disliking the movie’s interpretation of the story/characters.

(Read in January 2017)

Review: Tiger Moms vs Western Parenting: Is There a Happy Medium? (By Dori Nolan)

My Rating: 2 stars

First off, before I even go into whether I liked this book or not, I have to ask the question – did anyone edit this book before publishing it?? The number of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure errors I found in this book was ridiculous to the point that it really affected my ability to get through the book. The Kindle edition was only 99 pages, which normally would be a very quick read for me, but this one was laborious because of all the errors, since I'm the type who gets really distracted and frustrated when I see grammar and/or spelling errors in books. It also didn't help that, topic-wise, the author seemed to be all over the place, which made it even harder to follow what her main point was. At times, it appeared that she actually supported the "tiger mom" approach to parenting while other times, it felt like she was outraged at such a parenting style and was venting her frustrations with it. 

If you were to ask me whether I liked this book or not, I would have to answer "not really." Granted, the author did make a few good points when comparing the two styles of parenting, but those same points were talked about over and over again, to the point of being overly repetitive. From an originality perspective, there really wasn't anything said in this book that hadn't already been said previously by someone else (I personally didn't learn anything new). In fact, I actually felt like 99 pages was too long for what the author had to say – take out all the repetitive stuff and this book easily could have been half the length it was. Actually, at several points throughout the book, I kind of felt like I was reading someone's (poorly written) term paper rather than an actual published book.

Basically, this book isn't worth the time to read. For those who are interested in this topic, there are way better books out there that talk about parenting styles in the East vs West that are better written for one and also way more informative and entertaining.

(Read in January 2017)