Bone by Fae M Ng

Fiction

Leila is the eldest of three sisters in a Chinese family living in San Francisco. Her father is no longer around and when her mom remarried, they had two additional daughters. Leila is as close to her half sisters as if they were her full sisters. The youngest sister has moved off to New York, the middle is dating another Chinese guy, and Leila seems to hover around her mom and step-father trying to ensure they are happy.

When the family finds out that the middle sister has committed suicide, the family goes in to a tail spin. The book goes from present day and then works its way back to the day of the suicide. We find out what pushed Ona to jump from the 13th floor and end her life. By the end of the book I was thinking that's it? It didn't seem enough for me. Ona had many different ways she could have reacted to what eventually drove her to suicide, and suicide certainly shouldn't have been at the top of the list.

In the end, this book fell short for me because we're trying to understand why Ona did what she did but we aren't given enough information to figure it out. Instead, we're focusing around how this affects the family which usually is ok for plot, but not when you don't even understand why it happened in the first place.

First Line: "We were a family of three girls."

Rating:
(2.5/5)

The Slow Moon by Elizabeth Cox

Fiction

Sophie and her mom moved to small-town Tennessee after her father's death. The two quickly make friends in the town and Sophie, being as beautiful as she is, attracts the attention of more than a few teenage boys. Despite there being much interest from other guys, Sophie finds herself attracted to Crow and the two start dating. One night, during a party, they slip out into the woods deciding this will be the first time they have sex. Unprepared, Crow quickly heads to his car to grab protection and Sophie is raped multiple times and left for dead. Crow knows that he will be to blame, but who really did this?

There's quite a sense for foreboding over this entire book which makes it a page turner. I wanted to figure out who did this and whether they were going to get away with it. You know from the start that Crow wasn't responsible but he is charged and no one comes to his aid. This event not only permanently changes Sophie, but seems to change the entire dynamic of the town which was interesting to read.

While I enjoyed this novel, I found that there were way too many male teenage characters to keep track of, some that added no value to the story whatsoever. By the time we were told who was responsible, I couldn't even remember the names of one of them.

This is not world class literature. The writing isn't fantastic (just look at the first line from the book), but the story is compelling.

First Line: "So on that April evening in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, with spring just beginning, a copper moon rose, balanced like a huge persimmon, and two young teenagers, Crow Davenport and his girl Sophie, left a party and walked into the woods towards the river to be alone."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Fiction/Literature

Social classes in modern-day Bombay are wildly different between each class. This book gives us the story of middle class Sera and her long-time servant Bhima. The two have become quite close over the years, despite the fact that they shouldn't be according to social customs. They each were married and both had troubled marriages in different ways. They each had children and either have or are about to welcome grandchildren to the world. It seems that despite the troubles they have experienced, they are still close. This novel explores their past and the recent pregnancies of Maya, Bhima's grandaughter and Dinaz, Sera's daughter.

Despite the different classes, both women have experienced more than their share of heartbreak and grief during their lives. It makes for a rather depressing story, though very elegantly written. The characters and their stories draw you in and there are knots in your stomach as they are treated with such injustice.

The only flaw in this book is the ending. There is just no way, given the years of misery that the characters had to endure, that this ending could ever have happened.

First Line: "Although it is dawn, inside Bhima's heart it is dusk."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
Literature/Fiction

Most of the residents of Pine Cove are on anti-depressants, as prescribed by the local psychiatrist Dr. Val Riordan. But when one of her patients allegedly commits suicide, Dr. Val thinks that maybe it's a better idea for none of her patients to be on medicine and forces them to take placebos. But a sudden, very weird, event causes a few people to go missing and seems to cause the entire city to become horny. The event turns out to be a giant sea-dragon coming out of the sea to seek revenge on a man that killed one of his family members.

Typical to all Christopher Moore books, this quirky tale is completely off the wall but still incredibly entertaining. I found that there were a bit too many characters to keep track of in this novel. I don't think Mavis, the bar owner, was a necessary character and things could have been cut out to reduce the confusion to the reader. There's usually a laugh-out-loud point of all Moore books but I didn't find that with this book.

First Line: "September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
Fiction/Romance

Charlie St. Cloud and his brother Sam are huge baseball fans. When Charlie borrows a neighbour's car to drive to the Red Sox game, the brothers don't think anything of it. On the way home, they are involved in a horrible accident and Sam doesn't survive his injuries. Charlie has no signs of life for a moment, but comes back after making a promise to his brother to never leave him. Now, many years later, Charlie is leading an incredibly sheltered life, working at the graveyard, in order to stay close to his brother.

Charlie is gifted or cursed with the ability to see not only his dead brother, but also the other spirits in the graveyard who have just died and are passing on. Every night Charlie plays ball with his brother and cannot be late or else his brother starts to fade, which has never allowed him to become close to anyone else, until he meets Tess. Tess is an independent woman who is set on sailing around the world by herself but feels a spark with Charlie shortly before she's set to sail off.

This book is a very easy read and could be classified as a romance as much as fiction/literature. It's not too sappy, though I found it to be quite predictable. I was a bit worried it was going to become a Romeo/Juliette story line but thankfully it didn't go down that path. It's a pretty sweet story. I watched the trailer for the movie after finishing the book and it looks to be quite different from the book (and quite stupid to be honest). Read the book rather than watch the movie!

First Line: "I believe in miracles."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Fiction/Literature

The O'Keefe's try to be a normal family with their children Amelia and Willow. Amelia is the older of the children and when her mom Charolette met her step-dad Sean, the two got married and eventually had Willow. Willow is an incredibly smart and whity five year old who has OI, a disease that causes her bones to break with as little as a sneeze. Everyone has to be very careful around her to make sure that she doesn't break another bone.

The family decides to take a carefully-planned trip to Disneyworld since they don't manage to go on vacation much. Willow ends up in the hospital with a break, Amelia in a foster home because they suspect abuse, and the O'Keefe adults in jail. When everything is finally sorted out, Sean wants to sue everyone possible for the embarrassment and inconvenience. His lawyer doesn't think much will come of that, but when he learns that Willow wasn't diagnosed in womb until past the 18th week, he thinks there might be a case there. Unfortunately this means that they will be suing Charlotte's best friend, who was also her ob-gyn.

The family is put under a lot of strain during the lawsuit. Sean doesn't know if he agrees with the lawsuit, Amelia feels invisible, and Willow thinks that her parents wished she wasn't born.

The similarities between this book and My Sister's Keeper are striking. A family with 2 children, one very sick. A lawsuit is involved and there's a similar twist at the end. Despite the fact that I felt like I had read this book before, I still couldn't put it down. If you were not a big fan of My Sister's Keeper, you probably won't enjoy this one either.

First Line: "Things break all the time."

Rating:
(4/5)

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Bound by Donna Jo Napoli
Teen

Xing Xing's mother and father have passed away, leaving her living with her stepmother and stepsister to live in a cave in China. The stepsister treats Xing Xing more like a slave, calling her Lazy One and making her do all the chores while her stepsister has her feet bound in order to help her find a husband. Xing Xing and her stepsister don't have a bad relationship, so Xing Xing doesn't mind helping her sister who is obviously in pain from her aching feet. Xing Xing takes solace in a beautiful fish she befriends in the pond by her home, believing that it is the spirit of her mother.

This is an Asian Cinderella story that is quite cute. Unfortunately the ending is quite abrupt and leaves you wanting a bit more resolution. A cute story and an easy read.

First Line: "Xing Xing squatted by the water, silent and unmoving."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Fiction/Literature

The Mortmain family is an odd family unit living in an odd residence. The family exists of sisters Rose and Cassandra, their brother Thomas, their father, their step-mother Topaz, and their orphaned helping hand Stephen. The family lives in an old dilapidated castle and their money is running out as they wait for their father to return to his writing glory and follow up his first successful book with another.

When brothers Simon and Neil Cottom get stuck in the Mortmain drive, their world starts to change. They just inherited land from England even though they had been living in America for a while. Rose determines that she is going to make one of the brothers fall in love with her so that she no longer has to live in poverty. Cassandra finds herself being left at home more and more as her family goes on trips to London with the Cottons, which gets Cassandra thinking about whether she agrees with Rose's selfishness. As she writes in her journal, she tries to find a way to help her father get back into writing.

The book is told through Cassandra's journal entries. She believes that she may be able to become a writer some day so she has some pretty lengthy descriptions of things that are not essential to moving the story along. I found myself skimming through these parts because I wanted to get on with the story. Rose's selfishness also made me increasingly frustrated with her as I got further and further through the book. Maybe that was the point though?

For a BBC Top 100 book I expected more from this book. There was a twist at the end but I felt it kind of fizzled out and wasn't worth the journey.

First Line: "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Fiction/Literature

Flora Poste is educated and reformed, but when her parents pass away she's at a loss for what she should do. Heaven forbid she learn how to work, instead she tries to stay with extended family, writing to four different family members asking if she can stay with them. She gets a response back from Cold Comfort Farm and the Starkadder family and decides to go stay with them. While she expects mystery and intrigue, things are a whole lot different than she expects. Cold Comfort Farm is indeed cold. The environment is quite dreary, with her cousin Judith being quite a downer, Judith's husband wanting only to preach to the Brethren rather than tend to the farm, 17 year old Elfine who wants to run in the fields and write poetry all day, Seth who only cares about movies, and a whole slew of other cousins. Then there is Aunt Ada Doom who keeps herself in the upstairs bedroom, threatening to go crazy if any of her children or grandchildren leave the farm. Flora has an overly cheerful demeanor and sets out to change her cousin's lives. She wants to make Cold Comfort Farm less cold and help her cousins reach their full potential.

The author has a mocking tone towards Flora at times, making fun of her naivety and cheerfulness. At the beginning, I found Flora kind of annoying but eventually got used to her and the way the author was trying to portray her. Other people have described this book as funny, which I didn't really find. Parts of it were amusing, but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.

Overall, I thought the book was alright. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. This book is #88 on the BBC List and I think there are far better books on that list than this one.

First Line: "The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living."

Rating:

(3.5/5)

The Rice Mother

The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
Literature/Fiction

This book is about four generations of a family in Malaysia. Lakshmi, from Ceylon, is duped into marrying Ayah. He portrays himself as a wealthy man. But everything is an illusion even down to the borrowed gold watch. Ayah is a civil servant who while kindly and loving is a plodding unintelligent man. Lakshmi has 6 children by the time she is nineteen. She makes friends with the Chinese servant girl next door, Mui Tsai. Mui is forced to have sex with her master and each child is given to a different wife.

This story weaves a tale during the Japanese occupation and beyond. As weak as Ayah is, Lakshmi is a strong and formidable matriarch. Her first two children are twins, Lakshmnan and Mohini. Lakshmi must keep Mohini save from the Japanese and the torture they will submit Mokini to if they find her. There is tradegy upon tradegy and she faces each challenge and keeps on going.

The prose in the book is absolutely amazing. The description of the Japanese occupation is hideous. The culture, pre-war and after is described. Children with beauty and lightness of skin colour are highly valued.

The story is told from the viewpoint of each of the characters. I found this story very compelling. So compelling, I just could not put the book down.

First Line: "I was born in Ceylon in 1916, at a time when spirits walked the earth just like people, before the glare of electricity and the roar of civilization has frightened them away into the concealed hearts of forests."

Rating:

(4.5/5)