Tag: books

books, read around the world, reading

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

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This story is slow to build, but compelling. At the outset we are approached by a man asking if we need assistance – but to be assured that while he is not from America, he is a lover of it. The speaker, Changez, begins to tell his story to a foreigner at a café in Pakistan. A student at Princeton, he was able to crack into the American dream, graduated at the top of the class and earned a job at the coveted Underwood Samsom valuation firm on Wall Street. He meets and falls in love with Erica, who is still in love with her dead boyfriend, Chris. The warmth she shows him at first, and her pointing out his politeness and conforming to American ways gives way to her turning her back on him and disappearing. Easy to see that Erica represents America. We appreciate those that come to our shores as long as they are polite and conform to our ways. When 9/11 happened there was a shift in Changez’s view – it was exhilarating that somehow America was brought to its knees at home while they continue to create chaos elsewhere in the world – Erica became overcome with her need to recreate the past. Just as America was trying to recreate the indignation after Pearl Harbor.

As Changez continues to share the story, we learn more of his true feelings of being an outsider, of his self-hatred of turning his back on his people. The person hearing the story has shown himself to be cautious, and suspect of Changez. As the story closes, you are left with the question – how has the arrogance of America impacted Changez and how far has he gone to avenge his country? Is America being duped or are we being overreactive?

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Twice a Quinceañera by Yamile Saied Méndez

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One month before her wedding, Nadia Palacio decides to stand up to her fiancé, whom she had been with for over 10 years, five of them engaged, and call off the wedding. With her family coming to Utah from all over the world, and the wedding date scheduled for the day before she turns 30, she decides to celebrate herself. She has always been an achiever, always working to please her family, being the first to graduate college and the first to be a lawyer. How had she let everyone, especially Brandon Lewis, take away her belief in herself?

So why not use the wedding venue to celebrate herself? She never had a Quinceanera – why not a double one? The money is non-refundable anyway. But when she goes to discuss this change with the venue, she finds herself face to face with her passionate fling in college – known only to her as Rocket.

Marco, who had returned home from wandering the world over the last ten years, had been haunted by the memory of that incredible time with Nani. He fled college to keep her from being held back by him – his family always said he broke everything he touched. And now, he is face to face with her – and finally knows her real name!

Through alternating points of view of the two main characters we learn how to accept yourself for who you are, unapologetically, and to forgive yourself for making mistakes. And if you are open to being honest with who you are to yourself, you will be more able to be open to sharing that with someone else.

books, reading

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

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Written in 1937, and originally published in German, the author is thought to be Lev Nussimbaum, a Jewish writer that used the pseudonyms of Essad Bey and Kurban Said. Born a Jew, he converted to the Muslim religion. Before the true author’s name was unknown, the Nazi regime included his works on the list of “excellent books for German minds”.

The story is set in the early 20th century on the cusp of the Great War in Baku, Azerbaijan. There we meet a schoolboy – Ali Khan Shirvanshir. We learn of his ancestors – great warriors of high esteem and standing in the community for centuries. He is Asian at his core – a man of the desert, just like his ancestors. He is also Mohammeded (Muslim). We learn of the many tales, songs and verses created in honor of his ancestors and homeland.

Baku, newly rich with oil resources, has been a source of Western interest. Most recently conquered by Russia, the Western world has come to encroach its ways on this Asian country. Ali is enrolled in a Russian school, which tries to impart the Western ways on the future generations. The home culture remains strong, however, with teachers still in fear of real life retribution from the long established families.

With the Russians came the Georgian aristocracy. Christian in faith, Western in manner, they believe the natives of the country are barbarian – with blood feuds, eating with fingers, and drinking. Nino Kipiani, a princess of this world, is the love of Ali’s life. From the beginning, Ali Khan is torn by his love of the woman and her Western sensibilities. He loves to look at her, and touch her, but that would never be allowed for Muslim girls. Nino, for her part, is a strong believer in her Christian Orthodox religion, enjoying the approving looks of all men, and refusing to hide under a veil. These two opposing views of the world, while at conflict with each other, are part of the reason they love each other.

Throughout the story we learn of Muslim ideology, deep rooted differences in customs of Shiite, Sunni, Turk, Armenian, Georgian and Persian beliefs. These two lovers overcome the weight of ancient customs and the expectations of the “modern” western world to be married.

Both are torn by the love they have of each other, and the weight of their history and expectations of life. We learn here – and must remember that this was written almost 100 years ago now – that the East and the West view the world differently and judge each other in different ways. Until the West and East sensibilities understand and appreciate the differences, there will be no understanding that the ancient rules of civility that were created by the ancestors will always be a part of who the people are.  Expecting something different without that historical context or understanding is at the West’s peril. The same is true of the West, also, who must remember that their way is not the only way.

As for the marriage of Ali and Nino, there are times when it seems they have found a place to live together, but that is only true when they are alone together. The expectations of others breaks the peace they found.

Is there any way that a man of the East can come to terms with the sensibilities of the West? Or can a woman of the West agree to the terms of the East? With the unrest we are seeing around the world, is the moral to the story that we can learn to love each other, but we can not learn to live in peace together?   

book-review, books, Family Drama, Hispanic and Latinx Cultures, reading

Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera

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Who would have said that the earth with its ancient skin would change so much? Pablo Neruda

The Neruda quote is a wonderful way to kick off this story. This is about what change can bring about – both good and bad – when you make choices in relations to that change.

Change always seems to happen at once. Luz is awakened by the crashing of demolition on the building next door. She heads out in her power suit to meet her boss, Raenna, who has said she has news. Luz is expecting to be promoted. She is, however, blindsided that she will be fired and is advised to quit before it happens. Luz is as shattered as the building. Even worse – Angelica, a former friend from school, was at her first day as a waitress at the exclusive restaurant where this happened – and heard the whole thing. How will Luz tell her parents, Vladimer and Eusebia, who had worked so hard to help her achieve this success?

As expected, Angelica tells the local gossips, The Tongues, before Luz can bring herself to tell her parents. Hurt about hearing the news from the Tongues, Eusebia is not paying attention as she is pulling a cart of dirty clothing to the laundry mat. She falls, hits her head and is shaken badly. The Tongues help her up and take care of her to make sure she is alright. But is she?

As the tenants around Northar Park are watching the destruction of the building, they all begin to receive notices from landlords of other buildings that the apartments they have lived in for decades will be converting to condos, and they can be bought out or just move. But where can they move that they can afford? What about all the time they spent building the community? What would become of them all? Eusebia, whose head continues to throb after the fall, becomes enraged at the prospect of being pushed out and hatches a plan to halt the building.

While the plan is being put in place, Luz attends a block party where she meets Hunter, the white developer that is leading the gentrification of the neighborhood. Undeniable attraction brings them together.  Just as with Luz’s career, there is a divide between where she came from and what she is defined as to be “successful”. She enters Hunter’s world of wealth and privilege with wariness and discomfort that she had shed at Harvard and in the NY law firm.  

We then hear the story from Eusebia. How she will make the area seem undesirable to those outside the community, orchestrating robberies, peeping toms, and assaults. All while Vladimer, her husband and Luz’s father, chases a suspect that killed a boy and wrote “Go Home” on the body for the NYPD. We eventually learn she had been reluctant to come to the US with a 9 year old Luz, and had always talked about moving back with Vladimer at some point. Unknown to her, he and Luz were building a dream home in DR as a surprise, but she no longer wanted to return.

The choices that everyone makes – to try to halt the building project, to participate in the schemes of Eusebia, or to build a home in DR, there are questions about what choices you make. How do you choose to support your family? How do you choose to react to a letter of eviction? How do you choose to react to those that choose a different reality? All these questions are the explorations of the members of the community.

The demolition was ahead of schedule, just like the dismantling of Luz’s career/identity and Eusebia’s definition of self. As the women begin to find themselves and their voices, the building begins to go up. Through shattering events, the world crashes in on the family again, and the community again embraces them and helps them move forward. Each woman is scarred, differently, but each will grow as they need.

There are many more ways in which the choices we make are shown, and how the culture of acceptable and not are bantered about. This book is a study of these themes, as well as the complexity of the relationships of women, especially mothers and daughters. The book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pueblo Neruda was quoted more than once in the book. This collection of love poems is an amalgamation of women he loved. This novel takes the name for the building, and I believe is the amalgamation of the many people we all represent to ourselves and the world.

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, Middle Eastern, read around the world, reading

A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

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What would you do to be with your children?

This is the central question that Rehana Haque is faced with when widowed in East Pakistan.

The story opens with Rehana, freshly widowed, losing custody of her children to her brother and sister-in-law, who take them thousands of miles away from her. We learn that she will need more money to persuade the courts that she can care for them on her own.

Fast forward, we join a gathering of the 10th celebration of the children’s return to their mother. The children, son Sohail and daughter Maya are now university students. Rehana was able to get her children back, even though she never remarried. She was able to build a small home behind her large one, and rented the bigger home to a Hindi family. She built a community of women around her, and was comfortable and caring to others.   

The world around them is also changing. The elected Bengali official Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested and barred from taking office by West Pakistani Punjabi and Pathans. A massacre was led by the West Pakistani to decimate the Bengali community they looked down on. Scores are forced to flee. This is when Rehana’s tenants allow their religious community onto the property to be safe from the massacre. Rehana – a non-Bengali originally from India – unhesitatingly opened her arms, and her limited resources, to make sure these refugees are feed.  

The arrest leads to students – including Maya and Sohail – joining the revolution. Sohail sees his mother’s love and undying devotion to him and requests her help for the rebels. She allows them to bring ammunition and people to stay and train in her yard. She gathers her friends to make blankets from silk saris for the rebels. She does all she can, without real thought to her safety, but always for her children’s. After a detonation that severely injured a rebel general, Sohail brings him to his mother for safety. Soon after, Maya is sent to Calcutta to write press releases for the movement and help at refugee camps.

As Rehana helps the general heal from his wounds, she finds herself attracted to him. She opens herself and shares her secrets of how far she has gone to protect her children. At this time, Sohail again asks his mother for intervention to gain the release of a man that married the girl Sohail loved. Rehana, unable to deny her child anything, goes to her brother and requests help. The tortured man she brings home, however, sickens her to what had been done to people. She flees to go to Maya. While there she ministers to those in the refugee camps, especially her former tenant’s wife.

Through all Rehana’s actions, she has been finding her voice, her desires, and her own strength. While this is a tale of a woman alone standing for herself, she also represents the spirit of Bangladesh. As the country is starting out, they too need to learn of their voice and strength. What both Rehana and Bangladesh will do for their children is almost anything. It is that love and understanding by everyone – those that sacrifice and those that are sacrificed – that brings about independence.  

book-review, books, humor, memoir, reading

Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson

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Jenny Lawson’s take on life is a one I am in awe of. Despite crippling anxiety and depression, as well as a host of physical ailments, Jenny’s approach to life is not like what many of us have been taught. Her stream of consciousness, ADD topic jumping, and battles with medical insurance actually makes total sense. And the stories she shares will bring you to tears as you laugh so hard you may just fall off your seat!

As always, Jenny brings her sense of humor to some dark subjects, bringing humanity to a disease that is not seen or widely understood – even by those that are in its grip. Her explanations of what she goes through should help more people have empathy for what people who have these illnesses go through. You may find yourself remembering when you felt like this but didn’t understand what you were going through. This deeply personal journey of life, with all its wacky tangents and challenges, gives hope to everyone that we can live a better life by surrounding ourselves with people who care, understanding and accepting yourself for your strengths and your challenges, and laughing your way through it all.

If you haven’t read any of her books, you should absolutely get one as soon as you can!   

book-review, books, Family Drama, reading

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

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I enjoyed this book. How can you not when it starts of with a sarcastic octopus, who ultimately has the best lines in the entire book?  And I promise – no spoilers.

First we meet Marcellus – on day 1299 of his captivity. He is a giant Pacific octopus, exceptionally bright, bored, and aware his life span is coming to an end.

Next, we meet Tova, a 70 year old widow, who works evenings cleaning the Sowell Bay Aquarium each night where Marcellus lives. She has been working there since the death of her husband a few years earlier. She has been keeping herself busy, however, since the mysterious death of her 18 year old son decades before. Being busy helps her move forward in life.

Last, we meet Cameron. A 30 year old man that acts like a teenage boy. He has never taken responsibility or life too seriously, and can never catch a break to get ahead. Unemployed, Cameron awaits his friend while collecting the belongings that were thrown off a balcony while he was being thrown out of his girlfriend’s apartment.

These three beings will leave imprints on each other’s lives that will be remarkable.

As Tova and Marcellus are beginning to face the realities of where they are in life, they begin to have empathy toward each other. A simple act of kindness from Tova, who found Marcellus on the floor in the breakroom tangled in electrical cords, saved Marcellus’ life by getting him free. They become connected by this act, both physically and emotionally. Tova’s hand was entwined in the tentacles when freeing the cords. Suction marks remained after as proof of her being touched by someone or something else.

When Cameron receives a box from his Aunt of belongings from the mother that abandoned him when he was 9, Cameron believes he has found the identity of his unknown father. He leaves to find him and collect on 30 years of child support. When his luggage goes missing it is as if everything that tied him to what he was also went away.

Through a series of bad decisions, followed up by the genuine kindness of strangers, Cameron buys a crappy camper, makes some friends, and gets a job at the aquarium. As the lives and tales of the people he meets calm him, Cameron takes responsibilities seriously, and is even taught by Tova that every job you do is a job that is worth being done well.

As the end draws near for Marcellus – typical lifespan is 3-5 years or 1095 – 1825 days, Tova and Cameron learn from Marcellus how to take care of oneself and ones friends as that time draws near. It is with Marcellus’ help that Tova and Cameron learn lifechanging information, and why Tova made sure that Marcellus’ end was not in captivity.

As each person meets their next steps in life, it is the strength they received from each other that helps them move forward.

book-review, books, essays, humor, memoir, reading

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

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As I listened to this book in my car, I was awed by the insight that was being shared. So much of her story resonated with my experiences in life. I was 25% of the way through the library download when I deliberately turned my car around and went to buy my own copy of this book to have the ability to go through each essay as I need in my life.

Glennon Doyle was a woman that spoke of good Christian roles and beliefs. After enduring years of pain, self hatred and destruction she finally found herself by letting go of conventions that were forced upon her by society that she had internalized. Regardless of how someone feels about the LGBTQ+ community, Glennon brings raw honesty of questioning everything, especially your own beliefs, to make sure you are true to yourself.

Though she has been excommunicated from her former religion for marrying a woman, Glennon is living a kind and generous life that she believes that everyone should live. Her essay on helping someone in need “right now” and then seeking to fix the issue at the source was inspiring. Her drive to help others, to hear others, and to share her truest self is a lesson in bravery and heroism. She has opened her life to others without fear of what the constructed society she lives in says.

I believe I will be returning to this book at times when I need strength.

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The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

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James McBride has impeccable timing, befitting an accomplished jazz musician. His latest book, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, is just like a jazz composition. Each story within it has its own pace, its own focal point, and its own heart, but the soul of all is the same, just like a great improve jazz session. 

You begin with the police asking questions about bones found in a well on Chicken Hill, the poor section of Pottsville, Pennsylvania where Jews and African Americans live together in a marginalized neighborhood. You meet Moshe, a Romanian immigrant and Chona, born in America but marked with a limp from polio. You hear the story of building a dance hall, initially for the Jews of the town, but the expansion of this to provide entertainment for the African Americans also. You meet Nat, Moshe’s right hand with a history of his own, and his wife Addie. You meet their nephew Dodo, who lost both his hearing and his mother because their oven exploded. You meet Big Soap, an Italian immigrant, Fatty, Paper, Bernice, who all grew up in Pottsville, and you hear all their stories. And through this is the friendship of “the best dancer in the world” who was the only Jew left on Chicken Hill when the police came to ask those questions – like the fiddler on the roof.

While each of these stories seems to be separate, all the players you meet are put together for the ultimate coda. Despite the hardships you face because of where you are born, who your family is, your skins color or your religion, your humanity and compassion for others is what will keep life moving forward toward a happy and fulfilling future.  

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Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

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Losing a parent is not easy. The things we cling to that help us keep their memories alive are all different – and different places are specific to these memories too.

This memoir is a review of that pain, and the history of the relationship between a Korean mother and a half Korean American child, Michelle Zauner. This identity was something that needed to be explored as a way to honor her mother’s homeland and her mother. As is so often true, we can find part of our heritage in the foods that are served, and the complicated relationship of what the foods represents.

Michelle is able to come to Eugene, Oregon to help take care of her mother after she is diagnosed with cancer. As Michelle tries to make up for being a “difficult” child, the roles are reversed of caregiver. Michelle begins to see that the foods served to her, the goals set for her, and the items sent to her were all rooted in a fierce love. As Michelle continues to work through the pain that will last as long as she lives, this is an open and honest step toward healing.