The Book Chubi

Mislaid by Nell Zink Ah, the American vision of a Nuclear Family -- Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter living together in a beautiful home hosting interesting house guests as they live their perfect lives. Might make for a pleasant life, but likely a very boring story. Luckily, Nell Zink takes these seemingly dull character outlines and shoves a little unexpected reality into her tale of the Flemings. First, a look at the characters. Lee Fleming, the Father, is a not-quite-closeted gay poet from a rich family who isn't seeing a dime himself and is hiding his lack of funds by teaching at a women's college. Peggy, the Mother, is a budding lesbian also from a well-to-do family who is just boyish enough to attract Lee's attention. Then you have Brydie, the preppy Son who is going places and Mirielle, the dim but lovable Daughter who wants everyone to just get along. Getting along certainly is not this family's strong suit. With parents like Lee and Peggy ...

The Power by Naomi Alderman If you haven't yet picked up a copy of Naomi Alderman's The Power , what are you waiting for? This electrifying novel sets up a world where women wield the power (literally) and become the dominate sex in society. The quote on the front of the book is praise from Margaret Atwood telling you the book will make you "think twice, about everything." And that, at least for me, is what makes this story so worthwhile.  In the world of The Power young women are discovering an electrical force developing inside their bodies. It is treated at first like the latest drug fade. The teenage females are getting it and using it in secret; it is disgraceful if it is found in your home; young women found using the power are kicked out of their homes. Then the younger women start to awaken the power in their moms, aunts, grandmothers, etc. Turns out every women has this power inside them and the world order reverses drastically. There ar...

A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee Novels like A State of Freedom allow readers an intimate glance into cultures and class that they would otherwise be unlikely to experience. Set in India, Mukherjee explores the lives of five individuals who attempt to change their lives for the better. The challenges they face and their success or failure are on stark display as we journey with them throughout their lives.  This novel is set up as a collection of short stories. Each section centers on a different character and has a writing style tied to their personality. This can be jarring if you aren't expecting it since Part I and Part II, for example, not only have an entirely different set of characters, but are also written with different tones and narrative styles that seem very disconnected from each other. It is only when you start to compare the commonalities of the various tales in theme and message that you really feel the weight of the stories as a cohesive whole...

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Stripped down to its most basic core you might call Exit West a relationship story. The central plot revolves around a young man and young woman in a poor country. What makes the novel so enticing is everything else happening around them throughout the novel.  You have to call Exit West a refugee story as well. As the young man and young woman start a new relationship their country is starting to be ravaged by war. So as many young people do in times of unrest where they live, where opportunities are limited and the risk of death so high, the young couple leaves for an unknown place that might improve upon their situation. Where they go and what they find is what made this novel thought-provoking. It felt like living the news headlines in person, which Hamid cleverly touches on in a scene where the young woman sees an article about the refugee crisis with a picture she is startled to recognize as herself. If you have read about Greece a...

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Talk about a book with enormous amounts of praise . This book has sky-rocketed in popularity ever since it was published back in September 2017. It is a New York Times bestseller , won the National Book Award, was named one of the NYT best books of 2017, and was nominated for numerous other accolades. And it became the first choice for the Now Read This  feature sponsored by PBS NewsHour and the New York Times, which is what pushed me to request the e-book from my local library. Does it live up to the hype? Sing, Unburied, Sing is powerful and has an important message that needs to be heard in our society. There are scenes throughout the novel which so clearly highlight the challenges faced by poor, rural African Americans. The everyday racism integrated into daily life in many parts of the country are exposed in this novel through episodes faced by the family. You see the discrimination of these characters in connection w...

Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon Picking out books, especially by authors you've never heard of, can be a daunting task. It is the ability to step outside our comfort zone and explore new authors that opens us to fantastic reads we would otherwise miss. Self-Portrait with Boy  was one of those take-a-chance novels for me. Author readings and signings are one of those treats that I love to indulge in whenever possible. Luckily, living in the Los Angeles Metro Area where I have access to a great many independent book stores which host wonderful events. If you haven't already, do an online search to find your local indie bookstores and sign up for their newsletter because your new favorite authors may very well find their way to your town. That is how I discovered Rachel Lyon, on the second stop of her book tour for Self-Portrait with Boy . Book Soup was hosting the event on Monday evening, squeezing chairs in a narrow aisle to create a makeshift event space....

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa If you are a member of Amazon Prime, make sure you are signed up to get the First Reads e-mail every month. On the first of every month an e-mail arrives in your inbox with a selection of Kindle titles of which you get to choose one to read. A River in Darkness  was one of those selections for December 2017. My interest in the novel came from the subtitle "One Man's Escape from North Korea". Since the subject of this country has been heavily populating the news cycle I figured it would be a great choice to broaden my understanding of the humanitarian angle of this subject. This is a very short memoir at only 172 pages, although you get plenty of what you are looking for in that compact time. Masaji's story is heartbreaking every step of the way giving an account of the immense difficulty in being poor, an immigrant, and asylum seeker, and an outsider. In his native country, J...

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood If you have never read Margaret Atwood before you need to do so immediately. She is one of those contemporary authors that will be immortalized for her novels. I can imagine a century from now students studying her work to define the literary atmosphere of the 21st century. The Handmaid's Tale is at this point her most famous piece of work. And, yes, I would recommend that title as your Atwood introduction. That work is very quintessential in defining her style and focus. I do not think it would be outside the line to call her a feminist author. Alias Grace  is another novel with a feminist leaning threaded throughout the narrative. The plot behind this novel is based on a real case out of Toronto from the mid 19th century. It follows the imprisonment of Grace Marks who has been accused of murder. The case was real and some of the journalism from that time plays highly into the story Atwood weaves to fill in the gaps. This falls under ...

A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman The novel that makes you love an old curmudgeon no matter how grouchy, stubborn, and ill-tempered he might be. Everything has a place and there are rules for a reason. If there is a sign, do as it says. And don't butt into other people's business. There are plenty of life lessons Ove could impart to the rest of us that would make Ove's life easier. If we would just do what is expected of us. If you love Pixar's UP and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared  then this is definitely the book for you. Extremely funny and extremely touching I could rarely tell whether my tears were from laughter or heartbreak. The story is so wonderful that is has already been made into a foreign film . And Tom Hanks is both producing and starring in an English remake of the movie in the near future. A Man Called Ove weighs in at 337 pages, which fly so quickly you would think it was much shorter. The stor...

The Immortalists Chloe Benjamin What would you do if you knew when you would die? This question is confronted in the pages of The Immortalists where Chloe Benjamin shares how four siblings would handle the news. The opening of the novel presents us with the Gold siblings as they visit a gypsy who promises to share the dates of their deaths. Each child discovers their date one by one and the knowledge will affect the rest of their lives. Chloe Benjamin is on book tour currently for The Immortalists and it was such a treat to get to see her in person discussing her novel. Although not her first published work, I do believe this is her first major bestseller and it is making waves. The Skimm , which I read regularly for my daily news digest, has recommended it to all their readers, although I am proud to say I had already picked up the book before they jumped on the bandwagon. Saturday, January 13th in the afternoon at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena was the p...