Love in the time of Cholera- Marquez

I don't get it. I just don't get the love for this book. It is beautifully written. It has some amazing insights. BUT- I don't connect with ANY of the characters and I find their reasonings and motives strange. This is a novel about a man Florentino Ariza who is in love for over half a century with a woman who chose to marry a wealthy doctor instead of him. After fifty years they meet once more and try their second hand at love. The bulk of the story lies within the fifty year wait. I was heavily disappointed. This is a novel that teaches me that one can write beautifully but if I cannot connect with the story, I cannot love the book.

The Blood of Flowers

What an interesting book this was! This is historical fiction set in olden days Iran during the time of Shah Abbas. I enjoyed reading the stories interspersed throughout and the major story of a young unnamed girl and her quest to survive after her father died and her prospects for marriage grew dim. The story is about life in those days, so you can just immerse and feel as though you are there, but it is also about hope and the power it has. For that reason alone it is worth a read.

The World According to Bertie- Smith

This is the fourth installment in Smith's series of "44 Scotland Street". The series peeks into the lives of the residents of 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The book is actually the compilation of daily fictional installments in the local Edinburgh newspaper. The first of the series was good but the story line just got better and better with each installment, and this one was the best of the series by far since it focuses a teeny bit extra on Bertie, my favorite character of the series. I love how simple the story lines are, and how beautiful the writing is. I plan to buy this one and read it several times, particularly when I'm feeling down.

Twilight- Meyer

Eh. I felt curious to read this book due to all the buzz and comparisons to Harry Potter, but I was extremely disappointed. This is a story of a girl in a small town in Seattle who falls in love with a vampire. The writing is atrocious and the storyline is just okay. I do get that this was not written for my generation, but I do enjoy YA material usually and this was definitely subpar at best.

Empire Falls- Russo

After a spate of bad books that were so horrid I could not complete them I decided to seek out books that surely had to be good based on their label of Pulitzer Prize Winners, and this is what led me to this novel. This isn't the type of novel I typically read, its a character novel exploring the lives of the residents of a small town in Maine (Empire Falls), a town that was once big but has now fallen into decay and is practically forgotten. The town is run by the Whiting family who control everyone almost in a God-like manner, seeing and hearing everything and taking steps to mess with its residents or give them reprieve. The story focuses on a fry cook manager Miles Roby and his teenage daughter Tick. Through them we see his ex-wife who left him for another man who continues to hang out at Miles' restaurant, and other various characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was the type of book you have fun picking up and reading. The book was deep but also light, hilarious and tragic. It's probably among my favorite books now.

The Four Agreements- Ruiz

A friend told me this was a good book so I checked it out. I think its message is important 1) Be impeccable with your word (i.e. use it for good and to say good and do good) 2) Dont make assumptions (we hurt ourselves with assumptions sometimes, just look at actions and what people say, clarify if you misunderstand) 3) Don't take things personally because its usually not about you and 4) Always do your best so you live without regret or guilt.

These are great things to live by but the book has a hard time really making these concrete principles. I wish it had been longer and not quite so repetitive.

Conversations with a Fat Girl- Palmer

This was a really sweet book. This is the story of two friends, one who remained overweight while the other went on to lose a great deal of weight and went to live what one thought was the 'perfect life'. Palmer does a great job describing the struggles of people struggling with their weight, but an even more awesome and surprising job about lifelong friendships that meet the end of their run. The dialogue was a bit maddeningly terrible, but her insights otherwise did a great job of balancing that out. I will certainly pick up another book of hers again.

Lolita- Nabakov

I resisted reading Lolita for many years because I did not want to read about the story of a pervert who seduces a twelve year old girl. The story, however, is really good which speaks volumes of the type of writer Nabakov is. The story is indeed about a man who loves young girls and falls in love with Lolita in particular, but the novel does not romantacise this, it shows the protagonist to be the person he is. This is not a novel of young love and "age being just a number", the novel shows how Lolita is seduced, how she is degraded and the tragedy that his actions yield. But beyond the plot is the writing, the writing is beautiful poetic prose, I can take each sentence and roll it over my tongue and just fall in love. This is a novel to read for any aspiring writer to understand that your reader doesn't have to like the characters to love the novel. A truly gifted author as Nabakov clearly is, shows that quite easily.

Middlesex- Eugenides

I decided I wanted to read a Pulitzer Prize winning book and this was the first I decided to check out. This is a brilliantly written novel. The writing takes you in to the mind's eye of the characters who are all very different and very curious. This is a novel about many different things. The overarching theme is the story of a hermaphordite, a boy through chromosomes, but raised as a female by his parents. The story alludes to this theme but starts us from the beginning, when the brother and sister who grew up in the mountains decided that they loved one another beyond mere sibling love and decided to get married. I know, that sounds so freaky, but when you read the story, you're sucked in and you read it from beginning to end and you kind of sort of get their perspective. Its still hideous and disgusting to me, but the writer does a good job explaining things without passing judgment. I highly recommend it though I warn you its a long read at about 529 pages.

The Audacity of Hope- Obama

I found this book okay, not nearly as good as "Dreams from my Father". Where Dreams was a coming of age story of a minority boy finding his place in the world, Audacity is more about the man who had already found his way and telling you his vision for the future. Audacity is a much more political book and for that it is good. It tells me his vision and his position on many different subjects. He speaks out against partisan bickering, and discusses his views on the economy which in today's world is eerie since we didn't see it coming (at least not me) when the book was actually published. Overall, its an informative book if you're interested in learning of Obama's positions on the issues, but its not as engrossing obviously, as his memoir about his life. Still, its good.

The Last Lecture- Pausch

I listened to this book on audiotape so perhaps the experience is different than reading it in written form, but I loved this book. This is written by a professor dying of prostate cancer who decided to give a "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University where such lectures are common by professors ready to retire. In this case, Pausch is dying and leaving a wife and three very young children behind. He is broken hearted about the fact that his children will not be able to know him, and will be deprived of a father they should have had. As a result he wrote this book, he gave his lecture, to give them advice on how to live and provide insights based on his own life experiences. The story is moving and inspiring and powerful forcing you to face the reality that life is not forever and that we should make of it everything we want, or at least do the very best to try.

The Kitchen God's Wife- Amy Tan

This is a novel about a mother with secrets who is forced one day to share them with her daughter. The story centers around WWII in China. Winnie the mother, shares her upbringing as a second class citizen despite a wealthy birthright, her tragic marriage to an evil man, and her eventual escape. Its a beautiful novel, exquisitely written, and the characters spring to live and feel as real as people I see in the flesh. She does a great job taking you into the story, and though I am a writer seeking tips from good writers by observing their work.... here, I find that I cannot study, to read is to be absorbed in. I highly recommend it particularly to those who love ethnic literature.

The Senator's Wife- Miller

This is a novel about the wife of a former Senator who has endured her husnand's infidelity with her love for him intact. Paralleling this story is the story of her neighbor Meri who is newly married and pregnant and dealing with a lot of insecurities about her life. I felt intrigued by the insight into the life of a wife who "stands by her man" despite his cheating ways, this is not the book I actually read.

If you finish a book and find yourself feeling nauseated.... that's not good. This book was such a best seller that I grew curious and waited the months it took for it to become available in the library and boy was I disappointed. The writers mantra is: SHOW NOT TELL.... but all she does is tell, tell, tell, in excruciating boring detail and the ending is just plain old WEIRD.

Don't waste your time with this book. Life is too short.

Unaccustomed Earth- Lahiri

Lahiri writes beautifully and this book is no exception. These are short stories on American raised desis and their experiences in the United States. Generally, I love her work and for what it is I love it. I do however wish she would write beyond her standard fall backs. Almost all her characters are PhDs or dating PhDs, they all go to high end ivy leagues, all of them marry White Americans with very Ango names, and all of them just dont get their parents or the culture they once had. ALL OF THEM. Which tires me since Namesake was similar as well. She could have one where two desis fall in love (well she sort of does at the end but still...), or what the others outside of PhD people are up to. My favorite was her first short story because it was poignant and well told and I loved the ending. I loved Hell-Heaven. I thought the story of yearning for love was so poignant and the ending was both shocking and touching. The three part trilogy of Hema and Kaushik was good too but it took me thinking about it the day after to truly appreciate it for its depth. The ending leaves you angry, but then later you realize that ***warning spoiler*** his death in some ways implies to me this story was more than a 'love story' (which it was a weak love story in my opinion), but more so an example of the many ordinary people who died in the Tsunami and the lives they led. In some ways as I ponder the story more and more it might just become my favorite story.

The House on Mango Street

I read the reviews of this book on Amazon and was not surprised to see the ratings. Half loved it, half hated it. I think its very easy to read this book quickly, wonder what the big deal is with it and discard it as boring drivel. I think that is far from the truth though. This is a story of a girl living in a poor neighborhood, finding her way. Its a book that beautifully captures hopelessness and hope, both poetically done. There is no plot per se except for a girl who is trying to grow up in a rough neighborhod observing life unfold around her.

There were parts of the book which nearly broke my heart. The writing is raw and some of the metaphors are striking. I think to fully understand the book, you should check out/buy the one with the introduction by the author. I know that reading her introduction helped me better understand her book.

Ordinary People- Judith Guest

This is a novel about a family dealing with loss. Two brothers went on a boating trip and one drowned. The one who survived is wracked with grief and guilt. The mother grows increasingly distant and aloof. The father tries to fix everything and keep himself together.

I liked the book though at times it was hard to follow with a whole lot of dialogue without enough explanation of what was happening or who was speaking.

I saw snippets of the movie which is what spurred my interest in the book, but truth be told I think the movie might be a tad more emotional.

The Firm- John Grisham

I've read a bunch of books written in a medicore style recently and reading Grisham is just so much fun that I was relieved to finally read a great story with a catchy plot and writing that was good. Sure, Grisham's book "The Firm" does not make you ponder the deeper meaning of life, but it sure does keep you reading and keep you completely engrossed. This is a great book and its oodles of fun!

The Tortilla Curtain- TC Boyle

This is an interesting well written book. A car accident between a rich environmentalist and an impoverished illegal immigrant is the backdrop for the rest of the novel. We learn about the lives of each of these characters. Candido lives like an animal in a Southern California Canyon with his wife America. She is pregnant and holds on to the dream that their circumstances will improve. The rich guy is a stay home dad writer whose wife is a real estate agent and they live in a privileged life wondering how best to build barriers in their subdivision to keep out the immigrants and other undesirables. This is a very bare bones explanation of this novel, which is complex with many different messages and themes. Overall it was superbly written but I was left unsatisfied with the ending. Here are my thoughts on the novel though (warning don't read further if you don't want spoilers):

1. Candido's life had NO silver lining, it continued to get worse and worse. It was too the point of "too much"...
2. I get the feeling the story was less about the characters and more about the concepts, this helped me with the very ambigious ending which really did not provide much of a conclusion.
3. I think he hit us over the head with his message and it kind of nauseated me by its conclusion.

Split- A memoir of divorce- Finnamore

I never heard of a book that planned to accurately capture the harsh reality of divorce so I eagerly awaited this book. The book is a good memoir of a writer reflecting on the end of her marriage, her spouse leaving her and her toddler son behind for another woman. She goes through the stages of grief, denial, anger acceptance, etc, and tells her story in small vignettes. It took me some time to get past her writing style. I know some people love her writing but I am thrown off by it. Its very detached, I feel like I can never really get close to her, or fully feel her pain because of the way she writes. I also wish she could have come up with fake names for her hubby and son instead of writing A and N to refer to them. First, most of us know the names of her husband and son since she's referred to them in the past in interviews so its silly to give them abbreviations, but second, its annoying to read letters, just put in a fake name and it would help the story flow much better. All this being said, its a good book once I got into it, and though not perfect, does a decent job.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous- Harbison

The book had a cute concept. A group of women who love shoes meet on a Craigslist like listserv and exchange shoes and discuss their issues helping each other along the way. This book was written like a first time writer. Though Beth has written romance novels in the back, this was her first foray out. I think the plot was good, but the writing just tended to distract me. It felt like my own novel, but two drafts ago. Still, it was okay.