The Magpie Bridge by Liu Hong

Rating:  6.5/10
Read:  July, 2011
Recommended To:  Chinese and/or Historical Fiction fans, people who like ghost stories with a cultural emphasis
Categories:  Fiction, Chinese Fiction, Ghost Stories, Family-Relations

Jiao Mei, a young Chinese woman living in London while attending school, is transported back to her childhood in China by the powerful fragrance of flowers and the ghostly whisper of her childhood name one evening.  Accompanying the fragrance is a vision of a woman claiming to be her deceased grandmother, Tie Mei.  At first, she thinks the visions are simply dreams, but when Barbara, the woman she lives with, also begins to experience some strange things, Jiao Mei realizes that the ghost of her grandmother is real.

With Tie Mei's visits, Jiao Mei is forced to confront the reality of her pregnancy and her relationship with her British boyfriend, and learns the tragic stories of her ancestors, and the curse that is destined to follow her.  Told from the perspective of both women, through flashbacks of Tie Mei's life and Jiao Mei's childhood mixed with the present tense, the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter unfolds, as Jiao Mei is forced to reflect on the past, and come to terms with the present.

Personal Thoughts

While I enjoyed the book overall, there was nothing especially outstanding about it.  I just didn't find myself particularly engaged in the storyline, or drawn to the characters. 

I loved the idea of the Magpie Bridge, for which the book took it's name, and I really enjoyed the ghostly aspect of it, and the flashbacks that told the story about her ancestor's lives.  Aside from that, I just did not connect to any of the characters, or find them either loveable or detestable; they were somewhat bland and one-dimensional.  They didn't feel undeveloped as much as unexplored. 

I feel like the strongest aspect of the book was the flashback storyline as it overlapped with the present, rather than what was actually occurring present-tense in the book.  I feel as though the present-tense storyline could have been stronger, and given some of the characters a bit more exploration, which would have made the book better overall.

Pros
* The flashbacks are very interesting, especially the ones involving Jiao Mei's ancestors, and really carry the book.
* The ghostly aspect, the flashbacks, and the present tense are woven in so that story flows well.
* It's a pretty quick read.

Cons
* The storyline is interesting and the pacing is good, but not particularly engaging.
* The characters feel unexplored, and come off as bland at times.

OTHER BOOKS BY LIU HONG:
 

Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Rating:  9.8/10
Read:  June, 2011
Recommended To:  Everyone; I think this book would be interesting and appeal to anyone who enjoys a good read
Categories:  Fiction, Crime & Criminals, Family-Relations

For five-year-old Jack, Room isn't just home, where he lives with his ma, it is all he knows; in his young mind, it's all that exists, period.  Jack's entire world takes place within the four walls of Room; it is where he sleeps and eats, it is where he plays and learns.

What Jack doesn't know is that a whole world exists outside of Room; a world that his mother disappeared from 7 years before.  He doesn't know that Room isn't home at all, but where his mother has been held captive the entire time by "Old Nick", who comes at night to visit ma sometimes while Jack is shut safely in the wardrobe where he sleeps.

Though his mother has tried hard to create as much of a normal life as possible for Jack, she realizes that it will never be normal enough.  She knows that as long as they are held captive, they will never be safe.  She must do something to save them both, and must do it now.  So, she comes up with a devious and possibly dangerous escape plan involving Jack.

With bravery and courage, Jack follows the plan his mother devised, and he and his mother are finally rescued from Old Nick, seven years after his mother was first kidnapped.  Unfortunately, being "rescued" is not easy for mother or son.  Jack is thrown into a world he has never known, and through his confusion, he struggles to understand the world beyond Room, and why they can't go back to the only home he's ever known. Meanwhile, Jack's mother has to face her own struggles, and come to terms with what happened in Room during her seven years of captivity.

Personal Thoughts

I have to say, I really loved this book.  I tend to shy away from reading books that have been really hyped up, because I am usually disappointed in them and can't understand what all the fuss was about.  Even if I try not to go in with expectations, it is really hard not to when you keep hearing how great something is.  There are quite a few books I might have enjoyed more had I not been expecting to read something amazing when I started them.  This was one of those books that I kept hearing great things about, and though the description of the story sounded interesting, I was reluctant to read it.  I am really glad I did; it is definitely one of the best books I have read this year.

Told entirely through the eyes of five-year-old Jack, Room is a very creative and original take on an over-done plot line in the literary world.  Just this year, I have read multiple books that have delved into the "kidnapping" plot; some more successfully than others.  I have always been interested in real cases of missing people, kidnappings and disappearances, which is why I am again and again drawn to these stories, even though it's been overdone in the literary world.  It is really hard for a writer to come up with a fresh and interesting angle, and Emma Donoghue certainly managed to do it with this book.

What really set this book apart though is not that she came up with a fresh angle, but that she was able to pull it off so successfully.  I was skeptical before I started the book, because I had doubts that a book written from the perspective of a five-year-old could be done not only believably, but also that it could be simultaneously well-written.  I opened with the book with the thought that either it would be believable; in that I would believe a 5-year-old wrote the book (in a bad way), or that it would be well-written; in that it would not be believable as being from 5-year-old's perspective.  I was completely wrong, and was astonished to find that it was both believable, and incredibly well-written.

Pros

* Well-written

* Believably told from the perspective of 5-year-old Jack

* Thought-provoking and emotional

* A fresh and original take on the kidnapping plot-line

Cons

* Even though it was believably told from Jack's perspective through-out, there are a few spots in the book where certain things are not entirely believable.  It is not Jack's perspective itself that is unbelievable, just small things that occur in the storyline that are not quite believable; for example, Jack consistently talks/thinks as a five-year-old through the book, but apparently during the "parrot" game, he is able to listen to, understand and repeat precisely what was said by an adult on television, word for word, which I did not find believable.  I did not find that these small moments, though I noticed them, took away from the story at all, or "took me out of it", so to speak.  I was still completely engrossed in the book.


OTHER BOOKS BY EMMA DONOGHUE:
 

Review: The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

Rating:  8.5/10
Read:  June, 2011
Recommended To:  Mystery & Thriller fans, suspense lovers, anyone who loves a good crime book/show or whodunnit story  
Categories:  Fiction, Mysteries, Friendships, Crime & Criminals

A quiet summer morning in August, two families awaken to their horror, to find that both of their children have gone missing.

Calli Clark and Petra Gregory, the two missing girls, are best friends.  Petra is even more than that to Calli, who suffers from selective mutism stemming from a tragic event that plunged her into silence years ago; Petra is Calli's voice, the only person who seems to understand Calli without her uttering a word.


When both girls are found missing in the early morning, their parents are forced to confront some horrifying possibilities; Calli's mother, Antonia, struggles with the idea that her bitter and angry husband, Calli's father, could be involved in what happened.  Petra's father, Martin, struggles with the unfamiliar person he seems to have turned into the instant Petra disappeared, a far cry from the calm, intellectual he was.

These two families, confronted with these tragic circumstances, will uncover more in the search for their daughters than they expected.  As buried family secrets come to the surface, including what really happened the day Calli spoke her last word.

Personal Thoughts

 I was immediately drawn to this book by the description, but it actually ended up sitting on my shelf for nearly two years after I bought it; my friend wanted to read it too, and we were going to read it together for our two-person book club.  She finally picked it up, by which time I had forgotten completely what the premise of the book was.  I think one of the main things that drew me to the book was how original the idea was; it was a fresh take on a well-used and beloved plot.

I dove into this book, and completely shoveled the delicious morsels of this story into my mouth, consuming it as quickly as I could.  It is fast-paced without being confusing; it is descriptive without overdoing it; it is suspenseful, while maintaining and balancing the background story throughout.

At first, when I realized that the story was going to be written from the multiple viewpoints of the various characters, I was skeptical.  In my experience as a reader, it is very difficult for a writer to successfully and believably write in the voices of many characters.  Either the characters are written too similarly, and the story becomes confusing as you have trouble distinguishing between them, or the writer tries too hard to make the characters distinguishable, which usually backfires; they either become shallow, one-dimensional characters (for example: John Smith is the mean guy, James Doe is good guy; easy to distinguish, but not interesting or realistic), or there is too much superfluous information added into the book to give the characters depth, which can also make it confusing to remember which information goes with which character.  Heather Gudenkauf really surprised me with the ease with which she seemed able to switch between voices while avoiding the above problems; the characters were well developed, multi-dimensional and distinguishable, each with their own unique voice that shone through.

Pros
* Very interesting, well-developed characters that all played a significant role in the novel.
* Fast-paced, suspenseful and mysterious, though with more depth to the story than your run-of-mill mystery or thriller novel.
* Well-written, and captivating; the plot itself could have carried the book far, but it was the fantastic writing that really put it over the top.

Cons
* My only real complaint, and my friend agreed, was with the end of the book.  Not a bad ending; it tied up loose ends, it was satisfying, it was a fitting end to the book.  Both of us, however, felt like the writing suffered a bit towards the end; we couldn't put a finger on it exactly, except that parts of it felt rushed and could have been written better.  That is the only reason I gave this an 8.5/10, instead of higher.


OTHER BOOKS BY HEATHER GUDENKAUF:
 

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Rating:  6.5/10 
Read:  June, 2011
Recommended To:  Young adults & YA Fiction lovers
Categories:  Fiction, Young Adult, Mental Illness, Fiction Dealing With Suicide

Hannah Baker decides, before she commits suicide, to record, on cassette tapes, the 13 reasons why she decided to kill herself.  In her strange suicide note, she talks to and about 13 people, and how those people contributed to the reasons why she chose to commit suicide.  She didn't leave them to be found with her body though, instead, she mailed them to the first person on the list, the person who is part of reason number one.  She left instructions for the person to listen to all the tapes, and then mail them to the next person on the list.

The story starts as Clay Jensen, Hannah's crush, finds the box of tapes on his front porch.  He pops the first one in, and finds out that he is one of the people on her list, and if he listens, he'll find out why.  The story weaves back and forth between the narrative on the tapes, and Clay's life as he listens to them, and discovers the 13 reasons why Hannah Baker decided to kill herself.

Personal Thoughts

 When I read the description of this book, I was really intrigued by the idea.  It was a fresh take on a subject that has been tackled before, sometimes well and sometimes badly.  When I finally got the book, I was really excited to delve into it.  As most young adult books, it was a fairly easy read.  The writing was simple (in a good way), and fast-paced, which is a sign of someone who knows how to write for the young adult audience.  Yet, it wasn't written in a "dumbed-down" kind of way, which some YA writers tend to do; being young isn't the same as being dumb, I appreciate when a writer realizes that, and doesn't write as though it is. 

So, it was well written for a YA novel, I liked it.  I didn't love it.  Part of the reason I usually like to read Young Adult novels once in a while is because it takes me back that time in my own life usually, when I first really fell in love with books.  I didn't feel that with this book; the characters were realistic, but I guess they just weren't characters that I really connected much to, because they didn't remind me of anyone I knew.  I also felt like it just could have been... more.  I don't know how else to say it.  I don't know specifically what I would change, or what was lacking.  I just felt like it didn't quite explore the concept as much as it could have.

Pros

* Fast-paced, quick read, that doesn't drag at all

* Interesting way of tackling the subject of suicide, while making it particularly relevant to teenagers

* The dynamic of switching between the tapes, and Clay's struggle to listen to them while going about his normal life, and facing the other people on the tapes, really works for this story.

Cons

* It was good, but it could have been better.  The idea was a 10, while the execution was a 6.  Not badly written, but just not fully-explored.

* It didn't have much of an emotional impact on me, which was surprising considering the nature of the book.


OTHER BOOKS BY JAY ASHER:
 

Review: Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Rating:  8/10 
Read:  July, 2011
Recommended To:  Women of all ages; men can and should read it too, but the core of the story is a friendship between two women, so I really recommend reading it if you are a woman. 
Categories:  Fiction, Friendships, Love, Family-Relations

Firefly Lane is a gripping, emotional, powerful novel about love, loss, and most importantly, friendship.  We meet the main characters, Kate & Tully, two girls on the cusp of becoming teenagers, living together on Firefly Lane, in the summer of 1974.  Kate, a shy, awkward loner, is befriended to her surprise by the popular, outgoing Tully, and despite their differences, they two become the best of friends.  The book follows the journey of their friendship through the decades as they grow up and become adults, as their friendship changes and grows, as jealously, betrayal & anger threaten it.  As their lives and friendship go through changes time & again over the years, the girls learn that making the promise to be best friends forever is a lot easier than keeping it.

Personal Thoughts

One warning; before you start reading this book, make sure you have a box of tissues handy.  I, unfortunately, didn't realize I was out of tissues, and ended up using 1/2 a roll of toilet paper drying up my tears!  I was not expecting this book to hit me so hard emotionally, and I could explain why it did, but that of course would ruin the story!  So, I will just say that I'm not usually one to cry over a book, but this one was something special.  Rarely is someone able to capture the essence of friendship in a realistic way the way that Kristin Hannah did in this book.  I find a lot of relationships in novels that I have read feel way too forced to fit in with the plot line; the author tries so hard to fit them into a little box, and the relationships between people therefore do not come across as natural, or realistic.  The characters and their relationships are just a means to a end; they are there to support the plot.  But, in Firefly Lane, I felt like the friendship between Kate & Tully was realistic, felt natural, and the plot line was there to support the story of their friendship, rather than the other way around; it makes for a novel that is character-driven, and emotionally rich.

Pros

* Very realistic, well-crafted characters, and natural, believable relationships between the characters.

* Emotionally rich & captivating.

* Good balance between story & dialogue.

* Kristin Hannah's descriptive, poetic style of writing really helped to set the atmosphere of the novel; reading certain passages really invoked a lot of my own memories of childhood, and I could really imagine the scenes as they occurred.

Cons

* Okay, this is a big one, and which is the main reason why I only gave this book 8/10; it is long.  There are times when it drags a bit.  I started to get frustrated part way through, because even though I was enjoying the writing, it felt like it was taking forever at times for the storyline to move along.  There is a lot of time covered in this novel, so I don't think it could have been realistically shortened, but in my opinion, this would have been better off as a 2 or 3 book series, instead of shoving it all in one big book.  The way the story was told, it easily could have been done.

* While, for the most part, I appreciated Kristin Hannah's gift for descriptiveness, at times, it was too much; she described the outfits everyone wore in great detail constantly, which ends up being a lot of outfits over the 30 years covered in the book.  Sometimes, description really adds to a story; sometimes it really takes away.  This is an example of it detracting.  I understand that it's necessary to make some comments on clothing to set the atmosphere, especially with the changes in fashion over the decades covered, but I really did not need minute detail that didn't affect the actual story whatsoever.

OTHER BOOKS BY KRISTIN HANNAH:
 

Review: Lucky by Alice Sebold

Rating:  9/10
Read:  2000 or 2001 & July, 2011
Recommended To:  Every woman and man; whether you have been a victim of sexual assault, know someone who has been assaulted, or have ever felt scared, alone, or terrified in a situation where you felt threatened, whether you find yourself within the pages, or just a better understanding of someone else you know, or people you don't know.
Categories:  Memoirs & Biographies, Triumph Over Trauma, Crimes & Criminals, Emotional

Alice Sebold is probably best known for her novel "The Lovely Bones", a best-seller turned blockbuster movie, in which the story that unfolds is told by a 14 year girl in the aftermath of her rape and murder.  In "Lucky", Alice Sebold reveals the details and aftermath of her own rape; as a college student, she was attacked in a park near campus, and brutally beaten and sexually assaulted.  Alice candidly opens up about her rape, the emotional aftermath and the effect it had on her life, as well as her pursuit of justice against her rapist.

Personal Thoughts

I will admit to being a bit of a "memoir-a-holic".  Despite that, rarely do I really love a memoir, or does one become one of my favourite books.  A lot of people have really interesting life stories, stories that *should* be documented, but the book falls short of being amazing simply because they aren't writers.  I can't blame them for that, but it is for that reason that, although I am drawn to the stories in many memoirs, and might find some emotional connection to them, I rarely love them.  The writing really needs to be good to capture me, even when it comes to a memoir.

I think that is one of the reasons that this memoir really stands out to me.  I can't remember exactly when it was that I first read it, and I couldn't recall the exact details of the story before I decided to read it again recently, but one thing stuck with me; I remember how it made me feel.  It moved me.  I found myself caught up in each moment as I read along, I remember getting upset at a particular part in the book that always stuck out to me; where a woman starts claiming she was Alice Sebold's "best friend" during college, though Alice didn't even recognize her (nor her Alice), I was so shocked that someone would try to appear cool-by-proxy for having known a rape victim.  I remember that the writing was exceptional, that Alice Sebold was a fantastic narrator of her own story, and that the story was told with candor and honesty.  

Despite all I remembered, I was not prepared to be just as moved the second time around.  The imagery of the rape itself, though hard to read, is powerful beyond belief.  She could have glossed over the details, but she bravely shared them, and it was an important part of the story.  It really adds to the emotional atmosphere of the book; the scene is present with you throughout the rest of the story, and experiencing the rest would not be the same without those details.  It is a hard book to read, as it should be; rape should never be an easy thing to read about, but I think it is an important book to read.

I won't even bother with a "Pro & Con" list as I usually do; I'm all pro with this book.  The only con is that it is hard to read, and some people might not be able to do it, but by opening up and sharing this traumatic and tragic experience, Alice Sebold is giving voice to millions of victims of sexual assault who, for whatever reason, can't share their own stories.

OTHER BOOKS BY ALICE SEBOLD:
   

Review: The Shack by William Paul Young

Rating:  3.5/10 
Read:  July of 2011
Recommended To:  Self-Help lovers, religious people, people who struggle with their religious beliefs, those who have suffered a loss and questioned why, people who don't mind being patronized and force-fed moral and existential lessons, anyone who likes a story with a moral, and maybe a little mystery.
Categories:  Fiction, Religious Fiction, Mysteries, Life Lessons/Self Help, Books I Will Never Read Again


The Shack.  The Shack.  Where to begin?  I am very often reminded when reviewing books of that old adage, "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all".  I try to always have at least something nice to say about every book I read, and even when I don't enjoy something, I can usually appreciate something about it.  Then again, most books I don't enjoy don't actually irritate me, or seem to written in a condescending, patronizing way.

I'm getting ahead of myself though; The Shack is a book about struggling with belief in the good of God in the face of grief, masquerading as a mystery novel.  Mackenzie Allen Phillips has been a broken man, haunted by sadness since the day his daughter Missy was abducted, and the only trace of her that was found was a blood stained red dress found on the floor of an abandoned shack.  Years later, Mack is still struggling with his grief, as well as his faith, when he receives a letter purportedly from God, asking him to meet him up at the Shack where Missy's bloodstained red dress was found.  What follows is the story of what happens to Mack when he goes up to the Shack to meet with God.

Personal Thoughts

I realize that my personal thoughts have already leaked through, but I would hate for someone to read the description, and not get to the part where I complain.  My job, after all, is to help you make a choice about whether or not you want to read this book, and I gotta say, you probably don't really want to.  Or maybe you do.

As I said, this book is masquerading as a mystery novel.  How so, you might be wondering?  Aside from the mystery of Missy being abducted, which is strictly background information for the central plot, there is no mystery.  To read the description of the book, you would think otherwise, but there really isn't; everything that occurs after the point where Mack receives the letter from God is predictable.  I kept thinking that there must be some twist coming up, something other than having these moral life lessons spoon-fed to me through colour-less descriptions and flat characters; and yes, considering that God is a character, I feel bad saying that, but it's true.  They were completely predictable, and one dimensional.  The descriptions of the people, places and things were mostly lackluster, bland, repetitive, and unoriginal.

Don't get me wrong, I love books that make me think, that somewhere in the story are able to teach me a little something about life or myself or other people.  I do not, however, like being very obviously "taught a lesson", or in this case, multiple lessons, in a pandering, in-your-face way.  If I did, I would just buy myself a self-help book, instead of disguising the book in a veil of "mystery".  I know a lot of people absolutely love this book, and for that reason, I have to think: there must be something good in there for someone.

Pros:

* It was short.  In this case, a very good thing.

* I can see the possibility of this being comforting to certain people, and being perhaps a good book for young adults who are starting to struggle with questions of this nature.

* It is not the worst-written book I have ever read.  At times, passages are well composed, if not quite "well written".

Cons:

If you've read above, I need not add more.  I didn't hate the book; heck, 3.5/10 is far from the worst rating I have given a book before.  Perhaps, if I had read it when I was younger, or if I was at a different place in my life where I could relate to it better, I might not have been as irritated.  Probably not, but it's possible!