I really, really enjoyed The Namesake, and it completely deserved my first five-star ranking of 2017. It’s about the son of Indian immigrants and his experiences growing up in America, and how his name shapes the man he becomes. I wrote about deciding on the stars it needed and what I liked about it here! A sidebar: I’m here to give this a shot again in 2017! I wrote a few reviews in early 2016, but eventually tapered off because I found it so difficult to […]
Like texts from your best friend.
Shonda Rhimes’ sister told her that she never said yes to anything, and after some reflection, she realized it was true. So she made a resolution to spend a year saying yes to anything – everything – that came her way, and change her life into something that would make her happier. It’s challenging when her very first “yes” is to give a commencement speech at Dartmouth, and her second is to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live (if you’re not aware, Rhimes is the creator of […]
Powerful, Poignant Poetry
salt. is a beautiful, powerful little book, one that my kindle predicted would take me half an hour to read, but instead took me more than a week, as I frequently had to put it down and wander away, blinking back tears while Waheed’s striking words ran through my mind. More than one poem made me gasp, several nearly made me cry. All of them made me think. Some of the poems are hard, critical little things, making me reflect on my own privilege and […]
As Secret Identities Go, It’s Not A Very Good One
The Nightingale is the story of two sisters caught up in Nazi-occupied France, and how they survive – and fight back – in their own distinct ways. Viann’s top priority is survival, for both her and her young daughter, as life gets increasingly difficult as the war continues, while Isabelle, the younger, feistier sister, joins the Resistance and finds a way to fight more actively as the Nightingale. Except their real last name is Rossignol, which literally means Nightingale, so it feels a little weird […]
I Doubt Love is the Word for it, but Like Will Do
Who Do You Love starts with our protagonist’s heartbreak, then rewinds to her as an eight-year-old girl, meeting the boy who, spoilers, she ends up loving. Each chapter alternates viewpoints between Rachel, our eight-year-old with a heart condition, and Andy, the impoverished boy growing up with a single mother, skipping ages willy-nilly until they come together at some undisclosed later time – in their thirties, I guess? Oddly, the timeline is quite clear about aging them up until the last few chapters. The interplay is […]
Can I Seriously Not Think Up a Good Pun for “Golden Son”?
Golden Son is the second book in the Red Rising Trilogy, and chronicles Darrow’s life after the Institute as he works towards achieving his rebel/terrorist goals of bringing down society as he knows it. Not surprisingly, he progresses towards his goals but also suffers sufficient setbacks to make the fight going into the third book seem more challenging than ever. Basically: this book sure is a second book in a trilogy. Yup. This book was probably better than Red Rising, but I liked it less. […]