Babyville by Jane Green, 2003

I always enjoy books by English authors so that I can read the cultural references to my fiance, who sometimes gets homesick for all things British. 

Babyville was not the most compelling book I have read, but it held my interest.

The novel tells the story of three women at different baby-stages in their lives:
1) Julia, desperate to have a baby to save her relationship
2) Maeve, single with no interest in settling down or having a baby
3) Sam, happily married until her baby is born

Broken up into three distinct sections which focus on each women, the book reads like three mini-stories and may have been more interesting if the stories and women's lives were more woven together.

Instead, with this format, we only get a glimpse of the women's lives and how they predictably all reach their happy endings.

Euphoria by Lily King, 2014

Poetically and sparsely written, Euphoria is the story of three anthropologists living amongst the natives along the banks of the Sepik River in New Guinea.

Nell Stone, her husband Schuyler Fenwick, or Fen, and Andrew Bankson have been in New Guinea conducting research in attempts to achieve recognition in the field so that they are able to support their research.

Fen is a ruthless and brutal man who flourishes in the Mumbanyo tribe.  In Nell's shadow due to her successful anthropology book, Fen lashes out against her.

Bankson is the opposite of Fen and in Nell, finds a reason to live after years living with the Konia and feeling lost in his career.

With Bankson's help, Fen and Nell find the Tam tribe to live with and study.

Months later, the three anthropologists re-unite with the Tam where the story climaxes with Nell, Bankson and Fen collaborating together, while Fen plots out his devious and selfish plans to obtain fame and wealth.

Based on Margaret Mead's life, Euphoria is a compelling story of a world that I'm not familiar with - anthropologists living with remote tropical tribes.  The novel is a fascinating read and provides a glimpse into the fascinating world of primitive tribes that still exist today.

(This is a belated post from January 2015)

Fresh Off The Boat by Eddie Huang, 2013

Eddie Huang definitely has a voice.  A funny, fast-paced and enjoyable read, Fresh Off The Boat is an insightful and entertaining autobiography.

The eldest son of Taiwanese immigrants, Huang grew up an outsider in the predominately white suburb of Orlando.

Lacking ethnic diversity or culture - although, to be fair, Huang notes that he is often told to go back to China in New York City as well - Huang is called names and picked on by not only his classmates, but also his parents.

Huang ends up in a bad crowd and actively resents the assimilation Asian-Americans strive for - to be doctors, lawyers or accountants.

Throughout his childhood, he is always able to relate to food.  The love and appreciation of food from Taiwan to the 'mystery' food he is served at a Caucasian friend's house - macaroni and cheese.

Despite being a self-acclaimed rotten banana, Huang excels in school and although too short and slow to be a star athlete, commits and gives it his all to the football team he joins in high school.

After a few hiccups, including an arrest, record and interview with the Orlando Sentinel that was cut short because of his 'face,' Huang does take the 'traditional' path and enters law school.  His decision to attend law school is to prove something, to gain respect that he never had as a Asian-American.

His career as an attorney is short-lived as he eventually follows his passion and opens a restaurant, Baohaus, in New York City to rave reviews.

Huang's autobiography has inspired the ABC sitcom of the same name.  Clearly, the rotten banana has hit his stride and disrupting the stereotypical way that Asian-Americans are perceived.

Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran, 2005

A light, quick read, Younger is an entertaining story that revolves around the theme of stay-at-home moms versus career women.

Alice is a forty-four woman going through a divorce who gets a makeover on New Year's Eve.

With a new hair style and wardrobe, Alice looks decades younger and starts off her new year "younger."

Passing for someone in her twenties, Alice is able to recapture her life twenty years ago when she decided to stop working to raise her daughter with her husband Gary, a poet she met in Paris who would become a dentist.

With her younger look, she is able to get a job that she had interviewed for earlier while she was her dumpier self.

Although Alice is older and much has changed since she last worked, she still finds it difficult and intimidating to speak up at work.

She befriends a co-worker Lindsay, who is in her twenties and plans to get married soon, enjoy married life for a few years before having children, whom she would take are of full time.

Reminiscent of my frame of mind in my 20s, Lindsay's timeline startles Alice, who advises her to consider whether she wants to give up up her career, since returning to work after staying at home to care for children is not that simple.

Of course, having the optimistic outlook of someone in their 20s, Lindsay's is not able to comprehend future difficulties in achieving anything she desires.

Alice's best friend Maggie faces the reverse dilemma.  Focused on her career, Maggie has become a reknowned artist and now wants to start a family.  Alice is skeptical of whether it's too late for Maggie to become a mother given the work and energy needed to raise children.

The lesson of course, is that it's not too late for either women to start a new life, whether it involves being a professional or being a mother.

The Lowlands by Jhumpa Lahiri, 2013

Having read Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel The Namesake, I picked up The Lowland even though the synopsis did not interest me too much.

I was not disappointed - Lahiri writes so simply and elegantly.  Her writing truly is poetic. 

There are no quotes to represent dialog; instead, you read the dialog like you are actually part of the conversation, listening to what is being said.

The Lowland tells the story of two brothers, Subhash and Udayan, growing up in India during the 1960s Naxalite movement, a Marxist and Maoist rebellion.

The brash, outspoken Udayan becomes wrapped up in the movement while Subhash decides to study in the United States.

The brothers will never meet again or talk honestly with each other, but their lives will become entwined.

Against his parents' wishes, Udayan marries Gauri, the sister of a friend, instead of allowing his parents to arrange his marriage.  The  married couple return to Tollygunge to live with Udayan's parents.

In Rhode Island, Sabhash continues his studies and settles into a routine, never feeling the urge to return home.  Only when there is a family emergency does Subhash return home to India, bringing a pregnant Gauri back to Rhode Island.

Through different view points and time periods, unspoken truths are revealed where Uduyan's political activities lead to a crime in which Gauri becomes complicit.  As a result, she is not able to confide in Subhash, even as they raise her daughter Bela together.

Every familial relationship is strained in this novel, as the sons make decisions irrespective of their parents' wishes.  Similar to The Namesake, the familial strain of making one's own decision instead of following tradition is captured so well (and poetically) by Lahiri.  

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, 2013

The Interestings is a powerful story that sticks with you.  A St. Elmo's Fire that begins earlier and ends later.

It begins with a group of teenage camp friends who ironically deem themselves The Interestings at Spirit-in-the-Woods.

It captures a time and place where kids are able to re-invent themselves where even a slight name change, from Julie to Jules, becomes life altering. 

The story centers around Jules (nee Julie) Jacobson, a small town girl whose father passes away and is sent to the creative camp in Massachusetts on scholarship.  

Ash Wolf, the nice popular blond girl, befriends Jules, who now finds herself as part of the in-group, something that she has never experienced.  

The clique consists of Ash, her equally popular brother Goodman, Ethan Figman, Jonah Bay, and Cathy Klipinger.

Except for Jules, who lives in upstate New York, the clique lives in New York City and come from worldly and sophisticated families.

The story follows these group of friends from the teenage years up until their sixties, where the group will couple up, uncouple, make mistakes, discover dark truths about themselves, and ultimately remain entwined with each other throughout the decades.

During the years at camp, Ethan professes his live to Jules, only to have her reject him.  Described as thick-bodied and unusually ugly, Ethan comes from a broken home.

Growing up with bickering, and then separated, parents, Ethan creates an alternate world in which to escape.  This cartoon world is called Figland, which will eventually become a hit television show making Ethan millions.

Ethan's success story reminds me of the theory that artists can only truly create when there is great suffering.  That comedians tend to be really dark people.  Only a place of great negativity and suffering creates beauty, while complacency does not push the boundaries.

Like the quote from the Third Man, my fiance's favorite movie, points out: "...in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. 

In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

As the group grows older, tragedy strikes where Goodman has overstepped his sense of entitlement, splitting up the group of friends.  As part of her close, almost obedient, friendship with Ash, Jules is made privy to the Wolf family secrets in protecting Goodman.

Recognizing that her complicity is assumed  because of her weakness, Jules remains faithful to Ash, never outgrowing her love (or envy) for Ash. 

By their thirties, not only is Ethan worth millions, but also has the perfect wife in Ash.  During their marriage and with Ethan's success, Ash is able pursue her career as a play director. 

After countless unsuccessful auditions, Jules pursues a more practical professional over acting and becomes a therapist.  While she enviously follows the opulent lifestyle of her friends Ethan and Ash, she settles down with Dennis Boyd, a typical small town all-American she meets at a dinner party.  

A technician who suffers from depression, Dennis makes a modest living, but is good at what he does.  He is reliable, content and balances out Jules' envious and pliable traits.

Despite the success and financial security though, Ash and Ethan struggle with their special needs son and secrets they keep for each other, secrets that Jules has been privy to.

Goodman, Cathy and Johan will have more troubled experiences as the years go on.  Jonah's story ends up being the most colorful and includes joining the Moonies cult, coming out and coming to terms with a truly bizarre childhood experience.

Some quotes from The Interestings that capture phases in life:

"The time period between the ages of, roughly, twenty to thirty was often amazingly fertile.  Great work might get done during this ten-year slice of time.  Just out of college, they were gearing up, ambitious not in a calculating way, but simply eager, not yet tired."

"...they had entered love and mutual caretaking, which unexpectedly involved feeding and food."

Ash's toast at Jules wedding in their thirties:
"I'm not losing you," said Ash.  "Marriage, I don't think, is like that.  It's something else.  It's a thing in which you get to see your closest friend become more of who she already is."

And then in the forties and beyond:
"What did the Wolf parents tell their kids: You are so special that normal rules don't apply to you?  Well, you know what?  Everybody's grown-up, everybody's old, and the normal rules do apply."

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, 2014

The Romanov Sisters tells the story of Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, grand duchesses and the four daughters of Nicholas Romanov, the last tsar of Russia.

Despite the joy and love Nicholas and his wife Alexandra, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, felt for their daughters, they were each a disappointment to Russia, anxious for an heir.

Finally in 1904, the night rung with 301 cannon shots (instead of 101 for each previous daughter), announcing the birth of the much awaited heir, the fifth and final child for the Romanovs. 

Unfortunately, the tsarevich Alexey was a hemophalic, an often fatal condition where a fall could trigger internal bleeding.  As the heir to the Russian empire, Alexey's condition could not be shared with the Russian people. 

With the need to maintain their brother's secret, their mother's poor health and security concerns due to political instability, the Romanov family secluded themselves, resulting in the sisters growing up in a cocoon.

The sisters were rarely allowed to socialize, and when they did, they socialized with the army cadets who protected them.  Modest and well-mannered, the sisters were filled with love for their parents, uncommon in upper-and-ruling-class society where nannies and tutors served as parent figures.  

Although Alexey's actions were closely watched and governed, there were a few incidents where his hemophilia almost caused him his life.  During these episodes when doctors had no answers, a desperate Alexandra turned to the legendary mystic Rasputin.

Charismatic and self-proclaimed to have healing powers, Rasputin would rush to Tsarskoe Selo to be at Alexey's bedside whenever Alexandra beckoned.  With prayers and assurances to Alexandra, Rasputin became a favorite among the Romanov family despite his dubious reputation and unkempt appearances.

For the Russian people, who knew little about the Romanovs, the close association with Rasputin raised suspicious.  Alexandra rarely made public appearances due to her ill health, and when she did make an appearance, she often ended the night early and rarely spoke to anyone.

As the grand duchesses became older, there was talk of marriage for Olga and Tatiana.  Anachronistic of its time, the daughters had a voice in regards to whom they married.  Neither Alexandra nor Nicholas desired to use their daughters as political pawn to build alliances.

Talk of marriages were stalled when WWI broke out, and Alexandra and her daughters threw themselves into nursing work.  An outlet from their secluded world at Tsarkoe Selo, nursing allowed the grand duchesses to interact with the outside world. 

Although aspirational to see their tsaritsa and grand duchesses attending to wounded soldiers, the Russian people were surprised to see these royal figures dressed plainly, like any other nurse.

As casualty and losses continued, revolutionary groups formed in Russia led by Lenin and the Red Guards.  Nicholas stepped down as tsar for the betterment of the country and returned to his family at Tsarskoe Selo.

Banished to Tobolsk, Siberia, the Romanovs remained a tight family unit who rallied together and kept each others' spirits up during their captivity.  The family shared a deep love for each other, and although Nicholas and Alexandra proved to be ineffective leaders, they proved to be great parents.

Ironically, the Romanov's love for family, and even love for Russia, proved to be their downfall.  Secluded and misunderstood, the Romanovs were a mystery to the Russian people, who felt no affinity to the imperial family.

After a year in captivity in 1918, the Romanovs were marched out of into courtyard and each one brutally executed.