End of Summer Books

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, 2005
Amazing story of extreme poverty (growing up without indoor plumbing) & chaos (an alcoholic father) mixed with adventures (dreams of building a Glass Castle) & unconditional love (the sibling bond between Jeannette, Brian & Lori).

The ups & downs that are captured with Jeannette's magical yet destructive childhood are honestly & simply told in this gripping memoir.  So many unbelievable moments where Rex & Rose Mary Walls inadvertently abused their children.

That the Walls children were able to escape is due to the love of reading that was instilled in the children, and the support of a concerned adult, that encouraged them to do well in school & that they could achieve things even if they scavenged the school restroom garbage for lunch.



How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz, 2015
Story of college friends Kate Smirnoff, Anna Furry & George Leoni.

The story jumps around chronologically so was tough to follow, but set up some twists.

Kate has been mysteriously traveling the country looking to give away her inheritance.  Anna is now a paralegal despite her MD.  George is onto her third husband & child, constantly in need of a man to love her.

The friends have fallen out over an incident when all three lived together & an intruder attempted to force himself onto George.

We realize that the event triggers Kate's road trip & that although everyone blames Anna for the incident, there is more to it.

Engaging vignettes revolving around no-nonsense, straight talker Kate with no greater ambition than being a barista; privileged Anna who will never shake her childhood demons or the cold, distant manner her parents treat her & her brother Colin; and gorgeous park ranger George who becomes addicted to men.


Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

More academic than The Glass Castle, Hillbilly Elegy describes J.D.'s (or J-Dot's) upbringing in economically depraved Ohio and family reunions in Appalachian Kentucky.

Unstable families, violence & addiction plague the community.  Vance sees friends checking out of good paying jobs because they are tired of getting up so early.

The mentality is not that they can make something of themselves through education and hard work, but rather that the world is stacked against them.

These people do not realize that if they attended college out of state versus community college, the tuition would most likely be lower due to financial aid.  These people do not realize there is another life besides the vicious cycle of broken families and poverty prevalent in small communities left bereft when mines & factories closed.

When Vance does enter the Ivy Leagues (Yale for law school), the cultural shock is significant.  He describes things he never realized growing up in small town Ohio.  From social etiquette 'norms' such as wearing a suit to an interview and that fizzy water is not water that has gone 'bad' and to be spit out at a restaurant to life altering truths such as job prospects are not the same as the town he grew up in and that elite colleges have more to offer than just bragging rights.

Similar to my experience where my family rarely ate out & when we did, it was at a Chinese restaurant, I went on a date in college where I ordered a burger & the waiter asked how I would like it.  Having only eater hamburgers of the McDonald's variety, I did not know how to answer this question.


The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, 2007
Picked up this book because of How to Start a Fire & the hilarious, sarcastic heroine Kate.  Spellman files centers around Isabel Spellman, whose parents are detectives & proprietors of Spellman Investigations.

Based in San Francesco, Izzy lives with her parents, younger sister Rae & alcoholic Uncle Ray.  Her older brother David is an attorney.

The family spies on each other & Izzy is unable to draw the line between investigating people and her personal life, leaving to many failed relationships.

When she becomes too intensely involved & investigates a cold case that her parents had been hired for decades ago, her family starts tailing her to reign her in.

Quirky and humorous, the Spellman Files is the start to a series of Spellman books that I am not compelled to read, but may pick up at some point.

Summer 2017

Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocery by John Jung, 2008

Fascinating and well researched stories of the first Chinese immigrants who migrated to the Mississippi delta to build a better life for themselves.  Initially working as sharecroppers, the Chinese moved into the more prestigious work of owning grocery stores.

This opportunity opened up to the Chinese as slavery ended requiring African Americans to purchase goods that they previously received from a commissary.  While white merchants refused to serve African Americans, the Chinese willingly stepped in.

Although they were not in the fields, Chinese grocers worked long hours from early in the morning to late at night, constantly stocking the shop & serving customers.  Grocers lived in the back of the store and the store became not only their livelihood but also their homes and where they raised their children.

To help run or open new stores, men would send for family members (or acquaintances) from China to join them.  This started a network of Chinese emigrating to the States from the Toisan region of China, where my parents are from.  It's fascinating to think how a handful of adventurous & industrious Chinese laid the foundation for the regional emigration to the United States.  How happenstance affected so many lives.

As store owners and merchants, Chinese were accorded a better social status than African Americans, but still faced discrimination.  In theaters, when they did take time off to see a move, struggled to determine whether they were to sit in the Negro or White Only seating.

Church became an entree into White society, which meant acceptance, including their children being allowed to attend the White only school, which was superior to the segregated Negro schools.

The story is fascinating as my father lived in Arkansas & worked in a grocery owned by his cousin.  The store ended up not being successful so my Dad moved north to Boston where there were jobs available.  Reading about the experience of Chinese grocers in the Mississippi delta was fascinating as I imagined how my life would have changed if my Dad's family had become successful in building a store in the South.

The Gilded Years: A Novel by Karin Tanabe, 2016 - Fascinating, the concept of 'passing' that existed where mixed race people passed as a white person to gain access to the privileges allowed Caucasians and denied Negros.

Historic fiction centers around Anita Hemmings, daughter of mulatto parents who is very light skinned and able to pass as a white woman so that she can attend Vassar College, which has not started admitting Negro students.

The discrimination she must endure and pain of not being able to openly interact with her family, who would expose that she has Negro blood in her.

Hemmings would marry another light mixed race doctor and pass for white to further progress his career.  Their children would grow up unaware of their Negro heritage.  A bit like the Americans but sadly, just a couple trying to take advantage of basic opportunities, not defeat another country in war.


The Nix by Nathan Hill, 2016
An epic novel filled with vivid stories from growing up in a small town to having your life literally consumed by video games to the camaraderie and dangers of fighting in Iraq.

The story of Faye Andresen-Anderson & her son Samuel Andresen-Anderson start with a curse, or nisee, the Norwegian word Faye's dad uses to describe it.

Samuel's childhood is haunted by the mother who left him and his father.  He befriends Bishop and falls in love with his twin Bethany.

As an adult, Samuel remains an unfinished man, finding success with a story depicting his childhood friends's dark secret, leading to a college teaching job.

Unfilled & lost, Samuel spends his nights playing Elfscape.  After reconnecting with his mother after over two decades and not receiving any answers, Samuel reaches out to his Elfscape friends to meet in real life, breaking a cardinal rule.

Pwnage, a legendary elf player, answers the calls and meets up with Samuel, where he imparts advice gleaned from his hours/days playing video games.  Determine if a situation is an Enemy, Obstacle, Puzzle, or Trap and plan next steps accordingly.

Samuel decides he has a puzzle to solve as he needs to find out what happened to her mother when she was a college student in Chicago during the anti-Vietnam protests.  Bewildered by her fellow free-spirited students, Faye does not fit in with the other students.  She is befriended by an outspoken & free woman Alice, who introduces her to Sebastian, who publishes an anti-establishment paper.

Events spiral a bit unbelievably with Office Charles Brown, but the stories along the way are engaging and vivid.  Having always loved covers (judging books by them despite the age old adage), the cover for the Nix had me looking at it in appreciate quite a few times after I had finished the novel.

June/July

First Comes Love by Emily Giffin, 2016

Giffin writes complex relationships well. The tension between sisters Josie and Meredith is very relatable.

They want to be happy for each other but their inability to control innate feelings prevents them from being supportive.

History prevents them from looking objectively at things and the tension grows and grows. Stopping the tension requires such discipline.

Unfortunately, the story itself is not as compelling.

The story revolves around Meredith's marriage, Josie's plans to have a baby on her own and the death of their brother - a hodge podge of events.

The last few Giffin novels I have read or started but could not complete had similar themes:  Less than perfect marriage, fractious relationships and stories that just don't seem realistic or compelling.  

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, 2016

Stories of two half sisters from Ghana and their ancestors through each generation.  One growing up Fante, the other growing up Asantes tribe.

The half sisters end up on both sides of the slave trade, one shipped off to America while the other staying in Ghana as the second wife of an English slave trader.

The stories of brutality are heartbreaking.  The characters vivid and strong.  Eventually, the ancestors meet up at Stanford.

Born a Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, 2016

Autobiographic story of comedian Trevor Noah.  Raised by a focused, strong black woman who asked her Swedish boyfriend to father a child with her.  A child she would raise on her own with no desire for the father to be involved.

An amazing story of South African law outlawing interracial relationships, formalizing segregation down to where someone can live, what job they can have based on how they are classified.  A classification that can be arbitrary, especially for mixed race people.  Families separated if parents ended up changing classifications.

Townships like Soweto, where Noah's mother grew up in, are purposely built to segregate black South Africans from Dutch Afrikaners.  Institutionalized apartheid is no joke, despite Noah's witty accounts.

Noah writes about growing up and using humor to fit in.  He starts a business burning CDs and then DJ'ing.  He eventually flees South African fearing his stepfather whose abuse culminated in a murderous rage.

An amazing story and a glimpse into a country with truly atrocious laws.

Janesville by Amy Goldstein, 2017

Janesville: An American Story is powerful and provides a glimpse of towns throughout America where plants close and jobs disappear, devastating the fabric of a town. 

Lives are literally destroyed.

Following families and the impact of jobs moving out of Janesville, WI.  GM plant is closed, put on standby, resulting in the loss of "good" jobs paying $28/hr or $58k/year.

Families are devastated.  Fathers become GM Gypsies (like the Wopats) and work hours away from their families in WI or take new jobs but none pay as well as GM. 

Mothers cobble together salaries at low hourly rate jobs.  Daughters (like the Whiteakers) in high school use their salaries to buy family groceries.

People attend classes at Blackhawk Technical College to transition to new careers, but taking classes is not enough to transition into another career. 

Fewer people who attended classes were employed four years later than those who chose not to pursue any training or education.  Grim results show that job re-training adversely impacts employment.

There are also the two women who graduate from Blackhawk, Kristi Beyer and Barb Vaugh, who become success stories, managing to find careers in law enforcement.  However, transitions are not easy.

Included in stories about the citizens, including children, devastated by plant closings, are stories of Congressman Paul Ryan, current speaker of the house, who fights to keep the GM plant open in Janesville. 

Janesville would have been more powerful if it was more focused.  Too many people are portrayed and the focus on politics remove the human interest.  Politicians and community leaders fight to bring business to Janesville, but ultimately, have little to do with the basic struggles people face every day. 

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, 2009

Eilis Lacey is from a small Irish town where there are no good employment prospects for her or her brothers, who have emigrated to Liverpool to find work.

Instead of migrating to Liverpool though, she has an opportunity to go to America thanks to the kind sponsorship of Father Flood and her unselfish scheming sister Rose.

After surviving the long torturous boat ride to America, Eilis struggles to adjust to life in Brooklyn, where she has a room in Mrs. Kehoe's boarding house and a job as a sales girl in a department store.

Not forming close relationships with her housemates or Mrs. Kehoe, Eilis feels isolated and home sick.

She enrolls in night classes for Accounting to keep herself busy, and then meets Tony, a first generation Italian who lives with his two brothers & parents in a one bedroom apartment.

Spending time with Eilis dissipates her loneliness as she explores American culture, including attending a baseball game and rooting for the Dodgers.

When they plan a trip to Coney Island, Eilis wonders what to wear to the beach with her co-worker Miss Fortini:

"In Ireland no one looks," Eilis said.  "It would be bad manners."
"In Italy it would be bad manners not to look."

An unexpected family death brings her home, where she returns with an aura of someone who has survived building a new life in another country.

Eilis is a changed, more confident woman who now gains the attention of previous potential suitor Jim, whose family owns the family pub, making him a bachelor with prospects.

She slips easily & comfortably back into her home village and is tempted to stay, when word of her relationship with Tony gets back to the village and she is jarred back into the life she had created in  America. 

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple, 2016

Quirky & ode to Seattle, Today Will Be Different is about Eleanor Flood, an animator.  That's the initial sign of quirkiness.

An estranged sister, legendary southern gentleman Bucky (Jody from the Mindy Show pops into my mind every time Bucky is mentioned) and young son Timby haunt Eleanor's quest to be a better version of herself.

And by better version, we mean only wearing yoga clothes when going to yoga classes.

Witty with a protagonist who has an acute awareness that she is a less than perfect Mom, Today Will Be Different kept my interest, culminating in a truly unexpected ending where Eleanor realizes where her husband Joe has been playing hooky to for the last week.

Similar to my thoughts about Where'd You Go, Bernadette which so many people enjoyed, I really can not say if it's good or bad, just quirky

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik, 2016

I heard about Sofia Khan is Not Obliged from a newspaper for expats that I was reading while traveling through Saudi Arabia on my way home from London.  The blurb talked about a Muslim author and a book she had written about a young Muslim woman living in London.

Sofia is a Pakistani Muslim young woman living outside of London with her family who ends an engagement because her betrothed Imran has no intentions of moving out of his parents' home.

As with most Eastern cultures, including Chinese, a wife is expected to move into her husband's family's home.  Even today in 2017, in Western cities.

A book publicist and blogger, Sofia halfheartedly pitches a book idea about Muslim dating that her bosses love and decide that she should write.

As part of her research, she joins Muslim dating site www.shaadi.com (which I had never heard of), a real site referred to as Shady.com.

Initially, it was tough to understand the tone and rhythm of the book with references to Muslim culture (and even distinguishing the names of her girl friends), but once I picked up an ear for it, the characters became really engaging.

Despite her traditional friends, family & headgear, Sofia interacts with very western co-workers and neighbors, including the very Irish Conall.

Witty, and even bringing tears to my eyes at one point, Sofia Khan is Not Obliged is a story of every young women - her friends being her world, family conflicts, pressures of marriage - with Muslim twists, but in essence, the same stories we all have.