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.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, 2011

Critically acclaimed, Rules of Civility made it to my library reserve list a few years back, but I could not get enough interest to read it.

Having just read Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow, I knew I wanted to read this book.  However, same struggle to begin the novel for some reason.

Once I did start the book though, I was transfixed and was transported to another world, as told from the self-aware, wry voice of Katey Kontent.

Set in the year 1938 in Manhattan, Katey and her friend Eve Ross are boardinghouse friends who meet banker Tinker Grey on New Year's Eve.

Tinker proves to be Katey's and Eve's entree into the moneyed and privileged society of Manhattan, where all is not as it seems.

Like A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility is filled with inventive story lines, snappy dialog and great sentences like:  "...in moments of high emotion - whether they're triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment - if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say."

Memorable and surprising characters who Katey encounters include Anne Grandyn (Tinker's "god-mother"), Wallace Wolcott, Dicky Vanderwhile and Hank Grey.  Through chance encounters and a little proactiveness, Katey powers through her 20s to happily settle into a career and marriage.

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2015

A what-if/choose your own adventure story based on whether protagonist Hannah Martin stays out late with her high school sweetheart Ethan or return home, Maybe in Another Life kicks off with Hannah returning home to Los Angeles at the age of 29 after a few years in New York.

We watch how Hannah's life unfolds based on a seemingly trivial decision.

By staying out with Ethan, Hannah & Ethan rekindle their romance and she soon discovers that she is pregnant, a result of her affair with a married man, one of the reasons she fled New York.

Alternatively, by returning home early with her best friend Gabby, Hannah ends up in a car accident that causes her to lose her baby and realize that she needs to focus on making mature, adult decisions as she gets better.

In both versions of Hannah's life, she ends up doing what she is meant to do, becoming a nurse; while whom she ends up "happily ever with" differs. 

It's an interesting statement that there is not necessarily one person whom one is meant to be.  While for Gabby, there is one person with whom she is meant to be. 

This idea of a trivial decision in your 20s shaping the rest of your life is further explored in the next book I read, Amor Towles' Rules of Civility.