Fall

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, 2003
An odyssey through India.  Semi-autobiographic story of Roberts, an Australian who breaks out of prison & feels to Mumbai.  He talks about the people, how they are full of smiles and warmth, love of dancing and celebration.  Generous, good-hearted people.

The narrator goes by Lindsay, the name on the stolen passport, which is shortened to Lin in India.  Lin embraces the friendship of hustler-guide Prabakar and is invited to Prabakar's home village hours from Mumbai where he learns Marathi, the local language foreigners rarely learn.

Part of Lin's adventures include living in the infamous Mumbai slums, spending time in prison, joining the Abdel Khader Khan Mafia, pursuing the love of American Karla Saaranen & embarking on a mission to deliver arms to Afghanistan.

Written while Roberts was serving time in prison, the story includes many insights on human characteristics and philosophical discussions, which to be honest, I found a bit tedious.  Regardless, the novel is magnificent.

Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business And Life by Tyler Gage, 2017
Fascinating story of how a young college student Tyler Gage wanted to bring guayusa tea to the western world.  A staple of Amazonian tribes, guayusa is a natural caffeinated tea with a pleasing taste.

After graduating college, Gage and fellow Brown student Dan MacCombie move to Ecuador to start working on manufacturing guayusa to eventually use in energy drinks, a $3.2B marketing in 2008.  The work these two do to start up the business in Ecaudor is incredible, not counting the work that must be done in the States to produce the end product.

A good general business primer, Gage discusses the need to listen to experts, swallow your pride, continuously prune & weed your team, focus on customers & know your numbers.

Although Gage was almost fired by Runa's Board of Directors, he did manage to stay on and make the transition from starting a company to the very different job of managing an established company.  Factoring in providing a livelihood of the Amazonian Kichwa tribe of Ecaudor, Runa is a pretty amazing story.

Fully Alive provides insight into the spiritual rituals of the Amazonian tribes, balancing the focus on profits and revenue with mindfulness and social responsibility.

Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta, 2017
I often find male authors lacking in capturing a woman's voice, and Tom Perrotta is no exception.  Although Mrs. Fletcher was very readable, I did not buy into the choices Eve Fletcher made.  A single mom whose only son Brendan has started college, Eve is left with an empty house.

She takes a class on gender, taught by transgender teacher Margo Fairchild.  She agrees to meet her employee Amanda for a drink outside of work.  None of these decisions seem odd, but the habit Eve embarks on & the wild night that ensues after having her classmates, including her son's high school classmate Julian, over for drinks do not ring true to me.

While Eve adjusts to her empty house, Brendan is also having difficulties adjusting to college life.  In high school, Brendan was the popular, cocky, superficial lacrosse player.  In college, Brendan's jock behavior is no longer acceptable and while his roommate Zach outgrows the behavior, Brendan struggles to do so.

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Phillippa Gregory, 2016

Yet another 16th Century royal page-turner, Three Sisters is told from the viewpoint of Margaret Tudor, Henvy VIII's older sister.  Filled with political maneuverings, wars and constant plotting for the gain of power, the Tudors were not a boring family.

Betrothed to James II, King of Scotland, Margaret's union establishes peace along the English-Scottish border.  At the Tudor court, Katharine of Aragon lives in penury as the widow of Arthur.  Her father refuses to support her until Arthur's father, Henry VII pays her dowry.

With Henry VII's death, Margaret's brother Henry VIII becomes the King of England and marries Katharine of Aragon, making her Queen.  Katharine is restored to her proper place in the royal court & the two queens now focus on producing an heir for their respective thrones.

During Henry's reign, he attacks France, who has a treaty with Scotland, thus going to war with Scotland.  During Henry's siege of France, James II sees an opportunity to claim English lands given the lack of men remaining in England.

With Katharine Queen Regent during Henry's absence, she leads a decisive and brutal victory over James and his men.  She even orders the head of James, her brother-in-law, leaving Margaret a widow.

Margaret is seduced by a Scottish lord, Archibald Douglas, and marries him without approval from the Scottish lords.  Margaret writes to her brother & Katharine to send men and reinforcements, but none are provided. 

With no defense against the Scottish lords who turn on her, she is forced to flee to England.  She returns to Scotland to be with her son, but she and her son remain siege under the Douglas clan.  The Scottish lords who do rise to defend her are slaughtered by the Douglas clan.

Henry's and Margaret's younger sister is a renowned beauty betrothed to Charles of Castille, the grandson of Louis XII, King of France.  Before Charles becomes of age, his grandfather becomes a window and sends his men to the Scottish court to discuss a possible union between Scotland and France.

As Margaret considers the proposal and the powers he would have, she discovers that her brother Henry has been making arrangements and betroths Mary to the much older Louis XII to unite England and France.

With Mary's marriage, she becomes Queen of France.  The three sisters had all successfully ascended the throne, a remarkable political feat.

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.

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.

My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella, 2017

Sofie Kinsella books are so enjoyable.  Perfect weekend or beach read.  Funny, interesting enough characters and enough plot bends (not necessary twists) to make the books not utterly tedious & predictable.

Cat Brenner is a Somerset farm girl who reinvents herself upon moving to London. 

Her dream has always been to make it in London and although her entry level research associate job & shared flat outside of London is not exactly "making it," Cat is determined to stick it out.

She does not have the Instagram perfect life she portrays, but is intent on impressing office director Demeter Farlowe, who does have the perfect life - impeccable style, gorgeous family & invited to all the social events. 

Upon returning to her Somerset home, where she has helped her father and step-mom Biddy open a glamping grounds with yurts, Cat becomes Katie again and realizes that no one has the perfect life, no matter what photos they post on social media.

While reading the novel, imagined Anna Kendrick as Katie/Cat.

Invincible Summer & Victoria

Pre-India trip books.


Victoria by Daisy Goodwin, 2016

Inspired by the TV series The Crown about Elizabeth II's early reign, I was looking forward to reading about another young queen, Victoria. 

Interesting to find out about her close relationship with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, fractious relationship with her mother & her mother's advisor Sir John Conway & agreement to marry Prince Albert.

What intrigued me was Victoria's absolute belief in herself, to carry herself as a Queen at the tender age of 18.  Sadly, even in my 40s, I wouldn't have the confidence to lead a nation.  Something I need to change.

A bit too melodramatic, I would like to read a more serious, fact-based biography about Queen Victoria.

  

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams, 2016
Story of four friends from university and their journey into middle-age.  Eva grows up middle class and is intent on becoming financially secure and does so by becoming a trader.

Her best friend Sylvie is the type of girl that has always had it easy as a pretty and a talented artist, while Sylvie's brother Lucien ends up DJ'ing and organizing events, with a lucrative side business dealing drugs.

Benedict follows his love of science and pursues a Ph.D. 

After university, Eva, Lucien & Benedict pursue their careers while Sylvie is left behind, struggling as an artist. 

Eva achieves the most success but her over-reaching comes crashing down.  Benedict impregnates his girlfriend, whom he marries and becomes a young father. 

The next wave of life happens during their late thirties to early forties, where mistakes reach the breaking point and everyone struggle to start over.