The Pink Hotel: A Novel

I snatched up Anna Stothard's The Pink Hotel as soon as I heard about it--long listed for the Orange Prize and all. Here is what I found.

A young girl leaves her home in the UK after stealing her father's credit card to piece together who her mother was and how she died. She spends weeks bouncing around Los Angeles in search of answers to her questions. Her mother, Lily, abandoned her as a baby, and this may be the young girl's only chance to know her. Part of this is through the red suitcase stuffed with clothes, mementos, and cash she stole during Lily's wake at the Pink Hotel, where Lily and her husband were the proprietors. She may find that she is more like her mother than she ever thought.

What a winding, interesting, lucid take on the ever-classic coming-of-age story. Sobering yet whimsical. Honest yet potentially outlandish. Heartbreaking yet full of strength. Shocking yet addicting. I felt all of these things by the time I closed the back cover.

I can absolutely see why people have fallen in love with this novel. It's small and mighty with no emotions to spare. It's a tight little piece that covers only a swatch in time, but it adds up to such a large portion of this young woman's identity. I vacillated between pulling for her and wanting her caught. This novel caught such a wide range of emotions in its net that it's hard to put a finger on how the book made me feel as a whole. It, frankly, depended on the page. That is astounding writing skill.

Kindle version on left, hard copy on right.

Shut Up, You're Welcome: Thoughts on Life, Death, and Other Inconveniences

I desperately needed a good humor piece this week. Something to lighten the mood from all of the heavy novels I have been reading. So I picked up Annie Choi's Shut Up, You're Welcome: Thoughts on Life, Death, and Other Inconveniences. Well worth the laughter.

Annie Choi, comedienne extraordinaire, lends us her thoughts on some of life's inconveniences such as airlines losing your luggage when underwear is hard to find, celebrating Christmas with your family when they fail to show up in their own home, and trying to get your parents to get rid of that pesky dining table that is about to fall apart while eating your next dinner. Choi's parents, Korean immigrants, are thrifty, lovable, and horrible drivers. Choi takes us through some of the high (or low, depending on how she might view things) points of her childhood to help us realize that home really is where the heart is--and that if you don't laugh about it, no one will.

I pretty much giggled through this entire book. It is clear how much Choi loves her parents yet lives in constant exasperation of their quirks and their idiosyncrasies. For once, she just wishes that her father would not gold-plate everything he can get his hands on. Maybe, just maybe, her family can do something fun on vacation instead of rush from monument to monument to get a picture. (Also, possibly Grandma could not ruin a natural habitat next time.) And no, Choi does not believe that underwear from Korea is better. It may fit, but it is horribly embarrassing in the locker room.
 
I adored Choi's conversations with her parents. She painted such a vivid picture of who they are--her mom calls herself "Mommy" and chuckles at her own jokes--that is hard to not want to hunt them down in person to meet them and give them a huge hug. As exasperating as family can be, Choi has found the gold (pun intended) in them.

And she has made me crack up in the process.

Kindle version on left, hard copy on right.

Happy Second Birthday, Sassy Peach!

Wow, you guys! Two whole years of book reviews. Can you even believe it? This year has seen 159 posts, which averages out to 3 books per week. This does not count reading for school, either, which averaged about 350 pages of psychology and education reading per week between textbooks, articles, and prep for the two undergraduate courses I teach. And a few magazines here and there. (A few? What am I talking about? I read four monthlies and one weekly.)

Some amazing things that happened this year include starting my PhD program (and finishing my first year!), attending Book Expo America, and having the freedom to do nothing but read (and some research, of course) this summer.

You guys. We breezed past 10,000 views this second year, and this blog is now surpassing 1,200 views per month. That is amazing, and it is because of you. I can't thank you enough for your love and support and most of all, your reading. Keep doing it. Because really, I can't do this without you.

So, now onto the tradition I started last year, where I throw out (in no particular order) some of the best reads of which I had the pleasure of putting my eyes on this year. Note that not all of them were released in the past year (although many were)--but all of them were read by yours truly this year.

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Moira Kalman

The Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

This Bright River by Patrick Sommerville

The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black

The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

What in God's Name? by Simon Rich

The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death by Jill Lepore

Big Brother: A Novel

I am a massive (no pun intended) Lionel Shriver fan. We Need To Talk About Kevin blew my mind, and I also loved The New Republic and So Much for That. So when I heard she had a new book coming out, Big Brother, I jumped in the library queue like a jackrabbit on speed.

Pandora flies her brother, Edison, out from New York City to visit her family in Iowa hoping that the jaunt will break his spell of depression. When Edison arrives, Pandora doesn't recognize him--he has gained 250 pounds, and can barely fit through the door. Throughout his visit Pandora feels her family being strained--food disappears like water, her husband resents putting Edison up, and their son is not impressed to say the least. The only person who loves Edison unconditionally is Pandora's daughter, Cody. As a last ditch effort to save her brother's life, Pandora puts it all on the line--her marriage, her children, and her sanity. She moves in with her brother nearby and starts him on an excessive weight loss plan. Will he lose the weight and live to see another day? Or will Pandora lose everything that she holds dear?

Of course I enjoyed this book. Like I said, I am a Shriver fan so I reveled in her new work. I was fascinated by Pandora--her relationship with her husband, Fletcher; her relationship with her brother; and her accomplishments as a business woman. One thing I found particularly interesting is the dynamic between Pandora and the two men in her life. I was puzzled as to why she didn't tell her brother to quit picking on her husband; she spent so much time defending her brother to Fletcher that I wondered when she was going to have a serious discussion about respect with her brother.

This is also a very timely book--how often are we hearing about obesity in the news? This puts a human face on the epidemic, and as readers we have the "inside scoop," if you will. We get to see the struggle behind the weight, that it's not just about food but about control, and often times the lack of it. We see in Edison a lost little boy who can't stand that he is past his glory days; in Pandora we see an accomplished woman who must face the jealousy and resentment of an older brother who never quite made the same strides. It's an interesting dynamic and one that I really enjoyed in this book.

Kindle copy on left, hard copy on right.

The Longings of Wayward Girls: A Novel

I picked up Karen Brown's The Longings of Wayward Girls this weekend without a clue as to the darkness I was getting into. Yummy.

Sadie is a hometown girl--she was raised an only child in the bucolic New England town by a wannabe actress mother, she married a good man in her twenties, and settled down to raise her children in the same place. Twenty years later, the return of a boy from her childhood brings to the surface the reminder of the horrible results of one particular summer prank. Without warning, the mystery begins to unravel, and with it, Sadie's marriage, family, and life.

This novel was super intriguing--I feel like my brow was furrowed for most of it trying to put the pieces together in an orderly fashion. That is a good thing, by the way; I love a book that makes me think for hours after. Brown really captured the mix of emotions of Sadie--she loves her husband but is slightly bored with life while still caring deeply about her children. Flawed women with strength are my faves, so it's no surprise that I found Sadie interesting, complicated, and deep.

Brown has a stylistic way of writing that keeps your eyes on the page. I know I have used "intriguing" earlier in this post, but it's the word I want to use over and over and over again. I was just so constantly curious about what happened that summer that I kept going back every time I had to walk away from the book.

Fascinating and intriguing.

Kindle version on left, hard copy on right.

The Mouse-Proof Kitchen: A Novel

Saira Shah's The Mouse-Proof Kitchen called out to me for it's promise of love, loss, and coping with what hands us. In other words, life.

Anna and Tobias, a very happy, very chic couple, are expecting their first child and after that plan to move to Provence from their current London home. When baby Freya is born, however, they are stunned with the news that their daughter has scrambled eggs for brains. They choose to still move to France where they must learn to cope with a handicapped baby, a crumbling house, a new life--and a new kitchen filled with mice. Life as they know it will never be the same, but will it be too much for them to make it, or will they find solace in one another and baby Freya?

This novel had such a languid feel to it. I found myself identifying strongly with Anna and her struggle to love her child while balancing the indifference of her husband. Anna was such a sympathetic character, and even as she recognizes she is turning into an un-fun, nagging housewife, the very thing she swore she would never be, I still loved her and would have fiercely fought on her side to defend her choices.

I loved the secondary characters in this book as well, all of those crazy French countryside residents who each have their own way of doing things which is the only right way to do it. I found each character to be terribly endearing, even Tobias who at times drove me up the wall with his surface-level callousness that was simply masking fear and anxiety. I desperately wanted Anna to mouse-proof her kitchen and succeed in her one-woman war against the nature of the French countryside.

I found myself thinking about these characters when I was away from the book, and that to me is the sign of very well-developed characters who live and breathe. This book is well worth the read if only to be in their world for a short time.

Kindle on left, hard copy on right.

Wave: A Memoir

Memoir is one of my favorite genres, bar none. I love a good thriller, mystery, true crime, etc., but memoir will always rank toward the top. Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala has been rated as one of the top memoirs of 2013, and I couldn't agree more.

The day after Christmas, 2003. Off the coast of Sri Lanka, a giant wave unexpectedly overtakes the land off the coast, as far as two miles inland. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. Five of those lives were the Sonali's family--her husband, her two small boys, and her two parents. She doesn't want to go on living without her family, and few can blame her. Friends and family come from all over the world to sit watch over her to protect her from herself. Over the next decade, Sonali struggles to regain her strength and to rebuild a life without those whom she cherished more than anything else in the world.

This book will knock. your. socks. off. Like, right off your feet. Boom. Off.

You will sit mesmerized by Sonali's retelling of the events of December 26, 2003. You will desperately search with her for her family after she is rescued from the devastation. You will cry with her as she recounts the first few days, weeks, months, and years after this date. You will feel your heart warm as she goes back in time and recounts moments from her childhood, meeting her husband, and building a family with him. You will hide your head in shame as she details her mental breakdown and stalking of the new inhabitants of her childhood home. You will cry with her as she spells out her grief and the absolute devastation that wave brought on to her life. You will share her outrage at her friends and family telling her that she will move on--you know as well as she does that moving on is damned near impossible. You will ride this roller coaster of hell as she tries so desperately to rebuild her life. You, too, will experience the difficulty of what to tell people when they ask if she has a family.

(What am I talking about? You. I meant me. This is how I felt and I have no doubt you will feel the exact same way. So go on--get the book already.)

Kindle version on left, hard copy on right:

Sisterland: A Novel

I am a Curtis Sittenfeld fan. I really enjoyed American Wife (which I read way before the existence of this blog), and I am looking forward to taking Prep to the beach this summer. So of course I picked up Sisterland as soon as I could. [Insert happy dance here.]

Violet and Daisy are identical twins--both of whom were born with extrasensory perception. As they grew older they forged their separate paths, with Daisy becoming "Kate" in college, marrying, and becoming a mother to two small children. Violet left college after six weeks, moved home to St. Louis, bounced between jobs, and attempted to build her psychic practice. When Violet is interviewed on the local news following a small earthquake, she predicts a much larger and more destructive quake in the near future. This brings national attention and widens the rift between the sisters. Will the quake happen on the predicted day--and regardless whether or not it does, will the sisters ever be able to repair their relationship?

I was completely captivated by this book. Whole hog, all in, couldn't stop thinking about it. There were other books that I had waiting to be read, begging to be read, and I had to be all like, "No, other books, you can't be read right now. Sisterland is just too amazeballs." Sittenfeld's writing is so beguiling that I dare you, double dog dare you, to try to stop reading to do simple things like sleep and eat. You won't be able to do it.

Her characters are so mesmerizing that I become enamored by page 10. I loved Kate. I wanted to support Kate by reaching into the book, grabbing hold of her hand, and telling her to not worry so much. It wasn't a matter of whether the earthquake would happen--it was like a scary movie, where the build up is what counts. The build up to the actual event (or is it a non-event?) is what counts. And that count is high.

Being so enthralled and engrossed in a novel is something I live for, and being inside of this world for a short time was amazing. Sittenfeld has this magical way of creating characters with such fascinating back stories that my eyes light up while reading, and she has a knack for weaving her exposition throughout her story. Superb-o-licious.

It's the journey you seek out when you pick up a Sittenfeld book, not the destination. Isn't that amazing? That while I wanted to know whether or not the earthquake would occur, it was secondary to the relationships in the book, both between the twins together and between the twins and the others in their lives.

Just...wow.

Get your copy now. Kindle on left, hard copy on right.

Love All: A Novel

Dysfunctional families are right up my alley, so I jumped on Callie Wright's Love All ASAP.

Anne never expected that her mother would pass before her father, but that is exactly what happens when she suddenly finds herself moving her father into her home. Anne's marriage with Hugh is already rocky and her teenage children are going through their own growing pains. Underneath all of this lies a book from their small town's past that holds the dirty little secrets of the town--infidelities, unhappiness, and family drama, warts and all. Can one family explore what it means to have three generations living together, and and can they become a functioning family?

I love families that are depicted as real and dysfunctional, because in real-life I have yet to meet a family that doesn't have at least one crazy family member or a dark horse hiding somewhere. The Obermeyer family is just that, and Wright portrays them as they are with no sugar coating allowed. The story is told from several different perspectives, each of which is different yet each of which matches up with the other. It's intriguing, and it kept me turning the page.

My favorite character was Hugh, Anne's husband and proprietor of the local preschool. I found him to be the most raw and conflicted of the characters (yes, even more so than his children!) because as an adult, he was making poor choices, realizing these choices, yet still pushing forward to make his family work regardless of his bad (or is is good???) behavior. Wright's portrayal of a real-life marriage felt a bit like salt in a wound; being a grown-up with responsibilities to others outside of yourself is a fact of growing up and having a family--but that doesn't mean it's ever easy.

Kindle copy on left, hard copy on right.

The Silent Wife: A Novel

A woman may have killed her cheating husband? How quickly can I pick up this book? The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison.

Jodi has the seemingly perfect life. She is able to do what she loves thanks to the success of her husband's home building business. She has dinner on the table every night with a bottle of white chilling on the counter. She is able to use her impeccably dressed and lovely personality to help others as a therapist. The only problem is that underneath the perfect facade lies a marriage that is falling apart--her husband, Todd, has impregnated his mistress and leaves Jodi. She is about to lose everything she loves. Is she capable of the ultimate revenge?

How marvelously indulgent this book was for my daily reading. This book was like a train wreck in that the jolt and flip that comes at a certain point in the book (of which you will need to be surprised!) will knock you off your feet. The ride is smooth sailing--you sit back in your first class chair, indulge in your cold mixed drink of choice, and just as you start to feel comfortable and relaxed the train jumps off its tracks and knocks you into the next zip code.

That, my dear readers, is The Silent Wife.

I was addicted to this book in a way that I couldn't tell you at the time. You know how there is a type of food that when you try it, you say, "It's ok...wait, give me another bite. Hm, ok...give me another bite. And another. And...holy moly, this is incredible!" And you just can't stop eating it because it turns out it's crazy insane good in the most addictive way possible? Uh, yeah, try the few days I spent with my nose in this book. I couldn't stop reading in this kind of curious way. The characters are fascinating--full of false pretenses yet revealing so much. Utterly fascinating.

Oh, what a marvelous beach read. Kindle copy on left, hard copy on right.