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Reading Wednesday

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

    Reading Wednesday

    October 28, 2020
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    My first book by this author and I really loved her writing. Here is my book review of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

    An epic story of the life of Sunja a young Korean teenager living on a tiny island off the coast of Busan, Korea. Pachinko chronicles her extraordinary life of survival.

    In the early 1900’s Sujan is a beloved only child of two hard working parents. When her father dies Sujan and her mother run the local boarding house alone. But when a rich and smooth talking stranger gets Sujan pregnant life will never be the same. Shamed when her lover confesses to already being married, Sujan accepts a marraige proposal from a sickly minister who wants to save her from the shame. And thus begins the saga of her life as Isak’s wife, her love for her sun Noa from the other man, and the lifetime of regrets, hardships and coincidences.

    Isak and Sunjan move to Osaka Japan, where Isak takes a position in a church. Here they will raise their family until Isak is arrested during a time where Korean’s were treated horribly and often thrown in jail or worse. Isak spends several years in jail and eventually will die.

    Sunjan learns her former married lover has been watching out for her and her family and he helps them in ways she doesn’t even know to keep their heads above water during the terrible years of World War II. Eventually learning of his generosity Sujan wants nothing to do with him and to keep him away from both of her sons.

    But secrets are hard to keep and eventually all the secrets tumble down to mix with the incredible racism towards Koreans by the Japanese, the economic situation during and following the war, and a general hard scrabble life Koreans endured in Japan.

    This story will have you sobbing with sorrow, cheering for justice and holding out hope for this family, it’s numerous members and their love and faith and perseverance. Heartfelt and personal, Pachinko is a brilliant look into life in Japan for the thousands of Koreans who immigrated there and their descendants. And Sujan is a heroine to respect.

    *****Five stars for Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

    Read last week’s review of The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

    My current read Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

    October 21, 2020
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    This will be a short review. I didn’t like this book. Yawn… here is my book review of The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.

    Usually I would put down a book like this, or more likely never start it. But I needed a read and this was all I had at the moment. I know Nicholas Sparks is beloved by many readers, but for me, this is not my kind of book.

    Predictable to peril, sappy and silly, the story of two neighbors who fall in love, marry, have kids, endure a tragedy but live happily ever after was boring. I knew at every page what was going to happen next.

    My apologies to all those Sparks lovers…I know he has millions of fans. But I need a more challenging read and don’t plan to read anymore by this author.

    **Two stars for The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.

    See last week’s review of Thehttps://myfabfiftieslife.com/book-review-the-family-upstairs-by-lisa-jewell/ Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

    My current read The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

    October 14, 2020
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    Chilling and a page turning, Lisa Jewell had me riveted to this book. Creepy yet not horror, and mostly quite believable. Here is my book review of The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell.

    A few times in reading this book I was reminded of The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. It’s not exactly the same, but there were a few similarities. Mostly the fact that a stranger comes and literally takes over the house and family, eventually to peril.

    Libby Jones, adopted as a baby, finally learns at 25 years old that she has inherited a house. The sole heir of a mysterious house that has witnessed murder, disappearance and intrigue.

    Libby befriends a local journalist and together they begin to unravel the incredible tale of Cheyne Walk, a long abandoned mansion in the fashionable Chelsie neighborhood of London.

    But Libby will be astonished to learn who her birth parents were, how they were manipulated by an unusual family who moved in upstairs and that she has a brother and sister she has never known. Her parents were murdered, no one was ever convicted and the siblings were never found. Are they dead? Where are they?

    The Family Upstairs brings together three families, their lives and loves, their insanity and dark secrets.

    ****Four stars for The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

    Read last week’s review of The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

    My current read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Great Influenza by John M Barry

    Reading Wednesday

    October 7, 2020
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    Holy Cow this book taught me so much. And the biggest thing it taught me is how important telling the truth in the beginning is. How important it is for government and science to gain and retain the public’s trust and be truthful. The truth was held back in the 1918 Influenza and it certainly was held back in 2020.

    Fascinating in scope and presentation, Barry manages to present a hugely difficult topic in a way that any lay person can understand. The vast research done for this book, the amount of detail and insight is truly remarkable. Barry starts at the beginning and takes the reader (or listener in my case as I did this one on Audible) week by week as the virus spread from the United States around the world. Killing in the end at least 100 million people.

    The 1918 epidemic was the first clash of science and a virus, at a time of war, a time of burgeoning medical science and a time of very poor leadership in the Whitehouse.

    The what ifs are in the hundreds. But did we learn anything from this fatal time in our history? Apparently not.

    Read it. It will truly help you understand what we are dealing with in the world today. Five stars for John Barry’s The Great Influenza.

    Read last week’s review of Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

    My current read The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

    Reading Wednesday

    September 30, 2020
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    I am torn about this book. That doesn’t happen to me often. I usually know right away if I am going to love a book. Or if I am going to endure it. Or if, it’s just not worth my time.

    During the course of reading Fifty Words for Rain I had all three sensations. I kept reading and here is what I thought, my book review of Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

    Japan 1948. A time of upheaval and rebirth in Japan but also a time where holding tight to the old customs, pedigree and aristocratic ways was epidemic. This is when we are introduced to eight-year-old Nori when she is abandoned by her mother on the front door of her grandparents mansion.

    Nori, a “bastard” child, product of Japanese royal blood mother and a black American GI. Nori is a stain on the family name. She is hidden in the attic and does not leave the house for years. Until her half brother arrives and her life finally begins.

    But her skin color, her hair and how she came into the world will scar her, and taint every aspect of her life, despite her brilliance both as a student and a musician. Her grandmother will torture her and shame her until the final pages of this book.

    But despite her struggles and triumphs, love and loss, and deep tragedies that change her forever, Nori still returns to Japan and to her hateful grandmother.

    And it’s the final chapter of this book that has me torn. Her final choices made me crazy. How could she? I felt she was weak in the end, despite her enormous strength throughout the book.

    So, I read it through, enjoyed much of it, endured some of it, and hated the end.

    ***Three stars for Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie.

    Read last week’s review of Peace Like a River.

    My current read The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

    September 23, 2020
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    I hope you saw my review two weeks ago of Leif Enger’s book Virgil Wander. Gosh I loved that book and was very intrigued to read more by this author.

    If you loved Ordinary Grace, you will love Peace Like a River.

    Written in 2001, Peace Like a River is the story of Reuben Land and his family and their small town life. Once again Enger’s character development is perfection, as we fall quickly in love with Reuben, his brother Davy, sister Swede and father Jeremiah – a miracle worker in Reuben’s mind.

    The family finds itself on a cross-country trek in search of outlaw brother Davy, after a murder takes place. The journey include miracles and adventure and tests the family’s faith to it’s core. Along the way the family will befriend strangers who touch their lives and find peace like a river in family, friends, love and faith.

    A beautiful story that will make you want to keep reading beyond the end. A remarkable plot with striking and indelible characters you will cherish.

    *****Five stars for Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

    Read last week’s review of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

    My current read Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemm

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

    Reading Wednesday

    September 16, 2020
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    Wow. This book is just wow. Poignant but also provocative. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents describes racism in the United States. But Wilkerson takes it further…further than I have heard or read before.

    I have never disputed the fact that the United States is a racist place, but Wilkerson guides us through her theory that racism in the USA is a product of a caste system, a society-wide hierarchy. A system of inclusion and exclusion. I found it gripping and truthful and honest.

    This book will make many people uncomfortable. It will make racists balk and claim it’s a farce. It will make people of color shake their heads in agreement and disgust. It will make people like me, someone who does not consider herself racist, stop and take stock of my own life and caste.

    Wilkerson guides the reader through eight pillars of a caste system, all clearly in use today in the USA. Many stem from the very founding of our country. Others are more recently developed and upheld. She guides the reader through the theory identifying the contagion of caste just like a virus and how the caste system self=perpetuates by rewarding those lower class people who abide by the unwritten rules.

    The New York Times claimed this book “an instant American classic and almonst certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the century so far.” Very high praise indeed.

    Timely, chilling, astonishing. The book likely won’t change the thinking of racists around us, but might give pause and hope and direction to those who flounder in the middle.

    *****One of the best books I have read in years. Five big stars for Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson.

    Read last week’s review of Virgil Wander

    My current read The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

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    The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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