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.
My current read The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
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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.
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.
After a bit of a dry spell, I’ve stumbled thankfully into some lovely feel good stories lately. And this book is one of them. I hope you enjoy my book review of Virgil Wander by Leif Enger.
It’s a funny coinkydink, because I downloaded this book after it showed up on a list of best books from 2018. I hadn’t started reading it yet and my friend Merry mentioned Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, claiming it one of her all-time favorites. I began to wonder who was this Leif guy and why have I not read anything by him?
And so I began Virgil Wander, and found Leif Enger
Virgil Wander nearly dies in a car accident, only to come out of the experience with a new life awakening. As he heals he begins to notice more clearly people and things in his small Midwestern town life. Given the small town setting, as you might expect, Virgil’s story is accompanied by a wide range of characters that Enger brilliantly develops. In fact the character development of this cast is one of my favorite things about this story; from the sudden appearance of Rune a kite flying old man or the reappearance of the town’s prodigal son Adam Leer, to the life long residents like down on his luck Jerry, town drunk Shad, widow Nadine and Mayor Lydia. These are the people who make the plot of Virgil Wander unfold in a humorous and captivating way.
Enger has a talent I long for as a writing. He is gifted in his ability to turn a phrase, choose a word, fulfill a prose – in a way that puts you square in the heart of the moment, not just the story but the exact moment and believe you are there. Brilliant.
“The surface of everything is thinner than we know. A person can fall right through, without any warning at all.”
“He had a heartening bulk of the aging athlete defeated by pastry.”
I really loved this book and I think you will too. A look into life in small town upper Midwest America, and the people who love their town and each other. Their journey is Virgil Wander.
I hope you enjoyed my book review of Virgil Wander by Leif Enger.
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This book kept showing up on lists of favorites by other readers I follow. But I was hesitant to read ANOTHER World War II story. But I relented and downloaded it to listen to on audible on our recent road trip. It was a very pleasant surprise. Please enjoy my book review of Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.
Sullivan happened upon the story of Pino Lella, a real person, who became an uncommon hero in Italy during World War II. When Sullivan approached the aging Lella, Lella didn’t understand how anyone could think him a hero or want to write his story.
But Lella is another, like many before him, who risked everything during WWII to do what he knew was right in his heart and save many, many people in the process. Pino Lella, an Italian teenager, was a real hero.
Sullivan walks the reader through the Italian side of WWII, in itself a refreshing storyline war story. Pino’s first hand account of what happened to him, as well as extensive research by the author, creates a suspenseful and often hard-to-believe tale of life in Italy during the war under Nazi occupation. Pino finds himself a spy, at the right hand of one of the Nazi’s most notorious leaders. His position, wit and savoir faire keeps him alive while also saving many Italians.
Near death experiences, meeting Moussilini, falling in love, saving Jews, seeing death everywhere he turns, wearing the Nazi uniform and his greatest heartbreak – non of these things take Pino down. His uncommon valor as such a young man makes him an uncommon hero.
My husband found some of the story not believable. But I’ve read enough WWII stories to except how living through such a unprecedented time created unprecedented heroes. I loved the book and Pino Lella. Thanks for reading my book review of Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.
*****Five Stars for Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
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One of the best books I have read in months. I have been struggling to find a really captivating novel for a while. I found it here in this beautifully written story. Here is my book review of This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger.
Set in Minnesota in 1932, our narrator is a 12-year old boy (nearly thirteen, he keeps telling the reader), finds himself caught up in an adventure of a lifetime. Leaving behind the cruel and corrupt Lincoln Indian School, Odie O’Banion and three other orphans set off to find a new life, and nearly perish in doing so.
Odie (nearly 13, his older brother Albert, Moses ( a mute Sioux boy) and 6-year old Emmy are all searching for something – home. They become a little family as they navigate in a canoe from Lincoln School towards Saint Louis on the Mississippi.
Of course a multitude of dangerous, funny, frightening and surreal adventures ensue…including murder, kidnap, snake bites and near starvation as the four orphans endure great loss and pain, reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath and Tom Sawyer all in one book.
I enjoyed William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace (see my review), but I loved This Tender Land and think Krueger’s storytelling ability shines bright in this coming of age novel about life in the hard scrabble depression. With a backdrop of the beautiful American Midwest, Krueger brings the reader easily along the adventure and the characters of this novel easily into our hearts.
*****Five stars for This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Read last week’s Year End Review 2019-2020
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A year end review of reading. I did it. I set a goal last July to read 75 books in a year. And I did it, I read 83 books. Nearly all these books I read on Kindle while we were traveling. A couple were on Audible and a few were good old fashioned paperbacks. I enjoy books in all three applications.
Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve found it a bit difficult to stay focused on a book. My mind wanders a lot. But I still was able to meet my goal, and I also wrote one book review blog a week over the past year.
I don’t think I’ll set a goal for next year. I’m just gonna read for the love of reading. We can see a year from now how that turned out.
Reading Wednesday
I love that our Reading Wednesday feature on this blog is one of the most popular things about My Fab Fifties Life. If I can inspire you to get lost in a book, my job is done here. And hopefully a year end review of reading can do just that.
Although I gave five stars to many of the books I read, below is a list of my most favorite of the 83. In fact in the list below are five that I can say are some of the best books I have ever read…and that is saying a lot.
For a year end review of reading I’ve put those five at the top, and then below that the rest are listed randomly. I hope you can find a favorite of your own amongst this list and I thank you for your continuing support of Reading Wednesday and My Fab Fifties Life.
The Immoralists by Chloe Benjamen – if you were told when you were a child the exact day you would die, how might it affect everything about your life? So is the question Benjamen explores in the brilliant and unique novel The Immoralists. I loved this story.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – Just after the end of WWII a young, unmarried and pregnant Charlie goes in search of her missing cousin in Europe. Her search will lead her to horror stories of the war and eventually to her true family and friends. I loved this book.
11/22/63 by Stephen King – I never read Stephen King so I was shocked to find that this story became one of my favorite reads ever. Not just about the assassination of JFK on 11/22/63, but an unequaled time travel book about the choices we might consider if we could go back and change history – would we do it and what would the consequences be. I loved this book.
The Testaments – by Margaret Atwood – Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale continues to rank as one of my favorite books of all time, even after 30 years. So it was with both excitement and trepidation that I waited for the release of the sequel (finally). It was worth the wait. Every bit as compelling and incomparable, even pulling in some subtle nods to the politics of the USA in 2020. I loved this book.
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd – Kidd’s bold re-telling of the story of Jesus once again shows her chutzpa as a writer, her creative ability and incomparable talent to take the reader on a well-worn journey with an absolutely fascinating new twist. I love Kidd’s work and The Book of Longings did not dissapoint. I loved this book.
It was hard for me to only choose five for the list above. Because there were so many good ones this year. Here are 14 more of the very best from the 83 books I finished this year.
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