The Other Woman by Sandie Jones- Book Review

For the sake of being open and honest, I will admit at the beginning of this review, I did not read this entire book. I read the beginning 3/4ths of the middle, and then jumped to the ending. I will explain why in the review, but I wanted to put it up front in fairness.

I am a big fan of Reese Witherspoon’s book club Hello Sunshine. She has a tendancy to pick books which are interesting and can get me thinking. When I saw this was the pick for the month and it was a thriller, I jumped to grab it.

This is the story of Emily and Adam- a young couple who have a quick and fast love affair which begins to turn serious. It is also the story of Pammie, Adam’s mother (the other woman dun dun DUNNNNN) who does everything she possibly can to keep Emily and Adam apart from one another. Pammie regularly insults Emily, faints when the two get engaged, and is just a pain in Emily’s world.

Emily has a good support system, but slowly is dragged away from them because of Adam and Pammie. As Emily is wondering what to do, she begins to have coffee with Adam’s brother. Emily begins to have feelings for him too. Will she act on them? Will Pammie get in the way?

A good protagonist makes or breaks a story. If this book were a movie, I would be yelling at the screen because at times I was internally yelling at Emily in the book- JUST LEAVE! While it may be true love, yadda yadda yadda, Emily regularly reminds the reader she has been with Adam only a few weeks and then a few months and through this entire time Pammie has verbally attacked her and Adam has snapped at her quite a number of times. Why didn’t she just leave?!?

Emily as protagonist wouldn’t be so bad, but Jones wrote an over the top antagonist in Pammie. Up against Pammie, Emily becomes more brooding in the corner than standing up to Pammie. Emily will get her licks in, but Pammie is too strong of an antagonist compared to Emily, who makes so many bad choices, it will drive you crazy.

Then there is a twist. I knew there was going to be a twist going into the book. I won’t say what the twist is, but you can probably figure it out about a quarter way into the book, I did which is why after reading about 3/4ths of the book, I had to just skip ahead to see if I was right and I was. While Jones is a very skilled writer and the book is fun, even at 300+ pages, it was becoming too long. Too many bad choices by Emily, too many one ups by Pammie, and Adam is just too perfect that he doesn’t makes much sense when he lashes out at Emily. Again, after the first one, why not just leave since you knew each other only a month at the time!

I would say this book is enjoyable and would even be a good book club book. It just wasn’t may taste and I had to skip to get to the already knowable ending. Take that as you will.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

I am going to be up front with a full disclosure that I am a huge Murakami fan. After reading 1Q84 for the first time, I went through all of his books in a row and he moved to the top of my purchase anything he writes list. So, when I heard about this book coming out in Japan, I waited impatiently for the translation to come out and grabbed it on day one of release.

I am writing this because I can fully see how someone might not enjoy this book. It is slowly pace, gets very strange, and there are inappropriate conversations about breasts between a young girl and an older man.

For the Murakami fan, this book is probably the most Murakami that he could be. It contains the typical Murakami man- a main male character who is mostly detached from life looking in on it as a curiosity and loves sex, even though he is detached from that too. It contains a Murakami world- some might call it magical realism, but I would say it is mostly fantastic with a little bit of realism to give the reader an anchor. It also contains talking paintings, bells which ring mysteriously, trips into the unknown, and moments that will leave you scratching your head. To me, if this is your first Murakami, I would say try a different one before taking the plunge into the 700 pager that this is.

In Japan, this came out in two separate books which is important because book 1 is mostly a slow trudging setup, while book 2 takes the world which was slowly built and crumbles it with so many fantasy scenes that one begins to question what was real.

At its core, it is about a painter- Tomohiko who is known for his portrait paintings. After he and his wife separate and he takes a “find yourself” camping trip for a few years, he settles into the home of an artist who is dying. In the attic, he finds a painting titled “Killing Commendatore.” One day, a rich man,  from on top of a hill comes to his house to commission a painting of himself. After resisting, Tomohiko decides to take the painting on, but does a technique he has not done before. At this point, a mysterious bell begins ringing, but I won’t say why. As time moves forward, the rich man become bolder and asks for another portrait. This time the portrait is of a young girl who may or may not be the rich man’s daughter. After accepting and as the girl poses, more strange things begin to take place which will lead Tomohiko down a path into another world wrapped around his current world.

Let me re-emphasize, this book is about 700 pages and at times is mind numbingly slow, but stick with it! By the time you get to book 2, whoa nelly!

What I enjoyed most about this book is it feels as autobiographical as Murakami is going to get. As Tomohiko talks about his painting process and what it feels like to create, I believe we get a glimpse into Murakami’s writing process. As the paintings begin to beacon and call to the painter, I think we see what writing is like for Murakami. In fact, there was a line in the book where Tomohiko states how he feels he is in a fantasy world with bits of reality peeking in. To me, that easily describes a Murakami book.

It is a trudge and this book took me about a week+ to finish because of that slowness, but the payoff in book 2 makes it all worth it. This shouldn’t be your first Murakami though. Become a fan first and then dive head first into this one.

The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat

If it were not for Book Riot’s All the Books Podcast, this book would not have been on my radar. One of the hosts, Liberty, said this is a book she has read 10 times so far this year. I usually trust her picks, so I grabbed it the first chance I could.

What a strange little book!

I have been sitting at the keyboard trying to think of how to describe this book- do I focus on plot? On characters? On overall theme? And still am unsure where to begin with this as one of my goals is to convince you this is a good book, but there is nothing within any of the things mentioned above which will do that, even though it is a good book.

The book largely centers on an Ethiopian girl, her father, and a mysterious hustler named Ayale, who runs the local parking lot, which seems to have more cars in it than it can hold. Our protagonist is drawn to Ayale and her father is not happy about it.

Ayale is very mysterious and there is a wonderful chapter where our protagonist lists all the things she knows and doesn’t know about him. He is opinionated, seems to sleep with tons of women, and has lots of friends who come and go often.

As the relationship grows, our protagonist, become a courier for Ayale delivering mysterious packages for not quite small amount of money. While she likes Ayale, her trust begins to wane as she realizes she does not know what is in these packages and Ethiopians in Boston keep getting murdered around the neighborhood. The question is what exactly is our protagonist doing for Ayale?

As I read the book, I too kept being drawn to Ayale. Tamirat has written a truly remarkable character who lures the reader in with his opinions, his strange lifestyle choices, and his job. It is strange, but for me, the plot became secondary as I wanted to spend more time with Ayale.

The one distracting part of the book is Tamirat will go into a conversation with two people by having a quick back and forth and doesn’t let the reader know which person is speaking. If you lose count, you will forget exactly who is speaking and often times I had to go back to re-read the conversation. Part of it is the writing is so good and the conversation draws one in.

Definitely read this one with an open mind and knowing the book may not be for you. I wound up loving it though, largely due to Ayale.

The Real Lolita By Sarah Weinman Book Review

I remember reading Lolita in High School and not liking it very much. I found it a tad dull at times and didn’t quite get the appeal. One of the issues was I wasn’t much of a reader at the time and the other issue was Lolita is about a pedophile who ruins a young girl’s life.

I did know a bit about Nabokov and his denial that Lolita wasn’t connected to anyone or anything in real life. This book states otherwise.

The book is focused on Sally Horner, a young 11 year old girl who is abducted by a 50 year old Frank LaSalle from 1948-1950 in Camden, NJ. LaSalle posed as an FBI agent who caught Horner stealing a $.05 notebook. He threatened to put her in jail and to tell her parents unless she boarded a bus with him to Atlantic City. He posed as one of Sally’s girlfriend’s dad to convince Sally’s mother to let her go. Mom dropped her off at the bus stop and Sally was taken for 2 years. Eventually Horner escapes and is tragically killed in a car accident a few years after her escape.

Weinman tells Sally and LaSalle’s story using interviews of living survivors and court records. She also tells Nabokov’s story and where he is during Horner’s abduction, asking did Nabokov know the story, especially since the two stories line up very closely and Nabokov references a Sally in the book?

I read and finished this book in less than a day because it is an interesting story and the book was written like a true crime novel (Weinman’s background). At times, if I am honest, I found Weinman’s narrative a bit self focused, especially the intro, but it was not distracting. It is also difficult to put Horner’s narrative into place since most of it was on the run and LaSalle disappears at moments using aliases.

While Lolita is told through the pedophile’s eyes where he convinces the reader that Lolita is seducing him and makes himself the victim; the Real Lolita paints a picture of a young girl who’s life is stolen from her and is raped repeatedly. I will say, the book did make me want to re-look at Lolita to see some of the connections Weinman proposes.

I would library this one as it is a very quick read.

Washington Black by Eli Edugyan Book Review

I’m back! There were a whole variety of reasons why I stopped book blogging for a bit, but the easiest answer is I made it no fun for myself. When I started requesting more ARCs than I could read, started putting self administered deadlines, and put pressure on myself to produce reviews, I made something which started as a hobby into a job. So, I am not going to do that again. I am going back to my original format of writing reviews for books which I enjoyed when I can post them. No deadlines and back to being a hobby.

The other reason I wanted to restart by book blog was to share this book with as many people as I could, since it is now one of my top 10 favorite books of the year- Washington Black.

I will fully admit when I read the description for this book, I wasn’t sure about it. It was then shortlisted for the Man Booker and more importantly, was available on Litsy the day it was published from my local library, so I grabbed it. I am so glad I did too!

I have been describing the first portion of this book as an adult Huck Finn, if Huck was a British noble named Titch, Jim was a slave who was on the run for witnessing a white man’s suicide (he was going to be accused of murder) named George Washington Black or Wash, and the raft was a hot air balloon! As they adventure in the Sky Cutter, danger is lurking everywhere as a slave catcher is after the two of them. Danger also looms because slavery exists everywhere they travel, so Wash is treated as such everywhere he goes.

The great thing about the book is once one gets a feeling of knowing where the book is likely to head, Edugyan flips the story and takes it a completely different direction. As a wonderful storyteller, she does this a few times too! The other great thing is it all holds together wonderfully.

Let’s just say I loved this book so much that I returned my digital library copy and ran to the local bookstore to purchase a paper copy. It is really that much worth the read. While I have only read one other Man Booker nominee, between the two, this is the one to bet on. The others are on their way from England.

This one is a solid 5 out of 5.

Heart Berries by Therese Marie Mailhot- Book Review

I became aware of this book because of an article about new Native American authors on the rise. The book was then picked for several celebrity book clubs. It has gotten a lot of buzz. The question is- is it worth it? In short, absolutely!

If you have never read a Native memoir or book, you should know going in that they are often difficult reads because they explore the deep and tough aspects of life. Mailhot’s book is exactly this. She explores her life and her upbringing. She looks at her dual diagnosis of PTSD and bi-polar. She explores her relationship with her father who was a drunk, abusive, and who was murdered and her mother who was an advocate for prisoners and a social worker.

While this is not a “happy” read, it is an incredible read. Her writing is poetic at times and just draws the reader in. She has an incredible voice, even in the midst of all that is surrounding her in this narrative.

This is what is incredible in Native writing, the struggle is always worth exploring because it is a deep part of life. Trials build the person, but they are never easy to go through. Going through them shows the strength of the person.

There is one thing to note for those that may get a icky feeling, Sherman Alexie is a part of this book besides the Introduction. This was published just before the information about Alexie came out and of course there has been a big backlash regarding his behavior. He is part of her story and he shows up in the memoir. Just be ready for that.

Batman Nightwalker Marie Lu- Book Review

There has been a pleasant series created by DC taking the very famous characters and placing them before they become heroes and are still teenagers. The first was on Wonder Woman right after the release of the movie and now Marie Lu has come out with a Batman one.

In this book, Bruce Wayne has just turned 18 and has now inherited his family’s fortune as well as Wayne Enterprises. He has largely been protected from the media because he was underage, but now that he is 18, his movements in Gotham have become front page news. This is a bit of fun, except on the night of his birthday when Wayne crashes his brand new and highly expensive car and is forced to clean floors in Arkham Asylum.

As he begins mopping, he is harassed by the prisoners there except by a quiet girl who is also 18. She seems too young to be there and has not spoken a word to anyone until Bruce passes her cell. She and Bruce begin a conversation and a relationship, but can Bruce trust a criminal in Arkham?

At the same time, there is a group running around Gotham robbing and killing the rich. Bruce is rumored to be the next on their hitlist. Is the girl connected to all this? (Hint: yes)

One of the biggest difficulties with the book is it is not a “Batman” book, it is a Bruce Wayne book. The Bat does not make an appearance in this book, so the title is pretty misleading.

Marie Lu knows how to tell a story as we saw in her great book WarCross earlier this year. The difficulty is she was given such a legend of DC comics with a deep lore and story that this particular book seems out of place in the Batman/Bruce Wayne universe. If the TV show Gotham did not exist, this might be an exciting entry to have a young Bruce Wayne, but in the Gotham series, the Joker and Penguin are already running around, so a girl in a cell is a pretty tough sell.

It isn’t a bad book though and if the rumors are true, I think I would have liked that book more. The rumor was Lu didn’t want to write a Batman book, but rather a Nightwing/Robin book, which would put this book into a better place. Robin doesn’t have as much of a lore as Wayne does and he is a bit more impulsive, so the book would have fit his character. It just didn’t work for Batman.

I gave this one 3 stars, but not for the writing. It was for the subject.