All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai- Book Review

It isn't often I get to start a book review with a disclaimer. The disclaimer is this- I received this book for review from NetGalley, but I had already purchased the book from Amazon just a few hours prior to getting the ok to review it. So, I wound up reading the finished version of the book rather than the galley, but I wanted to be up front that I had received a copy free for review as well.

 When I had read the description of this book, I got really excited about it- time travel, disjointed time lines, and a person living in our world even though it should be a different world. What I wasn't prepared for was how technical this book can get, which was kind of fun, but might not be for everyone. I'll give you an example, our protagonist early in the book explains time travel and stated that movie time travel is impossible because the Earth is also spinning as well as going around the moon, so jumping backward in time in the movies doesn't account for the world's rotations. Except the protagonist continues to explain this using math and science.

This isn't the only instance of this in the book, but I wanted the reader to be prepared that this tries to be a very scientifically based in reality book on time travel and it takes a bit of getting used to.

 The book is divided up into three acts, essentially:

 Act 1- Is Tom Barren, who lives in 2016, but a much advanced 2016 due to a science experiment in 1965, is a stand in for a group of time travelers who are going to go back in time to witness this great experiment. Act 1 is his story in that time period. Something goes wrong, no spoilers, and Tom makes the jump back in time.

 Act II- Tom has gone back in time, made a mistake (again no spoilers), and now is in a different timeline when he goes back- namely our 2016. Since he was never born, due to his mess up, he now inhabits John who has a different life than Tom's. The difficulty is John is still a part of Tom's consciousness.

 Act III- Is where things get super messy, like really super messy and might lose a few people. Without spoiling, Tom/John must go back and try to fix the mistake. The problem is both Tom and Tom/John both exist now and a second mistake will happen which will create a new personality all trying to inhabit the same body/consciousness.

 Going into it, I wasn't aware of these three acts which is why I wanted to lift them up into the review as they read like three separate books. It got a tad bit confusing since the book is written as a journal, so you don't know who is writing as the book progresses.

The book also gets a bit messy at the end, but not so much that I got lost, but I could see people quitting toward the end IF they hung on through the second act, which is also messy.

 I really enjoyed that this tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible. It reminded me of the movie Primer in that sense. Yes, there is time travel, which is fantasy, but the very idea that one tiny mistake really can create a butterfly effect makes sense. This also might be the detriment of the book to some. I enjoyed it though.

 I gave this one 3.5 stars.  

 Here is your Amazon link- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee- Book Review

This is probably something I shouldn't admit, but when I saw the description of this book for this month's Book of the Month, it seemed an instant pass. I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, books that go several generations, or books that are described as people going through lots of struggles. So, I passed on this for Book of the Month, but then NetGalley showed up and I had been approved to review this.

The great news is, I really enjoyed this book even though it was not my preferred genre. Story and writing drove this great book as well as a topic that is in my wheelhouse, but not one that I would think about.

As stated, this is a several generations story of a Korean family living in Japan. It begins in the 1900s with Sunja, a young Korean girl who falls for a fast talking man who brings exotic gifts and seduces her with promises. After he sleeps with her and takes off, she finds herself pregnant. When he returns, he reveals he has another family and cannot be with her.

As an Asian single, pregnant woman in the 1900s, her life is essentially destroyed until she meets a Presbyterian minister who takes pity on her, marries her, and brings her to Japan with him.

This is how the book begins and it seems a straightforward story, except Koreans are not welcome in Japan, so the family experiences a deep seated racism. We also are in a time when the Emperor is worshipped as a deity, so being part of a Christian family also brings struggle for Sunja's family. We will journey with her family through WWII and beyond.

As stated, this was not my type of book from the outset, so I went into the book very reluctantly. I am also going to state this is not an easy book as it is filled with struggle as the family takes hit after hit, even when they get themselves out of a jam, another one will spring up shortly. Yet, the writing and the character creation drive this story. Lee's characters are real and are flawed even in their triumphs. While there are woes, it isn't a "woe is me" type story. It is about people trying to get by in a world that is not their own while trying to make it their own.

If there is one critique, it is a very minor one. Due to how the Japanese members of society will treat the family, one issue that keeps coming up is the misspelling or the misstatement of the family name. The Japanese members will often say the character's names incorrectly and if you zone out a bit while reading, you may not pick up on this and wonder when the characters switched.

Overall, this turned out to be a great read. I gave it 4 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

I want to thank NetGalley for this book. I received it for free in exchange for an honest review.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough- Book Review

Sometimes, a book comes along that is just fun to read. There may be some plot issues or some gaps in the story or even some just ok writing, but the story itself is just fun and thrilling, so you keep reading. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough was one of those books.

I picked this book up because it was a selection from Book of the Month. If it had not been, I would probably have passed over this book since the cover is pretty generic and unless you pick it up, it simply looks like a throw away book.

The great thing about this book is, you will not guess the ending. You simply will not unless you turn to the last section of the book and start reading, but trust me, DO NOT READ AHEAD. This has been my advice to anyone looking to read this book. Don't skim it, don't read the chapter headings, and for goodness sake, do NOT read ahead. It makes the book so much better because of it.

It begins in a kiss. Louise, a single mother, meets a guy at a bar and winds up kissing him at the end of the night. He leaves immediately and Louise doesn't know why. She shows up to her job the next day and is introduced to a new boss- the guy she kissed last night. They both decide to move forward as if nothing happened, but Louise continues to have a thing for David.

Meanwhile, while getting coffee one day, Louise bumps into Adele and strikes up a conversation. Adele invites her out one day to go to the gym and then hang out. Louise is trying to get her life into order and accepts. A few pages later, we learn Adele is also the name of David's wife. Louise now must contend with the fact that she is seeing David's wife AND has a thing for David that will blossom. What will happen in this bizzarre love triangle?

As stated earlier, don't read ahead as this is one of the craziest books I have read so far. As I was reading, I kept thinking, this cannot get stranger until Pinborough, through her book, said- hold my beer, I am just getting started. Get through Part 1, which is essentially the introduction to the characters, the plot, etc. Part II is where the real fun begins. By the time you get to Part III, you will not know which way is up and you will definitely not guess the ending. You won't even ball park the ending. You won't even be in the town where the ball park is with your ending guess and the ending fits wonderfully into the book.

This is not to say the book doesn't have its flaws. It drags a bit and there are a few plot holes in the book, but it is such a fun read that those things will not matter, just keep going. This was the most fun I had with a book this year.

I gave this book 4 stars.

Here is your Book of the Month Club link- Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Human Acts by Han Kang- Book Review

Before I begin this book review, I must write, if you have not read The Vegetarian by Han Kang you really must. It is a mind trip unlike anything you have read before. It is so different and so strange that it is worth your time. It blew me away when I read it.

I write those words as an introduction for Human Acts because a similar theme is explored in this book- what makes humans human?

In The Vegetarian, a woman decides she is more plant than she is human, so throughout the book, she becomes more plantlike. Can a human become a plant?

In this book, Kang explores human nature after a military coup that leaves many dead bodies behind as history moves forward. The coup is described in the introduction of the book and it is important to read that introduction because it is a part of Korean history that may not be known to a larger audience.

The book then starts to act like a series of short stories with the connecting theme being this coup. The first is about a man who must record the unclaimed bodies. He must walk through piles and piles of bodies recording descriptions of each. Does a simple description make a person?

The second story is told from the perspective of one of those dead bodies as a soul is experiencing what it is like to be dead. Is our soul what makes us human?

I could go on, but time moves forward throughout the stories. We will visit with a woman who was once a protester to the coup, but is now stuck in a meaningless job where her workmates praise the man she was protesting with history long forgotten. Do our memories make us human?

While I did not think this was as powerful as The Vegetarian, I still loved this book. It is an extremely quick read (only about 120 pages), but it has a lot in it. There doesn't seem to be anything lost in translation, except for a few references that might not be known. I am really enjoying Kang's voice.

I gave this one 4.5 stars

Here is your Amazon link- Human Acts by Han Kang

*I want to thank Bloggingforbooks and Hogarth for the ability to read this one for free. It was given in exchange for an honest review

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult- Book Review

I am probably going to get a little bit of hate for this review as I know Picoult has a very loyal audience. Her audience is so loyal that I had more than a few friends ask me if I had read Small Great Things because it was "soooo good!" After so many recommendations, I purchased it for my birthday. It was the first Picoult book that I purchased for myself. I had read two others by her, but those books were given to me as gifts.

I will state up front, I think Picoult has a lot of talent and a lot of guts to continue writing about difficult issues. She faces them head on and does an incredible job with them. She is as easy read and her writing talent is there.

Where I kept getting stuck with Small Great Things was this was a Caucasian woman trying to write a book on race from and African American perspective. Picoult acknowledges this herself. Why that is important and why I kept getting stuck is there are several African American women authors who do the same thing, but do not have the name recognition nor the budget that Picoult gets. In fact, African American writers are less likely to get a book deal than Caucasian writers and often get pushed out of the market to make room for Caucasian writers. So, it kept sticking with me and sticking with me there may have been an author who is an African American woman who is also trying to tell this same story, but was pushed out.

With that written, what I am happy about is because of Picoult's name and her loyal audience, there are some people reading about race that may not normally read a book about race. That was the flip side to my own argument. I read a lot of books on race, but I am usually in the minority when it comes to my friends regarding books dealing with race. So, here is Picoult with a huge audience, now dealing with a topic that needs conversation. So, that was a huge plus for me.

As for the book itself, I kept wishing the antagonist wasn't a neo-Nazi who loved beating up gay people, went through the ranks of the White Power movement, and was so stereotypical in hating African Americans. It made the antagonist too easy and so he and his wife became two dimensional. They were easy to hate because they were so evil.

This made Ruth become 2D as well. She winds up fitting the tropes of an African American professional woman trying to make it in the world as a single mother. She becomes the caregiver for those around her and sort of becomes a mammy character even though she herself is in trouble. I don't think Picoult meant for this to be Ruth, but putting her next to such a 2D character as Turk and his wife, turns her into this character.

I feel like I am being a bit more harsh than I mean to be as I did enjoy the book. Let's face it, Picoult didn't get to where she is by not having writing talent, she certainly does. Her books are engaging and pull the reader in. She sells millions of books for a reason.

Race is a sticking issue for me and one that I care deeply about, so I wind up thinking about the African American and other Authors of Color who got squeezed out. That is not Picoult's fault, but that is the baggage I am bringing to the table. I am glad Picoult wrote this as it has people talking. Heck, Julia Roberts and Viola Davis are already signed for the movie. My guess is Julia Roberts isn't going to be a neo-Nazi.

I gave this one 3.5 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund- Book Review

I had heard about History of Wolves by Emily Friedlund on the All the Books Podcast. I will admit that I was half listening as I was driving at the time, but it sounded really interesting, so I picked it up for the Kindle.

This Monday, I had a trip to NYC and whenever I do that, I always start a new book because I will wind up finishing one or two on the 2 hour one way train ride. I started this one, remembering it sounded interesting, but not remembering much else about it. This book is a gut punch that I was simply not ready for. After I finished it, I wanted to shout out on the train- 'Has anyone read History of Wolves, I need to talk about this book right now!,' but since I am not a crazy person, I chose to sit silently basking in the aftermath of this book.

The book centers around Linda, a girl of 13, who is a bit weird in school because of her life circumstances. She lives in the woods, in a former cult commune, and has been raised to live off the land. Her parents are mostly absent from her life, so she finds comfort in adults. One adult is a teacher who she admires greatly and desires to kiss. Later in the story, he will be accused of having child pornography and accused of sexual assault on a student (my second book in a row where this happens to a teacher!)

Linda is taken in by a family across the river. A mother and young child live there and Linda becomes a babysitter, but also "adopted" member of the family. She imagines herself in this family. That bubble will burst when the husband will re-enter the picture halfway through the book. While the description of the book spoils it completely, I won't on this blog post, but it gets bad and it involves a trial that Linda will be a part of (which you will get glimpses of early in the book, when she says things like- at the trial I said...)

As stated earlier, this book is a gut punch. It seems innocent for about the first quarter and then goes into some very dark places so much so that the sections where there seems to be some family reprieve will also become tainted and dark. This is a book that one has to be ready for rather than a simple pick up and read book. When I read it, I wasn't ready for it.

While Fridlund has written some published short stories and other works, this is her first novel and it is so well done. It does get a bit draggy at places, but I was not sure if it was content or my situation-being on a train for 2hrs. Either way, it picks up again quickly and just takes off. I love a novel that you will re-read differently knowing the final outcome of the book.

I gave this one 4 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund