Recent Book read:The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Hello my beautiful friends, I 'm here with another book review which I finished last week. this book was lend to me by one of my friends :) and was my first book by Amy Tan.

This book is a story of eight Chinese women, four mothers who immigrated to US and their four American born daughters. each section of the book is written from each one point of view, like mothers talk about their pasts and their relationship with their daughters and vice versa. it is kinda weird but it is interesting because we hear the same story but with different voices and it shows how 2 person can see the same event differently. 

The "Joy Luck Club" started by one of the mothers who gathered her 3 friends in US and create a club that met every week ( I'm not sure about that though) and play cards and talk about their lives. the purpose of the club was to talk about their good times in the past and good times yet to come and each week with a hope to be lucky and that hope was their only joy through hard times.  although that's the name of the book, it does not focus on the club and their meetings at all !

The book shows mother-daughter relationship, it make you think about your own mother and you being as a mother yourself, the feeling of being very different from your mother but at the same time very similar! 

There were parts that I absolutely hated the mothers or daughters like the when mothers ( or in general parents) push their children to show some talent or being genius ( like playing chess or playing piano) to a point that is not fun for the child anymore and it is only for pleasing themselves or showing off their kids' talent in front of others. or when they say something embarrassing to their daughter in front of their friends which was like crushing them. I hated that daughters always tried to change or judge their mothers and did not accept that they are from different culture and background!! it was interesting to see that non of the daughters had a good relationship with their spouses which I did not know why!

Sometimes I felt that it was difficult to keep track of all the characters and their lives, but at the beginning of the book all their names is written ( who is whose daughter and mother stuff) and anytime I felt that I was lost I backed to the first page with the names. 

Another complain that I could say about this book was that I felt the chapter of each person's story finished so fast when I still wanted to go on and read more about that specific storyline. 

In overall I enjoyed her writing very much, she is a great storyteller and I could really feel the emotions in the writing. it is really smooth read, I could sit and read without noticing the time and I can just go on and on about this book....
I absolutely LOVED the book and it will always stay in my heart :) thanks to my dear friend for lending me, it was amazing. I'm gonna buy it for myself though since I go back and read my favorite parts of it.

If you are looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend this one

So what you've been reading lately ?! till next time

Mania

Recent Book read:Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

I just finished reading this book last week and I decided to write about it in case any one is interested to read, let's start by the short summary ( or intro) that you could always read on the back of the book:

"When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago."

  

The story starts very simple, Nina Revskaya a former Bolshoi ballerina putting her jeweleries for auction. as she is doing that she remembers her life which is rather a painful memories due to communist Russia and her husband, her friends whom she left when she defected.

The story quickly focus on a specific set of jewelry ( a pair of Amber earing and bracelet ), as a Russian professor donates the missing part of the set ( Amber necklace) for the auction. so the big mystery is who is this guy and what is his relationship with Nina and why she is denying any connection to the necklace. 

There were many times I  taught I found out how the book is ending and what was the mystery behind all  but the author did a great job in turning the story in a way that you would not know clearly till the end of the book. 

As I said, the story is a flashback of current life in Boston to old life of Nina, Grigori ( Russian Preofessor) and Drew ( the girl in charge of the auction). it shows a very chilling facts about  lack of privacy and constant prying of Soviet eyes on its citizens and specially on artists like poets and musicians and composers. She  descibed the scens well so it was possible to have somewhat clear image of how the life was like in old Russia; the fear, mistrust ... in people, even the description of ambiance is done perfectly. I still got the feeling of coldness, gray life when I usually get form reading Russian literature ( like Crime and Punishment , The Idiot) but less.   

Nina character  is so difficult, cold and grouch specially at the beginning that I really disliked her, but the way her life was back in Russian makes it understandable. she is not an easy character to like but at the end you'll see she tries to redress her wrongs ....and  that's all everyone could ask .in overall, I liked the book  though I taught the end was little bit fast and felt like it was cut very soon. 

I loved the way she wrote it, a wrapped mystery that reveals slowly through multiple characters and flashbacks.I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to people who like historical fictions with a hint of romance, a hint of mystery, and  easily flowing plot.

So what have you've been reading lately, love to hear your book suggestions?

wish you all a wonderful day :)

Mania

Recent Book read: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I have to say this book was on my reading list for a long time and my husband bought it few months ago. but I had hard times to pick it up ( don't know why).  I knew it was on best selling books for long  and I never read reviews on it so I knew it is good but the story was a complete mystery to me. 

Finally I started it and about first 50 pages or so , it was so BORING, I was hard time to continue and  surprised about the hype around it. I asked one of my book buddy and she told me it will get good just try to pass the 100 pages of so . I'm glad I took her advice :)

From where the boring part passed the book got more and more interesting and I was hooked. I had hard times to put it down.It is a massive mystery book ,close to 500 pages but I found it to be an easy and fast read ( except for the first 100 pages where it is describing the main characters which I read carefully and also the parts about  financial scandals which was boring and  little hard for me to follow; thank God that it was not long). 

when I started to read it at the beginning sections there were phrases like how many of women get assaulted by men each year so I kind of knew what I was getting into. 

One of the main characters of the book is Lisbeth Salander ," the girl" in the title, who is my favorite character of the book, she experienced a lot of violence in her life but even though she is a victim, she is not helpless.  however her appearance is kind of boyish ( absolutely not feminine chick) which kind shows her stronger ! ( I don't know that was the point that author wanted to make). other than violence against women there are other themes in the book which were interesting.

I read somewhere that the book title in Swedish is different and they changed it to this when they translated to English and thank God for that because I personally wouldn't pick a book that named " Men who hated women". something else when I noticed people talking about is that the "girl" in the title is not a girl ( as of an age perspective) but I think because the majority of the men in the book are mid-age or older so in their eyes a 20 something women is a girl. There are 2 or 3 violence scenes in the book which were tough to read but I was warned by one of my friends about them when I started to read the book and I was happy that she told me that.   

This book really made me think about women in general and the fact that some women live in conditions that are beyond our imaginations. it shows a very ugly view of human nature; specially toward women. the fact that we are a member of a group that always have to wonder if we were treated this way because of our gender. I liked the book and when I was reading it so many people ( strangers) came to me and told me they liked it too or this is a really good book. of course like every other book there are some disappointing parts like after they solve the big mystery ( Harriet's case) where I taught everything ( the main characters and their life ) moved too fast .  

My next book is " the girl who played with fire" which is the 2nd book of "The Millenium Trilogy" by Stieg Larsson.

So what you've been reading lately that you think was interesting?!

Love,

Mania 

Recent Book read: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I finally finished this book, oh it seems like forever. it was about 580 pages of fine prints, and I liked it :) 
On the fist page of the book it is written:

      "American Wife is a work of fiction loosely inspired by the life of an American first lady. Her husband, his parents, and certain prominent members of his administration are recognizable. all other characters in the novel are products of the author's imagination, as are the incidents concerning them." 

I had no idea what so ever that the book is actually inspired of a real first lady but when I started to read and the story well progressed it was very clear to me that the first lady in the book (Alice) is very close to Laura Bush. and now that I finished the book; at the end ; in conversation with author section, she claimed that the her book idea came form Laura Bush's life. 

The story starts form the childhood of Alice till around 61. for most of the book Alice is shown as an "perfect wife"; who has unquestioned loyalty to a husband with values very different from hers. at same time the book shows a mixed image of US president; quite chilling though! 
In my opinion, the fist chapters of the book were stronger, it seems that after they moved to white house the author wasn't very focused; she described  the characters and emotions in more details at first three sections but not the same in the last part.  also there is too many flashbacks at last section where I really wanted the story to go forward. 

One of the most interesting points of the book was that Alice ( before meeting his husband) was free thinker and then she transfered to an obedient wife and then when they got famous to very likable first lady. there were parts in the book that Alice seems selfless to me which I did not like at all.

When I was reading the book so many questions went through my mind like: if you become a political wife and disagree with your husband's politics are you thus responsible for his actions as a leader if you believe they are morally corrupt ? Could you close your eyes to things that you think are wrong because you love your husband and don't want to ruin your marriage by discussing those points?!or could you  have married a man with such different in a first place?

It was one the most absorbing  and thought-provoking books I have read in a while. during my read I taught about the characters and kind of thinking how I would react or behave in those conditions; the fact that we shouldn't judge anyone before knowing and understanding their story was also shown beautifully in this book. 

So here is my take on my recent read which I highly recommend, have you read any interesting book recently? 

In the Giving Tree story, are we the tree or the boy?!?

Have you read the story of "Giving Tree"?! it is one of the most simple and touching stories I ever read. It is a children book but reading it you realize how deep it is and how different one can look at the story.The tree character shows someone that is always a giver and he is happy when there is something he can offer. on the other side there is the boy which is always a taker ( although we don't know how he is with others but for sure with the tree he is a taker). Throughout our life we met people that belonged to one of these 2 groups or somewhere in between. The boy can be seen as selfish or very reasonable and the tree can be seen as someone who sacrifice himself for the sake of others or someone that is selfless. 

I was reading the story ( probably for the 100th times) few days ago and I was thinking that the happiness of the tree and the boy was very dependence of someone or something else; tree was happy when the boy was around and needed something ( actually the only time the tree was sad was when he didn't have anything to give to the boy) or the boy was happy when he had money, house, boat. ....

When our happiness depends on someone or something else, there is a huge possibility that it is won't be stable.It is just much better to be happy without any reason and I found  that few months ago, simple reason like being healthy, be able to spend time with your loved ones and just enjoying their company, just by relaxing on the couch beside your significant other or the most simplest things; basically being happy because there is no reason not to be. and that's how I want to be :)
If you had not read the book, here is a short and old video with the voice of Shel Silverstein himself.

The story makes me sad and I hate the boy ( kind of ) but honestly how many of us behave or seen like the boy in real life?!
Love,
Mania

Books, books and more books ...

I have to admit, I am addicted to reading. it is my absolute pleasure as long as I remember. but I stopped for a while I think right after when I started going to university since I taught I don't have a lot of time. but it's been a few years that I am back on it. when I am reading a good book ,it is like I dissolve into it and I kind of become unaware of my surrounding ( not always a good thing though).

So talking about the latest books I read: I started to read the "Hunger Games" series by "Suzanne Collins". the first like 20-30 page of the first book is slow, but after that is was really hard to put the book down; wanted to know what will come next.
but that's not all, it gets even better when going further to the series which consists of 3 books:
1- Hunger games
2- Catching fire
3-Mockingjay
The book is targeted for young adults, it is a violent novel so maybe  not good for people in early teens though. definitely recommend it to anyone who loves reading exciting, addictive novels with a touch of romance.
My next book will be "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld, since I got it with the "Hunger Games" books.

So what have you read lately that you liked?

What I am reading now...

I love love  reading, sometimes I prefer it over a lot of things like watching TV or even shopping. so most of times when I am waiting or don't have anything to do, I read a book.

I don't read specific books, since I think people should try to know and experience as much as possible.  so sometimes I read books that are very deep and requires deep thinking and analyzing, but sometimes books that are very easy to read and follow or those that are too cheesy !

A few weeks ago I started reading "pretty little liars" series. I know it is a TV series, but I  preferred to read the book instead of watching its shows, in most cases. why? because I think you create a much better show with your imagination.

It is a small book, and easy to read. the story is about a group of teenage girls that are friends with another kind of popular, cool girl called Ali. and all of them told Ali some dark secrets about themselves. However Ali disappears and nobody knows what happened to her. after 3 years each of the girls ( which now separated from each other)  receive  notes about their secret with Ali's signature on it and threats to expose their secrets. so there could be 2 theories, the missing girl is alive and now black mailing those girls, or there is someone else other that Ali, that knew about the secrets; which personally I think it's the last one ( dah).

there are some themes and behaviors  in the book that I am surprised they are  done by some teenagers  (like sex, drugs, drinking, bulimia and shoplifting) but that is how the society are now and I think people  that passed that age ( like myself) should be aware of that.

I don't know how many books  there are in this series ( 8 maybe?!), I am still at first one. I only read on days that I go to gym and arrive early, so I have little time before my class starts and that is the time I spend reading. but If you stick with it you could finish each book in 1 day,since I told you it is a small book and light reading.

In overall, they are good mystery and exciting books and I recommend reading them. Enjoy!
Mania

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