White Ivy
by Susie Yang
I came to detest Ivy. (5/6/2021)
WHITE IVY begins when Ivy is a child. She is Chinese but wants to be white and hang out with the white crowd at school. When she spends one summer in China, at first with rich relatives, she develops a high opinion of herself and a hankering for the rich life. Back in the United States, she dates only white boys. Ivy has a crush on one boy in particular: Gideon.
Ivy and Gideon are pretty much at the center of this story. But so are Ivy and Roux (pronounced Roo), a Romanian who grew up in the neighborhood where she did.
As an adult, Ivy’s desires haven’t changed much. They’ve been amplified. She still wants Gideon and gets him to a point. But something isn’t right. She sees what she wants to see, and Roux is what she settles for when she can’t be with Gideon.
I read WHITE IVY while I was (and still am) quarantined because my husband has COVID-19 and I might have it. I had nothing to do but read. So I read this book more quickly than usual, taking breaks only to sleep. I wonder if I would have enjoyed WHITE IVY otherwise.
I came to detest Ivy. So will you.
The Family Upstairs
by Lisa Jewell
Absorbing Page Turner (5/6/2021)
Of the five Lisa Jewell novels I have read, I think THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is probably my favorite. Not that it’s a nice story. You could definitely say it is sickening. But it is so absorbing and quite a page turner.
Libby learns that she has inherited a home worth several million dollars. But she also learns, little by little, what went on in that home and who her true family really is.
Libby hears about the rich family—mother, father, son, daughter— who lived there back in the 1980s. And she learns the story about another family who moved into their attic bedrooms— temporarily, they said. But the people upstairs stayed and stayed. Not only did they not leave, the father of the family upstairs, David, took control of the lives of everyone in the house.
So what does this have to do with Libby? Is she the baby left behind? She will discover all this and how she is related to these people.
The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Not recommended for adults (5/6/2021)
I read THE PARIS LIBRARY because it is historical fiction, but I thought it would be written for an adult. It seemed, however, to be a lower reading level, closer to what I would have liked when I was in the eighth or ninth grade.
Some chapters of this book are about 1939 Paris; the other chapters are about 1983 Montana. I found both to be boring.
In 1939 Paris is young Odile, who works at the American Library in Paris. This part is boring mainly because it is so, so slow. We hear about every little bit of her life and are left to wonder, when will something happen, for too long.
The Montana chapters are told from the perspective of Lily, a junior-high-school-age girl, who becomes a friend of her next-door neighbor, Odi?e, now an older woman. These chapters, too, are slow and made me wonder, what is their purpose, for too long.
I cannot recommend this book to most adult readers. However, I do recommend it for some teenagers.
I won this book from Atria Books.
The Plot
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Boring, boring, boring (4/28/2021)
If you are a writer or work in the publishing industry, THE PLOT is for you. As far as I can tell, though, this book is not for anyone else. It bored me. I am sure it will bore most people, maybe even writers and those who work in the publishing industry.
Jake has written a highly successful novel that he based on a plot written by one of his students. The student is now dead, and Jake has rewritten the story. Jake did not really steal it from anyone, but he feels that he did. So does someone else who is badgering him online about it. Who is this? That’s what Jake sets out to learn.
I read several good reviews of this book before I decided to read it. I feel cheated. Although most reviews warn that the book has a slow beginning, they also assure the reader that it gets suspenseful, thrilling. Believe me when I tell you that, yes, THE PLOT does have a slow beginning; BUT it continues to drag right up to page 300.
If you can delay your gratification that long, go for it. I don’t know any people who can do that. No one should have to.
Even after page 300, you’re bound to be disappointed. The whole mystery is solved in the end, and I could see it coming long before I got that far.
The Exiles
by Christina Baker Kline
Such a nice, if somewhat predictable, story (10/29/2020)
While many people will feel THE EXILES is a five-star book and while I would have felt the same several years ago, my taste has evolved. I didn’t love it. I liked it, but I don’t have the heart to give it just three stars. It was such a nice, if somewhat predictable, story.
After Evangeline’s father dies, she becomes a governess in early 19th-century London. But after she has an affair with the adult son of the household, she ends up pregnant and in Newgate prison. From there, she is shipped with other prisoners to Australia.
On board, Evangeline meets Hazel, a midwife and herbalist. It is Hazel, not Evangeline, who plays the largest part in this story.
But this book is also about a third female, Mathinna. She is an Aboriginal child, taken on a whim to live among white people.
I read that this is to be made into a TV series. It is sure to make great TV.
The Snow Child: A Novel
by Eowyn Ivey
retelling of a Russian fairy tale (1/10/2013)
THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey is simply a retelling of a Russian fairy tale. It doesn’t live up to the many reviews of it that I read. The book is full of unanswered questions.
Gone Girl: A Novel
by Gillian Flynn
The end should be rewritten. (1/9/2013)
Right up to the second-from-last page GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn should be rated 5. Every page of the book builds more and more tension. It really is the best kind of book: unputdownable.
But the end: Other reviewers have said that it comes as a surprise. True. But I didn't like it. It is as if Flynn couldn't think of an end to the story so just stopped.
The end should be rewritten.
When She Woke: A Novel
by Hillary Jordan
pleasant surprise (1/9/2013)
WHEN SHE WOKE by Hillary Jordan was a pleasant surprise for me. From what I had heard, I had expected a futuristic book about a world where abortion was a crime punishable by turning the criminal’s skin red. Yes, there’s that. But there’s so much more to it. And Jordan’s writing is very good.
You can believe me. This comes from a pro-lifer.
At first, I thought my expectations were accurate. But, although pro-lifers in this book have tunnel vision and are cruel, which might have irritated me, the story has so many twists and turns, I really did enjoy it.
My biggest surprise about WHEN SHE WOKE was that so much happens in a relatively short book. I say “relatively” because most books that have this much action are twice as long as WHEN SHE WOKE.
Too many authors love the way they write so much that they write too much and subject the reader to many paragraphs that can easily be cut without detracting from the story. But Jordan has cut the garbage paragraphs in WHEN SHE WOKE. Don’t skip. Jordan’s writing is concise, and all of it is necessary.
City of Women: A Novel
by David R. Gillham
a disappointment (1/9/2013)
CITY OF WOMEN was a disappointment. The dialog and many of the situations are just plain corny. The story is loaded with convenient coincidences. The woman who helps hide Jews in World War II Berlin is, at the same time, a tramp who can't get enough sex, then pretends to be shocked about others' sexual experiences.
The author said he wanted to put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. But that's not what this book is. These people are not ordinary; they're unrealistic and ridiculous.
Power Reviewer
