Book Blog #278: Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

Title: Love and Other Consolation Prizes

Author: Jamie Ford

# of Pages: 297 (hardback)

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, this is the unforgettable story of a young boy named Ernest, set during the 1909 Seattle world’s fair called the Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo. It is a time when the magical wonders of technology on display at the expo future seems limitless. But for Ernest, a half-Chinese orphan who found his way to America through a last desperate act of his beloved mother, every door is closed. A charity student at a boarding school, he has never really had a place to call home. Then one day, his wealthy sponsor announces that if a home is what he wants, then that is what he will have: Ernest will be offered as a prize in the daily raffle at the fair, advertised as “Healthy boy to a good home for the winning ticket holder.” The woman who “wins” him is the madam of a notorious brothel who was famous for educating her girls. He becomes a houseboy in her brothel and is befriended by the daughter of the madam, as well as a Japanese girl who works in the kitchen. The friendship and love between these three form the first real family Ernest has ever known.

Review: What started off as a slow, confusing read turned into a real page turner. 

This is the first book I've read by this author, so I didn't know what to expect. At first I was put off by the back-and-forth between the 1900s and the 1960s. Ford throws the reader headfirst into Ernest's life and Gracie's memory loss which made it difficult to really get into the book. However, as the story progressed, Ford did a good job of tying the "present" and the past chapters together as the story of Ernest and the two loves of his life unfolds.

I was experiencing some minor deja vu with the structure of the book, and then I realized it was because of the striking similarity with The Notebook. I would say that Love and Other Consolation Prizes is a MUCH better love story despite sharing a message of being able to love two people at once. 

This book read like a tragedy to me, with the main characters barely staying afloat with the support of each other in a world that was not kind to people like them; prostitutes, orphans, immigrants. I loved being able to see into Seattle's past, into the Garment district and the hypocrisy of many high-standing people at the time. 

Overall, a good, captivating, and quick read. I would recommend this book.

Book Blog #277: Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools by Philip Caveney

Title: Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools

Author: Philip Caveney

# of Pages: 338 (paperback)

Genre: YA, Adventure, Humor

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: The Lord of Laughter, The Monarch of Mirth—if only the bumbling 17-year-old Sebastian Darke could be a successful jester like his father. The problem is, Sebastian’s not funny. But after his father’s death, with no choice but to beg in the streets, the half-human, half-elf teen sets off with Max, his father’s slightly cynical Buffalope, to offer his services as a jester to King Septimus of Keladon. On the way, they meet Captain Cornelius Drummel, small in stature, but the fiercest of fighters. The three rescue the fair princess Kerin, who’s being held captive by brigands, and happily escort her home. If only Sebastian knew the kidnapping was engineered by the evil King Septimus!

Review: The key to enjoying this book is to not take it too seriously. 

Yes, the plot is predictable, but as the saying goes, "it's about the journey, not the destination."Sebastian, Cornelius, and Max form a group of unexpected adventurers, and there is plenty of humor as they work to protect the princess from the evil King. The whole story was very Princessbride-esque to me, although with significantly less romance. The dialogue might not seem entirely natural, but this is fine for a book that is considered a comedy!

Despite the illustrations throughout, I would recommend this book to early YA readers and above. It's a light, quick read (and a lucky find hidden amongst my other books; I'm not sure exactly how I got this book but am glad to have read it).

Book Blog #276: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

 Title: Fifty Shades of Grey

Author: E.L. James

# of Pages: 515 (ebook)

Genre: Romance, Erotica, Chick-Lit

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Synopsis: When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Review: This was actually....better than I expected.

I know it's not saying much since my rating is two stars (in reality it's somewhere in between one and two stars). I heard a lot about this book throughout the years because of all the hype and even attempted to read this book back in 2017 (my impression of the first 50 pages was so bad that I had to stop reading). 

Let's start with what I didn't like about Fifty Shades of Grey. 

The characters

The characters are cliché (rich, attractive man meets ordinary and innocent girl? Far from original). Perhaps this is to be expected from a book that started as a Twilight fanfic, which was painfully obvious even with the changes James made to make her cast of characters more "original." The story takes place in Washington, her mother (who is divorced from the person Ana considers to be her father) lives in a state with contrasting weather, and Ana is giving her space to be with her husband...does this context sound familiar? At one point, Ana even refers to a character as a "glorious, pale-skinned vamp" (447) which might be an innocent (although strange) description if not for the book's origin. 

I actually got a little emotion while reading this book. "Because Christian and Ana's relationship is so romantic?" you might ask. NO, their relationship is so toxic and abusive. I practically weep thinking about all the horny middle-aged women getting off on this unhealthy relationship. 

The dialogue

The dialogue is repetitive, awkward, and sometimes cringe-y. The reader is suppose to believe that Christian is this intimidating, eloquent man who speaks beyond his years (which, by the way, would make a lot of sense if he was a 100+ year old vampire...), but his dialogue doesn't meet this description. Most of this book is him repeatedly telling Ana to eat and stop biting her bottom lip. It gets old. 

What was even more distracting is how James insists on using the word "behind" to refer to someone's butt. Once I noticed (and once you get passed the first 20% of the book, boy do they mention their "behinds" a lot), it drove me insane; to me, "behind" is an awkward, polite way to refer to someone's butt. After everything Christian and Ana have been through, there's no need for such verbal restraint.

The genre

This book is DEFINITELY well classified in the romance chick-lit genres, and it has everything working against it because I am not a fan of chick-lits (although I will say that this is better than Jennifer Cruise's Bet Me). This is the first erotic I've read, so I'm not sure how much sex is enough sex for people who are seeking out an erotica, but honestly I felt like there was less than I was expecting. It's the worst of both worlds: people who are here for the plot (anyone?) would think there is too much sex, people who are sexually frustrated(?) don't get enough. 

So what saved this book from 1 star?

There was an interesting subplot of Grey's potentially abusive past (one that the reader doesn't get much insight to in this book) that can be used to explain (although not justify) his abusive behavior in Christian and Ana's relationship. I think this additional complexity (to an otherwise simple book) kept me interested in hopes that we would be able to learn more about how his past has affected his current sexual behaviors.

Honestly, the 1 star rating is also reserved for books that make me angry that I read it. Although this book was poorly written, I didn't feel pissed off while reading Fifty Shades of Grey. It didn't take that long to get through this book, and I was feeling like reading a quick, easy-to-read romance (the cheap stuff that causes you to lose brain cells rather than gain them). I'm not sure how well this fit the "romance" bill, but everything else seems to meet my qualifications.

Would I recommend this book? Nah.  Even just to understand the mainstream hype? Not worth your time. 

Book Blog #275: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Title: Small Great Things

Author: Jodi Picoult

# of Pages: 480 (hardback)

Genre: Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Drama

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

Review: I wavered a long time between giving this book three and four stars. 

Similarly to Picoult's A Spark of Light, Small Great Things addresses the relevant, hard hitting problem today of racial discrimination. Most of her book is full of pointed messages/lesson regarding racial discrimination. At the end of the day, her characters are merely a means for her to deliver her message on racism (and the different ways it can manifest itself). While the book's lesson is an important one, the challenge for the author is to execute this mission while still writing a story with characters and dialogue that seem realistic. Unfortunately, this is not always the case; at times, Small Great Things read like a Grey's Anatomy episode whenever the characters have their structured, politically correct conversation on controversial topics. 

A big problem with her A Spark of Light novel was the POV switching - too many perspectives, and each switch made me wish I could read a different character's POV instead. Small Great Things has first person POV switching. Some of the less desirable aspects were still present; Picoult would go over the same scenes from a different perspective, and the reader learns nothing new from this new perspective. However, what was better in this book is that Picoult limited the POVs to three characters: Ruth, Kennedy, and Turk. With the exception of the parts where the perspectives overlapped too much, the POV switching actually well for this story. All three characters come from different walks of life: an African American nurse living in a white world, a white public defender who believes she doesn't see race, and a white supremacist. Their internal thoughts were valuable in contributing the plot and the message, so although I generally don't enjoy books with POV switching, I didn't have too many complaints in this case. 

Because there are only three perspectives, this book does a better job at developing the characters. Each major character had a larger slice of the book compared to A Spark of Light, which left room for more personal moments (that are meant to build context/character rather than directly attribute to the plot) to be included for each. I felt more connected with each of the characters, which made me more emotionally invested.

In Picoult's author's note, she recognizes that this book will be heavily scrutinized; how can a privileged white woman write a black woman's story? I am not in a position to judge how accurate her depiction of a black woman's life is, whether the medical/law aspects are realistic. However, I do believe she wrote a book that presented it well to her target audience: the white community "who can very easily point to a neo-Nazi skinhead and say he's a racist...but who can't recognize racism in themselves" (Picoult 460). Many people do not realize what passive racism is, and Picoult does a great job at bringing this to light through Kennedy. 

Overall, I thought this book was a good read. I would recommend this book if this is a topic you are interested in reading more about. However, if you are looking for an escape from the stresses and injustices of the world, this is not your book. 

Book Blog #274: K-pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

 

Title: K-pop Confidential

Author: Stephan Lee

# of Pages: 336 (paperback)

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Candace Park knows a lot about playing a role. For most of her life, she's been playing the role of the quiet Korean girl who takes all AP classes and plays a classical instrument, keeping her dreams of stardom-and her obsession with SLK, K-pop's top boyband-to herself. She doesn't see how a regular girl like her could possibly become one of those K-pop goddesses she sees on YouTube. Even though she can sing. Like, really sing. So when Candace secretly enters a global audition held by SLK's music label, the last thing she expects is to actually get a coveted spot in their trainee program. And convincing her strict parents to let her to go is all but impossible ... although it's nothing compared to what comes next. Under the strict supervision of her instructors at the label's headquarters in Seoul, Candace must perfect her performance skills to within an inch of her life, learn to speak Korean fluently, and navigate the complex hierarchies of her fellow trainees, all while following the strict rules of the industry. Rule number one? NO DATING, which becomes impossible to follow when she meets a dreamy boy trainee. And in the all-out battle to debut, Candace is in danger of planting herself in the middle of a scandal lighting up the K-pop fandom around the world.

Review: Despite being a k-pop fan, I would never have read this book if I didn't receive it as a gift. I'm just not the target audience for this; K-pop Confidential dives into many young fans' fantasy of being a normal girl turned K-pop star. K-pop has its own set of lingo, and Lee does not hesitate to use it generously throughout the book. Although Lee includes a dictionary of vocab words for those less familiar with the lingo, it's clear that this book is best suited for those who can appreciate how well versed/researched Lee is in the K-pop world. 

However, the best books will appeal to those even outside of the target audience. With the cringe-y (but perhaps accurate) teen dialog peppered with (non-K-pop slang), it just wasn't my cup of tea. Romance is innocent and surface level despite being crucial to the plot. 

The best part of this book was how it allowed readers to peek into the life of a K-pop trainee. Many people don't see what happens behind the scenes and how difficult it is to become an idol, how strenuous and at times inhumane their training is. I would have loved to hear more about Lee's experiences interviewing people in the industry have attributed to what he ended up depicting in this book; this could have served as a powerful wakeup call as to what is going on in the idol industry and brought it above being a shallow, wish-fulfillment book for K-pop fans. 

I would recommend this book to diehard K-pop fans who want a quick and fun read. Otherwise, your time would be better spent on something else.

Book Blog #273: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

 

Title: Born a Crime

Author: Trevor Noah

# of Pages: 201 (ebook)

Genre: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Humor

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Noah was born a crime, the son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Review: I've watched Trevor Noah on The Daily Show and seen clips of him on Youtube. One of the things that always stood out to me was that he was an amazing storyteller. Even on the most difficult topics, he can spin them into something lighthearted/comedic. But most importantly, it makes people listen. 

I've only read one other comedian's autobiography before this (Ellen's Seriously...I'm Kidding), but Noah's just hits different.  His narrative is infused with humor, but humor is not a central part in this story. Growing up half black, half white in South Africa gives Noah a whole set of struggles that many people wouldn't expect from someone hosting The Daily Show: an unconventional and (at times) dysfunctional family, abuse, racism, to mention a few. But this best part is that it never seems like Noah is telling use these stories to gain sympathy; he is just telling his story as he remembers it and even includes analogies to help Western audiences understand each situation he describes. No matter what life threw at him, he seemed to be able to roll with the punches.

My favorite parts of his book were when he talked about his mom. I loved hearing how strong and independent she is and how they interacted during the ups and downs of his childhood. There is this charming push and pull between mother and son; Trevor being naughty and his mother correct his behavior through tough love, letters, and religious backed arguments. 

This book is not written chronologically. Rather Noah takes a topic from his past and tells the tale all the way through, sometimes reiterating parts of stories already told or hinting at stories yet to come. As a monologue, this is a great format, but in book format I would have preferred if he did not skip around his timeline so much. Although his casual writing style, I felt like I could not immerse myself into his story with him jumping around so much. 

Overall, a very good read. I would definitely recommend this book; it has exceeded expectations and is a quick read!

Book Blog #272: The Locksmith's Daughter by Karen Brooks

 

Title: The Locksmith's Daughter

Author: Karen Brooks

# of Pages: 566 (paperback)

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance

Rating:★★★☆☆

Synopsis:Mallory Bright is the only daughter of London's most ingenious locksmith. She has apprenticed with her father since childhood, and there is no lock too elaborate for her to crack. After scandal destroys her reputation, Mallory has returned to her father's home and lives almost as a recluse, ignoring the whispers and gossip of their neighbors. But Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster and a frequent client of Mallory's father, draws her into his world of danger and deception. For the locksmith's daughter is not only good at cracking locks, she also has a talent for codes, spycraft, and intrigue. With Mallory by Sir Francis’s side, no scheme in England or abroad is safe from discovery. But Mallory's loyalty wavers when she witnesses the brutal and bloody public execution of three Jesuit priests and realizes the human cost of her espionage. And later, when she discovers the identity of a Catholic spy and a conspiracy that threatens the kingdom, she is forced to choose between her country and her heart.

Review: I'd like to first applaud Brooks for all the research she put into this book. This was one of the only times where I bothered to read the author's note all the way through because she goes through what sources she used and how she even went so far as to visit the locations that were used in the story. 

This book was a slow start; I ended up reading this book in two chunks; the first two hundred pages, then months of a break, and finally finishing the last three hundredish pages this weekend. The main aspect of the book to blame for this (and one of the reasons why its rating is missing two stars) is the author's laborious writing style. The beginning of the story dragged, and while the latter half of the book was more interesting, the plot was predictable. 

There were many events (i.e. revelations Mallory has from a certain experience, spur of the moment decisions, etc.) that seemed acts merely as a plot device rather than naturally flowing from the current direction of the plot, character development, etc. I'm a sucker for cheesy romance and therefore was a sucker for the romance parts of this book, but it was cheesy nonetheless. 

I have seen some label this book as a thriller; it is definitely not. Historical fiction and romance are the most accurate genres. In fact, if you are looking for a book about spycraft, I would look elsewhere. The focus of this book is not on the skills she learns under Sir Francis's employment but rather her personal growth, so those interested in "codes, spycraft, and intrigue" would have better luck with a different book.

Another surprising aspect were the descriptions of physical and sexual assault. Unlike many other books I have read, this book does not glaze over such occurrences and describes some encounters with more detail than I was expecting. 

Overall, although I enjoyed some aspects of my book, my time would have better been spent reading something else. I would not recommend this book.