December 2021 in Books

Hi all!  A respectable list of books this month, and I was able to throw a couple of the girls books in the mix too.  Here's the rundown:

China in One Village: The Story of One Town and the Changing World - Liang Hong - non-fiction - three stars - This was an interesting read, although rather dry.  The author returns to her home village to spend an extended time interviewing those there about the changing face of Chinese villages.  What I thought was really interesting about the result was how the villages are now the domain of the very old and the very young.  Young people leave the villages to go to cities to find work.  The older generation stays there, and when the young people have kids, they send them to the villages to live with their grandparents.  This has turned on its head the culture of the village.  Where once it was the husband's mother who held great power as her daughters-in-law came to stay in the home and work under her, now the grandparents have been superceded.  They are caring for their grandchildren, in part because they want to, but also in part because they fear if they don't, when they grow old, their children will not take care of them.  Kids have very little tie to their parents, so it will be interesting to see how this affects Chinese society in the future.  In addition, I thought it was interesting that education no longer seemed important to those in the villages.  Those who have gone on to school have had difficulty finding good jobs, essentially wasting money making years, many just want to skip the education and go straight to making money.  Interesting, but slow read.

The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish (The Vanderbeekers, #5) - Karina Yan Glaser - juvenile fiction - five stars - The Vanderbeekers are a favorite in our house, so I was excited to read this new book.  The Vanderbeekers are planning a surprise party for Papa's birthday, but he is unexpectedly called out of town when his best friend's father passes away.  Meanwhile, Mama's parents arrive unexpectedly for an extended stay, and let's say they aren't the most fun grandparents.  The kids are trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Papa which leads them on a journey to his past.  I really loved the characters from Papa's past that we were introduced to as well as the development of the relationship with the grandparents.  Another great Vanderbeeker story.

The World Played Chess - Robert Dugoni - historical fiction - five stars - This was easily my favorite book of the month.  I loved The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, and was excited to see another standalone book from Dugoni.  He's written a ton, but a lot of his books are series, and I'm not necessarily looking to get into a series.  This was such a good story.  There are three dueling narratives.  Vincent Bianco present day as he deals with his family growing and learning, Vincent past as he himself is growing up, leaving high school and learning about the real world, and William, who Vincent worked with just after high school.  Vincent receives a war diary in the mail which sets things in motion as he starts to recount the past.  The diary tells the story of William and what he went through in Vietnam before Vincent ever met him.  I really love how the three parts wove together to shed light on the things Vincent was dealing with in present day, and I also like that Dugoni doesn't leave us hanging, that he ties up the loose ends and that although we don't know all the answers, we have a good feeling of closure at the end.  Highly recommend.

The Joy and Light Bus Company (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #22) - Alexander McCall Smith - fiction - four stars - Mwa Ramotswe books are always fun to read.  It's like reconnecting with an old friend.  In this installment, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni attends a business course.  He meets an old friend, and is drawn into a a business venture, a bus business.  He will have to mortgage his garage in order to get the money for the investment though.  This has Mwa Ramotswe feeling very uncertain.  Meanwhile, she takes a case to determine if the nurse of a man's ailing father has ulterior motives.  The man has updated his will to leave the nurse his home.  I always enjoy seeing how Mwa Ramotswe tackles a problem/case.  The one thing that bothered me a bit about this book was her intervention in Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's business venture, but I can kind of see both sides of that.  Anyway, enjoyable as always.

The Sentence - Louise Erdich - fiction - three stars - This one was a disappointment, it's probably closer to 2 1/2 stars, bur I rounded up.  I really loved her previous book, The Night Watchman, so was excited for this one to come out, but it was just kind of weird to me.  There were just too many things going on I felt like, connections that were half there, or kind of there but not really fleshed out.  I feel like this book needed to incubate a bit more, like they kind of rushed it out.  The events take place during the pandemic, and it just seemed like it needed editing.  It's about a woman who works in a small bookstore in Minneapolis which is being haunted by a former client.  Meanwhile, her husband's daughter arrives for a visit with her newborn daughter, and just after that the pandemic is in full swing.  Just never quite got there for me.

The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria - Janine Di Giovanni - non-fiction - three stars - This book follows the travels of journalist Janine di Giovanni and she traveled in Syria in May 2012.  Di Giovanni is not new to war/genocide.  She covered the Serbian conflict extensively, and finds herself drawn into another similar situation.  She juxtaposes the start of the war, when people were still living in disbelief, having parties, shopping, etc. to those living in the midst of the conflict.  There are no answers to the issues at hand, just an accounting of life in a war zone, families trying to survive, etc.  It's a bit fragmented, I felt like there were parts where she delved a little too much into her feelings/emotions, but overall it was eye-opening.

Falling - T.J. Newman - fiction - four stars - This one is probably closer to 3 1/2 but rounded up.  It's about a flight in which the pilot's family has been taken hostage.  They want him to crash the plane into a to be named location, and also to release a canister of gas into the passenger area.  I will say that this was a book that kept my interest and was a fast read because of that.  I liked the characters in the book a lot, and the writing was good.  The reason that I ding it is really because of how implausible it seems.  From how this is carried out when it seems like the individuals involved are lone wolfs, to the scenarios on the plane.  If it was an action movie you would be entertained, but if you thought about it later you would agree that that didn't make a ton of sense and couldn't really happen.  But still very entertaining read.

Tumble & Blue - Cassie Beasley - juvenile fiction - four stars - I was happy to see another book from Beasley, Circus Mirandus was one of Ellie's favorites a couple years ago.  This time Carina was the reader and she really enjoyed it, reading it twice before passing it on to me.  Tumble and Blue are two misfit kids who don't quite fit in.  They find themselves in Murky Branch, where their parents grew up, in an attempt to give them more 'normal' lives.  They find that their families are linked through an age old curse whereby some of the people in the family have 'gifts' and some have 'curses'.  Guess which kind of kids they are?  Anyway, the entity which doles out these gifts/curses is scheduled to do this again soon.  The result is that tons of Blue's family, the cursed kind, descend on Murky Branch hoping that they can reverse their fortunes.  This was another book where I liked the concept and I liked the characters, but I just found the storyline unfocused and convoluted.  Could have used some more editing, but still enjoyable.

God's Double Agent: The True Story of a Chinese Christian's Fight for Freedom - biography - five stars - I picked this one up from our church bookstore.  It was such a good read.  It tells the story of Bob Fu.  His dream was to leave the farmer's life, go to a good school, get a good job, and make a difference in his country as well as for his family.  Things rarely go as planned though.  Instead of getting into one of the better schools he got into the teacher's college.  There he became involved in politics, bring a group of his classmates to the Tiannamen Square protests.  He ended up having to leave to take someone to the hospital when things took a turn there, but he was still marked as a dissident.  He went through interrogation, was shunned by his classmates, etc.  During this difficult time, he came to Christ and his life was changed.  Later he became an  English teacher in the Communist University.  There he really began to live out his faith and share with others.  Again, he, and now his wife, were targeted.  They eventually had to flee the country.  They were granted asylum in the U.S. where he founded ChinaAid, an organization dedicated to helping those suffering from religious persecution in China.  He has helped numerous people escape the country, provided funding for legal representation for those still in the country, and also helped to spread the word within the country.  I loved this one.

As I mentioned, my favorite this month was The World Played Chess closely followed by God's Double Agent.  Would love to know what you are reading.  I'm currently in the middle of Cloud Cuckoo Land, and next up is The Back Channel.