A pretty good month of reading. A lot of my holds ended up having to do with Asia. My favorite was definitely Peach Blossom Spring. Here are the recaps:
Tell Me an Ending - Jo Harkin - science fiction - three stars - I thought this was a really interesting idea. Nepenthe, a firm in the UK, has developed a technology that allows people to erase memories. Years later, because people are starting to develop trace memories, they are obligated to notify everyone who has had a memory removed to see if they want it restored. For some, it solves issues they have been having and makes their life better, for others, the results are disastrous. Noor, a woman working at the clinic struggles with her role in the process as well as what company seems to be hiding. This is just one of those stories where I think they story itself was a bit of a let down from the idea itself. I wasn't crazy about the different characters, and there was generally a lot of jumping around between different characters/timelines. I found it pretty disjointed and just had a hard time getting into it.
Four Treasures of the Sky - Jenny Tinghui Zhang - historical fiction - five stars - The story of Daiyu, an orphan who is kidnapped in China and taken to the U.S. to work in a Tong related brothel. Daiyu is lucky, she is able to escape and creates a new life in Idaho masquerading as a boy/man. It's at this point that there is a wave anti-Chinese sentiment, and Daiyu and her new friends/family are caught up in it. Daiyu's story is tragic from start to finish, but you are rooting for her each step along the way. Highly recommend.
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner - memoir - three stars.- This has been on my to read list for a while, but honestly, I wasn't entirely sure what it was about, I thought it was just a memoir about growing up Korean American, which it kind of is, but it is more focused on that through the lens of the author's mother dying of cancer. There's also a foodie aspect to it which I honestly felt was out of place. It just didn't consistently seem to be a thrust of the book and would pop up every so often, and then I would feel like, why am I reading about food? This is one of those memoirs where I feel like she either needed to focus on her growing up years more, because to me that was the most interesting part, or wait a few more years until she had more 'life' under her belt to make the second portion of the book weightier to balance the beginning. Just meh.
The Christie Affair - Nina de Gramont - historical fiction - four stars - This was more of a three and a half that was rounded up to four. In 1925, after her husband tells her he wants a divorce, Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. The disappearance was never fully explained, and this book is the author's imagining of the circumstances and what occurred. It's a fascinating premise for the book, I liked the idea of it, although there was a secondary plot line that was revealed about halfway through that I thought just seemed too convenient, took away from the story of Christie herself. Also, I'll say that I just wasn't crazy about the characters, they weren't wholly unlikeable, but they were somewhat annoying and just didn't really have you rooting for them. So great concept, poor execution.
Peach Blossom Spring - Melissa Fu - historical fiction - five stars - I really loved this one. I tend to do a fair amount of reading about Asia, in particular China, but what I really loved about this book is that the characters fled China for Taiwan during the Communist takeover. Most of the stories/memoirs I've read are about folks who stayed on the mainland. This was so interesting because of the piece on Taiwan, which is especially interesting to me because my father's family also had to flee the mainland for Taiwan (although he was considerably younger than Renshu when he left). I've been to Taiwan to visit relatives (although years ago now), and it's a very modern place, but this describes the land early on when it was still quite rural and not at all urban. This tracks with stories my mom has told me about when she first arrived in Taiwan. Anyway, the book tells the story of Meilin and Renshu. Renshu's father dies during WWII, and then they must flee their home in Changsha to escape the Japanese. This becomes a journey which never seems to end as they are constantly on the move. After the war they move again, but eventually they must leave the country. Meilin is a true heroine who works to provide for Renshu, and who entertains him with traditional stories and folk tales. Eventually Renshu leaves Meilin to study in the US. He falls in love and ends up staying there, raising a daughter Lily who struggles to understand her father. I loved the characters, their strength, their determination, such a good read.
The Homewreckers - Mary Kay Andrews - fiction - four stars - I was looking for a light, easy read and Mary Kay Andrews fits the bill perfectly. This latest book is about Hattie Kavanaugh who flips houses in Savannah. She's gotten into a bind on a house and lost a lot of money, and out of desperation signs on to a show for HPTV. The show is just supposed to be about her and her foreman and best friend Cass rescuing houses in Savannah, but the HPTV brass decide they want to add a hunky designer into the mix. During demo, the crew discovers the wallet of a woman who went missing years ago. Between that and some unexplained occurrences at the job site, there's a lot going on and a very tight timeline for finishing up the show. I enjoyed the book, it was easy and fun, and I liked the characters, but it's not my favorite from Andrews. It felt like it needed a more detail/fleshing out. The bones of the story are there, it just felt a little fragmented.
Elektra - Jennifer Saint - fiction - five stars - I love retellings of mythological stories. This is Saint's second book, her first, Ariadne, was also excellent. Elektra centers around three women, two are fairly minor (Elektra and Cassandra) and I really didn't recall their stories. The third, Clytemnestra, also the mother of Elektra I definitely had heard of, but didn't really remember the details. Clytemnestra is the wife of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, husband of Helen of Troy before she ran off with Paris. Agamemnon and Menelaus are part of the cursed royal family in Mycenae, there's a lot of killing within the family, and Clytemnestra hopes that their generation can break the curse. Turns out they can't, and the tragedy of this family unfolds alongside the tragedy of the Trojan War. I love how Saint really breathed life into these secondary characters from mythology. Highly recommend.
I'm all backed up with my library holds. It's hard when they all come in at once! I just started Lessons in Chemistry which I am loving, after that Daughter of the Moon Goddess and An Unlasting Home waiting in the wings. Please share what you have been reading!
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