Book Report
Mar. 18th, 2015 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisJust wanted to thank anyone who’s ever read and/or commented on my book reports. I can’t say why, but I really enjoy writing them and posting them here. You’d think I’d get into posting on Good Reads, but for whatever reason, I like this better.
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger – This is a novel taking place in modern times, and I listened to it on audio. The story centers around Amina, who is from Bangladesh and who becomes basically a modern-day mail-order bride when she meets an American man through a dating site that pairs Westerners with Easterners. If it hadn’t been an audio book, I don’t think I’d have stuck with it – it really starts to sag in the last third of the book, and the ending just kind of peters out. The voice actor was great though. Grade: D+
An Intimate Life: Sex, Love, and My Journey as a Surrogate Partner by Cheryl T Cohen Greene with Lorna Garano – As the subtitle suggests, this is a memoir by a woman who works as a surrogate partner (AKA sex surrogate). I really liked her book. She balanced it nicely between telling us about herself and her work, how she came to it, what she does. Grade: B
Adam by Ariel Schrag – This novel takes place in modern times, and features a teenaged, straight male protagonist who goes to spend a summer with his lesbian sister in New York, falls in with his sister’s LGBT crowd, and faces a dilemma. I really loved the title character and the woman he falls for. I also LOL-ed a few times. So the book was a success in my eyes. Grade: B
A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley – Before I write anything about this book, I have to mention a post I did recently - http://stormkpr.livejournal.com/580085.html - in which I write about several works of non-fiction that I’d read that have either have since had their accuracy questioned or even where the authors themselves have recanted part of their stories. So I was skeptical when I began reading “A Long Way Home”, knowing that it’s possible that this was a fabrication. In this memoir, Brierley tells us he was born in India to a very impoverished mother, he had three siblings, and they often begged or stole food while their mother was off working. Despite their hardships, the family is very close and they love each other. One day, when Brierley was about five years old, he and his older brother set out for a train station, and then something happened. Brierley eventually falls asleep, when he wakes up his brother is not there, he becomes confused and disoriented, he somehow boards another train and then can’t get off, and he eventually travels all over the place on various trains – in a frantic attempt to get back to the place he started – until he is totally lost, with no money and with not even being sure of the name of the town where he’s from. He ends up in Calcutta, finds his way to an orphanage, and when his family cannot be found, he is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, he decides to use every resource he can lay his lands on, including Google Earth, to find his hometown and his birth family. I don’t know if Brierley’s story is true or not. He does provide several pictures of himself as a child at the orphanage and pictures of his travel documents. Putting all of that aside, his story was absolutely riveting and moving. I cried a few times. A year from now, maybe I will hear that it was faked but if it’s true – wow. Grade: A-
The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings – A novel taking place in modern times, staring a woman who is trying to deal with the loss of her only child. She soon uncovers some surprising revelations about her deceased son. The author did a nice job of combining a swiftly moving plot with realistic characters. Although I didn’t like the main character at all, that’s not a requirement for me to enjoy a novel. A good book, but one I’ll likely forget in a few months. Grade: C+
<B>Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish</B>:
Every month, there are plenty of books that I begin and decide not to finish. I write up this section only if such a book is notable to me, in one way or another. So, here’s one:
On Gold Mountain by Lisa See – The author is a best-selling novelist, but this is a work of non-fiction, describing her family’s history, starting from when her great-grandfather left China for the US in the 19th century. I’ve always had an interest in the people of China and their histories, and I like See’s novels. I can’t figure out why she made this book so boring. I actually read more than 200 pages, and it started out well enough. But it got too bogged down in details and it moved too slowly for me to care enough to finish. I’m almost kind of upset that this book wasn’t better and that I got so far into it, but I just couldn’t force myself to go on with it (a sure sign that it’s time to quit!).
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger – This is a novel taking place in modern times, and I listened to it on audio. The story centers around Amina, who is from Bangladesh and who becomes basically a modern-day mail-order bride when she meets an American man through a dating site that pairs Westerners with Easterners. If it hadn’t been an audio book, I don’t think I’d have stuck with it – it really starts to sag in the last third of the book, and the ending just kind of peters out. The voice actor was great though. Grade: D+
An Intimate Life: Sex, Love, and My Journey as a Surrogate Partner by Cheryl T Cohen Greene with Lorna Garano – As the subtitle suggests, this is a memoir by a woman who works as a surrogate partner (AKA sex surrogate). I really liked her book. She balanced it nicely between telling us about herself and her work, how she came to it, what she does. Grade: B
Adam by Ariel Schrag – This novel takes place in modern times, and features a teenaged, straight male protagonist who goes to spend a summer with his lesbian sister in New York, falls in with his sister’s LGBT crowd, and faces a dilemma. I really loved the title character and the woman he falls for. I also LOL-ed a few times. So the book was a success in my eyes. Grade: B
A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley – Before I write anything about this book, I have to mention a post I did recently - http://stormkpr.livejournal.com/580085.html - in which I write about several works of non-fiction that I’d read that have either have since had their accuracy questioned or even where the authors themselves have recanted part of their stories. So I was skeptical when I began reading “A Long Way Home”, knowing that it’s possible that this was a fabrication. In this memoir, Brierley tells us he was born in India to a very impoverished mother, he had three siblings, and they often begged or stole food while their mother was off working. Despite their hardships, the family is very close and they love each other. One day, when Brierley was about five years old, he and his older brother set out for a train station, and then something happened. Brierley eventually falls asleep, when he wakes up his brother is not there, he becomes confused and disoriented, he somehow boards another train and then can’t get off, and he eventually travels all over the place on various trains – in a frantic attempt to get back to the place he started – until he is totally lost, with no money and with not even being sure of the name of the town where he’s from. He ends up in Calcutta, finds his way to an orphanage, and when his family cannot be found, he is eventually adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, he decides to use every resource he can lay his lands on, including Google Earth, to find his hometown and his birth family. I don’t know if Brierley’s story is true or not. He does provide several pictures of himself as a child at the orphanage and pictures of his travel documents. Putting all of that aside, his story was absolutely riveting and moving. I cried a few times. A year from now, maybe I will hear that it was faked but if it’s true – wow. Grade: A-
The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings – A novel taking place in modern times, staring a woman who is trying to deal with the loss of her only child. She soon uncovers some surprising revelations about her deceased son. The author did a nice job of combining a swiftly moving plot with realistic characters. Although I didn’t like the main character at all, that’s not a requirement for me to enjoy a novel. A good book, but one I’ll likely forget in a few months. Grade: C+
<B>Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish</B>:
Every month, there are plenty of books that I begin and decide not to finish. I write up this section only if such a book is notable to me, in one way or another. So, here’s one:
On Gold Mountain by Lisa See – The author is a best-selling novelist, but this is a work of non-fiction, describing her family’s history, starting from when her great-grandfather left China for the US in the 19th century. I’ve always had an interest in the people of China and their histories, and I like See’s novels. I can’t figure out why she made this book so boring. I actually read more than 200 pages, and it started out well enough. But it got too bogged down in details and it moved too slowly for me to care enough to finish. I’m almost kind of upset that this book wasn’t better and that I got so far into it, but I just couldn’t force myself to go on with it (a sure sign that it’s time to quit!).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-03-18 08:40 pm (UTC)Interesting about the surrogate partner book! That sounds like something I'd enjoy.
A Long Way Home sounds amazing! Wow! Like you said, sometimes it turns out that these stories are fabrications, but if not... wow.
Thanks for sharing these, I really do enjoy reading them!
no subject
Date: 2015-03-18 11:45 pm (UTC)You'd be a great surrogate partner, I think.
Yes, truly "A Long Way Home" was amazing. I was in tears by page 4.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 03:44 am (UTC)Anyway.
Memoir writing is tricky. I've tried it before, and it's frustrating as hell. So I kinda sympathize with the tendency to either make up stuff or pick and choose pieces from your personal history that you feel like sharing or embellishing--yeah, we call that fiction. There's a whole market for it. There are parts of my own surreal fantasy-horror stories that are autobiographical (not the parts you might expect, but parts nonetheless) but trying to pass the thing off as a "memoir" based on that is FARCICAL. Not to mention intellectually and artistically dishonest.
I share your pain, is what I'm saying.
Still! An amazing story is an amazing story, and sometimes that's all you need.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 10:48 am (UTC)I agree; memoir writing is hard. I've read so many, and they ranged from excellent to 'i put the book down at page 25 and never looked back'.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-19 01:32 pm (UTC)