The Ravenous Reader's Thoughts

Review: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

“Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild’s ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.”

I am seeing a trend in Fredrik Backman‘s books. In a ‘A Man Called Ove’, Ove is at first disliked by most of his neighbors being a grumpy old man but as the story progresses, he becomes well loved by everyone because he is able to significantly help their lives one way or another.

The same is true for My Grandmother Asked You to Tell Me She’s Sorry. Except in this book, Granny’s heroism not only in her grandchild’s life but in many other lives as well is realized by her almost eight year old overly precocious grandchild, Elsa, after granny passed away. As Elsa embarks on the quest assigned to her by Granny before she died, Elsa learns that every person living in their apartment building has been significantly helped by Granny.

It’s certainly a creative, inclusive, heartwarming, and touching story that will make you laugh and cry a little too. It has a complete cast of characters, from a little girl to an ancient but hip granny, to a beast of a dog, to a super tall monster who is afraid of germs, and the rest of the neighbors and Elsa’s family. It’s a story about dysfunctional families, mental health, trauma, grief, and loss, mother-daughter relationships and how you can never really know why a person behaves a certain way unless you learned about their stories.

It was only a bit confusing and a little challenging to follow the plot sometimes because of the multitude of characters both in the real world and the Land-of-Almost-Awake but the messages resonated with me just the same and I think Mr. Backman wrote another clever and endearing novel in this book. I look forward to reading Britt Marie was Here.

Review: Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

This is what I like about Kara Thomas‘s books. They’re just so easy to read, I could fly through the pages in just a matter of a few hours. It’s like she purposely makes all her characters just a little bit flawed so you wouldn’t want to fully trust them or feel particularly close to them. Instead, she pulls your attention toward the basic mystery of the missing girl.

Little Monsters therefore is your standard whodunnit thriller, it’s intriguing and engaging, without having to dispense much emotions for the characters. That’s what I call easy reading and boy, do we need plenty of those.

So even though most of the author’s books are just a three and a half star read for me, just like this one, because the revelations and ending are quite underwhelming, she would definitely remain my go-to author for quick YA thrillers.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

It was nostalgic reading this book. I felt like I was transported back to my college days when my professor would require us to read a classic novel and I would oblige begrudgingly not knowing that I would end up appreciating the novel. Nobody required me to read The Good Earth though but it was strongly recommended by a newfound friend and I wanted to challenge my reads so I decided to go for it.

The book was written like a tale, and as most tales, it is a moral story and has a very universal appeal. Much of the events are highly symbolic. It wouldn’t matter what your race is, I think anyone who reads this will be able to relate with the characters, their beginnings, their small and huge achievements, acquiring land they never dared dream of, their struggles, and eventually of their end and how much of Wang Lung and O-lan‘s life revolved around their much coveted land, ‘the good earth.’

The book also touched a lot of issues like gender inequality, oppression, slavery, most of which have been suffered and experienced by O-lan who is a figure of great strength and resilience even till her death and I couldn’t help but appreciate the lives of the many women who suffered a great deal when women didn’t have much rights. O-lan is mostly the reason why I liked the book and why I decided to persevere despite the writing even though beautifully descriptive and also hilarious at certain places…

“And what will we do with a pretty woman? We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields, and will a pretty woman do these things? She will be forever thinking about clothes to go with her face!”

“Now will you be so polite as to fall on your face like this before the Old Mistress?”

…is also a little verbose and bordering into apathetic. I also felt really bad that Wang Lung’s emotional capacity has degraded over the years. I thought from their vast experience, he would have learned to really love O-lan. So sad. The author is trying to make it real though, I understand that.

But overall, I would still see this book as a literary masterpiece reminiscent of two of my favorite classics, ‘The Pearl’ by John Steinbeck and the short story, ‘Wedding Dance’ written by Amador Daguio, a Filipino author.

Review: Scythe by Neil Shusterman

This is very entertaining. I didn’t realize I missed reading dystopian slash utopian types of books until I picked up Scythe. The world building is very interesting. It’s the 2040s and there is no longer natural death, there is no poverty, no crimes, no government, no accidents which therefore leads to this end result-scythes are required to glean the lives of people in order to sustain population balance. And in the midst of this so called scythedom, two teenagers, Citra and Rowan (who remind me just a little of Katniss and Peeta, *winks*) are chosen to be apprentices to compete against each other to become a scythe, except only one of them could be victorious and the victor will have to glean the life of the loser.

There’s plenty of humor throughout the book even though the story is generally morbid.

“Oh, go glean yourself,” Lol.

I especially liked the scythes’ journal entries especially those of Hon. Curie’s. I think those journal entries are what made the entire book more appealing and more substantial. Also, the plot twists are quite surprising and exciting too.

And as with most dystopian-utopian stories, plenty of philosophies about life, death, morality and the likes come to play at the center of the plot which makes the story even more riveting. Of course, this is not to say that the book is free from flaws and absurdities, there are plenty of those but they are just the right amount to convince me to still employ suspension of disbelief.

Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

*Please forgive the lengthy review. Got carried away.^^*

A delightful, sensational read but also surprisingly touching that by the last quarter of the book, I’ve become a blubbering mess. This is a very enjoyable, entertaining, educative, eye-opening and emotional historical fiction.

Vivian, now an old lady, writes to Angela to explain what her relationship was to Angela’s father and so she starts with the very beginning, with her exploits as a 19-year old girl who was then only interested about fashion and more trivial things that she abandoned her college education and went to New York to stay with her Aunt Peg who owns Lily Playhouse.

Vivian’s self-deprecating humor and honesty make her a very entertaining narrator. Her passion and exceptional talent in sewing and tailoring as well as her extraordinary eye for beauty are magnets to the reader’s aesthetics sensibilities. The narrative is so easy to read. There are 450 + pages but I couldn’t allow myself to miss a single word. In fact, even though Vivian is already elaborating about her sexual conquests, they don’t feel raunchy at all, they’re actually comically irreverent.

Beauty, show girls, fashion, glamour, style, comical musical stage plays, the art of dressmaking and building costumes- these are what make up the first half of the plot and I am not in the slightest bit a fashionable person but even I was enamored at everything that I was reading.

Perhaps it’s because of Vivian’s uniquely dynamic development as a character which took an absolute 360-degree turn but it’s also specifically because of the historical backdrop of the plot which is New York from 1940 till 2010. Not only did I get to see Vivian impressively mature and grow through the years, but I was also able to picture New York City in its post-world war years, including its crucial as well as formative period, even the notable and eventful “flower-power” years through Vivian’s eyes and it honestly was an incredible reading experience.

Written with exquisite attention to detail and elaborate research, the novel developed into a larger than life story filled with so much heart, humor, and honesty and graced with characters so flawed and yet so real, laced with a philosophical reminder that people are made up of both good things and bad, that we go through awful life circumstances whether they’re self-inflicted or not but those are not the things that define us. They’re not what indicate the inherent goodness in a person and as Vivian finally reaches an all-encompassing acceptance of the flawed nature of human beings, she learns to accept herself and starts to realize that she doesn’t have to be a good girl to be a good person and a loyal friend, she’s pretty much the perfect symbol of New York itself.

Without a doubt, City of Girls, is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney

I was initially bothered by the lack of quotes. I could imagine the author looking all smug, acting like she’s beyond such silly grammatical indicators when she deliberately decided not to use them. But as the story pushes through, I got used to it and soon learned the meaning of an obviously conscious writing choice. Because this book is all about defying or contradicting norm considering nothing about this book is normal.

It’s a huge irony, that’s what this book is beginning with the title itself. Connell and Marianne are definitely not normal people, far from it really and that’s why even though I often felt frustrated over their “breakups” because of a simple miscommunication, I still felt for them and understood them. Because for them, nothing is ever that simple or normal. It’s honestly depressing and yet I just couldn’t stop reading.

Normal People isn’t your standard romance. This is highly philosophical and quite literary too. The writing is bold and unflinching, like it seems to say that life is what it is, people usually become messed up because of their crappy upbringing and that’s that. Lucky if they could still find that one person who will completely understand and love them for who they are. And yet, the meaning still resonates in my heart and I was quite affected. I felt really bad for Marianne, her negative view of herself because of her awful experience with her family.

The ending is believable. It makes you want to believe different possibilities for Marianne and Connell and at the rate they’re going, what happens to them is very unpredictable but it gives room for hope.

This review comes with a warning though. Several sensitive issues and topics were touched in the novel so please read with caution.

Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

“If you will forgive me for being personal- I do not like your face, Mr. Ratchett”

I’m feeling pretty proud of myself because finally, I have read an Agatha Christie novel. I feel like I’ve earned a membership in a secret elite book club or something. But it’s not really only after a self fulfilling purpose that I am now putting this book on its rightful pedestal because this is certainly a very clever, witty, twisty, unexpected, and enjoyable detective story and Ms. Christie truly deserved to earn that Queen of Mystery title.

The mystery was like solving an intricate puzzle not very different from those old mind games I used to play when I was younger. Like that hangman mystery. A man committed suicide and there is a pool of water underneath him…and so on, just please Google it. They make you really think and like Mr. Boug, at some point my head did ache a little but it was all worth it. In the end, it was a complete surprise. I hadn’t any clue of that possibility.

Review: Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

I’m still forcing foreign lumps back in my throat after reading Turtles All the Way Down. It feels like an epiphanic moment for me to finally figure out why Mr. Green used that title and damn, I’m still sniffing thinking about it. Sure, The Fault In Our Stars made me cry eight years ago but back then that book felt like its very sole mission is to make me cry and honestly I resented that story a bit (or a lot to be truthful), that tragic twist in the end. Ugh!

But this book, it’s so genuine and relatable and emotional, and just a fair warning to readers, it could trigger so many emotions possibly including anxiety so please do read it with caution.

“Well, everyone’s crazy these days, Dr. Singh. Adolescent sanity is so twentieth century.”

“It’s so weird, to know you’re crazy and not be able to do something about it, you know? It’s not like you believe yourself to be normal. You know there is a problem. But you can’t figure a way through to fixing it. Because you can’t be sure, you know? “

Nobody died (at least not amongst the major characters] but I find myself often tearing up quietly from time to time while reading the book. It’s a very beautifully written, honest story about what it really means to have anxiety that the word anxiety couldn’t even begin to really describe that particular condition that starts mentally and pushes its way out physically.

“But you give your thoughts too much power, Aza. Thoughts are only thoughts. They are not you. You do belong to yourself , even when your thoughts don’t.”

“You’re both the fire and the water that extinguishes it. You’re the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick. You’re the storyteller and the story told. You are somebody’s something, but you are also you.”

“Dr. Singh liked to say that an unwanted thought was like a car driving past you when you’re standing on the side of the road, and I told myself I didn’t have to get into that car, that my moment of choice was not whether to have the thought, but whether to be carried away by it.”

Of all John Green characters, Aza might yet by my favorite to date. She’s a believable, genuine character with plausible mental health concerns and I just want to encase her in a place of safety if there is such a thing so she wouldn’t spiral into those evil, nagging thoughts threatening her very life. But the story is also very honest and direct that this condition is “not uncommon” as Dr. Singh put it as a gentle reminder, and hopefully and encouragement that anyone who has anxiety or other mental health problems is never alone.

Review: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

I find the premise very interesting. Two little girls try to solve the mystery of their missing neighbor by finding God as they believe that if they find God, they will find the missing Mrs. Creasy as well and will eventually keep everyone in their small town safe. It’s set in the 1970s so it has that genuine historical feel to it.

I usually find a story about adults appealing when it’s told in the POV of a kid and the story is told alternately in third person POV and that of the 10 year old Grace as she sees the world and the people around her. I really enjoyed the writing. I find the pacing and the narrative very fluid that I offer little to no effort turning the pages.

There’s is this huge mystery hovering over the characters but it is not the secrecy that is really the highlight of the story. It’s about casting stones, how people are so quick to judge by appearances regardless of time and place. How people decide which ones are sheep and which ones are goats and how they take it upon themselves to cast the stone against those they deem goats.

“Why don’t people like him?”
I’m not sure. No one ever explains.”

It’s a very symbolic, literary read and it makes it even more significant and believable because of the time setting. That weed versus flower symbolism really got to me. And even though the story is sort of open ended, the conclusion really suits the story so well.

Review: The Truth Commission by Susan Juby

A creative, often funny but also very sad YA book about Normandy and her ‘Truth Commission’ project she took on with her friends to discover ‘truths’ from the people around them, mostly classmates, school authority figures and family, particularly Keira, Normandy’s popular sister who published bestselling graphic novels whose characters are ugly and exaggerated versions of her extremely average family.

The book is written like an academic paper, a creative non-fiction written by Normandy herself. The literary and writing devices used are clever but at times I felt like the main story was compromised because the author was more focused on the creative elements. My feelings for the footnotes as forewarned by Normandy are conflicted. At times I find them informative and hilarious, at times I find them tedious and annoying.

Still, I find the book a generally unique and thoughtful read. It managed to be light and dark at the same time as it delved into serious subject matters, especially awful dysfunctional families that seriously made my blood seethe. The story behind Kiera’s change of behavior is the huge mystery in the plot. I should have braced myself for the infuriating revelations of the truth which even though is awful, sad, and depressing did set Normandy free. Thank goodness for her friends who always support her.