We Came Here to Shine

Title:  We came Here to Shine

Author:  Susie Orman Schnall

Publication Information:  St. Martin's Griffin. 2020. 384 pages.

ISBN:  125016978X / 978-1250169785

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Amid dark clouds and steady rain, hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic visitors turned out to watch as President Roosevelt officially opened the 1939 World's Fair yesterday with a rousing speech promoting 'peace and good-will among all nations.'"

Favorite Quote:  "Chance encounters - seeming coincidences of place and time - were fickle. Sometimes such encounters embodied a chemistry and mind of their own, resulting in relationships the were momentous. And sometimes those encounters had as much energy as a speck of inconsequential dust, meant to be overlooked and immediately forgotten."

"... two modern girls, toiling away at the fair for the summer, planting the seeds of our ambition that will bloom into the career of our dreams." Two different approaches to this same goal:

• "It seems like your biggest problem ... is that you sometimes criticize your inner voice instead of listening to it and letting it guide you to what you really want out of life."
• "It seems like your biggest problem is that you don't want to play by the rules as they exist in your industry or possibly even in life in general. you want to break them all and get to the top before you turn twenty-five."

Vivi and Max are working at the World's Fair much against either of their wills. Vivi is an actress in Hollywood contracted with a studio, and the studio sends her back to New York on loan to be the star of the Aquacade show at the fair. Max is a New York University journalism student whose dream is to work at The New York Times but whose assigned summer internship lands her at Today at the Fair, a daily publication with the daily schedules and articles at the fair.

The background of the World's Fair is fascinating, particularly given the timing. The 1930s was the time of the Depression in the Unites States and the rise of Hitler in Europe. Part of the objective of creating the fair was to give New York an economic and social boost. The fair opened on the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration. This book, however, is not the story of the Depression or the politics or the war.

This is the story of two women and a story behind the scenes at the fair. Vivi is sent to New York to replace an injured actress as Aquabelle Number One in Billy Rose's Aquacade, a music and dance show of over 500 swimmers performed several times a day. Max is assigned to work at the daily fair paper and, because of a manager who does not believe in female journalists, relegated to the task of assembling the daily schedule rather than write actual articles.

A chance meeting introduces the two women to each other and leads to a friendship. The two agree to help each other. "How about I help you become more of a bull in a china shop and you help me stop breaking all the dishes?" Surrounding the two main characters are other strong women - Ruby, Marianne, and Maria - who play their own role in the sisterhood. Surrounding them are the men of the story, some of whom are supportive and some depict the beliefs of the male dominated society at the time. As expected, there are romances, but fortunately the focus remains on the women not the relationships.

The story goes beyond the career choices of these women to include family and one particularly melodramatic plot line. The book makes several references to the historical basis for the author's earlier book The Subway Girls. The time period of that book is considerably longer than this one, but both are the stories of women and the search for independence, equality, and a voice. This story does not introduce anything really unexpected but at the same time does not wrap up the ending into a neat "lived happily ever" package either. I like the ending for it feels real and a stepping point into the next step of life for these women. Overall, a light, quick, and entertaining read.

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The Dragons, The Giant, the Women

Title:  The Dragons, The Giant, the Women:  A Memoir

Author:  Wayétu Moore

Publication Information:  Graywolf Press. 2020. 272 pages.

ISBN:  1644450313 / 978-1644450314

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Mam."

Favorite Quote:  "I think, as women of color, especially women of color who come from some means, any means really, we tend to play down the unpleasant things we've experienced. To bury them ... Perfection or the desire for it, it becomes a mask ... a uniform. But there is something underneath. What's underneath makes us real."

Wayétu Moore was born in Liberia. She grew up in Spring, Texas. She studied in California, New York, and Washington, DC. She currently lives in Brooklyn. Her debut novel drew upon Liberian history and mythology. This book explores the same but through the lens of her own life.

The memoir seemingly comprises of three parts. The first is from the perspective of five year old Wayétu. Uprisings and war has broken out in Liberia. She, her sisters, and her father flee to a remote village. Her mother lives in America, although it is not clarified at this time how or why. The second section jumps forward to Wayétu as an adult in the United States. This segment traverses through time and tells of the US immigrant experience, particularly as a person of color. It also presents the challenges she faces in coming to terms with her own childhood and the scars of war. The third part unexpectedly jumps to the story of Wayétu's mother, how she came to be in the US, and what she went through to bring her family out of Liberia. In some ways, this section goes back to the beginning of the book and tells the other side of the story. The memoir is clearly not linear. It is a more literary description of an experience.

The first part is by far my favorite section. It depicts a child's innocence and the courage of the adults around her who manage not just to keep the family safe but also to maintain some semblance of a childhood. The incorporation of an almost fairly tale of the dragon, the giant who is her father, and the women - her mother and the women of the village - encapsulates the horrors of war. This section also introduces me to the history of Liberia, one of my main reasons for choosing to read this book. This part of the world and this history is one with which I am unfamiliar, and this book provides the introduction to learn more.

The second part introduces the experiences of immigration and of racism:

• "Barely one year in and our new country let us know, every day, that we were different."
• "I could be beautiful in a place and still not enough, not because of who I was or anything I had done, but because of something as simple, and somehow as grand in this new place, as the color of my skin."

The section seems somewhat scattered as it captures the struggle of an adult coming to terms with her own history, the traumas of childhood, and the reality of her adopted home. It is not easy to read, but, in its very telling, captures the emotion of being adrift and trying to determine where you belong.

The third section is surprising because the story completely shifts to her mother's. "When I tell them the story, I tell them that the only thing that made me stay was wanting my daughters to know that they could go after anything they wanted, that they could fly too." Her mother's story is essential for context and to complete the history. However, at that point, does this book shift from memoir to something else? Is this truly her mother's story of her mother's story as Wayétu herself understands it? Perhaps, the telling of it is essential to her coming to terms with the past. Perhaps, I will not understand, and that is okay.

A history I did not know and a story that once again documents the strength and resilience of individuals makes for a powerful read.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Around the Sun

Title:  Around the Sun

Author:  Eric Michael Bovim

Publication Information:  Epigraph Publishing. 2020. 288 pages.

ISBN:  1951937384 / 978-1951937386

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "It was a quiet line that stretched across the threshold from the airbridge into the fuselage world, business travelers, mainly, eyes fixed into screens and sipping away their liters of glacial water, an idling American engine."

Favorite Quote:  "We are never where we are. It was something she said whenever she saw me on the phone making dinner or reading an email if we were already in a conversation, when my attention was subdivided amount apps and browsers and inboxes and people."

Mark White is a thirty-some year old successful entrepreneur. He has a wife and a son. He flies around the world on business trips. "This was my fifth business trip in two months. If I was not on the phone I was in a meeting and if I was not in a meeting or on the phone I was on a business trip. Whatever was left I called home." In other words, he takes a lot for granted and creates priorities around what he does not take for granted. His love for his family is real, but the choices he makes do not always reflect that love.

The premise of the book is that in the midst of this success, Mark White's wife dies suddenly in an accident. The story of the book is about how Mark copes (or doesn't cope) with his grief and what changes come about in his life as a result of his wife's death. Some of the changes are the result of the staggering grief, and some of the changes are the result of choices and new priorities.

The ending of this book and the redemption found is not really a surprise. I wish the book had perhaps gone somewhere different. This book is more about the journey through the grief to get there. It's the "how" we change in the face of such dire circumstances.

The premise of the book is heart breaking. Unfortunately, I find the telling of the story pull away from that heartbreak for a couple of reasons. First, much time, particularly at the beginning of the book, is spent on Mark's business relationships and deals. While interesting, these details do not go toward the main idea of the book. They emphasize the reasons for this success, delineate his priorities, and accentuate his fall from that success but do not speak to the personal grief that he is going through.

The second reason is the writing style with its very wordy descriptions makes this seem almost as a stream of consciousness expression so focused on the details that the main idea seems to get lost:

• "A waiter brought menus and waters with less and it seemed utterly ridiculous that, only an hour ago, we'd been trying to beat back a media wildfire for twenty-first-century tech scions, and now we were commiserating beneath color lithographs of nineteenth-century locomotives and wall sconces mounted on elk tusks."
• "I felt the plane rolling back from the gate; I pushed the LAND button and he came upright and I told him to look outside and watch the man in the neon vest motioning the great vessel backwards and left, and then we heard the engines flush, a low grade hum in the cabin, and I buckled his seatbelt and they played the CEO video, again I watched Athens, London, Vienna, unreal, and he was scissoring his legs in his seat, eating cashews and sucking the soda off the ice cubes, and I looked at the cover of El Pais and began sounding out common expressions in my head so that I could impress him with my sapling Spanish when we landed in Barcelona, where they spoke Catalan."

Whew! I am tired after these long descriptions that cover so much ground in very, very long sentences. I find myself need to take a break, reread, and readjust to where the story is. The bigger point is lost in the middle of all those words. Perhaps, that hyper-focus on details is a manifestation of grief and a need for grounding in facts. Unfortunately, it makes for challenging reading.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook

Title:  Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook

Author:  Urvashi Pitre

Publication Information:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2020. 256 pages.

ISBN:  0358379334 / 978-0358379331

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "I have been cooking with pressure cookers for over thirty-five years."

Favorite Quote:  "Make each recipe once as written and then feel to experiment."

Instant Pot Miracle Vegetarian Cookbook is the latest cookbook offering from Dr. Urvashi Pitre. She is the recipe creator for a popular blog. Her background is in experimental psychology. Her cooking style pulls upon the fact that she lost 80 pounds on a low carb, keto diet that also restricted calories.

Her recipes sometimes focus on keto ingredients and sometimes highlight the tools such as a pressure cooker or an air fryer. As the title of this book indicates, this one focuses on vegetarian cooking in an instant pot.

The introduction provides the following qualifications:

• "There are no pseudo meats or meat substitutes." I appreciate that as I am not a fan of pseudo meats. 
• "Tofu is only used in three recipes where you would traditionally find it."
• "I use whole, unprocessed ingredients as much as possible." I appreciate this as well.

So far, I am completely on board. The book includes about a 100 recipes, some of which may be found on her blog. That becomes a question of economics. I, for one, love cookbooks and browsing cookings. So, I make the investment realizing that the recipes may be available elsewhere.

The introduction also indicates the target audience for the book with assurance that the recipes are simple enough for a fourteen-year-old and the stipulation that the reader may not be familiar with the ingredients or cuisines featured in the book. I am not fourteen and am quite familiar with cooking dishes from around the world. More and more, cooking is global with ingredients becoming readily available. So, that characterization sets a tone and target audience for the book.

The book is organized into sections

• Vegetables
• Lentils, beans, and legumes
• Rice and grains
• Eggs and cheese (so clearly vegetarian not vegan)
• Desserts and Drinks
• Sauces & spice mixes

It's interesting to see the main section of a vegetarian cookbook be vegetables. What else would it be? I expected perhaps an organizations around meals or main dishes versus accompaniments. For example, the recipe for braised cabbage pasta follows one for sweet-and-spicy glazed brussel sprouts. I would see one as a main dish and one perhaps as a side. That distinction would increase the usability of the book. The recipes themselves and a listing at the back provide information on categorizations such as egg-free, nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, low carb, cooking time, and number of ingredients. The book also indicates an index which is not present in the version of the book I have. The table of contents and the lists in the electronic version of the book that I have are also not hyperlinked which would improve usage (but that could be just an issue with the advance reader's version).

The individual recipes are mostly formatted to fit on a single page which makes for easier use. They are also clearly laid out as to categorization, servings, pressure cooker settings, ingredient lists, and instructions. Given Dr. Ptire's background, I do expect to see nutritional information which is not provided.

The color pictures are appetizing, and the individual recipes tried work.  I look forward to trying more, but I do find it amusing the the book specifically points out, "... if a recipe doesn't work for you, it's unlikely to be the recipe and more likely to be be something that you could do differently." Interesting approach again setting a tone and a target audience!

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Paris Hours

Title:  The Paris Hours

Author:  Alex George

Publication Information:  Flatiron Books. 2020. 272 pages.

ISBN:  125030718X / 978-1250307187

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "The Armenian works by the light of a single candle."

Favorite Quote:  "'Never underestimate your memories, monsieur,' she tells him. 'They can be ferocious if left unguarded.'"

One day in 1927 in the city of Paris. One day. Four lives. Some connected. Some not. Some tangentially connected. Some connected in ways not revealed until the very end. Camille is a wife and a mother who hides a life altering secret. Jean-Paul mourns a wife and a child. Guillaume needs escape. Souren is a refugee who cannot outrun the images of his past.

The book traverses between their four stories through the course of one day, a day with a dramatic conclusion. This book is more like reading four interconnected novellas. The fact that there are four stories introduces a lot of characters. The fact that the book goes jumps from one to the other chapter to chapter at times makes the book very challenging to follow especially since some the characters do connect. 

The individual characters and their tales are engaging. Two are particularly heartbreaking. The jumps from character to character draw me away from the emotion of any given story.

Camille's story is the base as she is depicted as the maid of Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust had a real maid named Céleste Albaret, who was known to be completely and absolutely devoted to him. The history goes that upon her employer's request, she burned all of his notebooks documenting his unpublished works. Camille's story in this book picks up on the idea of what might have happened if not all the notebooks were burned. However, the story is not that of a found literary gem but rather Camille's fear that the notebook reveals her story. The author's note does clearly state that this book is pure fiction based on just that kernel of an idea.

The book does, however, use a number of historical figures - Marcel Proust, Josephine Baker, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. However, the book in no way claims or purports to be historical fiction. As such, the use of the historical figures as integral characters in the story appear more name dropping than anything else. At times, it leaves me wondering why this story about "ordinary" people brings in the big names.

The dramatic ending to the book does bring all the stories to the same point at the same time. However, not all the stories reach a conclusion. One story introduces a tragic element that is not brought out previously. Two of the stories connect in a dramatic way, but the connection is left hanging at the end.

So, I wanted to love this book. However, it uses historical figures but is not historical fiction. It tells intermingled stories that do not completely connect and come together. I am not sure I quite understand. My favorite thought of the book is perhaps the start of the author's note. "One of the joys of writing [in my case, reading] novels is all the travel. Not actual travel, mind you, but the journeys you get to take in your imagination." That is an idea I whole heartedly agree with. Unfortunately, I wish the path of this book and story had been clearer.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The New Husband

Title:  The New Husband

Author:  DJ Palmer

Publication Information:  St. Martin's Press. 2020. 384 pages.

ISBN:  1250107490 / 978-1250107497

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "It was a chilly predawn morning when Anthony Strauss eased Sweet Caroline, his seventeen-foot Boston Whaler, from the trailer into water so dark it was indistinguishable from the sky."

Favorite Quote:  "Judging others is easy. It makes us feel superior. But it doesn't help women like Allison, or my father, or my mother, or me, or anyone who is 'different.' It hurts. So what to do? It's simple. Don't rush to judgment. Have humility. Show empathy. Ask: what can I do to help?"

Let me begin at the ending. I loved the ending. If you choose to read this book, make sure that you do not skip the epilogue. Not only does it being the story all together, it also spells out whose story this is. It also highlights the lesson of the book. I find myself reading throughout the book thinking about how certain characters do not see what seems so obvious to me. The ending makes it clear that this is somewhat the point of the book. Sometimes, the emotional and mental place we find ourselves in can prevent us from seeing what is in front of us.

Nina Garrity is the wife. Her husband Greg goes on a fishing trip one day and disappears. Nina discovers that there is much she does not know about her husband. Eventually, she presumes that he is dead. Her son Connor follows her belief. Her daughter Maggie though firmly believes that her father will return.

Then, there is Simon. Simon is there when Nina needs a friend. He seems to know her, some days even better than Greg did. He takes care of her and offers much more than comfort. To stay in town when Nina's finances cannot support it, they buy a house together. They do not marry, but Simon is de facto the new husband. Connor sees Simon as a friend, but Maggie does not. Nina tries to be the bridge, holding everything together.

This book is not a mystery in that it is clear who the villain of the book is. Early on, it is also made clear what happens to Greg. The "thriller" aspect of the book evolves as the reader sees exactly how far the villain will go to attain his goal. Truly, though, this book is about the angst and the seeming contradictions of being in a abusive relationship.

Nina is a social worker. After Greg's disappearance, she is easily able to get back into a paying job in the industry. She knows the language, implications, and legalities of situations of abuse. She is a fierce mother, on the one hand calling out her children's behavior and on the other seeking to protect them. Yet, at the same time, she cannot seeing the controlling, manipulative behaviors in Simon. She does not question how Simon appears to know her every like and dislike.

It takes me a while to figure out that this book is really Maggie's story much more so than it is Nina's although it is told from both perspectives. Maggie is a teenager, who has had her own issues with bullies in school. Given the age of the character, the book does at times have a young adult feel which belies both the title and the cover of the book. Her dislike and distrust of Simon are also never completely explained. Why is she the only one? Why does her one friend believe her but not her mother or for the most part her older brother?

If I trust the explanation of the epilogue, I believe it. If I don't, then I wonder. Thankfully, I have neither the knowledge or experience to assess. So, in the interest of a good read, I choose to follow the logic of the epilogue.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Sin Eater

Title:  Sin Eater

Author:  Megan Campisi

Publication Information:  Atria Books. 2020. 304 pages.

ISBN:  1982124105 / 978-1982124106

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Salt for pride."

Favorite Quote:  "There's a certain comfort in rules. You know if you're good or if you're bad. And even if you're bad, you know where you fit. You belong. But I don't want other folks' rules to say if I belong anymore. I want to say for myself."

"The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard

Sins of our flesh become sins of Hers

Following Her to the grave, unseen, unheard

The Sin Eater Walks Among Us."

The history of sin eaters can be found in different cultures around the world, in particular amongst the Welsh counties in England. Some historians have gone as far as to say that the concept is embedded in Christian culture as Jesus Christ offered his own life for the sins of humanity. However, I am here to talk about a  story not discuss religious beliefs.

The concept of a sin eater in Welsh culture was that of a woman who ate certain ritual foods upon the funeral of an individual. Each sin was represented by a specific food. The foods found upon a coffin revealed secrets that individual may have held during life. The actual sin eater was a pariah and shunned by society although she was the first to be called upon an impending death for a recitation of sins and then upon the death for the ritual eating.

This book centers on fourteen year old Meg, who receives the sentence of being a sin eater for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread. (Les Miserables is brought to mind by that crime!) The plot entangles Meg into royal intrigue with influential people conniving and plotting for political gain.

The book makes a myriad of comments on sins and sinners which provides food for thought:

• "It's always women who eat sins, since it was Eve who first ate a sin:  the Forbidden Fruit."
• "I understand why sin eaters were made. Carrying such feelings is too much for one little heart, too much for one body. There must be some hope of shedding regret, grief, sorrow, sloughing them off like a skin and going into death free and light. Else we'd never be able to live."
• "With how you came into the world and what you've seen lately you should know, the more you live, the more the sinner and the saint can't be pulled apart. All of us just getting by."
• "Don't I know by now that folks see their sins in the way they choose? There's always a reason as to why selfishness is not really selfish and crimes are honest and waiting safely by while somefolk else is killed is really the more courageous choice. I've always had an answer for why I'm a godly girl despite my sins."

The mystery of what is happening in the royal household keeps the book moving at a fast pace. The conclusion, when it comes, seems logical. What the conclusion turns out to be is not a surprise. The surprise is the who.

What makes this story and keeps me turning pages until the end is the character of May herself - a fourteen year old who is on her own relegated to a fate out of her control. Yet, she manages with courage and resilience, and that makes for an engaging fictional heroine. In the midst of the sadness that surrounds her, she manages to also find a family in her own way. The concept and the fact of this oddity of history is the most fascinating aspect of the book. As Atlas Obscura calls it, being a sin eater was "the worst freelance gig in history."

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.