You know those books that have such great characters that they crawl into your heart and settle there? The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline is one of them. Spanning years and distance and set against the backdrop of British colonization, it tells the stories of three women on the receiving end of that brutality.Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna are memorable for their stories, … [Read more...]
‘Midnight Library’ and the Power of Regrets
Do you ever think about where you’d be if you did that ONE thing differently? If you, say, changed your major to match your passions, rather than your expectations? Or if you’d taken that leap of faith and moved to that far off city where you knew no one? The possibilities for how your life could have unfolded are endless, and it's hard not to think about them, sometimes. … [Read more...]
‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Infuses Freshness Into the Familiar
Let me start off by saying I really enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. My last few books have been duds so I was nervous about continuing my “losing streak”, but this one hit the spot. On its face, the story is tried-and-true: girl meets boy, boy has secrets, girl seeks truth and surprises abound; but Dave infuses freshness into it by going in an unexpected … [Read more...]
‘The Leavers’: Immigration, Identity, and Family
In the fifth grade, Deming’s mother disappeared. An undocumented Chinese immigrant, she went to work one day and never came home. It’s easy for us, the readers, to speculate about what happened, but for Deming, the disappearance was as shocking as it was nonsensical. Soon, he was adopted by a white family in another city and taken away from the only home he knew. These events … [Read more...]
‘The Immortalists’: Balancing Life, Death, and the In-Between
What would you do if you knew the date of your death? Would you live life recklessly, knowing your actions would not have consequences because your future was set? Or would you live more cautiously, trying to create order out of chaos because you felt a lack of control? Or, does knowing result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, rather than the fulfillment of a destiny? These are … [Read more...]