Review: In My Father’s Country by Saima Wahab

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jenn

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Crown (April 24, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0307884945
  • Source: Publisher

Saima Wahab was just three years old when her father was arrested by the KGB at their home in Kabul, Afghanistan.  This was the last time she would ever see him, this action just the start of Saima’s painful early memories. Caught in the middle of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, Saima’s mother was forced to raise Saima and her five siblings on her own.

When Saima was fifteen it was decided that Saima should go live with an uncles in Portland, OR so that she may receive an education.  Despite having to learn a completely new language Saima was able to graduate high school in just three years. While her education seemed to flourish,  Saima found it difficult to blend into the American culture. She also found it near impossible to blend her Afghan roots and culture with her new life in America.  This caused a great deal of turmoil for her emotionally.

Her hopes and prayers were answered in 2004 when she received a phone call, offering her a job as a translator to assist the troops stationed in Afghanistan.  In a sense her life had come full-circle, returning to the land of her birth, her role to enhance communications with U.S. forces and the local people.

Saima’s journey, from her departure from Afghanistan as a teen to her return as an adult, is truly a remarkable one. As citizens of the United States, the only view we get of this country is what the news stations decide to share with us. We often only get to see the dark and devastating aspects of a war-torn nation. We don’t get to drill down to the grass roots level and see what beauty does exist among on the turmoil.

Saima’s story opened up my eyes to a whole new world, a whole new Afghanistan. I am forever thankful for this glimpse at a nation I admit to being ignorant about. Additionally, the risks she took in order to fulfill her mission were quite high, there were many times she didn’t know whether or not she would come back alive. Saima’s story, her struggles, are empowering.  This, by far, is one of the most memorable memoirs I have ever read, Saima’s strength and dedication proving that so much is possible when one individual has a passion so great that it triumphs adversity. Highly, highly recommended.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to review this book. Please check out the other stops in this tour on the tour web page.

 

Posted in Crown Books, Memoir, Review | 6 Comments

Review: I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jenn

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Hogarth (May 8, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0307984737
  • Source: Publisher

In Transylvania in 1939, Josef is just five years old when he witnesses the murder of his family at the hands of the Romanian Iron Guard. He is rescued by a maid who raises him as her own son. Just five years later he rescues Mila, whose family is also murdered. Mila is taken to the home of Zalman Stern, a leader in the Satmar community. Mila is raised as Stern’s daughter, a sister to his daughter, Atara.  Despite the two girls being raised together, they are divided by Mila’s intense loyalty to her faith and Atara’s need discover a world of knowledge forbidden to her as a female.

The family is moved to Paris after Communism begins to take hold in their home country. Satmar is desperate for his daughters to continue a life in faith, ignoring the beliefs of the city around them. Mila continues her path with faith, marrying a man who abides by the strict fundamentalist doctrine. Despite Stern’s attempts to keep Atara on the path her faith has decided for her, she continues to ignore the strict guidelines her faith has bestowed upon her and continues to bury herself in a world of books and forbidden knowledge. To do so, she makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her family. Her desire to be an educated woman outweighs the bonds of family.

The girls are reunited years later. Mila, unable to get pregnant, does the unthinkable and steps outside the bounds of her faith in order to conceive. Her decision, if every discovered, will force her, her daughter, and her daughter’s children to be shunned from the community, forced to become outcasts.

I Am Forbidden at its core, is a heartbreaking story of faith and the power of family. The experience that Markovits had in her youth, raised by Hasidic Jewish parents, adds to the believability and reality of Atara and Mila’s fate. She broke ties with her own family in order to avoid an arranged marriage, attending college and seeking an education herself. It’s not difficult to see bits of her own life in that of Atara’s, a girl so desperate to be given the same access to education as of boys of her faith.

This novel is a truly compelling one. Despite having little knowledge of this faith, I was drawn in within a few pages, obsessed with what happened to these two young girls. While there was a great deal of pain and devastation in the girls’ lives, there is also certainly an element of hope and exhilaration that shines through the darkness.

While the first portion of the novel is a bit confusing due to my unfamiliarity with the religion and its customs, the rest of the novel is a truly beautiful piece of work. I was so moved by the characters, the intensity of my devotion to them continued to grow as their lives progressed. Despite sounding cliche, they truly did become a part of me, I find myself forgetting they are fictional characters.  The way Markovits develops them as individuals, their growth so profound, I find myself viewing them as living, breathing women.

Markovits gives her readers the gift of a glimpse inside such a private and contained religious group. It opened my eyes to a culture that I’ve heard of, but never really knew much about. This book has moved me like none other and has inspired me to learn more about this culture. Highly, highly recommended.

Hogarth is a newly formed Random House imprint. If this book is any indication of the types of books this imprint plans on publishing, I cannot wait to read what else they have in store.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Please be sure to check out the official tour page to learn more about the author as well as visit the other stops in this tour.

Posted in Hogarth, Literary Fiction, Review | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Review: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jenn

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (May 15, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0062130803
  • Source: Publisher

Set in the near future, terrorists have unleashed a deadly virus known as Maternal Death Syndrome (MDS ) affecting pregnant women, preventing their bodies from reacting to and fighting viral agents their body’s defenses would normally be able to combat. This virus kills the pregnant woman long before she is able to deliver, essentially causing the victim’s brain to deteriorate. Once scientists discover that everyone has been contaminated with the virus the future of humankind is indefinite. They begin implanting young girls with a form of birth control in attempt to eliminate any possibility of pregnancy.

Jessie Lamb is a sixteen year old girl, the daughter of a scientist attempting to find a cure for MDS. As many are at that age, she’s flirting with activism and joins a young group of her friends whose mission is to strike out against actions that are causing the world as they know it to deteriorate. She refuses to ride in a car or use public transportation, convinced that society’s footprints on the planet are aiding in the slow but eminent decline of the world. Her friends begin to join more radical activism groups: her best friend joins a feminist group while the object of her affection joins an animal rights faction. All groups are inspired to action when scientists reveal a program in which young girls are encouraged to turn their bodies over to science, to carry babies to term, knowing they will not survive. Once implanted, the embryos can be vaccinated against the virus but unfortunately no cure is available for those already infected. Volunteers need to be under the age of 16 1/2; the success rate drops dramatically for those individuals over this age. Jessie sees this new discovery as a means to make her voice heard, despite her parents pleas that she reconsider.

Told from Jessie’s narrative, a young girl who is just beginning to realize her own individuality and place in the world, the author is able to confront many issues already forefront in our society including the age of legal consent, the rights one has to make choices about one’s own body, animal testing, and more. Jessie is forced to deal with a reality so harsh that many youth her age would be unable to contemplate.  It is no shocker that this book has been long-listed for the Booker prize; it’s filled to the brim with discussion-worthy topics. My only desire would be to see the story from the point of view of other characters within the book, for since the reader is only allowed Jessie’s side of the story it seemed a bit limiting. Having more views of this harsh reality could have developed the story more, for I couldn’t help wanting to know more about the fate of this society.

Bottom line: The Testament of Jessie Lamb is a book that left me reeling, truly examining the way we as society view the individual’s right to choose. This is a book certain to make book club lists this summer and fall, full of topics to be discussed. Highly recommended.

 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Please be sure to check out the official tour page for other stops in the tour.

Posted in Dystopian fiction, Harper Perennial, Review | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Zombie Mondays: The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Jenn

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 21, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0446564656
  • Source: Personal Copy

Two-thirds of humankind have been infected with ataxic neurodegenerative satiety deficiency syndrome (ANSD), the virus that causes individuals to lose all evidence of humanity, lurch when they walk, and crave human flesh. Dr. Stanley Blum is a neurodevelopmental biologist, researcher and zombie expert for the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). Infected with the virus himself, he volunteers to travel to an island controlled by the United Nations, Bassas da India, to autopsy “living” zombies in an attempt to isolate the pathogen causing the virus. The Zombie Autopsies, in a journal format, is Blum’s detailed studies of the cause of ANSD, including the symptoms, rate of growth, etc. His entries are supplemented with clinical drawings by another doctor infected with this horrible virus:

Rather than fill the novel with yet another zombie attack storyline, Schlozman instead provides a detailed, scientific examination of the zombie virus. Since the doctors performing these living autopsies are uncertain as to who will discover the journals after they have died,  while they are written with great scientific detail they can be understood by the average reader. The terrifying thing is that the author describes such a well-researched explanation of the cause of this virus that readers will become convinced that such an attack is possible. Kudos to Schlozman, a doctor himself, for granting zombie enthusiasts yet another unique book to add to their collection. Anyone who calls themselves a die-hard zombie enthusiast can’t afford to pass this one up! Highly recommended.

Note: many of the drawings are pretty graphic. The one pictured above is actually the tamest of them all. While the text itself is not overly gory, the drawings may not be suited for all audiences.

Posted in Grand Central Publishing, Horror, Review | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week?

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Jenn

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week. It is hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson (audio)
So Far Away by Meg Mitchell Moore (review)
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman (review)
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
The Haunted by Bentley Little (review)

Currently Reading

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits
I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (audio)

Books to Complete This Week


In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab
Hill Country by R. Thomas Brown 

 

What are you reading this week?

Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 11 Comments

TSS: Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Jenn

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there! Happy Sunday to everyone else!  I’m enjoying a nice breakfast in bed as we speak, thanks to my lovely husband & children.  Not sure how the rest of the day will play out but this is a good way to start!

I spent this week planning for BEA (Book Expo America), including planning my schedule, etc. Are you going to be in BEA? I’d love to meet up with you, whether it be over coffee, lunch, etc.  If you are going to BEA Blogger Con I’ll be on a panel on “Demystifying the Blogger/Publisher Relationship” so feel free to come up and introduce yourself! If you have any questions about this topic I’d love to hear them as well!

I had yet another fantastic reading week. Here’s just a quick recap:

Hoping everyone has a great Sunday!!

Posted in The Sunday Salon | 7 Comments

Review: Overseas by Beatriz Williams

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Jenn

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Putnam Adult (May 10, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0399157646
  • Source: Publisher (via Netgalley)

Kate Wilson is a twenty-something Wall Street analyst, trying to make a name for herself. At an important client meeting, she’s banished to her cubicle, expected to sit around should the rest of her team find a need for her.  It is while she’s sulking at her desk that she runs into Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor, the handsome British billionaire Julian Laurence.  Never been one to attract the attention of the opposite sex and without a serious love interest since college, Kate is shocked at how interested Julian is in her.

The two embark upon a whirlwind romance. Julian doesn’t attempt to disguise his feelings for Kate, but he’s definitely holding something back. Eventually all is revealed: Kate & Julian’s love affair actually started almost a century ago in World War I France when a mysterious women saves the life of Captain Julian Laurence Ashford. For some reason, their love has truly triumphed through time,  Kate arriving on the Western Front just in time to save WWI Julian Laurence from death.  Can Kate accept all of this unbelievable news and truly succumb to the love of her life? Or is all of this too much for her?

Overseas  is the perfect summer weekend read! Put a hold on your life, cancel all your appointments for once you start this one you won’t be able to stop.  Not a typical fan of romance myself, I couldn’t help but find myself swept away in this escapist read!  When this book was compared to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, I couldn’t resist!

Given the fact that this is a novel involving time traveling, the reader must of course suspend belief while reading this novel. There isn’t a great deal about Julian & Kate’s journey through time that can be believed and accepted.  Williams didn’t intend for readers to examine the probability or possibility of time travel, but instead lose themselves in the love story between Kate and Julian, a love story that stands the test of time.

Overseas is a book that truly took me away to another place and time, a novel that I’ve found myself recommending to anyone who will listen. Kate and Julian have a classic love that you don’t see a lot anymore in fiction, a romance so deep time and distance can’t stop it. This is saying a lot coming from a reader who typically doesn’t enjoy romance, but I found myself wanting to know more about Kate and Julian, about their life together. I’m hoping Williams intends on writing more about this couple, for now I want more! Highly, Highly recommended.

 

Posted in General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Putnam, Review, Romance | 2 Comments

Frightful Friday: The Haunted by Bentley Little

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Jenn

Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week.

This week’s featured book is The Haunted by Bentley Little:

  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Signet; 1st edition (April 3, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0451236378
  • Source: Personal copy

The Perry family (Julian & Claire, and their children Megan and James) were living in a neighborhood that had taken a dramatic turn for the worse in recent years. It was full of teenagers on skateboards, disobeying their requests to stop skating on their driveway.  They were fairly well off, financially; Julian worked from home designing web sites and Claire was a lawyer. Plus, their youngest, James was miserable at his current school. A move seemed to be just what this family needed.

The find a home in their town’s historic district. It seems to have everything the want: a gorgeous wrap around porch, a large living space, space for an office for Julian to work from. However, something about the basement, a small damp dark room, puts the family on edge. When things start happening around the house, including items being moved, strange shapes appearing in foggy mirrors, the Perry’s begin to wonder if the decision to buy the house was the right one.  But it’s the night of their open house that sends the Perry’s over the edge; soon their neighbors reveal the horrid past revolving around their house. The body of a homeless man was found in the basement. To their utter disbelief, this is just the beginning of a history of tragic events surrounding the house. Horrific incidents centuries ago have tainted the land, the house itself. Even the neighbors are at risk and they eventually refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Perry’s…or their haunted house.

Despite a few bumps with some of his more recent books, Little is a truly talented writer of horror. In The Haunted he’s back to his old self again, relaying a truly chilling classic ghost story. Unlike other horror novels of this type, Little provides a well-developed back story that flows naturally into the main storyline. Seasoned fans of Little’s writing will notice a few hints of novels past pop up throughout this novel, some more obvious than others.  The highest compliment I can pay this author is that is books are among the few that can actually send a chill down my spine.  If you are looking for a classic haunted house story, The Haunted is the book for you! Highly recommended.

Warning: language, scenes of a graphic sexual nature

Posted in Frightful Friday, Horror, Review, Signet | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Going to BEA/BEA Blogger Convention? Let’s Meet Up!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jenn

It’s less than a month away: the event book bloggers, authors, & publishers all look forward to! Book Expo America!

One of the most important things about BEA is not the free galleys but the networking!  I’ve made some great friendships & working relationships with people I met at BEA.  Last year, I started doing things a bit different, I planned my meetings with publicists/publishers before scheduling the other activities (author signings, etc.)  Hopefully this way I can maximize the amount of time I have available.

In the four years I’ve been blogging, I’ve discovered these meetings, this individual time with publicists, is invaluable.  I’ve been able to meet people I’ve only conversed with via email, nurtured relationships formed at previous conferences, and really formulated a “strategic plan” as far as my blog goes.

If you plan on attending BEA Blogger Con on Monday June 4th, I’ll be on a panel entitled Demystifying the Book Blogger & Publisher Relationship. Feel free to come up to me and say hello. I’m nice, I promise!

I’ll be in NY for BEA June 3-8th.  Will you be there? Want to meet up?  Either fill out the form below or email me at jennsbookshelfATgmailDOTcom!

Posted in Bookish Chatter | 3 Comments

Review: The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jenn

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Unbridled Books (May 1, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 1609530799
  • Source: Publisher

Gavin Sasaki is a young journalist working in New York City. The economic decline has an adverse effect on the print publishing industry and in an attempt to save his career, Gavin begins “embellishing” some of his stories. Soon, his dishonesty is discovered and he’s terminated. After he’s maxed out his last credit card and his landlord evicts him from his apartment, Gavin is forced to return to his hometown of Sebastian, FL. His sister, Eilo, a real estate broker who specializes in foreclosure homes, offers him a job and a roof over his head.

Eilo tells Sebastian that while visiting a foreclosed home, she spots a girl who looks remarkably like him. They both assume the little girl is his; a decade prior his high school girlfriend, Anna, disappeared without a trace. There were rumors that she was pregnant and this evidence, a picture Eilo took of the little girl, seems to be solid proof. When asked, the woman watching the young girl confirmed that she shared the same last name with Anna.

Gavin, who always wanted to be a private investigator, begins his own investigation into the identity of this little girl. Unfortunately, all these years Anna has been on the run from a drug dealer from whom she stole a large sum of money. Queries into her location make Anna fear for her life, assuming the queries are coming from the man who is hunting her.

In The Lola Quartet, Mandel provides perhaps the richest line up of characters to date. The focus is on a group of former high school friends, each dealing with their own experiences with loss, struggling with their identities and who they want to be. Paramount is the notion that small actions, like taking a photograph of a young girl at a foreclosed home, can result in unlikely consequences. She portrays the story of this group of high school friends (the Lola Quartet) through a series of flashbacks.  Each character is tremendously flawed, stealing money, doing drugs, gambling. These details add to the credibility of each character. That, and Mandel’s spot-on examination of the demise of the housing industry, make the storyline of this novel completely believable and compelling. Additionally, the fact that it is nearly impossible to categorize this book into just one genre guarantees that it is one that will be appreciated by a wider audience of readers. Call it a thriller, an examination of the human condition, or as I refer to it, a tremendous example of fine American fiction. Highly recommended.

Posted in General Fiction, Review, Unbridled Books | Tagged , , | 3 Comments