Recommended Reading

Recommended reading from Gilt Taste: "When Being a Vegetarian Gets in the Way of Family"

by Allegra Ben-Amotz

Revelry Review: The Murderer's Daughters

I read The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers based on Jenna's recommendation. Without wanting to give too much away, I will say that Merry and Lulu's lives are touched by an immense tragedy: their father goes to prison for killing their mother. That's not a spoiler. It's on the cover and happens within the first twenty pages of the novel.

The rest of the novel is about the next thirty years of the girls' life, exploring the ways in which the Merry and Lulu, as well as the people around them, are affected by what happened with their parents. We watch them grow up while living with terrible memories and scars. Their father's presence, and lack thereof, looms over the rest of the novel like a giant shadow.

Unlike Jenna, I didn't think that this was one of the best books I ever read. What is was, however, was a great beach read. A great book to snuggle into bed with at night. A great break from heavy non-fiction reads. I didn't want to put it down so that I could find out what happened to the girls. I would recommend it if you are looking for something lighter to read that is more than just fluffy chick lit.

What I've Been Reading Lately

-Save Your Recipes Before It's Too Late, a moving essay by Monica Bhide in Bon Appetit about the importance of food, tradition and family.

-This Washington Post article on vegan eats in Philadelphia. Road trip, anyone?

-This NPR books review of An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorjan, which is a poignant and beautifully written memoir about the author's grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, that committed suicide together in the early 90's. I was going to write a review of it here, but I think the review captures it perfectly. It's a very small book that packs a big punch.

-A review by Kathy Freston on Crazy Sexy Life of one of the most important books I've read, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I especially love the last paragraph of the review. I've said it before, but if you haven't read this one, you must.

Revelry Review: The Weight of Heaven

South Asian Author Challenge: Book 4/5

When I first read the synopsis of The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar, I have to admit I wasn't all that excited. I had heard she writes beautiful fiction about Indians and Indian culture, but a book about two Americans who go to live in India? I was skeptical at best.

Turns out Umrigar can do it all. The story opens after Frank amd Ellie's young son has passed away. Their fragile state and complex emotions have been slowly eating away at their marriage. Then Frank accepts a job offer to go run an American company in rural India and they both see this as a chance to start over. While Ellie falls in love with the country and the locals, Frank's job continues to provide obstacles and frustration as the workers complain about low wages and the townspeople become enraged that the company is taking their trees for its own profit. Frank spends his free time with the son of their housekeepers, Ramesh, who fills the hole that the loss of their son left. However, it isn't long before Ramesh's own parents are unhappy that Frank and Ellie are treating him like their own child.

The plot has several twists and turns (with a final sucker punch of an ending). The reader is led into a world that is driven by misunderstandings, both cultural and personal. Overall, this is a beautiful novel with complex and dynamic characters who will linger in your mind long after you've read the last page. I can't wait to get my hands on Umrigar's other works.

Revelry Review: Room

When you are a book addict like me, it is not often that you come across something completely unlike anything else you've ever read. Room by Emma Donoghue is such a book.

I've seen many reviews of this book. Not only has it appeared in the fall book preview section of nearly every magazine I read, it has also been written up in the New York Times and The Washington Post, not to mention just about every other national paper. Donoghue herself has been interviewed all over the web, including here and here. Needless to say, the hype surrounding this book left me a little wary. Could it really live up to the expectations I had?

Yes, yes it could.

This is the story of "Ma" and her son, Jack. They are both being held hostage by their captor in a small room. In fact, Jack, who celebrates his 5th birthday in the beginning of the novel and whose voice is used to tell this story, was born there and considers it his home. With a small skylight as their only window to the area that Jack simply calls "Outside", they have created their own world inside "Room". Jack sleeps in "Wardrobe" at night, in case a man known only as Old Nick comes. His Ma goes to great pain to give Jack what she can given her circumstances, but little by little the reader is exposed to just how small their world really is. Without giving much away, their lives suddenly expand beyond the confines of "Room" and they are forced to leave familiarity behind and deal with "Outside" head on.

I admit it took me awhile (at least 40 pages) to adjust to reading a book that is narrated by a five year old who has only ever interacted with his mother in a tiny room. In fact, I nearly stopped reading. However, Jack's voice is this novel's genius. Even given that this sort of crime has appeared more and more in the news in recent years, I had never even considered many of the psychological and child development issues of people who have experienced what Jack and Ma have. The mental scars of their experience linger long after they have become physically free.

Audrey Niffeneger, the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, said, "Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence to horror and horror into innocence. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." I couldn't agree more.

Fall Book Preview

One of my favorite things about fall is that the book industry seems to pump out all of its big, juicy reads just in time for purchasing for the holidays (or, in my case, pre-ordering every last one of them!) Here is a preview of some of the books coming out between now and December that I am oh-so-very-much looking forward to:

Room by Emma Donoghue. This one actually comes out today and yes, it has already been delivered to my Kindle. This novel was seemingly inspired by the Josef Fritzl case, where he kept his daughter locked up in their home. A summary of the Amazon.com review: Jack, a 5 year old boy, has lived his entire life in a single room with his mother, visited only a nighttime by a man known as Old Nick. It is the only world he has known, but it is a prison for his mother. When their world suddenly becomes larger than the four walls they are used to, the consequences are "piercing and extraordinary".

I am very excited not only for this one to be released (October 12th) because also I will be hearing Nicole Krauss talk about her new novel, The Great House, at 6th and I Synagogue on October 18th. I adored The History of Love so I have been anxiously awaiting her next book. From the Amazon.com review: "The novel consists of four stories divided among eight chapters,
all touching on themes of loss and recovery, and anchored to a massive writing desk that resurfaces among numerous households, much to the bewilderment and existential tension of those in its orbit, among them a lovely American novelist clinging to the memory of a poet who has mysteriously vanished in Chile, an old man in Israel facing the imminent death of his wife of 51 tears and an esteemed antiques dealer tracking down the things stolen from his father by the Nazis."

David Sedaris writing animal-themed stories. Need I say more? Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary is due out on September 28th.

The Poets Laureate Anthology is the first anthology to gather the works of all 43 poets laureate. I will be attending a reading from this book that will include Billy Collins and Kay Ryan on October 6th. The English major dork in me has been overjoyed since I first heard about this book and the event!

You didn't think I would forget to include some cookbooks, did you?? Baked Explorations, the sister cookbook to Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito's first cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, is headed to a bookstore near you on October. Both cookbooks provide new takes on classic desserts. I loved the first one-what's not to love about a root beer bundt cake and black forrest cookies??--so I am hoping that this one will prove to be equally as delicious.

Appetite for Reduction: 100 Fast and Filling Lowfat Recipes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is due out in early December. Every recipe she writes has turned out to be utterly delicious, so my kitchen and I are awaiting this one's release.

I love Colleen. I love her podcasts. I love her outlook. I hope I also love her new cookbook, Color Me Vegan, which is also due out in December.

Revelry Review: Cutting for Stone

South Asian Author Challenge, Book 3/5: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Sister Mary Joseph Praise is traveling from her homeland in India to Ethiopia when she meets Dr. Thomas Stone. They end up working in the same hospital for several years. One day, when she doesn't show up for work, her colleagues find that she has been concealing the fact that she is pregnant with twins.

One of the twins, Marion, narrates the novel. The first half tells the story of Sister Mary Joseph Praise and the second half picks up with what happens to the boys after their birth during a time of a coup in Ethiopia, living with adoptive parents and Marion's decision to move to the United States. This sweeping novel touches on just about every topic one could imagine: birth, death, love, rules, politics, medicine, family, responsibility, etc. The characters are some of the best developed that I have ever encountered. I wish, however, that there had been slightly less medical jargon/scenes (the author is a MD in real life), because I started to get caught up in trying to understand it and, in the process, got diverted from the pace and beauty of the novel's prose.

At nearly 700 pages, it is a long novel and a big time commitment. However, it is one that is worthy of the dedication to finishing it.

Revelry Review: Every Last One

This past weekend I finished reading Every Last One by Anna Quindlen. I loved two of her previous books, One True Thing and Black and Blue, so I decided to give this one a go too. What I had forgotten in the many years since I read those other two is that Ms. Quindlen is a master of making you feel the terrible emotions that people go through when they experience a tragedy.

I can't say too much without giving away the heart of this book, but here is a brief summary: Mary Beth Latham is married and has three children. The first half of the book weaves an intricate portrait of the ins and outs of their family life. It is pretty ordinary. Then something absolutely horrible happens. I was pretty blindsided because I had purposely stayed away from reviews of this book so that I wouldn't know what it was. Simply put, there is a Before and an After for Mary Beth and the rest of the book follows her as she attempts to give meaning to the After.

I cried. And then I cried some more. If you've read Isabel Allende's Paula or Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and liked them, then you might also like this portrait of grief and loss.

Revelry Review: Secret Daughter

South Asian Author Challenge, Book 2/5: Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This novel tells the story Kavita, a woman from a small village in rural India who is forced by her husband to surrender her newborn daughter to an orphanage. In their culture, sons are prized and daughters are seen as simply another mouth to feed and dowry to pay. At the same time, Somer and Kris, a childless couple in California, are seeking a way to finally become a family. They decide to look at adopting and go to an orphanage in India that Kris' parents recommend. These two stories become weaved together in a novel that spans approximately 25 years.

I loved this book. It's a touching and beautiful portrayal of what it means to be family. It deals with ideas of love, loss, roots, culture clashes and a sense of belonging to a place. The characters were all well-developed and I identified in some way with every single one of them. I loved that a novel that begins with a story about how little girls are seen as worthless morphs into a novel about what it means to be a woman and all of the roles that woman may take on over a lifetime regardless of where they are in the world.

You can also read this op/ed by the author on the 100 Million Lost Girls of India.

Revelry Review: One Amazing Thing

South Asian Author Challenge, Book 1/5: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

This is the story of random strangers trapped in the Indian consulate in an unnamed city in the U.S after an earthquake. As the conditions worsen (lack of food, air, electricity, etc.), the strangers each take turns telling their stories, their "one amazing thing" that proves that life is a gift, to each other in case they do not make it out alive. This novel requires some suspension of belief, as the characters spend more time telling their stories than trying to escape. However, in the wake of tragedies like those that happened this year in Haiti and Chile, it raises both hard questions and good points about the miracle of simply being alive.

I confess that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of my all-time favorite writers. She was a gateway drug of sorts for me into what became an all-out obsession with South Asian writers. Her prose can be heartbreakingly beautiful. However, I don't recommend that you start with this one if you want to give her a try. Check out The Mistress of Spices or Sister of My Heart. While One Amazing Thing was not my favorite of her books, so far she hasn't failed me yet!

Reading Challenge.

I am so excited to be participating in the South Asian Author Challenge that is being hosted by S. Krishna's Books! Back in college I was an English major. I signed up for a Gender and Literature course, not knowing it was themed: Gender Issues in Postcolonial Literature. I am fairly certain that course--the professor, the other students, the literature we read--profoundly changed me. It was heavily focused on India, since that is where the professor is from, but we touched on other areas. It was like traveling the world without the expensive plane ticket. I discovered the lush, beautiful prose of South Asian writers and could not get enough. Now some of my favorite writers include Salman Rushdie, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth, Vikram Chandra, Arundhati Roy, etc. I've pledged to read five books written by South Asian authors by the end of the year. I am sure I will far exceed those five, but I wanted to make sure I met my pledge. I will blog about what I read here. Interested in joining the challenge? It's not too late! Follow the link or click on the image above!

Summer Reading List

I read, on average, 80 books a year. So far for 2010 I'm at 31--slightly behind due to grad school. I thought it would be fun to share some of the books I plan to read this summer.

What's on your summer reading list?

1. The Girls by Lori Lansens --I'm cheating with this one because I just finished it. It was a little long in a few places but I found this fictional autobiography of two twin sisters attached at the head to be fascinating, heartbreaking and hopeful, all at the same time.

2. The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch--Just downloaded this to my Kindle. I read her previous one and while it was definitely chick lit-ish, that's exactly what I need in my post-grad school brain melt.

3. After You by Julie Buxbaum--Same as above!

4. I Thought It Was Just Me, But It Isn't: Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy and Power by Brene Brown--I've heard so many people rave about this book! From Kelly Rae Roberts to Stephanie's Heart Piercing Life, they all seem to like it! Brene studies authenticity, belonging, shame, compassion, courage and connection. You can check out Brene Brown's blog here, as well as a video from a recent talk here.

5. The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters by Sarah Susanka--I first heard about her when she appeared on a Tranquility Du Jour podcast. Her message seems to dovetail nicely with what I am seeking for myself. Can't wait to read this book!

6. Women, Food and God by Geenen Roth--I read one of her first books and loved it. Then a part of her latest book appeared in the Oprah magazine and now it seems that everyone is reading Geneen! I feel like this book could really help me in my relationship to food and my body.

7. Columbine by David Cullen--What happened at Columbine was one of the defining moments of my generation. While I know this will be a difficult book to read, I think it's important for me to understand what happened and why and to try to make sense of it all.

8. A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman by Lisa Shannon--This was recommended to me on Amazon since I read (and LOVED!) Half the Sky, so I thought I would check it out.

9. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker--I saw this once upon a time in the Oprah magazine, which always has great book recommendations, so I picked it up in anticipation of post-graduation free time.

10. God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation by Joseph Sebarenzi--Something that you may or may not know about me is that I am obsessed with stories of memory, truth and reconciliation from post-conflict or post-tragedy, particularly state-sponsored, moments in history. Learning about the Holocaust sparked my interest in learning more about the dirty wars in South America, which led to the civil wars in Central America and then to what happened in Rwanda. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend starting with We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch.

11. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin--I can't remember how this book came recommended to me, but it is about Pakistan and I love books about other countries and cultures, so I picked it up.

12. Too Much Happiness: Stories by Alice Munro--I also love short stories (thank you, English major background!). I love their form, their brevity, how much they convey in such few pages, they way that they are often only a snapshot of a longer story.

13. Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China by Philip P. Pan--I have a graduate degree in International Affairs and know very little about one of the world's great powers. This is my attempt to start to rectify that.

14. Worse than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen--See above. Strangely obsessed with this sort of thing.

15. The Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin--I loved her earlier chick lit books, so I thought this would be a good one for pool or beach reading.

{Photo credit: moriza}