Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng

Currently I am reading our book club book (Little Women) and re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a movie marathon last weekend of LOTR got me inspired to re-read them!). Given the bulk of books I'm in the middle of, I decided to review an older book this week. It is a favorite and I hope others will be inspired to read it.

Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng (5)

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read.  It is Nien Cheng’s memoir of her imprisonment and survival during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  She worked for Shell Oil and was educated in London, therefore became a target of the poor, uneducated revolutionaries.  What most surprised me of this story was how unorganized and haphazard the revolution was.  It makes sense, but is surprising nonetheless.  When Nien refuses to admit to trumped-up charges, they don’t know what to do with her.  Her stubbornness and strength of character got her through the ordeal.  She seemed to survive the prison more due to the incompetence of her captors than kindness or intentions.  When I first read this book, I discussed it with my friend, ZY, who was a child during this time in China.  He told me his college educated parents were sent to the country-side to work on farms for months at a time, leaving him and his sibling alone at home.  They were around 9 or 10 and their school was closed.  He said his parents would come home on a weekend and try to get food and supplier for them to survive the next month.  He also said his teenage kids had no idea what he and their grandparents had gone through.  I recommended they read this memoir to give them some idea of the time and circumstances.  I think everyone would benefit from reading this book!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen (3.5)

Firstly, I was looking forward to this book since Mr. Franzen openly said he did not want Oprah’s endorsement (applause for author’s assumed integrity).  He did end up capitulating and apologizing for his hubris, too bad he couldn’t stand up to the Big O.  Secondly, I read the New York Times book review – or should say I read the first paragraph several times trying to understand what the book was actually about!  I gave up, but decided to read the book if it crossed my path, which it did, thanks to Sarah.  Unfortunately, that all being said, I’m conflicted about my feelings for this book.  It’s a story that follows a family through about 20 years.  It’s told from the point of view of several of the main characters (family and friends).  There is plenty of love, hate, politics and business to keep you interested.  And while it definitely held my interest, I found it to be quite sad.  I guess reading about a bunch of good things happening to people is not as interesting as watching them trudge through adversity.  I won’t give it a (4) as I reserve that for books I want to re-read, but the writing was good and the story was compelling. I can understand why it has gotten good press, though I did not entirely ‘enjoy’ it.  Now I understand the issue with the NYT review!

The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

The Master Butchers Singing Club, Louise Erdrich (3.5)

Oddly, Ms Erdrich’s name and books (this one specifically) have come up twice in the last 3 weeks.  Odd, since I had never heard of her before this time.  Her writing is interesting and unique with colorful characters.  This story is of a German who fought in WWI who immigrates to the US and becomes a butcher in North Dakota.  It follows the family and characters of the town up and through WWII.  I enjoyed this book, though I had a little bit of a hard time with some of the cadence of the book.  A long time was spent on about 5 years timeframe, then the end (10-20 years) was rushed in a few pages.  I also found several personal issues were built up, but then rushed through, which was less satisfying as a reader.  I have since been told that her other books fill in some of this time, and I may have read this out of order.  I can appreciate that, though the book tries to stand on its own and I think it should (or come with a warningJ).  I did learn something from this book.  There was a section concerning German POWs at a prison camp in Minnesota.  I don’t remember hearing about POW camps on US soil!  According to Wikipedia: ‘In the United States, at the end of World War II there were 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war.  The camps were located all over the US but were mostly in the South because of the expense of heating the barracks.  Eventually, every state with the exception of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont had POW camps.’  This was quite shocking to me.  There were several in Wisconsin – including ‘Camp Sheboygan’ in the town where I went to grade school.  Maybe they did not teach this in my history classes??

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

So the blog is officially working with one of my goals – getting and sharing book ideas.  After reading the blog, this book was recommended to me by my neighbor and friend growing up in Crystal Lake (thanks Mrs. WJ).  I need to find a way to have a page for comments only, so that you all can post books you’d like to recommend to the group without being an ‘author’.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford (3.5)

This is a touching story set in Seattle that swings between WWII and present day.  It is a novel surrounded by real events, specifically the internment of Japanese Americans in the camps.  I liked that the story was told from the point of view of a Chinese American boy, who watched events happen to his friend with the unique perspective of an Asian child with immigrant parents who had their own enmity for the Japanese.  It also brings up other questions such as: why didn’t they intern the German Americans?  And could that happen today (Muslim Americans)?  For those book clubbers who just read ‘Gendarme’, there are several similarities, but this book was a more pleasant, uplifting read.

Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams

Implied Spaces, Walter Jon Williams (4)
This science fiction book is the most recent "singularity" book I have read. The Singularity genre usually assumes a world where it is possible to move your consiousness between computer simulation and the real world. After reading all of this genre I could find, this book was recommended from a Sci-Fi forum I had posted to. The novel starts in a low tech medevial world where we find out later the protaganist has entered a simulated universe to study "implied spaces", the part of simulated worlds that are not planned and therefore unexpected things can occur. This leads into an interesting mystery where an AI that has been corrupted works with a mysterious villian to bring war and unrest to a world where death has been essentially eliminated and most people can live out idyllic lives of their own choosing. This book has some new ideas for the genre and fit them into a very interesting plot. I would recommend this book to those who have already read the classic singularity books from authors like Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross, and Cory Doctorow.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage, Justin Cronin (4.5)

This book was recommended to me by a good friend whose opinion I greatly respect. That being said, when she mentioned ‘vampires’, I hesitated. It took another friend (with equally good taste) and a vacation week to coax me into picking it up. After reading this book, I will say my faith in both their opinions stand. ‘The Passage’ was indeed a dramatic page turner with all the elements (mystery, spiritualism, science and interesting characters) of a great story. I would put it in the genre of Steven King’s epic tome, ‘The Stand’. The vampires are a bit more like a botched experiment than relatives of Dracula and the plot is fast and interesting. My biggest complaint is that it is the first part of a trilogy and didn’t end satisfactorily on the last page. As I’m not known for my patience, it was an unhappy discovery to find I’ll have to wait many years for the conclusion. The author did say he has all 3 books outlined, so I guess I’ll just have faith :).

Money by Martin Amis

Money, Martin Amis (3.5)
There is no doubt this novel is clever. If you enjoy biting language and topics of excess (booze, food, sex, drugs, etc.), there is a good chance you will like this book. It is a barrage of excesses mainly happening to and by John Self, a director of tasteless commercials who has been asked to direct his first feature film. It’s also much like being a witness to a train wreck. While I appreciated the book (its twists and its message), I found the main character to be just past the point of believability. This was written in the 80’s and maybe a character like John Self was more realistic then. Oddly, it brings to mind the recent antics of Mr. Charlie Sheen; John Self also thought he was ‘winning’ as he spiraled through his life half aware of what was going on around him. I still haven’t decided how I feel about the writer writing himself into the novel as a character (a writer, Martin Amis, lives near John in London). At first it felt egotistical, but by the end I kind of liked it. Overall, I recommend this to my more adventurous reader friends as an interesting diversion – but not to the ones who may be offended by rough language and shady, unlikable characters.

Hitch-22: A Memoir

Hitch-22: A Memoir, Christopher Hitchens (3)
I don't read many memoirs, but was drawn to Christopher Hitchens' due to his broadly travelled life. The book is filled with stories about his famous literary friends and his travels experiencing political causes. Oddly, though he spoke at length about his mother and father, he wrote almost nothing about his brother, wives and children. Except for a few comments about how children change your views on various topics, all important parts of his life (per this book) were with friends. Perhaps I don't read carefully enough when paragraphs become wordy. I found certain passages where I would lose his point. I believe it is due to his writing style – he has a full vocabulary and is not always direct – though it could be my own impatience. He has some interesting thoughts on Judaism, Cuba and Iraq (pre Saddam and post Saddam). I don’t necessarily agree with all his views, but I enjoyed looking at things from a different perspective. His adoration for his literary friends has urged me to read Martin Amis’ ‘Money’, which is supposed to be one of his best… I will keep you posted.

Day 2

Very exciting stats - for those of you unfamiliar with Blogs (as I was since, oh, 2 days ago), as an editor you can see how many times people have looked at your blog (47) and from what areas of the world. As of Day 2, we have gone international! Thanks to S and A from the Netherlands :). Also have the first official follower, my tech-savvy sister-in-law, Jen! Sacaric will be posting a review shortly. Please let me know if there are any books on the list that you may want to hear more about. I'll also add another page with a list of additional recommended books. Going forward, reviews will first show up as a 'post' on the home page, then get moved to the monthly review page. KC

Debut - April 1, 2011

Firstly, this is not an April Fool's Joke, but it does seem like an auspicious date to begin. The idea for this blog came from the many inquiries I've gotten from friends such as 'what are you reading lately?' and 'can you recommend anything?'. I'm always looking for ways to share my love of books with anyone who is interested. The beauty of the milieu of the blog is that we can create a community to share ideas, comments and criticisms of books (and movies based on books). I plan to keep a list of what our book club has read and also augment with books read outside the bookclub. Some will have stars based on the group's criticisms and some will have a written review to suggest (or not) whether it was a worthy read. I hope others will join in the reviewing. I have a pretty broad spectrum of likes, but there are some genres (as most of you know) that I don't enjoy and I don't want them excluded!

I'll start with reviews of two of the books I've read recently and a list of the K&K Book Club books! Thanks in advance for joining the fun! KC