The Girl with the Louding Voice

What a fabulous book! Even though I found Abi Daré's The Girl with the Louding Voice pretty predictable, it was wonderful storytelling and an excellent read.

This novel is the story of a Nigerian girl, Adunni, who only wants an education. Her mother always pushed her to get an education and Adunni dreams of becoming a teacher. Her mother told her to get a "loading voice," to be heard, to control her own destiny. Then... her mother dies. Adunni's life goes downhill from there.

Adunni doesn't stop dreaming, though. And she has the strength to keep moving forward even when others would have just accepted their crappy fates! Along her journey, she realizes that not only does she need to speak up for herself, but she needs to speak for those who aren't strong enough to speak for themselves.

Adunni is admirable and likable as are many of the other supporting characters. The reader gets the feeling that Adunni has a remarkable support system along the way. But maybe that's because she is so likable?

It's a sad reality that Adunni's reality is the reality for many girls in Nigeria, now in the 21st century.

Totally a worthwhile read.

Cilka's Journey

I was late reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz so by the time I read that Heather Morris book, everyone was already talking about Cilka's Journey. Both books were extremely well-written  and easy to read, if that can be said about a Holocaust novel. But where Tattooist was and continues to be the most hopeful Holocaust novel that I've read, Cilka's Journey was much more gut-wrenching. Where Tattooist is a story of hope and love, Cilka's Journey is a story about bravery and the will to live.

Cilka is a more minor character in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. She becomes one of the good friends of Gita. This is Cilka's story after she is liberated from Auschwitz. I had no idea that someone who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz for 3 years might have gone on to sentenced to years of being locked up at a Gulag in Siberia.

I knew nothing of the post-WW II Siberia or Siberian Gulags. I must have not read anything from the blurb of Cilka's Journey so I really didn't know what this novel was going to be about.

Cilka's Journey could be read as a standalone book since enough recollections are a part of this book to make the backstory from Tattooist not completely necessary. But I'm glad I read them in order. As with the first book, the author's note at the end of the book really clinched the book for me. I highly recommend them both.

The Summer of '69

I've always enjoyed Elin Hilderbrand novels when I'm in the mood for something lighter to read. This one, Summer of '69, was no different. It was a nice, quick, easy summer read.

What was nice about this novel for me is that I was close in age to one of the main characters, Jessie, during the summer of 1969. At first I wrote THE main character, but I think that's because I was reading it from the perspective of a girl on the cusp of being a teen during that time. Unlike Jessie, I was the oldest in my family with just one younger sibling. That just meant that some of the things that Jessie's family experienced during that summer were things I observed in other families, but not my own.

This novel touches upon Vietnam, Woodstock, the walk on the moon, women's liberation, Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, anti-semitism and probably some other issues that I can't remember right now. It's important to note that these are issues that are merely touched upon. They are the backdrop of the story which I believe was Hilderbrand's intention. Reviews by readers older than I am have stated that lots in this novel isn't historically correct. that they remember things differently. I was too young to have strong recollections but the feeling of 1969 is definitely evoked. I'll state it again in different words. This is just a novel about a family going through some tough times during the summer of 1969.

While I did enjoy reading this, I was disappointed by the ending. It just sort of ended, leaving too much up in the air. But that didn't diminish the escape I got while reading this. Elin Hilderbrand, if you're reading this, a short epilogue would have sufficed.

The Underground Railroad

I guess I hadn't read any of the reviews about Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Underground Railroad. I had no idea what to expect, but when I noticed I had the book on my shelf, I decided it was probably an important book to read now.

The Underground Railroad isn't the usual historical fiction depiction of a horrendous time in our country's history. In this novel, the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad, with platforms, tracks and different sorts of passenger accommodations. I found that off-putting. Each and every time Cora, the runaway slave from Georgia, was at a station, I'd kind of scratch my head. I think I wish I'd read the blurb before starting the book so I would have known at least this!

Whitehead goes further to imagine different realities for the  runaway slave as she makes her way north. In South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally Indiana. As soon as I turned the last page, I started researching whether some of the things Whitehead includes were realities. Much of the "history" in this novel is speculative. What if...

I found his language mostly brilliant, but the story didn't flow in one smooth path. He'd interrupt the story while jumping back in time to fill in backstory for one of the secondary characters. Once I realized that this was what he was doing, I was okay with it and it didn't disrupt my reading process terribly. But until I did, I found it distracting. The book took me a long time to finish, probably because I was reading from a paper-and-ink book, so I'd lose the plot a bit and have to turn back and reread.

It might sound as though I didn't really like this book. And I'm not sure that I did. But I did like the way Cora's story made me think. It made me think about what I already know about the Underground Railroad. It made me think more about what the journey north might have been like. It made me think more about what Cora's future might have been like. And it makes me think of the progress, or lack thereof, towards racial equality that our country has undergone. The details of this novel might not stick with me long, but the thinking that it pushed to the front of my brain will stick with me for a long time to come.

Toward the end of the novel, this quote really struck a chord.

"And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes - believes with all its heart - that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn't exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are."

Yes, here we are. Whitehead started this novel in 2000, worked on it for 16 years, published in 2016. Four years later, in the summer of 2020, that quote is more timely than ever.

Too Much and Never Enough

By the time I read Mary L. Trump's portrait of her uncle, Donald, Too Much and Never Enough, two days after it's publication date, most of the really juicy parts had been released through the media. I was still anxious to read this book, but for much more personal reasons than for the more seemingly popular reasons.

Donald Trump reminds me a of a person in my life and I guess I was really curious to see how much of his story would be relatable to the history of the person he reminds me of. Thankfully, there were a lot of parts that made me nod my head, but that was about it. I do wonder if I found this book more believable than the average reader, simply because I do have this experience.

It was interesting to read how the members of the Trump family fell into the roles they held from an early age until now. The book makes me curious about many of the members of the family.

I grew up in Brooklyn so was familiar with the Trump family early on. This gave me a little bit more history than I previously had. I was also interested to learn that Fred Trump grew up in Woodhaven, Queens as I had a great aunt, married to a German Jew, living in Woodhaven, Queens. Was it a German neighborhood?

The question that remains is why she really felt it was necessary to come out with this book at this particular moment in time and why she never spoke out about her worries about his presidency until now. She tries to address that, but if there was anything missing in the book, that's what it is.

This was a quick, easy read. Nothing earth shattering but interesting nonetheless.

The Sisters Weiss

I really wanted to like The Sisters Weiss by Naomi Ragen better than I did. I liked the story. A girl coming of age in the early 1960s decides the constrains of Orthodox Judaism are too much. She wants a fuller life than that of being married to a Torah scholar. Or worse - the owner of a delicatessen! The night before her wedding, she runs away.

Rose's departure puts pressure on her beloved younger sister, Pearl. Not only does Pearl feel as though she has to be "the perfect daughter," her chances of landing a good match for her marriage are limited due to the family scandal.

Fast forward 40 years later. Pearl's daughter, Rivkah, also runs away from the Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg. Her reasons are different and less defined than Rose's. And she runs away before a wedding date is set for her.

What did I like about the novel? I liked the idea of the story. A sister running away only to help her daughter's sister do something similar 40 years later. I grew up as a secular Jew, always on the fringe of a modern Orthodox community. I've always been fascinated by the lifestyles of the ultra-Orthodox. And I always like a novel set in Brooklyn, my hometown.

As a little girl, Rose had a savings account at the Dime Saving Bank. (I had my elementary school passbook account there, too.) By depositing a certain amount into her savings account, Rose is able to receive a prize of a cheap Brownie camera. She loves the idea of a camera, but she's always disappointed with her photographs. In high school, while still living with her family in Williamsburg, a father of a school friend introduces Rose to serious photography. She lies to her family, telling them she's volunteering to visit the sick once a week, when actually she's taking a photography class in Manhattan. Rose's dream is to become a professional photographer. Not a wedding photographer, but one who captures the greater world. I love photography so any mention of photography really enthralled me.

What didn't I like about the novel? I didn't like any of the characters. I think the portrayal of many of them was probably right on the money. But couldn't we get to see the warmer side of Pearl? Or Rose? I thought Rose's daughter, Hannah, was most unpleasant. Yes, she had her reasons for being a bit cold. But she was particularly unlikable to me. As was Rivkah. None of the characters were particularly nuanced. If they were, it was not in a way that I found sympathetic.

I loved Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox, a memoir about the author's escape from the Satmar community. I expected this to be a fictionalized story about sisters similar to Unorthodox. Perhaps that was why I was disappointed.

Goldilocks - Science Fiction, Not the Fairy Tale

As I think I've mentioned before, my Books & Beer Club has a schedule of genres for the year. It makes sure that we read from a wide variety of books. I always shudder when we're approaching science fiction or fantasy months. Those are always difficult for me to read. Back in April, I was reading some list of new recommended titles and Goldilocks by Laura Lam sounded like a book I might be able to recommend to the Club. I must have requested it from the library, although I'm not sure why I would have done that. But it arrived on my virtual bookshelf so after I finished Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari's expanse, I picked up Goldilocks. (I'm still not sure that the title of Goldilocks  was a good choice.)

The timing of the reading was a bit unsettling at the beginning. Sapiens left me with the feeling that Earth might be doomed. Or at least humans. Goldilocks picks up at that point. The Earth is in trouble. Human life on Earth might cease to exist within the next 30 years.

Dr. Valerie Black is determined to take a team of women scientists to Cavendish, in the Goldilocks Zone, to start a new colony. Conditions could be right for human habitation. They do make it into space and face setback after setback. Finally some secrets are unveiled and the crew is forced to make some very difficult decisions.

This is not one of my genres yet I found this absorbing. A real page turner. But there was backstory missing. Other than climate change ravishing the country, there were hints at political turbulence, about women being forced out of the workforce. I wish we'd had a little bit more of that story.

What was crazy, almost, was it's as though this novel was being written now. Written now. In July of 2020. Not published in early 2020 meaning it was written sometime earlier. I'm not sure that this is the best book to read in the midst of a pandemic, but I did enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

If relative terms, Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind really is quite brief. But as I was reading it, it often felt anything but brief.

I started reading this is May, but that was the wrong time to read such a heady tome. It was our second month of being "safer-at-home" and I needed light escapism. I didn't finish it by the time the book expired off my iPad, so I requested it again. It came a little over a week ago and I decided that now was the time to finish the book.

After reading a little bit of the book, I realized that a lot of what Harari covers are things that my son and I have been talking about over the past few months. I encouraged my son to read the book along with me. (I love the idea of family book club.) He started reading it the other day and he said, "This is what I've been talking about all these months." Exactly!

Harari covers the entire history of humans as we know them. From the first humans until the present. Or until 2014. Which makes me really wonder if Harari plans to update since in my mind, lots has changed in the world since 2014. Lots.

He covers to many interesting theories which would be impossible to concisely share here. It also makes me wonder, if we ever get to discuss this at book club, how easy or difficult this book would be to discuss in a book club. There's just so much there. What grabbed my attention might not have grabbed the attention of others. If it wasn't for book club, though, I don't think I would have ever picked up this book. And I did feel compelled to finish it, even not being certain if the community book club will ever get to discuss it. I do, however, look forward to discussing more of this with my son.

There were a lot of things covered that I found interesting. More importantly, this book was incredibly thought-provoking. But here's what I found the most fascinating and it comes from the Q&A with Yuval Noah Harari.

What inspired you to write a book about the entire history of humankind? What was your aim?

When I was a teenager, I became very troubled by the fact that I didn't understand what was really happening in the world - why things were the way they were, and what the aim and meaning of life were. I asked my parents, my teachers and other grown-ups and, shockingly, it turned out that they too didn't really understand life. But I was even more amazed by the fact that they seemed not to care about it. They were very worried about money, careers, their mortgage, the political situation, but were completely nonchalant about the fact that they didn't understand what life was all about. I promised myself that when I grew up, I would not get bogged down in the mundane troubles of daily life, but would do my best to understand the big picture. Writing the book was, in a way, fulfilling this promise that I had made to myself.

I'd highly recommend this book if you want to be guiding in thinking about the big picture.

 

Goddess of Battle

I have very mixed feelings about Gwendolyn Rachel Ackerman's novel about the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Goddess of Battle.

Tyra, daughter of civil rights activists Nancy and Paul, is running away from a bad relationship. She's the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors which play in a little bit not to Tyra's actions but to the way she feels her family will perceive her actions. Tyra is always very concerned about who will or will not approve of what she's doing.

Tyra is trying to think of how she can get out of a terrible relationship with Lamar when she literally bumps into a group of young Israelis in New York for a visit. She connects with them and when Tal needs to unexpectedly rush back to Israel, Tyra offers to go with her to give her moral support.

Noureen is a Palestinian whose parents had arranged a marriage for her with an older man. She was disappointed so as a sort of compromise the parents sent her to Berkley to learn English prior to settling down with her husband.

Eventually Tyra, Tal, and Noureen come together in an attempt to start a dialogue about ways to achieve peace.

First the pros.

• This book was recommended for our Jewish book club and I think it will lead to a great discussion. The topic remains very relevant today.
• The novel attempts to show the differences and similarities between what the Palestinians are experiencing in Israel and Black Lives Matter. That really did give me something to think about. 
• I also liked the friendships that the characters in the novel developed with each other.
• The character of Noureen, her husband, and Tal's mother, Michal, were by far the most authentic characters.

Now for the cons.

• The book was poorly edited which at times drove me crazy.
• The main character, Tyra, was so weak. She did more running away from things than running to things, and she was persuaded to join the Israeli army by her new roommate for very silly reasons. She felt neglected by her parents, loved by her parents, and loved by Anita. The relationships were not well-developed.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not really sure. If it wasn't for a book club discussion, I'm not sure I would have stuck with it. (Oh, who am I kidding? I'm sure I would have finished this one!) It gave me a lot to think about. That can never be bad.