And we're done...

I have completed my first challenge of the year! Melissa over at Book Nut (see sidebar for a link to her blog) hosted the Expanding Horizons Challenge. During the past four months I have read six books, each by an author of a different ethnic minority.

My books and ratings were:

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (African) 4/5
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See (Asian) 3/5
The Saffron Kitchen - Yasmin Crowther (Middle Eastern) 3/5
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Latino) 4/5
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai (Indian) 2/5
The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera (Native Peoples) 5/5

I think we can tell by my ratings that my favorite with The Whale Rider. I gave it a perfect score! I was not, however, a big fan of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Unfortunately.

I read a good mix, I think. And had a wide variety of reactions. I think overall I enjoyed more than I disliked. So that's good. All in all, a good first challenge of the year!

The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera

the whale rider
witi ihimaera
c. 1988
150 pages

*may contain spoilers*

This was my "Native People's" choice for the Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar). Being from the US and living in an area of the country where there is a heavy Native American population, I decided to read something about a different Native people, the Maori's of New Zealand. I know very little about their culture and history and so it was fun to learn about something new.

I had seen the movie of this book a few years ago. I remember liking it a lot, but I didn't remember too much about the story.

I loved that the whales had a voice and characters. They had their own thoughts and feelings. The author's voice, how he brought the legend of Paikia to life was very well done, showing us the parallels between then and now.

I also thought the author's voice was interesting. It wasn't just an omniscient speaker, it was a character, Uncle Rawiri. Though I thought it was interesting that he wasn't an important character, just someone who was there and witnessed what happened.

This was a beautiful little story. I want to go watch the movie now.

5/5

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai

hullabaloo in the guava orchard
kiran desai
c. 1998
224 pages

*contains possible spoilers*

This book was my Indian choice for the Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar). Ok, I really wanted to like this book. Mostly because I loved the title. It was quirky! People don't use the word "hullabaloo" enough. Unfortunately, that was basically all I liked about this book.

I'm not even kidding, this book is not even 250 pages and it took me a week and a half of reading basically an hour and a half a day. I just didn't like any of the characters. None of them were sympathetic. Everyone was lazy and self centered. I was just so irritated with everyone!

Also, I thought the writing style was very childish. I felt that this voice and style of writing would not even be found in a YA novel, but in something written for advanced elementary school children. I consider myself to be an intelligent person and so I would expect what I read to think of me as such.

2/5

Time for the old switcheroo...

I really like to do things in order. I like to write down a set list of things I need to do and check them off one by one as I get to them on the list. Somehow I've gotten a little behind in my Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar) and so in order to make sure I finish the last two before the end of this month, I had to bump them up on my "In Line to be Read" list. And so now my Spring Reading List (see sidebar) is a little out of order. Boo.

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

love in the time of cholera

gabriel garcia marquez
c. 1985
386 pages

*may contain spoilers*

This was read for the Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar).

First off, I was incredibly impressed with the writing style. The author's flow is so incredibly unique, transitioning from one anecdote to the next with such ease and grace, and documenting every thought, action, and character with such bizarre detail, detail (such as bowel movement problems and descriptions) that generally would have been left out of another novel, but instead give such insight into the lives of these characters. The author has such a unique voice, one that adds so much humor and life to his story.

With every page, I fell more and more in love with Florentino Ariza. His passion for life and love is both beautiful and heartbreakingly sad.

I was often confused with Fermina Daza's choices. She seems so often to be such a strong woman, so sure of hersel and her opinions, but I was thrown by the rapidness in which she could change her mind regarding the men in her life. She spent years pledging her enternal love and devotion to one man, and with one glance her mind is turned and she is done with him. She spends so much of her energy avoiding a despising one man, and in an instant she is accepting his proposals of marraige. I wish I could understand her thought process a little more.

I was glad that when they finally came together, it was not all of a sudden like another blaze of passion. It came about through months of constant friendship. It was only after they had spent time actually with each other that Fermina Daza knew that she was in love.

In comparison to the other three books I have read so far for the Expanding Horizons Challenge, there was one thing in particular that I noticed to be very different about this book. In the other three I read (Half of a Yellow Sun, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and The Saffron Kitchen), I found that the county in which the book place was so incredibly important to the story. Whether it was Nigeria, China, or Iran, the reader was so immersed in the history and the culture of that particular country. You never forgot what country you were reading about. You were always learning something new about the culture, something that made it unique. However, in Love in the Time of Cholera, I can't even tell you in which country this story took place. I'm guessing Columbia, seeing as that is where the author is from, but it never mentions it for sure. You know from names of people and descriptions of places that the setting is a Latin American country, but it's never really discussed. I just found it interesting that location was so central to the first three books I read, and then was not important at all to the progression of the story in this last book.

Two things I did not like about the book.......

I did not like the ending. I mean, I was so happy that they finally realized the love they shared, but I did not like the last page or so when they decided to spend the rest of their lives sailing up and down the river on the boat. it had such an element of un-reality that wasn't present in the rest of the book.

Also, I didn't like that the beginning had nothing to do with the rest of the book. And by that, I mean we spent so much time and energy discussing the suicide of Jeremiah and the betrayal Juvenal Urbino felt at his confessional letter, but then there's nothing more about their friendship. Urbino dies before a third of the book is over. I felt like (even though if you read the back of the book you know what the book is supposed to be about) one story was set up and then all of a sudden the author decided he wanted to tell a different story.

4/5

The Saffron Kitchen - Yasmin Crowther

the saffron kitchen
yasmin crowther
c. 2006
258 pages

*may contain spoilers*

This was the third book read for the Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar). This was my Middle Eastern choice, set in both London and Iran. I had a really hard time getting into this book. I had to read the first section three or four times before I finally pressed on.

This is the story of Maryam Mazar, who left Iran as a young woman and has made a life and a family for herself in London. Her daughter, Sara, is grown up with a husband of her own and a baby on the way. Maryam's sister dies in Iran, and her son Saeed is sent to live with Maryam in London. His visit brings Maryam's past, which has always made her somewhat detached from her family, back to haunt her and after her actions cause tragic results for Sara, she feels compelled to return to Iran, to the family and village and love she was forced to leave behind so many years ago. Sara follows her mother to Iran to learn for herself of her mother's past.

I felt this was a decent book, but I had a few problems with it. Like I said, I had a hard time starting it, but once I got to the flashback of Maryam growing up in Iran I really enjoyed it. But I had some trouble again once the flashback was over and we returned to modern day. I think one major problem was I couldn't see Maryam the young woman and Maryam the wife and mother being the same person. I liked her as a young woman, sympathized with her and enjoyed her spunk and spirit. However, as an adult I couldn't stand her. It was hard to sympathize with her, even when you find out the whole story of her examination (which I assumed had happened before it was even revealed). Even when you know that she went through some horrific events, that doesn't excuse her treatment of Saeed or Edward or Sara. And in the end, you can't be totally happy with her and Ali finding each other again when you know the extreme hurt that Edward is experiencing.

3/5

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See

snow flower and the secret fan
lisa see
c. 2006
288 pages

*may contain spoilers*


Another book read for the Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar), this time, Asia. This is a story about two girls in rural China who are matched together as laotong, meaning 'old same.' Your laotong is another girl who you are bound to for life, someone to love and share life with, like a best friend. The book often compared the bond of laotong's to marriage. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan follows these girls through their lives in China from the time they are matched until death.

I both enjoyed and was disappointed in this book. This was a very quiet and gentle book; there was not a lot of conflicted action. Instead it just gently plodded along telling the very usual story of two Chinese girls. When there was conflict or struggle, such as the deaths of Third Sister and Beautiful Moon, it came on very suddenly and was very suddenly over and life continued to plod along.

This was also true of the main conflict of the story. The three main conflicts (the epidemic, the uprisings, and then the misunderstanding between Lily and Snow Flower) were all lumped together, happened one after the other, and then were so quickly over. We had spent almost three fourths of the book so slow and gentle, and then all of a sudden tragedy strikes and is over.

I was disappointed between the misunderstanding between Lily and Snow Flower. I had read the back of the book and knew that some kind of misunderstanding took place, and that that was supposed to be a central theme of the story, but like I said before it happened and was over so quickly. I had waited all through the book for something to happen, but then we seemed to so quickly gloss over it. Snow Flower said something to hurt Lily's feelings, Lily embarrassed Snow Flower in front of all the women of the town, and then it's eight years later.

Besides those disappointments, I greatly enjoyed the amount of detail that went into describing the day to day lives of Chinese women, as well as their festivals and ceremonies. These descriptions were very beautifully and vividly written. I just wish the same amount of depth went into the story as well.

3/5

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

half of a yellow sun
chimamanda ngozi adichie
560 pages
c. 2006

*contains possible spoilers*

I read this book as part of the 2008 Expanding Horizons Challenge (see sidebar). I was particularly interested in that challenge for, while I am an ardent lover of history and culture, I have so far mainly stayed in England, with jaunts into France and Spain, and the extremely occasional journeys to Asia. This challenge pushes me to taste so many different places and cultures.

Freak that I am, I like to do everything in some sort of order. And for this list I chose to read these books in alphabetical order according to ethnic category. As such, Africa comes first. Half of a Yellow Sun is set during the Nigerian/Biafron war of the late 60's, focusing on the intermingled lives of five characters: Odenigbo, a revolutionary academic; Olanna, his high class lover; Ugwu, his houseboy; Kainene, Olanna's willful twin sister; and Richard, Kainene's British lover. The narrative is told through the eyes of Ugwu, Olanna, and Richard, rotating between chapters.

I really enjoyed reading this book. As I alluded to before, this is an area I really have no knowledge about, which made the reading both interesting and frustrating. There was quite a bit about the Nigerian politics that I didn't understand, such as the causes of the two coups and the hatred between the different Nigerian peoples.

I specifically enjoyed that this book showed three extremely different points of view. All three of these people were going through the same sorts of circumstances (the challenges and hardships of the Nigerian/Biafran war), all three were on the same side (that of the Biafrans), yet all three, due to who they were, had to view the war in such different ways. Olanna chose to stay behind in Biafra when her parents were offering to take her away to London, to safety. She had options, she had people she could turn to for help in the worst of times. Ugwu's fate was continually chosen for him. Wherever "Master" and "Mah" took him, he would go. When his towns were forced to evacuate, it was not home to his family he went, it was on to Odenigbo's family. This same essence of non-control followed him in his conscription into the army. While his day to day life changed rapidly after that occurrence, the obedience to his outside forces did not. And last of all Richard, the outsider. Through the whole book, he tried so hard to be one of the Biafrans, but eventually he figured out, and summed up in his statement to Ugwu, "the war is not my story to tell." And it never was.

While I greatly appreciated the difference between life in the early '60's where we saw the characters unfold and life in the late '60's where we saw the characters change due to the war, I did not understand that author's decision to jump from early to late than back to early and then late again. Maybe these jumps were a way of compounding the importance of both Odenigbo's and then Olanna and Richard's betrayals. Maybe we wanted to see that Olanna had completely taken Baby into her home and her heart. However, I feel the story would have flowed a great deal more if things had just gone chronologically.

I feel the end of the story was incredibly beautifully and tragically told. I like that, just like Olanna and Richard, we are left not knowing what happened to Kainene. And I felt it was justified for Ugwu to come home and find himself on both sides of his dirty deed.

After reading this book, I wholeheartedly agree with one of Kainene's sentiments. This book really does depict some true horrors of war, some truly unspeakable and unforgivable events. War can make people do things they never would have done. But in the face of such heinous acts, past actions that should have been unforgivable are forgiven.

4/5

January goals...

Okay, so it's true that I've already posted about my new Christams books today, but now I think I am going to be setting some January goals. I may be extremely busy during January since I'm getting ready to move from Seattle to San Diego (or from Canado to Mexico as my dad likes to say) around January 12th, but I am determined that since I have no job other than packing and moving, I will most likely have some down time. And in that down time I intend to read a great deal. And so my goal is to finish the two novels in my 'Currently Reading' list (the histories and non fiction can sometimes take me A WHILE) and the five novels in my 'In Line to be Read' list. And since I oftentimes will change up those lists, I will be writing them all down here to make sure I don't forget.


Adolphe - Benjamin Constant
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Persuasion - Jane Austin
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
LA Confidential - James Ellroy
Monks Hood - Ellis Peters
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

Number 1 on my New Years Resolutions list!

Chirstmastime is here...

Christmastime has come and gone. I'm always a little sad the day after Christmas. I love the holidays. But now it's time to start thinking of those New Years resolutions. Hmm... I had a good Christmas. We've reconnected with some family that we haven't seen in about twelves years, my Aunt Jan and Cousin Eric. And of course my Granny and Auntie Lamb came. Through Christmas I have received only three books (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Cast Two Shadows by Ann Rinaldi), but also a gift card to Barnes and Nobles to buy myself more. Two of these books are on my Expanding Your Horizons list, so yea! I think I'm going to take this gift card and spend some of it on Phillippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover. I don't know about the rest. But it will be a good new year of reading!

Expanding my horizons...

Hmmm...another new challenge. This time, the Expanding Horizons challenge, hosted by Melissa at the Book Nut:

Between January and April 2008, choose four books in one category, or one book from each category. And the categories are (by author):

- African
- Asian
- Indian
- Latino
- Middle Eastern
- Native Peoples

I have chosen the second challenge, one from each category. While my list is subject to change, it currently stands as:

African: Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi (Nigeria)
Asian: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See (China)
Indian: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai (India)
Latino: Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Maquez (Colombia)
Middle Eastern: The Saffron Kitchen - Yasmin Crowther (Iran)
Native Peoples: The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera (New Zeland - Maori)