Tag Archives: book review
Card Catalog Review: Small Great Things
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Card Catalog Review: So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
Card Catalog Review: Children of the New World
Card Catalog Review: Nutshell
Card Catalog Review: The Wonder
Caldwell Perspective Review:Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
For generations, immigrants have come to the US to build better lives for themselves and their children, searching for a taste of the American Dream. Imbolo Mbue’s debut novel, Behold the Dreamers, explores the difficulties that come along with immigration, both on a legal visa-processing level as well as a personal one.
The books protagonist Jende Jonga is a native of Cameroon, a country he left behind in hopes of realizing the wealth and success he saw portrayed on American television programs. It doesn’t take long in the United States to realize that not everyone lives in a mansion nor has a butler to do his bidding. As a matter of fact, Jende takes on the opposing role in those scenarios: he becomes a personal driver for a wealthy New York bank executive. Stress from Jende’s long work hours is compounded by his questionable visa status, one that becomes fuzzier with each passing day.
Behold the Dreamers protagonist is set is stark relief with Clark Edwards, the man for whom he works. Clark is a high powered Wall Street boss with a house in the city and one in the Hamptons. There is little money can’t buy for the Edwards family. Until, the financial world falls apart, leaving Clark reeling and Jende without a job.
The exploration of love and family, race and immigration, and the relentless pursuit of the American Dream are at the heart of Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers, a novel that allows readers to step into the lives of characters from drastically different ends of the economic spectrum and contemplate the paths created by virtue of birthplace, as well as personal choices.
“You think I don’t want to remain in America, too? You think I came to America so that I can leave? I work as a servant to people, driving them all over, the whole day, sometimes the whole week, answering yes sir, yes madam, bowing down even to a little child. For what, Neni? … For you, for me. Because I want us to say in America! But if America says they don’t want us in their country, you think I’m going to keep on begging them for the rest of my life?…Never. Not for one day…”
-Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
2016 Book Challenge: A Book You’ve Been Meaning to Read
(Disclaimer- I was getting ready to do some blog updates and was super confused why my 2016 Book Challenge count didn’t add up to the number of months so far this year. After some head scratching and bafflement, I realized that I had somehow never posted the August review, even though it was sitting in my finished folder! So, as you all eagerly await not only September’s challenge book, but also the upcoming blog changes, here is August’s challenge entry. Apologizes for the ridiculously late post.)
2016 Book Challenge: A Book You’ve Been Meaning to Read
August was a hectic month, part of it spent in Idaho and the rest taken up with a move to our nation’s lovely capital. With all of the upheaval, I was still able to enjoy reading my way through eleven books, mostly new release fiction, but I did manage to get a couple of narrative non-fiction titles in there, including my favorite recommendation right now, Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich. The one that breaks from the new release tangent I was on is this month’s 2016 Book Challenge Book, falling under the category of “a book I’ve been wanting to read.” Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok has been on my “to read” list for several years now (it was published in 2010), but kept getting pushed off until late one evening I was lying in bed, having finished my previous book (Miss Jane by Brad Watson- fantastic!) and had nothing in my queue. (The horror!) With a few clicks I was on the Boise Library website, searching for something intriguing that was currently available. Not too far through my scrolling, I came across Girl in Translation and remembered that I had wanted to read it before, so a few more quick clicks and it was on my ereader.
With a soft spot for Chinese-themed literature, I was instantly drawn into the narrative of Kimberly Chang, a young girl whose mother immigrates to the United States from Hong Kong, searching for a better life for herself and her daughter. Not just a story of a hard working mom and a high-achieving daughter, this book digs into how easy it is for jealous to erupt and how difficult it can be for families to feel as if they are being left behind when success comes to some but not all.
Immigration stories are such powerful narratives, bringing together the hopes and dreams of generations, but when well-written, also explore the difficulties in not only achieving those dreams in a mere generation, but also the conflict that occurs when the next generation doesn’t understand the history that has lead them to their current life. Coming to America may seem like an easy decision, but it can be powerfully painful and great literature shines a light on the complexities of what it means to “be American.” (I highly recommend the recently released Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, about a Cameroonian family facing difficult decisions about how much citizenship is really worth.)
Girl in Translation was a quick read, but I must admit to being frustrated with the ending. Without needing a spoiler alert, I will say that I think Kwok’s ending was a bit unrealistic and left me with many questions, not only in terms of logistics of the way the story wraps up, but with inconsistencies in the character portrayal as well. Nevertheless, a disappointing ending does not turn me off to the book as a whole and I’m glad I finally took the chance to pick it up, albeit six years later.
In Search of the End of the Sidewalk’s 2016 Reading Challenge
– A book published this year (A Doubter’s Almanac by Ethan Canin)
A book you can finish in a day (When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi)
_____A book you’ve been meaning to read (Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok)
_____ A book recommended to you by a librarian
A book you should have read in school (The Hounds of Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle)
A book recommended for you by your spouse/partner, friend, child, or sibling (Jasper Fforde books)
A book published before you were born (And Then There Were Noneby Agatha Christie)
A book that was banned at some point (A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess)
_____ A book you abandoned previously
_____ A book you own but have never read
_____ A book that intimidates you
A book you’ve read at least once (I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali)
Caldwell Perspective Review: A Hundred Thousand Worlds
A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl
Decisions have consequences, but sometimes those consequences take a bit of time to catch up, which is just the case for Valerie Torrey. Six years ago, Torrey kidnapped her son (although the famous actor/ absentee father didn’t exactly protest), but now he wants back into Alex’s life, which means Torrey agrees to hand him over to his dad for two years, just enough to make up for missed visitations, rather than face court involvement. In a final family trip, Torrey, a famous sci-fi actor herself, decides to travel from her home base in New York to Los Angeles, crossing the country with the comic con tour schedule, taking Alex along on one last adventure. Both Alex and Val befriend a variety of comic con regulars: comic writers, artists, cosplayers, and the people who keep the industry ticking, both the executives and the fans.
The timing could not be more perfect for this book, as the Boise Public Library just hosted their outstanding annual comic con on Saturday, August 27. As we round out the summer, pick up a copy of A Hundred Thousand Worlds and drop by the Library! for information about next’s year’s comic con plans.
“Part of the job of adults was to set limits. But the last rule, the unspoken rule of any story or journey, is that all limits are suspect. All warnings show only the point where the last story stopped, the boundary past which the map is unmapped. The Kingdom of Here There Be Dragons is the province of explorers, magicians, and kids.”
― Bob Proehl, A Hundred Thousand Worlds
Caldwell Perspective Review: Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich
(This review was first published in The Caldwell Perspective-
https://issuu.com/chanteledicehensel/docs/september_2016_caldwell_perspective )
The history of medical advances is riddled with suspect practices and ideas that with hindsight seem less than stellar. Luke Dittrich’s new book takes a close look at mid-century neurologists who were operating at the height of the lobotomy crazy, one fueled by open access to insane asylums and mental health wards. (In a short two-year period in the 1950’s, the state of Connecticut alone authorized 550 such surgeries, the vast majority performed on women in an attempt to cure their “hysteria,” forcing them to conform to the expected role of docile and meek spouses so prized in housewives of the era.)
Excellent narrative writing, combined with the fascinating history of the brain and memory research in the United States creates a spellbinding tale, but with Dittrich’s personal connection to the #2 lobotomy surgeon in the world, the story of medical research dovetails with his personal history to create characters who are more than just names on documents. While his discoveries do not always paint his great grandfather in a favorable light, Dittrich refuses to shy away from asking difficult questions about the practice, its history and its seemingly limitless practice in New England mental institutions. Investigation of ethical lines within medical research is an overarching theme of the book, delving into the murky gray areas of consent and the debate about human research.
Fans of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will want to head to the bookstore today to pick up Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets, Luke Dittrich’s newly released narrative non-fiction publication, a great companion read that continues the exploration of what we, as society, are willing to condone in the name of medical research and advancement.
In Search of the End of the Sidewalk 