Trail of Miracles by Smadar Herzfeld: A Review

Gittel, the daughter of a torah scholar, is only twelve when she is sought out as a wife for a much older rabbi.  She doesn't like her husband's cold and unfeeling ways of dealing with her but finds comfort in her father-in-law, a man who is renowned among the Hasidim in her community.  She also finds great joy in her two sons.  When both her father-in-law and husband die in quick succession, Gittel is encouraged by her community to seek a new husband.  Her husband visits her in dreams to demand that she not remarry and Gittel is more than happy to oblige, remembering the loneliness she felt in her marriage.  She instead decides to embark on a journey to Jerusalem as she once did as a child with her brother.

This book was very short and an interesting story but it was a bit slow for me.  I felt that the story had a lot more potential than was presented.  There were simply not enough words for good characters to be built but they were likeable.  I liked Gittel and her story.  One thing that I liked about this book was that the author did not take a judgmental viewpoint about the cultures that she was writing about.  All religions and cultures in the book were treated with respect.  I have read a lot of books about the Hasidim and that is not always the case.  While there are many practices of their culture that modern Westerns may not understand, such as Gittel's young marriage, one must understand that this was not so uncommon in the community at that time.  While the book was much slower than I wished it would have been and was not as developed as I would have liked, I still enjoyed the book.  I think it would be a good book for those looking for a cultural read or historical fiction, especially for those interested in Eastern European Jewish culture.

You can read this book for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.  Follow this link for a 30-day Free Trial to read this book and many more.

Reviews of books like this one:
What To Do About the Solomons by Bethany Ball
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

This book is currently available and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in order to review it but that did not have an effect on my review of the book.  This is my honest opinion of this book.  I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliates program.  By clicking on the Amazon link and purchasing this product, I receive a small fee.  I am not associated with Goodreads or Barnes and Noble in any way and the links provided are available strictly for your convenience and not to imply a relationship of any kind.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith: A Review

A young woman takes a look back on her childhood and compares her experience with that of her friends to understand why the two have grown up to be such different women.  Both young women are the product of one British parent and one Jamaican parent but Tracey grows up with her father in and out of her life and exhibiting criminal behavior which causes her to act out frequently.  The other girl grows up with a caring father and a mother who loves her deeply but is determined to change the world, heavily criticizing the treatment of people of color in England.  Both young girls are heavily involved in their dance classes but Tracey seems to have much more promise than her friend.  The young woman goes to college and finds a career as an assistant to a star, Aimee, while Tracey dances in productions but has wild delusions of the Illuminati in her personal life.  The young woman envies Tracey's easy command of dance but is her own mother's vehement belief that a traditional education really a hindrance or is it a help?

Smith is a magician with words.  I felt myself highlighting her words of wisdom many times in order to read them later.  I felt that Swing Time is a very important book.  The book addresses many issues that are important to today's society, such as how single parenthood effects children and how people from a multicultural background interpret and react to the world.  There are also important lessons in appropriation and cultural misunderstanding as Aimee insists on tackling the problem of poverty in Africa while ignoring the fact that she may be hurting more than helping the situation.  In the end I saw bits of Aimee in the young woman, though, as they both felt that they knew better than the people actually effected by the circumstances they are in.  The book did move a bit slowly for my taste but I still enjoyed it.  The characters are what really stood out for me.  I felt for Tracey and empathized with the young woman.  I felt frustrated at the young woman's mother for her selfishness while she attempted to save the world at the expense of her daughter but understood the mother's need to do so because of where she was born.  This book is a great work of literary fiction and would be a great book for those readers who enjoy books with a multicultural heritage.  

Watch a video of Zadie Smith discuss Swing Time at the 92nd St Y:

Reviews of books like this one:
Marlena by Julie Buntin
City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
The Mothers by Brit Bennett 


This book is currently available and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads.

This is my honest opinion of this book.  I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliates program.  By clicking on the Amazon link and purchasing this product, I receive a small fee.  I am not associated with Goodreads or Barnes and Noble in any way and the links provided are available strictly for your convenience and not to imply a relationship of any kind. 


I do not track activity of visitors beyond that which blogger already does.  If you click on an outside link, those websites may track your activity but I do not actively share any information with third-party websites.

Elle by Philippe Djian: A Review

Michele was traumatized after her father kills a large group of children at a camp.  While her father sits in prison, Michele and her mother suffer physical and verbal assaults, but now Michele's mother, Irene, wants her to visit her father.  In the meantime, Michele and her ex-husband, Richard, disagree with how to handle their young adult son, Vincent, when Vincent decides to enter a relationship with a pregnant woman and put his name on the birth certificate, despite having debts and having just started a low-level job at McDonald's.  Irene thinks herself a spring chicken and satisfies her desires with younger men but collapses at a party and falls into a coma.  Needless to say, Michele doesn't need the additional stress and anguish she experiences after being sexually assaulted.  Now, she knows she is being watched, her home broken into and her things rifled with.  Any man could be the man who raped her.

This book was billed as a psychological thriller but there is so much family drama that it reads more like a work of women's fiction for most of the book.  Michele's reaction to her assault was both shocking and disturbing.  Many may call what she did liberating but I felt deeply uncomfortable with it.  This book was translated very well and reads very quickly but I can't say that I enjoyed the story.  I think this book would be very triggering for a lot of people and one that will make many people angry.  While the story about Michele's family was interesting, the story of her reaction to her assault was too disturbing for me to enjoy this book. 

This book was adapted into a movie.  Watch the trailer here:

Reviews of books like this one:
I See You by Clare Mackintosh
Who You Think I Am by Camille Laurens
The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Lisa Perabo

This book is available on March 14th and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in order to review it but that did not have an effect on my review of the book.  This is my honest opinion of this book.  I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliates program.  By clicking on the Amazon link and purchasing this product, I receive a small fee.  I am not associated with Goodreads or Barnes and Noble in any way and the links provided are available strictly for your convenience and not to imply a relationship of any kind.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck: A Review

At a party at Burg Lingenfels, a castle frequented by the elite of German society, Marianne becomes aware of how horrible Hitler and the Nazi regime really are and a plot to halt the movement.  She makes a promise to her husband and best friend, Connie, that she will look after the wives and the children on the men who are planning the attack, if anything should happen to them.  Marianne is a very principled woman and, when the plot to assassinate Hitler goes awry and the men are executed, she works tirelessly to find all of the wives and children of the heroes of the resistance.  She invites Benita and Ania, wives of two of the resistance fighters, and their children to live with her in the castle.

This story was a very interesting and hopeful one but the characters were not the most complex.  Marianne is rigid and judgmental.  She believes that her kindness towards the women entitles her to meddle in their personal affairs.  I found that this book is not only about the war and the resistance but also offers lessons in forgiveness, both towards others and ourselves, and in allowing others to be who they want to be, regardless of what we feel is best for them.  The most complex and evolving character was Ania who is a bit of a mystery to the other women in the castle.  I am not suggesting that I didn't like the characters but I did feel that they were sometimes bland and stereotypical.

The story shows a much more dynamic account of the Holocaust and World War II than is usually presented.  Many of the German characters who were thought to be villains were really coerced or tricked into participating in awful acts and there were many dissenters who did not go along with the plot.  There were many more who quietly disagreed with the plans but neither participated nor dissented.  We have come to think about World War II and the Holocaust a lot like Marianne thinks about everything; all things are right or wrong and there is no in between.  If this book provides any lesson it is that better perspective in hindsight should not enable us to look down our noses at those that were not gifted with the foresight that we have.  The fact of the matter is, we don't know what we would have done in a situation like that.  One would hope that we would have behaved in a way that we could have been proud of today but we can't guarantee that we would not be a victim to the same propaganda and manipulation that many were at the time.  

The writing does not read as fast as I would have liked it to but the story really kept me moving along.  It was such an interesting and important story and I really enjoyed it, despite the horrific subject matter.  Readers of historical fiction, especially those interested in stories of World War II, would enjoy this book.

Watch a video of Jessica Shattuck discussing The Women in the Castle:

 

Reviews of books like this one:
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
The Patriots by Sana Krasikov
The Refugees bu Viet Thanh Nguyen

This book is currently available and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads.

This is my honest opinion of this book.  I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliates program.  By clicking on the Amazon link and purchasing this product, I receive a small fee.  I am not associated with Goodreads or Barnes and Noble in any way and the links provided are available strictly for your convenience and not to imply a relationship of any kind. 


I do not track activity of visitors beyond that which blogger already does.  If you click on an outside link, those websites may track your activity but I do not actively share any information with third-party websites.

Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica: A Review

Quinn may not be the best roommate to pious Esther but Quinn thought their relationship was great until Esther disappears one day and Quinn finds information that makes her believe that Esther is not the person she thought she was.  Through a bit of sleuthing with a friend from work, Ben, Quinn discovers that there are strange letters in Esther's room, that she plans on changing her name and that she is in the market for a new roommate.  It starts to get really scary when Quinn and Ben find out that Esther's last roommate died of an apparent accident and the family is asking questions.  Meanwhile, there is a new squatter in the house across from the one that Alex and his dad live in.  Lights turn off and on and some of the community believe that it is the working of a ghost.  When Alex investigates, he finds a young woman who acts very strangely.  What happened to Esther and who is the strange woman who lives in the haunted house across the street?

Mary Kubica is a gifted writer and storyteller.  I have read The Good Girl and Pretty Baby and have enjoyed both of them so I knew that I would likely enjoy Don't You Cry.  I am so glad that I read it because it is very reminiscent of the other books I have read by Kubica without being a rehashing of her other book or of any other story that I have read.  Don't You Cry came with plenty of twists and turns but it was a bit slower than what I have come to expect from Kubica.  Still, the writing was superb and the story was exciting.  I thought I had guessed at the ending but I was dead wrong!  It was so unexpected and a wonderful twist.  There is a very strong element of family drama in this novel.  From mothers who abandon their children to substance abusing fathers, the reader can expect their heartstrings to be pulled while also being excited by the story.  I loved the characters.  Alex is such a sweetheart and the strange young woman, of whom he names "Pearl" because of an ill-fitting pearl bracelet, is such a chameleon.  While I didn't like this book as much as I did The Good Girl or Pretty Baby, I still really enjoyed it.  For those who have already read other books by Kubica, know that the suspense builds a bit slower than in her other books.  I think anyone who likes psychological thrillers or mysteries will love this book and should definitely pick it up!

Mary Kubica's new novel, Every Last Lie, is expected to be available on June 27, 2017 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

 

Watch an interview with Kubica about Don't You Cry:

Reviews of books like this one:
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline
I See You by Clare Mackintosh
My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

This book is currently available and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads.

This is my honest opinion of this book.  I am a participant in the Amazon Affiliates program.  By clicking on the Amazon link and purchasing this product, I receive a small fee.  I am not associated with Goodreads or Barnes and Noble in any way and the links provided are available strictly for your convenience and not to imply a relationship of any kind. 


I do not track activity of visitors beyond that which blogger already does.  If you click on an outside link, those websites may track your activity but I do not actively share any information with third-party websites.