June & July 2017 Wrap Up
I know that the month isn't technically over but I don't think I will finish a book by the end of the month. We're going on vacation soon and there's a lot of work that I need to get done so that I don't have to do to much work on vacation. This week is also the week of Book-Tube-A-thon and I am not able to participate. So over vacation I am going to attempt the Book-Tube-A-thon which is where you have a set of challenge and you have to read seven books in a week. That is more than I read in a entire month. I am up for the challenge though because when I come home I have to start studying and preparing for finals. Book-Tube-A-thon will be the calm before the storm.
Unfortunately I was only able to read one book in June and it wasn't that great. This month was a little better. I didn't get to read that much but what I did was really good.
1. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden *Did Not Finish*
Arthur Golden's brilliant debut novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, is a reminder of just how silly the exhortation 'write what you know!' can be. Clearly Golden, a 40-something American male, has never lived anything remotely similar to the experiences of a geisha coming of age in the '30s, the glory days of Kyoto's Gion pleasure district. Yet it is precisely this vanished world that he re-creates with subtlety, sensuality, and supreme authority, bringing to life characters so complete and idiosyncratic so fully sprung from the eras he has evoked that his novel ultimately overwhelms us, as seductive and beguiling as the geisha of its title.
I wanted to love this book, therefore, I went into it with high expectations. I knew that DL and Rachel Hollis loved it so I assumed that I would love it just as much. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but then it got slower and I began to care less. I think I had about a hundred pages left when I quit.
2. Born A Crime, Trevor Noah 5/5
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I didn’t think that this would be the book that would bring me out of the slump that I was in. It was so interesting to read these intense stories about his life in which he adds humor. I was laughing at a lot of this book because it was so good. I loved reading the parts of him and his mother. It is obvious through his writing that he respects and loves his mother.
Unfortunately I was only able to read one book in June and it wasn't that great. This month was a little better. I didn't get to read that much but what I did was really good.
1. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden *Did Not Finish*
Arthur Golden's brilliant debut novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, is a reminder of just how silly the exhortation 'write what you know!' can be. Clearly Golden, a 40-something American male, has never lived anything remotely similar to the experiences of a geisha coming of age in the '30s, the glory days of Kyoto's Gion pleasure district. Yet it is precisely this vanished world that he re-creates with subtlety, sensuality, and supreme authority, bringing to life characters so complete and idiosyncratic so fully sprung from the eras he has evoked that his novel ultimately overwhelms us, as seductive and beguiling as the geisha of its title.
I wanted to love this book, therefore, I went into it with high expectations. I knew that DL and Rachel Hollis loved it so I assumed that I would love it just as much. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but then it got slower and I began to care less. I think I had about a hundred pages left when I quit.
2. Born A Crime, Trevor Noah 5/5
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I didn’t think that this would be the book that would bring me out of the slump that I was in. It was so interesting to read these intense stories about his life in which he adds humor. I was laughing at a lot of this book because it was so good. I loved reading the parts of him and his mother. It is obvious through his writing that he respects and loves his mother.
3. When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon 5/5 *favorite*
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
This book was beyond adorable.
There was a lot of hype surrounding this book and it scared me. I really wanted to like this book because of the fact that it looked good. I could not put this book down which may have affected my grades but oh well. I think I finished this book in two days and I can’t remember the last time that I did that. Everything about this book was perfect, the characters, the plot, the romance and everything under the sun. I laughed, I cried and my heart grew. It’s very rare that I ever buy a book that I read from the library but I want this book. I think that I would gladly read it again.
We'll see how the Book-Tube-A-Thon goes. Cross your fingers.
DFTBA
-AB
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