Books- 3.14.16

Last week was a rollercoaster of books! from a boring and depressing book to a very emotional and sad, but happy book.

As I said in my last Books post, my sister invited me to read How To Be Single (By Liz Tuccillo {17}) with her, so we could go see the movie. This book was not originally in my list of books to read, but I can't decline reading invitations, especially from my sister, and seeing Rebel Wilson is in the movie, made me think that the book could be funny. Well, I regretted picking up this book.

I thought we were done with the Sex and The City era of "Why am I still Single?". The book was less than interesting, there were too many characters to keep track of, and I only found one to be mildly interesting. The main character on the book goes "around the world (France, Brazil, India, China and Iceland?)" to ask single women what it's like to be single. Conveniently, everybody who she encounters speaks English and says that is not much different than being single in the United States. I was bored with this, didn't find anything about it funny or entertaining. I feel that this book portraits women as desperate beings, who just want to be matched up with their "Perfect sole mate" and we have no other life goals or desires. In full disclosure, I am not single and when I was, the only questions I asked myself about my divorce, were "will my kid grow up resenting me for this? or I wonder what he (my son) is doing right now".

Last year, I listened to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg. In which they conduct studies, surveys, and all sorts of research on the current state of dating. I found that book to be a better book on dating than How to Be Single. HTBS just made me sad. I highly recommend Modern Romance over How To Be Single, or Eat Pray Love which has a more concise thought process on being single and becoming more aware of yourself.

Last week I also ordered Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (18). I saw this book on Vita Train 4 Life 's page. And I told myself "Allie is pretty awesome, and has good taste, so this book has to be great". Well, I am right now trying to pick my crying face off my desk, and listening to some Civil Wars music to ease the pain. It's not working, I must order a large Mocha frap to drown the tears.

Me Before You was a very good book. Not a romance novel, but I found myself hoping and cheering for a Happily Ever After end (I won't spoil it).

The main character, Louisa* loses her job at a coffee shop, and gets a job as a Home Health aide, looking after a quadriplegic man, Will. She hates how Will is closed off and arrogant to everybody around him, and after accidental hearing the real reason for her job, she makes it her mission to cheer him up and make him be happy again. At which point my emotions completely spiraled out of control.

*I love her name... bc my middle name is Luisa!!

This book was amazing! I already knew Louisa was a loving and caring person, because she helped her family from the beginning of the book. I loved the way the author wrote her to be such a whole person, caring, loving, but scared, doubtful, and in some ways selfish in a very human way. I could relate to her issues, her problems with her sister, her wanting more from her family, wanting Will to be more appreciative and positive.

I'm going to convince my sister to read this book, and then go see the movie.

Hotel In the Corner Of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (19)

This one took me a while to get through, after flying through MBY, this was a slow moving book. This book is the fictional story of a Chinese American boy and a Japanese American Girl during the time of World World II in Seattle. Henry's dad makes him wear a button that says "I'm Chinese" wanting to keep him from being confused with being Japanese. As the US Government is gearing up to send all people of Japanese decent into the Interment Camps.

The story goes back and forth between the past during the war and 40 years later, as Henry finds a Hotel that housed the belongings of many Japanese families who were forced into the interment camps.

The book was sad, and eerily it made me think of what it would be like if a certain Hotel Tycoon became president. Back in the 1940s there seemed to be a lot of fear in regards to WWII, and the government did pretty scary things. Right now there seems to be a lot of anxiety and fear for Illegal Immigrants and Muslims.

The book also talked about family expectations. The father expects Henry to become more American, while also maintaining a strong bond with his Chinese heritage.

I have a stack of 8 audiobooks in my car, and my son has requested Harry Potter, Order of The Phoenix, which will make our Bethany beach trip more fun!