Book Review: The Thirteenth Tale - A Novel

Reading this book reminds me of the time when I was "required" to read "Wuthering Heights" in the 8th grade.  Many readers compared this book to "Jane Eyre" because it shares a similar English setting, and the book "Jane Eyre" is actually one of the props used by the story.  I personally have the same reading experience reading this book as when I was reading "Wuthering Heights".  They are both creepy, dark and also mysterious.  I think this book is even darker and creepier than "Wuthering Heights".  While Jane Eyre gave me tears every now and then during my reading, this book gave me a sense of confusion and curiosity.  I couldn't put this book down for very different reasons than those that made me stay up all night reading "Jane Eyre".

I actually enjoyed reading this book because of its very "English" writing style.  This is not a book that a lot of  people can appreciate.  It's not some novels with a direct and simple prose.  It's very "English",  very "metaphorical",  and very "perceptive".  This book is about the telling of a strange and disturbing untold story.  The story has the power of slowly sucking me in.  Despite the story being weird for the story's sake, the writer's writing is absolutely intelligent and beautiful.  The ending totally satisfied my curiosity in searching for the great explanation for the weirdness of the book... If you are fans of "Jane Eyre", you may not like this book, but if you like "Wuthuring Heights", you will appreciate this book's darkness and its provocative story.

Book Review Wanted: The Last Child

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Book Review Wanted: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel

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Book Review: Broken Birds - The Story of My Momila

Sibling rivalry, family feuds, money disputes are not limited to the children of Holocaust survivors.  They happen in a lot of families regardless of culture, ethnic groups and geography.  How many people are still close to their married siblings?  How many people are close to their aunts, uncles and cousins?  I myself barely know my cousins because I barely know my aunts and uncles.   I'm spending less and less time with my siblings after they got married.  We don't know our uncles and aunts that well and we are almost strangers to our cousins because our parents had grown apart from their siblings for the same dynamics that happened to this book's author.  This book may be about the children of Holocaust survivors, but it can be about anyone who grew up in any family anywhere in the world.  While I may have some grudges that I am holding against my siblings, I don't think I will ever have the courage to write a memoir about them.  My parents and my siblings will kill me if I dare.  Besides, there is always two sides of the story.  I wonder what the author's siblings' memoirs will be like if they ever write one.  So, I really admire the author's courage and honesty in writing about her family, particularly in such intimate details about her siblings.

This book is pretty well written overall. I started the book with an expectation that it would be mostly about the authors' parents' experiences from the Holocaust and then how they became broken psychologically and emotionally and the hardship they experienced when picking up their life together after liberation... But her parents turned out to be very strong and were able to put the trauma behind them to live a productive and normal life. They turned out to have a pretty good life after the liberation, which I am very glad.  I feel their life after the war was very normal, a lot more normal than a lot of the people that I know.  

Regardless of my different expectation, the book is entertaining and it gives me a glimpse of how others live their life. I can see some of the characters from this book in my own family.  This book is a family story well told and it keeps me interested.  It's not a book that will keep me up all night reading it, yet it's not a book that I will put aside without wanting to know what happens next .  This memoir has a somewhat sad ending, but it's what it is.  Unlike fairy tales, real life stories don't  always end well.  I just hope this honest memoir doesn't cause anymore damage to the already damaged relationship the author had with her siblings....Best of luck, Jaclyn, thank you for sharing your sometimes sweet, sometimes sad, and sometimes funny family dramas with me.

Reading About Kiev and Uzhgorod

I discovered Kiev by reading this book, the absolutely beautiful capital of Ukraine. The above photo shows the glorious St Michael's Golden Dome Monastery in Kiev.  Below is the River Uzh in Uzhgorod, where the author of this book took a trip with her family to visit her dad's childhood home.

When I was reading the book, I could see the author and her family walking through the narrow streets below in Uzhgorod in search of her father's old home.

 

Book Review: The Blonde Theory

The heroine in this book may be drinking too much Bacardi, her IQ and her being a Harvard educated lawyer totally don't match. She seems more like a self-absorbed and foolish high school cheerleader than a partner in a big law firm making a 6 figure salary. The book has too little originality and is extremely annoying. It was trying to copy the elements in "Legally Blonde" and "Sex in the City" but was done badly. The book is so retarded and annoying to read that it's not even funny.

Inspirational Quote I Last Read

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete." -  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Above: Spinning Lotus Birthday Candles $4.50

Inspirational Quote I last Read

"People  are not disturbed by things but by the views they take of them."  --Epictetus, first century A.D.

Best Selling Books April 29 2012

Looking for great books to read?  Click here to view a list of the best selling fictions and nonfictions... Happy reading!!

Destruction of History That I Never Knew Until Now

"The Bamiyan Buddhas were shockingly dynamited in February of 2001, after inhabiting their niches for almost fifteen hundred years.  They had been the largest examples of standing /Buddha carvings in the world and had been designated by UNESCO, the United Nation's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, as a World Heritage site.  Now they lay in a pile of rubble."  quoted from page 257 of this book.

Above are photos of one of the Bamiyan Buddhas before and after its destruction by Taliban.  I never knew about this until now that I'm reading this book....