Books Unfold : 2021

Short Book Reviews 4

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller novel written by British–Cypriot author Alex Michaelides. It tested how much I trust my gut feelings. It blew me away with its twist.

The story is about Theo Faber, a psychotherapist who is obsessed with saving a patient at the Grove, a psychiatric hospital. Alicia Berenson murdered her husband, went mad, and refused to speak to anyone. Theo, who is also the narrator of the story, was determined to treat her.

Michaelides led me to believe in the narrator with his explanations and stories about the effects of childhood, his knowledge about psychology, his bad childhood and troubled marriage. I have persuaded him to side with Theo. However, several chapters into the story, I felt something was off with him; he is a psychotherapist but acts like a detective. But he seems knowledgeable in his field and sympathetic towards Alicia. He just wanted to help her not harm her. I felt sorry for Alicia, too, and I wanted her to be able to speak again so she could share what really happened on the day she murdered her husband. I trusted Theo as the narrator but I was wrong. It felt like ten buckets of ice-cold water with big chunks of ice were thrown on me when he revealed his connection with Alicia. I was flabbergasted.

Personally, The Silent Patient is the most haunting psychological thriller I've encountered so far.

Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis is a story of three women of different generations who hold heartbreaking stories of loss and hope. It is told from dual perspectives at different points in time giving more insight into Soline's life as a Resistance volunteer during the Second World War in Paris and a seamstress and businesswoman in Boston, and Rory's relationship with her mother, Camilla, both of them are living in Boston as well.

The Keeper of Happy Endings is written well but didn't captivate me as much as the Last of the Moon Girls, the first Barbara Davis novel I read. Some parts of the plot are familiar and the twist is predictable. However, it's still a good read because the characters are interesting, and the themes -- war, power of wealth, family, hope, and love -- engendered self-reflection questions.

Thank you, Barbara Davis, Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Odyssey by Lara Williams

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

I was intrigued by the life of a cruise ship crew member so I chose this book to download on NetGalley. The author, Lara Williams, concocted a peculiar story about consumerism, and people's strange way of pursuing faith in somebody. The story is about Ingrid and her life on the WA ship as a crew member and a mentee to the captain of the ship, Keith. Ingrid's idiosyncrasies, her routines at work, her friendship with other staff, her alcoholism, and her married life make her a unique character.

Adding more colors to the life of Ingrid, the people around her are eccentric as well. Her friends on the ship, Mia and Ezra, play this game called Families, and they would act as a family following a storyline they spontaneously created. They would assign a role each time they play the game-- father, mother, and baby. One time, Mia played as the baby who was choking. It was so incomprehensible when I read the part saying that she choked herself for real. It was a terrifying situation for Ingrid and Ezra. Mia could've died. At this point, I was wondering what I was reading.

Another bizarre character is the captain who is Ingrid's mentor. He was a fanatic of a Japanese philosophy that he imposed on his mentees. He gave directives that harmed his subordinates. For example, he continued to have a meeting with Ingrid even though the ship was already sinking.

The Odyssey is an interesting read that reminds me of comedies with peculiar characters such as Derek played by Ricky Gervais, and Mr. Bean by Rowan Atkinson. Each of them has unique characteristics and stories that defy common sense and create absurd humor. The characters in The Odyssey make the novel leaves an inerasable mark in my mind.

Thank you, NetGalley, Lara Williams, and Zando for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

1414° by Paul Bradley Carr

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paul Bradley Carr's 1414°, a technothriller, shows the ugly side of progress and advanced technology that comes down to the Silicon Valley as sexual harassment, maltreatment of women and minorities in the society hide behind the top-notch tech giants. To bring the offenders to justice, a mysterious figure called Fate played like a marionettist, stealthily, adroitly, and indirectly maneuvering events using a powerful algorithm that lead to the demise of companies and CEOs who abused their power to their advantage. Lou McCarthy, a journalist, investigates the mysterious death of two CEOs. Unbeknownst to her, she's also manipulated by Fate to get involved in the case that endangers not only her life but also her mother's.

I enjoyed this book so much. The fast-paced plot, fascinating characters, and inconceivable twist fastened my attention up to the last pages. I have so many questions in the beginning that the book answered in the end: Why is the title 1414°? Who is Fate? Would Lou be able to get out of this mess to save herself and her mother? Would Fate be successful in destroying Raum? The story is well-written and profound, exposing what could happen if technology is in the hands of the wrong people.

If you love technothriller, this book is for you.

Thank you, Paul Bradley Carr, Snafublishing LLC, and NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Short Book Reviews 3

No Mud, No Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Thich Nhat Hanh, a global spiritual leader, poet, and leader brings the purpose of suffering to light in No Mud, No Lotus. He stresses that suffering and happiness are tied up with each other. "Where there is suffering, there is happiness. "

Thich Nhat Hanh explains how suffering is an integral part of being human and how it can be transformed into happiness. Running away from it is counterintuitive. Through mindfulness, we can navigate through it without getting overwhelmed. First, we need to accept its existence by taking mindful breaths that bring our minds home to our bodies. In this way, our minds stop rambling. Then, to make the transformation easier, we understand the root cause of our suffering by examining ourselves first. The pain of our ancestors is ours, too, so if we heal ourselves, we are also healing them. Breathing exercises are the main practices to transform suffering into happiness. These breathing exercises are included in the last part of the book. Thic Nhat Hanh also offers how to handle life's small and big sufferings and how to sustain happiness.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a short book but packed with thought-provoking nuggets on suffering, happiness, and life. The breathing practices are easy to understand and follow. I recommend it to those who are interested in the power of breathing and the art of transforming suffering into happiness.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

"How understanding the way your brain works can help you control anger and aggression."

These words stuck in my mind. I found this line as a book subtitle of Ronald Potter-Efron's Healing the Angry Brain that gave me an idea that if I understood how my brain works, then I could handle negative emotions.

I'm only human. I was very angry at one point in my life. Let's just say that there were things in life that I couldn't accept. In hopes of understanding myself and changing my mindset, I searched for an explanation for why humans get angry. My curiosity led me to find the book mentioned earlier. Then, I got more curious. I bought two more books about brain science: Brain Rules and The Brain that Changes Itself. Basically, I just wanted to understand my mind so I could change my life. Reading these books didn't make me an expert who knows the right ways in dealing with emotions, however, their impact on my life couldn't be denied. Gradually, I got to understand myself, and this understanding steered me to exercise self-compassion and acceptance that lessened my reactivity to any triggering situations. The journey to self-healing is not linear, though; there are good days and bad days, but I am getting better at handling my emotions than before.

When I saw The Tailored Brain Book on NetGalley, I downloaded it right away. The difference between this book and the other books I read is the emphasis on social connection as a factor in improving one's brain health. Improving our brain involves being around other humans.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Part mystery, part drama, part romance, and part paranormal, The Last of the Moons Girls by Barbara Davis tells the story of Elzibeth Moon who stayed away from her family for eight years to escape from the murder controversy involving her grandmother, and from the path fashioned by her ancestors, the path of magick.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Time travel is impossible. Stephen Hawking said that if it was possible, we could've met tourists from the future. Well, I have never heard of any news about people bumping into other people from the future, let alone meeting them in person. But then again, it's exciting to imagine what could've happened if we could travel hundred years into the past or the future. Thanks to fiction, storytellers can invent people who travel forward and back in time

Melodie Winawer's debut novel, The Scribe of Siena, is about Beatrice Alessandra Trovato, a note-worthy neurosurgeon in New York. She was the sister of Benianimo Emmanuel Trovato, a medieval scholar living in Siena. When her brother died, Beatrice became all alone in her life, and his brother left her a house in Siena and all of his work as a historian. He discovered the real reason why Siena fell from its pinnacle after the bubonic plague. Fearing that her brother's work would fall into the hands of Sienese scholars who have malicious intent, Beatrice took over the research. As she pored over manuscripts and books, something happened that changed her life completely. She traveled more than six hundred years into the past and found herself in medieval Siena. Confused, she had no choice but to find a way to blend in with the crowd before figuring out how to go back to the 21st century.

The Scribe of Siena ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The Tailored Brain ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Last of the Moon Girls ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am always interested in nonfiction books about brain science and performance improvement. Ever since I have been wondering why some people are more successful than others. The Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker has the answers to my question.

The book is not only a thought-provoking read but also a manual about success. It dismantles the concept of success constructed by what we see on TV, movies, and social media. Through stories of people from different walks of life- CEOs, mathematicians, athletes, drug dealers, and pirates, for example, Barker delves into the real essence of success and articulates well his observations and conclusions that are worth pondering.

Everyone Has What It Takes by William Kenower

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

William Kenower’s Everyone Has What It Takes shows that the life of a writer is not a walk in the park. Internal and external pressures shape the road to success into a meandering course. Be that as it may, the writer continues the journey to fulfill one purpose- to write stories with love.

Kenower shared a lot of his experiences and thoughts about writing, getting published, fame, and money that are beneficial to new and veteran writers. Even though the personal stories are lengthy, profound insights can be gleaned from them. I like the message of this book. With love, everyone has what it takes to write.

I love writing but I don’t see myself as someone who could write well, write a book and have it published. After reading the book, it encourages me to continue stringing words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into a composition despite the level of my ability. Who knows? I might become a published author eventually.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House, Writer's Digest Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Life, Freed by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

A Life, Freed, the third book of Tracy Hewitt Meyer's Rowan Slone book series, is a deeply-felt story about Rowan Slone, a freshman college student, who has just started her new life after struggling through her grim past. Little does she know, the new chapter of her life will be brimming with new challenges that strain her studies and her relationship with her family, best friend, and new boyfriend.

The novel is well-written and easy to read. The heavy themes of betrayal, doubt, suffering, family drama, and postpartum depression left despair in my heart. Even so, the unfortunate events that Rowan experienced bring forth her strengths-- resilience, compassion, and determination-- making her more relatable. There are parts that, for me, are rushed especially some of the events toward the ending but as a whole, I appreciate the story. Rowan Slone is a reminder that despite the trials we face in life, with hope and perseverance, life will become better eventually.

Thank you BHC Press and LibraryThing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dazzling Heights by Katharine McGee

Here’s my review of the first book- The Thousandth Floor

⭐⭐⭐☆ ☆

The teen drama continues as Leda Cole, Avery Fuller, Watt Bakradi, and Rylin Myers hide the secret that can ruin their lives. The new character, Calliope Brown, brought fresh excitement to the story with her interesting background and job description. McGee also added more futuristic features to the world she created. I enjoyed the first book more but The Dazzling Heights is still fun to read.

The Towering Sky by Katharine McGee

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Among the three books of The Thousandth Floor series, The Towering Sky is my most favorite. There are so many unexpected events that I didn’t see coming. It was an interesting journey to follow the story of the different teenagers who got caught in a web of lies, found who they really are, and chose their own path in life.

Back of the Yard by Meg Lelvis

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

A story with heavy themes such as family drama, depression, alcoholism, and mental health, left me teary-eyed even though there's more telling than showing.

This book shows the power of a mother. Abandonment and rejection from a mother is a great force that can make or break a child’s life. However, it’s not the end of the world for the child. With love, forgiveness, understanding, and determination, life can be better.

Thank you Black Rose Writing and LibraryThing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Master of One by Jordan Raynor

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a life-changing book. I have been wondering all my life what is the ultimate purpose of my existence and this book gave me the answer. It also provides ways on how to find the right path for me to fulfill the purpose of my life. Highly recommended to those who are still looking for their North Star.

A Book Review: Redeeming Your Time

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Redeeming Your Time, a Christian nonfiction book, is the most meaningful time management book I've read so far. It contains the best parts of books I have read- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Franklin Covey, The Time of Your Life by Tony Robbins, and Get Things Done by David Allen, Deep Work by Cal Newport, and Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday. What is more, Jordan Raynor, highlights one perspective that is not tackled in other books, the spiritual aspect of time management. Raynor aims to "create a unique balance between the theological, the theoretical, and the tactical."

Jordan Raynor has been giving support to Christians through his podcast, devotionals, and books. He is the national bestselling author of Called to Create and Master of One.

❤️ The Things I Love❤️

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The Awakening of Meena Rawat is the second novel of Anoop Judge, an Indian-American blogger and author, that is about two lovers, Rumi and Meena. They met when they were teenagers in an orphanage in India where they experienced the harshness of life as members of the lowest caste, got separated because of Rumi's desire to have a better life, and met unexpectedly several years after in Fremont, California.

Meena got married to another man, Bhavesh, who belonged to a higher caste. Her marriage with him elevated her status in society. Together with their only child, they lived in California where Bhavesh operated his business and Meena worked indexing catalog records in a university. Rumi, on the other hand, became a multi-millionaire, Fortune 500 CEO but got divorced from his wife, Jane, whom he met at the University of New York.

⭐⭐⭐🌠☆ 3.5

The Thousandth Floor, the first book of The Thousandth Floor series by Katharine McGee, revolves around the lives of five teenagers-- Avery Fuller, Leda Cole, Rylin Myer, Watt Bakradi, and Eris Dodd-Radson-- coming from different social classes, enmeshed in friendship, love, betrayal, and controversy. The series is regarded as the “futuristic Gossip Girl” set in the year 2118.

Even though I am not a big fan of teen dramas, I still enjoyed the other components of the novel. I am fascinated by the futuristic world that McGee created that showcases new technology, food, transportation, business establishments, and residential spaces that can be found inside the Tower, a 10,560-feet skyscraper with 1,000 floors, in New York City. It’s almost like 4 Burj Khalifas placed on top of each other. According to her website, McGee based the concept of the mega-structure on vertical urbanization, “the idea that cities of the future will grow upward rather than outward.” Aside from being a sustainable and high-tech habitat in 2118, the tower marks the social classes of the people living there--- those who live on higher floors belong to a higher class. The Tower is an incredible setting that keeps the story in motion, displays the proclivity of the characters, and increases my emotional experiences as a reader.

As for the story, the pace is mainly influenced by two emotional drivers: forbidden love and unrequited love. These forces weave the paths of the teenagers into a web of lies that eventually leads to an unexpected, unspoken, reluctant agreement to keep their secrets from the authorities, their family, and friends, or else their lives will be destroyed. Told from different perspectives, the story was overwhelming at first as I followed the narrative of different characters but I was absorbed and intrigued by the characters eventually despite their teenage idiosyncrasies.

If you enjoy teenage drama and science fiction, this book is for you.

Discussion Questions

How many main characters are there in the story? What do you think about having multiple main characters?
The story is told from different perspectives, how does it affect the story?
Who among the main characters do you identify with the most? Explain.
What makes the relationship among the main characters complicated? Why?
What is your opinion about the ending?
The Tower is an unbelievable mega-structure where you can find houses, restaurants, parks, hospitals, and other important establishments. What do you think about this vertical urban city?
What can you say about the new technologies described in the novel? Which one is your favorite and why?
How do you imagine cities in 2118? Cite specific examples.
What emotions were evoked as you read the novel?
Who would you recommend this book to?

Further Information

Title: The Thousandth Floor

Author: Katharine McGee

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; Reprint edition (June 6, 2017)

Publication Date: June 6, 2017

Print length: 496 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062418602

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062418609

A Book Review: Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Simple but poignant, Lois Lowry's second novel published in 1978, Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye, is a young adult fiction about an adopted teenage girl searching for her biological mother.

Natalie Armstrong had a loving family, an understanding boyfriend, great friends, and a bright future. What could be better? She stood out because of her good looks and intelligence; still and all, she doubted whether she's lucky or not. Something was missing in her life, something that scared her. But she must find it, face it, and know the truth once and for all. In the summer before going to college, she put considerable effort into finding the answers to the questions she had posed. Who was she? Why did her mother give her up? Who was her real family?

Lakambini Sitoy portrays the life of a multigenerational, Filipino family, punctured by a scandal, against the backdrop of colonial mentality and elitism in a small community in the Philippines in her debut novel Sweet Haven.

The story revolves around the Pastor family -- Daniel, Luth, Narita, Antonia, and Naia. When her illegitimate child, Naia, appeared in a malicious video, Narita went back to her town from Manila where she worked to save her daughter from ignominy. As she probed into the case, Narita faced the hard truths in her life -- lies, manipulation, and rejection of their authentic selves had been haunting her family, and discrimination and corruption had been pervasive in their community. She witnessed her family’s shameful fate after confronting convoluted circumstances they were in.

Lakamibini Sitoy is a respected Filipino writer whose work is also published in the US, the UK and Europe. She also wrote two collections of short stories, Mens Rea (1998) and Jungle Planet (2005), both published in Manila. She received the David TK Wong Fellowship at the University of East Anglia, UK in 2003.

My Thoughts

⭐⭐☆☆☆

Even though Sweet Haven is a difficult read for me, I appreciate the writing prowess of Lakambini Sitoy in creating characters with depth, enhanced by their culture and environment. Their unique characteristics intersect with some negative aspects of Filipino culture-- elitism and colonial mentality.

The book illuminates the repercussions of Pastors’ bias for being highly educated and for anything Western (white skin, English language, imported products, and living and working abroad) that pushes them to a step higher in the social class. Consequently, they treat others who are below their class as second-rate people.

Sitoy exemplifies this with a scene at a bank where Luth Pastor, the matriarch of the family, was standing at the teller’s counter when her toe was stepped on by the bank’s janitress who was sweeping the floor. Luth grumbled but the janitress, instead of saying sorry, muttered a phrase in the vernacular that is similar to the line “Who do you think you are?” The janitress was just doing her job and Luth could’ve stepped aside. Luth got back at the janitress with retorts in the native language and in English. She called the janitress a ‘dried-up Monkey’ and a ‘mail-order bride’.

Luth, who was an elementary school teacher, had also wanted to live abroad but his husband, Daniel Pastor, a highly educated Filipino with a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in England and the United States of America, had no desire to leave their town. Because of this, she hoped her daughters would take up nursing so they could work abroad. She was able to persuade her younger daughter, Antonia, to become a nurse even though she didn’t want to. Eventually, Antonia left for Finland to find her luck there.

In the Philippines, it’s a sad truth that having fair skin is more advantageous. Even in the family, children with brown skin could experience discrimination. Narita suffered from being treated as inferior because of her brown skin. Her mother gave her fair-skinned sister, Antonia, more favor, which made Narita angry, insecure, and rebellious. She lived away from her family, working as a writer in a newspaper in Manila.

Reading Sweet Haven was not a great experience for me. The plot is slow and contains familiar elements that are commonly present in Filipino drama movies and soap operas - a provincial girl searching for a better life in the Philippine capital, a rebellious daughter getting pregnant by a man below her family's standards, a rich boy harassing and abusing a poor girl, corrupt government officials getting involved in a case, and criminals getting away with their felonies. Besides having a common storyline, the writing style of Sitoy is difficult for me. Reading the book was like riding a vehicle on a road with many potholes. Some highfalutin words impeded smooth reading.

Nonetheless, this book is a wake-up call to address colonial and elitist mentality. I couldn’t pretend this doesn’t exist in our psyche as Filipinos even these days. I just hope that we will be able to acquire a radically different mentality that strengthens our self-identity and self-efficacy.

Discussion Questions

How do you find the title of the book, Sweet Haven?
How does Narita’s mother influence her?
Because of the color of her skin, Narita experienced prejudice even from her mother. What are the consequences of this treatment on Narita’s life?
What drives Antonia to take care of her sister’s daughter?
How does Sitoy show elitism in Philippine society?
What other aspects of Philippine society are described in the story? Do you agree with the way the author portrayed them?
Is the story well-placed? Why or why not?
Is the book character-driven or plot-driven?
What can you say about the ending of the novel?
What questions would you ask the author?