Books Unfold : August 2021

Short Book Reviews 1

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?