I loved the opening of the book, but after the first chapter or so, there is a long section of info-dumpy exposition. It is well written enough that some people would likely appreciate it, but it took quite a bit of patience for me to wade through it. I kept going mostly because I loved the introduction of the protagonist, Greer.

Full review:
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/10/15/the-female-persuasion-by-meg-wolitzer/

Amy Tan has an odd mix of analytical and whimsy in her writing. She snatches a lot of physical details out of the air and presents them as something that supports a point that is never quite clear to me. It is like wandering around in a magnificent hedge maze, where I‘m completely lost, but totally enthralled.

For full review: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/08/19/where-the-past-begins-a-writers-memoir-b...

In Green Girl, the protagonist, Ruth, uses her beauty as both a shield and as a ticket into a more privileged world. The narrative is so colored by Ruth‘s perspective that the book‘s setting felt surreal to me.

For full review:
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/07/26/green-girl-by-kate-zambreno/

When I read this book, I didn‘t find it especially engaging. If anything, I found it confusing, but afterward, I could not stop thinking about it. It‘s more of an intellectual experience than an emotional one.

For full review:
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/07/14/theidiotelifbatuman/

I struggled to connect with these characters. The protagonist has serious OCD and germaphobia, but rather than making her seem more human, it felt as though Green was using her as a delivery system for his own OCD-like thoughts.

Every other character in this book humors the protagonist way too much. This allows Green to create conversations where connections are...

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/06/15/turtles-all-the-way-down-by-john-green/

In her responses, she often goes into detail about some aspect of her own life, her past, or a similar problem she has faced. This can be interpreted as either narcissistic or as an exceptional level of full disclosure: this is where she is coming from. I prefer to think of it as the latter. She‘s letting everyone know exactly where in her head she has retrieved h...

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/04/27/tiny-beautiful-things-by-cheryl-strayed/

It is slow in a way that is mesmerizing and intricate. With every immersive scene, Adichie gradually drew me into the world of her protagonist, Kambili. She builds the tension softly that towards the end, it was like I suddenly realized I was sitting in a pot of boiling water that had been tepid at the beginning. Adichie had raised incrementally temperature wi...

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/04/19/purple-hibiscus-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adic...

Every time I read something Maya Angelou has set to paper, I want to curl up inside of it and never leave. I can‘t get enough of her voice.

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/04/12/wouldnt-take-nothing-for-my-journey-now-...

Given the very real horrors that we‘re facing today, this kind of book might seem trite, but this was a pick-me-up for me. It takes place in a safe world that is looking back on WWII. Flagg reminds us that during that war, most people were terrified of the possibilities they faced, just like we are today, but they got through it.

For full review: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/03/20/the-all-girl-filling-stations-last-reuni...

I couldn‘t put this one down. It‘s told from the perspective of an adult woman remembering her high school best friend, Marlena, who died as a teenager. I related so much to the characters, the town, and their situation. It‘s not just about friendship, but it‘s also about class, poverty, and addiction...

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/03/12/marlena-by-julie-buntin/

I read this book because I liked the cover and I wanted to fulfill the “read a book for its cover” category for my reading challenge. Since that is usually not the best way for me to choose my reading material, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

However, I wasn‘t over-the-moon for it...

To read more:
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/02/15/the-strange-and-beautiful-sorrows-of-ava...

My husband and I love the movie The Princess Bride, so we read As You Wish out loud together. We also laughed out loud a lot. This made me want to watch the movie again even though I can quote sections of it from memory. There is nothing else to say. I love the movie, so I loved this. I wanted more Wesley, Buttercup, Inigo, Vizzini, Fezzik, Miracle Max and Valerie, and Cary Elwes provided it.

This is the first sports memoir that I have read. I‘m not a tennis fan, I‘m not even a sports fan, but I enjoy athletics. Because of that, I could appreciate the parts that involved kinesiology and Agassi‘s experience with pushing physical his boundaries and (as he copes with aging) pushing a body that doesn‘t do what it once did.

To read more: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/02/02/open-by-andre-agassi/

I love that this book is about writing to understand oneself. I really relate to the narrator asking herself why she writes what she does, as well as her questions over what she should omit and include in her written personal history.

To read full review: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/01/24/the-girl-who-wrote-loneliness-by-kyung-s...

I think the title of this book should be Autobiography of Pain. Grealy does talk a lot about her face, but most of it is about the amount of pain her face causes her. Diagnosed with cancer at age nine...

For full review: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/01/20/autobiography-of-a-face-by-lucy-grealy/

http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/01/09/show-your-work-10-ways-to-share-your-cre...

This book focuses on an American family living in the Midwest that is half Chinese and half white, so the thing I love most about this book is the representation. I‘m biracial Asian-American and even through this book takes place mostly in the 1950s and 1970s, I related to the racism experienced by the protagonists. The literary world doesn‘t contain a lot of Asi... http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2018/01/03/everything-i-never-told-you-by-celeste-n...

Karr's writing is beautiful, gritty, realistic, and romantic. Her prose is like good poetry. Her focus is where she puts her attention. Cherry itself is unique because it delves deeply into the psychology and circumstance of being poor, white, and southern. Previously, I‘ve only ever read about that world from an outsider‘s perspective. Mary Karr, in her...
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2017/12/30/cherry-by-mary-karr/
#memoir #cherry #marykarr

I now understand why Joan Didion was a respected writer before The Year of Magical Thinking.

In her journalism, she spells out the facts and adds subtle commentary only in subtext. She points out patterns, oddities, or things to watch for in her subtextual commentary, but just when you think she‘s going to make a bold statement, she withholds...to read more: http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2017/11/28/slouching-towards-bethlehem-by-joan-didi...

This as a vampire story for grown-ups. The cheesiness and eye-rolling improbability is kept to a minimum. The story is presented within the context of the academic study of history and I found most of information given about Vlad III fascinating. I did a little bit of research on my own to find out what was true...

The rest of my review is posted:
http://www.amyyuki.com/books/2017/12/12/the-historian-by-elizabeth-kostova/

#bookreviews #reviews