Sophie Kinsella's My (Not So) Perfect Life

While all the books I review on my blog are Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) which the publishers have graciously granted me access to via NetGalley, I want to thank Penguin Random House for allowing me to get a sneak read of this one. The news coming from the United States are dismal and depressing and I needed to escape into Chick Lit, I needed the printed equivalent of a romantic comedy and as she almost always does, Kinsella delivered.

I found myself enthralled with the story of Katie/Cat Brenner. At first I thought the book was going to be similar to The Devil Wears Prada because of Demeter, the marketing guru/dragon lady who seems to want to stop other females in the company from ascending the ranks. Soon we meet Alex, who is poised to become the romantic interest for the duration of the novel. Readers who are familiar with this genre will be able to predict Alex's identity before Katie does, but this does not detract from enjoying their first scene together as they try out adult toys... not that kind! More PG: stilts, tennis rackets that light up, and a drone.

Demeter slowly starts losing control of her tightly run empire. She misses deadlines, forgets appointments, and didn't realize she hadn't fired Katie when she thought she had. This last one was particularly hurtful to Katie who said a few things to Demeter, and the partner who was with her, that burn any bridges she may have had with the prestigious marketing company that used to employ her.

Katie is devastated. Contrary to what she portrays on her Instagram feed her life is not-so perfect. She  is forced to hide how spartan her London life is from her overprotective, farmer father who want her to come back home and help out at the farm. Because she has the means to live in London for two more months, she decides to hide her unemployment from her father and stepmother.

Rather conveniently, her family has plans to convert the farmhouse into a glamping site. Katie is skeptical that this may be another one of her father's failed business schemes, but feels reassured when Biddy, her stepmom, asks for her help to convince Mick, Katie's father, to go about this properly instead of buying the cheapest materials available. While she had been working in London, Katie created promotional materials including a website for the new business. She was also an unofficial consultant to the venture. When the first guests sign up, Biddy wonders if Katie could move back and help. Her offer includes a salary.

Katie concocts a lie and says she is able to go for a few months because the company gave her a sabbatical. However, she soon finds that it will become a lot harder to maintain the lie because Demeter has booked a week in the farm!

I highly recommend this book to readers seeking a light, fluffy, fun, fully-satisfying fast read.

Derek B. Miller's The Girl in Green

The Girl in Green is a narrative divided in three parts. It follows American Arwood Hobbes and Brit Thomas Benton though various post-war locations during peacekeeping missions.

When the two meet, it is 1991. The Gulf War has ended and Hobbes is a soldier. Benton tricks Hobbes into letting the reporter go a nearby town within eyesight. Hobbes acquiesces but regrets his decision when the town is bombed by enemy helicopters. Hobbes, feeling responsible for Benton's life, leaves his post to go rescue the British man. Meanwhile, Benton is trying to escape the destruction and save a young girl in a green dress. When Hobbes and Benton meet up they are confronted with a Baathist colonel who is willing to let the foreigners go in exchange for the girl. 

American soldiers swoop in and defuse the tense situation. The trio walks away toward the army base and the girl is shot in the back by the colonel and killed. Arwood loses control when one of his superiors dismisses the girl's life and punches the guy. The only reason he was not dishonorably discharged is because of Benton's intervention. The reporter promises to publish a story that does not portray the Americans in the best of light and the army recognizes it does not need more bad publicity.

The section section of the book shows that Hobbes was banished to a refugee camp where, in front of Benton, Märta--a Swedish relief worker, and a full cast of refugees, soldiers, and other relief workers he goes into a minefield to rescue a young boy.

Fast forward twenty-two years. The third part begins with Benton receiving a frantic call from Hobbes. The veteran asks the reporter to search online for a bombing that occurred earlier. Benton is shocked to see that the video shows the girl in the green dress. Even though the reporter knows it cannot be her, he allows himself to be persuaded to travel to the site, investigate what happened, and try to see if she is alive.

The Girl in Green is a fast-paced book that offers honest criticism of war and its aftermath. It not only takes on armed forced including peacekeepers, but also the NGOs that stay behind to help. This behind-the-scenes look is as compelling as the plot and makes the story a more compelling read.

Doug Mack's The Not Quite States of America

Upon opening the ARC for Doug Mack's The Not Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts from the USA, I encountered this map. I immediately felt ashamed. Throughout my life I have considered "Americans" ignorant because most of them don't know anything about Puerto Rico. However, coming face to face with the totality of the U.S. empire, I realized that I was just as ignorant to the plight of the people from the other colonies.

This realization had dawned on the author months before as he and his wife sorted their quarter collection. A travel writer with a degree in U.S. history, Mack considered himself an expert on all things Americana. When he looked at the quarters from the fifty states he was able to identify the images included on the back. However, he was mystified by those on the coins that represented the territories. He begins by asking himself, "What does a colony even look like in the twenty-first century. In my mind I pictured San Felipe del Morro, the Spanish fortification that up to World War II protected the entrance to the San Juan harbor as I raced through the myriad of ways we are oppressed by the United States's Congress.

Mack decided to embark on a journey to the U.S. Virgin Islands to learn more about their history which had not been taught to him in any of his classes. Once there he learns that residents of these three islands do not have access to the primary sources that recorded their history. Most of them are kept in Denmark, as the islands were a Danish colony before switching hands, and the rest are in the United States. Nonetheless, through conversations with locals and historians as well as by visiting various sites with historic significance, he manages to paint a picture of what life has been like in St. Thomas and St. Croix--St. John gets mentioned as well. He also asks the locals if they would prefer to become a state. As I read the quote pictured on the left, I realized that at least one other territory had people who felt as many Puerto Ricans do about our tenuous relationship with the U.S.

The author then visits American Samoa. I have to admit, the first thing I thought of when I read he was visiting that country is this riveting 2015 segment on territories from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight. One of the things that struck me about the clip was that American Samoans are not citizens, but rather nationals. A fact that the author points out by including personal stories of how they must travel to get their citizenship and the lack of health care options for the island's veterans. Mack also tells of several cases winding their way up toward the supreme court to determine if the people from American Samoa should be granted citizenship, an effort that is hindered in part by Samoans who oppose it, as well as precedent set in the Insular Cases, and how the law interprets the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

When the author travelled to Guam, he had this to say about how the United States justified acquiring these colonies:

Mack talks about the Insular Cases and how they defined the residents of the territories as alien races. While explaining the views that "Americans" had and that justifies their treatment of us--and by "us" I mean people born in the territories--he writes that "The human capacity for fear of the other is astonishing." A fact that, reading this during the weekend when Trump's Muslim ban came into effect and at a time when many "Americans" want to build a literal wall to keep Latin Americans out, feels particularly relevant right now. I took the quote, created the image you see on the right, and shared it on Litsy where it was liked 94 times and inspired two people to add the book to their TBR piles.

During the section about Guam, I learned about the Guamanians' efforts to lobby for congressional representation as well as WWII's deadly Battle of Guam (the deadliest battle ever on American soil) and read the following passage on the Insular Cases which I highlighted and shared on Litsy:

After Guam, the author visits the Northern Mariana Islands. By this point he--and quite frankly myself--has a deeper appreciation for the territories. During this segment of the book he writes, "You cannot write an honest master narrative of the United States of America without including the territories as key components. And you cannot write an honest master narrative of the territories without feeling acutely uncomfortable about the United States and its struggles to live up to its own ideals." This quote becomes particularly powerful when it is followed by the revelation that residents of Saipan were placed in camps for two years following WWII, a narrative that echoes the reality of Japanese-Americans who were placed in internment camps on U.S. soil for the duration of the war. This colonial mindset by the leaders and lawmakers of the United States has existed since the beginning of the republic. 

The last section of the book is the one I was most interested in, the one that spoke about Puerto Rico. Almost immediately the author admitted that the timing of our being granted citizenship was very convenient for the United States. Incidentally, as you'll see below, in the same paragraph I learned that poet Carl Sandburg had been one of the invading soldiers when the United States landed at Guánica to take Puerto Rico from Spain.

If I were to add quotes or images for everything I liked about the section on Puerto Rico, you would not have to buy or read the book. I was pleasantly surprised that it began in Loiza, as opposed to the customary Old San Juan, and that he visited places that are not normally on tourists' radar such as Arroyo and Barranquitas. By the end of his journey, the author asserts,

He follows that with a description of the collapse of the Puerto Rican economy. Mack makes sure to include that when a state has similar woes they can restructure using Chapter 9 bankruptcy, but that this is not an alternative for us. Though the narrative begins much earlier, it does include the most recent measures out government has taken to try to get us out of this mess.

Our situation in Puerto Rico, as well as that of the other colonies if fraught with issues that affect our daily life. I invite you to read the book and welcome comments and questions you may have that will further your appreciation of the realities faced by we, the underserved U.S. citizens.

Paco Roca's The Lighthouse

I read Paco Roca's graphic novel during my lunch break in school today. The slim volume, only sixty six pages, hooked me from page one. The epigraph was a quote from Moby Dick and the lovely blue lines depicting the sea were very calming. A page later that peace was shattered as I followed a young solider who, under the cover of night, escapes as machine gun fire erupts after him. The mood shifts quickly and I was with him the next day as he discovered a majestic lighthouse at the edge of a cliff. He passes out, has vivid dreams, and wakes up to find that he is inside the lighthouse and his wounds have been tended to. A brief hike down to the beach takes him to Telmo, the lighthouse keeper. Telmo is full of stories for the young republican guard who, we learn, is escaping the fascists. Savvy readers will recognize the classic tales he spins, but young Alejandro, who Telmo calls Moby Dick, drinks the fiction in as if they were facts.

As the book progresses the two bond as they scavenge materials from the sea to build a boat.

The book concludes with an author's note, "The Eternal Rewrite," in which Roca explains the changes he has made to subsequent editions of his works whenever a new edition comes out. This afterword also explains when The Lighthouse was conceived and that, originally, he had plans for a sequel. As a bibliophile and lover of graphic novels, I found these insights to the publishing process fascinating, but what I enjoyed most was when he wrote about his literary muse. It seems Mr. Roca found himself in the position that many of us have: trying to remember the title of a story he once read. Not just any story, the story he was inspired by to write this tale. Thankfully, he remembered before this edition was published. It is a story by Jorge Luis Borges titled "Historia de los dos que soñaron" ("The Story of the Two Dreamers"). Borges, in turn was inspired by a story in A Thousand and One Nights. Roca addsThe same story that inspired Paolo Coelho when writing The Alchemist. Don't you just love it when a book takes you down a literary rabbit hole? 

The Lighthouse is book for people with wanderlust, for lovers of seafaring adventures, and readers who love escaping to imaginary lands.

Sarah Andersen's Big Mushy Happy Lump

There are books that appear on your radar almost coincidentally and others you cannot escape. The latter is the case with Andersen't first collection, "Adulthood is a Myth." It seemed that Litsy was filled with nothing but love for this collection and I wanted to be in on the action. Unfortunately, my search for the book was fruitless. Puerto Rico's indie bookstores have not had it in stock during my visits, airport booksellers did not have it when I travelled, and I even asked a friend to see if she could get it when she went to New Hampshire to no avail.

I heard via Litsy that this, her second collection was available to read now on NetGalley. I immediately dropped everything and searched for it, to no avail. It seemed that Sarah's Scribbles and I were not meant to be. That is until last night. After I reviewed Emily Fridlund's "History of Wolves" I went to NetGalley to share my blog post and update some information in my profile. I decided to browse the comics and graphic novel section and what did I spy? You guessed it! Big Mushy Happy Lump. I downloaded it this morning and read it in one sitting. My laughter kept waking up Septimus (#Septimus or #SeptimusCat on Litsy) but I could not contain it.

I started taking screenshot after screenshot after screenshot of the panels I wanted to share with my friends Kim and Rachel. They were so relatable. So us. I also took screenshots that I wanted to share on Litsy. When the final page was turned I had twenty screenshots. I quickly realized that if I shared 15% of the book people would feel as if they'd already read it and not buy it. That is not the idea. In fact, that is the opposite of the idea. I want everyone to buy this book.

In fact, just before writing this post I went to Amazon and got a Kindle copy of Adulthood is a Myth which I will begin reading as soon as I finish writing this. I am seriously considering preordering this for myself and my above mentioned friends. If you know and love Sarah Andersen's previous work, are a fan of Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half (if you don't know her work and want to laugh aloud, you should check it out), or enjoyed Jenny Lawson's books (I recommend the audiobook versions) you should definitely add this gem to your collection.

While I will not share all the screenshots, I leave you with this last one which accurately depicts my reality as I finish typing this. Septimus has woken up and decided that the best spot on the bed is actually on top of my keyboard.

Litsy shoutout to Janani (@theshrinkette) for letting me know this book was available, Glori (@BookishMarginalia) for organizing reading challenges and postal gift exchanges, and my friends Kim (@gibblr), Rachel (@Figgy) and Sara (@SaraIsabel) for being Littens and personal cheerleaders.

Emily Fridlund's A History of Wolves

There are books that draw you in reluctantly. There is something about the protagonist, or the setting, or the conflict that has a gravitational force you cannot resist. This was my experience reading this book. I asked NetGalley for an ARC because, ever since reading Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf, I have been fascinated by the complex societal bonds these creatures create. What I found was a story in which no wolves appeared.

When I began reading the novel I thought Fridlund had created an unlikable narrator, but that is not exactly right. Linda is just an unusual one. She lives with her parents in the remains of an old commune in the Minnesota woods. She is very knowledgeable of the outdoors and has to hike miles to get to the nearest town and, therefore, to school. When she is fourteen, she becomes obsessed with two things: the alleged affair her teacher Mr. Grierson had with her enigmatic classmate Lily and Patra, her new neighbor across the lake and mother to four-year-old Paul.

Patra hires Linda as an occasional babysitter. The two form a strong bond. However, as Linda spends more time with Paul she begins to sense that there is something unusual about him. In fact, there is something unusual about Patra as well. This feeling heightens when Leo, Patra's husband comes into the picture.

The novel switches back and forth between the adult Linda's life and her youthful relationships with these individuals. As the plot progresses it is easy to guess that something sinister will happen. It is this that compels the reader to continue reading and become wrapped up in the story. The gripping tale can be finished in one sitting if one has enough time. Luckily for me, I did!