The "This Book Is Awesome. READ IT! READ IT NOW!" thread

[enterprikayak]

Okay.

Secret Daughter
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda.



Takes place in the 1980s, 90s, and now. Two main perspectives: one couple in California, another in India. Almost all the characters get at least one chapter of their own pov, though it's all in 3rd person present tense, with some flashbacks thrown in.

The California couple are both doctors and are infertile. The woman is a caucasian pediatrician, and the husband immigrated from India when he was 20 (from a relatively well-to-do family) and is now a surgeon.

The Indian couple, well, they are poor villagers, and when their 1st baby is a girl, the drunk and sorely disappointed husband comes in right after the birth and removes it from the birthing hut and "disposes" of it, as the poorer men tend to do sometimes when they think they need a son to help in the fields and they doubt they'll be able to afford a daughter's dowry to marry her off. The mother is crushed of course. Has a 2nd baby. This one a girl too. Husband is furious, but she secretly gets it to an orphanage to prevent it going the same way as the 1st and she goes back home to the village and says it has died. The 3rd baby is a son, and is kept and much rejoiced in by all the family, and though the mother loves the son, she is unable forget her unwanted daughters, or stop resenting her husband and his family for the fact that they think it was just a common sense thing to do, getting rid of them.

The American couple end up adopting the girl baby from the Indian orphanage and raising her in California.

So the story follows the 2 families the next 20 years or so, and the visions of the usa and rich india and poor/slum india and the good and bad of all 3 cultures (cause all 3 are just so different) are just so strikingly portrayed. It really captures how muddled the world is, with no clear black and white in any of it when it comes to ethics or family or lifestyle, etc etc etc.

Only 342 pages (imo, should have been longer to flesh out the characters more) but otherwise just brilliant.

READ IT! READ IT NOW!

[Distracted]

Sounds terrific. Someday when I'm retired and I have more than 30 minutes to do what I want to do every day I'm going to spend half the day writing and the other half reading. In the meantime, my fiction reading is done in ten minutes installments on the toilet and in fifteen minute installments over a bowl of soup at lunch.

Right now I'm reading a collection of short stories by H. Beam Piper. They're pretty dated, but interesting. I'll let you guys know if I read a novel any time soon that is worth your attention. The last one I read was the latest intallment of that unending Robert Jordan fiasco known as "The Wheel of Time". The fellow who took over after Jordan died (while working on book 13!) is surprisingly good. Dunno whether you guys want to go there yet until he finally finishes the story, though. The series is just so looooooog. And it's not done yet. But the new guy's in his thirties and as far as I know has no potentially fatal illnesses, so unless he gets hit by a bus or something he'll probably finish it. Eventually.

[WarpGirl]

Ek if you want a good series that will be great for the girls in a few years I heartily recommend The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. This series makes Harry Potter seem quite pathetic. And I'm not kidding. By far the absolute best book series I have ever read. And it is not just for kids. These books are AWESOME for adults. My mom and I literally fight over our copies. And devour every new installment usually in one sitting.

Here's the link... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_ ... %27s+thief

Another book I absolutely love is Staying Fat for Sarah Burns That book is an emotional roller coaster bar none.

[WarpGirl]

Thanks for finding this Dis! Well, I just finished a book by Georgette Heyer entitled Death In The Stocks. It's a perfect example of how a tried and true formula done well, can be something great.

Basic Plot: In a small village outside London a man is found dead in the stocks. He was stabbed. The victim is a man universally despised by anyone who had the misfortune to know him. So there is no shortage of suspects. His family is made up of one full brother, two half siblings, and a cousin who is in the unenviable position of being the family solicitor. Each of the suspects is each utterly outragious in their own way, and an utter delight in neurosis.

Why I Loved This Book: Actually, it was a rather slow starter, it took until chapter 12 until I absolutely could not put it down. You figure out fairly quickly who didn't do it, but figuring out how the culprit did the deed is quite a ride. This is a typical 1930's British murder mystery, in the grand tradition of Agitha Christy. Frankly, Heyer is much funnier! I laughed and laughed. As crazy as the characters are, they feel real. I mean I totally saw them as people, not archtypes. And make no mistake they are archtypes! But it doesn't matter, the point is that it's done well.

My next Heyer book is The Unfinshed Clue, I'm on chapter 5. So far, it's promising to be even better!

[WarpGirl]

I know that this is probably rediculous but since I didn't buy my Heyer books at Amazon or Barns and Noble I can't really review them there. It wouldn't be honest...

So I finished The Unfinished Clue last night and it WAS better than Death In The Stocks! Still very much a stock plot, with the usual characters in a 1930's British mystery, but again everything was done perfectly! The characters weren't nearly as outlandish than the characters in Stocks, but they were each distinct and alive. Again, you figure out who isn't the culprit very quickly, but figuring out who did it not so easy. All in all, truly wonderful experience. The Heroine reminded me a lot of myself, which was a little creepy, but I loved it.

Tonight I start Here Comes Poison! I already love the title!

[Alelou]

I don't think Amazon cares where you buy the book -- they see reviews as helping them sell. You just wouldn't be listed as a verified buyer on that one. I've reviewed books that I get out of the library there, and those reviews all went up and stayed up. What would be dishonest about that?

[WarpGirl]

Let's just say that I would consider it dishonest if I did it. We all must answer to our personal Jiminy Cricket.

[Distracted]

Anybody read Stephanie Meyer's The Host? I just read it because my 14 year old wanted to. Since it was marketed for adults I wanted to check it out first. The narrator's POV still sounds like that of a teenage girl, but I liked the concept, and it was surprisingly hard to put down. Her writing in this is better than her writing in the Twilight series. I think our crowd would enjoy the book because it's basically a romance with SF trappings, and that's pretty much why we're all here. I recommend it. Read it. Read it now before the movie comes out.