LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE

By: Celeste Ng

Plot: I don't even know how to condense the plot into a few sentences because there is just so much going on... but I'll try. About a "perfect" family living the good life in a great neighborhood until a single mother and her daughter come into their lives and burn ish down. I guess that works. 

Thoughts: This book, like her first novel, is basically about family, and motherhood specifically. There is so much going on with all the characters that its almost like reading about a soup opera. Everyone is keeping secrets from everyone. But it doesn't feel all that dramatic, just life.

I kept wondering how the author felt, does she think Bebe should have the baby or the McCulloughs? One second you'd be reading about how hard Bebe had it and start to sympathize with her. Then the next page was all about how Mrs. McCullough lovingly cared for the baby as if she were her own. It went back and forth like that the whole time and you just realize that there is no one obvious answer. There really were no winners in this situation. The thing that tipped me to Bebe's favor, apart from the fact that she was her mother, was the total lack of sympathy from the McCulloughs. I understand that it is a heartbreaking situation, but how could you live the rest of your life adopting a child whose mother wants her back? That's why the ending didn't surprise me at all.

The author definitely knows how to write about terrible parents as I slowly liked Mrs. Richardson less and less. How you can treat one child so much worse than your other children is so weird to me. The creepy way she had to involve herself in Mia's past and basically chase them out of town. You just didn't realize how awful she was at first and the more you know her, the more you dislike her. I just wished poor Izzy would have stowed away in Mia's car.

My mother-in-law asked me if it had a happy ending and I didn't really know how to answer her! I said it's kind of open ended but really it's more that their lives are just going to continue on, and you don't know for sure how they will go. Everything wasn't wrapped up with a nice little bow, it was just like the end of a chapter, but there is no next chapter.

Favorite Quotes: "We all do things we regret now and then. You just have to carry them with you."

"To a parent, your child wasn't just a person: your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all at the same time. You could see it every time you looked at her: layered in her face was the baby she'd been and the child she'd become and the adult she would grow up to be, and you saw them all simultaneously, like a 3-D image. It made your head spin. It was a place you could take refuge, if you knew how to get in. And each time you left it, each time your child passed out of your sight, you feared you might never be able to return to that place again."

"Parents, she thought, learned to survive touching their children less and less."

"One had followed the rules and one had not. But the problem with rules was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong, or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on."

Rating: 5/5 I really liked this book, especially the writing and the way the story is told.

THE HATE U GIVE

By: Angie Thomas

Plot: About a seventeen year old girl who is witness to a cop shooting and killing her childhood best friend, Khalil.

Thoughts: I have been wanting to read this forever after seeing it EVERYWHERE.  There was a lot of hype surrounding this book and luckily it lived up to it. When I was just starting this book, and about 30 pages in, my husband asked me how it was and I responded with sad. I was worried it was just going to be sad the rest of the book too. It wasn't all sad though and there were some lighthearted moments that rounded out the sad. I really liked the main character Starr and all of her insights. I LOVED her parents and her family and liked that they all felt like real people, not just characters in a book.

I read this book really fast, and was totally engrossed in the story the whole time. It was never boring or slow moving. I was bracing myself for something really bad to happen at the end, and I'm glad that didn't happen. Bad stuff did happen obviously, but her family was still all together at the end so I was happy about that. 

And yes, this book did make me take a look at my own bias. The part about Starr being worried about Khalil being labeled a "drug dealer" was so true. It's easy to just put one negative label on someone and suddenly that defines their entire life. I'll admit I would feel more sympathy at seeing a headline of a "high school student" or "teenager" that was murdered instead of a "drug dealer". And with the media  being what it is these days, they are always going to run with the worst possible headline. I thought it was interesting she showed how "drug dealer" doesn't even begin to describe the type of person he was and it's done intentionally to make you think that he almost deserved it somehow. But he was still a good person with people who loved him. I've also never have to have been afraid that a cop will shoot me when I've been pulled over, and I used to get pulled over A LOT.


Favorite Quotes: "Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right."

"At an early age I learned people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them."

Rating: 4/5 I really liked this book! Definitely a good one for everyone to read. 

THE HISTORY OF LOVE

By: Nicole Krauss

Plot: Told through three different perspectives, this is the story about a novel named, The History of Love and how these three different people are affected by the book. This is a book about a book, which are often my favorite type of books.

My Thoughts: After reading a couple books that I just didn't love, (The Goldfinch) I was just craving something that was well written and that I knew I would enjoy. I decided to reread The History of Love. I first read this in 2012 when my goal was to read a hundred books that year and I made it to 91. So I did a lot of reading that year and while I definitely remembered parts of the plot, I didn't remember everything. 

I just love the writing in this book! I love the way that the different chapters are written too. I liked that the characters actually had distinctive voices, which doesn't always happen with books that have multiple points of view. It felt like they could actually be real people. And I liked two out of the three at least.

 Poor Leo just can't catch a break! His whole life story is just heartbreaking. He has no one and is so sad and alone. He writes two books and neither one does he get credit for. He finds the love of his life and she's married, he goes to finally contact his son and he's died. And (*SPOILER*) I had completely forgotten that Bruno was not really there and it was as just as shocking for my second time reading the book.

I think the only thing I don't like about this book is the ending. I like the way it is written and I love that the two finally meet at the end, but then the book just ends and I wanted more! It felt like the book ended too soon and I wanted to know what happens next. There were things that were left unresolved and I didn't like that. Someone just please tell me that Leo is finally not alone anymore and that he gets the credit for his writing that he deserves!

Favorite Quotes: "They collected the world in small handfuls."

"So many words get lost. They leave the mouth and lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves."

"And with each pot and pan and spoon I put away, I also put away a thought I couldn't bear, until my kitchen and my mind returned to a state of mutual organization."

"Aside from myself, there was no sign of me."

Rating: 4/5 I really like this book and love how it is written. It was just as good the second time around. 

EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU

 By: Celeste Ng

Plot: Story about a Chinese American family and how they deal with the death of their middle daughter/sister, and the events that lead up to her death. It's told from the third person and switches between all the members of her family.

My Thoughts: This book has one of the best opening lines ever. It immediately sets the scene and I was so drawn in from the beginning. I was really enjoying this book and then it got to the part where the mom basically abandons her family and I wasn't really enjoying it anymore. I knew I was going to finish the book but I didn't really read it for a week or more. I struggle so much reading about anything horrible happening to children! Once I finally got passed that part though I couldn't stop reading until I finished it.

My favorite part was once it got to Lydia and her point of view. It was so interesting to see what happened in the past and how that effected her whole life and even what was going on with her prior to her death. I hated both of her parents and the way they completely screwed up all their kids. Okay maybe they weren't completely screwed up. It was just frustrating how their parents were trying to fulfill all their own selfish dreams through their kids and the horrible pressure that put on them! Another horrible thing they did as parents was use Nath as a nickname for Nathan. I hated that. I was so happy (and confused) by the ending and that it ended on an up note. This is a good book club book because as soon as I finished reading it I wanted to talk to someone about it.

Favorite Quote: "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet."

Rating: 4/5 I loved her writing and how real the characters were.