Other Women's Stories: What I'm reading this week (2/4/19)

Last week I finished:

As you know, I work in a university library, which in many ways is a dream job, and in other ways is no different from any other job, if you know what I mean. I love books about books and libraries, especially if they're written by folks who love books and libraries as much as I do. Which is to say: I absolutely loved The Library Book by Susan Orlean, and I think you will too, if you love books and libraries, collecting odd facts, and encountering colorful characters. In it, Orlean gives an exhaustive look at the Los Angeles Public Library that suffered enormous loss due to fire in 1986. Although the wiring was old, faulty, and overloaded, specialists believe the fire was arson, and though they think they had their man, arson is notoriously difficult to prove. No one was ever prosecuted for the fire which consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. This book was fascinating from one cover to the other. I learned a lot, nodded knowingly at a lot of the library stories, and found another book that's sure to be on my end-of-year best of list. If you love narrative nonfiction, I don't think you'll be disappointed. My rating: 5 stars.

I've been interested in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko since it came out, but length always kind of turned me away. I have to know I'll enjoy a book to spend time reading 500 pages of it. And for that reason, I'm glad I listened to this one (once my library system finally obtained a copy on CD). While it was interesting, I don't think it was interesting enough for me to want to read it for two weeks. If you've read Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, you'll have a feel for the structure of this book. But while Gyasi's book takes you through several generations of one family in Africa and America, Lee's book is about several generations of Korean immigrants in Japan. My one beef with the novel is that I don't feel like I was given enough of the political and historical background of Korea or its complicated relationship with Japan. I knew next to nothing going into the novel, and I came out with little more. I think this was a missed opportunity for the author, and it frustrated me a great deal. Overall, it was a good story, and it was well told. Be warned, there was a fair amount of sex in it, and some language. My rating: 4 stars.

I made an unofficial goal of reading a couple of books from Reese Witherspoon's Book Club this year, and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is my third Reese read so far this year! When this one was released, I was immediately drawn to the cover, but I wasn't sure it was for me. When it recently went on sale for Kindle (which I believe it still is), I decided I'd take a $1.99 chance. I was right, it really isn't the kind of book I love, but there was something about it that I kind of liked. The story is this: Nikki, a young modern British Indian Muslim, takes a job teaching a writing course to Punjabi widows at the community center. The group of widows very quickly makes it clear they want to write/tell erotic stories, and not much else. They have to keep this under wraps or the Brothers will shame them and shut them down--or worse. But in addition to this main plotline, there is a mystery afoot. The daughter of Nikki's boss was recently burned to death. Her death was made to look like suicide, but few of the women in the community believe that it was. Was it an honor killing? Nikki is determined to find out. The book tried to a number of things, and it succeeded to varying degrees on all of them. It was a light read, though some of the topics were heavy. I love books that pit tradition against progressivism, and this one did that. The writing, however, was rather lackluster, and it could have been a much better book. A note on the "erotic" portion of the book. Yes, there are erotic stories told in the book, and no, they leave nothing out. I was a bit surprised that the women's stories were in the book, and it felt a little cheap to me, like the author was trying for titillating to push the envelope. The graphic nature of the stories added nothing to the book, though it can be argued they were fun. (Just ask yourself if you find that sort of thing fun before picking up the book.) The author is coming out with a second book this spring, which I will likely pick up as I do love books about Muslim women and Indian women. My rating: 3 stars.

This week I'll be reading: