Book Galleys
Book Reviews, mystery novels, memoirs, women's fiction, literary fiction. adult fiction, multicultural, Asian literature
Apr 29, 2023
Sunday Salon: Some Lighter Reads TBR
Apr 22, 2023
I Can't Save You: A Memoir by Anthony Chin-Quee
Memoir
I Can't Save You: A Memoir by Anthony Chin-Quee
Genre: memoir, medical, nonfiction
Publication: April 4, 2023; Riverhead Books
My comments:
I thought that Anthony Chin-Quee, a Black surgeon, wrote this revealing and honest memoir with distinct audiences in mind. The medical community, for one, starting with those at the very top who make and keep the policies that affect the wellbeing of the others - the doctors, medical students, would-be medical students, hospital staff, and the patients themselves.
Then there are the very personal parts in the memoir that tackle his relationships with others, whether while training and working as a surgeon, in his personal life or in the dysfunctional, multi-racial West Indian family in which he grew up.
I view the book as a wake up call to the medical community in how they train and treat their staff and what they expect that may be just too much - the long hours working without sleep that could endanger both patient and doctor, for instance. The writing is intense as the author describes in a brutally honest way what he had to face with his patients, with other doctors and staff members, in the operating room, and in the hospital while working dangerously long shifts. Granted, some of his descriptions have some humor, in a kind of way.
And the other wake up call is to the society at large, which continues, based on his experiences, to seriously undermine and underestimate people of color, and their abilities and potential.
This book is a must read also, as I see it, for would be doctors, or for those already in the middle of their profession. It's an eye opener for newbies that is frank and honest, even in its brutal, no holds barred descriptions.
At the end of the book, I was happy for the author that he found his true path, benefiting from his grueling and challenging training to do what he truly loves - writing and using his way with words, leaving behind a debilitating profession, a toxic family member, and forming his own perfect family.
I finished the book with more appreciation for my own doctors and specialists, realizing what they must have gone through, the gauntlets they have to run, to reach and stay where they are.
About the Author
Anthony Chin-Quee, M.D., is a board-certified otolaryngologist with degrees from Harvard University and Emory University School of Medicine. An award-winning storyteller with The Moth, he has been on the writing staff of FOX’s The Resident and a medical adviser for ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.
Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
Apr 15, 2023
Book Reviews: Afterparties, and The Rachel Incident
Book Reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Rachel Incident, a novel about early twenty-somethings in Cork, Ireland gave me a look at the Irish Republic, its people, and its history regarding abortion rights and its fight for women's reproductive rights.
The feelings that Rachel has for both Jameses leads her into rocky relationships with her college lit teacher and his wife. All these people interact to make for a compelling story of love in many different manifestations.
Funny, heart warming, amazing characters lead us on a merry dance in this novel of manners, friendships, and some tragedy. The comedy and the drama and even damaging hypocrisy also makes this a thoughtfully unusual book.
Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
These short stories describe the lives of young Cambodian Americans at home, school, work - their checquered lives, many on the lower income level, their families surviving as relatively recent immigrants and refugees from the Cambodian Civil War and the Khmer Rouge in the mid 1970s, a war called the Cambodian Genocide.
This war and their family history are still alive among these families, as they try to find their way in a new country, sometimes worried about the past finding its way into their present and future. The stories are set in a community in California.
Many of them are heart breaking as the children carry the scars of the past and continue to feel the effects of the sufferings of their parents and families during what they refer to as the Genocide in Cambodia. Adapting to a new country is an added complication for the families and their children growing up American.
I found the stories revealing and necessary for us to understand what some immigrant families face and carry with them in their new country and new home.
What are you reading this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
Apr 8, 2023
Sunday Salon: Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie; Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Holding Pattern: A Novel by Jenny Xie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a novel about a Chinese immigrant family - a mother-daughter and their relationship in the U.S. Rather than an immigrant child/adult having to cope with a demanding, self-sacrificing traditional parent, this is about a mother/parent who has broken the norm or stereotype and found a new way of independent living.
Kathleen disappointed her divorced mom Marissa after dropping out of her academic program in psychology and returning home to Oakland, Ca. But Kathleen finds a new mother on her return: Marissa has changed her outlook and lifestyle, becoming trendy and modern and engaged to a tech entrepreneur, Brian Lin.
The novel has two themes : Kathleen trying to find her own way with her interest in psychology and touch therapy, cuddle clinics, and her mother having a renewed interest in reviving her life. This novel surprised me as it deviates from the traditional daughter-mom pattern of Asian parent-child relationships.
I liked the new Marissa, the mom, who is still concerned about her undecided daughter and tries to help her back to a constructive future, but who is determined to live a satisfying life of her own.
What are you reading this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
Apr 2, 2023
Sunday Salon: Modern Trope of Loss and Returning Home
Returning home:
I 've been reading books about young women abandoning their job after a breakup with a boyfriend, and returning to their parents' home. This seems to be a popular trope as I've seen it in several contemporary novels.
However, the stories vary widely once the main character moves back to family, depending on their circumstances and family dynamics. This makes them interesting regardless of the trope.
A Quitter's Paradise: A Novel by Elysha Chang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novel deals with two generations of a family impacting each other - the story of Rita and Jing from Taipei, who emigrate to the U.S. and the stories of their daughters, Narisa and Eleanor, born and raised in New York.
The adult Eleanor, on her own, quits her PhD program in neuroscience; her older sister Narisa disappeared for good while a teen, after one too many fights with her harsh and disapproving parents. And only Eleanor and her mother Rita are left in the family after the father Jing leaves home and forms a new family in Taipei.
I was left amazed and dismayed at the family dynamics in this novel, especially that created by the parents. I wondered how Eleanor would cope with the history of people leaving/quitting and with the story of her mother Rita, left alone to raise the girls in the U.S. when Jing left the family.
The novel follows two separate story lines, a complex one of the parents and their extended family in NY and that of the girls raised in the U.S. I found both stories fascinating.
Sea Change by Gina Chung
Publication: March 28, 2023, Vintage
Genre: family drama, speculative fiction, animal story, contemporary
The story of Ro's friendship with Dolores, the giant Pacific octopus, is a heartwarming one, especially since it's her only connection with her missing science father, who had discovered and captured the octopus which now resides in the local aquarium.
I was a little disappointed when the story veers away from Ro's father never returning and her boyfriend leaving, perhaps forever, on a space exploration trip to Mars.
The novel includes Ro's friends and other young Korean Americans and their lives in the U.S. Their stories don't mesh with the story of Dolores, the giant Pacific Northwest octopus and the sadness of Ro's missing father.
The information about the octopus, its personality and its importance to Ro are the key parts of the novel although at least half of the book is devoted to Ro's other friends.
What are you reading this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday
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