Tag: humor

Review: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

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Alexis:

Hi, everyone! I know Anna and I have been MIA for a while, but with me being in grad school and Anna freshly married, we’ve been a little busy! Thankfully, it’s my Thanksgiving Break (no pun intended) so I actually have some fun reading time. Now, to jump into the review…

I had the opportunity to go to a reading by Jaswal, and I’m so glad I did! I got to hear her read from this book, and it really helped bring the characters to life.

Nikki is a British woman, the daughter of Indian immigrants. When she drops out of law school and then her father dies, she starts working as a creative writing teacher. However, she quickly realizes that most of the Punjabi widows who signed up for the class can barely read English.

By the book’s title, you can probably tell where this is going. I love Nikki’s character, and I respect her trying to straddle her traditional Indian community with her modern British community. Her sister, Mindi, is a good foil to Nikki, as she searches for an arranged marriage throughout the book.

Overall, there is a lot of humor in the book, and I enjoyed the characters and the widows’ stories, as well as the glimpses we get of their inner lives. This book isn’t fast paced, and because of that, we really get to know Nikki as a character. By the halfway point, more community tensions start appearing that add another layer to the book.

I really liked the first ¾ of the novel, but the last quarter was a little too melodramatic. A lot of the events that happen feel very soap opera to me. And since the rest of the book rings very true, this threw me off a bit. And because of that, I knocked this review down to 4 stars.

VERDICT: 4 stars

 

 

 

SPOILER below:

I also found Nikki’s reaction to the gossip about Jason too overblown. She knew that the gossip the widows spread isn’t always 100% reliable, and yet she takes their gossip and just assumes the worst of Jason. I like the Pride & Prejudice style letter that he writes to her, however!

Review: Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

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This was the perfect light read as I adjusted to my new job–one that I could pick up after a long day of work before bed. A mix of Gilmore Girls and Mama Mia, I enjoyed following the adventures of Ave Maria, the “town spinster” in her mid-30s in the rural mountain town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. After the recent passing of her mother, Ave Maria is the only Italian left. Like any other small town, everyone in Big Stone Gap know everyone else’s business. So when Ave Maria discovers some long-buried secrets about her own identity, the rest of the town is quick to find out.

Parts of this book are downright hilarious. The part when Elizabeth Taylor comes to town actually had me laughing out loud. The same goes for the dog incident and the chicken bone incident. Classic.

I love the Bookmobile, and the fact that Ave Maria loves books. I love her devotion to her town and her mother, despite their faults. I love that Ave Maria is named after a prayer. I love that, because she’s an Italian in the mountains of Virginia, no one can pronounce her name. (My name is Anna-Marie–I can relate.)

Ave Maria does get a little annoying in her stubbornness to remain single,This would have been fine if she truly didn’t want a partner, but her actions tell otherwise. Sadly, she seems more jealous and vindictive toward love more than anything else. She turns men away and insists she’s happy, only to get jealous when those men turn to other women. There are parts of her character that I like and identify with, as I mentioned above, and then there are aspects to her that get really annoying, like her inability to notice what is literally in front of her nose.

Though I enjoyed Big Stone Gap overall, there are some things I can’t get past, which I’ll call here Early 2000’s Problems. It’s kind of like when you watch Gilmore Girls or an old rom com and you’re shocked at how something that you used to regard as so wholesome is actually filled with culturally insensitive, racist, and homophobic jokes. It’s not okay, but you have to approach these things in the context of time and how far we’ve come as a society in accepting people, even since the 2000s (and Big Stone Gap takes place in the late 70s).

Also very 2000’s is Trigani’s assumption that men and women live like species from different planets. There are literally lines such as, “this is how all men are,” and likewise, “ this is how all women are,”  this just isn’t the case! Again, I think that this has to be attributed to the time period (either that, or I just haven’t read a romance in a long time). There’s also an undertone in here that men are objects to be won by women and vice versa, which presents a big problem.

Despite the outdatedness, I still did enjoy reading Big Stone Gap, and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a small town southern romance.

VERDICT: 3 out of 5 books

 
Now for some very specific things that really irked me (spoilers below)–

 

The fact that Jack essentially bought Ave Maria’s heart when he paid for all her Italian relatives to visit.

The fact that when the family showed up Ave Maria’s own plans were completely pushed aside.

The fact that as soon as Ave Maria cemented her love to Jack, Jack’s mom IMMEDIATELY died, because she knew Jack was in love and didn’t need her anymore.

I totally thought the best friend and band director was going to come out as gay. Maybe he still does later in the series…?

I love Pearl, except that she is the token fat smart girl who discovered makeup and it made her life better.