Tag: mother

Review: We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

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Alexis:

Anna and I both read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh years ago and we loved it. We Never Asked for Wings has some similar themes: pregnancy, motherhood, family, and honesty.

The book opens when Letty, a young and troubled mother of two, leaves her children alone to go to Mexico to find her parents. Her parents were living with her and taking care of her children, and she doesn’t know how to be a mother.

The story mostly alternates between Letty and her young teenage son, Alex. While Letty navigates motherhood, Alex navigates school and a budding relationship with a girl named Yesenia, all while caring for his six-year-old sister Luna and searching for the father he’s never known.

I mostly connected with Alex as a character, as his dreams and motivations felt real and true to character. He was a good and innocent character who happened to be in a bad situation. However, because the story did focus on him so much, the book tended to lean towards a more YA vibe.

I think Diffenbaugh did a good job with certain struggles of the Espinosa family, such as poverty and citizenship.

However, I struggled to connect with Letty. She was almost overly flawed, so much so that I disliked reading about her character. I was annoyed with all of her actions. She neglected her family and continued to make a string of bad decisions, including getting her son drunk. She had some almost-redeemable moments towards the end, but it wasn’t enough of a character arc for me.

My biggest problem with the book is that you can tell Diffenbaugh struggled to write the story. In the acknowledgments, Diffenbaugh says, “They say book two is hard. Whether or not this is true I don’t know, but I believed it to be true, and so this book was hard for me. Really hard.”

While I enjoyed the overall core of the story, as well as the motif of bird and feathers, parts of this book felt off. When Wes, Alex’s father, is finally introduced, he never feels like a round character. He, and his personality and motivations, just sort of hover in the story.

The events in the latter part of the book feel too melodramatic. While somewhat believable, Alex’s actions are a little too out of character. And after all the dramatic events at the end, it wraps up just a little too nicely.

VERDICT: 3 stars

 

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.

Review: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

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Alexis: Read 5/11/18

“‘Tea reminds us to slow down and escape the pressures of modern life,’ he says. ”

There are some rare books out there that I just know I’ll love, and this was one of them. Okay, maybe I read it because I love tea and the reviews were good. But what other reasons do I need?

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane ended up being my top book of 2018!

The section part of the book is a fascinating, and sometimes disturbing (let’s just say I’m a twin) detailed exploration of the Akha people and their way of life. The middle is a little slower paced, but it masterfully meshes Li-yan’s Akha culture with the modern way of life in China. The last section explores Li-yan’s new life and Haley’s life in California. Haley’s life is revealed through documents, letters, and essays.

See manages to weave an epic story while also exploring China’s history, the history of tea, and what it means to be Chinese and Chinese American. She handles each of her characters with care (in their characterization, that is; they all go through some incredibly tough situations). The only character that felt out of place was Ci-teh later in the book, though I understand why she turned out the way she did.

Overall, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is a beautifully written story, the core of which focuses on the relationship between mother and daughter, and the promise of finding one another again.