Worth A Read Yes Length 352 Quick Review A novel diving into the dichotomy between people’s lives on social media and their realties. Tapping into pop culture, the book explores identity in the modern era.
I meant to post this last week on the fifth, which was supposed to be Sam Tschida and Siri, Who Am I?’s publishing day, but that would have meant I would have had to write this. I read it weeks ago, but life has kept me away from my computer because puppies. The pandemic pushed the publishing date… so expect this one to hit shelves in January! If you pre-order now, you’re supporting publishers and authors during this hard time, and you’ll probably forget you ordered it, so it will be a surprise to yourself in eight months!
Mia wakes up in a hospital with a bad case of amnesia. With absolutely no idea who she is, what she does, where she lives, or who she trusts, she leaves the hospital in a fancy expensive dress, her phone, and a pretty red lipstick. Through social media, she finds “her” house, which happens to be house-sat by a nerdy scientist. He becomes her right-hand man, helping her piece together her life story.
Siri, Who Am I? is a crash course in pop culture. It’s quite something. I didn’t understand the vast majority or the references because I live under a rock. Hashtags pop up with alarming regularity; I would hate it, but it works in this novel because of the content and story being told. It bolsters the image of the shallow life that is being played out for an Instagram feed. Tschida relies on technology to help the story move; to the point it is more than a presence, it’s a character in it’s own right. Technology takes up the same amount of space in the novel as it does in most of our daily lives.
The footnotes made the novel for me. It establishes passing thoughts, judgements, side comments, questions and more. The footnotes are the inner monologue of the novel. It was a great addition, and I loved them.
It is a twenty-something creation story set in the modern era of Instagram “Thank God for Instagram. I’d already written a story for myself, and damn if it wasn’t pretty.” On the surface, it’s a fun novel and love story arriving just in time for summer. It’s actually far more interesting. Tschida explores the influence of social media on identity. Does personality affect what is put on social media or is social media influencing and changing identity?
As the pandemic continues to rage on, I suggest picking this one up and reading it. Siri, Who Am I? can’t help being fun, but it’s also a probing look into my generations’ obsession with social media.
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bisous und обьятий, RaeAnna
Title: Siri, Who Am I? Author: Sam Tschida Publisher: Quirk Books Copyright: 2020 ISBN: 9781683691686
Worth A Read Yes Length 426 Quick Review Becoming is the story of how Michelle Obama grew from a little girl on the South Side Chicago to an icon, a role model.
I read this during Black History Month, but life wouldn’t let me sit in one place long enough to sit and write. It is the first book review of Women’s History Month. Apropos since she has done so much for women and women of color in this country and around the world.
Michelle Obama is funny, complex, intelligent, thoughtful, realistic, loyal, hopefully, and more. It’s so easy to water down a person to the image presented by the media; more often than not, she was left to be the woman standing behind the man in the white house. Up until Becoming, I knew very little about her life outside of the basics. I loved her as the symbol of hope and change she has been for myself and others. As a human, I didn’t really know who she was. As I turned each page, I saw a great deal of my own qualities in her. Type-A, reader, observer, sense of humor, and not wanting to veer from the path but needing to. Michelle Obama is relatable; someone just about anyone could sit down and have tea with.
For those wanting a book about Barack Obama, he’s written his own. This is about Michelle. Barack shows up because he is a part of her story, but he is a supporting character. She does not let him over take her story, nor does she speak for him. She is telling her story, and she is a force.
Michelle Obama grew up on the South Side Chicago, watching the neighborhood change from diverse to predominantly black. From a young age, seh was filled with a drive to reach and garner approval from those around her. She studied vigorously and “miserably at my desk, in my puke-green chair – puke green being the official color of the 1970s…” not only proving her sense of humor but her strength of will to withstand such visual torture. After reaching her entire childhood with the support of her parents, she attended Princeton before Harvard Law to become a lawyer in a law firm in downtown Chicago, where she would mentor and fall in love with her husband.
There is a vulnerability and strength in her story. Struggle was a part of her life from an early age. Growing up black in a city not known for its kindness towards the black population. Her father battled MS. She was a minority in the Ivy League universities she attended and battled discrimination and low expectations her entire life. Michelle Obama spoke about the decision to leave the law after working so hard to get there. It’s a conversation people don’t often have, but I don’t know anyone who hasn’t fought that battle internally. There were so many moments of humanity, vulnerability, and relatability throughout whether it was miscarriage, in vitro, marriage, family, and career. It’s hard not to feel like you know this woman. Very few people can relate or even know the first thing about being on a presidential campaign trail. What most people can relate to is the stress careers can place on a relationship and family. The struggle to support a significant other when it means letting go of hopes and dreams to create new ones. Michelle Obama makes the unrelatable universally relatable.
This story isn’t just hers, though. Through herself, Obama is telling the story of people of color and more specifically women of color. The problem and cyclic nature of the angry black woman, “The easiest way to disregard a woman’s voice is to package her as a scold.” How hatred is incessant and often unfounded, but through acts of kindness and listening, “I’ve learned that it’s harder to hate up close.” The fact that creating minor change is difficult, but creating large scale change to affect a great number of people, “It was another thing entirely to try and get the place itself unstuck.” The Obamas were reaching to make the world a better place for everyone because they understood the struggle intimately.
When you’re a public figure, it can be hard to be honest and vulnerable, but Michelle Obama does it with sincerity and an open heart. She tackles the struggles women and minorities face, the problems in society and policy, racism and hatred, and more with kindness and honesty. It was a sad day when she and her husband left the white house for many reasons. I love and admire her honesty about the awfullness of Trump and what his presence in the White House means, especially following her husband’s presidency.
Throughout Becoming, Michelle Obama reveals herself to be a strong, resilient, intelligent, driven woman with kindness, empathy, and tenderness flowing through her every action. Though she may have not had the same big picture change in mind her husband did, the ripples she created in society have been felt as strongly if not more strongly because of her character, compassion, and willingness to be human, accessibly so.
Memorable Quotes “I just wanted to achieve. Or maybe I didn’t want to be dismissed as incapable of achieving.” School counselor telling her she wasn’t Princeton material, “Had I decided to believe her, her pronouncement would have toppled my confidence all over again, reviving the old thrum of not enough, not enough.” About men: “Hearing them, I realized that they weren’t smarter than the rest of us. They were simply emboldened, floating on an ancient tide of superiority, buoyed by the fact that history had never told them anything different.” On the pain of miscarrying and speaking with friends, “helping me see that what I’d been through was no more than a normal biological hiccup, a fertilized egg that, for what was probably a very good reason, had needed to bail out.”
Christmas in London by Anita Hughes has a lot of things you want in a Christmas story, but it falls short in just as many ways.
Louisa is a small time pastry chef working in New York City. Kate is a producer for a local cooking show. They spend Christmas in London to be a part of a holiday cooking show. Louisa grows close to an assistant from New York, and Kate revisits people from her past.
I’m fairly ambivalent about this book. It’s not bad. It’s definitely not great, but it’s what people want and expect during the holidays. Loads of ridiculous romantic stuff and drama for no reason. Hughes writes in the third person and switches between Louisa and Kates’s point of views throughout Christmas in London. It’s mostly told in the present, except for when Kate has flashbacks to the past for a muddy subplot. Honestly, the writing is really boring and cliché. There is an abundance of similes. Hughes is overly descriptive to the point of monotony. It became so repetitive when as the narrative said in one way or another “a man showed up and she realized it was Trevor/Noah.” Yuck. It doesn’t build suspense. It’s just boring and a waste of ink.
I could get past the writing if the characters were more believable or even likable. Louisa and her love interest felt like they were in high school more than adults starting out in a romantic relationship. Kate is more mature but not by a lot. I have a hard time identifying with adults in relationships who are completely lacking in mature communication skills. At the same time, their conflict resolution comes far too easily after they’ve bungled the whole situation from poor communication skills. They’re also not very likable. The parallels drawn between Louisa and Kate are not subtle; they’re basically living the same story arc.The male characters are the worst. Honestly, I don’t know why either woman put up with it? No man is better than any man.
Anita Hughes’ Christmas in London is a decent mindless read to keep you busy instead of spending time with the in-laws or family. It’s not great, but it could be a lot worse.
Memorable Quotes ““But there isn’t time to be passionate about more than one thing. If you want something in life, you have to sacrifice everything else to get it.”” “She had never been able to separate love and attraction.” “That was the problem with sex; it made it impossible to think.”
I haven’t read any of the other Shopaholic books by Kinsella, so this was my introduction into Rebecca Brandon née Bloomwood. Honestly, I can’t tell if Kinsella has created a series to critique the consumerism of today’s capitalist society or if she’s creating a hardcore shopping fantasy incarnate in Becky for women to live through. Both? I have my preference. Anyways… Christmas Shopaholic is the newest installment in the series.
Rebecca Brandon née Bloomwood is married to Luke. They have a young daughter Minnie and live outside of London near her parents. Becky works in her best friend’s shop. Luke does financial stuff. I won’t get into the plot because it’s very well done. Kinsella manages to throw a ton of subplots together in a way that truly mimics the complexities of life. Although, I’m not sure the characters are as believable.
Being up front and honest here. Rebecca, Becks, Becky – whatever she goes by – would irritate the ever living crap out of me. After reading Christmas Shopaholic, I don’t think I can read any more of these books. The title says it all; Becky is a true shopaholic. I don’t mean she likes to shop, I mean it’s a condition. She should see a therapist. I found her to be completely delusional about everything. She truly isn’t a bad person. She has good intentions. She’s just an idiot in many ways. She makes me cringe in just about every social situation. I also don’t know why she always has to introduce herself to everyone as Rebecca Brandon née Bloomwood. Is it a way to show she’s a feminist? Does she really like her maiden name? Is she trying to sound continental? I DON’T KNOW.
Another baffling thing is the marriage between Becky and Luke. I don’t know how her husband puts up with any of it. It seems like a really odd pairing anyways. A man who is very good with money and business married to a woman who finds an excuse to buy literally anything. When there isn’t something to buy, she comes up with a reason to buy something. The two together seem like a recipe for divorce and not at all an opposites attract situation. I kept wondering what Minnie, their daughter, would grow up to be like.
That being said… There were tons of really great moments. Kinsella makes poignant observations about sexism, classicism, family, holidays, consumerism, and more. I don’t think I can read any more of the Shopaholic series because Becky is not my cup of tea. I do think there are some really great parts about Christmas Shopaholic that override my disdain for the character. It’s a good book to curl up with and enjoy cookies this Christmas.
Memorable Quotes Online ordering isn’t really shopping, it’s “procuring.” You procure stuff online. You don’t get the buzz of actually stepping into a shop and seeing all the gorgeous stuff, feeling it, stroking it, being seduced by it.” “Whatever the Grinch can steal, that’s not Christmas.”
Worth A Read Yes Length 128 Quick Review The Herdman kids decide to take part in a church’s Christmas pageant, and it is the town’s nightmare incarnate. The director decides to make it the best pageant ever, anyways.
I had never read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, but I had read the play many, many years ago. Not only did I read it, I played one of the main characters, Imogene Herdman, in the play as a kid. It was fun to revisit this poignant and funny story full of devilish children in a Christmas pageant.
Imogene, Ralph, Claude, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are a nightmare. With almost no parental supervision, they run amok around town and in school. A reputation for bullying, theft, and utter chaos follows them everywhere. None of the other children like them, and even the teachers avoid them. The Herdman’s are all but beyond help. By chance, they end up at Sunday school and take an interest in the Christmas pageant. Even as everything is falling apart for the director, she decides to make it the best pageant the church has ever had, even with the disastrous Herdmans.
Published in 1972, I was shocked by how progressive it was towards gender equality and religious views. Robinson calls out society’s female stereotype for being sweet in the first sentence, “The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls)…” The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is 128 page children’s novel and a social critique making points on parenting, religion, the education system, government, and culture in general. Robinson writes an entertaining story full of funny and teachable moments sure to enchant children while leaving adults with a story full of nuance and insight.
A little girl in the same class as Imogene Herdman is the narrator of the story. The narrator is also the daughter of the pageant’s director. She has a fairly passive role within the story, but her narration has a really beautiful arc of understanding and growth, which is the same arc Robinson hopes the reader will travel on.
I grew up in a progressive, Christian church. I knew a lot more about the history of the Christmas story than others, but there is a gap in how the Christmas story is told in church and how it is written in the Bible. Robinson makes a point of calling attention to this gap. The narrator acts as the mirror for the reader to, likely, see themselves in. The Herdman children are the fresh perspective. Without a religious background, they’re making observations on the weird parts of the story most people and churches gloss over. The narrator is a good person, but her mind is opened by the seeming antagonists: The Herdmans. She has really poignant moments of growth, “[Jesus] could have had colic, or been fussy, or hungry like any other baby. After all, that was the whole point of Jesus – that he didn’t come down on a cloud or like something out of “Amazing Comic,” but that he was born and lived… a real person.” and “I had never thought much about Herod. He was just a name, somebody in the Bible. Herodtheking.” I thought these were incredibly beautiful moments within The Best Christmas Pageant Ever because I have seen adults who have not been able to make those same realizations.
One of my favorite moments in the book to read was the line ”We put Glady in a bureau drawer,” from Imogene because I remember saying it on stage. There were several scenes I very much appreciated. Imogene running around with a cigar was another because I had so much fun playing that character. Being a naughty Herdman was so fun as a little girl.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is such a great story for the whole family. I absolutely loved reading it for the first time as an adult.
Memorable Quotes “We figured they were headed straight for hell, by way of the state penitentiary…”
Worth A Read Meh Length 240 Quick Review Darcy Fitzwilliam returns to Pemberley, Ohio for Christmas when her mother gets sick and meets her childhood nemesis Luke Bennet.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has provided inspiration for readers and authors alike, inspiring retellings and fanfiction. Melissa de la Cruz joins numerous others in reworking the classic to fit into the modern world for a contemporary audience. Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe is a unique adaptiation.
Darcy Fitzwilliams comes from money, but she made her own when she took on New York City. After eight years away, she returns home to Pemberley at Christmas time after her mother has a heart attack. There’s family and romantic drama galore.
de la Cruz is inventive with character names, genders, and sexualities, which adds diversity to the classic. Instead of focusing on the traditional Elizabeth Bennet character, it is told from the Darcy perspective, who is now an influential business woman with a gay best friend, cue Bingley.
I like the reinvention happening in Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, but it falls into the same traps many retellings do. Insult to injury, all the problems plaguing Christmas Hallmark movies are seen within the pages. Mistletoe is completely devoid of societal critique let alone the sharp with Austen is known for. It waters down a classic romance to nothing more than a shallow love story. The narrative can’t even rely on clever language; at the best of times, the syntax is clunky and highly repetitive. de la Cruz is spoon feeding emotions, plots, personalities, and how-to-feels to the reader like a Christmassy treacle.
Darcy is supposed to be a strong independent woman but plummets into the anti-feminist and problematic ideology of “boys will be boys, and they’re mean to girls they like.” I don’t believe a woman with her drive, career, and education would act or react in any of the ways the character does in Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe. They’re unrealistic throughout, but the last quarter is bullshit. In the original, Darcy never leads anyone on, where as this version leads on a genuinely decent man, and she’s just mean.
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe was made into a Hallmark movie, and I can see why. It supplies all the romance people love to see during the holidays without any real substance.
