8 Books I Found Un-Put-Down-Able and You Will Too!
April 23, 2019
The Symptoms:
I don’t answer when spoken to
Dinner is late or nonexistent
The house is a mess and I don’t even realize it
And oh yah, was I supposed to be somewhere?
The Cause:
An un-put-down-able book
For me, an un-put-down-able book is one where the story grips me from the very beginning. It will have relatable characters, strong plot lines and will either expose me to something new or make me look at something in a new way. Each of the following books had those qualities. They were not all easy reads, but they weren’t dense either. They were simply well told stories that made me feel something, which is what all good books should do!
My favorite book of 2019 so far, this story is about a Palestinian immigrant, Isra, who moves to Brooklyn, New York after her arranged marriage to Adam. America does not turn out to offer her the freedom she hoped it would and she faces years of domestic abuse and loneliness. The alternating story in this book is about her daughter, Deya, who has grown up in America, who is also expected to marry who her family tells her to. She is faced with the dilemma of pleasing her family or standing up for herself. This is not an easy read, but it’s powerful. It took me inside of a culture I knew nothing about and showed me the struggles that women face about freedoms I sometimes take for granted. I could not put this book down.
Another book about immigrants, this one tells the story of two couples, Jende and Neni, immigrants from Cameroon, and Clark and Cindy, the wealthy corporate couple they work for. This book was so interesting because it showed how the American dream didn’t really work for people at either end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Clark was an executive at Lehman Brothers and the company was facing bankruptcy. Cindy suffers from depression and feels alienated from her husband and son. Meanwhile, Jende and Neni have a happy marriage but struggle to make ends meet while Neni attends night school. Jende relies heavily on his job chauffeuring Clark, and Neni even helps out the couple as they summer in the Hamptons. But they get drawn into the Clark and Cindy’s unhappiness and in the end, it doesn’t work out. This was a great book – definitely a one day read.
This Pulitzer Prize winning book of short stories is about Indians and Indian immigrants in America. Each story highlights various social problems and the characters deal with each of them in their own way. One story is about a cab driver in India who picks up a Bengali family. The wife begins to tell him her life story, as she would to a counselor or therapist. The cab driver is shocked by what he hears. This book deals with homelessness, infidelity, loneliness and more. It is a powerful book about the human condition and each short story left you wanting to read more. Definitely un-put-down-able.
What is creepier than a glass house in the middle of a dark, dark, wood? Nora finds out when she is asked to go to the bachelorette party of her friend, Clare, who she hasn’t seen for the last ten years. Nora is shocked to learn that Clare is engaged to her old boyfriend, James. Nervous about attending, but decides at the last minute to go. The party, in the middle of the Northumberland woods, starts off fine, but ends in disaster when an intruder is shot and killed by one of the guests of the party. What really happened that night? And who is responsible? This book reminded me of And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie. So much fun I couldn’t put it down!
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I will never think of Hollywood in the same way again. This engaging story was about the beautiful and sexy Evelyn Hugo who made her way across the country to become a star on the silver screen in the 50s, when Hollywood was golden and stars were kings and queens. Evelyn is now 79 years old and wants to tell her story to Monique, an unknown writer at a magazine. She tells Monique everything about her life with each of her 7 husbands. And Monique begins to realizes that she wasn’t chosen randomly. Her life is tied to Evelyn’s, but in a way she may never forgive her for. This book was so well written time flew right by. I didn’t even realize how long I was reading until I was almost done!
When I first read this memoir, I was in shock that something like this could happen in modern times. Susannah led a normal life as a journalist. She had a job she loved and a boyfriend she loved. She was happy. And then one day she began to feel strange. She became paranoid, hysterical and delusional. Her symptoms continued to get worse until one day, she woke up strapped to a bed in the mental ward of a hospital. While her family stood by her, Susannah kept spiraling. No one knew exactly what was wrong with her and theories of schizophrenia whirled around until one doctor took an special interest in her case. He questioned the schizophrenia diagnosis and began to run his own tests. What he found was that Susannah suffered from an inflammation of the brain that was treatable with the correct dose of antibiotics. This doctor ultimately saved her life. What made this book un-put-down-able for me was the horrifying reality that she could still be in a mental hospital today, if the doctor hadn’t found the true reason for her illness. Shocking.
I read this book a few years ago for the first time and absolutely loved it. Shonda Rhimes is the author and producer of some of my favorite television shows such as Gray’s Anatomy and Scandal. She is AH-MAZ-ING. How does she get everything done? This book makes her so real. She talks about how even though she is THE Shonda Rhimes, she still felt fear of doing new things. She had major impostor syndrome, believe it or not. This book tells about one year of her life when she decided not to let opportunities go because she was nervous about it or thought that she couldn’t do it. She decided that she would say “Yes” to all new and exciting things that came her way. This book is inspirational and I find myself coming back to it when I need a push to try something new.
This is actually a YA book, which I don’t usually read. But a high school librarian recommended it to me and I think I was done in two and a half hours. It is written in narrative verse, so that made it quick reading. But the story also completely drew me in. It takes place in inner-city Chicago. Will’s older brother Shawn is killed and Will believes that it is his job to avenge his brother’s death – an eye for an eye. Will takes his brother’s gun and goes gets on the elevator. At each floor, someone from his past gets on the elevator and try to talk Will out of the horrible mistake he is about to make. With each stop, Will learns more about his family and his community than he ever wanted to know. And he begins to doubt what he thought was true his entire life. Powerful and well written, this book will keep you riveted and in your seat until you are done.
That’s all for today. Until next time, happy reading!
