I’ve got quite a few book reviews to share.  It’s a busy time but I still found time to read, usually right before bed, and while I wait for my girls at the dance studio.  Lately, I’ve been finding that I’ve spent way too much time researching Korean skin care products.  Not sure how that was brought on but I think I was initially looking at Korean makeup (and I can’t think why I was looking at Korean makeup!)  which then lead to skincare.  I learned that Korean skin care technology is about 2 to 5 years ahead of the U.S.  I was fascinated and continued to read and learn about Korean’s advance products, including sunscreen, which I’m hoping to get my hands on because I am sold on the high SPF, broad spectrum, gel consistency or just less opaque compared to the ones I’ve used in the past, and cost.  Oh, and I might add that my curiosity got the best of me and I YouTube-ed a handful of Korean before and after plastic surgery.  I was saddened by their obsession for the V-shape jawline, big American eyes with thick eyelid folds, and super pale skin.  It made them look all very similar and reminded me of a book I read a couple of times called, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.  Interestingly, there was a time in my teen years in which I had wished everyone looked the same and lived in a socialistic totalitarian society, and I had good reasons for feeling that way, but as I got older I realized how bad that would be.

Anyway, let’s get the book reviews started.

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, paranormal, YA

This story is written in the first person through the eyes of a girl named Juliette.  She is gifted with the ability to absorb life from others and in the process kills them but she is aware of this so she tries not to touch anyone in fear that she’ll accidentally kill them.  She also has super human strength that she was unaware of until she broke down a metal door in her haste to escape The Reestablishment.  There is a love triangle going on.  Juliette likes Adam-a soldier of The Reestablishment, and Warner-the leader of The Reestablishment, likes her.  Warner wants her to use her ability to gain power but she doesn’t want to.  She escapes eventually and ends up in a facility with others who also have abilities of their own.

This book was recommended to me by my teenage daughter.  She loved it to death and couldn’t decide if she liked Adam more or Warner.  She compared the post-apocalyptic totalitarian world to the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry.  Personally, I just found this book to be okay.  Juliette’s ability was exactly like Rogue’s from X-men so I couldn’t get a good description of her in my head because I just kept seeing Rogue.  The relationship between Juliette and Adam was okay.  Nothing new, nothing exciting.  The coddling was overdone and unrealistic.  I liked that Adam had a cute little brother whom he wanted to keep protected and that Juliette finally met up with others who had supernatural abilities as well, although, their abilities again reminded me of X-men.

Title: American Sniper
Author: Chris Kyle
Genre: Memoir, biography, war

This books is a memoir by Chris Kylie on how he became a SEAL and then a SEAL sniper and the four tours he fought in during the middle eastern war in the mid 2000’s.  He goes into some pretty good details about the weapons he used and what he did as a sniper.  He also talks about the friends he made and the soldiers, his “brothers”, whom he saved or tried to.  He talks about his family life and wife and their struggles while he was overseas.  There are clips of his wife’s point of view of his deployments which really helped in understanding the stress war and military life can bring on.

Overall, it was a good read.  Chris came across to me somewhat cocky but he is also quite humble.  He’s very proud of his country and would do whatever it took to take down the enemy for it.  I was very heartbroken over the other SEALs, marines, and army men who died.  The language/prose was very simple like someone speaking to you about their life.  This book is not for the faint of heart.

Title: Ralph S. Mouse
Author: Beverly Clearly
Genre: Children, fiction

This book is about a little mouse named, Ralph.  He lives in a hotel and is friends with a boy named Ryan and his mother who also live in the hotel.  He decides that he wants to get away from the hotel and maybe live in the school Ryan goes to.  While at the school Ryan tells him to stay quiet and not peek out of his shirt pocket but curiosity got the best of him and he peeked.  A classmate saw him and suddenly he becomes the center of attention.  He is put through a maze and also makes a new friend.

Read this with my daughter.  We both thought it was okay.

Title: Ribsy
Author: Beverly Clearly
Genre: Children, fiction

This book is about a dog named Ribsy who jumped out of his owner’s car to be with him but accidentally got into someone else’s car.  He escapes, and while trying to find his owner, ends up in meeting strangers who take him in.  Some treating him better than others.  In the end his owner finds him and they return home.

Read this with my daughter.  She didn’t like it so much but I thought it was cute.

Title: The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
Author: John Boyne
Genre: Historical fiction, war, children

This book is about a boy named Bruno, who’s father got promoted to Commandant, and they moved from Berlin to Auschwitz.  Bruno became very lonely and wanted someone to play with.  He saw people working in the distance from his bedroom window and found his way to where the people were to see if there was someone he could play with.  He becomes friends with a little boy his own age named, Schmuel, on the other side of the fence.  He doesn’t know why there is a fence separating them but he is determined to become good friends with Schmuel.  At one point Schmuel ends up at his house and he’s excited but when he learns that Schmuel was only there to clean the wine glasses for a big gathering he becomes confused.  He realizes that Schmuel is hungry so he gives some food to his friend to eat.  The soldier that had brought Schmuel in to do the work saw the food in Schmuel’s hand and berated him.  Schmuel told the soldier that his friend, Bruno, gave him the food.  The soldier asked Bruno if that was true and Bruno, scared of the soldier, said he didn’t know who the boy was nor did he give him any food.  Later on when Bruno went to the fence to meet Schmuel, he saw the bruise on Schmuel’s face and felt terribly bad.  Schmuel forgave him and they continued to be friends.  Bruno would sometimes bring food and pass it under the fence where a small opening existed.  Bruno’s mother, who didn’t like their new living arrangements in Auschwitz, decided that she was going to return to Berlin with him and his sister.  Bruno didn’t want to move back to Berlin because he now made a new friend that he really liked.  Just before they were to leave, Bruno and Schmuel arranged for Bruno to cross over the fence to help Schmuel find his father who mysteriously disappeared.  Life on the other side of the fence was not what Bruno had thought and he wanted to go home.  The soldiers were loud and vicious.  They made Bruno and Schmuel and a bunch of other people wearing the same clothing, the striped pajamas, get into a line and had them enter a large metal room.  The soldiers told them it was time for a shower.  The two little boys had no idea what was going to happen.

This was a very very very heartbreaking book.  This book was recommended to me by my teenager who read it in her language arts class and whom also saw the movie.  She loved it so much she had myself and her dad watch it with her her second time.  I totally loved the movie, more than the book, but both were very good.

Title: Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Genre: Fiction, children

This book is about the Tuck family, a mother, father, and two sons, who drank from a spring in the Treegap woods that stopped them from aging and dying.  Over a hundred years had passed and the Tuck’s felt it was safe to return to their old home since everyone they knew had either died or were too young to remember them.  Jesse, the younger Tuck son who is about 17, stopped by the spring in Treegap to drink from the spring and a 10-year-old girl named, Winnie Foster, saw him and wanted to drink from the spring too.  He wouldn’t let her and told her she couldn’t.  They got into a little disagreement but luckily Jesse’s mother, Mae, and older brother, Miles, caught up to him and they were both surprised to see the girl.  The girl told them that because the wood belonged her her family she would drink from it when they left so in fear they kidnapped her.  They took her to their home and explained to her why she couldn’t drink from the spring and that for her to never tell anyone about the spring.  They didn’t know but there was a man who followed them who had heard rumors about the Tuck’s.  He stole their horse who had also drank from the spring and returned to town to tell Winnie’s parents that she was kidnapped and he knew who did it.  He told them that he would return Winnie to them in a trade for their woods.  He also reported the kidnapping to the constable.  Winnie was at first scared she was kidnapped but she learned to trust the Tuck’s and soon called them her friends.  Jesse really liked her and asked her to drink from the spring when she turned 17 so they could marry.  The man returned the next morning to the Tuck’s home and was going to take Winnie with him but Mae shot him.  The constable was on his way to the Tuck’s and saw the scene and took Mae in to be hanged for her crime.  The day before Mae was to be hanged she escaped.  Years rolled by and Mae and her husband returned to Treegap to find that the woods were no longer there.

Read this with my daughter.  She cried.  I cried.  Such a wonderful book.  I’ve read this book probably about 4 or 5 times and every time I always get so teary-eyed.

Title: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Author: Barbara Demick
Genre: Memoir, biography, war, history, political

This book is biographically written following six North Koreans in their lives and escape from North Korea to South Korea from the mid to late 80’s up to about 2005.  I enjoyed the read and all the research gone into it.  The escape process was similar to the book, In Order to Live, by Yeonmi Park, whom is actually mentioned in a paragraph or so in this book.  It is really strange how I too have wondered about a free and united Korea.  I’ve wondered when that would happen, if it will be something similar to the coming down of the Berlin Wall in a nationally televised way, or if it would happen subtly, and if it will happen in my lifetime.