NORA AND KETTLE by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

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Nora and Kettle
by Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Expected Publication: February 29, 2016

If you haven’t read anything by Lauren Nicolle Taylor, you’re in for a real treat: Nora and Kettle is an upcoming novel by Lauren Nicolle Taylor, international bestselling author of The Woodlands. Set in the years after World War II, Nora and Kettle features a story about friendship and love between the daughter of a civil rights lawyer and a mixed-race Japanese-American orphan. 

The first few pages of Nora and Kettle whisked me away into the sheltered but troubled life of Nora, daughter of a prestigious civil rights attorney. Living in a large home with her affluent family, Nora has learned to hide her bruises and stay quiet, mostly for the sake of keeping her little sister safe from their violent father. 

The story soon shifts to the perspective of Kettle, a young man who goes out of his way to make life livable for his family, a group of Nisei orphans (“Lost Children”) who were taken from orphanages and placed into internment camps. 

What do Nora and Kettle have in common? They are protective of those they love, and would sacrifice much to make sure that their loved ones are safe. Nora bravely endures her father’s beatings to make sure her sister is safe, while Kettle fights to work risky jobs in the mines in order to feed his family of fellow homeless children. On the surface, they live very different lives, but they also have a lot in common. 

The story flows seamlessly between the perspectives of Nora and Kettle. I found myself attempting to piece together different facts and details to get a hold of the big picture or the “real deal” of a character.The revelations are satisfying and add layers of complexity to characters and their motivations. Hints introduced throughout the book come together to reveal important discoveries later on in the story--wish I could say but it’d be too spoilery. Take my word on this!

A sketch of Nora and Kettle, by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Nora and Kettle left me reeling with emotions--happy ones, angry ones, and also sad ones. I dreamed along with Nora, simmered with anger at her father’s violence and hypocrisy, and cheered for both Nora and Kettle. I found myself identifying with both characters’ struggles, dreams, and fears. 

The emotional impact of this novel also stems from Lauren Nicolle Taylor’s signature style of poetic prose. Her vivid writing sweeps me away into the secret realms of her characters’ minds and hearts, where they are free to express how they truly feel. This is especially true for Nora, whose innerworld is dreamy and mobile compared to her oppressive situation at home, where she has to hide her true thoughts from her overbearing father. 

"A Frankie and Kettle Moment" by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Overall, this is a poetically written novel about two strong-willed characters who will do whatever they can to ensure the safety of the people they love. The post-World War II setting and Kettle’s background illuminates a segment of history that is often overlooked: the removal of children from orphanages and their subsequent placement into internment camps for having any sort of Japanese ancestry. Nora and Kettle are likable characters who drive the plot forward and I find myself investing deeply in their struggles. Nora and Kettle is an exhilarating read and I highly recommend it.

Expected Publication Date for Nora and Kettle: February 26, 2016

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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

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Love makes us such fools. 

--The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

I have been reading this book on and off for a few months. I finally sat down to read it on my day off, and it makes me regret not getting into it sooner, especially at the height of the hype for this book.

Some of the things I heard about it:

• family drama
• magical realism
• pretty language

I'll just go ahead and say it: THE WRITING IS SO BEAUTIFUL IN THIS BOOK. If writing were like dancing, Leslye Walton would be a ballerina pirouetting on the pointy tip of the Burj Khalifa with ease. 

Yes. The Burj Khalifa. 

Take me here one day, but don't throw me off it.

All of the things I heard about this novel were true. The strange and beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender begin not within her own life but further back in her family's past: her itty-bitty, quiet, great-grandmother in France. Then the narrator eventually moves on to the lives of Ava's grandmother after the family's move to Manhattan, then Vivienne (Ava's mother), then finally Ava, a girl born with angel-like wings. The story pays particular attention to their love lives--how they acquire and then lose their first loves. 

Ultimately, the story is a matriarchal family saga that comes across to me as the love child of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate and Mario Puzo's The Godfather. I'd say that it looks more like its mother than its father. 

Even though the title mentions Ava, the true main characters are Emilienne and Vivienne. Ava doesn't show up until around half point of the story, and even then, she's unconscious for a larger part of the story (and still operating as an omniscient narrator). 

A large theme in this novel involves the characters dealing with different possibilities of love: the beautiful, the ugly, the messy, the delusional, the sweet... "Love" may have become a cheesy concept, but the emotions in this novel are very real. We all hear about girls who get pregnant, sisters who fight over the same guy, people who delude themselves into thinking their romance is something it's not, and people who move on after trying to cling onto the possibility of a relationship for the longest time. 

Like real life, there are no clean and conclusive Hollywood endings to any of these stories, but the characters do search for closure, and what they do find is satisfying for me as a reader. The novel reads fast. After starting over from the beginning, I finished it within two days. If you have better concentration than I do, you can finish it in one.

As for the magical realism, I wasn't thinking about it when I picked this book up again. I was admiring all the beautiful metaphorical language until I had trouble picturing a character glue yellow feathers all over herself and chirp...Wait. She turned into a bird. Not figuratively...but literally. As with characters in most magical realistic stories, the family sees her transformation as a tragic inconvenience but copes with it. 

Love it. 

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

If I weren't such an uptight grape, I would have cried. Despite this being the third week that the movie has been out (and on a weekday!), the whole theater room was filled with teenagers, from families and groups to young couples enjoying their summer vacation.

Book Review: THE SUMMER I FOUND YOU by Jolene Perry

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The Summer I Found You
by Jolene Perry
Published: March 1, 2014
Genres: YA / Contemporary / Romance

A romance between a 19-year-old Afghanistan veteran Aidan and a 17-year-old high school student named Kate sprouts soon after Kate is dumped by her boyfriend. Both Aidan and Kate suffer from bodily otherness: Aidan lost his arm in Afganistan, and Kate has Type 1 diabetes, and this is what ultimately brings them together, despite their shame and self consciousness of their otherness. 

This is a beautiful premise, but what I end up seeing is a shallow relationship propelled by raging hormones in which Aidan and Kate use each other as a "distraction" from their problems:

Book Review: Endless by Amanda Gray

Note: I received this book as an e-ARC from Month9Books on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Published: October 8, 2013

 Genre: YA / Fantasy / Time Travel / Contemporary / Historical / Romance

 

Gosh, isn't that a beautiful cover? A bit misleading though, now that I've read the story...

From Amazon: 

Jenny Kramer knows she isn't normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them. When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life. 

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back.

While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death. 

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What the description of the book doesn't really say is that, in addition to time travel, reincarnation is a big part of the story. What if your boyfriend from a past life showed up on your doorstep as his non-reincarnated self?

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Published: 2013 

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Genre: YA / Contemporary / Romance 

Many realistic first love stories are bittersweet, especially when they take place in high school. Set in Nebraska in the 1980s, Eleanor & Park captures the feverish passion of first love between two teenagers who don't quite fit in for different reasons. This is one of those wise books that surpass genre because anyone who's been to high school can relate to this story and the issues that it covers: first love, racism, family drama, abuse, and bullying. 

What I liked: 

Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (Fifty Shades #1)

Published 2012
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Genre: Romance / Erotica / BDSM

What the hell did I just read? 

I've never read a book that made me want to fling my e-reader across the room so bad. I've read erotica before, but Fifty Shades of Grey is like a five-hour porno with a boring, two-hour buildup.

Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, and it was originally based on Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. The novel will be made into a movie that will come out in 2014.

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What I liked:

Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon -- Debut Book Review

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Release Date: August 20, 2013

Genre(s): YA / Christian Fantasy / Romance

From: Barnes & Noble Store

My thoughts:

Christian fantasy or mainstream fantasy? 

Book to Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Release Date: August 21, 2013

Director: Harald Zwart

Writers: Jessica Postigo (screenplay) 
Cassandra Clare (novel)

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones IMDB page

Spoilers alert!

When actress Lily Collins heard that there was going to be a City of Bones movie, she frantically made a bunch of phone calls so that she could get the role of Clary, a teenage girl who is thrown into the chaos of the war between Shadowhunters (the race of nephilim, half-angel and half-human warriors) and the forces of demons. 

Pacing / Action. 

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill -- Debut Book Review

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Published 2013

Release Date: September 6, 2013

Publisher: Hyperion

Genre(s): Sci-fi Thriller / Dystopian / Time Travel / Romance

Uh, okay--WOW. I mean, what else can I say? I just finished reading this book. I looked for it on the fifth after reading around some blogs on what to read--this one has gotten quite some buzz and the plot sounded interesting. I almost walked out of Barnes and Noble without buying it because it hadn't been shelved yet, but then an employee ran to me holding a bunch of copies. As she handed it to me, I knew I had to buy it.