Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

It has been a while since I had a book that got me riled up like THUG did it for me. When I saw Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu, I thought it would be my ticket to reaching it again. Well, to know if it happened or not, you should read my book review of Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu ahead. 

About Moxie

Moxie

Book Name: Moxie

Author: Jennifer Mathieu

Genre: Fiction – YA

Characters: Vivian, Seth, Claudia, Lucy

Setting: The USA

Plot Summary of Moxie

When the boys at Vivian’s school get away with their sexist slogans and actions, Vivian circulates out feminist zine called Moxie anonymously to bring the girls together. Her actions and ideas garner attention and soon the school girls walk out to support one of theirs claims. How Viv and her friends stand up to the toxic environment forms the rest of Moxie.

Book review of Moxie

Moxie talks about topics that are highly relevant today – feminism and rape culture. It highlights the importance of speaking out and the power of collective voice. 

I loved how the shy and obedient Vivian turned to be the voice of the rebellion and protest. The story may have been written for a younger audience but worked for me – to an extent. But then, the story also had its flaws that left me unimpressed. 

Things that worked for me

  • I adored the new and old female friendships that were formed during the story.
  • The messages on feminism and rape culture certainly made me worked up and agitated.

Things that didn’t work for me

  • Some of the characters were so one dimensional that they seemed straight out of a parody.
  • The romance between Seth and Viv was so forced and the book could have easily been romance free.
  • While there were adults involved, why the situation was never brought to their notice?

Bottom-line

If you are looking for a book to help to start a conversation about feminism with your niece or nephew Moxie may be the one for you. I felt it was more of a middle grade book than a Young Adult literature. 

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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard: A Book Review

It has been a while since a book made me laugh, cry and then root for the characters so hard that you forget they are fictitious. But then, if we get that book every time I read it won’t as special right? So A Quiet Kind of Thunder will be one of those special books. 

About A Quiet Kind of Thunder

Quiet Kind of Thunder

Book Name: A Quiet Kind of Thunder

Author: Sara Barnard

Genre: Fiction – Romance, YA

Characters: Steffi Brons, Rhys Gold, September “Tem” 

Setting: Bedfordshire, England, The United Kingdom

Plot Summary of A Quiet Kind of Thunder

Steffi has been a selective mute since her childhood. But when her parents assume she may not be able to pursue her studies in a University, she decides things has to change. With her best friend, Tem moving off to another school she realizes she has to do this alone.

Or so she thought.

Rhys is deaf and entirely relies on the sign language to communicate. Since Steffi knows a bit of British Sign Language (BSL) she is introduced to him to help him out. She is mute and he is deaf and her rusty BSL is all they have to communicate and it also means they have an entire language just for them, more or less.

But when her parents decide college would be too much for her, she rebels and she rebels with Rhys. You need to read A Quiet Kind of Thunder to know how that goes.

Book review of A Quiet Kind of Thunder

As I might have already mentioned I loved A Quiet Kind of Thunder. 

The romance didn’t make me roll eyes. Yes there were cutesy moments but they fit so perfectly into the story. Even when they do the typical teenage-y things it worked. 

But again, they were typical teenagers who had physical disabilities and that is a point that A Quiet Kind of Thunder never failed to remind us. They can’t be much different from the other teens, can they? Well almost. And that is where the author and her research shine through.

What worked for me

  • A Quiet Kind of Thunder has a great diverse representation with people of color, mental illness and physical disabilities, and none of them felt forced. 
  • Not everything is pink. There are people who do not understand them, there are ones who behave around them like they walk on egg shells. But I loved how real that made the story.
  • Of late I have been ranting a lot about how much I dislike the ‘love solves everything’ trope. And I am happy to say this one defies that. 
  • The YA parents are THERE the whole time and they are protective as they should be and even too much at times.

What could have been better

  • It is a typical teenage romance without a stronger conflict. 

Bottom-line

I would recommend this to anyone who loves YA romance and want to read books with great diverse representation. 

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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

Book Review: Why not me?

When I read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? years ago, I had been watching The Mindy Project on my television. And the show was before it became famous, I was even worried they would cancel it off.

It may have something to do with the fact that there weren’t enough shows that revolved around a WOC, and an Indian woman at that, who did not look perfect (in the Hollywood standards). Or maybe it was just because it was damn funny. 

So I picked the book up and was absolutely surprised because not only this woman made the snarky early twenties in me laugh but also made me pause and think about things that were not spoken out so loudly then. Needless to say I loved this chirpy, crazy woman and her writing. Obviously when I heard she had another book out, I had to grab it.

I know I might be reviewing it a little late (as per my usual these days) but I am doing it anyway. So let us read ahead to know how Why Not Me? fared on my grown up scale, shall we?

About the book

Why not me?

Book Name: Why Not Me?

Author: Mindy Kaling

Genre: Non Fiction – Memoir

Plot

In Why Not Me?, Mindy Kaling keeps it real. She doesn’t sugar coat it nor make it sound like her life is a miracle. She says how the show’s success changed her. She talks about her insecurities which changed later into confidence, but she doesn’t belittle them. She talks about her flaws as they are. More than all, she is freaking hilarious. 

There were some chapters that were a little so-so but the ones that were good were really good. There is a chapter on her confidence which was the best of the book and I loved it. 

It’s just that, the truth is, I have never, ever, ever met a highly confident and successful person who is not what a movie would call a ‘workaholic.

Things that worked for me

  • Her cheerful yet honest voice that made it like we are best friends than a writer and reader.
  • I couldn’t help cheer a WOC who made it through sheer hard work. She is definitely a role model.
  • I loved her pieces on confidence and her imaginary alternate life.

Things that didn’t work for me

  • I didn’t find her as relatable as she was in Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? but maybe it was just me missing the dorky Mindy.
  • You might not enjoy this one as much if her shows didn’t appeal you.

Bottom – line

I love Mindy and that is exactly why I picked this book and I was quite happy with it. It is not a life changing book but it made me laugh a few times and kept me engaged till the end.

Though, I didn’t love it as much as I did the first book, I would recommend ‘Why Not Me?’ to anyone who wants to read a funny, celebrity memoir. 

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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Book review

Once in a while we read a book that will make you excited and some might even make you cry. While The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society made me feel me both, the one feeling that I can associate with it more than the above is warm fuzzy.

I can remember the times that I just stopped reading the book just to hold those warm feeling to myself a little longer. Can we get on with the review shall we?

About The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

elgeewrites The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Book review Guern

Book Name: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Author: Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

Genre: Fiction – Drama, romance, Historical

Characters: Juliet Ashton, Dawsey Adams, Markham V. Reynolds, Jr., Susan Scott, Sidney Stark, Sophie Evans,, Elizabeth McKenna, Isola Pribby, Kit McKenna, Adelaide Addison, Eben Ramsey, Amelia Maugery

Setting: London and Guernsey, The United Kingdom

Plot Summary of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Set in the post World War II London, we meet Juliet Ashton, an aspiring author who receives a letter from Dawsey Adams. Dawsey a resident of Guernsey chances upon her address on a book by Charles Lamb, that she had previously owned and requests her help in securing more of Lamb’s books from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. 

As any bookworm should do for a fellow bookworm, Juliet helps him with those books and in return asks more about their book club’s odd name. Thus begins a series of correspondence between them and slowly she begins talking to and about the other residents of the little island. We also hear about Juliet’s past and her loyal friends Sidney and Sophie. 

Juliet is looking for a story for her second book and fancies the idea of writing about the residents of Guernsey, a town that was German occupied during the war. But how would the residents react to her digging into their pasts that they are trying to move on from? Would all this heart ache for a book be worthy?

You will have to read on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to find out more.

Book review of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written in the form of a letters deals with several heavy subjects like German occupation and their control over the residents, slavery and concentration camps, poverty and hunger. Despite these strong and depressive backdrops, the residents’ love for reading and for each other kept me hooked. 

As I have repeatedly talked about in this blog, I love reading books with strong sub plots and interesting side characters and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society turned out to be a jackpot in this regard. I loved the quirky characters, even those who were not physically in Guernsey (hint: I adored her). 

Bonus fact: The author Mary Ann Shaffer wrote about 80% of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society until she was too ill with cancer to continue. She then enlisted her niece Annie Barrows to complete the project.     

Things that worked for me

  • I liked the well written sub plots and characters. 
  • The writing was easy and filled with many humorous situations. 
  • While romance is a part of the story, it did not end being the sole theme, which was positive for me.

Aside from all these reasons I felt I had a kinship with the characters who were readers, accidental or not, like us and I think there should be lot more books about bookworms. Don’t you agree? 

Things that didn’t work for me

  • The letter format worked mostly but it kinda didn’t do justice when it comes to romance. 
  • I wanted to read more about the relationship between Elizabeth and Christian. 
  • I felt the book was a tad bit long winded and it could have been reduced by at least 50 pages.

Bottom – line

Did I say I loved the movie version as well? If you are interested in a drama or historical fiction with the world war II as the main backdrop then The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society might be the one for you. 

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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

Review Shots: Three hyped up books that didn’t turn out well

You know I usually say I never read a book when everyone is talking about it, right? But I am here to show you that I have read some books at the right time. And of course, I forgot to review them right then, which is quite like me of course. 

So in our new episode of review shots, let me tell you about books that were not on my TBR and I read them only because of the hype. Well, that never turns out quite well, does it?


Books that I read only for the hype


Book Name: Everything, Everything

Author: Nicola Yoon

Genre: Fiction – Romance, Young Adult

Hype

Characters: Madeline “Maddy” Furukawa Whittier, Oliver “Olly” Bright, Pauline Furukawa Whittier, Carla Flores

Setting: Los Angeles, California, The USA

This YA took the Twitter world by a storm and I got the book almost immediately to read it. 

Maddy led a very sheltered life all through her life due to her illness. She has never stepped out of her house in years and her mother and her nurse are the only one she interacts with. Them and her book blog. Until a new family moves to their next house. 

I liked the book and would have loved it even until for the twist at the end, which I didn’t see coming at all. I normally would love to be thrown off, but this twist was kinda ‘trying too hard’. I also didn’t like the theme that ‘love conquers all, even illness’ that kept surfacing. 

I loved reading the story, for the cutesy cheesy love story but it didn’t win my approval. 


Book Name: Turtles All the Way Down

Author: John Green

Genre: Fiction – Romance, Young Adult

Hype

Characters: Aza Holmes, Davis Pickett, Daisy Ramirez, Mychal Turner, Noah Pickett

Setting: Indianapolis, Indiana, The USA

You all  know my beef with John Green.

This book had everything that the book world is talking about and needs now. Turtles All the Way Down has #Ownvoice leads, one of whom suffers from mental illness and a mystery the leads had to solve in relation to their parents. Sounds all good to me.

Yet I could not relate to the characters at all, nor did I buy their ‘love story’. Did I mention this book had an absentee parent as well? I know lots of people loved this book but for me it ended as a so-so read because of these reasons and more. 

I wanted to like it more than it deserved any way. And probably will stay away from John Green hereon. 


Book Name: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry 

Author: Fredrik Backman

Genre: Fiction – Drama

Hype

Characters:  Elsa, Granny, Alf, Britt-Marie, Kent, Ulrika, Lissete, George

Setting: Sweden

Oh I loved Backman’s other book A Man Called Ove and I started reading this one almost immediately. But it took me more than a month to finish this 350 and odd pages and I will tell you why.

The precocious ‘almost eight’ years old Elsa has just lost her grandmother to cancer. Her grandmother was also her best and only friend, who kept her safe at night with the tales of the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas. 

Now she is set with the task of handing over apology notes to the wacky characters in their apartment for her grandmother’s past and getting to know more about them and her family as well. 

I liked the concept of the book and how the little girl learnt to deal with all the changes and new people in her life. I loved many of these characters and their sub plots. But the book totally went over my head when it came to the imaginary land and its people. 

Maybe there is a reason to why I don’t read fantasy much. 


Bottom – line

Of course I don’t regret reading them at all. But I wish I hadn’t tried as hard to like them and gave up when I should have. Well, lesson learnt. Maybe.

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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu: A Book Review

Book review: Cobalt Blue

Once during an intense conversation, a friend of mine told me that the Indian regional literature is much more forward thinking than what it appears to be. Far far more than what we are still fighting for in English. And then he recommended me Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar.

I didn’t think much of it and put it in the back burner, like I usually do. Out of a whim I picked this without much expectations, thanks to the weird experiences I had with other Indian books written in English. So let us see how the Cobalt Blue turned out, shall we?

About the book

elgeewrites Book review: Cobalt Blue Cobalt Blue

Book Name: Cobalt Blue

Author: Sachin Kundalkar, Translated by Jerry Pinto

Genre: Fiction – Drama, romance, LGBTQA

Characters: Tanay, Anuja and Aseem Joshi, the tenant aka the painter

Setting: Pune, Maharashtra, India

Plot

Set in Pune, a tier one Indian city, Cobalt Blue revolves around siblings Tanay and Anuja and their typical middle class Maharashtrian family. Their elder brother Aseem conforms to the norms of the society in every sense.

And to make their ends meet they taken in a youthful painter whose independent, carefree attitude is almost infectious as a paying tenant. He occupies the single bed room that their grandparents had used when they were alive and still has the lingering scent of Amurtanjan, (a pain relief balm) used by them. 

The book consists of two parts. The first is a second person narrative of Tanay addressing the tenant and talks about their loving relationship and how hurtful it is to live without him. And slowly the reason why the tenant is not living with them anymore is revealed.

The second part forms Anuja’s narration, set about six months after she returns home after her elopement with the tenant. Her diary entries tell us more about the events that led her to fall for the tenant, their elopement and him subsequently abandoning her. 

Both Tanay and Anuja hadn’t realized that they had fallen for the same person. How their conservative family handle to the fact their young children falling for the same person and how the siblings handle their broken hearts form the rest of Cobalt Blue. 

My initial thoughts

I loved the unusual story and it was not very apparent initially that the siblings loved the same person which made it more interesting. I felt connected to their family setting almost immediately. I was fascinated how seamlessly the author interwove not only the themes of homosexual and heterosexual love, but also the family’s love to their off springs despite how difficult and new it was for them. 

It was quite ironical to observe who easy for the tenant and Tanay to spend hours with each other alone in their separate room and nobody questions their actions. On the other hand, Anuja has a very difficult time finding ways to talk to him, without the prying minds and questionable comments. 

But when the table turned, Tanay is forced to hold his feelings for the tenant as well as his emotions to himself, while Anuja’s emotions are relatively unbridled. She suffers with depression and suicidal thoughts and her family remains supportive (comparatively) despite her rebellious actions. Yes it is a sad truth that the Indians at large are still outright homophobic (though it is mostly the elder ones), let us not even go there and the author captures the Indian mentality perfectly. 

The best thing about Cobalt Blue was how the author handled the theme of homosexuality in such a matured way. Cobalt Blue is not a lot about discovering, exploring or even defending sexuality but just accepting it as is. I can’t believe this book was first published in 2006 and the author was a mere 20 year old at that time of him writing this book. I am swept away!

Things that worked for me

  • All the characters and the relationships were handled matured. You can’t just paint a person in the bad light, (yes even or especially the tenant).
  • Remember the last time I was let down by translation? Jerry Pinto, of Em and the Hoom fame, did a great job. 
  • I loved how things were left unsaid and undone. Sometimes less is enough. 
  • The book stayed true to the Indian culture and still if you change the city to any other developing nation the story would still work. 

Things that didn’t work for me

I had a hard time thinking of something to talk about under this heading and I was at loss, which you know is rare. Anyway here it goes.

  • It might feel a little, very little, slow initially but the simple and lyrical prose would get you through. Just read this!
  • Once you get to the point of all or most knots unraveled the story becomes predictable and ordinary. But the simple and lyrical prose would get you through. Just read this, already. 
  • Sometimes, Anuja does come out as annoying, during her acting out phase, but it kinda understandable when you are ditched by someone you loved.

Sigh, I can’t think of anything else to say in the negative light.

Bottom – line

I totally loved this one and Cobalt Blue has definitely made more receptive
to translated works, especially from the Indian writers. I would recommend Cobalt Blue to anyone who loves a contemporary romance set in a family background and LGBTQA themes.

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