Vacation Reads
I just went on a ten-day vacation to New York City, Boston/Salem and Montreal, and I managed to read FOUR books during my vacation (I spent a lot of time on planes and a train):
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Apparently, some people are taking offense to the title of Jennette McCurdy’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. I think we need to end the idea that we owe our mothers our undying love and respect just because they gave birth to us, especially in the case of mothers like Debra McCurdy. Jennette McCurdy’s memoir is an unflinchingly honest look at the relationship between an abusive mother and her daughter and the toxicity of the entertainment industry. Jennette tells her story very matter-of-factly and with humour; she is not looking for your pity. I had been looking forward to reading this book since I first heard about it, and I think it is great. I highly recommend it.
…White Ivy by Susie Yang
If you were to reduce its plot to the simplest of terms, then White Ivy is not a very original novel. It is a story about a poor and unremarkable person who wants to belong to the wealthy and important crowd. It is a story that has been told repeatedly. White Ivy has been compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which I did not like. There are certainly parallels between the two novels, especially the fate of one of the characters in White Ivy which mirrors that of Bunny in The Secret History, but I like White Ivy because it tells its story from the perspective of a Chinese American protagonist, a complicated woman who you can empathize with (up to a certain point), and it is as much about the immigrant experience in America as it is about a social climber.
…The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Set almost entirely within a maternity ward at an Irish hospital during the 1918 influenza pandemic, The Pull of the Stars is an engrossing and rich reading experience, and I feel as though I have come out of the experience of reading it like the novel’s narrator, Nurse Julia Powers, with a deeper understanding of how the world operates.
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