Elda Mengisto > Recent Status Updates

Kadiatou's story was quite surprising, as she really embodies the immigrant experience. While I thought she was from Senegal at first, her life in Guinea was really well-written, along with the travails across both continents. I liked hearing Binta's story, and was sad to hear she died suddenly. Kadiatou has pretty back luck with sexual assault; the last one just made me wince on traumatic it was.

The switch in POV from Chiamaka to Zikora is quite strange, though they have similar themes of love, loss, and motherhood. For the latter, it really focuses on her relationship with Kwame and the son she bears without him, which makes me quite sad because they initially had a nice bond with them. "So this was happiness, to live in the first person plural." It's also funny how she had a low opinion on Pope Benedict.

The first part of the book is really well-written; Adichie weaves the past and present really deftly. Chiamaka seems to be an interesting character in terms of her struggles, though sometimes I question her choices her partner. She shouldn't have gotten into that affair with that English professor!

The second part of the novel feels a bit strange, with Grenouille going across France and then hiding in dirt for several years. Sometimes, I got lost with the plot here, though some moments brought me back. Seeing him transform in Montpellier gave some life, as well as the lecture on fludium lethale. Strange we only have one murder...

The first part initially turned me off by the writing style. Sometimes, it felt like it was going to be a bland story of Grenouille's life, almost like a folk tale. However, it eventually got better, particularly with how Suskind describes the different scents and the like. The first murder, on the other hand, was...wild.

The second part really delves into the Pat Riley era, in which he takes the reigns of the Lakers and leads them to success. More interesting are the side characters to the Lakers dynasty, in which Pearlman really delves into how they fit in and sometimes, where they went wrong. He also has some funny sentences, like Jerry West smiling "for 4.2 seconds" after the Lakers won the 1972 Finals.

I was quite familiar with the events of the first part, thanks to "Winning Time", its adaptation. It's really sad to read the prologue when Pearlman tries to interview Jack McKinney, and how he claimed the latter made the Showtime Lakers in of him not remembering it at all. The Paul Westphal arc was something, especially with the end of how Magic was the one who got him sacked.

The second part has a lot of the name dropping and intense storylines, particularly when we meet Colette Bing. I'm surprised Carlton was a more thoughtful character than we got at the beginning of the story, albeit with his drag race arc. Astrid's story is taking quite the turn, knowing how the movie changed the ending. And Kitty didn't last long with her transformation, apparently.

I'm surprised Rachel and Nick's wedding was pretty settled up in the first part. We have the conflict in which Nick may have to choose between his family and his wealth, but that was settled relatively easily...? We also have the plot between Astrid and Charlie, which I find interesting as Astrid's relationship with her husband varies in the movie. But Kitty Pong getting her day in the limelight? Intriguing.

The "Not Alone" segment was pretty heartwarming, as Amanda finds allies and eventually love. The description of her engagement and marriage, "a romantic live-action episode of Doctor Who", was especially heartwarming (including the feared leak). "Inferno" focuses on Amanda's first trip to Italy to speak at the Innocence Project, which takes a lot of courage on her part.

The second part focuses on life after the first acquittal, and the overall sense of unease Amanda goes through. The adjustments to day-to-day life is hard, especially with the fact she could be whisked away at any moment. The story about her being duped by a criminal is really hard to hear, and derails her time in New York. But there's little sprinklings of hope, like when she saw the fairy poster at home.

The first part deals with Amanda in prison, as she focuses on her perspective during those four years there. There's an anthropological feel to some of the chapters here, especially when talking about community and even intimacy. I find it all fascinating, even as Amanda doesn't touch the highlights; instead focusing what's changing in her inside.

What's interesting here is how each of the girls are attached to different trends within China as they mature. Siyue, through the Olympics, improves her English and even gets to work in the UK, which shows globalization to some extent. Leiya deals with labor and having to manipulate her birth certificate to get her daughter into school. Sam focuses more on Socialist activism. And all is intriguing.

Yang focuses primarily on the countryside for the first part, and two girls with higher ambitions than their little towns. I'm surprised for how few expectations there are for June and Siyue in the countryside, though education would be their way out, somehow. The writing style is pretty good, albeit simplistic, which makes me wonder if it was meant for young adults instead.

Going through the Sun King's palace, the French Revolution, and Napoleon, the second part of the book feels a bit more comfortable to read, and more interesting. The chapter "How He Did It" was quite surprising in terms of form, but gave me a bit of light towards what people got from Napoleon. "The Murder of Madame Bovary" weaves an interesting tale, and learning about Harriet Howard was a surprise!

The book so far is surprisingly not what I had expected. While the subtitle "An Adventure History" implies Robb going all across France, it's the writing which sort of got me lost. That said, there's a lot to learn through Robb's journeys, from the basic structure of France to some of the theological debates in one chapter. We're getting to know France before it is what we know today.

"The Mongolian Mark" feels a bit jarring in contrast to the first part of the book, though when I read it was another novella, it made a bit more sense. The sexual tension that buzzes throughout this part really well, though I feel like the ambiguity between the in-laws really confuses me. Something could've gone really wrong.

Despite the seemingly ordinary startup, "The Vegetarian" feels like a horror story in a bunch of ways. We have Yeong-hye turning to veganism to stop her nightmares, and her husband struggling to help her. There's some seriously questionable practices in the book, which is curious because being vegan isn't impossible in Korea. What does Han want to say here?

The viewpoint shift quite surprised me. The narrator claims it's because Snow White can't tell her story objectively, though her point of view was pretty compelling. It was interesting to see the huntsman story told in another way.

I really like the beginning. It really does pull you into that time period, though I could also imagine that Snow White''s birth might be a bit scary in this time period!

The second part really hones in on Catherine's attempts to marry one of her sons to Elizabeth I. I'm honestly surprised about how close Elizabeth I was to marrying Francis, Catherine's younger son. They seemed to develop a close bond, and even shared rings! All the while, religious wars also defined their relationship, which is about to explode in the last part.

Elizabeth and Catherine gain the throne in their own ways; and one of the major starting points is Calais, England's last stronghold in France. We see the mutating relationship between the two, along with how they dealt with the religious wars which imbued their period. It's written like a news report, with letters sent back and forth from diplomats. Catherine ends up with Calais, and wants to further her reach.

The first part focuses on the women's childhoods, with a major similarity is that they had a traumatic loss of one (or both) parents. Paranque focuses on how they struggled to gain power based on their environments, with Elizabeth forming herself based on environment and Catherine putting her foot down as the Queen Mother. I knew a bit on Elizabeth's upbringing, and somewhat of Catherine's, but juxtaposed it works.

Having Julia believe she is raising Big Brother's baby is quite the twist; it would not only promote her in the society of Air Force One, but also have some security. I felt like her fling with Vicky was a bit strange though; while there was some obvious tension, it didn't make sense in context. The Room 101 scene was just as tense as in the original book, with Winston seemingly betraying Julia, and her on her own.

The first part really focuses on Julia's work, and how she gets further into the orbit of Big Brother. The writing style is quite good, though it doesn't pull me in like with the original (though it's been a long time since I read 1984). That said, it's interesting to see what goes on in Julia's mind, as well as her background.

In the five revolutions Zakaria analyzes, he argues that the most successful revolutions are from the bottom up, and emphasizes that its economic changes which send ripple effects on society. I'm also curious about how he came to the conclusion that the French Revolution was a failed revolution, except for the establishment of nationalism. Is that the only thing that goes from the top down?

The first part of the book was quite interesting; while Lea does a good job in terms of painting a picture of Albania in the 1980s, it was the little moments she notes which leads to the "end of history" at the end. From the Coca-cola cans to "graduating from university", which makes the burst of freedom all so intense. What will it mean for Albania, a nation isolated for so long (other than for tourists?)

The main part of the book worked really well in establishing the two characters and their journeys; the countdown towards the San Francisco earthquake also provides a certain lurching towards what could happen to Gemma and Suling. The chapters at that point were variably intense and makes me wonder what will happen next. Though the split was pretty late...

A lot of the first part of the book focused on the court cases which made the 1970s NBA and ABA, and how they impacted their players. It interested me because of how tied it was to racial dynamics on the time. How does this impact rules established during the mid-2000s?

There's a lot of stories untold within the first half of the story. We see Ze forced to leave home because of her out of wedlock pregnancy, and how she survives and raises a musical prodigy in Petros. That said, the worldbuilding here is great, and I enjoy Valdes' writing style