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My Top Five Reads This Year at Brainfood

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Well, as it is the time of year when everyone waxes nostalgic on the year that has passed, I felt a list was in order. So without further ado, here is my lift of top five books that I read and reviewed here this year. (Not all are brand new books, but a few are still hot off the press.)

1. Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda.
Absolutely exquisite story of a young woman adopted from India by an American-Indian mixed race couple who are both doctors. Also a best-seller that had me spell-bound from start to finish. Accurate rendering of all adoption details and a really gripping read.

2. The Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak.
A Love story that begins with a book reviewer and disenchanted housewife who is asked to review a book by a poet. This is a contemporary story written by one of Turkey’s most well known authors. An equally interesting parallel plot runs in the 13th century, the timeframe during which the author’s story takes place.

3. My Name is Memory, Ann Brashares
I truly thought this one would be an even bigger seller than it was. I learned something from it as the plot, centring on a time traveller of sorts jumped from era to era, each time period recreated with great detail and authenticity. The love story of Daniel and Sophia transcends time, but doesn’t involve vampires. Look for the movie version soon.

4. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Melinda Sordino, the narrator and main character has been selectively mute ever since she called the cops regarding a summer party. Why is she mute and why don’t her parents pay attention to what is going on with her? Why is she being bullied? Why does everyone hate her and what happened at that party? Brave story for dealing with anxiety, rape and depression amongst the teenage audience.

5. House Rules, Jodi Picoult
Picoult tackles Asperger’s disorder, a type of high functioning autism, this time around and she gets it so right you wonder how she can keep on delivering this way. Jacob has Asperger’s and he likes to recreate crime scenes. But when a real life murder happens and the police suspect Jacob, will the truth come out? Is it a mistake? Is he credible to stand trial? I loved the gorgeous exploration of life inside a family where one child has special needs. Emma is a great character, a martyr and the mother of Jacob. Autism and sensory issues are really well done and described here, as is the inner workings of a child on the autism spectrum.

Sima’s Undergarments For Women

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As luck would have it the novels I have lately been given all tend to have some infertility, loss or adoption theme. Happenstance, or some greater design, I am not so sure. Perhaps more people are exploring these themes through fiction. Sima’s Undergarments for Women is a really moving story of a childless woman who runs a bra and panty store in the basement of her home in Brooklyn. Sima is an expert on lingerie. Nobody else can merely look at the customer coming through her door and tell immediately, almost always without fail, exactly what size and style, cup and width is needed for support. Sima’s store is a mirror of the community she lives in, a female hangout and place of bonding. She is an entrepreneur in her 60s seemingly content with her life and business until a young beautiful Isreali named Timna comes to her store looking for a bra and leaves with a job as seamstress. The closer they work together the greater the promise she sees in the young, carefree version of herself and soon Sima is casting herself in the role of surrogate mother to the young displaced woman. This eventually becomes the source of conflict as Timna grows to resent Sima who has trouble accepting boundaries. Ilana Stanger-Ross is an interesting author and a practicing midwife now living in British Columbia. She has received several prizes for her work including the Timothy Findley Fellowship. She writes authentic and heart-wrenching scenes that revolve around infertility. Sima carries most of the burden of this alone, seeking treatment and consulting doctors earlier on in their marriage, her husband a distant observor of her pain and stoicism. Stanger-Ross pushes the envelope here when she is exploring the ways in which a married couple can lapse into moments of over familiarity, and even emotional cruelty. Lev is the cuckholded husband who seems to take everything Sima can dish out and more until he is finally forced to stand up and call her out when she crosses the line in a brutally harsh scene where wife tries to make husband into her dressmaker’s dummy for lingerie. This is a book that is filled with rich metaphors and I love a good metaphor. She has built a career selling something very intimate and yet her life is completely devoid of intimacy. Sima’s store is in the basement of her home, for instance, the foundation upon which her world sits. She sells foundation garments. Just as a good bra gives support physically to a woman’s breasts, Sima’s shop is a central community hub for women seeking support.
Sima’s Undergarments for Women, by Ilana Stanger-Ross, Penguin Canada, 2009, paperback 2010. $15.00 U.S and $18.50 Canada. This novel gets $$$$ out of $$$$$.

I was not compensated for this review, but received a copy of the book from the publisher, as is common practice in media.

My Name Is Memory

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Meet your amazing summer read for 2010. If you haven’t got it yet, run out and buy My Name Is Memory because this one is going to plow through the charts to the top. My Name Is Memory has all the elements, including buzz that will make it a chart-topper and a people-pleaser. The big scramble for film rights and the fact that this author, Ann Brashares, who also wrote the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants series, has been able to generate bidding wars for her work, got my interest and admiration right away. When this one landed on my desk here at brainfood I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I was truly excited to start this read. Would it be a young adult book? Was it a vampire tale ala Twilight? Was it for adults? Where exactly was it going to lead? My Name is Memory is a sexy epic love story that will keep you guessing and turning pages. At times it reminded me a bit of The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, the story every bit as gripping. My Name Is Memory is driven by the two star-crossed lovers: Daniel and Sophia. Daniel is a charming, brooding, tortured teenager when we meet him at the high school prom and Sophia’s current incarnation is Lucy Broward, also a teenager. Daniel is an outsider of sorts dropped into the high school after many years of searching for his true love, Sophia, a woman he tells us he searches through time for, and has been seeking ever since he killed her. We meet Lucy heading to her prom, hoping to run into Daniel there and having rejected an offer or two escorts that would be appropriate and yet not memorable. We are told that Lucy’s sister Dana has suffered mental illness and is no longer with the family, details to be unveiled as the plot moves along. Lucy is the child her parents pin their hopes on, a good girl, and yet her mother notes disappointment: “She’d had two lovely fair-haired daughters and not one eager boy in a tuxedo to show for it. To look like Lucy had been enough in her day.” Daniel and Sophia are time travellers, reincarnated time and again. But Daniel also possesses the gift of memory, carrying his with him through his many past lives. It is a bitter gift that haunts him, especially when it comes to Sophia. Sophia’s spirit also travels through time, reincarnated often, but she doesn’t carry memory with her, so she is at times unable to recognize Daniel in his many shapes, forms and ages. There are moments she clearly has deja vu but doesn’t know why or how or what the mysterious pull to this apparent stranger is. Also as they parachute through various eras, they are sometimes incompatible in age, with him occasionally a child and her fully grown, he is often able to recognize and watch from afar, a voyeur to her relationships and many lives, unable to affect them because of the many factors keeping them apart. My Name is Memory is a great read, clearly plot-driven with strong characters. The research is meticulous and the many insights into various eras and lifestyles make this story truly educational, unique, and fast-paced. I will not spoil the ending as readers should pick this one up for themselves. Suffice it to say though, that if I had one small criticism of the novel, which is an adult fiction story with a strong romance and history plot, it would be that the ending lacked a huge emotional tug or twist. It isn’t a huge thing, because the book is great and the movie should be too. But for me as a reader, beginnings and endings are incredibly important. The quick punchy start gets you to buy the book and commit to reading, but it’s the ending that, when executed with just the right combination of style and emotion, makes a book resonate, or burrow beneath your skin to stay. My Name Is Memory was a great read, and yet as a writer I envisioned two or three alternative endings that I think might have kicked it up a notch and been more artistic. As it ends now, the author clearly leaves a strategic opening for a sequel, both in print, and on the big screen. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is immensely enjoyable and entertaining as it is, even if it failed to move me to tears or take my breath away.

My Name Is Memory, Ann Brashares, Riverhead Books, Penguin Group Canada, $32.50, New York 2010. Thriftymommas rating $$$$ out of $$$$$

Disclosure: Thriftymommasbrainfood is not paid for her opinions and they are all my own. However in order to review books I often receive a free copy from the publisher. Also as a result of being an Amazon affiliate I may receive a small commission from purchases.