Boat Baby, a memoir by Vicky Nguyen

 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA

On Sale Date: April 1, 2025

Pages: 320

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher.

Vicky Nguyen is the well known news anchor of CNN and NBC. In her memoir Boat Baby, she tells the story of her live and that of her parents. When Vicky was a baby  in the 1980's, her parents fled communist post-war Vietnam by boat, and after a dangerous journey on sea, they landed on refugee camp in Malaysia. Vicky's mother had worked for the Holt adoption organisation back in Saigon. While they where in the refugee camp, she wrote a letter to the Holt organisation in the USA, asking for sponsorship to get her family to the United States, which worked, and where Vicky's life started in Eugene, Oregon and later Reno and San Jose. Vicky's parents had worked day and night, worked their way up and they became financially stable. For Vicky, it was not always easy growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant; she was always seen as a different outsider. After high school, she studied at the University of San Francisco where she graduated in communcation, after she found her passion in journalism during this study.

She describes how her succesfull career started; starting as a reporter at local news stations before landing her role at NBC News in New York. Meanwhile, she has a long distance relationship with Brian, during the book, we learn about their challenges  and sacrifices they made because of the  long distance, and the moves to other cities Vicky has because of her work, and the strained relationship with her father because of his unresponsible behaviour with money and doing business.

Vicky's memoir is a true and honest look into her life, both personally and professionally. Vicky truly knows how to engage her audience with her story, which is not surprising as she is an accomplished news anchor. She shares the most personal things about her life and that of her parents, and this book shares an honest picture of what it is like to grow up as a second generation Vietnamese immigrant in the USA. A topic that is more actual than ever now.

Boat Baby is a beautifully written and moving memoir, that is also a joy to read.   I recommend you to read it too!

My Side of The River; a memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

 

Publisher:  St.Martin's Press

On Sale Date: February 13, 2024

Pages: 272

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher.

My Side Of The River is the honest and moving memoir by Elizabeth Camrarillo Gutierrez.

Elizabeth was born of Mexican immigrant parents south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona. Elizabeth was the best freshman student in her school and her future looked bright. But then the visa's of her parents expired, and they had no other choice to return to Mexico. This left Elizabeth and her younger brother alone in the USA, suddenly Elizabeth was the responsible one for her education and raising her brother. But soon her brother also returns to his parents in Mexico and Elizabeth is all alone, and lands homeless on the couch of people who are strangers to her and where she never feels at home where she can feel safe and she become one  of the many victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws. She has to fight to continue her study and has a grumbling belly many time, but with unbreakable determination, she is accepted into multiple Ivy League colleges and graduates. After college . she lands a job in finance and then her younger brother starts to live with her  who she takes care of on her own while working full time until he goes to College. At that point she begins to help her parents financially.

This is a truly moving and beautiful written memoir by a remarkable strong woman. She truly tells openly how life is for undocumented immigrants and the pain of the children of parents who have to move back, and the effects this has on their life and education.Focusing on her mother's advice that she should always be the best student in the classroom, Elizabeth accomplished the near-impossible. I truly enjoyed reading this eye-opening book, I found it truly very moving and interesting to read, and in this current times, I truly recommend reading this book!

The French Winemaker's Daughter by Loretta Ellsworth

 

Publisher: HarperCollins 

On Sale Date: December 10, 2024

Pages: 288

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher.

The gripping and moving story of The French Winemaker's Daughter starts in a little village in the French countryside in 1942.  We meet seven year old  Martine and her father, who is a winemaker and has a large vineyard .Her father is hiding Martine in an armoire, together with a bottle of wine with a note on it, the bottle of expensive wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her father. The nazi's come and she hears hem take her father away with them. and when she thinks the coast is clear, comes out of her hiding place, looking for the assistant of her father to help her, as she has no clue what to do now, she doesn't find him and runs to the neighbours for help. She soon finds herself alone boarding on a train to Paris, where her aunt lives. But when she arrives there, she finds out her aunt is also taken away already by the Nazi's. Not knowing what to do, she roams the streets alone and fall asleep in front of hotel Drouot, where she is found by the kind  nun Sister Ada, who takes her to the abbey in a little village outside of Paris and takes care of her together with the other nuns. Not knowing the truth that Ada is also hiding in the abbey just like her and is also part of the resistance..

The book travels back and forth between 1942 in the past, and 1990, where we meet  the American Charlotte, who is a commercial airline pilot and who plans to buy her fathers vineyards back in California.  Hotel Drouot  in Paris is now an auction house and together with her boyfriend Henri, she visits an auction, where they bid on a box of wine bottles which where saved from the Nazi's who stole it. Not knowing that it is a valuable bottle, Henri gives Charlotte a bottle of wine from the box, as he think it is a cheap bottle of wine. When Charlotte studies the bottle, she finds a note sticking to it underneath its brand label and goes on a search to find the rightfull owner of the bottle, the bottle that was once given to Martine by her father..

It is not very often that I start reading a book, and find it to be so good that I finish reading it in a little more than a day. This was truly the case for this beautiful book. The story truly grips you in from the first page on till the last page, as this story is so beautiful, gripping, moving and thrilling. It just has everything in it that makes a book perfect. The storyline is just perfect, and so are the characters, they where all potrayed realistic and the moving between the past and more present time was done very well by the author. The relationship between Martine and Sister Ada was so moving, as she took such great care of Martine amid great danger because of the Nazi's that also raid the abbey. These scenes where so heartbreaking. But in the end, there was a good future for Martine and Ada and that was just a good wrap up of their story, and how Charlotte could gibe back the bottle of wine to Martine later in live was just beautiful and very moving. This is truly a book that they should turn into a movie.

This book was one of the most perfect books I have read, and I highly recommend  reading it!

A Map To Paradise by Susan Meissner

 

Publisher: Berkley

On Sale Date: March 18, 2025

Pages: 352

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher.

The story of A Map To Paradise takes the reader to Malibu, California in 1956.

Melanie Cole is a Hollywood movie star that has been put on a blacklist by the movie studio's, because she is suspected of being a communist, which she never has been. She is not able to do her work as an actress anymore because of this, and has to stay at home at her house that is rented from other people. The only company she has is her housekeeper Eva, a woman who moved to the USA after the war in Europe, and who has a little side story about that in the book.

The house next door belongs to Elwood, a Hollywood scriptwriter, and his sister-in-law and caretaker June lives at the house too.  The mysterious word about Elwood that goes around in the neighborhood and in the movie studio where he still writes scripts for, is that he has sephere agrophobia and never leaves his house. Sometimes he is seen by the windows and he is able to talk from his room upstairs.

One day Eva and Melanie spot June digging in his beloved rose garden. After this, Elwood is never seen again. Eva and June start to talk to each other, and Eva starts visiting the house more and more during the story as she and June become friends. Also she never sees Elwood leaving his room, and  even never hears him making any sound. There obviously is something mysterious going on around him, but what?? During the story, we learn more about the background of Melanie, Eva and June. And then a huge wildfire breaks out in Malibu, and the mystery evolving Elwood takes a turn for the bad, and is on the brink of being found out..

At first, I didn't know what to think of this story. Certainly the first half of the story took of in a slow pace. But just before the half of the story, the story got more and more pace, and slow pace of the first part was just a take-off to a great and mysterious further development of the story. It got better and better and that lasted untill the final page of the book, and how the story was wrapped up was also very good, and three characters of the story got all new perspectives and goals in live. This is just another brilliant page turner by Susan Meissner. I truly wonder how she knows to create such amazing and gripping story every time and time again. Besided the great storyline, the characters of Melanie, June and Eva where also terrific. Not the most realistic characters, but characters you can imagine in an old movie set in LA or Hollywood. The mystery around Elwood was just the right dose of mysterious-ness, altough I could predict a little what had happened to him as it was quite clear he wasn't alive anymore. When the wildfire breaks out in Malibu, this mystery around him got in a fast paced rollercoaster , but I won't put too much spoilers around that here..

Overall, I truly enjoyed this new and  entertaining page turner by Susan Meissner!

The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen By Yuta Takahashi

 

Publisher: Penguin Books

On Sale Date: February 4, 2025

Pages: 192

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher.

Kotoko Niki is a young woman who recently lost her beloved brother. He pushed her forward to save her life when a car was racing at high speed towards her at a crossroad, instead of her, the car hit him, and he died instantly. Kotoko learns of a restaurant, the Chibineko Kitchen in the remote seaside town of the Chiba prefecture not far from Tokyo, where rememberance dinners are served, to memorize someone you love who passed away. Not knowing that the secret of the restaurant is that the passed loved one will appear for one last time to the mourning person, to talks things over one last time. What also is magical about the place is that the restaurant owner, a charming man named Kai, exactly knows what the passed one used to cook or eat with the person left behind. The restaurant also has an adorable kitten, who doesn't have a major part but just walks throigh the storyand accompanies the guests. Chibineko means actually tiny kitten. 

Dining at the Chibineko Kitchen for this rememberance dinner works good for Kotoko, as she is relieved of the burden of the deep mourning and give it a place in her life, as her brother dreamed of becoming an actor, he now passed the dream on to her.

The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen is a short but beautiful Japanese novel. It is cute and very moving, and altough it felt realistic there was this very good hint of magic into it, just perfectly dosed and not too much. I found the story of Kotoko very moving and beautifully portrayed. Altough the book is shortt and the characters don't have much depth and you don't really get to know them because it is such a short story, the author gives just the right depth to the glimpse of their life you read about in this short story. It was still moving and entertaining to read. This is a book that is perfect for fans of Japanese fiction, it is great that more and more fantastic Japanese novels are translated into English, and this one not to miss!

Tear This Down by Barbara Dee

 

Publisher: Aladdin

On Sale Date: February 25, 2025

Pages: 304

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Freya is a middle schooler who lives with her parents and younger sister in the small town of Wellstone. The town is named after local historical hero Benjamin Wellstone. And no one ever questioned the history of Benjamin Wellstone. 

For a project in social studies class, the students in Freya's class are assigned by teacher Mr. Clayton to do research on a historical figure, Freya chooses Benjamin Wellstone. And she finds out  that Benjamin wasn't so much of a hero, as he had very conservative and wrong ideas and writings about particularly women. In his eyes, women where only fit and suitable in the kitchen, as nanny's and cleaners and no, women had  absolutely no right to vote. Who was he to decide what women and girls should do or not do? The more she researches about Benjamin, the more she disvovers, and she learns about the suffragists movement, and in particular suffragist Olivia Padgett, because of the help of  her friend Callie and Mai, the cool librarian who is a true research hero. Freya wants nothing more than that the statue of Benjamin Wellstone that has been standing in town for decades, will be removed. With Callie’s help, Freya writes and posts a blog post where she shines a light on  Mr. Wellstone’s views about women and suggests removing his statue. She gets mixed reactions on the post from people standing with her and against her view on him, and Freya has to think of a way to make her voice still heard and protest and shine also a light on suffragists like Olivia Padgett, who didn't get the honours that men like Benjamin got and seem to be forgotten. With the help of her family, who sometimes have a hard time dealing with Freya's outspokenness, she finds a way..

I really liked this new book by Barbara Dee. Barbara Dee truly knows how to weave an relevant social topics into books for young readers, every time again,in a fantastic way. The storyline and characters in this book are, just like in her  previous books, brilliant. The writing is perfect for the age group it is aimed at, and altough this book has an educational part because of the social topic, it is never to difficult to follow for young readers, and the tone is just the right one, that makes this book also very entertaining and fun to read, and I think Barbara Dee's boos should be mandatory reads in every classroom and is perfect for a class disscussion.Freya truly is portrayed as a realistic, authentic and idealistic tween, while you are also shown her parent's point of view, and the interactions with her friends and other people in her community, it all made this story feel very real. I truly recommend this new book by Barbara Dee!

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray

 

Publisher: Berkley

On Sale Date: February 4, 2025

Pages: 400

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Harlem Rhapsody is a story that takes place in 1919 and 1920. Harlem is the place where Black pride is everywhere in music literature, theatre, fashion and the arts, while in the rest of the country, a lot of civil and racial unrest takes place.

The Crisis is a magazine founded by W.E.B (Will) du Bois, who is also the editor. Jessie Redmon Fauset, the main character in this book has recently moved to Harlem with her mother, and she becomes the editor of The Crisis. Her task at the magazine is discovering young black writers whose writing will change the world .She discovers many new black writers; sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends.The magazine thrives under Jessie's leadership, the number of subscriptions rises quick and every black aspiring writer wants their work published in the groundbreaking magazine.

But her work at the magazine also has a darker side; she has a an affair with Will, while he is married an has a daughter and is fourteen years older then Jessie. Jessie's mom finds out, leaves and moves back home. From one of her friends she gained over the years working at the magazine, rumors come that Will is also seeing other women besides Jessie. Their affair is chaotic and has many ups and downs, and it influences Jessie's work at the magazine more and more, as she sees Will almost everyday. And she has a goal, to one day become the editor in chief of the magazine, which is Will's position at the magazine. When her relationship with Will becomes troubled, she has to choose between her position at the magazine, going on with her relationship with Will, or to study at the Sorbonne University in Paris and choose for herself.

This is a book I have mixed feelings about. Most of all, I found this story lacked depth, and the characters stayed very one-dimensional, and the storyline, which also lacked an interesting development or events that keep you interested as a reader, evolved mostly around the secret relationship between Jessie and Will, which made the more interesting topics that the book has, the era of racial and civil unrest it was set in, fall to the background. And to stay interested in the characters, what was happening in the book was just not interesting and the storyline felt quite thin. You truly starts wondering as a reader why Jessie is starting an affair with a married and very egoistic man like Will, which truly conflicted with her work for The Crisis, and I truly expected Jessie to be smarter than to start an affair. What else was missing was any interesting plot twist or turns, in this story there where not any of them, and that's a true pity. It would have been a nicer book if the author decided that Jessie made a few wiser decisions earlier in the story, and stood more up for herself instead of falling for a doomed affair.

I truly expected more of this book, and do not really recommend reading it.

What am I reading?

At the moment, I am trying to figure out how to continue reviewing books on my blog. Because of the recent changes on Netgalley  (they removed Adobe Digital Editions as a download option) I am not longer able to download digital review copies from Netgalley. I have the Netgalley Shelf app, but it is not my preferred way of reading, as it is not the same as my Kobo ereader with e-ink, which is a lot more comfortable to read on for a longer period with sensitive eyes like mine.

At the moment I am reading the digital review books that are still on my ereaders and laptop. I am not sure when I will run out of review books.

My current read it Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray, which I will review next week!

The Forgotten Promise by Paula Greenlees

Publisher: Penguin UK

On Sale Date: December 29,2022

Pages: 512

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

In The Forgotten Promise, the author takes the reader to Malaya in the 1940, just before World War Two breaks out in Asia, and the Japanese Army invades and occupies many countries. Malaya was a British colony back then, where white people lived a live of privilege and luxury, often with local people hired as their (housekeeping) staff. Malaya would later become Malaysia.

Ella McCain, a British woman inherited her father's tin mine in the Kledang mountains, where her husband Johnnie is the boss, they have two young children, Ella and Toby. Her childhood friend Noor, who is a local from Kledang, has become her cook. Ella and Johnnie live a privileged life, but things take a bad turn when there is an epidemic of diphteria, which makes her daughter Grace very ill, and Grace has to be admitted to the hospital and stay alone in quarantine with no visitors allowed. Ella is heartbroken, but as her other child might not get sick too in their house where there are a lot of people and staff walking in and out, she goes with her friend Melody who is visiting, to temporarily stay at her beach residence. But while they are staying there, the Japanese invade Singapore and World War two officially breaks out in Malaya too, as the Japanese army soon lands there too, and it is impossible to go back to Ella's house in Kledang, while her daughter is still in the hospital and the Japanese also invade Kledang. Not knowing that the Japanese invade and occupy her house soon and take her husband Johnny as a prisoner. Ella flees to Ipoh with Melody, waiting for word from Johnny and when he will arrive with Grace to join them. But this never happens, and he orders Ella to flee to Singapore so she can flee to England with Toby to be safe. Ella's life changes forever because of the war. Meanwhile, Noor promised Johnny to take care of Grace and to protect her no matter what. Things get dangerous when the Japanese are in the house. She has to wait till the war is over, when Ella is in a search for what happened to Johnny and Grace and their house. But then a secret unravels itself..

The Forgotten Promise is a thrilling and tragic historical fiction novel set before and during the war. The storyline and the characters are both fantastic. It is written in a way that is easy to follow, and the storyline has no slow or boring parts. It was heartbreaking when Ella couldn't return to her home because the way broke out and it took years to find out what happened to her husband and daughter, who doesn't recognize anymore when they meet again.Their meeting in the end is surrounded by conflict, because Noor formally became the caretaker of Grace, because a secret about her  family roots gave her the right to do this, without the knowing of Ella, sadly. This is one of the most thrilling parts of the book. 

Overall I found this a moving and very entertaining book, that I recommend reading!

Uncertain about the future of my blog, because of changes on Netgalley

 Since yesterday evening, the future of my book review blog, Marjolein Reads, which I started in 2008, and where I post a book review every week, has become very uncertain: my main source of review books, the website Netgalley, where publishers share books on for bloggers and influencers, has switched to a different download program for their books, instead of Adobe Digital Editions that most ereaders are compatible with, they now have a for most readers unknown download program, that is not compatible with for example , ereaders like Kobo, like I have. I truly have no influence in this, and this truly bothers me, because I can now only review what I have left on my ereader and laptop already, but since yesterday nothing new anymore. Truly wondering why Netgalley is doing this, it totally makes no sense. My only reading options left are reading from my laptop or the netgalley shelf app on my phone, both options do not work fine for me, and probably many other Netgalley users who review books. I now already read that many other bloggers have the same issue.

I truly hope that I don't have to stop book reviewing on my blog after 17 years, because reading and reviewing is also one of my only fun activities as I am mostly at home due to my kidney illness..I hope Netgalley will change this back.. 🙏🤞