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.. 🙏🤞

How to Share an Egg A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty by Bonny Reichert

Publisher: Ballantine Books

On Sale Date:  January 21, 2025

Pages: 304

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

In this moving culinary memoir, chef, and award-winning  culinary journalist Bonny Reichert describes the past of her  restaurant-owner father, who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps and immigrated to Canada after the war ,and how his past formed her life.  For a long time, Bonny avoided everything that had to do with the holocaust, she knew her father's stories, but this changed after a travel with her family and her father to Warsaw, where he grew up in the ghetto, and where Bonny tasted the perfect bowl of borscht, and her journey to uncover her culinary roots. She takes the reader on this journey with her in many moments in her life; from her childhood, where she grew up around the restaurants of her father, about her beloved grandmother Baba Sarah who was always to be found in the kitchen, cooking the most delicious  food, from her first marriage that fell apart soon, becoming a mother, her new marriage, becoming a chef and culinary journalist, and her life changing travels to Poland, and mostly, the love for her father, who plays an important part in this book and in her life. The book takes you to many places and times in her life, and it is a very moving and beatifully written journey.

It is the story of the daughter of a holocaust survivor, and it is moving but also sad to read how the intergenerational trauma of this can span over multiple generations, altough her father never gave up, Bonny took years to gave his past a place in her life, and did this also by writing this book with her father, who had to survive the gruel horrific concentration camp with very little food, his experience with real harsh hunger and survival, you can only have deep respect for him, as he started a restaurant business out of nothing as a new immigrant in Canada after the war.

The love for food is also a red line in the book, she grew up with Polish food and over the years, learned how to make the food of her roots herself and became a chef. I truly learned a lot from this book, about historical facts and about some cultural aspects as well. I found this book very moving, entertaining, and above all, beautiful written! This is a book I recommend reading if you love books about food and history, in this book these two are perfectly combined and this is what make this book taste really good!

New book reviews are coming up!

The past few weeks there where no new book reviews on my blog; I had the flu, and because I am also a Gitelman Syndrome patient, I had to take as much rest as possible to recover.

However, next week I hope to post a new book review, as I just started reading again. The first review up will be How To Share an Egg by Bonny Reichert.

Takeaway: Stories From A Childhood Behind The Counter by Angela Hui

 

Publisher: Trapeze

On Sale Date:  January 7, 2022

Pages: 352

This is a review of a book that I bought

Angela Hui's parents moved from Hong Kong to the UK in 1985, and started the Lucky Star Chinese takeaway in the small Valley town of Beddau, Wales in 1988. Angela and her two brothers grew up in the takeaway, as they lived above the shop. Her parents where always working hard in the kitchen of the takeaway. Angela describes in this book how she experienced growing up in a takeaway. It means always being in the takeaway after school and helping manning the counter since she was twelve years old. Manning the counter and the till and dealing with customers can be quite demanding, an in a Chinese takeaway, the family also has to deal with many racist incidents in a small town as Beddau. Her parents never really learned English very well, so Angela also has to support them with translating imporant letters. Angela's parents are very kind and loving, but the work in the takeaway means they rarely have any family quality time, only during the summer vacation to Hong Kong and on trips to the wholesale to shop for supplies and ingredients for the takeaway. Her dad is also not easy, as he has a serious gambling problem and lashes out verbally sometimes to his wife and children. 

Angela doesn't shy away to name the difficulties the family has faced, which makes the book really an honest memoir, and it is a book you can't put away once you started reading.  One of the most sad racist incidents was when boys break in into the garden where Angela's mom has her garden where she had grown melon's with care. The melons are stolen and smashed, and I truly put myself in her mom shoes to feel her sadness about this, it was so heartbreaking. There where fun moments too, and the book is filled in between chapters with the most delicous recipes from the takeaway, like spring rolls and prawn toast. Because of the hard work, the three Hui children get to study and fly out and started there own lifes, Angela describes when she had to leave the takeaway and move out to find her own path in life, and you can only have deep respect as a reader for the  hardworking  and honest Hui family, the parents retired after thirty years of running the shop, but this book truly is a dedication to the hard work of the families behind the Chinese takeaways in the UK. In the 1990's I once saw a British tv documentary (I think it was called Takeaway Lives or Children from the Chinese Takeaway) about the second generation of Chinese immigrants in the UK who run takeaways, and how they see their future. I still haven't found it online back yet, but this book truly reminded me of that documentary, as the people in it dealt with the same things I saw back in this book. I truly liked this book about and I highly recommend reading it!

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Publisher: Dutton

On Sale Date:  January 7, 2025

Pages: 352

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

1936; Charlotte Cross is a student in New York City, who gets an offer of a much desired spot on an archeological digging site in Egypt's ancient Valley of The Kings. She accepts the offer, and during the time at the valley, she stumbles on an ancient found. And she gets in a relationship with Henry, and they get a daughter, Layla. But later on, tragedy strikes when World War Two is on the brink of breaking out, and Charlotte, Henry and their baby Layla have to flee back to New York by a ship, a ship that lands in terrible weather  and that slays Henry and Layla overboard..  

Heartbroken Charlotte's live is never the same, and back in New York she is hospitalized  in a psychatric hospital after her tloss and trauma, but she starts a new life and gets a job as an associate curator at New York's Metropoltan Museum of Art department of Egyptian Art, where she does research on Hathorkare; a female pharaoh overseen by most other Egyptologists as unimportant which she certainly wasn't.

New York 1978; Annie Jenkins gets to work for the former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who is in the middle of organzing the prestigious and famous Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

The evening of the Gala, everything goes wrong; Annie is asked to pick up a box at the Museum of Natural History, presuming that the box contains life butterflies, as Diana really wanted butterflies at the gala. But instead, the box contains moths, which is devastating as the box opens and the costume and fashion exhibition, is swarmed by moths at the gala evening, and Annie gets the blame. To make matters worse, on the same evening in the midst of all the moths swarming around, the light falls out and One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts , and ancient Egyptian Queen statue goes missing. Annie and Charlotte spot a man with an ankh necklace, who violently threatens them and then runs away. Charlotte discovers asuspicious lead to who might be behind this incident and wants to travel to Egypt, where the lead links to, also to find out if Henry and Layla are still alive, as their case never was really closed Still a suspect, Annie joins Charlotte on her travel to Egypt, and a journey full of danger begins..

Fiona Davis has written a new masterpiece again! Just like all her other books, The Stolen Queen takes places in a sigificant and famous New York City landmark building, this time the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And just like all her other books, the storyline and characters are both magnificent. The drama in the story  builds up slowly, and at first I thought this book probably was one with less drama and mystery then the previous books of Fiona Davis. But the storyline really takes off after the incidents during the Met Gala. I truly didn't see this coming and this surprise effect was truly good! The book travels back and forth during past, during Charlotte's time in Cairo in the 1930's to the present, where we meet Annie and Annie meets Charlotte. This really worked for the story, and I though that the story got better and better and more thrilling, especially in the final parts there where some major plot twists that where truly had a wow-effect. And the ending, it truly is good!

Overall, this is another fabulous book in the already long line of fabulous line of books by Fiona Davis. I absolutely enjoyed reading it and found it highly entertaining and thrilling, and I recommend it!!

Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

 

Publisher: Penguin UK

On Sale Date:  28 July 2022

Pages: 416

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

1882,China; Daiyu is twelve years old when her parents dissapear. She lives with her grandmother, who warns her that one day, the people who captured her parents, will come for her too. Her grandmother forces her to leave for the city of Zhifu, disguised with a shaved head as a boy named Feng. Now, Daiyu has to survive on her own.

She becomes a help for a calligraphy master, but shortly after she is kidnapped at the fish market, and after being held captive for a year where she is thaught English, she is smuggled in a crate and shipped to San Francisco, where she starts to live as a girl again, but that makes her land in the dangerous brother of Madame Lee, which by daytime is a laundry shop. Daiyu becomes the prostitute Peony here, and Madame Lee forces her to spend her first ''real work night'' with a man who is important in the most important tong (the Chinese mafia) that protects the brothel. This totally goes different as planned, and it lands Daiyu fleeing the brothel secretly and makes her land in a mining town of Pierce Idaho, where Daiyu, as many other Chinese, finds work in  a Chinese general store as a boy again, named Jacob Li, where she becomes good friends with the two owners.  But the Chinese are met with agressive and violent racist mobs who want the Chinese workers in quite verbal slur words ''to go back to their country'. This leads all to very tragic events, where Daiyu and her fellow workers at the store are accused of a murder they didn't commit..

This is a beautiful and tragic book that is truly moving. I found it sad to read in the afterword, that the racist events that took places in the book, truly happened in history.  How the book is written, it is absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. The author did a great job to make the events that took place in a different era, understandable and easy to follow as a reader. The characters where brilliant, and Daiyu is a true heroine. She has to undergo many hardships from early age on, and during the book you just get deep respect for her, as her hardships in life never seems to stop, but she never gives up. The end was truly one that gives you cold chills, I really found it scary, and I truly hoped Daiyu and her two friends would come out alive.. I truly found it heartbreaking how racist some people where against Chinese people, against the backdrop of the awful Chinese Exclusion Act, something I will never understand. I find books like this very important to show parts in history that are rarely or never told.

Overall, this is a very good and very original book, with an amazing storyline and characters that I highly recommend!

Clementine and Danny Save The World (and Each Other) by Livia Blackburne

 

Publisher:  Quill Tree Books

On Sale Date:  July 18, 2023

Pages: 336

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Clementine Chan is a girl who knows everything about tea. Besides her school work and work for the school paper, and her college applications, she runs a popular blog where she reviews tea shops under the pen name Hibiscus. She has a loyal group of followers, except for follower BobaBoy888, who leaves critical and not so nice comments on her blog posts. Clementine learns that a local strip mall is to be destroyed, and that Kale corporations has bought it to build chain stores there, she joins the Chinatown Cares community movement to try to stop Kale corporations.

Danny Mok works in the Chinatown tea shop of his parents after school. Besides school, he comments frequently on the blog of Hibiscus (as BobaBoy888) to comment on every review she writes of tea shop He hates change, so when his parents announces that someone from Kale Corporations has visited them with interest to buy the shop from them for a large sum of money, he hates the idea of the tea shop where he spend most of his live being gone forever maybe soon.  He joins the Chinatown Cares community movement, to save the community they both love so much. 

Together they are going through Chinatown to make as much people as possible sign their petition to save the community and the local shops. Clementine and Danny become friends, and later on, more then just friends. But then Clementine finds out that Danny is BobaBoy888, and they find out that all there hard work for the Chinatown community seems to be for nothing....

This is such a cute and sweet read, with a very fierce community sense as a red line through the book. I loved the two characters of Clementine and Danny. They where kind and both very realisticly portrayed, and both are characters you immediately like and relate to as a reader.  I loved that they bonded, and fell in love in the end. The setting of the book, a Chinatown in a not further specified city (altough it felt like San Francisco's Chinatown). I loved the setting of Danny's parents tea shop, which has been there for decades, and seems to fall to prey to gentrification by the Kale Corporation. This also felt very realistic, as this is happening in many cities around the world, endangering mom and pop stores that truly serve the community.

I truly liked reading this entertaining YA novel with a fantastic and realistic storyline, and this is a book I truly recommend!!