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50books_pocTwo quite quick reviews.
First of all, 'Not Quite A Husband', which is a romance novel by Sherry Thomas, who also wrote 'Delicious' (which I loved) and 'Private Arrangements' (which I loved). I was, therefore, all hopeful about this one, especially as it featured some of the characters from her previous novels making guest appearances. Sadly, this book actually turned into a big disappointment for me.
I think a part of this was the history. Now, first of all, I might be wrong about this because I'm not a specialist in 19th century history, and secondly I do know that it's just a romance novel and Sherry Thomas has always been a bit cheerfully anachronistic, but it still bothered me. A central part of the plot features the heroine being a doctor. A married doctor. A female doctor who gets married and keeps practising and I am sure that's all wrong. My stepmother is a third generation nurse. My stepsister is a fourth generation nurse. My stepmother trained in the 1960s and was the first generation who was able to keep working after she got married. At least with nurses I know how huge the expectation was that they stop work upon marriage - most hospitals just refused to employ married women into the 1950s. It was a massive and gut wrenching choice for many women - career or family - and I rather resented the fact that Sherry Thomas cheerfully ignored this and just let her heroine keep going, with no one, apparently saying much other than raising an eyebrow and making the occasional snarky comment about the 'niceness' of the profession.
In general, though, I think that was the crippling problem with this book. Issues were raised and never addressed. The uprising in India which the couple get caught up in happens, is scary, they don't get killed, they move on. The reason why the couple broke up in the first place is never really looked at. It happened, they decide they should just move past it, which, as it was quite a big and (I thought) good reason for breaking up seemed kinda crazy.
I was also confused by the chemistry between the couple. I think this might just be a matter of personal preference, however. I dislike the old 'I fancied you when I was nine years old' trope, and never really saw much in the way of chemistry between the two of them which seemed to justify this turning into an actual relationship when they were older.
This sounds like a really negative review, and it wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed, which is a shame as I normally love Sherry Thomas. However, I'm aware that this might just be that a couple of plot points in the book connected badly with my personal bugbears, and other people may well enjoy it a huge amount more. I'm still going to get her fourth novel, in a hopeful fashion, because I did love the first two. I think this one just isn't for me.
Secondly, 'Miss Chopsticks' by Xinran, which I absolutely adored. 'Miss Chopsticks' is the story of three Chinese girls from the country who go to Nanjing to find work. It's based on three true stories, collected by Xinran, and fictionalized as a tribute to the often ill educated country girls who come to the city and start new lives.
It was wonderful. The writing style is very factual, but very detailed, and just as a portrait of modern day Nanjing it is really worth reading. The three main characters are all very dissimilar, as are their stories, but they are bound together really well, and I found the ending very satisfying, in part for it's lack of 'happy ever after'.
As an aside, I also found it really fascinating to read some of the comments about westerners. It's always interesting to see one's culture from another's eyes. One of the main characters works in a bookshop where she meets a lot of 'bignoses', and there's a lot about how she sees them, about the habits which amuse her, which seem peculiar and which seem admirable. It certainly got me thinking.
Highly recommended.
First of all, 'Not Quite A Husband', which is a romance novel by Sherry Thomas, who also wrote 'Delicious' (which I loved) and 'Private Arrangements' (which I loved). I was, therefore, all hopeful about this one, especially as it featured some of the characters from her previous novels making guest appearances. Sadly, this book actually turned into a big disappointment for me.
I think a part of this was the history. Now, first of all, I might be wrong about this because I'm not a specialist in 19th century history, and secondly I do know that it's just a romance novel and Sherry Thomas has always been a bit cheerfully anachronistic, but it still bothered me. A central part of the plot features the heroine being a doctor. A married doctor. A female doctor who gets married and keeps practising and I am sure that's all wrong. My stepmother is a third generation nurse. My stepsister is a fourth generation nurse. My stepmother trained in the 1960s and was the first generation who was able to keep working after she got married. At least with nurses I know how huge the expectation was that they stop work upon marriage - most hospitals just refused to employ married women into the 1950s. It was a massive and gut wrenching choice for many women - career or family - and I rather resented the fact that Sherry Thomas cheerfully ignored this and just let her heroine keep going, with no one, apparently saying much other than raising an eyebrow and making the occasional snarky comment about the 'niceness' of the profession.
In general, though, I think that was the crippling problem with this book. Issues were raised and never addressed. The uprising in India which the couple get caught up in happens, is scary, they don't get killed, they move on. The reason why the couple broke up in the first place is never really looked at. It happened, they decide they should just move past it, which, as it was quite a big and (I thought) good reason for breaking up seemed kinda crazy.
I was also confused by the chemistry between the couple. I think this might just be a matter of personal preference, however. I dislike the old 'I fancied you when I was nine years old' trope, and never really saw much in the way of chemistry between the two of them which seemed to justify this turning into an actual relationship when they were older.
This sounds like a really negative review, and it wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed, which is a shame as I normally love Sherry Thomas. However, I'm aware that this might just be that a couple of plot points in the book connected badly with my personal bugbears, and other people may well enjoy it a huge amount more. I'm still going to get her fourth novel, in a hopeful fashion, because I did love the first two. I think this one just isn't for me.
Secondly, 'Miss Chopsticks' by Xinran, which I absolutely adored. 'Miss Chopsticks' is the story of three Chinese girls from the country who go to Nanjing to find work. It's based on three true stories, collected by Xinran, and fictionalized as a tribute to the often ill educated country girls who come to the city and start new lives.
It was wonderful. The writing style is very factual, but very detailed, and just as a portrait of modern day Nanjing it is really worth reading. The three main characters are all very dissimilar, as are their stories, but they are bound together really well, and I found the ending very satisfying, in part for it's lack of 'happy ever after'.
As an aside, I also found it really fascinating to read some of the comments about westerners. It's always interesting to see one's culture from another's eyes. One of the main characters works in a bookshop where she meets a lot of 'bignoses', and there's a lot about how she sees them, about the habits which amuse her, which seem peculiar and which seem admirable. It certainly got me thinking.
Highly recommended.
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