Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Underrated Books

 

I have not done a top 5 Wednesday post in a while, but the subject for this week is very interesting and I could not resist. I think a lot of book-bloggers/reviewers tend to read and talk about the same books, and this is a great way for all of us to learn about less known gems that are out there. I, for one, definitely tend to jump on the popular bandwagon and read a lot of highly publicized new or recent releases and as a result sometimes struggle to recommend a book that might be unknown to an avid reader like myself.

The list below features a couple of recent releases, two on-going series that I love and a modern classic.

1. Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov

I just read this book earlier this month and fell in love with Sergei Dolvatov's writing. Dovlatov immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1979. He work was never recognized in the Soviet Russia, but gained a lot of popularity after the break-up of the USSR. In America, his work was published in The New Yorker and was highly acclaimed by his contemporaries such as Kurt Vonnegut. Pushkin Hills was translated by his daughter and supposedly captures the author's unique style and sense of humor. In many aspects it is autobiographical in nature, but it is also a great snapshot of the Soviet Russia.

2. The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

This is a fairly recent release. The book came out in January 2016, and focuses on the unlikely friendship between the flamboyant and strikingly talented Truman Capote and the glamorous socialite and trend-setter Babe Paley. This book is the reason I originally became interested and subsequently completely enamored with Capote's writing.

3. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

This is another recent release (October 2016). The book tells the story of Albert Einstein's first wife Mileva Maric. With the upcoming release of the film Hidden Figures, a look at women in science throughout history is certainly a poignant subject. Mileva was the first woman who was admitted to the Polytechnic University in Switzerland to study physics. She was brilliant and quite possibly contributed (without ever getting any credit for it) to Einstein's greatest work. This book was very educational and I highly recommend it.

4.  Five Kingdoms by Brandon Mull

This is a very entertaining, imaginative and fast-paced middle grade fantasy series. 4 books are currently out and the last one is coming out later this year. It is about a group of kids who inadvertently while trick or treating on Halloween enter a different world and go on a series of wild adventures. Our entire family has enjoyed following this series and we cannot wait to read the conclusion.

5. Cainsville by Kelley Armstrong

Cainsville is a paranormal mystery series set in modern-day Chicago, but fairies and other fantastical creatures disguised as humans are very much part of this world. Each book is centered around a murder mystery which the main protagonist has to help solve. I have enjoyed all the books in the series (4 are currently out and 4 more are planned by the author), and I highly recommend them to those who like mysteries with a fantastical twist.

"Three Wishes" by Liane Moriarty

This book was super fun. I listened to it on audiobook and highly recommend this format. The narrator was excellent. This is a contemporary family drama, and in it, we follow the three Kettle sisters: Lyn, Cat and Gemma. They are triplets in their early 30s and we follow them as each of them navigates the difficulties of marriage/relationship, parenting and career. It was fascinating to read about three very distinct personalities who have been together since before birth and are so used to sharing everything and being in each other's business all the time. I loved Moriarty's writing and her sense of humor. This was the first novel that I read by her, and I will definitely plan on checking out more of her work.

"Deathless" by Catherynne M. Valente

I would like to preface this review with a quote from Valente’s novel, which perfectly describes my feelings about this book:

“In both marriage and war you must cut up the things people say like a cake, and eat only what you can stomach” (Deathless).

There are aspects of this book that I really enjoyed and then there are things that I just could not stomach.

Regardless of how one feels about the overall plot, one thing is undisputable: Valente is very familiar with the Russian folklore. She makes lots of references to various folk stories and legends, weaves in descriptions of magical creatures (e.g., the firebird) as well as specific spirits, goblins and other demons prevalent in the Russian mythology and folklore. However, because she comes through as extremely knowledgeable about the Russian culture, the few mistakes that she does make, stick out as a sore thumb. I noticed four: (1) volchitza is a she-wolf, not a little wolf; (2) volchik is not a word, you would say volchonok or volchok to address a male wolf cub; (3) Alexey is not a form of Alexander, it is a completely different name; and (4) Marousha is not a valid diminutive for Marya.

I was also a bit thrown by her references to Pushkin. Yes, he is the most famous of the Russian poets. He also did write several fairy tales. However, there is no direct connection to his fairy tales in Deathless. Valente quotes one stanza from his introduction to the poem Ruslan and Ludmila in which Pushkin references Koschei, but that stanza has nothing to do with the fairy tales he actually authored, and is rather meant to generally introduce the magical world of the Russian folklore as the setting of his poem. In addition, she attributes Viy to Pushkin, and Viy is a story by Nikolai Gogol. So the literary references made no sense to me.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the plot. Basically, Valente took the most famous Russian fairy tales featuring Koschei the Deathless and Baba Yaga and retold them in the setting of the Soviet Russia right before and during World War II. I was really fascinated by what she did and enjoyed the book for about 150 pages or so. After that, I kept wondering where she was going with the story line. For one, she tells us that the entire magical world is engaged in an endless war: the Tsar of Death (Viy) keeps battling the Tsar of Life (Koschei the Deathless). For someone who grew up on Russian folktales such division of power makes no sense. Both Viy and Koschei are forces of evil and in folklore both equally sow death and destruction. In fact, the entire magical world appears to consist only of demons and evil creatures: some of them are alive and are thus in Koschei’s army, but as soon as they die, they join Viy’s ranks. What’s unclear to me is how humanity fits into this and where are the forces of good. Russian folktales always have the main human characters, say Ivan and Vasilisa, who have to battle or overcome some evil force (such as Koschei), but they usually get magical help from “good” powers. It could be a mother’s blessing that protects them or they might get some advice from an old man or a woman who have magical powers. The battle in the story is always between good and evil. Valente’s scenario was confusing and the “good” component was completely missing.

Surprisingly, I did like the ending of the novel. It made sense to me that Viy (or the Tsar of Death) has taken over Russia – sort of a symbolism for godless and tyrannical Soviet regime. At the same time, the magical creatures that are showing the budding signs of dissention are Baba Yaga and Koschei, who are again by their nature evil, so I am not sure what hope they can give to humanity. In addition, because Valente chose the setting of WWII, is she saying that Soviet victory over Germany equates the victory of death over life? This sort of reasoning is pretty scary and I don’t even want to go there.

So the bottom line is, even though some symbolism made sense to me, overall the plot is quite confusing and does not seem to have any overarching message. I ended up not giving this book any rating. I did not think it was terrible, and I also definitely did not think it was great. I just don’t think I understand what the author was trying to say. I have read some reviews of this novel and tend to agree with the negative ones. Overall, I do not recommend this book. It was disappointing.

A series review: "Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" by Pamela Aidan

    

Pamela Aidan's trilogy Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman is a re-telling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's perspective. Unlike many other books written about Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, Aidan's books are not romance novels. The books are written in the style and language of the period. They are extremely close to Austen's original, and the BBC mini-series based on it. The surprising thing about these books was the fact that it was difficult for me to get into them. With each of the three books in the series, it would take me 100-150 pages to really get into the story. I also found that the portions of the books that were direct re-tellings were the most boring, and lacked Austen's magic. Elizabeth Bennet, especially in the first book, was quite unlikable. Her change of heart towards Darcy was also hard to understand in Aidan's books even though Austen made it work in hers.

At the same time, I found myself enjoying the material and plot twists that Aidan creatively added to the overall story line. Unlike some other readers, I thought the second book (which had nothing to do with Elizabeth Bennett and Austen's original plot) was the strongest in the series. I also liked the two characters that Aidan created: Darcy's valet Fletcher and his friend Dy - both were not part of Austen's original work. Finally, Aidan added the historical context to the novels masterfully weaving in references to political events of the day and mentioning major historical figures living at the time. Overall, my ratings for the books were:
Book 1: An Assembly Such as This - 4 stars
Book 2: Duty and Desire - 5 stars, and
Book 3: These Three Remain - 3 stars

If you cannot get enough of Pride and Prejudice, this trilogy could be a good way to get back into the world and see it from a new perspective.

"Pushkin Hills" by Sergei Dovlatov

Pushkin Hills ("Заповедник") was written by Sergei Dovlatov, a Russian and American writer, in the late seventies-early eighties of the 20th century. The novel is largely autobiographical. Just like the main character, Dovlatov struggled with alcoholism and was never published in the Soviet Union during his lifetime. Pushkin Hills shows the realities of life in the Soviet Russia, and the struggles a talented writer has to deal with if he wants to write creatively rather than follow "the Party line". The main character Boris spends a summer working as a tour guide in the manor of Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin. Even though Boris' personal situation is deeply tragic, he describes the rural life around him with humor and affection. The KGB officer in this novel is paradoxically sane in his views and advice whereas Boris' fellow tour guides and writers are untalented, vulgar and pitiful in their mediocrity.  At the same time, the protagonist's (i.e., the author's) voice is never arrogant. He knows his own flaws and demons and does not claim to be something he is not. He cannot be a successful writer in his home country, and he is hesitant to flee to the west. He is sorry to see his wife and daughter emigrate, but he also knows that he cannot offer them a good life in Russia. Even though Dovlatov tackles difficult issues, he does so with humor. This book is a delight to read. I found myself highlighting quote after quote. He laughs at popular art, desperation of single women, incoherent speech of his alcoholic landlord, and himself, always at himself. A great read. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

"The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett" by Chelsea Sedoti

I received an advanced copy of this title from Netgalley for review. The official release date of the book was January 3, 2017. This is a YA contemporary novel about a teenage girl Hawthorn who becomes obsessed with Lizzie Lovett when the latter disappears in the woods. Lizzie is three years older than Hawthorn and they never really knew each other. But Lizzie was the homecoming queen, the most popular girl in high school, the captain of the cheer-leading squad, the one everyone loved and secretly envied. So Hawthorn felt like she really knew Lizzie.

I have mixed feelings about this book: there were some things that I really liked and some that I did not care for.  For one, Hawthorn was a bit too self-absorbed for my taste and I also did not understand why she kept thinking of herself as weird and loser. It's like she had this distorted view of reality: there was "them - the popular kids who go to parties and have friends" and then there is her - the loser, the weirdo, the only person who never goes to parties. Contrary to her worldview, we learn that she does in fact have a close friend Emily, a loving brother and parents, and throughout the book, she also demonstrates that she is quite capable of making other friends. So you can't even say that she has no social skills It is as if she is determined to be miserable and hate the high school experience no matter what. I thought the romance in the book was on the creepy side, and her entire theory of how Lizzie disappeared was extremely far-fetched, juvenile, and frankly cringe-worthy at times.

What I did like about the book is how intense Hawthorn is. She, as her brother puts it, "takes everything too far."  She gets completely obsessed with Lizzie's life to the point of getting her job and becoming friends with her boyfriend (the creepy side of her obsession). But she also feels and grieves so intensely, I am not sure I am able to ever be this passionate about anything in life. So even though I could not relate to her obsessive thoughts, I thought the author was able to do a good job showing to us the main character's internal world.  I also liked that Hawthorn learned from these experience and realized that everyone has difficulties. No one's life is perfect or as glamorous as it might seem from the outside. All of us are unique and weird, and sometimes we feel like losers and sometimes we are intensely happy. I also appreciated the dynamic with her brother. I thought it was well and realistically written.

So overall, I rated the book at 3 out of 5 stars.  I liked the fact that Hawthorn grew and learned as a result of this experience, but I could not get on board with some of the creepier and far-fetched portions of the plot.

Reading Goals for 2017

Here we are on the first day of 2017 and of course it is time to set my reading goals for the new year!

I am setting my Goodreads goal to 85 books again. I read 108 books in 2016, but I do really want to tackle some big fantasy books this year so would like to keep the overall number manageable.

Just as last year, I would like to read 10 classics in 2017 To keep myself on track, I have put together a list of specific books/authors I would like to read:

Specific books I'd like to read in 2017
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Specific authors I'd like to read in 2017
Vladimir Nabokov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Charles Dickens
Truman Capote
John Steinbeck

This year, I would also like to read 5 non-fiction books, and finish off 5 series that I have started but did not complete.

And finally, I would like to review 10 advance reading copies (ARCs), but it will of course depend on how many ARCs I will receive this year. I do have 2 already that I will be reading in January and February. 

Here is to another great reading year!