Review: The Age of Anxiety

Now I have to admit that lately, I have been reading about books a lot more than I have been reading books. This has led to the creation of a little booklet with a list of titles I must one day purchase and read. I have even come up with a little colour-code depending on how soon I wish to read the book.

The review I am sharing with you today isn’t even mine – I have yet to read the book, but it sounds fascinating enough for me to want to share its review with you all. On the one hand, it would be fun for some of you to already have read it by the time I review it (yes, it’s one of those books) and, on the other hand, if someone has already read it and hated it, I can perhaps be forewarned and not waste time, money and muscles (carrying books him, you know) on a book that isn’t worth it.

From The Oprah Magazine (January 2009 issue), here is a review for The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers:

Andrea Tone’s thoughtful, timely, and evenhanded narrative (…) locates the vertiginious rise, fall, and reascension of tranquilizers from Miltown to Xanax inside the complex sociohistorical context of the second half of the 20th century. (…) Most importantly, Tone asks the imperative questions: To what extent have pharmaceutical companies pathologized problems that are simply the normal vagaries of life? In the absence of well-placed ads, how many Americans would identify social anxiety as a disorder requiring pharmacology? Are Xanax and its predecessors serving only to keep us from changing situationally unhappy lives? As one physician said, “It takes 30 seconds to write a prescription for Valium but 30 minutes to explain why a patient shouldn’t have it.” Tone’s study suggest that might be time well spent.

This reads like a real-life, scientific, thoughtful and thought-provoking government conspiracy à la X-files. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book, which might make its way a little higher in the pile of readings I have.

Pile which I should really get back to.

Review: Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a review of Stephanie Nolen’s book “28 Stories of AIDS in Africa”. Although no one posted comments on the blog (WHAT am I going to do with y’all?), I did receive a good dozen emails. Some of you had already read the book; many of you went and bought it after reading my review. All of you had questions, some of them entertaining, some quite challenging.

Two of your questions I’d like to address in public.

First of all, I don’t get a cut from Chapters for every book sold because of my reviews. At least, not yet… So please, do feel free to send Chapters an email suggesting they give me a cut or something.

The second question I also often got was what book should one purchase to find out more about the HIV/AIDS pandemic? Well, while there are many great books out there, the one I’d particularly recommend is Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure: Why we are losing the fight against AIDS in Africa.

While the title would lead us to believe that the book covers only the African epidemic, Mrs. Epstein leads into the topic by first going over the entire history of HIV/AIDS: what initially made the medical community sit up and take notice, what happened in the gay communities of America and Europe, how and when the virus was identified, the discovery of antiretrovirals and the subsequent decline of AIDS related deaths in rich countries.

Mrs. Epstein then explains why conditions in Africa prevented the successful containment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and how the virus has spread through the entire population. She also explains some cutting edge public health theories as to why the epidemic is still rampant and current public health interventions aren’t going to resolve the situation.

I didn’t think that a scientifically rigorous book containing this much information about HIV/AIDS could be read so easily – yet this book was just that. Eloquent, rigorously scientific and qui thorough, Mrs. Epstein has managed to write a book that will appeal to both the uninitiated and those already working on the field. While you won’t read much about the current epidemic in the Americas, Europe and in Asia, there are hints that are posted throughout the book; also, the basic knowledge you will gain about HIV/AIDS will help you read other books on the subject.

For those of you who are currently swamped with readings for school or end of year reports for work, you could make do for now with an interview Helen Epstein did about her book. It pretty much is a detailed synopsis of her book. I personally found it a great overview of the book after I read it, but it can also be a great way to introduce yourself to the book before you read it.

Book review: Jennifer Weiner’s Little Earthquakes

If you’re looking for a great, humorous, realistic yet inspirational read, then Jennifer Weiner’s books are for you. Of her many (good) books, Little Earthquakes is definitely my favorite one.

While Jennifer Weiner is categorized as a Chick Lit author, the stigma associated with the genre is definitely challenged by books such as this one. “To refer to Weiner’s book as Chick Lit is similar to calling Todd English a fast food restaurant owner. What both of these talented individuals have in common is the ability to create wonderful pieces of work that are sometimes taken for granted because they reach such a wide audience and make it look effortless.”

Little Earthquakes is of the Chick Lit genre in that it’s a book by a woman about women that is aimed at women. The book “introduces us to four women who meet at a yoga class for expectant mothers. Becky is a chef who has an extremely loving relationship with her husband and an interfering mother-in-law who insists on trying to change everything about her. Kelly is an overachieving event planner who had a poor childhood and has since become intent on giving her own child a better life. Unfortunately, her newly unemployed husband isn’t living up to her ideals. Ayinde, a beautiful television reporter who is married to a professional athlete, has her life turned upside down because of her husband’s act of indiscretion. Finally there is Lia, a somewhat mysterious character who hides a heartbreaking secret involving her own brief experience of motherhood while bonding with the new mothers. Each of these women must struggle with the challenges of being new moms while at the same time balancing all of the other areas in their lives. They realize that becoming a new mother changes one’s sense of self and one’s relationships with others.”

However, if you define Chick Lit as having “an airy, irreverent tone and frank sexual themes”, then you are in for a major disappointment. The story is definitely not airy and the tone, while light-hearted at times and humorous at others, is definitely not irreverent. It could have easily become so, as the four main characters become close friends, get embroiled in complicated situations and have conversations that are deeper and deeper. But Jennifer Weiner stuck to a brand of friendship that isn’t based on shoes and shopping, but rather on the character forming challenges of motherhood and those little traumatic obstacles of life such as unemployment and infidelity.

The character development is so deep one almost expects a full psychological review (and I’m certain a professional would have more than enough information from this story to develop four full profiles). But the book reads like anything but a medical chart.

And while the richness of the book is in large part due to this amazing character development, it is also in large part due to Jennifer Weiner’s particular brand of humor, which she injects throughout the entire story. Interestingly enough, her characters do not become four aspects of her own personality, but remain four distinct and very different women.

These differences aren’t limited to their background or their current situation; they are also very present when it comes to their attitude towards mothering. Lia and Ayinde are in between the two extremes portrayed by Becky’s extremely laid-back attitude and Kelly’s over controlling one. Ayinde struggles with her mother’s old school attitude towards parenting while Lia is nursing deep guilt over what happened to her son. Jennifer Weiner never presents any form of judgment towards any of these women, rather bringing out the positive and negative of each attitude, and focusing on her exploration of “the power of love and self-acceptance in overcoming life’s obstacles. Her characters confront harshness and unhappiness with humor and self-confidence. They experience success without changing the essence of who they are and without subjugating their beliefs. Weiner has written a touching novel with wonderful characters and honest lessons about living a less than perfect life. (…) Little Earthquakes explores motherhood, friendship, marriage, loss, devastation, forgiveness and love. This is women’s fiction at its best.”

I was thinking about what makes Jennifer Weiner’s books so amazing, and I couldn’t quite put it in words. This in itself is ironic, since someone who blogs technically should be good with words. Anyhow! Thankfully, not all reviewers out there lack the savvy to do so, and here is the one description I love: “How does Weiner create such wonderful fiction time and time again? She pulls her readers into the world she has created and allows them to experience this world for themselves. She gives her characters difficult struggles and flaws. Weiner writes so vividly and creates such real human emotion through her words that she makes her readers truly care about the lives of her characters. (…) What is so wonderful about Weiner’s work is that she gives her characters undying hope, no matter how unfortunate their circumstances may be. Through her characters’ faith and persistence she creates happy endings that often can be difficult to find in fiction today.”

At the risk of sounding terribly cliché, the characters in this book are so real that they seem to leap out of the pages. Sometimes, especially on days when I’m tired and I haven’t had my morning coffee, I remain convinced that I know these women rather than having read about them. They are terribly human, full of flaws and strengths, are women we could look up to without being picture the perfect, pre-packaged superwomen we are often told to somehow emulate.

Which brings me to one of the other great things about this story is that the ending: “isn’t happily ever after, but there is the feeling that these women are all better equipped to manage their lives than they were at the beginning of the book.” This makes the characters are the more real and, at the same time, all the more endearing.

Another great thing about being a Jennifer Weiner fan is that it doesn’t stop at her books; she also has a blog which, as opposed to some of the other blogs by authors out there, is quite entertaining and refreshing in itself. I would even consider publishing a collection of her best posts, that’s how great her blog is.

“In her blog, she often discusses publishing foibles and challenges, her upcoming events (or her past events and how they went), and all-too-rare mentions of her children. But where her blog really shines is when she unleashes her considerable wit and irony on the publishing industry at large. Because she’s a female novelist whose books often have pink covers (these are her words), she is cast into the category called ‘chick lit’. She both bemoans this fact but also embraces it, because so many women authors are labeled with this rather dismissive term. She often mentions books she’s reading, and authors she loves. She discusses the hypocrisy of book reviewers, and gently admonishes other writers for their egos (particularly those authors that both court attention and revile it). Reading her blog can often feel like a ring-side seat into the deep, dark world of book publishing and all that goes on there. When I keep up with her blog, I feel much more connected to the world of publishing–even though I don’t yet have a book to publish.”

Jennifer Weiner published Little Earthquakes in 2004; her first book, Good in Bed, was published in 2001. In her Shoes was published in 2002 and is now a motion picture starting Cameron Diaz. She continued with Goodnight Nobody (2005), The Guy not Taken (2006) and Certain Girls (2008). There are more than 9 million copies of her books in print in 36 countries. Of all her books, only one was disappointing (Certain Girls); all the others were absolutely wonderful, and for a relaxing, easy, entertaining and inspiring read, I recommend them all – but do start with Little Earthquakes.

Review: Stephanie Nolen’s 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa

I’m currently reading a fantastic book. It’s amazingly written; the language is rich and eloquent, yet very easy to read. However, it is very difficult to read in that the content is quite harsh.

Many know the statistics: HIV has infected millions worldwide and AIDS has killed millions. Many also know that Africa is being devastated by this virus. Some know that there are drugs that can reverse AIDS into a life-long infection which, while sometimes difficult to manage, allows the person to live. This would greatly help increase the life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS has taken a bite out of other public health advances to reduce it to the late 30s. Imagine that: someone in Africa can only hope to live until their late 30s, a time at which in North America and Europe, people have happily settled into their married life and/or their careers.

But statistics don’t mean as much as the real stories behind them, which is what Stephanie Nolen brings to us in her book “28 Stories of AIDS in Africa“.

“From an internationally acclaimed journalist comes an extraordinary book that puts a human face on the AIDS crisis in Africa: twenty-eight vivid stories, one for each of the million Africans living with the virus.”

The most amazing thing about this book is that Nolen isn’t just reporting facts that she heard about or she observed while sitting in her hotel room sipping on something delicious, but rather that “in every instance, Nolen has borne witness to the stories she relates, whether riding with truck driver Mohammed Ali on a journey across Kenya; following Tigist Haile Michael, a smart, shy fourteen-year old Ethiopian orphan fending for herself and her baby brother on the slum streets of Addis Ababa; chronicling the heroic efforts of Alice Kadzanja, an HIV-positive nurse in Malawi; or talking to Nelson Mandela and his wife about coming to terms with his own son’s death from AIDS.”

These stories also show us something very important: Africa isn’t populated by people who aren’t smart and don’t know how to take care of themselves, but rather is filled with people who manage to survive despite this terrible pandemic. They clearly show that if industrialized countries and, most importantly, those living in industrialized countries put aside politics and personal opinions and put their whole-hearted supported behind this amazing continent, it will not only survive; it will conquer and thrive.

I can’t possibly offer a better review than those that have already been done, so I am taking the liberty to poach my favorite ones:

“A book of quiet yet overwhelming power, delivering a message of devastating moral authority. Moving, heartrending and uplifting, Stephanie Nolen’s book bears impeccable witness to the ‘unique and savage’ phenomenon of AIDS in Africa.” – William Boyd, author of Restless and Brazzaville Beach

“This book is both brilliant and enraging, and contains accounts of some extraordinary people doing courageous things to fight the epidemic which go a long way to counter other stories of hopelessness, ignorance and corrupt or inept government … It is a call to arms to a battle we should all have been fighting for a very long time.” – The Observer (London)

“She is an evocative and empathetic writer, and her journalism doesn’t succumb to the affliction of so much other writing about Africa, the tendency to reduce people to categories that fit the reader’s, and the author’s, preconceptions…” – The Nation (New York)

“In 28, Nolen marshals the reporting and storytelling skills that have made her, after UN special envoy Stephen Lewis, this country’s most compelling and vigorous voice for action on the grim parasite worming its way across Africa. In clear, insightful prose and vivid, though never lurid, detail, she allows her characters—one for every million people—to tell tales of despair and remarkable courage, willful ignorance and improbable triumph.” – The Gazette (Montreal)

“Never sentimental, Nolen lets the people and their experiences speak for themselves. The result is both an informative and a powerful read , which will help Western readers connect personally with a crisis that too often seems remote. . . . A unique, valuable contribution to the literature on this important topic.” – Library Journal

“Nolen shows that the struggle of one to live with dignity must be the struggle of all. Read. Weep. Rage. And above all else – like those people described in this brilliant book – find the courage to do.” – Dr James Orbinski, Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières

The book’s website is definitely worth a visit; it features amazing pictures and videos that make the stories come to life. However, I think that the best part of the site is it’s Take Action. Read the book and be inspired to do something.

Review: Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyer

I’m not certain what makes some stories as popular as they are, while others, of the same caliber, barely make it off the shelves. Certainly Harry Potter was amazing and deserved every bit of the success it got (I myself am the proud owner of the entire set!). But there are other stories of the same genre that should have made it as big as it did, and yet didn’t.

The same goes for Twilight. While the story is enchanting, the characters are lovable and the plot is addictive, I still find it curious how this series made it so big while others didn’t. Because, after all, Twilight isn’t a literary masterpiece; at the end of the day, it remains a teen romance.

Some have even dared suggest that it might be better than – gasp – Harry Potter. This thought is just too much to bear for me, so I shall just carry forward with pursed lips. One day, if ever I have regained enough composure, I will comment further on this. But not today.

I read Twilight under duress; I was promised a lifetime of damnation if I didn’t read it (OK, maybe not THAT bad a threat was made on my life and the threat probably wasn’t THAT serious, but teens can get very defensive and when they do, they are scary!). And I am very glad I did. It was a very relaxing and entertaining read, and I found myself looking forward to the release of the last book in the series, Breaking Dawn, with probably as much anticipation as the book’s real fans.

In short, Twilight is a YA (young adult) vampire romance. Although some people have classified in the horror genre, I wouldn’t quite agree with that; the violence in the book is hardly at the level of prime-time TV shows and surprisingly light for a story about something so, well, bloody as vampires. Classifying it as horror is kind of insulting to books of that genre; I would even dare say that Twilight takes the horror out of vampirism, and makes vampires lovable. As a fellow wordpress blogger put it: “Hey Edward, bite me!” (Edward is the main character’s very charming and gentlemanly love interest and yes, he is a vampire.)

The strength of the series lies in the fact that it really is written for teens. No attempt is made to set the tone of the book as moralizing or patronizing, which might come as a surprise to those who have heard about the author’s strong feelings about religion. When you read Twilight, you really get the impression that a teenager is talking to you, lending it great authenticity that made it such a success amongst teens as well as amongst those who work with them (including yours truly). Interestingly enough, there are some lessons to be learned from the book; however, they are character-driven, in that they are the conclusion of a natural process of self-reflection the main character goes through rather than coming in a rain of miraculous eye-opening wisdom bestowed upon some hapless teenager (something many parents probably hope for).

After the book’s phenomenal success, the obvious happened. Just like anything else that might make them a potential buck (or a couple million of them), movie studios threw themselves at Twilight and, lo and behold, we have a movie coming out. WHAT a surprise.

It all comes down to this. If you are willing to set aside your prejudices about teen romance books and vampires, if you are willing to let go of any expectations, and if you are willing to admit that everyone does wish for something unusual to happen to them, I would strongly recommend you get yourself a copy of Twilight for some great reading. But don’t be expecting high literary reading or anything more than the story of a teenager from a teenager’s point of view – then you’ll be sorely disappointed and it’s a shame because the story is truly amazing.

But please, whatever you do, don’t go around looking for a vampire to bite you. And if you are tempted to do so, you might want to consider seeing a psychologist.

If you aren’t yet convinced, take a look at Stephenie Meyers’ official website for a sneak peak and some more background information.

And for those of you who have read and like Twilight, click here to stroke those embers into a full obsession.

I have yet to click. I like the little sanity that I do have left, thank you very much.

Review: Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

While I love chick-flicks, they are not the only books that I read (the proof is in the pudding – or rather, in my bookshelf). I read everything and anything, except a certain couple of genres. There is one in particular that I have always been very wary of: self-help books. The few I perused a couple of years ago were vague to the point of tearing-my-hair-out frustration and I set the entire genre aside to focus on, amongst others, chick flicks. Because really, how can a book, written by someone who isn’t omniscient and who has no idea what I’m going through, help me deal with all my problems?

But lately there has been a recent surge of amazing self-help books, which take into consideration each person’s individuality and seek to inspire rather than solve. Just in case you haven’t noticed, life is very complex; your problems continuously morph, and the ‘same’ problem two people might be having is actually quite different. While general rules might apply to both, it doesn’t make sense for one formula to be applicable in both situations. However, both can be inspired to rise above what can be extremely difficult circumstances and make life worth living.

One such book that I highly recommend is Eat Pray Love. While it won’t give you the answers as to what is life about and how do you get over a bad break-up, Eat Pray Love does give you hope that if you stay true to your journey, you will end up in a better place than when you started.

The storyline is quite simple. “Reeling from a contentious divorce, a volatile rebound romance and a bout of depression, [Elizabeth Gilbert] decided at 34 to spend a year traveling in Italy, India and Indonesia. “I wanted to explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well,” she writes. “I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two.” Her trip was financed by an advance on the book she already planned to write, and Eat, Pray, Love is the mixed result.” (From: The New York Times).

The author is surprisingly open and honest about the various steps she goes through on her journey, even going so far as to admit that she would doze instead of meditating. By doing so, she focuses on the journey as much as the insights it gave her. She is also quite candid about the fact that even after taking such a long time to discover herself, she still has a long road ahead of her. Rather than losing respect for her, these admissions make her all the more human, thus making her trip seem all the more attainable to her very human readers.

While Elizabeth Gilbert wrote this book when she was in her mid-thirties, the appeal of this book isn’t limited to women of that age, but rather spreads to anyone who is willing to be open and honest with themselves about their failings and limitations and are ready to do something concrete about them rather than just complain. She manages to still be witty and light-hearted even while tackling heavy and important subjects.

The author’s honesty is further enhanced by the structure she adopts in writing her book. Rather than going into full blown, twenty page monologues, she organized her book in little sections, each very meaningful yet short enough that a busy person can catch a little snippet in between meetings or on a commute. That in itself is some wise editing.

The writing, while not the most complex and literary, is fluid and easy to read. It fulfills the purpose of the book in a pleasurable way. Once you are hooked to her story (which happens pretty quickly), the book is as easy to read as it is to cut through warm butter with a knife.

I found one of the most memorable quotes of the book to be the following: “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” This quote summarized one of the most important lessons of Eat Pray Love: that happiness doesn’t just happen. You have to want it, to work hard for it and, when you get it, you have to take care of it. And the book does inspire you to do just so.

One last word for the wise: the first part of Elizabeth Gilbert’s trip happens in Italy and is all about eating great food. This might inspire you to develop a sudden and constant yearning for carbohydrates, the consequence of which we are all quite aware of. You have been warned.

For more information about the book, please visit its official website.

Book review: The Friday Night Knitting Club (Kate Jacobs)

The reviewing bug has bit me in recent weeks; I find myself posting comments all over forums and blogs about the various books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen. So I decided to give regularly scheduled reviews a try; that way, I can share the good things I’ve experienced with my readers, and help them avoid the ones that still regularly give me the shivers.

About a week ago, I was bored and walked by a book store. Not a good combination; my feet forced me inside and the next thing I knew, I walked out with the equivalent of a week’s rent in books. One of them was purely an impulse buy; I love knitting and couldn’t resist the title The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacob.

I also happen to like well-written chick flicks with some substance, and this book seemed to have substance. The story revolves around the owner of a yarn shop, Georgia Walker. When she found out thirteen years ago that she was pregnant, Georgia thought her only viable option was to move back to her parents house. A chance encounter with Anita, a older widower, changes her luck as Georgia realizes that she can bank on her knitting talent to make a living for herself. From knitting on commission, Georgia opens her own yarn store, Walker and Daughter, where a group of women start meeting every Friday evening to knit. They soon become close friends and, while each admires the other for the seemingly perfect life she leads, they come to realize that none of them have a perfect life and they all need one another to survive.

The book is well written, easy to read and yes, with quite some substance. The storylines are touching and, because each character is at a different point in their life, every reader will find at least one character they can identify with.

A disappointing aspect is the relative lack of depth in character development. While the reader gets to know the characters pretty well, I didn’t feel like I knew them enough to get attached to them. I was interested enough in their lives to see where they were going and finished the book – but I wish the character development had been such that I would have felt their sorrow and joy more acutely, as their friend rather than a passive observer.

The other thing that I didn’t quite like about the writing is the constant changing of point of view (POV). One moment we are in the POV of one character then we jump to another and only a few lines later to yet another. I have the impression this might have in part caused the relative lack of depth described earlier. Choosing one POV per chapter and analyzing everything from it would not only have increased its consistency, but also aroused our curiosity by not revealing everything about everyone; it would have made the story less of a chronicle and more of a diary.

I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for a book with substance, but for readers looking for more depth, I would encourage them to take the time to digest each major event.

The book has an official website, but you’ll probably find the author’s official website more interesting. I , for one, prefer her blog.

Enjoy, and do drop a line if you read the book!