Desperately Seeking Bookworm

A Book that Came Out this Year: The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee Ugh what a downer. Usually I'll stop reading something if it doesn't grab me within the first 50 pages, and I didn't have to do that here because within the first 50 I was in. It was the middle 200 that really wasn't that great. The best way to describe The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee is to take Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner minus the breastfeeding and Mommy woes and add in an exotic local and kidnapping. Not that I don't love myself some Jenn Weiner, but I thought this was going to be 100% different. Damn you GMA, you pulled me in with a review and it was not like you said! Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother o...

I love a good memoir! Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running From Madness by Suzy Favor Hamilton hit the spot. Olympians are the coolest, I'm just gonna come out and say that. I have immense admiration for someone who dedicates their life to a dream that they can only make come true once every four years. I remember the name Suzy Favor Hamilton, but I don't really remember her as a track star like I do Jackie Joyner-Kersee. So I went into the book semi-blind. I knew the back story and why I was interested, but I still had a lot to learn. The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind. During the 1990s, three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton was the darling of American track and field. An outstanding runner, a major s...