The Sins of the Mother by Danielle Steele

I haven't read a Danielle Steele book in many many years besides one a couple of years ago.  I have her up when I read one about a clone that really turned me off back when I was around 23.  I'm almost 46 now.  The Sins of the Mother was lacking, but good enough to read.  I didn't find it a literary masterpiece or anything, but the story was mildly entertaining.  Reminds me of Nicolas Sparks.  I think Nicolas Sparks gets more into the details of sexual exploits, but Danielle Steel I think used to from what I can remember.  This novel glazes over those sections and leaves the rest to your imagination.  The swearing is toned down from what I remember of her as well.

A mother who worked really hard building one of the most successful businesses in the world wasn't there for her children while they were growing up and they are all resentful of her missing from their lives.  The mother, Olivia, is extremely wealthy and can afford anything and takes her family on amazing vacations once a year for two weeks.  The novel is about her children forgiving her and them all being one big happy family in the end.

I enjoyed the story of her oldest son Philip and his relationship to a cold-hearted and ambitious wife and how he ended up having an affair (which I don't agree with) and leaving her and ending his marriage. Philip was very angry when he found out his mother was fooling around with Peter, a co-worker/employee and he ended up doing the same thing.  I guess the entire story was not in enough detail and seemed glazed over in order to just pump out a story.  Good enough though, to fulfill most peoples' demand for entertainment I guess. I would have liked more development of character.

I would give this book a 6/10.

Will Grayson, meet Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

This book is about a teen boy and his homosexuality.  A large football playing teen named Tiny with wealthy parents and an unbelievable personality is a homosexual and always has brief love affairs.  He ends up dating a guy called Will Grayson which name also happens to be the same name as Tiny's best friend who is straight. The boyfriend Will Grayson also has depression and the story talks about how he feels having depression and how other people treat him when he has to deal with depression and they find out he takes medication for it.

Although this book, to me, is written really well with humor in spots which made me laugh, I would rather not read another one like it.  I would give this book a 5/10.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Too much swearing - taking the Lord's name in vain, F-bomb and not as good as The Fault in Our Stars. There was a scene of a girl riding a guy in a field completely naked, so if you want your teen to read about it, this book is for you.  I suppose it isn't as bad as a movie scene of it, but still. It was still pretty good though, and some parts were so funny I laughed out loud. The story was kind of flat for me in parts, but the book at the end was very satisfying as far as my tastes go.

I think John Green is a very good writer.  I really enjoy his style of writing and how I connect and understand what is written.  I understand all the references he makes and this enhances my understanding of what message I take from the book.  The math footnotes were interesting as well and I enjoyed reading the appendix explaining the math footnotes at the end.  If you can make math interesting, you've got talent! Daniel Biss wrote that part, but it was amusing as well, which I didn't expect coming from a math person.

I think the story was somewhat unrealistically optimistic, but, it's a story.  I don't know how many parents would let their children take a road trip to they don't know where and then stay at a total stranger's house for the entire summer, who just happens to be very wealthy and have a beautiful daughter who happens to be the same age as the self-proclaimed unpopular nerd teen boys who stop at her gas station to see the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria's grave in the middle of Gutshot Tennessee. But I didn't really care, because the novel was great and whose to say it's impossible to happen?  I found it interesting that Colin, the main character, was best friends with a Muslim person named Hassan. I enjoyed how the Muslim culture was brought into the novel in a nice way and how kind Hassan was.  Such a potent culture so violent in the news with such a kind person in the novel really enhanced the book's interesting factor. I would give this book an 8/10. Maybe a 7/10 because of the flat parts.  7 1/2/10.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

I was impressed by the quality of writing in this novel and I was secretly ashamed of my own lack of skill compared to this author.  A sixteen year-old girl named Hazel has lung cancer and falls in love with a boy who has bone cancer.  The boy ends up using his Wish from Make a Wish or some organization like that to fulfill Hazel's wish to travel to the Netherlands to meet a reclusive author of one of her favorite novels and find out what happens to the characters in the novel's abrupt ending.
What really helped me enjoy the novel was the unexpected twists and original story-line.  It was very unique.  The traditional and normal reactions were dealt with regarding what one would expect when one is dying a slow and painful death of cancer, however, the twists in the story made it very original.  The humor was very well-placed and amusing. The pain the parents had to deal with and how the friends felt were covered adequately as well.  I would give this novel a 9 1/2 out of ten. Very enjoyable.  I hope I can write as well some day.  I'm already almost 46 though, so I don't know, but anything's possible!

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Although this book wasn't, for me, "...impossible to put down..." (Lost Angeles Times), I did find it interesting enough to read.  I think Piper Kerman's experience in jail was probably not like most people's experiences because of her race.  I think she may have had it easier.  It was still jail though, and it could have been worse if she had a horrible personality.  I think Piper's integrity and behavior played a large part in how her jail experience was regardless of race, but race helped I suppose.  I can't tell exactly, but she mentions in her memoir often that it did help.

I like how human and respectful she is to all the other inmates.  I've always thought that it was bizarre that people were all of a sudden treated as if they weren't human when they were in jail.  They are still human and they made mistakes, just like all of us.  I think she's right in that we need to change a lot regarding who goes to jail and how they are treated once there.  Someone who murdered someone else and crimes along those lines are different from fraud for example.  I enjoyed the book enough to read it and I am glad Piper is working toward helping people in prison.  I think I should help as well.  I think this book was worth the read. I don't like her hard left attitude (politically speaking) and I'd give this book a 6/10.

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

I don't know very much about China.  It seems like a very foreign country to me and a culture I cannot relate to.  My experience with it is very limited, however, I did read one book involving Chinese culture recently and this happens to be my second called Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah and is an autobiographical novel.  It was an interesting book and sad.  I felt horrible for Adeline as she was treated unbelievably badly by her Step-Mother and Father and the rest of her family.  She had pretty much no one and everyone she tried to love or be kind to was taken away from her on purpose so that she would continue to have no one and so that she would experience sadness in her life.  The Step-Mother was so unbelievably horrible I can't imagine it's real.  The family was so messed up I couldn't stand it. I guess though, a lot of families are like that and so is my own to a certain extent.  What a sweet little girl I had pictured in my mind when I saw the photos in the middle of the book.  It is so sad to read this story.  That family could easily have been very happy.  It is a good lesson to read this and stop anything we are doing wrong to each other in our own families and try to love each other the best we can with the best intentions.

A great deal of Chinese history is referred to in this book.  I did not know that people were mean to Chinese people just because they were Chinese.  This happened fairly recently and in Europe.  I guess I never really paid attention to it. I thought Chinese people were usually doing fine socially and were not discriminated against at all.  I think it helped me learn more about China and it's history reading this novel.  I also obtained an idea of what the Chinese culture is like from one person's opinion anyway.  I will have to read more books regarding China and pay attention to what it is like for Chinese people today.  I would give this book an 7/10.