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A little bit mystery, a little bit sci-fi and a whole lot of inquistive character development kept me glued to "The Consciousness Plague" from beginning to end. For those interested in medicine, serial killers and msyteries you'll find this book a quick read and you'll wish it didn't have to end so soon.

Paul Levinson out did himself with this story. It is written perfectly. There are a lot of in-depth discussions which involve how the brain communicates and remembers things. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand the dialogue, but Levinson wrote it in such a way that I was able to make sense of it and enjoy it.

Phil D'Amato, our main man, is a NYPD forensic detective. There is a serial killer plaguing his area and the person(s) are strangling women, stripping them and leaving them for dead. At first there doesn't appear to be a motive or connection between the women. In fact, there doesn't even appear to be a suspect until much closer to the end of the book.

There is another storyline that develops throughout and that involves a flu epidemic that is spreading worldwide. The newly developed antibiotic Ominin seems to kick the bacteria within a week's time, but there is one extreme side effect. It messes with your memory and people are forgetting hours of their days.

Can you see how Ominin could complicate the murder case?

Oh and it does.

The twists and turns that this story takes were rivetting and I may end up reading this one again later down the road. There is some holes in the story with the secondary events and characters, but they can be forgiven overall.

My score:
Solid B+

Labels: books, drama, medicine, mystery, sci-fi

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| 8:34 PM | 2 comment(s)!

This book took me awhile to read. The time it took was not longer just because I have had less time, but also because it is about a culture of which I am not very familiar. "House of the Winds" by Mia Yun is a story which at times drug along, but at other times was quite insightful.

The story takes place in different parts of Korea over time, but for the most part in the city of Seoul. Seoul is in South Korea and is their capitol. We follow this particular family through their struggles caused by the Korean War, as well as through their own personal strife.

The story is told by one of the daughters of the family. She basically narrates while recounting memories, not necessarily in order. She tells about her mother, lack thereof father and her siblings; a brother and sister. Since this is a story of memories there were often times when I wondered if pieces were elaborated or spun into a fairytale quality. It could have just been that Mia Yun has a unique and beautiful way of describing things, even when they are frightening memories.

***spoiler alert***

I folded down corners of some pages that I wanted to share excerpts from, because I found them thought provoking and interesting.

In one instance, she was remembering something her mother had told her about happiness. She recalls this during a period of time when her older sister had runaway from home.

"About happiness. Happiness is not something one grabs out of the air and rubs all over like honey. One had to strive for and work for it."

There is also a section when they mother and children had to move again because their father was still missing in action and mother couldn't afford the house. When they moved into the much older, much smaller house, the grandmother visited and she brought a box of matches and cakes of soap. The tradition being that wealth would spread like wildfire and multiply like soap bubbles. I thought that was very cute and will probably be using that sentiment for friends in the future. =o)

Last but not least, I enjoyed when our narrator discussed her feeling about books. She was reading profusely, all the time, waiting for her older sisters magazines and getting her hands on any book she could find.

"Then I began to find words I read in books fanciful and elusive - sunlight streaming through my fingers. They could pass right through me and leave me still hungry and empty." She further goes on to say, "A word was a tricky thing. It could change meaning from one sentence to another. A word could betray me, fail me and confuse me. But I discovered if words are put to music and a voice sings them, they become permanent. This this way, the words form a link from one day to another."

Like many other parts of the book I really connected with the way she wrote and explained her feelings. She endured so much and yet rarely complained about it because she could find beauty elsewhere.

Some of the book I still don't really understand. Why is it important to celebrate someone 100 days after their death? What is so special about Carp that eating them is sinful? Why were men taken to fight in the war, never to return, and yet their parents were told nothing? And how can a country be so divided internally whilst also hating all of their neighboring countries? But then...how is that any different than the quirks of my own culture and country? Perhaps not different, perhaps not at all.

Labels: books, culture, family

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| 9:10 PM | 0 comment(s)!

When I picked up "Bone" by Fae M. Ng I really didn't know what to expect, but I was intrigued because I'm not very familiar with the Chinese heritage. The opening lines read, "We were a family of three girls. By Chinese standards that wasn't lucky."

So, I read.

The struggle I had with this novel is was the broken Chinese/English language. Leila is the oldest daughter and she speaks fluent English, she is the one telling the story. When she explains scenes between her Mom and stepfather it is written in a broken language. Leon is the stepfather and he will say "People talking. People jealous," when talking about the gossip involving a family with only daughters. The language barrier is important, it is mentioned many times throughout the novel and so I forced myself to adapt.

Leila, Ona and Nina are the girls. Ona and Nina are Leon's children, all three have the same Mom. Leon and Mah have a cat and dog relationship. It's up and down and all around. Bitter, but with love.

The story begins at the end, goes back to the beginning and circles back to the end. Yet somehow it isn't confusing while it is playing out and to that I attribute the excellent writing skills of Fae M. Ng.

**spolier alert**

Leon travels for work as a ship hand, he is away for months at a time. Mah at one point has an affair. Leon moves out. They get back together. With all of their bickering and craziness the daughters all end up with issues. Leila feels like Leon and Mah both need her and depend on her. Ona loves Leon and is always fighting to be his star. But she falls in love with a guy he hates and forbids her to see. We all know how that plays out in stories. Nina hates it all and moves from Chinatown in sunny California to New York City.

The whole family is brought back together when Ona kills herself, jumping off a building. Same issues, same problems, broken family and awful communication...and a very unexpected funeral.

All in all, I liked the book. I wish the author had written more, but I don't see anything else coming up under her name. Perhaps that is the only story she needed to tell. I hope if it was all related to true events that it was somehow therapeutic for her. I can say that when it ended I at least was comfortable that Leila would be okay. I was pulling for her. =o)

Labels: culture, family

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| 8:16 PM | 0 comment(s)!