Daniel Island News readers recommend an eclectic reading list

‘The Tea Girl on
Hummingbird Lane’

by Lisa See
Reader Reviewer: Lydie Labaudiniere
 
“The Tea Girl on Hummingbird Lane” by Lisa See was the library book club selection in May. I couldn’t wait to read this book because I am a tea drinker and was hoping to learn more about tea and exotic places while enjoying what turned out to be a riveting well-written story that exceeded my expectations. From the first to the last page, I was captivated by this story which has two heroes: a girl called Li-Yan and a tea called Pu’er tea.
 
It starts in a remote place in China, among the ethnic minority of the Akha, just a couple of decades ago. Li-Yan, the main character, is a poor little girl, often hungry, assisting her mother in her domestic life and as a midwife, and also carrying heavy loads of tea leaves several miles to sell them.
 
Later Li-Yan falls in love and has a daughter which she has to give up for adoption. The author does a very good job describing the conflicting emotions of Li-Yan, the adoptive mother, and, in particular, the Chinese girls adopted by American families.
 
The rapid changes in China over two decades, even in the countryside, parallel the changes in Li-Yan’s path (spoiler...) as she attends tea school, becomes an accomplished businesswoman, and finds love with someone who also has his secret wounds. The end of the book is a bit predictable.
 
Some club members didn’t like it, but I did as the story came full circle.
 
There are few books I’d like to read again, but this one definitely makes the cut. I still go back to my highlights and read the poetic descriptions and information about tea: ways to harvest, process, and ferment tea leaves; healing properties, colors, fragrances, and specific ways of pouring the heroic Pu’er tea (explained by a tea master) as if it were a sacred rite. Maybe you, too, will drink your tea with more reverence after reading this book. In French, my native language, bon thé means “good tea.” It sounds the same as bonté which means goodness, kindness. Cheers!
 
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ by David Grann
Reader Reviewer: Mary Nebus
 
Cowboys and Indians. Murder on a mass scale. Greed, betrayal, and racism. Secrets protecting the perpetrators and law enforcement both inept and corrupt. Lawmen with skill and integrity, victims with quiet dignity, and a nation still in mourning, distrustful, for righteous reasons, of the federal agencies charged with protecting and promoting their welfare. David Grann’s journalism style serves the reader well in the exposition of this chapter in American history. Set in the 1920s in the Osage Nation Oklahoma, with tentacles reaching to today, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage
 
Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” was read and discussed by the members of the DI Book Club at a recent meeting.
 
Members noted that this is an unknown story and whetted appetites to learn more about the period, the prominent (J. Edgar Hoover) and non-prominent (prima ballerina Maria Tall Chief was Osage) figures, and Oklahoma itself. Cleverness and far-sighted actions by those deemed “incompetent” by authorities contrasted with the hubris and heinous behavior of the guardians.  The founding of the premier investigative agency in the U.S., if not the world, and the leadership of a bureaucrat (appointed at 29 years old!) with no law enforcement experience is a side story, illustrated by lawman
 
Tom White, a true white-hat hero whose integrity and humility shine in a sordid tale of a shameful time.
 
Well documented from contemporaneous sources, the readers wished for more detail—knowing that much of the story is buried with the perpetrators and will never be known. Many mysteries remain unsolvable.
 
Two outstanding historical fiction books
set in SC:
 
‘The Invention of Wings’ by Sue Monk Kidd and ‘Before We Were Yours’ by Lisa Wingate.
Reader Reviewer: Sent in by Michael Bodach
 
“Invention of Wings” is a richly imagined life of Sarah Grimke and Hetty Handful. Sarah is a woman raised in a wealthy family in Charleston, who fought to abolish slavery and who also fought for women’s rights. The story begins when Sarah is given her own personal slave, Hetty, when they were both children. They became close and Sarah flouts the laws of the time teaching Handful to read, incurring a severe punishment for both girls. The real Handful dies soon after but, in this book, Handful gets to live and we see their lives entwined. Told in alternating chapters in the voices of
 
Handful and Sarah, we see how the two grow up into the women they are meant to be. Kidd is a masterful storyteller and at the end of the book shares her inspiration and some of her research.
 
“Before We Were Yours” is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about the bonds of family. It’s how we know who we are. This book begins in present-day Aiken, SC, with Avery Stafford, born into one of South Carolina’s wealthy, privileged, and political families, who comes across a resident, May, in an ordinary nursing home who grips her wrist and asks, “Fern?” May takes Avery’s bracelet, a gift from her beloved grandmother, who is in a different and posh nursing home. When Avery discovers the theft, her federal prosecutorial sixth sense tells her something more might be going on with
 
May and she goes digging for the truth. Interspersed with Avery’s investigation, we get to know the Foss family as they are in 1939. They live a happy life aboard their shantyboat until the parents have to take an emergency trip to the hospital with the mother in danger of dying birthing twins. The children, five of them, are kidnapped from their shantyboat and taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home where Rill, the oldest tries valiantly to keep everyone together, but loses one sibling after another to adoption. This book is based on the terrible scandal about the Tennessee Children’s
 
Home Society in Memphis, which stole poor children and sold them to wealthy families, under the direction of Georgia Tann (from 1920 to 1950).
 
‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles
Reader Reviewer: Debbie Ceresa
 
Amor Towles does not disappoint in his captivating novel, “A Gentleman in Moscow.” The Daniel Island Connect Book Club members enjoyed a lively several-hour discussion of the book agreeing the book is quite noteworthy.
 
Towles interest in 20th century Russia has found its way into the soul of his book.
 
The novel takes place at the famous and grand Metropol hotel in Moscow spanning a thirty-year time period. The reader is skillfully transported to a world where Bolsheviks secretly plan the Revolution, wealthy aristocrats and movie stars socialize, and academics meet to discuss Russian literature. The Metropol is also where Count Alexander Rostov resides after being sentenced to a life in exile. The Count lives an extraordinary life filled with conspiracy, culture and escapades all within the confines of his room at the Metropol. While rich in history, Towles has laced the facts with
fiction giving the story credibility while the reader feels the danger of 20th century Russia lurking outside the luxury hotel.
 
Towles describes his writing in musical terms and likens his novel to a symphony. He certainly provides the reader with a growing emotional force and then the lull to reflect upon the reoccurring theme. The cohesiveness of his writing will stay with you long after you finish the book. As with many beautiful symphonies readers will want to experience the turbulence, adventures, tragedy and romance more than once. 
 
This is definitely a must read.
 
Debbie Ceresa is a member of the Daniel Island Connect Book Club and the author of “A Beautiful View.”
 
‘Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley startup’
by John Carreyrou
Reader Reviewer: Barry McPherson
 
With the taut pacing and plot twists of a thriller, the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou’s “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” is the true story of Theranos Corporation.
 
Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University student, drops out to pursue a solution to her lifelong fear of needles by developing a new method for testing blood, and forms Theranos. Rather than taking multiple vials of blood for a range of tests, she claims to have discovered a way to perform almost all testing from a pinprick.
 
With Silicon Valley awash in start-up money, and prestigious and pedigreed Board of Directors, Theranos attracts heavyweight investors and grows to a $9 billion valuation; making Holmes one of the youngest tech billionaires in history, with comparisons to Steve Jobs.
 
Theranos races to form partnerships with a range of pharmacies, the US government, claims their product is in use on the battlefield by US military, and brings its machines to companies for live demonstrations promising almost instantaneous results for executives willing to try.
 
Falsified technology and company performance, pressure to get products to market, a secretive and siloed culture, larger than life characters Holmes and tyrannical boyfriend Sunny Balwani, a suicide, overbearing lawyers, frayed and broken relationships; eventually the truth comes out. 
 
This is not a Silicon Valley common story of “slideware” exaggerating what a product really does. This was putting people’s lives in danger. Now with federal charges against Holmes and Balwani, more of the story to come.
 
Multiple Suggestions: ‘Calypso’ – ‘The Weight of the World’ –
‘Less’ – ‘Social Creature’ – ‘Property’
Reader Reviewer:
Becky Bechhold
 
I am a voracious reader. My kitchen drawer has a sheaf of papers clipped together as I add and subtract from my reading list. Prior to moving to DI, I was part of a book club that had met for over 20 years. I have a record of all the books we read.
 
To choose a single book to review is a challenge, I prefer to talk with someone about their reading preferences before making a few suggestions. So if you will allow me I will give you some capsule summaries.
 
“Calypso” by David Sedaris: Best as an audiobook. Sedaris refines his stories after doing them as readings for 30-50 times and he narrates his own book. That was me laughing out loud as I walked around DI last week.
 
“The Weight of this World” by David Joy: Dark, honest Southern writing. Ron Rash but more brutal.
 
“Less” by Andrew Sean Greer: Pulitzer winner this year. Greer is a brilliant writer who can turn a phrase. Reviews called it hilarious, I would say amusing.
 
“Social Creature” by Tara Burton: Do not be fooled by reviews. This book is populated by characters who are repulsive and the story is unbelievable in the sense that it could not have happened!
 
“Property” by Lionel Shriver: The author was born in NC but lives in the UK and this collection of short stories and two novellas moves back and forth across the pond with ease. The title refers to, well anything you can own - real estate, things, space, time and how that possession affects our life in both large and small ways.

 

Daniel Island Publishing

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Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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