GNW: A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori

When Amir Halgal goes to live with her new groom and his family, she expects it to be difficult. After all, they are both from different cultures and her new husband is eight years younger than she. Amir is considered old for a bride and strange in more ways than one, but her new family is a kind one, as is her young husband.

Though they are different, they are determined to be a family now and Amir is loyal and loving to her core. Sometimes being different isn't all that bad. Perhaps Amir can teach her family a new thing or two and they can teach her about her new home and how to fulfill her position in it as well.

This isn't the first manga I've read, but it is certainly the most intricate when it comes to the artwork. The clothing and the tapestries, even the wood carvings are drawn to the finest detail. It's more than eye-catching, it's wholly captivating. I can't even imagine how long each frame must have taken the artist, much less how long the book itself took.

As for the story itself, I really enjoyed it. I haven't read much about the Silk Road, but I know enough to appreciate how well researched every part of this manga series has been and will no doubt continue to be. It's an interesting world to read about, much less get the chance to see into the way this manga allows the reader to do.

Amir is everything I hoped for in a heroine at that time. Yes, she's a lady and she knows her place, but she was also raised in a nomadic family where the women hunted and did their part as well. Her budding feelings for her husband are sweet and would be sweeter if there wasn't that uncomfortable knowledge that he's a child, but then that was how life was back then. It was a part of the culture and something you have to deal with when it comes to the story. She starts out with almost a sisterly role and, if the author lets enough time go by, it will be less uncomfortable as they grow older.

All in all, it's definitely an interesting manga and one I will definitely be reading more of in the near future.

Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

"Don't be ridiculous," snaps Iris. "You don't want to be caged in the shell of some stupid marriage, Clara, but don't be caged by your own limited experience, either."

I picked up this lovely volume in the Amsterdam Waterstones. I had begged my parents to let me visit that particular bookstore and was thrilled when we had the chance to drop by on our last day in the beautiful city. While I was exploring the fabulous four-story shop, I happened upon an entire shelf dedicated to literature based in the Netherlands, so of course I had to select one. When I spotted Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and noticed that the author was the very same who wrote Wicked (which I have seen the play of, but have yet to read), I had to snatch it up.

Iris knows she is ugly. She doesn't need reminders, though everyone is more than willing to give them anyway. She's clever though, and her sisters needs her. That's what keeps her going. That's what consoles her when she watches others praise Clara, her step-sister, at every turn for her stunning beauty. For Clara, her own beauty is merely a gilded cage and she likes it almost as little as she likes those she comes in contact with. She has convinced herself that she is a changeling and therefore despises nearly everyone. After all, she's really only loved her father and step-sisters, whether she knows how to show it or not.

When a Prince comes to Haarlem to find a wife, Iris is told by her mother that she must do what she can to be his choice. Iris is confused by this advice, knowing that her mother must be losing her wits and her sight if she thinks a prince would choose her over any other number of choices. Beyond that, her heart belongs to another, though he too is blinded by the light of Clara's good looks. However, Iris begins to understand that this prince's arrival might just be the escape Clara has been looking for, that is, if Clara can be convinced to attend the ball at all.

I'm a huge fan of fairytale retellings in general, especially ones done well. So I knew I would like this. After all, how could the person who wrote Wicked possibly mess up a retelling of Cinderella? Let me tell you: I was right.

Iris is a smart and savvy heroine with a desire to take care of her family, specifically her older and developmentally delayed sister. She has seen the hardships that have befallen her small family and, after coming to England after the brutal murder of their father, does everything in her power to make sure they don't have to face that sort of terror again, though it makes her fearful and convinces her that danger lurks in every corner.

I particularly enjoy the way that Gregory Maguire makes his characters real people. By this, I mean that they make real choices, real mistakes. Their motives for any single action aren't always pinned down or for the reasons they want them to be. There is a little bad mixed into every character and no one makes all the right decisions.

The story itself was a very interesting and gritty take on the Cinderella fairytale. He did a fabulous job on this book and anyone who is even remotely interested after hearing the summary really ought to get their hands on it. It's absolutely worth your while.

Rating: ★★★★☆


But I suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes our lives less miserable so taht we might be more kind--well, then, let's have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

"Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision . . . You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?"

Have you ever read one of those books that you thought, "I'm gonna have my kids read this when they're old enough. They need to know about this."

I have, plenty of times, and this book is one of those.

Okay, to be honest, I'm going to try to make my kids read every single book I halfway enjoyed growing up, because I want them to adore reading as much as I do. Still, this book made me think, "I want my future children to understand that this is the way things were and that it was wrong."

That's the way I felt about The Book Thief and that's the way I feel about The Help.

The Help is Kathryn Stockett's first novel, but one could never tell by looking at the masterful use of her words and the wonderful roundness each of her characters seems to possess. Published in 2009, it has already become a #1 New York Times Bestseller and had its movie adaptation hit the big screen (with some big name actresses, no less).

This book follows the path of three women, two colored and one white, during the early 1960s. Set in Jackson, Mississippi at a time when men and women were liable to get beaten for using the wrong bathroom or fraternizing with someone whose skin color was too different from their own. It's enough to make a person ill thinking about it. (I wrote a post about racial discrimination on my other blog inspired by my reading of this book. You can find it here: Less than Human)

Each of these women has their own lives and their own troubles to fight through. Skeeter is constantly being criticized by her mother and snubbed by the people who were supposed to be her friends. Minny's trying to find work in spite of a crazy white lady doing her best to get her run out of town, not to mention the fact that her husband is getting steadily more abusive as the story progresses. And Aibileen is trying to teach the white girl she nannies that colored people are only different on the outside as well as convincing the girl that just because her mother doesn't care much for her, that doesn't mean she isn't worthwhile.

When Skeeter, the aspiring journalist, realizes the treatment of the help in most white home is both disturbing and demeaning, she gets the idea to write a book. If she can get interviews from the women who have to deal with raising other women's children and cleaning their homes, while being treated like they're stupid and basically nothing more than well-trained animals; maybe people will see the errors of their ways. Skeeter realizes that maybe this book could make a difference in the lives of the colored women who are mistreated on a daily basis. But this venture is more dangerous than she ever could have realized and each of these women have to put themselves out on a very unsteady limb to do this. But maybe change is worth it and maybe they just might get the help that they need.

This book was a joy to read and, honestly, a must-read -- especially for those that think that racism isn't that big of a deal, a thing of the past, or something that happened a long time ago. This was a mere fifty years ago and, while we've come a long way in that time, we still have quite a ways to go.

Rating: ★★★★☆

"Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

"Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.

That was the business of hiding a Jew."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of Germany during World War II. In a country ruled by the Führer, a young girl learns the power of words. It's a power so raw and so great that it led her country to war. They have the power to comfort, to heal, to offer hope; as well as the ability to destroy, mutilate, and excuse cruelty.

On the front cover of this book, New York Times has been quoted as saying, "BRILLIANT and hugely ambitious . . . It's the kind of book that can be LIFE CHANGING." (Emphasis not mine.) That might actually be an understatement.

Written from the perspective of Death (a quite risky, yet fantastic move on the part of the author), the book is rife with deep imagery. Each new chapter, each new page, pulls you in with new fervency. In it's pages, you see things in a way you never expected to. Death weary of his job's hateful morbidity, Rudy's longing for Liesel, Liesel's longing for words and the care of those she loves.

Each new heartbreak for Liesel provides the same heartbreak for the reader. Packed with intensely beautiful imagery and scenes that could bring even the most cold-hearted to their knees, I can't tout the worth of The Book Thief enough. I believe that many parts of this story will stick with me for the rest of my life. I think I have another new favorite.

I couldn't agree more with the way Death phrases it in one of the last pages of his narrative,

"I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

Rating: ~★★★★★~