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Book Review: America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
A sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. [Pub. Penguin Books. 432 pp.]
In a time of fake news, literature is one of the best ways to combat ignorance and apathy. If you’re lucky, Dekada ‘70 by Lualhati Bautista, a novel about the dark years of Martial Law, made its way into your required reading list in high school. Or perhaps you found Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn while browsing the shelves of your local bookstore.
America is Not the Heart is the book you read after you’ve learned the facts and horrors of life under a dictatorial regime, and now have room for another kind of story—one where its ghost lingers and never quite leaves. -
Reading Recap: January to March 2022 Reads
We’re eight months into the year and, honestly, I haven’t counted the number of books I’ve read so far! Mostly because I’m not too fussed about it; I’m a serial book repeater, after all, and if a book is in my e-reader, I’ll read it whenever I’m in the mood for it. (As Cady Heron once said, “The limit does not exist!”)
But when I started listing the books I read from May to July, I got really excited to think about them again. Then I realized: Why not start from the beginning? Which is why I’m curled up in bed with a mug of Creme Brulee loose leaf tea, trying to recall everything I’ve read recently.
This list is as accurate as I could make it, but I may have overlooked a book or two. Some books I remember better than others, so I’ll probably be able to write more accurate or comprehensive thoughts on the books I’ve read more recently! But that’s to come in Part 2. -
Book Review: Eastman Was Here by Alex Gilvarry
Alan Eastman is a trainwreck.
It’s 1973, and the biggest years of his writing career are decades behind him, his wife has left him, and nothing seems to be going right.
So when he’s invited to cover the tail end of the Vietnam War as a foreign correspondent, he gets the brilliant idea of frightening his wife into returning to him—by telling her that he’s accepting the assignment. Except the entire literary world finds out, and he finds himself cornered into following through and flying to Vietnam.
Faced with his growing insignificance, Eastman bumbles from one misstep to another. And soon he finds that no matter how far he goes, he can’t escape the problems he tried to leave behind.
Katerina liebt 