Category: book review

August 24, 2020

Life in the Camel Lane: Embrace the Adventure

About Life in the Camel Lane: Embrace the Adventure

Life in the Camel Lane: Embrace the Adventure is what Doreen Cumberford, a Scottish author, calls her learnoire! It is a combination of her story and the stories of other expats learned while living in Saudi Arabia for 15 years as expat employees or spouses. The book takes the reader through the four stages of culture shock: arrival, honeymoon, frustration and adjustment stages to final acceptance followed by the return journey back to their home country – mostly the USA. From Saudi weddings, to falconry, to the inability of women to drive at that time, the book seeks to familiarize us with the Saudi culture, lifestyle, and deep traditions of hospitality, generosity and tolerance from an insider’s perspective. There are also chapters on the experiences of 9/11 in the terrorists’ home country and the “Terror Years” of internal terror tactics from inside Saudi Arabia designed to drive the expats out of the country and destroy the Saudi government. Full of examples, stories and compelling honesty the author describes their most challenging journey and many of the lessons learned in the process together. Designed to provide useful insights and inspiration to anyone considering living abroad, Life in the Camel Lane shines the light on the subject of building a new identity and home while abroad, and the difficulties of the journey home.

My Thoughts

Life in the Camel Lane shares Doreen’s (and many other women just like her) story about life abroad in the Middle East – adjusting to a new environment, culture, way of life while still trying to maintain a little bit of their own culture and sense of ‘home’.

Doreen embraced change and adventure (not for the first time) when she decided to move with her husband to Saudi Arabia. I love how she breaks down her choice and how she tackled it head on. I can’t even begin to imagine the preparation and planning that went in to this move (the items to move with them, to stay in the US, etc..). I found it really interesting how she broke up the different stages of this type of life event: arrival, honeymoon, frustration, adjustment. She also includes many stories of other women in the same position as her which gives an even greater appreciation of the culture, the experience and what these families go through. I always pictured in my mind this glamorous experience but many times throughout the book you realized this was not so (the trailers leaking, shared phones, booking phone times!). I have such great respect for the families that work abroad, I always thought I could do this but now reading this, I am not sure I am quite brave enough! These moments spent abroad would definitely give you a greater appreciation of family, life and culture.

I loved the way she wrote the most – she shared her experiences for what they were. There was no judgement, nor criticism of any part of the culture, people or experiences she had in Saudi Arabia. She shared them exactly as they happened and what she and others experienced. Some of the scariest parts were just after 9/11 and still she approached them with respect and compassion.

This is a well written book that covers Doreen’s time spent in Saudi Arabia, sharing not only her story but the stories of many women just like her who chose adventure. It is full of appreciation, understanding and bravery. I enjoyed every moment reading about her experiences.

You can purchase a copy of this book here.

Rating: 4.5/5

About the Author

Doreen Cumberford is a Scottish expat author who has been global traveler for more than four decades. In her 20s Doreen left her home in Scotland and drove down to London to become a member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Her first posting was as the youngest and most junior British Embassy staffer in Cameroon, West Africa. Later she moved back to London and took a position with an American oil-field construction company based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. After moving to America, living in Louisiana then California, two extremely different cultures in the USofA, Doreen and family moved overseas to Japan then spent the following 15 years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With 13 major moves under her belt, she understands the value of moving, building a new life and handling inter-cultural hurdles. One constant has been her ability to explore through the lens of adventure. Her stories are full of multi-cultural intelligence, messy multilingual communications and multi-global perspectives. Doreen is currently based on Denver, Colorado although spends most of the year living adventurously in the Housesitting Lane, which takes her around the globe. Currently she is doing her best to install Spanish in her brain which previously had French and smatterings of Japanese and Arabic. She is passionate about cultural intelligence, global heartedness and life on the road. Featured in the Anthology: Empowering Women, and a co-author in 2018 of Arriving Well: Stories About Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering Home After Living Abroad. 2020 sees the publication of Life in the Camel Lane: Embrace the Adventure. Honest, compassionate, full of wisdom and inspiration, Life in the Camel Lane comprises stories mostly from women and men who lived in Saudi Arabia from 1950s onward. This memoir contains expert advice sage wisdom and stories that all globally mobile families can use to navigate their international journey. The principles in this book will also encourage anyone who is embracing a more adventurous life, or considering taking the leap to move overseas.

You can connect with her on her website, Twitter and Facebook.

The Giveaway!

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 16, 2020

Grinza’s Orchard: An Enchanted Tale

Grinza’s Orchard is the story of a Gypsy girl growing up in the early 1900’s in Romania.

About Grinza’s Orchard: An Enchanted Tale

At five years old she is gifted her own cherry tree and it becomes the centerpiece of the story as she grows up dreaming of one day having her own full-blown cherry orchard. To deal with some of the problems that she faces such as an unwanted boy who is attracted to her, a terribly hard decision she has to make to save her parents from illness during the coldest winter on record in their village, achieving her life’s dream of having her own cherry orchard and then suddenly losing it, she seeks help with visits to the witch Auntie Angelina and the Guru Sylvanus, who lives in a cave atop a nearby mountain. The story follows Grinza, her husband Clopin, and their children’s lives in the small gypsy village of Cojasca.

Our Thoughts

Grinza’s Orchard follows the story of Grinza – a lovely, gifted young woman with the kindest of hearts. Grinza belongs to a Romanian gypsy family – we learn about their culture and a little bit about their past. I found this quite interesting as I had no idea how poorly they were treated, including the fact that many were slaves until the mid 1800s.

Grinza loves her family and would do anything for them, and this love and compassion is recognized by the elders (and magical) of her community. She is blessed with a cherry tree and this tree becomes a very special part of her life as she builds her life around it. As she becomes a young woman, she looks to build her life with a husband – and when she finds the man that makes her happy almost every one is happy for her. Except for another young man with a cruel heart who wanted Grinza for himself. When she turns him down, this marks the start of many trials for Grinza and Clopin (and their children in the future) as he does anything that he can to hurt Grinza. Despite this, Grinza faces each obstacle with faith and kindness.

This was a beautiful, short story for young adults and readers. It had an easy pace to the story, which may make it easier for younger readers to follow along with. I really enjoyed the splashes of culture and beliefs we were exposed to during the story (during the wedding ceremony, the passing down of readings between women, etc..) as I find that they encourage me to do additional research to learn more. Grinza is a beautiful soul whom you just can’t help but love and root for throughout the story. It was a heart warming story from start to finish, providing fantastic lessons around friendship, family and life in an age appropriate manner for young adults.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Leonard Eckhaus is the founder of AFCOM, the leading association in the world for data center managers.His comments and opinions have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.Mr. Eckhaus is also one of the founders of LL MUSIC LLC. The first album he produced, “Rendezvous”, received two Grammy nominations in 2018.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 5, 2020

Gaijin Book Review

The Japanese word gaijin means “unwelcome foreigner.” It’s not profanity, but is sometimes a slur directed at non-Japanese people in Japan.

About Gaijin

Lucy is a budding journalist at Northwestern University and she’s obsessed with an exotic new student, Owen Ota, who becomes her lover and her sensei. When he disappears without explanation, she’s devastated and sets out to find him. On her three-month quest across Japan she finds only snippets of the elegant culture Owen had described. Instead she faces anti-U.S. protests, menacing street thugs and sexist treatment, and she winds up at the base of Mt. Fuji, in the terrifying Suicide Forest. Will she ever find Owen? Will she be driven back to the U.S.? Gaijin is a coming-of-age story about a woman who solves a heartbreaking mystery that alters the trajectory of her life.

My Thoughts

I had never heard the term, gaijin, before and it is used in two different ways in this story. By Owen, the mysterious boy that our story is centred around, who feels like a gaijin with his family and not really fitting in with society and family standards, and by the people that Lucy meets that describes the way they feel against the Americans (and any foreigners that live in Okinawa).

Lucy seems to be a cautious, reserved person who loves her studies. She falls hard for Owen – who seems full of life, with a kind heart and a beautiful smile. She imagines her whole life with this young man and you can imagine how devastated she was when he just up and leaves her with no explanation. Lucy struggles with this lack of closure, something that her friends and Mother does not understand. She makes a huge decision to travel as close to Japan and Owen as she could get – Okinawa. She is desperate for answers and closure.

I was not familiar with the history of Okinawa, which we are exposed to in this story. I did look up myself some of the history while reading this story as I had no idea how many American soldiers call this ‘home’ and the struggles the people have had that we are introduced into the novel. Lucy is exposed to rape, sexism, protests and anger against the Americans as she begins her career in journalism. Lucy arrives in Okinawa as a naive, innocent young woman who is determined to find Owen. She quickly grows emotionally, mentally as she is exposed to the culture and politics of Okinawa and the impact that the army has had on these people.

This was an excellent story from start to finish. While I had my suspicions of why Owen left, it was the growth of Lucy that I loved the most. She first left for superficial reasons (finding her lost love) but instead we see this great growth in her character. I loved every moment!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Sarah Z. Sleeper is an ex-journalist with an MFA in creative writing. This is her first novel. Her short story, “A Few Innocuous Lines,” won an award from Writer’s Digest. Her non-fiction essay, “On Getting Vivian,” was published in The Shanghai Literary Review. Her poetry was published in A Year in Ink, San Diego Poetry Annual and Painters & Poets, and exhibited at the Bellarmine Museum. In the recent past she was an editor at New Rivers Press, and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Mason’s Road. She completed her MFA at Fairfield University in 2012. Prior to that she had a twenty-five-year career as a business writer and technology reporter and won three journalism awards and a fellowship at the National Press Foundation.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

August 5, 2020

Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter

Family in Six Tones speaks both to the unique struggles of refugees and to the universal tug-of-war between mothers and daughters.

About a Family In Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter

In 1975, thirteen-year-old Lan Cao boarded an airplane in Saigon and got off in a world where she faced hosts she had not met before, a language that she didn’t speak, food she didn’t recognize, with the faint hope that she would be able to go home soon. Lan fought her way through confusion, and racism, to become a successful lawyer and novelist. Four decades later, she faced the biggest challenge in her life: raising her daughter Harlan–half Vietnamese by birth and 100 percent American teenager. In their joint memoir, told in alternating voices, mother and daughter cross ages and ethnicities to tackle the hardest questions about assimilation, aspiration, and family.

Lan wrestles with her identities as not merely an immigrant but a refugee from an unpopular war. She has bigoted teachers who undermine her in the classroom and tormenting inner demons, but she does achieve, either despite or because of the work ethic and tight support of a traditional Vietnamese family struggling to get by in a small American town. Lan has ambitions, for herself, and for her daughter, but even as an adult feels tentative about her place in her adoptive country, and ventures through motherhood as if it is a foreign landscape.

Reflecting and refracting her mother’s narrative, Harlan fiercely describes the rites of passage of childhood and adolescence, filtered through the effects of her family’s history of war, tragedy, and migration. Harlan’s struggle to make friends in high school challenges her mother to step back and let her daughter find her own way.

Family in Six Tones speaks to the unique struggles of refugees and to the universal tug-of-war between mothers and daughters. The journey of an immigrant, away from war and loss toward peace and a new life, and the journey of a mother raising a child to be secure and happy. Both are steep paths filled with detours and stumbling blocks. Through explosive fights and painful setbacks, mother and daughter search for a way to accept the past and face their future together.

My Thoughts

Family in Six Tones is a powerful book that made me cry, made me smile and opened my eyes. My husband came to Canada with his brother at the age of 19, sent by their parents in the hopes of a better life for them. I found many parts of his own story within this story (the struggles of different cultures, longing for the home from their youth yet knowing that it is just not the same, the new community that is built in this new country and so on). I can’t even begin to imagine or put myself in the shoes of a refugee or an immigrant, instead I try to do my best to understand and be respectful. For many, they are not leaving by choice (for adventure, for a new job, etc) but instead they are fleeing war, persecution, politics, poverty and so much more. They have seen things that others cannot even begin to imagine. I cried when I got to the part where Lan’s parents sent her to America alone. The strength and love that they had for her was incredible, I can’t even begin to imagine the hurt they carried within seeing their daughter leave but also the sacrifice and hope for her future that they saw.

The story is told in an unique manner – both in Lan’s and Harlan’s perspectives which gives us such a personal look at their lives and helps us to fill in the gaps. We learn about Lan’s family history in Saigon and the struggles they faced before and during the Vietnam War. We watch as she boards a plane to America, not really understanding that this is not a short vacation but instead her parents have made the greatest sacrifice to protect her. We watch as she becomes exposed to American culture and we see the differences between the two cultures and how difficult this must have been for her to find her own way in a country that is so unlike her home. Many times, America is not the warm, welcome inviting place it should be for her – instead she is faced with racism and hate because of her birth place (some of this may have been due to the war but after witnessing how people have treated immigrants myself, it could be more than that). We watch as she grows into a young woman, heads off to college and finally as she becomes a mother. I can’t even begin to imagine the stress of becoming a mother, the fears she would have for her daughter and never really knowing should she raise her in an American culture or her Vietnamese culture. We watch as she struggles with the rules that she grew up with, changes her mind but is always trying to be mindful of the American culture that her daughter will have to navigate.

With Harlan’s sections, we see a new side of Lan – the sides that are permanently affected by what she saw as a child and the sides that she tries to hide. No one can ever truly appreciate the long term affects of war, fleeing your country and starting over can have on you mentally, emotionally and physically. We saw glimpses of this in Harlan’s chapters and she shared this with love, respect and honesty. I loved the way Harlan wrote, she shares her heart openly and you just can’t stop reading.

This is a beautiful story of family, the mother-daughter relationship, the struggles of a refugee and starting over in a new country and culture. I couldn’t put this memoir down, it was an intimate and honest story that was told with respect and love, a definite must read novel.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Authors

Lan Cao is the author of Monkey Bridge and The Lotus and the Storm, and most recently of the scholarly work Culture in Law and Development: Nurturing Positive Change. She is a professor of law at the Chapman University School of Law, and an internationally recognized expert specializing in international business and trade, international law, and development. She has taught at Brooklyn Law School, Duke University School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, and William & Mary Law School.

Harlan Margaret Van Cao graduated from high school in June 2020 and will be attending UCLA. She was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, and moved to Southern California when she was ten.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

July 28, 2020

Inside the Sun Book Review

The 8th Island Trilogy includes Above the Star, Below the Moon, and Inside the Sun. Over the three books, we follow the adventures of a quirky family, the Wellsleys. The main characters are frumpy senior citizen Archie, his daughter-in-law, Tessa, and his ill fourteen-year-old granddaughter Ella.

About Inside the Sun

All worlds are dying, and it’s up to one broken and dysfunctional family from Earth―the Wellsleys―to save the day.

Cancer-ridden Ella celebrates her fifteenth birthday beneath an enchanted mountain, but it is what lies even farther below―the mysterious Star in the sea―that demands she grow up quickly. While Ella grapples with the sacrifice she must make and the lies she is forced to tell, her mother, Tessa, is hell-bent on protecting her.

Through bizarre encounters, love-sick Tessa realizes that she is not the lonely orphan she believes. Her husband, Arden, and father-in-law, Archie, are not the only ones with magical bloodlines. This revelation changes everything. As Archie chooses to embody his unexpected ancestry, he learns that leading the charge in the ultimate battle against evil won’t be as easy as he thought. He’ll need his family―and the strange allies he has gained―by his side to give Ella enough time to set things right.

Can they defeat the unstoppable Millia sands―and another unexpected foe―before everything they hold dear is destroyed? Or will their adventure tear them apart for good? The finale to The 8th Island Trilogy will hold you spellbound until the final page, and long after.

My Thoughts

Inside the Sun is a stunning, incredible finish to this trilogy that I could not put down. This is the final battle between good and evil – can they defeat what feels like an overpowering evil, will they find Ella’s cure and who else will fall in this epic struggle?

I love Ella’s character – she is strong, smart, sassy and vulnerable. While her cancer diagnosis has shaped her life and the way others view her, she refuses to let it stop her. I love this strength and goodness in her. It allows her to see the goodness in others and show compassion and strength, even when she has so little left to physically give.

What was really amazing in this novel was how all of our characters evolved. Archie embraces his true ancestry and leads his new people but is conflicted – can he handle the responsibility and stress of leading his people during such an epic battle? Is he strong enough mentally and emotionally for this responsibility? Tessa, Ella’s Mother, who was always special (regardless if she knew it or not) finds out her own special past that blew my mind! My heart was so happy for her as she has struggled for so much of her life feeling unloved as she was orphaned at such a young age.

This is a well written, action packed series that young adults and adults will love. The plot is unique and I loved the character development, they are all so special and unique. I loved the messaging in this series – it is full of hope, forgiveness, love and family. Our characters are just like you and me – you can relate to their emotions and their sufferings. This is a definite must read novel in this series!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Book Depository and Google Play.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Alexis Marie Chute is an award-winning author, artist, photographer, art curator, filmmaker, and public speaker. She has received over 40 noteworthy distinctions for her visual and literary work. Her award-winning fantasy series The 8th Island Trilogy includes, Above the Star, Below the Moon, and Inside the Sun. The series has been described as “A WRINKLE IN TIME meets THE PRINCESS BRIDE” by The Perpetual You magazine, and “Fast and bizarre… never a dull moment” by Forward Reviews. The 8th Island Trilogy “weaves STAR WARS-like characters with a WONDER-like message to form an enrapturing read for blooklovers of all ages” – US Review of Books. Chute’s bestselling memoir, Expecting Sunshine: A Journey of Grief, Healing and Pregnancy After Loss, was a top Kirkus title of 2017 and received a plethora of other literary distinctions. The memoir was accompanied by the feature documentary of the same name, which has screened internationally for the last three years. Chute received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design from the University of Alberta, Canada, and studied at Media Design school in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated valedictorian with her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, USA. Chute is a highly regarded public speaker. She has presented on art, writing, bereavement, and the healing capacities of creativity around the world. Contact the Author/Artist for bookings info@alexismariechute.com When not in her art/photo studio or at her computer, Chute loves to spend quality time with her family, read fiction and non-fiction, watch reality TV, paddleboard, and canoe. She is not a winter person but lives in frosty Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with her husband and their three living children.

The Giveaway

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Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.