Four Stars

So that was pretty good. A little more self help-y than I was expecting even with all that the title might imply.

Drs. Bacon and Aphramor are interested in making sure that we all are aware of the actual science around health as it relates to weight. Not the ridiculous idea that you can tell someone’s health by their weight, but the truth: that health is complex and certainly can’t be reduced to the number on the scale. Plenty of very thin people are extremely unhealthy, but most of society doesn’t care, because they look the way we expect (want?) people to look. And so we project that this visual must also be associated with what we deem to be good – e.g. health.

It’s sort of amazing what we expect from people, and this book is a great reminder of the absurdity involved. We have no comments or scolding of thin people who say ‘I can eat whatever I want and not get fat’ as they bite into a giant burger. Meanwhile, if a fat person eats literally exactly the same diet as the thin person, society judges them as unhealthy. It’s bullshit, and it’s super obnoxious. Personally, I think it relates heavily to the need of some people to feel like they are better than others, and this false idea of what equates with health is a great (and by great, I mean shitty) way to do it.

The book provides a whole lot of great evidence to debunk ideas that the diet industry is built on, such as the concept that calories in = calories out, and that everyone is going to process food the exact same way. Eat fewer calories, lose weight, and keep it off. But research shows that’s just not the case. One study that was especially vivid in showing this involved a bunch of sets of twins who all ate the exact same food. Within twins there was very little variation, but among sets of twins there were wildly different outcomes. So even though these same people were consuming the exact same number of calories and nutrition, some gained weight and some didn’t. And yet this seems SUPER difficult for society as a whole to grasp. People are different, and being fat doesn’t mean someone is unhealthy, or eating too much.

The book doesn’t, however, pretend that what one consumes doesn’t have any affect on one’s weight or health. Instead, the authors choose to focus on how food isn’t just the sum of its nutrients, and that being mindful about it is what will help us be healthiest. I especially appreciated this idea because it a) disparages the shit notion that any food is objectively ‘bad’ or ‘good’ based solely on its nutrition profile and b) recognizes that food actually serves a very valid cultural and social role. Eating a bunch of frozen Jenny Craig dinners might help you lose weight (for a few months before you can it back and then some), but it will also have you missing out on things like sharing some of a beloved family member’s dessert that was baked from a recipe passed down from generations. This idea that we should be automatons who just count calories and types of nutrients to get ‘healthy’ is silly, and it’s nice to see it called out as such.

I think this could be a great book for anyone to read, especially one who is tired of seeing the same shit on TV and online about how anyone can (and should) lose weight if they do x, without questioning WHY we expect these folks to lose weight. It’s not about their health (because we don’t care what thin people eat); it’s about having a group to judge and control. And about making money. And that needs to stop.

Four Stars

Damn. This was a well-written book that I enjoyed reading. I mean, it’s all kinds of messed up, but it’s interesting, and I don’t think the outcome is at all obvious. It all makes sense, when you think about it.

Libby Day is the sole surviving daughter of the Day family, three members of which were murdered in early January 1985. Her brother was convicted of the crime based partly on her testimony; she (a seven-year-old) testified that she saw him do it. As essentially an orphan (her dad faded in and out of her life) being raised by her aunt, she came into money at 18, thanks to people who had donated to a fund on her behalf when her story was in the news.

The catalyst for the story in this book is that Libby is out of money now, and has to figure out how to get some. She’s never really worked, and doesn’t want to. She comes across a letter from one of those true crime groups to see if she’d be willing to talk to them, with the understanding that they would pay her. Seeing a way to make some money, she agrees, and the story goes from there.

Like I said, this was a book that I enjoyed reading. It was a book that made me choose the elliptical over a run (because I can read on a machine), and the bus over a ride from a friend because that meant 30 uninterrupted minutes with the book. I also read and enjoyed Gone Girl, and I appreciate that Ms. Flynn creates characters that aren’t awesome, and that are sort of (really) flawed. It’s interesting.

Four Stars

This time, I actually sort of did see the twist coming. Well, one of them. And frankly, not as quickly as I probably should have. But still. I’m getting better.

I believe this was one of Ms. Moriarty’s first novels, although it doesn’t feel like it. It employs the same convention as many of her other ones – the point of view of three different characters. In this case, the characters are sisters. Triplets actually (a set of identical twins and one fraternal twin). They are interesting, leading fairly ordinary lives (although none of them have money troubles, which doesn’t actually seem that ordinary). But they have challenges, and their relationships with each other, their divorced parents, and their partners are all a bit complicated.

There isn’t a ton to say about this book, other than I enjoyed reading it, and it’s kind of perfect for right now, when I have a lot going on at work and home but still want to read something on the bus that isn’t going to overly tax my brain. However, one area that rubbed me the wrong way was that one of the characters drives drunk. She only does it once, and actually gets caught and there is a repercussion of sorts. But it was treated so … lightly? I mean, I think it was meant to show us how the character was feeling, that this person would do this, but still. This person could have killed someone, and it was just weird to have it be some sort of character-building moment as opposed to a really serious thing.

I’d recommend the book if you’re heading out on vacation and want something that isn’t entirely a pile of fluff but that is still very fun and easy to read.

Four Stars

Yeah, this is another Liane Moriarty book review. Third in a row. And in a few days, you’ll probably have the fourth in a row. Because I am sucking these books down like they are water and I’m a hiker lost in the desert.

I didn’t enjoy it as much as Big Little Lies, but that’s okay. As with Big Little Lies, we follow three main characters who are clearly going to end up connected in some way. There is something hanging over everyone’s head. It’s sort of a mystery, but not necessary a mystery we (the readers) need to be concerned about solving, because much of what is interesting is how the characters react to the mystery, and how actions have unintended consequences. Do I care about the secret (or secrets)? Absolutely. But I care more about how the characters are handling it. I think Ms. Moriarty creates interesting characters, ones that I become invested in over the course of these novels.

Now that I’ve read three, however, I am a bit concerned. Is everyone in Australia straight? Because that seems … unlikely. Considering all of these books are set with a focus on parents of young children, you’d think there would be at least a couple of families with two mothers, or two fathers. And I’m not so sure about the ethnic diversity of her characters. I recall a few described as blond, or redheaded with light skin and freckles.

If these three books I’ve read are an indication, Ms. Moriarity has a bit of a formula. We get to know characters, and there is a THING hanging over them, and some might know, and some might not, but we the readers definitely don’t. Or at least, I don’t. For the most part. Perhaps it should be more obvious? I don’t know. All of the twists have pretty much caught me off guard. Maybe I’m just behind on my novel reading, and it will become more obvious later. Whatever, don’t care. I’m enjoying the hell out of these books, and this one was no different.

Five Stars

I downloaded this pretty much the moment I finished ‘What Alice Forgot.’ And thanks to Ms. Moriarty I didn’t get nearly as much sleep as I planned to on this trip home because I couldn’t put THIS book down, either.

The book is told from the perspectives of three different women, all parents of kindergartners at a school that has much economic diversity. At the end (and sometimes beginning) of each chapter, there are quotes from what turn out to be statements to the police, because someone gets murdered at trivia night. But, thanks to Ms. Moriarty’s clever story-telling, we don’t know WHO gets murdered until very near to the end of the book. And why they do, depending on who it is, could be one of many reasons.

I really, really enjoyed this style of storytelling. It was compelling as hell. The characters were interesting. The women weren’t all one-note, or all the same. The men were probably a bit less complex, but eh. I’ve read loads of stories over the years where the women (if they were even in the books much) were very generic and the men complex, so I’m fine with this.

I don’t know if I should have enjoyed this book as much as I did. In some respects it did seem to be making fun of some parents and their concerns, at least a little bit. But who knows, maybe that’s appropriate. I’m super excited to learn that it’s being made into a short-term series for HBO. I will watch the hell out of that.

Four Stars

Yes. More please.

Seriously, I loved this book. I know some folks have reviewed it on here, but I can’t recall if they liked it or not. I hope they did. I was in the midst of reading an exceedingly boring book on Camus (shocking, I know) when I got to the airport Thursday night. I saw this at Hudson News and bought it. I started reading at the gate, put it down when I got off the plane, stayed up way too late reading it that night, and finished it tonight after dinner. It’s 450 pages long. It’s just that easy to read.

It’s fun and interesting. The main plot point is that Alice Love is 39, has three kids, and is going through a divorce. But the book opens with her waking up from hitting her head on the floor of the gym, thinking she is 29, expecting her first child, and madly in love with her husband. Yikes.

I love the ideas explored in this book. Are the little hurts people cause us, when put together over time, enough to make us want to not be with them? Should they be? If you woke up tomorrow in the same predicament, would 10-years-younger you approve of current you? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? And, most importantly, how freaky would it be to go home to three kids you don’t know and be expected to parent them?

There are a lot of relationships explored in this book – Alice and her sister, her mom, her grandmother, her (soon-to-be-ex) husband. Her and other mothers. Her and old friends. It’s mostly told from Alice’s perspective, but her sister and grandmother contribute in interesting ways that (usually) work. I was satisfied by the end, but mostly because I think the journey to get there was, for me, believable. A bit complicated and interesting, but believable. And it makes me want to read more by this author, for sure.

Three Stars

This book is not what I expected it to be. I think I was looking for something slightly less memoire and containing some measure of humor. That isn’t to say that Ms. Bolick isn’t a great writer; she managed to take a book that I probably would never have read had I truly understand what I was in for and make it interesting. But in case you thought this would be an out-loud feminist discussion, it’s not that. At least, it isn’t entirely that.

This is a very subtle book. At times I wasn’t really certain where it was going. Ms. Bolick chooses to tell us her own story of not desiring marriage by sharing the life stories of her “five awakeners” (a term that, I should say, had my rolling my eyes each time it appeared). All white women with some economic means, these women are certainly interesting, and do a passable job of demonstrating the challenges women have faced when choosing a path that doesn’t match the one that it seems most everyone else is both taking and expecting them to take.

This book can’t help but be a very narrow study, as it is a memoire of sorts; it is about Ms. Bolick’s life and struggle with her desire to have control over her life on her own terms. She isn’t asexual; she has many relationships, and experiences love. She just doesn’t think that marriage is on her list. And while this is about her experiences, I have to say I wish that one of her “awakeners” had been a woman of color. Ms. Bolick also makes some comments regarding women in the workplace that I don’t necessarily think hold true for non-white women, even though they are presented as universal truths. Hmmm.

Like I said, it’s not what I was expecting. If the title and a couple of two-sentence synopses made you interested in the book, I suggest reading a few more reviews before picking it up to make sure it’s where you want to spend your time.