I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter ~ Erika Sanchez

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. 

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

Book Review:

Recently, I have been really into contemporary books with a deeper message than your typical fluffy contemporary; therefore, I was excited to start this book. I was interested in learning about the Mexican familial culture a bit more closely than what I've learned in Spanish classes. I always find contemporaries dealing with immigration to be very interesting as well, like American Street by Ibi Zoboi. Needless to say, I went into this book expecting it to be amazing. However, I was let down. It was by no means a bad book. I still really enjoyed it. It just wasn't what I wanted. 

I felt that Sanchez did a really good job at portraying Julia's family in a realistic way. However, Olga's character, although told through 2nd or 3rd person accounts, was a bit disconnected. That may have been what Sanchez wanted as it lent to the aspect of Julia having to figure her dead sister out for the readers as well as herself. Nevertheless, even when Julia began to understand her sister more, I still felt disconnected. 

Julia was also a really annoying protagonist. I really wanted to like her and I did feel connected to her as she tried to figure out her worth. There just wasn't a lot of character development for her until the last few chapters. 

Even though I had various problems with the story, I can not deny that Sanchez depicted the culture and family in a realistic way. You could tell how the immigration process that the parents experienced left its mark on them. It also made sense that familial obligation was a sentiment forced on Julia, as it was forced on her parents as well. 

Pages: 344                                                                                                                              Rate: 3/5

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness ~ Susannah Cahalan

An award-winning memoir and instant New York Timesbestseller that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity.

When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?

In a swift and breathtaking narrative, Cahalan tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family’s inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.

Book Review:

I listened to this as an audiobook and am so glad that I did. It was such a riveting story that you would think was fiction but this is a memoir. Cahalan experienced the psychosis full of loss of memory, mass amounts of confusion and paranoia, and mood swings while everyone believed she was going crazy and that she would never be the same again. She almost ruined her career. If it were not for her family, for her significant other, for her friends, and for the doctors who took a chance on her, she may never have been diagnosed properly. 

Cahalan knew that she wasn't crazy, although she felt like it. Thankfully her parents fought for her and she finally, after being hospitalized and losing her vocabulary and memories, was diagnosed by a doctor who had the experience to see what her other doctors didn't. It is truly amazing how one person can change your life. No other doctor was able to properly diagnose Cahalan, they were all ready to deem her psychotic and in fact it had nothing to do with psychosis. 

It was interesting to hear some of her memories and learn about her experience from that but also from her talking with family and examining her medical records as she does not remember much of what happened to her during her "month of madness."

Pages: 250                                                                                                                                           Rate: 5/5

Favorite Quote:

“Sometimes, Just when we need them, life wraps metaphors up in little bows for us. When you think all is lost, the things you need the most return unexpectedly.”  

Promise Me, Dad ~ Joe Biden

Photo Rights: Hitha On The Go

In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden's eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. "Promise me, Dad," Beau had told his father. "Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right." Joe Biden gave him his word.

Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s extraordinary life and career. Vice President Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad—“Joe, I need your help”—he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016.

The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama.

Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.

This is a book written not just by the vice president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.

Book Review:

I have been loving listening to audiobooks over the past couple of years. I go through different phases. Sometimes, they are all I want to listen to. I basically ignore music, podcasts, everything. However, the current phase that I am going through has been listening to memoirs by politicians. As you know, I listened to Hillary Clinton's newest memoir not that long ago, I have a review up on the blog for that as well. Therefore, when Joe Biden's newest one was on my recommendations page on audible, I decided to listen to it right away. 

If you want a memoir that is outlining Biden's political ideology and giving lots of details about why he made the political decisions that he did, and so on... this is not the book for you. Obviously, his political ideology comes up, but it is not the main focus of this memoir.  This story chronicles the year his son Beau dies from a rare brain cancer. This was the same year that Biden had to make a decision to or not to run for President 2016. Not only was he still doing his job as Vice President, dealing with the issues in the Ukraine and Iraq, etc; but he was also watching his son die, his grandchildren witness their father's demise, his children be the rocks for his son, and dealing with his own feelings because of that situation.

The story is heart-wrenching and inspiring at the same time. This man remained dedicated to his family but also even more committed to his country throughout the worst time of his life. He compartmentalized in the most extraordinary way possible. It's a talent, a necessary component of the life he leads, but a talent nonetheless. Needless to say, he inspired me. He made me believe in him as a person and as a politician in a way that I have never believed in another public figure before. He promised his son that he would be okay and although he will never be the same man he was when Beau was alive, he will be okay, possibly even better. 

Towards the end of the book, we learn why he chose not to run for President. We all knew some of the story from his announcement to not run, but he words it here in a way that he couldn't have at the time. He knew that he was unable to give his undivided attention to being President and all of the tasks that would come with that, he was still grieving. Although he remained a dedicated Vice President throughout the tragedy, he knew that he was unable to be President at this time. He gives me hope as he says these things, however. I believe that he will do amazing things for our country, as President one day or not. He still believes that our country has hope and that as a people we can do all of the things we need to in order to change the world. If he chooses to run for President in 2020, he has my vote. 

Favorite Quote:

"If the problem is fear than the answer is knowledge."