Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I found out about Celeste Ng's (pronounced 'ing') debut novel Everything I Never Told You on a book list earlier this year. I'm glad I read it. This novel tells the story from several characters' points of view:  a man, the husband and father; a woman, the wife and mother; and the three children. 

t's surprising how well Ng wove this together and made each sympathetic when we got around to reading their individual point of view. 

I want to write books like this one when I grow up.

Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

I started reading another book after I finished Big Brother by Lionel Shriver, but I couldn't finish it. So I started reading Frog Music by Emma Donoghue. Much better!

I liked this book but didn't totally love it. The writing was good, the story was good, but the way it flip flopped back and forth in a month or so time frame made it a tad hard to follow for me for some reason. This novel is based on the true story of a murder that happened near San Francisco in 1876. 

One thing I really found interesting was the use of the term "below job" for you know what. Very interesting. It is below, so it makes sense, I guess!

Author:  Emma Donoghue
Book Read:  Frog Music

Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

Wow, Big Brother by Lionel Shriver is a great book. Ms. Shriver took a chapter from her own life--the loss of her older "big" brother from complications of being obese and told a fictional account that, true to her form, was surprising and rang so true. 

In real life, Shriver's older brother lived life large, in all ways, not just his clothing size. In the book this big brother does the same. I read an interview Shriver gave that said she wanted to honor him and help a character in a book lose the weight she was unable to help her brother do.

She tackles this big subject with wit and honesty. I laughed out loud when reading the scene where the sister takes responsibility for cleaning up the overflowing toilet and collects her brother's turds like Easter eggs. It's hilarious and gross all at once.

For more on this book, check out my Bubblews post.

Read it. You'll love it.


Author:  Lionel Shriver
Book Read:  Big Brother