REVIEW - How to Say Babylon

MOVING THIS REVIEW TO THE TOP OF THE BLOGl This is booksbydorothea INAUGURAL Book of the Year 2023

OVERVIEW

OH. MY. GOD!!! This book ARC was AMAZING!! 

There is so much to unpack that I wish that I could just think about it for weeks. But life doesn't, unfortunately, work that way so I will press on!

This was the memoir of Safiya Sinclair who is the eldest daughter of a Rastafarian family. There are so many intense, deep, and painful layers in this book. There is white colonialism, Caribbean and Jamaican dependence on tourism, lack of upward mobility, patriarchy, and Rastafarianism. But the biggest and most convicting important part to unpack is that the author is a Black female. 

Many readers, bloggers, and reviewers are going to compare this book to Educated by Tara Westover. Yes, both were poor women trapped in a patriarchal religious family. But, Tara Westover is white and Safiya Sinclair is Black. That is an enormous difference between the two authors. Being born Black made every aspect of her life so much more difficult for Safiya and then add in all of the other issues it is beyond incredible that she and her family have accomplished so very much. 

The saddest and most depressing part for me is that if Safiya was born in the United States, she would have STILL faced the same obstacles. Plus, Safiya may have had a worse life as the United States is not a leader in its treatment of BIPOC folks and women. 

This breaks my heart and scares me for the future of Black women and our country. As a personal aside, my bi-racial daughter's best friend (and my "niece") is Black so this book touches me deeply and personally.  

Please note that I will be careful as I don't want to give any spoilers! So some of this review will be a bit vague on purpose.

YES, this memoir is in the running for my book of the year for 2023.

REVIEW: 5.0 stars

Writing: 5.0 stars

How to Say Babylon was such a well-written memoir. It was painful and difficult to read at times because of the many incidents in the book that triggered me about my family of origin. No, I do NOT compare my life to Safiya's at all, but some of the horrific scenes made me flashback to my younger life. That to me, is the sign of a very good writer who reaches into your heart and soul and pulls HARD!

Safiya is a poet which I did not realize until about halfway through the book. However, while reading this book, her beautiful, descriptive, and lush writing reminded me of poetic writing. Then she adds in the Jamaican patois and her 3rd person accounts and the writing is masterful and perfect.

Beautifully written!  

Character development: 5.0 stars

The main characters were Safiya, her parents, and her three siblings. These six individuals were thoroughly developed with intense backstories for all of them. The memoir begins when her parents meet and ends with her poetry reading in Jamaica which was a significant amount of time. The amazing part is that Safiya was able to continue the detail of the characters throughout this long period of time.  

There were many secondary or supporting characters including Jamaica and a whole host of friends, family, and acquaintances. All of these characters were important to keep the story moving forward and none were throwaway characters. Of course, Jamaica was an integral secondary character in the storyline. 

Character development is the whole deal for me with ANY good book and the character development is STRONG in this memoir. 

Storyline: 5.0 stars

As this was a memoir, the storyline was based on people's lives which is an important detail to be aware of. The life that these characters lived are not just fictional characters but real-life people. It was painful to realize the difficulties that all of them went through physically, mentally, and emotionally were based on true stories. Horrific!

The core of the memoir is the life of a Black woman born in Jamaica to a poor Rastafarian family controlled by her patriarchal father. What a soup of hardship for the author to overcome, but she did it!

Book cover: 4.5 stars

The cover needed a bit of red in it to have all of the Rastafarian colors. But very good!

Book title: 5.0 stars 

Excellent! It becomes clear as you read the memoir!!

Gut feeling: 4.0 stars

I wasn't sure about this book, but I so wanted to learn more about Jamaica and Rastafarianism. I was wrong about it as I loved this memoir! 

Suggestions:

I would have liked a glossary for Jamaican patois and a map of Jamaica. 

Highly RECOMMEND

INFORMATION/LINKS

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair 

352 pages

6 days to read it (I stayed up until 2:00 am to finish it this morning)

Read it as an ARC ebook

Release date of 10/02/2023

https://www.safiyasinclair.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5699353464

https://www.simonandschuster.com/search/books/Imprint-37-Ink/_/N-1z0yfqy/Ne-ph4

https://www.netgalley.com/

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

My next audiobook is...

 Dying of Politeness by Geena Davis

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

REVIEW Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing audiobook

OVERVIEW

This was a decent celebrity memoir by Matthew Perry. It was okay, but not really good.  

How Matthew succumbed to the "Big Terrible Thing" is heartbreaking. His parents come off as disinterested and absent in his formative years which creates a perfect storm for someone who is a future alcoholic and addict. However, they redeemed themselves in his adulthood. 

The hardest part for me was to listen to Matthew ache for love and a real relationship, but the sobriety/addiction cycle did not allow him to do so. Also, his pain while detoxing, binging, and after his surgeries was so, so sad. 

Now that Matthew has passed, this explains so much.

OVERALL REVIEW: 3.0 stars

Writing: 2.5 stars

It could have been written and edited to make it less repetitive. This memoir could have been so much more with a deeper dive into the friends, lovers, and big terrible things. 

Narration: 2.5 stars

Matthew had a horribly slurry voice which is probably due to all of his health problems. Also, his true self just doesn't come through at all. 

Character Arc: 2.5 stars

This character arc was a complete and total mess. It was all over the place and was horribly repetitive. 

If it had been edited to chronological order, it would have been so much stronger.  Matthew mentions 14 surgeries, 59 detoxes, and a multitude of rehabs - getting into these issues would have been so very powerful! 

Also, why was he allowed to be on television and movie sets hung over, high, and/or drunk? Why was he enabled by so many people?

Memorable: 3.0 stars

Kind of. It is a memoir that I would recommend for a HUGE Matthew Perry, but not a big FRIENDS fan as there is little about it in the memoir. I would recommend it to someone who is fighting addiction if they are open to reading it. 

Entertaining: 3.0 stars

Matthew was a funny and spontaneous person, but none of that came through in this memoir. He was also beloved by his friends, lovers, and family with none of that really explored at all.  

 

Book cover: 3.0 stars

Just okay.

Book title: 3.0 stars 

It was somewhat true and somewhat untrue. 

LUKEWARM recommend

STATISTICS

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

8 hours, 49 minutes

Listened to as an audiobook from the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL)

Release date of 11/1/2022

INFORMATIONAL LINKS

Matthew Perry

My Goodreads review

Macmillan Audio

Los Angeles Public Library

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

My next ebook and review is...

OVERVIEW

This was a VERY short novelette or even short story about the passing of her mother-in-law. It got into a lot of family dynamics that we all deal with with our in-laws. 

It was a sad, but easy read. I do really think that this could have made a short novel - there was so much more to be explored. As most people know, Cheryl wrote Wild which I have never read as hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or reading about it holds no appeal to me.  

I liked this novelette but didn't love it. 

OVERALL REVIEW: 4.0 stars

Writing: 4.5 stars

Cheryl writes so well. It is not lyrical and poetic writing like my favorite authors, but frank and matter-of-fact. It was a perfect style for this type of story. 

Character development: 4.0 stars

There were three characters - Joan (the mother-in-law), Brian (Joan's son and Cheryl's husband), and Cheryl (daughter-in-law and wife).

The relationships could have been explored more if the book was longer. I feel like a lot was missing from the story including Cheryl's relationship with her deceased mother.

Storyline:  4.0 stars

This really is the story of the passing of Joan. From living in assisted living to hospice care in only a short time. The heartache is brutal for a family to go through this with a loved one.  

Joan and Cheryl had a tenuous relationship, but they seemed to have come to understand each other before Joan passed away. 

The main location was Portland, Oregon. 

Memorable/Informative:  4.0 stars

It was heartbreaking and made me realize what I do NOT want to do when my final journey begins. I want to make everything easy for my daughter. 

Book cover: 4.0 stars

Very obvious juxtaposition of the relationship between Cheryl and Joan.

Book title: 4.0 stars 

Very appropriate. 

DEFINITE recommend

BOOK INFORMATION

Amazon First Reads Kindle ebook

Two Women Walk Into A Bar by Cheryl Strayed

31 pages 

Amazon Original Stories

Release date of 01/24/2024

INFORMATIONAL LINKS

Cheryl Strayed

My Goodreads review

Amazon Original Stories

Amazon First Reads - December 2023

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

Goodreads Choice Awards 2023

Well, several of my top choices did NOT make it to the awards round, but two great books I did read DID!! Wildly, I read both of these books as audiobooks. 

CONGRATULATIONS to:

The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

(Best Memoir & Autobiography)

REVIEW

Being Henry by Henry Winkler

(Best Humor)

REVIEW

Well, 2023 was a year filled with fantastic books! I hope that next year has just as many great books that I have read in the Opening Round, Final Round, and Choice Awards!

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

My next audiobook is...

 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

Happy reading,

Dorothea  💜

REVIEW - Stories I Only Tell My friends audiobook

OVERVIEW

This was another good celebrity memoir/autobiography this time by Rob Lowe. It was good, but not great. 

There were some very interesting parts such as when Rob grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and then moved to Malibu. His childhood was very normal until he became an actor. 

The toughest part was what I felt was a bit of a pity party about his time on the West Wing - it just really dragged the book down. Also, his time in rehab was very riveting.  

This book was published in 2011 - it seemed a bit dated so I wish that I had read it twelve years ago. The age of the autobiography/memoir will be something that I will need to consider going forward. 

OVERALL REVIEW: 4.0 stars

Writing: 4.0 stars

It was very strong writing. Rob came across as very intelligent and well-read. But, at times, I felt like SAT words were just thrown in - it disrupted the flow of the reading. Also, he really is a good Midwestern boy at heart!

Narration: 5.0 stars

Rob is a very good impressionist and reads beautifully. I find that memoirs narrated by the author are so much better than narration by professional readers.  

Character Arc: 4.0 stars

The majority of the memoir was in chronological order which is my preferred timeframe. Of course, there are little tangents to other times, but it was pretty straightforward in the timeline. It was a bit uneven in the amount of time spent on the different parts of his life. 

His childhood was interesting and his time on The Outsiders was fascinating. He also spent a chapter on his time in rehab which I didn't know about. But, he had a bit of "poor me" when talking about the West Wing.  There could have been much more - not salacious or tell-all - about the REAL Rob Lowe.

Memorable: 4.0 stars

Yes and no. This isn't a memoir that I am immediately going to think of when I get asked about a memoir recommendation. It was good, but not great.

Entertaining: 4.0 stars

Rob is a good storyteller and impressionist. It could have been so much more!

 

Book cover: 4.0 stars

I liked it!

Book title: 3.5 stars 

It really was a bit untrue. I didn't feel that the book was this at all.

DEFINITE recommend

STATISTICS

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

9 hours, 10 minutes

Listened to as an audiobook from the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL)

Release date of 04/26/2011

INFORMATIONAL LINKS

Rob Lowe

My Goodreads review

Macmillan Audio

Los Angeles Public Library

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

Five Books That Most Impacted My Life

Hi, everyone!

So, I saw a post on an author's Instagram page about the "Five Books That Most Impacted My Life". Unfortunately, I cannot find the original post or remember which author, and will update you if I find out! But, I followed suit and picked only five books which was a difficult task.

Since not everyone has read all of these amazing books, I will elaborate below about each book and why it is significant and meaningful to me, personally.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I am not certain when I read this book for the first time, but I would say probably in third grade. Also, I am positive that I ordered this book from the Scholastic Book monthly order form and that it was a paperback. I wish that I still had it!

Once I started this book, I could not finish it fast enough. It opened up a whole new world that I didn't know much about including the Civil War, Massachusetts, friends, family, and love. 

I always thought that I was like Jo growing up, but I now realize that I really was like Meg. All of the March sisters were beautifully written characters and made me realize that books for children (me included at the time) could be well-written, absorbing, and about four GIRLS!!

Interestingly, one of my recent author discoveries, Natalie Jenner, is currently writing a book with Louisa May Alcott as a character. I am so excited to read this book when it comes out!

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Wow! This was a book that I read in 8th grade in Mrs. Chavdarian's English class (she was also my homeroom teacher). FUN FACT: I am Facebook friends with Mrs. Chavdarian! I will tag her in this post on Facebook so she knows how much she means to me!!

Okay, this was the first book I read about WWII and The Holocaust. I did not have family members living in Europe during this time or family members in the military in the European theater. The biggest takeaway for me was stark horror and terror! I could not believe that human beings attempted to remove a whole group of people from the Earth because of their ethnicity and/or their religion.

This book coupled with Mrs. Chavdarian educating us about the Armenian genocide that started in 1915 changed me for the better. Unfortunately, it took until I was in college for it all to take hold. Everyone needs to read this book - it will change your life.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This is another book that I read in 8th grade in Mrs. Chavdarian's English class! Can you tell that she greatly impacted my reading choices and love of reading?

The way I viewed this book as an 8th grader is completely different as an adult - I recently reread it and loved it even more. But, first my 8th grade views. What bothered me was the book burning and destroying works of art (books) that are treasures to me. Add in that I recently read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank so my mind was boggled and horrified by the book burning in Nazi Germany.  

Now as an adult, it wasn't the book burning that horrified me as much (yes, it was horrible), but rather the mind-control through the "parlor wall" televisions where the government told people what to do and think. This dystopian novel written in 1953 unfortunately predicted the future with the winner of the 2016 Presidential race telling people how to think, believe, and act in his cult of personality. 

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

I cannot believe I did not read this amazing book until TWENTY years after it was published. It was published in 1995 and I read it in 2015! I am grateful that I did find Alice Hoffman's books because she is one of my absolute favorite authors. Her books are beautifully written, descriptive, and just plain WITCHY! 

Yes, I said WITCHY. All women do have a little witch in them and that is a good thing. We have good intuition, premonitions, and strong instincts towards our friends and family. Interestingly, I have been researching my genealogy and tentatively believe I am related to one of the witches hanged in Salem, Massachusetts and I am also related to men who helped her hang. YIKES!! More work is needed to prove it all. 

But, Alice Hoffman writes like no one else. She is beyond amazing to write FOUR books in the Practical Magic series. I hope and dream she will write a fifth book in this series. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Let me start by clarifying, "I do endorse or support any of the viewpoints or opinions that J.K. Rowling espouses".  

With that being said, these books have helped a generation of children love to read. I cannot discount this and am grateful for this. My daughter believed she would never learn to read because it was too hard. Once she found the Harry Potter books, she read under the covers with a flashlight, in the car, and anytime and everywhere she could read. These books made her a life-long lover of books! The great thing was that we started the books together when she was in 2nd grade with the approval of her teacher. 

For me, the biggest takeaway from these books was good triumphs over evil, friends can become your chosen family, and that fantasy can be amazingly realistic. The first book was written for fourth-graders, I believe, but the books get more difficult and onto more adult topics as they proceed. Listening to these seven books as audiobooks is a joy.   

So that is my "Five Books That Most Impacted My Life"! I hope that you play along too! I would love to know what books matter to YOU!!

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜

P.S. My graphic was created using PicCollage on my cell phone if you are wondering how I did it!!

November 2023 - Monthly Wrap-up

Hi, everyone!

Wow, November was a busy and fun month. December will be even busier, but what a wonderful problem to have!

November was another great month for books with some outstanding books! It was a unique month with only ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) and audiobooks from the Los Angeles Public Library!

 

BEST BOOK OF 2023

There are now THIRTEEN books vying for MY Best Book of 2023.

• The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende (May)
• Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (June)
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair (July)
• A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power (August)
• The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman (August)
• Evergreen (Japantown Mystery #2) by Naomi Hirahara (August)
• The Women by Kristin Hannah (September)
• After Annie by Anna Quindlen (September)
• Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki (October)
• The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok (October)
• Making It So by Patrick Stewart (October) audiobook
• Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner (November)
• Being Henry by Henry Winkler (November) audiobook

It will be so fascinating to determine which book I decide on as MY Best Book of 2023! Of these thirteen books, FOUR are vying in the final round for Goodreads Best Books of 2023. It will be exciting to see how the end-of-the-year decision plays out!

Another audiobook got a 5.0-star review from me. It was well written, beautifully narrated, and just lovely – Being Henry by Henry Winkler.

I hope the quality of books in December continues to be good for me with at least ONE 5.0-star in December to keep my streak of outstanding books running.

 

GOODREADS READING GOAL:

My Goodreads reading goal kept increasing in 2023! In May, it increased from 50 to 60 books; in September, it increased from 60 to 80 books; and in October, it was finally increased from 80 to 100 books! This may be a bit of a stretch goal, but I will try my best to meet it!

Currently, 90 books out of 100 books GOAL. 10 books to go by December 31, 2023. 

For next year, I think I will just set 100 as my goal and avoid the goal updates!!

 

STATISTICS:

9 total books

5 e-books; 4 audiobooks

5 books were an ARC (Advance Reader Copy)

4 books were library books (0 ebooks; 4 audiobooks)

0 books were purchased ebooks

0 books were an Amazon First Reads

0 books were a gifted physical book

Audio listening time in November: 31 hours, 6 minutes

Pages read in November: 1,752 pages

 

BOOK RATINGS with BOOK COVERS:

5.0-star books (2) 

Being Henry by Henry Winkler (REVIEW LINK)

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner (REVIEW LINK) 

4.5-star books

Paris, The Memoir by Paris Hilton (REVIEW LINK)

The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes (REVIEW LINK)

The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan (REVIEW LINK)

 

4.0-star books (1)

Dolly Parton, Songteller by Dolly Parton, Robert K. Oermann (REVIEW LINK)

 

3.5-star book (3)

Good Taste by Caroline Scott (REVIEW LINK)

The Philadelphia Heiress by Anita Abriel (REVIEW LINK)

If You Had Told Me by John Stamos (REVIEW LINK)

 

3.0-star books (0)

  

If you want to read my full review of any of these books, there are individual review links for each ebook or audiobook below the picture of the book. You click on REVIEW LINK to get to that specific book review!! 

 

Happy reading, 

Dorothea 💜

 

P.S. For more information about my book ratings, you can find out more here: BOOK RATINGS LINK. 

Also, for a glossary of the common book blog terminology, check out: GLOSSARY LINK.