2011 April 04

Book Review- Reading Lips by Claudia Sternbach

Title: Reading Lips
Author: Claudia Sternbach
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Paperback: 226 pages
ISBN: 978-1609530372
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the Publisher:

Kisses, even the ones that don’t happen, can be the trace of what’s constant when life changes. In childhood, when what seems to define everything is competition—for style, for knowing, for experience—a kiss is the first first. When a girl’s father moves out and chooses a new family, a kiss on the head from him may be the trace of constancy that she wants most.

Later, such things take on a different flavor. Sometimes the kiss she wants doesn’t come. Sometimes the one she wouldn’t have is forced upon her. From time to time, the one she has kissed before is lost to her.

Some kisses are final. When things are most hectic a kiss can be a celebration. And when circumstances grow threatening—to a woman, her family, her sister—a kiss becomes the reassertion of the most vital connections.

The rich story in these essays rings with good humor and with moving wistfulness. Throughout, Sternbach maintains a perfect balance between them as her story moves from the bittersweet desires of childhood on through loss and love.

Reading Lips is the tale of one woman who is just trying to get life right.

My Review:

Reading Lips by Claudia Sternbach is a beautifully touching, witty, and delightful memoir of kisses, and moments in her life that she has never forgotten. The book opens with Claudia waking from surgery and flashes back to third grade and progresses through her life with well-written, intriguing, witty and sometimes bittersweet moments from her first kiss to her cousin’s funeral, to weddings and beyond. I was not certain what to expect when I picked up Reading Lips, but I am glad I did. Sternbach shares her life with the readers in an open manner, making the reader feel a part of her life. Reading Lips is an enjoyable book of life’s memories that I believe most readers will be able to relate with and will stop and think back on their first crush, their first time at camp, their first tragedy and the whole time finding Sternbach to be an extremely funny, gregarious and delightful person. Reading Lips is a quick read, but it is broken down in chapters, or moments in Sternbach’s life, allowing readers to choose to read it all at once or a section at a time, either way the reader is in for a treat. I highly recommend Reading Lips to all readers.

About the Author:

Claudia Sternbach is a writer who is equally at home on both coasts. She has one foot in Manhattan where her daughter resides and the other in northern California where her husband is planted as firmly as the redwoods. she is the author of another memoir, Now Breathe (1999, Whiteaker Press), has been published in several anthologies as well as in major newspapers, and is the Editor in Chief of Memoir (and), a literary journal.

I received a complimentary ARC Reading Lips by Claudia Sternbach from Unbridled Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

Book Review/Tour: A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

Title: A Thread of Sky
Author: Deanna Fei
Publisher: Penguin; Reprint edition
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0143118626
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

When her husband of thirty years is killed, Irene Shen and her three daughters are set adrift. In a desperate attempt to heal her fractured family, Irene plans a tour of mainland China, reuniting three generations of women-her fiercely independent daughters, her distant poet sister, and her formidable eighty-year-old mother. But each woman bears secrets big and small, and just as they begin to reconnect, the most carefully guarded secret of all threatens to tear them apart forever. Depicting a China at once timeless and ever changing, A Thread of Sky is a beautifully written story of love and sacrifice, history and memory, sisterhood and motherhood, and the connections that endure.

My Review:

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei is a beautifully woven story of three generations of women seeking Jia (family, house, home) and belonging. Irene rang in the New Year alone until her sister Susan phoned from Hong Kong, prompting Irene to make plans for her three daughters, Nora, Kay, and Sophie, along with her sister Susan, and their mother Lin Yulan to take a two week tour of mainland China, a vacation each and every family member is opposed to, for various reasons. Irene, widowed and about to be an empty nester, is trying to bring her family together. Her oldest daughter, Nora, has commitment issues, Kay is currently living in China and trying to find the Chinese in her, while Sophie cannot wait to leave for college, questions everything, and has an eating disorder. Susan lives in Hong Kong and appears to be the most content, while Lin Yulan has been rather isolated from the family and only recently has had contact with one of her granddaughters, Kay, who was thrilled to learn Lin Yulan had been a revolutionary in Guangdong Province, involved in women’s rights and the Nationalist movement during the Japanese occupation of China. A Thread of Sky speaks of the complexities of families, the struggles faced by each generation, and the regrets and secrets contained in families. All six women narrate the story and the reader is able to gather the true essence of each character. Deanne Fei’s writing is lovely and her debut speaks quite well of family relationships, especially those between mothers and daughters and amongst sisters. I would recommend A Thread of Sky to anyone who enjoys well-written fiction and stories about the complexities of families. I believe A Thread of Sky would make for an excellent discussion group book.

About the Author:

Deanna Fei was born in Flushing, New York, and has lived in Beijing and Shanghai. A graduate of Amherst College and the Iowa Writers’ workshop, she has received a Fulbright grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and a Chinese cultural scholarship, among other awards. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

To learn more about the author and her books, please visit her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.