Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

  This book is about a Chinese-American couple in the 60's and 70's that struggles with discrimination and its devastating impact on their lives. The story begins with the loss of their oldest daughter, then backtracks to tell of how the parents met, married and raised their family. The type of discrimination that affects them is not only prejudice against Asians, but against women. The family is seriously dysfunctional and the way it impacts the children is heart-rending.

 

The story is told variously from the viewpoints of all the family members, and we learn the thoughts and feelings that they kept hidden from each other with disastrous results.

The book was well-written and gripping from beginning to end. The author made the voices of each character seem very authentic. Though I didn't like some of their actions, I was able to see a little of what led them to act as they did.

This isn't an easy read, or a fun read, but is very thought-provoking. I highly recommend it.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera

I definitely liked this book about how the civil war in Sri Lanka impacted the lives of several families, though I was bothered by a few things. I didn't get the title. Is this a name that the island is called? I found the beginning of the book a little slow going. There was a lot of family history of what turns out to be a main character later in the book, Yasodhara. Her and her family's story take up more than half the book. I was surprised at this point by the introduction of an entirely different family and character, Saraswathi, in part 2. There wasn't nearly as much history about her family. I might have liked it better if the two stories were more intertwined throughout the book. The descriptions of Saraswathi's life in the civil war really helped to describe what might lead someone to become a brutal terrorist. 

I did like that the book told the story from the viewpoint of both sides in the war. It seemed to say that the war was senseless, prolonged, brutal, and happened for no good reason. The stories of how it affected individuals on both sides of the conflict were well written. I hope this author writes more.