Bookish Fancies

I won't be attempting to write much about this book because this one is pure entertainment. Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way with weaving stories about the world of glamorous actors, musicians and models-- something that not many of us are familiar with. She is careful about showcasing not just the glittery facade but also the dirty laundry which is always kept away from public eyes. The book is centred around the the Riva siblings- Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit. Alternating chapters also provide a backstory about how their parents June and Mick met. Their marriage started out as a fairy tale but quickly disintegrated following Mick's rise to fame as a singer. The glamour and the constant attention quickly got to him and he soon left his young children with an alcoholic mother without a second thought. While June's forgiving nature and big heart definitely won my sympathy it did get irritating after a point. Nina's character was the one that stood out. Her transformation from a...

  TW: minor spoilers ahead I have been looking forward to read something by Amy Tan and so when I came across this tattered copy of The Hundred Secret Senses in a thriftstore, I bought it without any second thoughts. I am unsure about what exactly did not work out for me. Maybe I was expecting the story to take a different trajectory. This book's weakest point was the character development. I waited and waited to know more about Kwan as a character and how the relationship between the sisters evolved over the years but sadly that never happened. The book had a lot of potential. I have not read many books exploring the relationship between two half sisters (or not? No more spoilers here). But it remained largely unexplored and the few conversations that they had, were always centred around Kwan and her peculiar abilities to interact with dead people because she believed she had "yin" eyes. A number of chapters were dedicated to a certain Mrs. Banter, her friend who had die...