Book review(s) - REPOST

This post is reposted from 12/21/2014. I feel like this is when it started for me - the desire to share my story and feel like I am entitled to talk about my past. I came across this old draft and decided to rerun it. I hope you enjoy!

Last week, on the way to work, I was listening to the Moth podcast and one of the storytellers was Jillian Lauren. She was talking about the time in her life when she and her husband (the guy who is in the band Weezer, Scott Shriner) went to adopt their son from another country.
Her story was compelling to me, so I did some research online and found out she is a writer.

I have read both her novels in the span of less than a week. When that happens, it prompts me to write a review so here it goes.

Book 1: Some Girls

This one is a memoir, and it details her time as a girl in a harem (I know, I totally did not know those even existed any more).  Even more shocking is they come here, to America, and hire girls to go there (in this case "there" is Borneo).

So she is 18 years old and gets whisked away over to another country to be part of a harem for the Sultan of Brunei's youngest brother, Prince Jefri. She is told she will be paid $20,000 for two weeks of her time. This memoir discusses her life when she is over there, and how she is trying to find herself, but keeps getting lost along the way.

She was adopted and she has this fairy tale belief that her "real" mother was a ballerina who gave her up to pursue her career as a professional ballerina. This discusses her thoughts about that, and her relationship with her adoptive parents. She is strong-willed and jumps off the cliff so many times. It's about her mistakes and her vulnerabilities. She's very open about her life and that draws you in.

I like the detail she goes into, and I keep forgetting she's just 18/19 years old when all this is happening to her - she's a baby really. She did write while she was over there, to sort of pass the time by, and this ended up being helpful, I'm sure, when she decided to write the book.

I really enjoyed this book. If you don't like drugs, the sex industry, or cussing - I wouldn't recommend it - it's not your thing. But if you enjoy a story about a girl who pulls herself up and stays authentic to who she is, then this is a good one.

Book 2: Pretty

Same author, fiction. This main character is named Bebe (Beth) and she is an exotic dancer. One night, something tragic happens to her and her boyfriend, and her life is forever changed.

Most of the story is set in the rehab house called Serenity where she is staying to get clean. But the vivid description of the other girls in the house and the cosmetology school where she's working to get her license are descriptive and draw you in to the story.

Sometimes, I feel when things go wrong, they go really wrong for a while. And it feels like maybe it will never be right again. In this story, you can see the wrong happening, one thing after another, and some of it is Bebe's fault (she had control over it) and some of it isn't. I feel like it's the human condition to constantly keep fighting to stay above water and this book is about one of those swims.

So I hope those two books may bring some reading pleasure to anyone enjoying time off over the holiday. You can hear both of Lauren's Moth pod-casts here (the one for her son's adoption and the one discussing her trip to Borneo), and her website is www.jillianlauren.com.

Let me know if you decide to read these (I got them from Overdrive so I was able to check them out at my library free of charge), and what your thoughts are!

Happy Reading,
-H