Just a couple of books to tell you about this month, my third book is coming along, but will have to be included for March's recap.
The first book I read this month was Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry.
Some of you may know Rabia as the family friend of Adnan Syed of Serial, who introduced Sarah Koenig to the case and was on the first episode of Serial. Rabia then went on to start her own podcast about Adnan's case and wrongly convicted people. I have followed her on Twitter for years now and have always liked what she had to say.
Anyway, this book is her own memoir about her family, being born in Pakistan and then moving to the United States as a young girl, her struggles with weight, as well as her memories of delicious food cooked by her family. I really enjoyed reading about what it was like to come to America, but also travel back to Pakistan and be influenced by both cultures. Rabia was loved for sure, but she had some tough love from her parents as well, she also married (and then divorced) an abusive man, but also worked damn hard to go to law school and work as an immigration lawyer at the beginning of her career.
Her book ends with a few recipes for dishes she mentioned several times throughout the book, but instead of cooking them myself, I am instead inspired to find a Pakistani restaurant in Toronto to try these dishes cooked the proper way. I may try her recipe for chai though, as it seems simple enough.
I chose this book because I knew the author, but I think anyone would like it even if they weren't familiar with Rabia.
The second book was Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun.
This was actually on my library hold list from December because it was a Christmas book, but it didn't come in until this month. I also wanted to read her other book "The Charm Offensive" first because I thought they were related, but they weren't.
This was a really cute book, and would highly recommend for an easy Christmastime read. Two young women meet on Christmas Eve in a snow storm and spend the day and night together. Then we fast forward to the next Christmas when one of these girls ends up engaged to a charming young man who has a business proposition for her. He takes her home for the holidays and hijinks ensue. I will leave it at that for a plot summary so I don't spoil anything.
I will say that this book and her other book are not like any other book I have read before. I am used to the typical boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Here we get to meet people from all parts of the sexuality spectrum (if you can even place people on a spectrum). Girls in love with girls, boys in love with boys, people who use they/them as pronouns. I feel like I'm somewhat evolved in my thinking, but even I had to blink a few times and wrap my head around how people identified themselves. We need more books like this in my opinion.
I loved both of Alison Cochrun's books!
ReplyDeleteLahore Tikka House on Gerrard is our favourite Pakistani resurant!
ReplyDeleteOoh, thanks!!! Will definitely need to try it and bring Rabia's writing to life!
DeleteBoth books sound very interesting. I should get back into doing some more reading. I Hope you find a great Pakistani restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI've really loved both Alison Cochrun books that I've read. And I'm going to check out Rabia's book. Thank you for mentioning it.
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