Book #47: The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

Just after the Taliban fell in 2002, Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad came to Afghanistan and while there, met a bookseller named Sultan Khan. She got to know him and his family, and she ended up moving in with them for three months to see what it was like being an Afghan woman and living in a (somewhat) typical Afghan family. She introduces all of the members of the family to the reader, and gives a good look into all aspects of their lives, as best she can, and particularly looks at the difficulty of being a woman in Afghanistan at that particular time. Over the course of her stay, she learns about when Sultan Khan took a second wife, about his sisters' yearnings to marry, about the squabblings between Khan's mother and wives and sisters (as they all live under the same roof).

Although I thought it was a very interesting look into the Afghan culture, an area which I am very unfamiliar with, I was annoyed with some aspects of Seierstad's writing. She comes across as very judgmental and biased against the men in the family, and really comes down hard on them again and again. I DEFINITELY agree with her and understand why she would find it hard to NOT do that, but it really makes the book feel more like her social experiment in trying to argue with these Afghan social and gender norms than investigative and unbiased journalism. In fact, her prejudice is so obvious, it makes me wonder if she was even trying to write journalism here (although I don't know what else it would be). It also made me wish that I had a more contemporary sequel, where we could find out if anything has changed or progressed for women in Afghanistan, since the Taliban's supposed fall, over the last decade, or if they've stayed the same or gotten worse.

Book #46: No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I have been meaning and wanting to read this book for a while. Goodwin's Team of Rivals was one of my favorite books I've ever read--so I've wanted to read more books by her but haven't gotten around to it until now. This book obviously is about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt and their relationship and what they accomplished on the home front in America during WWII. The narrative starts in 1940 when Hitler began invading other countries in Europe, and then ends when Roosevelt dies in 1945. I really enjoyed reading this book and learning more about FDR and Eleanor individually and as a team, and about the country's development and change during WWII and that crazy time. Although Goodwin doesn't discuss much about what they did before WWII, even though FDR had been president for six or seven years before WWII starts, it's obvious that FDR and Eleanor had a great working partnership established well before this time period because of all the things they were able to accomplish together. Goodwin paints a portrait of Eleanor as insecure in many ways but extremely morally focused and motivated by wanting to help others, and FDR as kind of self-centered and much more politically motivated by what the public wanted and would accept rather than what he believed was right. It makes FDR seem like less of a good guy, but he was also much more realistic and accomplished much more than Eleanor could have on her own. They were such a good team because Eleanor pushed him in forward-thinking directions while FDR helped her see what was possible.

During the war, FDR made a lot of logistical decisions that made a huge difference in the ability of the US to help win the war. He was focused on spurring manufacturing to build up the "arsenal of democracy," stopping strikes that were causing problems with war manufacturing, and helping Great Britain and Russia to stop Germany's advances. Eleanor, on the other hand, was seriously concerned with making sure that the strides of the New Deal towards helping labor improve their circumstances were not curtailed because of the necessities of war. She focused on improving Negro relations at home and in the armed forces, tried to represent to FDR when strikers had good reason for striking, and spent weeks and months traveling around the world visiting US soldiers to try and boost morale however she could. They both did so much, it's unbelievable to see how they managed--and kind of unsurprising that it basically killed FDR in the end. He died of a brain hemorrhage a month or so before V-E day.

After reading the book, Eleanor definitely comes off as maybe a little of a workaholic but more of the sympathetic character of the two to me. I really detested FDR's womanizing personality and how he always wanted to be around beautiful, simpering women who wanted to lavish him with praise. Eleanor may not have understood him in a lot of ways, like always wanting to make him work when he needed to relax, but I hated how they both had these somewhat intimate relationships (not necessarily romantic, but mentally intimate) with other people and not with their spouse. I respect them both for how well they maneuvered the country at this time but I didn't love that about them. But nobody's perfect. And I just came away from this book feeling like our country could not have survived that era without the two of them.

Book #45: The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot

This is the last of the Heather Wells mysteries, and probably the most mundane of the murders she investigates. An RA dies in the hall before the new school year even starts, and nobody is sure what happened. And by mundane, I don't mean the story itself is boring--it's just the least sensational and most normal/likely sounding of the murders that have happened in Heather's residence hall. There's also the added storyline of Heather's engagement and wedding preparations with Cooper, which keeps things moving in the right direction.

Also, honestly, I'm a little over these "Size 12/14" titles. As much as I enjoyed the books, these titles seem so demeaning and belittling--like that's all that matters about Heather is that she wears a size 12. I know that Cabot is probably trying to do the opposite--but it doesn't come across that way. The book itself doesn't REALLY talk about sizes all that much--and I feel like by this book she's stopped talking as much about what she eats and what she weighs--maybe because she's in a fulfilling and happy relationship, so she doesn't have to think that much about it any more?--but the title doesn't accurately reflect that and doesn't really show what the book(s) are about.

Book #44: Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot

This book may have been my favorite of the Heather Wells mysteries. Heather's past as an ex-pop star comes more into the front of this story, which gives it more depth and gives some side characters a lot more interesting personalities than they seemed to have originally. When she was a rich and famous teenie pop star, Heather dated the son of her record producer, Jordan Cartwright, but they broke up when she found out he was cheating on her with their new up-and-coming star, Tania Trace (and that's when she left the whole music scene altogether). But now she's engaged to Jordan's brother, Cooper (who's not much in touch with his family) and turns out that Tania Trace's tween rock star summer camp is happening in Heather's dorm over the summer, so she has to deal with Tania and all of Jordan's family--while trying to figure out who is trying to kill Tania and almost succeeding.

The thing I really liked about this book was how it stopped portraying Tania and Jordan as one-dimensional, ditzy, boring characters, and showed that they had souls and insecurities and that they were human. She'd always thought of them as idiots and only caring about superficial things, but as she (and we) got to know them and Tania's past, they became much more sympathetic characters--which I felt made the story so much more interesting. The mystery was pretty creepy and realistic too, with the creepy stalker-type factor, so I thought this book added an interesting twist to the series.

Book #43: Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Heather Wells does it again in this book, where her brand new boss is shot in the back of the head while sitting in his office in "Death Dorm," where people just can't stop dying. Heather suddenly finds herself as one of the suspects this time, so she has no choice but to try to investigate.

There's not much more to say about this one, other than it's more of the same as the previous two--funny, quick, light-hearted, Heather solves the crime. I enjoyed it just as part of the overarching storyline in Heather's life and job.

Book #42: Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

This is the second book in the Heather Wells series. After solving the murders in the first book, Heather thought they were in the clear--until one morning someone finds a cheerleader's head in a pot on the stove in the dorm kitchen. Nobody knows what happened to her or to the rest of her body--so Heather starts trying to figure it out. She gets much more over-the-top involved in this one--she goes undercover into a fraternity to investigate the guys she suspects there, she involves a student that she's befriended to help her, and she ends up in a dangerous situation in the end after she's figured out who it was. Thank goodness for her or else nobody would know who did it!

The other funny aspect of this series is Heather's obsession with her landlord and ex-boyfriend's brother, Cooper. She is totally in love with him even though she paints a picture of him as being totally unreachable and unattainable: smart, educated, hardworking, mysterious, into artsy things and not reality TV--and yet he's obviously interested in her even though she's kind of the opposite in every way. I don't know if the whole romance is totally believable to me--mainly because since we're inside Heather's head, and she sounds kind of ditzy, in a fun and friendly way, but not in a way that Cooper would really be interested in her. But oh well--it's still fun to read.

Book #41: Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

I read basically all of the Princess Diaries series when I was in high school, and always enjoyed Cabot's easygoing and fun writing style. While I was in Utah, I found out about the Oyster reading app, and downloaded the free trial--and read all five of her mysteries with heroine/amateur sleuth Heather Wells. Size 12 Is Not Fat is the first one--and you wouldn't have any idea what the book was about from its title. Heather Wells is a washed up pop star who lost her recording contract when she gained weight and her money when her mom ran off with her agent and her savings, so she ends up getting a job as an assistant residence hall director at New York City College. I loved this backstory and persona for Heather--I thought that was a super interesting and hilarious aspect of the story. But the main plot actually had nothing to do with Heather's past--it revolved around her trying to figure out what happened to several kids who died falling down the elevator shafts in her building. It doesn't feel like she gets obnoxiously involved, but she just does her job and keeps stumbling on questions and problems--and she ends up solving the mystery and finding out who is murdering people and why--and ends up getting in serious danger at the end with the murderer as well.

Like I said, Cabot's style is so funny and easy to read, it really feels like you are in Heather Wells' head and that you get to know her specifically as you read the book. She's got insecurities about things (like her body, as you might imagine from the title) but she's also really funny and frank about them and doesn't mind admitting that she eats cream-cheese-and-bacon bagels every morning for breakfast and that she wears Spanx when she needs to.