Female protagonists abound.

This week, I somehow fell into three books that all prominently featured females.

Gold: A Novel by Chris Cleave (2012)

Two female cyclists.  Rivals.  They met at 19 years old, personalities quite different, yet talent and determination there for both.  A third, male cyclist, likewise, meets them at the same event.  They train with a commanding but amusing coach who comes to care very much for these athletes over 15 years.

These Brits' careers are followed through current and flashback stories involving Championships, Olympics, marriage, solitude, scandal, illness, children and injury.  The story is absorbing, and though well-crafted, it is just that.  Crafted.  You have to suspend disbelief too much and the frustration you might feel at some turns overshadow the positive aspects of the story,  spoiling what could have been great and making it mediocre.

Cleave certainly keeps you turning pages.  Star Wars fans might be enamored of the fantasy aspect in little Sophie's life.  For non fans, there's something of a curve.  Depending on your tastes, a particular character may be so distasteful, she can become a distraction.  For others, I suppose she could be an inspiration?  But the writing style and redeeming characters keep you reading.  Definitely entertaining if at times, exasperating.


Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde: A True Story (2013)

Woman idolizes Carrie Bradshaw/Candace Bushnell.  I should have stopped right there.  But I didn't.  She suffers a breakup, moves out of her Manhattan apt shared with her boyfriend after obligatory street drama with him and finds affordable room in apartment of Hassidic man willing to share space with a woman.  Man says he is a Rabbi.  Surely the memoir's eponymous pair are not exactly what they say they are:  not a genuine Rabbi, not a genuine blonde.

They share space, form a friendship (albeit one that comes across as one dimensional), expose each other to their different lives and "corrupt" one another.  The blonde was open to experiences less vapid than the party and fashion world and the 'Rabbi' was waiting for someone to buy him a cheeseburger.

All in all, I'd say this book was satisfying to the blond and perhaps the 'Rabbi.'  Though I'm not sure why it was picked up by as a memoir because I'm still waiting for what I was supposed to get out of the experience.  I hope some of you read it and get back to me.

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung (2012)

A Korean family settled in the United States has problems.  We all do.  Some are rooted in the tight grip the parents have over their daughters and others are the kind that plague anyone, anywhere.  Health crises and family drama.

College-aged daughter Hannah leaves and the family cannot track her down.  Meanwhile, her father is diagnosed with potentially terminal cancer and the plan is to return to Korea for treatment.  Hannah's disappearance is devastating to the family and though she is found, she is defiant, refusing to return.  It is a story of sisters, of illness, of immigrants, family.  But therein lies the problem in this promising novel. What was the actual story?  At first glance this is a story of the disappearance and we want to know WHY?  How does it relate to the illness, the family leaving America?

Then it becomes a story of family loyalty and terminal illness.  Still a promising story.  You care about the people.  But it begins to lose focus.  Is it the disappearance that the climax will turn on?  Is it the illness?  The move to Korea?  Suddenly you aren't sure.  When the story ends, unfortunately, you still aren't sure.  If Chung writes again, I will surely pick up her novel and give her another chance, though Forgotten Country asked a number of questions throughout and left pivotal ones unanswered.

I read therefore I am,
the lowercase b