Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah

Who does not know the story of Cinderella! A young motherless child who was driven to drudgery and despair by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. Till one day when a Fairly Godmother comes to her rescue and well...we know the rest.

The Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah too follows the same path with the only and biggest difference being that our Cinderella saves herself. Our Cinderella here is Adelaine Yen Mah, the author herself and that is why this book is such an inspiration and should be included in school libraries as a ‘must read’.

Through this book Adelaine describes her experiences while growing up in a conventional Chinese Family in China during the Second World War. Her mother dies soon after her birth and her siblings blame her for her mother’s death. Always the unwanted and unloved child, Adelaine seeks love and acceptance from her father, stepmother and siblings. When that is not forthcoming she searches for that in her academics. 

Adelaine Yen Mah as a baby

Excelling in studies and at making friends Adelaine shines albeit dimly under the watchful and loving care of her Aunt and her grandfather. Unfortunately that glow is shortlived and she is shunted off to a war struck Tianjin. Her feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, sorrow and her will to survive it all is what makes this book so wonderful.

It takes immense courage to revisit a sad childhood and write about it for the world to read. It’s like baring your soul to strangers. If in her book Falling Leaves, Adelaine wrote about a girl’s journey into adulthood; then in Chinese Cinderella she has focussed only on her childhood.

Adelaine Yen Mah

This is a beautifully written book that awakens deep emotions in the reader. A must read.

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult: “a story will tell itself, when it’s ready ” - Jodi Picoult There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holoca...

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

“a story will tell itself, when it’s ready” - Jodi Picoult

There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holocaust and I unfortunately have barely read a few (I must admit I am ashamed). Of them the popular ones; Mein Kampf and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, are two books that I’ve read, reread and recommended to many friends.

Recently however I came across another book The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and I honestly swear that this one takes the cake, the cream and the cherry (for lack of a better analogy). While Anne Frank described her life in terrifying and tiring times; we somewhere saw a glimmer of hope, a smile and sometimes joy in small things as she grew up. This one however makes your skin crawl.

The book has three separate stories running parallel or well intertwining all through the book. First the story of Ania and Aleks which is the story that is being written by a young girl; the second is the story of Sage Singer and her life, her friendship with a 90 year old Josef Weber and the last is that of Minka, the actual storyteller, the main protagonist, the victim, the survivor and the loving grandmother.

Jodi beautifully feeds us spoonfuls of captivating chapters as we follow the lives of Minka, Sage and Josef. There are chapters where tears ran down my cheeks, chapters where I shuddered and hated to be disturbed, chapters where I smiled and chapters where I shut my eyes imagined myself in that place and time.

The ending is shocking if not completely unexpected. I had a deep inkling about the identity of Josef somewhere towards the beginning of last chapter and yet I was shocked.

Jodi has outdone herself once again. She brilliantly keeps you glued to the book and long after you have kept it down you are still left wondering, thinking and introspecting.

I love books that make me want to go back to them long after I’ve closed them. This one sure is like a mother’s warm lap that cradles you and lulls you to sleep even through the worst of your nightmares. I know there are a few quotes that I am going to save for myself because they make complete sense to me and are so loaded with meaning.  

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves to read. It should be included in school syllabus too. This is not just a story book but a brilliant example of creative writing.

Jodi Picoult 

Once again thank you Bookelphia for sharing this book with me.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

A few years before my mom passed away she had a near death experience. I remember the day clearly like it was just yesterday. My mom was in hospital after a massive 4 hour long surgery with my brother and sister-in-law keeping vigil while dad and I were at home to catch some sleep. Somewhere around 3 in the morning my dad woke me up and said he wanted to go to the hospital. Groggy and tired, I persuaded him to go back to bed and promised that I’d go to the hospital as soon as the sun rose. As promised I went to the hospital at 6 am only to see an anxious brother and wife and frantic nurses running in and out of my mom’s room.

Things settled by around 9 and then the doctor told us that we were lucky to have my mom back because she had almost packed her bags and left. When we got to see her an hour later, she seemed drained and we decided not to talk about the scare she gave us. It took her almost a month to come home and after that too she was not her usual self. One day while drinking tea with her, she suddenly said “its exactly like they tell you..you know!”

I looked at her wondering what she was talking about. Seeing my puzzled look, she carried on..”Its like you read in the books. There is a dark tunnel, at the end of which is a bright blinding light. I felt weightless; I was drawn to that light. I walked and walked and had almost reached the end....”! With that she stopped and I realised much to my horror that she was talking about death! She was talking about walking the tunnel - the so called bridge between life and death!!

Chocking I tried to make light of the conversation and said; ‘yeh ..maybe the power failed and you could not see the end! Good thing it did, cause you are here and we have an inverter at home.”

She then looked up at me with a sad smile and said; “the power didn’t fail. I just didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to leave without finishing my duties. I have to see you married and only then can I rest.”

That was about 15 years ago. We did speak about the incident and over time we learnt to joke about it, laugh about it and even add bits to it. However deep down I shuddered at the thought of her going. But with all things inevitable, my mom finally did walk through the tunnel never to come back five years ago and I still struggle to come to terms with it.

Reading the book ‘If I Stay’ by Gayle Forman I went back to that day and time. This is a book about a young girl Mia Hall, whose hangs between life and death after a terrible car crash which kills her parents and younger brother. Suspended in this between life, she has to make a choice...to stay or to leave!

She follows her body from the accident site to the hospital and watches doctors, nurses, her family, friends and the love of her life hustle around her doing what they have to do to bring her back. But will she??

The book has also been adapted into a movie by the same name. Its been directed by R. J. Cutler and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Stacy Keach and Aisha Hinds...but I believe movies don’t do justice to the range of emotions, thoughts, imagination that a book can give. 

I’d recommend reading this book... if only to give a thought to appreciate what you have in life and what you would do if you lost it in an instant.

Thank you Bookelphia for sourcing and lending this book to me.