India

I don't know much about India.  All I really know is from Mother Teresa and the Indians who live here in the US that I know.  Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity was eye-opening and heart-breaking.  Katherine Boo came to Pittsburgh and I didn't see her but my friends did.  The title refers to a billboard that hides Annawadi and reminded me of the ways in which Chicago's housing projects were hidden from view from the parkway.  I had read that in There Are No Children Here:  the Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America and it has haunted me ever since.  Annawadi is referred to as a slum of Mumbai everywhere online but here in the book's title is it called an "undercity" and while I can figure out what that means, I can't seem to find a formal definition or history of the word.
I think this is a very good book and certainly, Boo is an esteemed writer.  For me I had a hard time paying attention at times and I am not sure why.  I do love this kind of nonfiction, not being an intellectual, I love the nonfiction that reads like fiction and this does, but I don't know.  I will certainly recommend this book, and I am glad I read it but it was not read that I read thinking, "I can't wait to get back to the book," but rather "I will be glad when I am done."

Generations

You Bring the Distant Near was a "fall into this book" kind of book.  Mitali Perkins just writes so well and it just sucked me in and brought me into a world very different from my own.  Not just because my family isn't from India but also because our family tradition is one:  We have no traditions.  So I have no sense of family in that way.  Beautiful and engrossing. 

Tough

Sold was a hard, hard and important book.  Lakshmi's innocence is painful in the face of the horrors to which she is subjected.  And it is a very real story, though this is a work of fiction.  And it isn't just in far-off countries where this happens.  It is right here.  What kind of people do these kinds of things?  Monsters.  That is all I can think. 

Save Me a Seat, Please!

Save Me a Seat was such a fresh book!  From the cover to the first page to the last.  I really, really enjoyed this book!
It is told from alternating POVs, Joe, an American born kid going to the same school he has always gone to, dealing with the same stuff he has always had to deal with, like his Auditory Processing Disorder and the bullying behavior of Dillon Samreen; Ravi, an Indian born kid who has just moved into Joe and Dillon's class and is having a hard time figuring out who he is in this new country.  Middle school is hard for everyone!
Both Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan do an incredible, evenly awesome job bringing their characters to life.  And also the bully character and the supporting characters.  Just so great and so real.  I need to read more Weeks books and Varadarajan needs to write some more!  Highly recommended!

Really Different and Eye-opening

Lovetorn was a Kindle App check out from the library, again. Once again, I had little clue about its subject and it was a joyful surprise. Shalini is sixteen and had never left India (she is from Bangalore) until her dad gets a two year job in LA. She is a traditional Indian girl from an Indian family that is even more traditional than most. She was engaged at the age of three to Vikram, a really sweet and decent dude. Her experiences adjusting to American culture seem to real and way more overwhelming than I could have handled at any age. This is a really different and neat-o book.

SPOILERS

Personally, I never, ever, ever would have given up Vikram. I mean, even the way he took it in the end...wow, I would never, ever have let that dude go!