The Stand-In

Finished May 19

The Stand-In by Lily Chu

This delightful novel has a lot going on, and I stayed up too late a few nights because I had trouble putting it down. The central character, Gracie Reed, is an only child struggling to pay for her mother's nursing home. She knows her mother's progression into dementia means that she will need more care and a better atmosphere, but she can't afford the home she is waitlisted on. 

Aside from that, she is also dealing with a toxic work atmosphere, where her pleasant and agreeable manner have her fending off increasingly forward advances from her boss Todd. It has got to the point where she has called in sick to work to meet with a lawyer about it. After the meeting with the lawyer, she stopped at one of her favourite coffee shops for a pick-me-up before heading home. At the coffee shop, she is photographed by an aggressive man who the store manager kicked out afterwards. 

She finds that her picture has been put online as that of Wei Fangli, a Chinese movie star. When Fangli approaches her with an interesting proposition, she is taken aback. Fangli wants her to be seen as Fangli for the next couple of months, while Fangli and her co-star Sam Yao star in a live theatre production in the city. Gracie would do all the non-theatre events and outings to let Fangli focus only on her work. She asks for some time to think about it, but the money is tempting. 

The next day she finds her mind is made up for her as Todd has seen the photograph and accuses her of calling in sick fraudulently and fires her. Gracie's best friend Anjali is upset that Gracie hadn't told her how bad Todd was, and understands that she needs a job, but thinks the deal with Fangli is a bad one. 

As Gracie begins her role as Fangli, she must deal with learning details about the star and her work, practicing mimicking the way she moves, and coming up with responses to expected media questions. On the plus side, she now has access to an incredible wardrobe, high-end cosmetics and skin-care, and is staying in a really nice hotel suite. She also deals with Fangli's assistant Mei, who does most of the training required.

Dealing with Sam Yao, who will be accompanying her on almost all her outings is more complex. They get off to a bad start, but gradually work out some ground rules that determine how they can get along. 

I liked the Toronto setting, with some of the details of the city coming into the story. I also really liked Gracie and could relate to her personality and her people-pleasing nature. It was also really fun to see the clothes and other luxurious things that entered her life from her viewpoint of awe and pleasure. I also liked the serious side of dealing with dementia. 

The other plotline was Gracie's love for list making, especially to-do lists. She has tried a few apps, and paper tools, but hasn't had any that really clicked for her. She decides to take the time she has to work on designing her own app, and some of the hints along the way looked really interesting. I also like lists, and haven't found an app that clicked, so enjoyed seeing this plot develop. 

The romance was nicely done, with a touch of enemies to friends to lovers, and a slow burn. A very enjoyable read. 

The Book That Changed My Life

Finished November 3
The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them edited by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen

This collection of short essays by a wide variety of writers on books that influenced them was put together by bookseller Roxanne Coady inspired by the numerous author events that she hosted as well as the Read to Grow Foundation that she is a co-founder of. At some point, all the authors included here have read their work at her bookstore R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut. All proceeds from this book go to the Read to Grow Foundation which works with hospitals so that every family with a newborn infant goes home with books, and a literacy packet to encourage early childhood development.
Many well-known authors are here as well as memoir writers, science writers, and history writers.
Many choices by the authors reach back into their childhood or teenage years, but others speak to a book that opened them to a new way of looking at things, a new subject, or a self-realization.
A good collection that includes a list of the books chosen as well as reading lists by both editors.

Bizarre Books

Finished December 10
Bizarre Books by Russell Ash and Brian Lake

This book has been sitting on my shelves for a while, and it was one of the books I'd challenged myself to read in my TBR Challenge this year.
It is essentially a book of lists, some more interesting than others.
There are 16 chapters and many of them have multiple lists.
The book begins with books with unintentional double entendre titles, one I found less interesting than others. Some titles were only here because words in the title had adopted new meanings since they had been published.
The second chapter lists extraordinary author names, and again I found this less interesting. It seems like making fun of people's names, not something I am comfortable with.
The third chapter was again around author names, this time in terms of how they related to the title of the book they'd written. An example is The Cypress Garden by Jane Arbor.
The fourth chapter is sheet music titles, and again a lot of these only sound funny to us now because of a change in time, many of them dating from the 19th century.
The fifth chapter was more interesting to me. It lists books that are extremely specific in the subject they cover. One that struck me was Busted Tractors and Rusty Knuckles: Norwegian Torque Wrench Techniques and Other Fine Points of Tractor Restoration.
The sixth chapter was along the same lines, but scientific in nature. Titles include ones such as The Diseases of Electrical Machinery.
The seventh chapter covers books on dirty topics, mostly around bodily functions, or dirt.
The eighth chapter covers odd books on plants and animals from Bean Spasms to Carnivorous Butterflies.
The ninth chapter covers medical titles, including some fiction titles that sound a bit odd. From The Romance of Proctology to Coma Arousal, these were sometimes amusing.
The tenth chapter included titles involving love, marriage, and sex. It includes titles such as Literature of Kissing and How Can I Get Married.
The eleventh chapter covers odd pastimes from How to Vamp Without Music to Original Tricks with Cigars.
The twelfth chapter covers odd-sounding fiction titles from We All Killed Grandma to The Fangs of Suet Pudding.
The thirteenth chapter covers titles that sound incredibly dull or unlikely such as Songs of a Chartered Accountant or I Was a Kamikaze.
The fourteenth chapter covers religious books such as My Invisible Friend Explains the Bible.
The fifteenth chapter covers publishing curiosities such as unusual bindings, strange dedications, and books that challenged the writer such having all the words begin with a particular letter of the alphabet.
The last chapter takes on odd books about death or beyond. Titles run from Reusing Old Graves to Do-it-Yourself Coffins.
I found the chapters from five on most interesting, and the book over-all mildly amusing.

Book of Lists

Finished January 27
To-Do List by Sasha Cagen
This book caught my attention when it arrived at the library. It is a collection of to-do lists including everyday shopping to romance and life goals. Cagen has drawn these lists from contributors all over the world, organized them into topical groups and annotated them with some contextual information.
I think it is interesting because it allows us to look into the lives of others, seeing things we would not normally see. Some entries are mundane, but some are very touching.
It is an interesting idea for a book.