Review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2012. 392 pp.
Rating: Worthy

Note: I started writing this review as soon as I finished reading the book on February 20, 2013. Although many years have passed, I'm leaving the review as I started it. I did complete the Lunar Chronicles Series, so that in itself is an indication of my relationship with this book.

Cinder is a science fiction rendering of Cinderella. Set in New Beijing after the fourth World War where gasoline cars are antiquated relics, hovercrafts are a means of transportation, money is exchanged through an ID chip embedded in one's wrist, and cyborgs are commonplace. The protagonist, Cinder, is a cyborg; a mix of human with a splash of machine. Ashamed of her mechanical parts, Cinder encases her arms in gloves at all times. Under the guise of gratitude for renewed life, cyborgs are being drafted as test subjects to discover a cure for Letumosis, the Blue Fever, which is ravaging New Beijing and other earthen colonies. Living under the constant threat of being condemned to plague research, Cinder works as a mechanic at the New Beijing weekly market suffering the enslavement and derision of her stepmother. 

Review: Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu by Monique Brinson

Monique Brinson Demery. New York: PublicAffairs, 2013. 280 pp.
Rating: Striking

"Vietnam wasn’t a country; it was a cacophony of thumping helicopter blades, flaming thatched huts, and napalmed jungles." (3)

In the vein of Truman Capote, Demery humanizes the often demonized First Lady of Vietnam, Madame Nhu. As the second daughter in a society where sons are esteemed, Tran Thi Le Xuan held the lowest status in her family. Her fortuitous fate as foretold by the family astrologer failed to garner the slightest attention. She was expected to live as the thousands of women before her—a life of domestic simplicity. Yet, her life changed dramatically upon marrying Ngo Digh Nhu. Gradually drawn into the very political intrigues she sought to escape upon marriage, Madame Nhu soon catapulted into the limelight of the Diem regime. Thrust into exile after the assassination of her husband and brother-in-law, Madame Nhu never again set foot in her beloved Vietnam.