June Wrap-Up and July TBR

Hey there! Let's do this thing, shall we? :)

Today is the first day of July, which is kind of ridiculous, not going to lie. It'll be a bit rough to read all of these books because I will be away for two weeks, but I will try to read as many of them as possible. I'm really looking forward to trying! And to camp :)

I hope you follow me along on this journey, maybe read along, and please recommend books if you want to.

June Wrap Up

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

One Sentence Summary: Cady's amnesia haunts her when she returns to her family's island for the first time since a mysterious accident she can't remember, her memory comes back in flashes culminating in a spectacular surprise ending.

Rating: 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Haunting; 2) Life-Changing; 3) Gorgeous; 4) Dark; 5) Sweet.

Full Review: Click HERE.

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

One Sentence Summary: Uprooted because of her mother's new marriage, Willa finds herself in California involuntarily pulled into the mess that is the Hollywood Killer.

Rating: 4.5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Dramatic; 2) Intense; 3) Complex (there are multiple story lines); 4) Dark (like, super dark. Not as dark as We Were Liars, but still); 5) Entertaining.

Full Review: HERE.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

One Sentence Summary: Greg finds out a girl he had a terrible friendship/relationship with has leukemia, and he has to give up his plan to avoid making any friends to get his mother off his back and to give her a friend, as long as he can.

Rating: 1.5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Funny (kind of); 2) Entertaining (Sometimes); 3) A light read; 4) Pointless; 5) Okay (kind of).

Full Review: Click HERE.

I didn't get to pick up Jackaby, so hopefully I'll be able to read it soon! I did listen to When, which I will review pretty soon.

July TBR

The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch) by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio

What It's About: This is a book about leadership for women, aiming at helping female leaders be effective in their jobs without coming across as bitches. Because in today's day and age, female leaders are often called bossy or bitchy when we are in fact doing the exact same thing that men do.

Why I Picked It: I just got back from leadership camp, and am really excited to really learn how to get better at leading because I have been called a bitch in the past.

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

What It's About: Lane used to live a normal life, and then he got TB. Which means he ended up living in a place called Latham House, part hospital and part boarding school, and there he reconnects with a girl he used to know named Sadie, who has changed in these circumstances.

Why I Picked It: I absolutely loved her first book, so I just had to run out and get this one! She's quickly become one of my favorite authors, like 100%. :) I know I'm going to love it.

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

What It's About: Clay ran out of options in his field, and so finds himself working in- you guessed it- a bookstore. But this is a bookstore and a library, one of twelve of its kind, where the customers are bibliophilic, card carrying (literally) members of this mysterious club of people who crack codes in books so old they have no ISBNs and can't be googled.

Why I Chose It: See above.

Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy

What it's About: Darren's parents divorced and his brother moved out to attend college, and so his year sucked. So when his dad shows up with ground breaking news, Darren skips school and visits his brother. His journey is told entirely in lists, and is 646 pages long.

Why I Picked It: I'm really interested to see how the author used this method of storytelling. I'm also really interested in how he uses romance in conjunction with the more serious topics of divorce and change.

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Thanks guys, hope this next month kicks butt!!!

Peace out broscouts,

R 

xoxo

Book Haul: June Trip to Barnes and Noble

Hey there! How are you doing? I'm lovely, thanks for asking! Just got back from camp, and am jumping back into the swing of things. I went to Barnes and Noble today because there were a few books I needed to pick up and a few I really wanted. So let's get into this!

Summer Reading (Required)

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
I am required to read this for AP Lit. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm really excited to, you know, finish it. Because it's required. (Kidding, kind of).

Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
This is required reading for my Brit Lit 1 class, which is one of my electives this year. I love Shakespeare and I love the teacher who is teaching it, aka my AP Lang teacher, so I'm really excited for that class and learning more about Billy S.

Summer Reading (For Fun)

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
As someone who just got over pneumonia, I am so excited about this. At 17, poor Lane is diagnosed with an incurable strain of TB. He is sent to Latham House, which is "part hospital and part boarding school" and there he runs into a girl he used to know who has transformed. The book alternates points of view, and I'm excited considering her last book was so spectacular.

Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy
This whole book is written in lists. Darren's parents divorce, his best friend moves away, and his year is really sucky in general. So when his dad shows up with news that turns Darren's world upside down, he skips school and goes out to his best friend's new school. I'm excited to see how the unconventional way of writing works out, and also I'm excited to see how this story turns out. I hope it's not like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Basically: College baseball team thrown a curveball. That's pretty much all there is to know.

The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch) by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio
Following my experience at drum major camp and the leadership weekend I attended prior, I wanted to focus in on this because of events that have transpired.

That's all the books I bought :)

Peace bros

Robin

REVIEW: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Meet Greg Gaines, amateur film-maker and professional social floater. In Benson High, the top of the popularity food chain isn't the Jocks or the Preppy Kids or the Pretty Girls, but rather not a social group at all. There's a black hole there, instead. There are cliques, all competing for that top spot but failing. Greg made it his goal to be in with all of the groups, and still not hated by anyone. As in, he made it his goal to have no friends and no enemies and basically be invisible. First Exception: Earl. Greg and Earl weren't friends-- they were coworkers. They'd been making amateur films since they watched Aguirre, The Wrath of God and decided to recreate it. And then there's Rachel, aka the Dying Girl (not that they actually call her that in the book. They just call her Rachel or Kushner) who just got diagnosed with leukemia and Greg's mom decided that the Good Thing to Do (in her eyes, the Only Thing to Do) was for Greg to be her friend. Then there was the films, which were secret until Greg's mom told Rachel, who understood that Greg wanted them to be secret, but who Earl showed them to.

I'm not sure where to start with this book, to be honest. And there's a lot I want to say, and I'm going to have to try really hard to keep this spoiler free. I guess I'll start with what I liked.

Firstly, I really liked that this wasn't a love story, and Earl makes this very clear from the beginning. In YA Fiction today, love is usually a main part of the storyline. Which, don't get me wrong, I adore. Reading about love and relationships is one of the best ways to learn about those things, in my opinion. And hey, I'm in high school, and yeah, I think about love and relationships a lot. But I also think about other relationships too, like friendship. And this book is about a 17 year old guy realizing what friendship is in the least cheesy way possible. So that's a good thing to have in the world.

Another thing I really liked about this book is one of the more debated features: the unorthodox storytelling techniques. Often times there are parts formatted as a script, which, given Greg and Earl's "job," is totally fitting in my opinion. The lists didn't bother me either, but rather were a nice break from the normal form of storytelling. This is a bit controversial, and I can understand why because it can distract from the story, but it suits the story and is entertaining.

What else? What else did I like? And I actually have to think about it for a minute, which says a lot.

The humor is constant, and had me laughing sometimes, but I found that it was too reliant on crude humor. I couldn't take the book seriously, because the humor relied on cusses and inappropriate references and honestly was mostly inane. Sure, it was entertaining but the jokes were there for the purpose of being jokes, not in conjunction with a story. The book started slow, never picked up, and, to be honest, nothing really happened. The story dragged and there were some times in the book that I honestly just skipped pages and pages because they neither forwarded the story nor served any other purpose other than to be funny.

That took an interesting turn. But hey, as long as we're here. Greg was annoying, and I understood why Andrews wrote him as self-depricating and yes, it was entertaining, but he never went through any character growth and it wasn't endearing the way I think it was intended to be. His "modesty" wasn't modesty but depression. Well, depressing.

Earl... he was a good character, and he was really real, but I couldn't handle him. I liked him, sure, but I think that for the most part I couldn't handle the contradictions in his character. He was at both times more mature than Greg and a better person than Greg and more immature and crass than Greg. His character was ambitious, but in the end I think he was really ineffective. I understand that Greg is who he is, but I can't help but wish he'd handled Rachel the way Earl did. It would have been more characteristic.

I finished the book, but it was kind of exactly what I expected. I thought I'd really like this book, but in all honesty I only finished because I was too far in to not, and Rachel was a good character. Andrews has promise, and the premise was good, but there was no character development, there was a lot of honesty in the book but none of it was honesty that actually mattered, and the main character was kind of extremely unlikable sometimes. Andrews relied far too heavily on Greg's honesty about sex and swears to have really made a mark as an author. I can understand using these to benefit the story, but with Andrews it comes across as amateur and immature.

Sure, I enjoyed the book well enough. But I won't read it again. I haven't decided yet, but I do kind of regret spending the time I wasted today reading this book instead of something I'd actually have enjoyed. In my mind, books worth reading stick with you. When I finished We Were Liars, I couldn't pick up another book for a day and I waited to watch Netflix for a few hours because I was still trying to comprehend the book. With this book, I was already thinking about what book I'd read next while reading it.

There's a lot to say that includes spoilers, so I'm going to do all of my ending stuff and then write the spoiler-y stuff.

Rating: 1.5/5 (AT MOST a 2)
Would I Recommend It: Maybe
To: Someone looking for something to read quickly and without having to think about it at all.
If You Liked...
uhm... a funny book. Honestly I'm just excited to write the shitty part of the review.

My Playlist for This Book:
I'm drawing a blank for this...
Seriously I'm trying, but any good songs would be totally soiled by being associated with this book.
Plus there isn't exactly a plot for this book. The book's entire plot could be condensed to a page.

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, Barnes and Nobles here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
Find it on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Find the author's (entirely unhelpful) website here (not holding that against him. If you want to actually read anything from him on social media, try Facebook) and a positive review of it here, because a lot of people disagree with me. Which is not unprecedented.

Okay, if this is where you leave us... Au revoir!

WARNING MAD SPOILERS ABOUT TO FOLLOW. ALSO RANTINESS. AND SWEARS. LOTS OF SWEARS.

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Okay. Last warning...

READY GO.

Oh my god the most annoying thing is how terribly some of this is written. Because calling the book you're writing and expecting the reader to get through "stupid" and treating it like it's shitty (which, let's be fair, it kind of is) is just stupid. It's not an effective writing technique by any means. And let me just say: not explaining WHY he's writing the book if he thinks it sucks so much and if he hates writing it so much until the effing EPILOGUE... that's a stupid tactic. And all of his self-deprication and his putting down the book he's writing doesn't actually achieve his goal of appealing to a college office worker. And like, lets be honest, talking about the time you thought you got high after sneaking some of your teacher's soup isn't exactly the best way to appeal about this. Plus talking about boobs and swearing and talking about sex and drugs is obviously not something you would do if writing to a college. Basically, it comes off like Andrews realized that Greg didn't actually have a reason for writing the book and threw it in at the last minute.

And the character development-- or should I say lack thereof, because Greg didn't effing change through the whole effing book. When Rachel caught pneumonia on top of her leukemia, Greg finally realized how little he knew about Rachel and how poorly the movie he made for her captured her. But even then he just cried like a baby then regretted it then quit movie making. Fucking just pick your sorry ass off the ground and just become a better person.

One of my biggest biggest biggest pet peeves in books is when the author doesn't write the main character as the age he or she is said to be. It's why I couldn't like Geek Girl. Greg is 17, and so am I, and he's literally so naive that I found myself just thinking that he sounded more like a freshman. Plus the fact that, according to Earl, Rachel's death was the only bad thing that happened to Greg. Fuck that, everyone has something bad happen to them before they turn 17. Come on, use logic.

I'd understand better if this wasn't published why the purpose of the book wasn't revealed until the epilogue. My big freaking problem here is that it really reads like a book the author didn't want to write. So I guess Andrews succeeded in making it clear that Greg didn't want to write it. Pretty fucking obvious.

Rachel. The saving grace of the book, and it turns out "we didn't even know her" because we didn't know everything about her. Maybe if Greg had shut the fuck up and stopped saying inane fucking things that in real life aren't fucking funny we would have gotten to fucking know her.

THERE IS NO PLOT. This is the story you tell at a dinner party when people ask about your high school experience, not the one you tell to impress someone, especially not this way that makes you sound like a fucking asshole. Greg doesn't understand regular human emotions because only selfish idiots can't understand death until they're 18. Like fucking realize there's someone else other than just fucking you, because come on, I understand that your mom forcing you to hang out with someone sucks but grow a pair and realize she fucking needs someone right now. Stop being a fucking pansy, stop being so self-absorbed and actually BE A GOOD PERSON.

It's not that fucking hard to be a good person.

I'm done.

Just wait till I've seen the movie...

peace
(again)

R


(sorry about the swears and negativity, I was just really disappointed)

REVIEW: Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

SUMMER BOOK SERIES: Pool Perfect Picks

It's bad enough that Willa's dad died, and it's bad enough that following that she started having headaches and delusions and hallucinations. And it was bad enough when her mom married Jonathan, a famous Hollywood director who lives in a deceased starlet's old mansion. But when these visions and headaches and hallucinations don't go away in LA, but rather worse... Well, that was bad enough. Add in a serial killer recreating famous death scenes from famous movies, posing his victims and leaving them to be found. And of course, one of the two people she befriends knows everything there is to know about the Hollywood Killer. And suddenly she realizes: her supernatural experiences are just a bit too similar to some of the notes in his research.


Part thriller and part YA novel, this book was ridiculously entertaining and extremely well crafted. Willa's character development was believable and well-timed, and I found her relationships really relatable. Alender has a knack of describing supernatural events without making them seem impossible, a feat helped by Willa's recognition that what she's experiencing is entirely unique to her. Her struggle with figuring out whether or not she should tell her mom reveals more about their mother-daughter dynamic than a lot of the book. Her suspicion of Jonathan and his relationship with her mom sets up a lot of tension in the house, which only helps to move the plot along.

Even though I didn't particularly like her, which I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to, Marnie was a dynamic character. Flawed, yes, and hard to relate to, but she wasn't unrecognizable. I really liked her as a character, even though sometimes I felt myself rolling her eyes at her (which was quite clearly Alender's goal, so suffice to say Mission Accomplished.) But she played an important part in the story and in Willa's evolution, and in the end she's a character I'll remember.

A lot of Willa's character is defined by her interactions with Reed and with Wyatt. As Reed, Jonathan's assistant, remarked, Willa thinks more than she speaks. Her reluctance to express negative emotions, especially anger, and the way she and Wyatt become friends.

The last part of the book is extremely suspenseful, and I loved it. That being said, before page 100 I had pegged the killer and I was right-- I have a note in my phone to prove it. Which is kind of sucky, but I loved reading it anyways, and was totally enthralled despite seeing exactly where it was going. And that being said, I've seen far too many crime dramas to be considered a novice at guessing plot lines. This book was still extremely entertaining, and made for a perfect beach read :)


Rating: 4.5/5
Would I Recommend It: Yes :)
To: Anyone into the supernatural who enjoys YA fiction.
If You Liked...
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

My Playlist for the Book:
"Blinded" by the Bots
"Happy Together" by Filter
"Any Other Heart" by Go Radio
(for an extended playlist, click the link!)

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
Find it on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Find the author's website here, and a trailer for this book that I thought was pretty entertaining here.

FUN FACT: last night I had a dream about being in a book store, and I found a book titled "Famous Last Words" that was just a complete book of a bunch of people's famous last words.

This is one hundred percent a perfect beach read, not girly or light but so entertaining!!!!

Peace out girl scouts!

R
xoxo

Aspiring Writer vs Aspiring Author

Hey there!

If you read my recent update, you'll know that I'm writing a ton. Working on a novel, which I am now 30,000 words into! And most of you probably don't know that I've actually already finished a book called Epiphany about time travel. I love writing, if that wasn't already clear.

After I finish the first draft of this novel, I'm going to print it out and lock it in a drawer and leave it there for the rest of the summer. I'm going to pull Epiphany off my old computer and edit the hell out of it. And then I'm going to put Epiphany back in that drawer. Because the more time I spend with a book I'm working on, the less good I think it is. Which is probably good for the endgame, but kind of sucks in the moment. And then I'm going to start on a third novel that I'm really excited to write.

What I want to address is something I realized while I was searching Pinterest during breakfast this morning. I found an info graphic about novel writing that I feel like I need to address.

The writing process seems to focus on the fact that it's going to be hard, what you write is probably going to be bad and other people are going to quote "crap on it" and it's so negative. Because novel writing isn't about writing a perfect book but rather writing the book you want to. The editing process is how you refine it, make it better.

But then it became clear to me why I couldn't for the life of me relate to this graphic. The next part is about getting published, and how to either get published through a publishing house or by self-publishing. I'd like to address the latter first, and then the former. Self-publishing, as described by this info graphic is basically try, and then fail, and then give up and say whatever, publish it on Amazon as an eBook, realize there are typos and give up. Because you didn't take the time to edit it, because you didn't care about it. Because somewhere along the way getting published became more important than the book.

Now for the other side... Up through 6, it's accurate. It's a hard, road to get accepted. Agents are hard to come by, and who can blame them when they have to read so many terrible novels to find the good ones. But then it takes this terrible turn; it honestly just pisses me off that an info graphic targeting writers is so cynical and, quite frankly, naive. There is no way to really explain how ridiculous it is. yes it's true you don't get to pick your book cover, and a lot of times the title is changed, but come on, they know better than you do what will be successful. And they don't change everything about your book to make it sell better, unless all you're worrying about is making money. That's not being a writer, though. That's being a manufactured author.

And then I realized that this info graphic isn't for people who want to be writers but who want to make money as authors.

Author: a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.;the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.

as opposed to...

Writer: a person engaged in writing books, articles,stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.

But that's just how dictionary.com defines them. To me, an author is someone who is published, whose book has gone through the whole process and is now for sale. A writer is someone who is writing to say something, to write the book you want to. I think all authors would be writers, but not all writers would be authors.

But some authors aren't writers, they're authors by trade, writing what they know will sell. For right now, I'm content being a writer. But I think it's important to know the difference.

Peace out girl scouts,

R

REVIEW: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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SUMMER BOOK SERIES: Rainy-Day Reads

Cadence, aka Cady, is a Sinclair, which means everything. A perfect family with a pristine record as far as outsiders are concerned. But beneath all that flawlessness are secrets darker than the waters surrounding the illusive island they spend every summer on. Four houses, one for Grandfather and one for each daughter and her family. The only thing the daughters seem to be lacking are husbands, and also the common sense to know when enough is enough. While it's hard to discuss the plot without ruining the mystery of this book, without spoiling it, so let me just give you the most general synopsis ever: in summer 15 (when the Liars- Cady, Johnny, Mirren, the three Sinclairs of the same age, and Gat, who was the nephew of a Sinclair Sister's boyfriend), some terrible, terrifying tragedy left Cadence with total amnesia of that summer. All she does remember has been told to her, and now that she's back for her 17th summer, she has to discover for herself what her conscious tried to hard to make her forget.

This book draws a lot of mixed reviews, which isn't really all that surprising. The writing of the book is... different, to say the least, really. The problem a lot of people have is that it sounds kind of pretentious, and the story follows a rich family, which can rub people the wrong way. What really bothers me are the reviews that make it really clear the person just read the book wrong, which is kind of terrible. Because if read wrong, it might sound like the character is praising the exclusivity of being a Sinclair, as if she is proud of the fantasy they've built. But it's just not the case, at all really. She knows better, she know that there's a darkness to the family, this ignorance they paid for. If someone tells you they don't like the book because of the writing style, I'd say you should really give it a chance.

To say that I love this book is an understatement, and all of the bad reviews confuse me. Yes, it's the kind of book that has polar reactions; if the writing style bothers you, you won't understand Cadence, and if you understand the amnesia wrong, you might be fooled into thinking the story relies on the amnesia. The strings of the book just tie together in this unusual and somewhat alarming way, and the skill with which E. Lockhart accomplished this is kind of... indescribably amazing. It's hard to describe this book more without spoilers; it's the kind of thing you have to discover for yourself. When I put this book down, I couldn't stop thinking about it and I will be picking it up again to read, probably sooner that usual.

I'm thinking of making a video or writing another post sometime soon to discuss the book in more detail, with spoilers, assuming that those watching have already read it. If anyone's reading this blog, let me know if you're interested.

I'm not sure there's much more I can say to make you want to read this, but let me just say that this is one of the best books I've read in a while, and I'm still thinking about it days later.

Rating: 5/5
Would I Recommend: Eff yes.
To... Literally every single person ever.
If You Liked...
Literally any book ever.

My Playlist for This Book:
"Ulay Oh" by How I Became the Bomb
"Eden" by Sara Barielles
"Basket Case" by Sara Barielles
"This Love" by Taylor Swift
"In The Mourning" by Paramore

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
Find this book on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Click here to visit the author's website, and here to read an interview about the book.



Peace out girl scouts :)

R

10 Day June Update/Volunteering News

Hey there! This post is coming at you in two parts, my June update as far as my TBR is going and then an update about how my volunteering at my local library has been going.

Part 1: 10 Day June TBR Update

So ten days into June (I know, already! That's crazy) and I have yet to read a significant amount of any book. I know, I'm terrible. I'm currently working really hard at reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and I'm absolutely loving it, however I'm struggling to really get the reading time in that I usually would because 1) I have pneumonia (no but like seriously, I went to the doctor) and 2) I've been writing a TON. And by a ton I mean that in the last week and a half I wrote over 25,000 words of a book I'm currently working on! It's kind of a Sarah Dessen-esque idea, but I'm confident it's definitely me, not an imitation.

What I've found with the E. Lockhart book is that, even though it's short, it's taking me a while to get through. I'm determined to get through it before the end of the week, though, because in ten days I'm off to marching band camp and won't really have time to read, unfortunately. I want to have the E. Lockhart book and Famous Last Words by Katie Alender by the time I leave, which would leave Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Jackaby for during that week and after. I'd really like to get one of those down before I leave too but I haven't been reading much unfortunately.

And that's where the library comes in!

Part 2: Volunteering/Library News

As you may know, I volunteer once a week at my local library for two hours every Tuesday. I just thought I'd brag a bit about my success because well I'm proud.

My volunteering is in the youth/young adult section, which is to say that I spend a lot of time in the basement where the youth books are housed and sometimes venture upstairs. Since volunteering at the library, my tasks have kind of trended along three different paths:

1) Doing the things no one wants to that need to get done but are below the actual employee's pay grade.

Examples of this include such fun things as wiping down the computers with alcohol wipes, taking apart/sorting/putting away the legos, labeling things like cabinets or bins of craft supplies, or looking through the pop up books to find the broken pieces.

2) Things that are super easy but also totally fun

Examples of this include organizing the puppet closet (which I've done twice now), hanging up art work from the local elementary and middle schools, or putting labels on books (which is actually like really easy and not as boring as it sounds.)

3) Things that the librarians probably should be doing but is easy enough for a responsible volunteer to do (AKA me).

There were two projects this year that I've gotten to contribute to that made me feel like a librarian. One of them finally came to fruition this week as the summer lists from the library got released this week. My job, as assigned by the lead librarian in the youth section, was to pull 20-40 books for babies or toddlers under two to be put onto one of the lists, which I did over two or three weeks. I then also used the library's catalogue to enter information about all of the books I chose so that it would be easier to make the actual list. I'm super proud that I made that list :)

The other big project they let me help with was this year's booklist of recommendations for the middle school; every year the library puts together a list of 15-20 books that they recommend and then go present to English classes at our two local middle schools. The list goes out at the end of the year as a kind of reminder to students to read over the summer. My job was first to format the stickers we put in the back of the book recommending similar titles (another subtle hint to get students to keep reading), and then I went through the catalogue and pulled all of the books and listed which were checked out. I then (you guessed it) stuck the labels in the books I did have, and put stickers on the spine to indicate that they were on the list. Super fun!

The other thing that I did have to do that made me feel pretty awesome was check books into storage, which meant I got to sit at the front desk. Although it did make for many an awkward moment when people would think I was like an actual librarian and had any clue where anything was, which I totally completely didn't and don't.

Anyways.

Back to reading and keeping track of that: yesterday while volunteering I signed up for the young adult summer reading project. If I read fifteen minutes on a day, I get to check off a circle for that day, and then every time I go in with more than one marked off I win a prize. When I signed up with my volunteer coordinator, he asked if I'd read for two days and I said yes (because I had) and I won a small prize, which I redeemed for a string of fairy lights.

Anyways, that's just what's going on with me right now :)

Peace out friends :)

R

REVIEW The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Scheider

Ezra Faulkner had the life of "those kids": he was a tennis star, he had the hottest girl in the grade, Charlotte, and was all set up to be Homecoming King in his senior year. Then at a party the week before prom, he catches his girlfriend with someone who is definitely not him,  and when he storms out and pulls his car off the curb, he's in a crippling car accident. With his knee shattered, and the realization that his friends suck after they don't even bother to visit him in the hospital, Ezra's left wondering who he is now that he can't play sports anymore. Enter Cassidy Thorpe and his childhood friend Toby, and suddenly his life is different entirely.

This book deals mainly with the themes of tragedy, of the idea of death and its consequences, and the idea of identity. Similar to how "Paper Towns" addressed the idea of imagining someone complexly, this novel addresses the idea of who we are verses how we let people perceive us. This is definitely one reason I loved this book, because it addressed the trope of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in a unique way. The development of their relationship was honest and really well done. All in all, it was it really hard to find any fault in this book. I loved the intricacies and the beautiful way it's all interwoven.

What I appreciate about this book is that the focus of the book isn't the romantic storyline. One thing that I try to avoid in teen fiction is when the main storyline of the book is the romance-- maybe that was the root problem of "Love and Other Theories" and that's why I didn't like it. So the fact that this book uses romance to advance the other stories of the book- friendship, identity, loss- makes me really happy. This is one of those books you start reading and don't stop, that you think about after finishing it, that changes you. I will put this on my book shelf next to the books I'm in love with, and her second book came out really recently and as soon as my pneumonia clears up (because yes, I do have pneumonia) I plan on going out to go get it.

Ezra Faulkner is such a real character, the kind of effortlessly real and raw that only skilled writers can accomplish. Schneider, with all of her characters actually, didn't have to rely on quirks to make her characters relatable. I think the best way to illustrate this is a character similar to Kate Hattemer's in "The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy" (see review here) who relies on quirks and idiosyncrasies to build her character and while that makes her character entertaining and endearing, it also makes him less real. That's not to say that Ethan from "Selwyn" is a lesser character, it just goes to show what a difference simplicity and a deep back story can do; Ethan's purpose in "Selwyn" is different than Ezra's and that's why he still works. Ezra however, is so real, and his story just makes him more complex.

Cassidy Thorpe is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and let me just say that I love her. I absolutely love her. And I mean, I probably shouldn't love her as much as I do, but I do. Because unfortunately I see myself in her, which is probably not for the best.

Basically it just comes down to this: I loved this book. I loved it so well, and it is so well written. Long story short, you should read it. Like now.

("Severed Heads, Broken Hearts" is the title of the book in other countries)

Rating: 5/5
Would I Recommend: Yes!
To: Any high schooler
If You Liked...
"Paper Towns" by John Green
"Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell
Literally any YA Fiction book ever

My Playlist for This Book:
"Mr. Right" by A Rocket to the Moon
"Trouble" by American Authors
"Heart Out" by The 1975
"She Don't Love You" by Eric Paslay

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, on Barnes and Noble here, on Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
See this book on Goodreads here and on Shelfari here.
See a review of this book from the Guardian here and see the author's website here.

Love you

R

REVIEW Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Aubrey knows better than to believe high school love lasts. She knows better than to be one of those girls who believe that their boyfriend is going to be hers longer than just a minute. No-- Aubrey and her friend (Shelby, Danica, and Melissa) are evolved. They know that they can't expect a boy to settle, so they settle for having as much fun as they can for the time they do get. No hurt feelings when someone changes their mind, no regrets. But then Nathan Diggs moves to town and shakes up Aubrey's life and makes her question the theories that she used to swear by after Shelby came up them.


I was really excited to read this book. It's so rare to read a book from the perspective of the popular kids, the cool kids, the kids who suck face instead of reading about blood suckers. And I really hoped this wasn't going to be one of those books, those books the author writes that indulges them instead of really saying something. But it really was.

Don't get me wrong, this book was definitely enjoyable, but Aubrey's character is forgettable and instead what I remember are the raunchy details and how I complained to my friend about how mean these girls were. The way they treated their ex-friend whose past transgressions led to the theories is an abomination. It's so much girl-on-girl-hating that I can't believe no one said anything. I can't believe anyone stood by and watched them destroyed this girl when her only mistake was giving a guy she liked her phone number.

Sure, Nathan Diggs was a good character, but in the end he was the only one who I liked. I know characters, just like real people, can't be perfect, but all the other characters, while flawed, were so unrealistically ignorant of their shortcomings and of their mistakes. Shelby, a character I wasn't sure if I was supposed to love or hate, was the only real character in the book, and even then her "indescribable beauty" and other flawless aspects, while possibly intended to draw a comparison between what's outside and what's within or between being flawless or being flawed, with Bass's unskilled writing were just combating each other and made Shelby unrelatable, making her as untouchable as the idea of a manic pixie dream girl.

I enjoyed the book all the same, but as a light read, something fun. I considered not finishing it, but I was interested to see how the only good part of this book-- the evolution of Nathan and Aubrey's relationship-- ended.

If there's one reason I would have put the book down, and I really did consider it, was that Aubrey kept referring to her and her friends as "evolved" and shaming other girls who she didn't think were. Other girls who were losing points for team girl, while she and her friends made out with whoever wanted them, scared of their feelings and instead just letting themselves be used and left and recycled. I wanted her to see sooner, I wanted her to realize her false sense of superiority that came from ideas stemming from insecurity and fear made her more vulnerable, more naive, and made her sound shallow and, to be quite honest, incredibly immature.

This would, however, be a really good guilty-pleasure read. If you just need something easy and raunchy, I'd say go for it-- through your local library.

Rating: 2/5
Would I Recommend: Yes, for a light read if you need a scandalous book to read, but no if you want something that's actually well written.
To... High schoolers exclusively. Maybe.
If You Liked...
"Pretty Little Liars" by Sara Shepard

My Playlist for this Book:
"Break Up With Him" by Old Dominion
"Sex" by The 1975
"Bang Bang" by Jessie J

Links:
Buy this book on Amazon here, Barnes and Noble here, Powell's here, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!!
Find it on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Read a negative review from Nosegraze here, or a more positive one from Midnight Book Girl here.

Peace out girl scouts :)

R

May Wrap-Up and June TBRs 2015

It's June tomorrow (which is crazy) so get pumped! This means tomorrow I will be switching from my May books to June books and thus I will be filling you in on how the last month went and how the next month looks. Of course, other books will be added as the month goes along, so these are just the books I for sure know I'll be reading this month (starting AFTER finals, naturally). I will rate all the books I read in May, and link more in-depth reviews that I've posted in case you're interested to read more! Feel free, as well, to comment any suggestions for this month! I'm really getting back into reading, and I'm glad to be able to share it with you :)

May Wrap-Up

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

One Sentence Summary: Geeky, British fifteen-year-old goes to a mall with her aspiring-model friend  but ends up getting discovered herself, but struggles with how to tell her conservative mother and how to handle telling her best friend.

Rating: 2/5

Five Word Review: 1) Immature (at times); 2) Entertaining; 3) Shallow (i.e. not too deep in themes); 4) Funny; 5) Empowering (would recommend to middle school girls).

Full Review HERE.

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

One Sentence Summary: Sydney grew up in the shadow of her charismatic older brother until his streak of reckless behavior ends with a true bang, sending him to prison and Sydney into a different school and a different group of friends to escape the whispers and the talk, but she can't avoid reality and she can't avoid her parents, who still see her brother more than her despite the fact he doesn't live in their house. (Yes, that was a run on, but it's still just one sentence and the story's too complex for a simple summary.)

Rating: 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Complex (in themes, storyline, and characters);

2) Honest; 3) Beautiful; 4) Relatable; 5) Captivating (I read it straight through)

Full Review HERE.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

One Sentence Summary: Told in alternating first and third person, this book tells war stories in fiction written like nonfiction set during Vietnam.

Rating: 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Intense (it's a war novel); 2) Revolutionary (in its writing); 3) Remarkable (it's no only well written it's ridiculously deep);

4) Witty; 5) Life-Changing

Full Review HERE.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

One Sentence Summary: Ezra Faulkner was a tennis star and the probable Homecoming King, until his leg was shattered in a car accident when he left a party (sober) after catching his girlfriend with... well, not him. Enter Cassidy Thorpe and his childhood best friend and the new Ezra.

Rating: an enthusiastic 5/5

Five Word Review: 1) Intelligent; 2) Gorgeous; 3) Intricate;

4) Tragic; 5) Relatable.

Full Review COMING SOON. (I just finished it today- it's incredible :) )

Love & Other Theories

One Sentence Summary: Aubrey knows better than to fall in love, because all boys are good for is indulgence and then moving on-- that's what the theories are for: avoiding heartbreak-- so when Nathan comes into her life, and the theories are tested, she wonders if she's been going about it all wrong.

Rating: 2/5

Five Word Review: 1) Shallow; 2) Entertaining; 3) Though-provoking (not in like a deep way but more like a huh, I never thought about it that way before way); 4) Funny; 5) Enjoyable

Full Review COMING SOON.

Notes From an Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dionne

Okay, so I started this book but I couldn't do it. I couldn't for the life of me force myself to read it. The story was probably fine, but the main character was so unforgivably whiny, I just couldn't take it. The sad thing is I totally would have enjoyed the story, I'm sure, and I'm bummed I can't read it and I hate that I can't but I just couldn't do it.

This book would probably be fine for a middle schooler to read, and I'm sure that it's just fine, but I couldn't forgive it.

This is a book people seem to either hate or love, but even as a self-confessed band nerd (I'm a drum major for goodness sake) I couldn't even get past the first chapter. The setting and feel is believable, but I couldn't get into it.

June TBR

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

What it's About: Cadence Sinclair Easton and her family all travel up to their beach house each summer on Cape Cod. This book works to uncover what she's trying her hardest to remember, through a painkiller haze and a sea of amnesia trying to remember exactly what happened two years ago in this place that used to be her escape.

Why I Picked It: Aside from having heard from like every book blogger that this is an amazing book, the premise of this book is so enticing and I can't wait to read this poolside.

Reviews of this book:

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

The Guardian

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender

What it's About: Willa is forced to move to LA with her mom when she remarries a famous director, all the way to a crazy beautiful villa that used to be owned by a famous movie star. But she starts seeing things, and there's a serial killer in the area recreating famous death scenes, and she can't help be morbidly fascinated.

Why I Picked It: The library that I volunteer for makes a list of books for the middle school each year at the end of the school year so students can find books to read over the summer. This was on the list and after working on projects related to the list (making stickers, pulling books, attaching stickers, organizing them into a display), I inevitably found a few that I wanted to read.

Reviews of this Book:

Reading Teen

Confessions of a Bookaholic

Kirkus

Side note on this book: I did check this out of the library at first, but I read the first chapter and I fell in love so I went and bought it. I'm waiting to read it until I can read it pool-side.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

What it's About: Greg went through high school being friendly but not making friends, other than his friend Earl. But his mother starts to encourage him to become friends with the girl in his class who's fighting leukemia.

Why I Picked It: It's become a movie, and before I see it I'd like to read the book. I'm also very interested in the premise but I'm also really apprehensive because I've heard that some of his narrative tools are contrived and lead to the book being ineffective, but I like when books use unconventional methods to tell a story (see: Guitar Girl by Sara Manning).

Reviews of this Book:

The Girly Geek

Kirkus

Jackaby by William Ritter

What it's About: Set in England in 1892, this story follows Abigail who is new in town and meets R.F. Jackaby, a detective with a miraculous ability to see incredible things, including supernatural beings. Her ability to see the details makes her the perfect assistant, and their first case? A serial killer

Why I Picked It: Well, it was on the list from the library. But one of the gorgeous librarians said what a few websites have said: it's like Sherlock meets Doctor Who. I'm so excited to read it.

Side note this cover? THE most gorgeous cover in like ever. I love it I love it I love it.

Reviews of this Book:

Publishers Weekly

Teenreads

These are the four I'm really jazzed to read this month, but I'm sure there will be more to come!

Feel free to read along with me and suggest books!

xoxo

R

REVIEW The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Set during the Vietnam war, author Tim O'Brien created this work of fiction that mimics nonfiction, telling stories about the war centering around characters in one group of soldiers. This book has been hailed as "a marvel of storytelling" and "a book that matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam, but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well," by the New York Times. With his ground-breaking approach to story-telling he tackles the complex issues of memory, war, story-telling, and truth in this novel that became an instant classic.

Yes, I was forced to read this for school, but this experience has been by far the most pleasant assigned reading experience I've ever had. My English teacher, for the record, is literally the bomb. Like, literally. And he's so spectacular at teaching in fact that I signed up for a class that only he teaches for next year. So the way it worked was that we had three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) to read the novel, and then that Friday we had a discussion. We did this for two weeks, and read- you guessed it- the first half of the book the first week and the second half the next.

Side note/fair warning: This is going to be a longer review than normal. #sorrynotsorry

The style of this book is that each chapter focuses on a story, or on an idea. Some chapters, let me just say, would also work really well as stand-alone stories (i.e. short stories) and these are my favorites. Specifically "On The Rainy River", "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong", "Speaking of Courage", and "In the Field". So, as I think these are also really representative of the book as a whole, I thought we could focus on them and discuss those.

On The Rainy River

It actually turns out that I had read this specific chapter in a classroom before in eighth grade, which I realized during in class reading. The topic of this chapter is that Tim O'Brien (yes, the author is also a character of the book), gets his draft card and ran away to the Rainy River in Minnesota, which separates the US from Canada. This chapter follows the time that he spends there with an old man, who keeps silent for the most part but O'Brien makes it clear that the man knew exactly what was going on.

This chapter explores one of the main themes of the book, bravery and cowardice. The interest thing about this book is the way O'Brien treats this theme, especially in this chapter in which he says that going to war makes him a coward and that he wasn't brave enough to go to Canada. The effect on this decision that the old man has is great and fantastic, and if you don't read the rest of the book this is an excellent stand-alone chapter. The following is the last few lines of the chapter and some of my favorites of the book.

"The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

This chapter tells the story of one of Rat Kiley's friends over in the station he was at before moving onto the front. Rat Kiley, a man in character-O'Brien's group is a skilled storyteller and this chapter explores the notion of story telling as well as exploring the idea of femininity verses masculinity. In the story, one of the men in his medical site flew his girl over to Vietnam. The girl then becomes involved in the war, honestly curious of how all the war stuff worked. She went form a naive 17 year old to an unrecognizable woman-of-the-land. Read this chapter, read this chapter, read this chapter, well read this whole book, but read this chapter specifically. Because it was glorious.

Speaking of Courage

One of the darker chapters of this book, this chapter addresses PTSD by following Norman through a part of one of his days. The incredible way that this chapter addresses the mental parts of it are actually really incredible. As someone who has PTSD I think this is a really accurate chapter about what it feels like to have it. I love this book, I love this chapter, and I would recommend as well reading the next chapter, "Notes", which addresses the previous chapter.

In The Field

In the field absolutely broke me. This chapter I don't want to go into too much because I feel like where it is in the book is perfect and if you chose to read this book, I don't want to ruin the flow of the book.

*                                                                             *                                                                    *

Though the book doesn't follow any solid storyline, the stories themselves are connected together by themes and ideas that in the end tie the narrative together. To be honest, I didn't really notice any lack of a storyline until now. That being said, it's not like I could have stopped reading HAD I noticed, because it was a school assignment, and my reading sessions were so focused that I didn't notice.

This book, in short, is literally flawless. Anyone who's read the book however will say that I skipped a big part of the book, like the most important part, but I think that's best for anyone who choses to read it to discover on their own.

Rating: 5/5

Would I Recommend: YES!

To: Mature readers and anyone who likes books about war or spectacular writing.

If You Liked...

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

My Playlist for This Book:

Well I don't really have one-- suggestions?

Links:
Buy here through Amazon, here through Barnes and Nobel, or be a boss and Buy Independent!!! :)
See this book on Goodreads here and Shelfari here.
Read the NY Times review here.

Peace out friends :)

R