My Chemical Romance

I don't know many contemporary musical groups.  I don't even know if My Chemical Romance is still a popular musical group!  But to someone who wears Judy Garland t-shirts, MCR is very modern!  Actually no, I see they broke up a long time ago!  Oh well!  Regardless, I really liked their songs I'm Not Okay (I Promise) and Helena.
Every time I see the title of We Are Okay I think of I'm Not Okay (I Promise). Because Marin isn't really okay.  She is trying to be okay.  She is doing a good job of getting to be okay.
Marin is pronounced like the county in California, not Mar-IN.
I have read a few books by Nina LaCour and enjoyed them very much so I had super high expectations for this one but it just didn't quite do it for me.  I think that I thought that the big, terrible thing that happened to Marin would be more big and terrible (isn't that terrible of me).  But wouldn't that have just been Printz bait?   So I shouldn't be really disappointed that the big and terrible thing didn't seem too too big and terrible?  Of course, the big and terrible thing in the book wasn't happening to me!  Maybe if it did, I would see it differently!  Still, I didn't get sucked in as far as I wanted to be.  But I did love Marin and Mabel. And I absolutely, positively LOVED the ending.  

YOLO

I am not big on # and I am not good with the cool and hip and now sayings.  I think "YOLO" is an old cool and hip and now saying, as this book was published in 2014, when it was hip and now and cool.  But still, I wasn't big on using YOLO then.  Still, this book, YOLO,  was just as good as the other Internet Girls books, which I really, really enjoyed because it wasn't dated, even though it could have been, given its heavy reliance on technology.  The girls have gone off to college.  Maddie is at UCSC.  Zoe is at Kenyon and her boyfriend Doug is also at a school in Ohio, Oberlin.  Angela is at the University of Georgia.  Lauren Myracle is one of my most favorite authors. She just is.  Angela decides to go the way of the Greek.  So there is that angle.  There is a lot in here that kids face when they start college:  hard classes, roommate trouble, choosing a major, long distance relationships (friends and romantic), family rules, drinking, bi-curious kissing, date rape.  And it is all addressed very well, I think.  I know I am officially old when I saw I wouldn't want to go back to that time in my life.  Not that I think things are harder today.  As I have said, some things are harder and some things are easier, but human nature remains that same.  It's just that every part of life has it's own struggles and I guess those are not ones I would like to relive!

Sometimes

you need A Little Something Different.  This was a sweet little story told from many POVs about two college kids who are meant for each other and everyone, even squirrels in the park and the park benches themselves know it, but the two kids.  Very different and very sweet.