Pretty Awesome!

In the Role of Brie Hutchens was not only great because our hero Brie watches All My Children (reruns, the book the set in current times, I am pretty sure) and she uses Bianca's coming out to Erica as an audition monologue, it is SO real and so faith-based and just lovely.  And real and fresh.

Prejudice

I had to acknowledge my bias before I read The Diary of a Hounslow Girl.  As I have stated many times, I am NOT a fan of off-putting Briticisms or what I perceive to be arrogance on the part of the British in general.  But this was worth reading despite of all of that, so I am glad that I gave it a chance.  I am so glad that I did.  Ambreen Razia has written a one-woman drama and wow, this is really, really good.  Very insightful and eye-opening and compelling.  No matter where it is set!  Haha!  I mean, I know it's setting is important, it's just that I was able to learn from it and enjoy it even though I am NOT a fan of the UK!  But I am working on it.

To be Honest...

I really couldn't assign any stars to To Be Honest, but it wasn't because I thought it deserved zero stars, it was just that I don't know how I feel about this book.
Let me just say that I KNOW David Levithan would burn this book!  I mean, the cover alone would make Levithan and Lagerfeld have heart attacks!  (Even though they are SUPER healthy and SUPER fit, I am sure!)
There is one thing that I didn't feel mixed about, that I just plain liked and appreciated, and that was Savannah's sister being gay but it not being a big deal!  Because love is love!  So that part was very cool.  Very cool.
But the weight issue was hard...
Admittedly, I have my weight issue.  I also feel it is very funny that NOW body acceptance is in, where was it when I was heavier!  hahah!  And I love that when I go to stores I see kids clothing in all sizes, that is just really neat.   And I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up that way.
But...
yes, there is always a but with me, huh?
I do think that the book is super tough on Savannah's mom.   I get Savannah's mom.  I do.  I am Savannah's mom, except I did the weight loss the "right" way, it taking nearly four years to lose 217 lbs.
This a very good piece.
I just don't know how I feel.  I really don't.  I think that this book is just a hard one for me. I would love to hear from others. 

Wait, Music is Your LIfe? Nuh Uh!

Summer Bird Blue is yet another story about someone who claims that "Music is my life!"
Right away I was turned off by that.  Because doesn't everyone claim that to be true, at one point or another?
But maybe that's the point.
Maybe that is claimed by so many characters in YA and tween fiction, to create any kind of interest at all. 
The main character, Rumi is SO very unlikable, well before her sister dies.  And the sisters are so ridiculous rude and mean to their mother, whom they readily admit is a good mom and nice to them.  It was interesting that Rumi was asexual, even if all it proved was that asexual people can be just as boring and unlikable those with other kinds of sexuality. 

'Scuse Me While I

Meet the Sky was sadly, not as memorable as I would have liked it to have been.  As I wish all books were!  As they all deserve to be, because an author pours out his or her heart on to the page and then puts it out there for all to see.  And so I wish I could remember the books that I read as they deserve to be remembered.  I am sure that others will remember this one.  It just didn't stick with me.
The Carolinas recently faced Hurricane Rita and so this was timely.  I love people who live in Charleston, SC and in Chapel Hill, NC who had to evacuate and so this was on my heart and mind as I read this book.  But still it didn't stick.  Or maybe what did stick was the relationship between the main character, Sophie and Finn.  I didn't like Sophie or Finn as much as I should have, I guess.  I also wish that McCall Hoyle had gone into more of Meredith's story.   I can recommend this book, but for me, it was a four star instead of a five.

Really, Really Good

When Elephants Fly is not an easy book.  It doesn't have a fairy tale ending either.  It is so well done.  There is a LOT going on here, but it is all so well, well done.  I know I read another book in which a mom who is mentally ill tries to kill her child...but I can't remember what it is.  And I need to find out!  Anyway, this was a very, very, very good read. 

Good Me, Bad Me was very good.  Very good and I would recommend it, for sure.  I sucked me right in and all along the way.  It is creepy and awful and real and horrifying.  The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that I was not surprised by the ending at all. But it was still really, really good. 

Iran

The Authentics was good.  Many thanks to Americanized again because now I do understand the Shah and recent Iranian history and all of that, much more.  So it was made it easier to get into the book.  The main character, Daria has a unique heritage but also her questions and feelings are universal.  Belonging, family, that kind of thing.  Good stuff. 

I Don't Know...

The Lost Girls of Camp Evermore might be a book that I will think about in a more positive way as time goes on.  For right now though, I feel it didn't live up to my expectations.  I think though, that it is because the publisher description was kinda off.  And since this is a story of five girls, there were stories that I enjoyed more than others.  I read about the book here.  I do think that this is for sure worth a read and I am going to read Kim Fu's other books. 

Are Hurricane Children a Thing?

I need to google that.  Hang on.  Not that I can see from a quick google.  But It is early/late and I am tired so I will look again another day. 
Hurricane Child was a beautiful book.  About all kinds of love.  It was a love story on so many levels.  Kheryn Callender is an author I need to learn more about because this book was beautiful. 

Nikki Grimes

Love her. 
Love all of her books.
Loved A Girl Named Mister. 
What a portrait of God's love and grace and kindness and people who try their best to live the way in in which He calls us. 
Thank you, Ms. Grimes. 

When Dad Killed Mom

was a really, really good book.  The title isn't as subtle as The Last to Let Go, sure, but it was really, really good.  TLTLG was good.  But I really had a hard time liking the main character.  It was easy to like her brother and her mom, and Dani.  Her sister wasn't a very big character.  I felt that we didn't get to know her that much. 

In a Short Story Collection

this year I was introduced to J.A. Jance.  For some reason I used to think that Jance was British and you know how I am about off-putting Briticisms, so I never gave her much thought.  The short story captured my interest though and so I thought I would try the first in the Joanna Brady series, Desert Heat, even though I am not big on female detectives.  This was good though.  I did enjoy it very much and I hope to read the second one and keep going if it is as good as this one was!  It's set in the real town of Bisbee, AZ. 

Keep Wanting to Add an "is"

To Everything, Everything.  I keep thinking it's called Everything is Everything.  Nocola Yoon wrote one of my favorite books from last year, The Sun is Also a Star.  And I really enjoyed this one as well.  Everything, Everything became a movie!  I didn't see the end coming, I really didn't!  And I loved it!

It Might Be an Art Thing

And We're Off was a decent book.  I mean there was nothing bad about it, you know?  It just wasn't, I don't know really invested in it.  I wonder if maybe I was super into creating art, had the talent for it, I would have been more invested.

For no really good reason

Witchtown, which I thought was Witch Town made this song stick in my head.  Okay, I mean, This Town and Witch Town do rhyme, so maybe that is a good reason.  But not a really good reason.
I did like Witchtown a lot!  Fans of witches and magic and mean moms will like it, too!  Good cover!

If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium

The movie shows my age.  And admittedly, my age shows in my 4 of 5 stars instead of my typical 5 of 5 for anything written by Sarah Mlynowski, whom I love, love, love!  I See London, I See France is not for everyone.  Yes, yes we all behaved this way when were in college, I know that, but maybe that is why it made me so uncomfortable, I was embarrassed!  To be young and wild again!  Ah!  Of course, I wouldn't want to be free, I love being taken.  :)  But I could use a little more wild and young!  And Sydney and Leela are college students, and there are really good messages here.  Really good ones.  And I am most certainly going to read the next one, so glad it is a series.  For me this was a 4.9, just because it reminded me a little too much of my wild and reckless younger days.

Yeah...

I wasn't feeling One Amazing Elephant.  I was feeling some parts of it.  I liked the way in which the whole mother-daughter thing was addressed.  I just...I don't know.  It was a little too The One and Only Ivan for me.   I did like the alternating viewpoints, between the elephant and Lily but I think that one of the big reasons I like that was because the elephant's chapters were so short and I just wanted the book to move along quickly!  But I was reading this one and again, that is hard for me, so that probably took away a lot of my enjoyment of it.  I didn't like that the bad guys were all smokers.  I am not a smoker any more, but I do think that smokers get a bad rap.  I mean, smoking IS bad for one!  But not all smokers are evil.  In fact, I think all of the smokers I know are super kind people!  So it was hard to see that the bad guys were all smokers.  I just don't think this has Newbery power.  I would have given it 3 and 1/2 stars though, if 1/2 stars were allowed.

Jacob Have I Loved SPOILERS!

This wasn't a rip off of Jacob Have I Loved, not at all.  But it did remind me of that book, just now, not when I was reading it.  I had a father who was a mean guy.  Mean to my mom, mean to my brother and mean to me.  But he did the best he could.  He had a dad who was even meaner!  My mom is a wonderful soul, but she had a mean mom and she had to live with my dad, so she has painful issues of her own that still haunt her.  Still, I know that I was/am loved by parents who did the best that they could.  Generally I do think that people do the best they can.
But I am off on a tangent.
Thinking this and thinking about the mom in Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, I know that Ant is a liar, doing the best that she can.  Harder to feel grace toward her mother who is really tough on Ant, but she is an adult and so maybe doesn't get as much grace from me as Ant does.
Really good book.  Hard but good.  Just so you know, the dog DOES NOT DIE!

Is it just the name?

Once I knew this woman who was really into Mother-Daughter book clubs.  I have to say that this is one woman I have a hard time thinking about because she was someone who pretty much defines the whole "wolf in sheep's clothing" thing!  So I am not sure if that is why I was so against reading a book in the series The Mother-Daughter Book Club.  I can't remember if she actually liked the series, or I just associate all things MDBC with her!  I also wonder if my lower rating of the book has something to do with that.  But I don't know.  I mean, it was okay, and 3 of 5 stars isn't a bad rating at all, it is just low for me.  I think to be fair to the series, I will read another though!