One Day

LBGTQIA relationships will be written about like this.  You know, where the LBGTQIA part of it is not THE part of it.  Where it is just part of who the characters are.  Where all will realize that love is love is love is love.
Everything a Leads to You was just a really, really, really good story and love story.  Really liked this a lot.

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.  

See!

I totally can give 5 stars to a book at least 1/2 written by a guy I don't like!   No one in You Know Me Well is fat. Okay, I don't know that for sure,  but I do know that it's a Levithan book and most of the characters are cool and so I doubt he would let any cool characters be "of size."
This one is written by Nina LaCour, who wrote The Disenchantments, which I loved.  And I love this book, too.  Just beautiful.  And I wonder if Levithan would like me now that my BMI is normal and I am not even overweight!  Great, great book, even if it is by a dude, for all of his insistence upon inclusion and acceptance, judges people by the pound.

She's Disenchanted

The Disenchantments is the name of a fabulously bad, but enthusiastic girl band, based in San Francisco, headed out on their first, and maybe last, tour up the coast of Cali. Bev is the lead singer and lead guitar. Sisters Meg and Alexa play bass and drums. Colby, Bev's best friend, is kinda the manager, kinda the head roadie and madly in love with Bev. Meg, Bev and Colby have just graduated from their fine arts high school, and are off in Colby's Uncle Pete's VW bus to play the tour and then drop Meg off at college in Portland. I feel sorry for that girl, four years in Portland!
Bev and Colby are then scheduled to tour Europe for a year, something they have been planning for four years.
Things change though, much to Colby's surprise, and there is much soul-searching and discovery that takes place in the week-long tour.
I enjoyed The Disenchantments a lot. All of the characters are very real and likable, especially Colby, the narrator. I remember what it was like to be young, like Colby, and wondering where the future will lead. I guess as I got older, like many do, I came to have less hope and fewer dreams for this life and I put all my hope into the next one, the eternal one. There are many more miles left behind me, than I have yet to go (great song) and so it was hard to relate to Colby, as there is a lot of living ahead of him. That doesn't mean though that I didn't wholly appreciate him, cheer for him and admire him. He is one special, smart young man and The Disenchantments' West Coast Tour is well worth attending.
I am definitely going to be looking for more from Nina LaCour.

Oh and a big plus were the references to songs and artists. Everyone from Sleater-Kinney to one of my most favorite bands, The Chiffons.