When I fell in love

at the ripe age of 42, it was a complete surprise and after reading The One I wonder about the whole possibility of a DNA match!  Or is it a Soul Mate thing?  I like to refer to this as an explanation in my case!  I know that I am every bit in love and head-over-heels giddy today as I was back then.  It might not seem like a long time, but EVERY BIT still giddy and over the moon?  That has to prove something!
But I am off topic!
The One is a good book.  I would have given it a higher rating but man...the author committed my one BIG pet peeve!  He wrote about a couple getting married a Baptist church with a crucifix outside.
Come on, man editors?
It just bugs me!
Warning though...just when you think you know what will happen to these folks, you soon find out you had it ALL wrong!
GREAT book, but man...a crucifix in a Baptist church.  Really?

Personally...

I found The Last Time We Say Goodbye to be really well done.  There were some (just a few, reviews for this book from users have been really positive overall) that felt it was predictable and that the main character, Lex, was very unlikable.  I didn't feel this way at all.  I didn't think it was predictable and I liked the element of faith in there, albeit very small, but it was very realistic.  It seems like sometimes authors have an ax to grind when it comes to faith, either way, positive or negative, but the approach to faith and love and science in this was, I thought, very realistic and appropriate to Lex's experiences and age.  I really liked this. 

Titles

The Whore's Child and Other Stories by Richard Russo has a really intriguing title and I admit, that is what drew me to it.  It's a book of short stories and I enjoyed all of them and recommend the whole book, but the first one, which happens to be the title of the book, was my favorite.  This guy is really talented. 

Pretty Darn Powerful

What Girls are Made Of was really good.  And it was made even better with the author's note, but it would have been really good even if she hadn't given some great testimony as to why she wrote the book and why it written in the starkly honest way that it is.  She admits that there are parts that may offend some people.  But she explains why that is totally okay.  I was not offended, but I was surprised- not shocked, but surprised by the graphic nature of parts of the book.  You can tell though that it is not done gratuitously, that the inclusion of such frank descriptions make a really good point.  Tough book, good book.  But yeah, it may offend people.  Another great book from Arnold.

Match Made in Heaven

Death Match was okay.  I wish I would have liked it more.  If I hadn't seen it coming so clearly, I know I would have liked it more.  But oddly enough and so unlike me, I was able to see it coming pretty much from the beginning of the book.  But maybe it was supposed to be that way?  Because if I could see it coming, then pretty much everyone could see it coming.  It was very "meh."

Yeah...

Eliza and Her Monsters....this was really, really good.  It had to be, I mean, it isn't out on audio and yet I had an easy time of reading it.  Which is so rare to me.  Fandoms are something of which I have little personal experience, but I know about, and shipping and things like that, but I think that it was all well explained, but for the teen audience, I am sure they all know what those things are, it's just oldsters like me who might not!  I didn't know that there were so many fandoms!  There is a Golden Girls one!  There is even fan fiction written about Judy!
There are many things I loved about this book.  The parents and their humanness and the reality of Eliza's feelings about what she might want to do at the turn in the road and the humanness of Wallace, even though he did make me mad.
Navigating the world of online and "face to face" is hard at any age, and I would think especially for teens.  I thought this was just very real.  I also loved Eliza's brothers.  Again, very real.
It is on my top three, along with The Hate U Give and Bang.

Battle of the Books

I have facilitated battles of the books for groups of students and for families, but I have never participated in one, but that is all going to change at the end of November!  The Vacationers is the first book I have read from the list and I have made notes for myself and my teammates!  I gave this one 2 stars but it is more like 2 1/2 stars, I guess.  Thing is, this is NOTHING like my kind of book.  Nothing at all.  It is so far away from what I read and like that it is in another galaxy!  But a lot of people would like this book!  And the thing is, I didn't hate it, even though it is NOTHING like books I enjoy.  It's a family story and about marriage and infidelity and no one gets murdered.  I know that sounds terrible, but there is no mystery.  It reminded me in a way of Last Night at the Lobster just because nothing happens.  But for me, Lobster was much more enjoyable.  Still I am super happy to be a part of the BOB in Bethel Park!  Only thing is, as I was just looking at what tags to put on this entry, I came across Dysfunctional Families and remembered that the theme of the BOB books is Dysfunctional Families. But to be honest, I can't say that the Post family is "dysfunctional."  In fact, out of all of the books I have written about here, I have only dubbed two as such.  And whoa, they were pretty dysfunctional! I wonder if the families in the other books are as dysfunctional as those I have tagged as such or pretty normal, like I found this family to be.

Julie Murphy

wrote Dumplin', which I really enjoyed even though David Levithan wouldn't have, because it has a person of size in and she doesn't hate herself.  Ramona Blue was just as great as Dumplin', but it was different.
This book takes place in Eulogy, Mississippi.  Ramona talks about how the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina overshadows the devastation along with the Mississippi coast.  I need to find out more about that.
Anyway, I like reading small towny and rural setting books because I know so little about these places "in real life."
I also loved the way in which Murphy addresses the fluid nature of sexuality. Or maybe Ramona is truly one of those people who loves hearts not parts?  Either way, just more testimony that the world is not black and white but shades.  Great book.

This was a WOW one

I really like We are the Ants, and so I was very excited to see a new book from Shaun David Hutchinson, The Edge of the Universe. At first I didn't "get it" and I had to restart the book a few times, but I am SO glad I hung in there. There is a lot of science for someone like me, but I found I was able to understand it!  At least enough for it all to make sense.  Just an incredible, real-yet-not-real-yet-maybe-real experience.  Original and excellent.

Just because you are paranoid...

doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.  -Joseph Heller
That is also our family motto.
After reading The Sociopath Next Door, I feel even more paranoid!
The only consolation was that according to the author, Martha Stout, sociopath will often target people of whom they are jealous. And while I am very, very, very, richly, richly, richly blessed, I am not exactly going to incite a lot of envy.  Especially from people who crave power.
Then I read a review of the book on goodreads and I don't know HTML well enough (hardly at all) to link to the specific review, but look for 1 star reviews and a reviewer named John.  His review made me feel so much better!
It was a very interesting, if scary, book to listen to and I did give it 3 stars, not 1.

Just turn your anger inside

anger turned inward is depression, of course!  And I have always turned my anger inward, thus, depression.  The Dance of Anger sounds like it is all about anger, but the subtitle is really what the book is about, which is, changing the patterns of intimate relationships.  I have seen this book many times and shelved it many times, but it wasn't until my very dear friend, Miss Christin encouraged me to read it that I did.  Once again, I felt much thankfulness for my dear friend!  This was an exceptional, yet really easy to understand for even someone like me.  I do want to read more by Harriet Lerner.  Good stuff here, for the day to day of realating to others and for those times when a relationship seems too overwhelming.

A Surprise!

Kissing the Bee was one of those unexpected delights.  Now  that doesn't mean that the book is light-hearted and celebratory!  It is a downer, but a good downer.  I mean a very well written, poetic and beautifully written downer!  I have never read a Kathe Koja book, but I certainly will read whatever I can find now.   Especially after I saw this on Koja's blog. 
One of the many, many things I enjoyed about this book was the insight into the life of bees.  The main character, Dana, has a year-long science project to do and she has chosen bees as the topic.  Fascinating stuff.  I knew a wee, wee, wee bit, mostly from the poem I performed! 
The facts of bee life, partnered with the bee-like behavior of Dana and her best friend Avra and the third corner of their triangle, Emil, makes for an incredible read.  Loved this. 

Life is Hard, for everyone!

Through to You was a good, good book.  I gave it five of five stars on goodreads because I thought Lauren Barholdt did a great job of offering insight into why some people act the way they act.  We're all so quick to judge people, especially guys who seem like "jerks" and worse words when they jump from girl to girl or close themselves off from real feelings.  Penn is one of those guys.  But we find out why Penn acts the way he does.  That doesn't excuse his behavior, but it really helps the reader to get a better understanding.  Maybe we all need to just take a chance on people, find out about people, who they are, what they are, and why they are.  No one gets through this world without feeling any pain, pain influences our behavior.  This was a very good relationship study, told from the POV of Penn and Harper, as they try to figure out how to be together, despite their baggage.

Time Passages

The Time Between Us is a time-travel story of a different sort.  And I highly recommend it for those looking for a good love story with the twist of sci-fi or whatever time travel is.  Anna is in present day Illinois and Bennett is from 1996, San Francisco, but somehow Bennett can go back and forth in time and they meet.  But they can't stay together, or can they?  And when they realize that if they play with time, they play with the lives of others, it calls into question the ethics of what they are doing.  Great book.  
Terrible song, by the way.  

Falling Behind....

I am very happy that I went with my gut and didn't change my goodreads goal before I achieved it!  If July is any indication, I don't know if I will be even making the goal I set back in January  What has happened!  I've been caring for my folks and crazy (good crazy) busy at work and by the time I get home from work, I've been too beat to keep my reading eyeballs open!  Very sad!
Fresh Off the Boat was a sweet, quick read though, that gave me insight into a different culture, which is always a good thing.  It reminded me a bit of the Year of... series, but it isn't a copycat or anything like that at all, it just talks about folks making their way in a new country and adjusting, like Lovetorn was. Vicenzia and her family are from the Philippines where they lived a life of pretty serious luxury.  Now they are struggling paycheck to paycheck in San Francisco.  V has romance troubles and friend troubles and family worries just like all kids, but she also has to deal with the culture of a new country.  Good read.

mostexcellentbook

Many thanks to Random House for offering this ARC on netgally.com.  This is the second Tom Leeven ARC I have received and read.  I loved Zero and loved Manicpixiedreamgirl even more.  Leveen's first book, Party, gave me some mixed feelings, but Zero was great and Manicpixiedreamgirl just proves that Leveen is getting better and better.   His characters are real and avoid stereotypes.  They are not "all bad" or "all good," they are characters who live in grey, who make good decisions and poor ones...just like real people!  The title comes from the idea of a stock film character, like Marilyn Monroe's character, Sugar, in Some Like it Hot, Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown, and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.  According to film critic, Nathan Rabin, who created the term, the MPDG is "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures."
Becky Webb is Tyler Darcy's MPDG.  He spots on her his first day of high school and loves her (loves the idea he has created of her, actually) from afar for two years.
Becky is a girl of mystery.  She doesn't seem to have any friends, everyone pretty much ignores her, except for the guys who hook up with her in a closet, or a car and leave without acknowledging her further.
Tyler has a girlfriend, Sydney, who knows of his obsession with Becky, but keeps hoping that someday he will let it go.
It all comes to a head though, in one evening, when Sydney sees a copy of a short story that Tyler has published in a literary magazine.  Now his deep feelings for Becky are out there and he must decide what to do about them, if anything at all.
The story is funny, brilliant, honest and real.  As I said, truly Leveen is a rising star.

Not it!

I always hated being it.  It is funny how that idea of being "it" changes.  I am NOT an it girl at all.  Never have been, sadly.  Jan (pronounced Yahn, she is named for one of her parents' favorite artists, Jan Van Eyck.  I like him too, but I wouldn't name a kid after him!) Miller isn't either.  Confessions of a  Not It Girl is her story of love non-existant and love almost lost and love found.  This is another from Melissa Kantor and I liked it, but Jan wasn't very likable, but again, not liking the main character all that much and yet still being able to enjoy the book says something good about the book.  I think Kantor is a really good author.  A good, quick read and there are some very funny, funny lines.

Broken Hearts

The Breakup Bible is SO accurate.  It really does show what a broken heart can do.  Jenny has just been dumped by Max and just can't get over him.  Great book.  The only thing that kept me from loving it is that Jenny is not really a likable girl.  She's pretty judgmental about everyone else in the world.  Hints of a less evil Margaret Simon.  But that's it.  Written by the author of Girlfriend Material and the Darlings series.  Good book for someone going through the pain of a break up.

Some Gotta Win, Some Gotta Lose

Good time Charlie's got the blues.  Great song.
Girl Meets Boy:  because there are two sides to every story is, like everyone says, a great concept.  Get together some really great YA authors.  Have the male authors write a short story from the guy's POV, have the female authors write their own version of the story, from the gal's POV.  A lot of heavy hitters here:  Terry Trueman,  Chris Crutcher, the AMAZING Rita Williams-Garcia.  I loved the idea and loved most of the stories, but the ones that I didn't love, I could barely get through and had to do the old read-from-the-end trick.  I don't know.  Not my thing.  Hard to rate a book of short stories though, because some of the stories I just wanted to go on and on, and others...ugh.

Amazing...but what a shame!

As I said in the review of You Don't Even Know Me, Sharon G. Flake's short stories are disappointing.  Each one grabs you and won't let go.  Her characters are so real she makes them care SO much about them, that it just isn't fair that we can't read more about them!

Who am I Without Him? is painful, beautiful, fresh, honest, pure Sharon G. Flake.  I saw myself in some of these stories.  I saw my friends, my mom, my grandmother.  Boys and girls should read both You Don't and Who Am I.  It might make for better and stronger relationships.  If not, it will certainly make for a little more understanding between the sexes.