Even though

I will never be a mother or a grandmother, and even though I was hesitant to read Some Assembly Required:  A Journal of My Son's First Son, I soon realized that one doesn't have to be a mother or grandmother or son, first or otherwise, or father to appreciate this beautiful and honest and heart-breaking book. 
If I had already fallen in love with Sam Lamott just from what his mother has written about him in her other books, I would have fallen in love after reading this. 

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.

Never Would Have Thought

that I would enjoy a book like Slam.  First of all, I seriously don't often enjoy books set in England.  Not a fan.  Second, I have heard of Tony Hawk, but really don't about him at all and he doesn't have a big role in the book, but if one knows Tony Hawk, it would make this book more of a no-brainer to read.  But I really, really liked Slam! A lot!  And I would recommend it for sure!  Nick Hornby is a popular writer for adults.  This was his first YA book.  He has written books that have been made into really popular movies like About a Boy and High Fidelity.  There aren't too many books written from the POV of  a teen father and this one is so good.  It's not the amazing First Part Last, but really, what is?  But it is really, really, really good!
Here is something else I need to add!  This book is set in Islington, which is in London, and Islington was also mentioned in Becoming (Mrs. Obama visited there!)!

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. 

You Gotta Have Hop

this is a terrible, terrible song.  But Hope is a Ferris Wheel is a really, really good book.  This is Robin Herrera's first book.  I bet she just gets better and better.  I liked all of the characters in the book....well, not the dead-beat dads.  But we don't have much contact with them.
Star is ten she tells the story here.  She and her mom and her sister, Winter move from Oregon to a trailer park Northern California.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, but it is all blended together so well.  The book is so well written that it just flows like really life.  Winter and Star are the kind of sisters that make me wish I had a sister.  Very realistic, very good.

Heart-breaking and Real

Holding on to Zoe is a great book.  It is short and meaningful and complex but simple and really, really good and painful.  I was so into the characters that I really wanted to scream at the mother.  What a ridiculous woman.  But a real woman.  First of all she is an unthinking, selfish moron.  She should be a foster parent.  She is the next best thing though, a social worker.  First she ain't too bright.  Here's how serious moronic she is:  she was a secretary, when the husband leaves she decides she needs to make more money and so she goes to college to be a social worker.

Because going into social work should be about the money.

Because social workers make a lot of money.

What a moron.

But I know people like this.  So I found her character to be very realistic.  She makes fun of the people she is supposed to be helping.  She has no compassion at all.  And she was dumb enough to go into it because she didn't have money!  You go into a job like that to help people!  Knowing that you WON'T make any money.  Could this woman be anymore ridiculous?  Could she be anymore life-like?  Great character, albeit a truly evil one.  She is so cruel to her daughter.  And she has psychological problems of her own but did she get help for them?  No!  Instead she chose to help others.  What a buffoon. So real.  

Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are good social workers out there.  I just don't hold much stock in the whole deal.  You go into social work for selfless reasons, not to feel good about yourself or make money.  Also you have to be totally mentally capable.  Too many people who and social workers actually NEED social workers.
Enough with the rant.  I don't want to give too much away, but Jules is a girl with a horrible, selfish mother who gets pregnant and the baby means everything to her.  And wow...just read it!

Satisfying End to a Satisfying Trilogy

Finally I was able to read and finish This is So Not Happening the last in the He's So/She's So trilogy by my most-read author and very loved author, Kate Brian/Kieran Scott/Emma Harrison.    This author has brought me much joy and I am sad to see this series end, but I hope she keeps writing and writing, I don't care under what name, just bring it on!
Ally and Jake try to make it work for their senior year.  But then...well, Jake finds out that he is the father of Chloe's baby.  And well, that makes things complicated.  I thought that while most of these kids are spoiled rich kids, they act pretty mature for their age and they made some bad decisions, but ultimately, they do what is right.  Humor, romance and all the rest.  Great series.  I loved it.

SPOILERS!

The first thing to know about Hooked is that the jacket description is way off!  When I first read the jacket I thought, why bother to read the book?  It is like one of those movie trailers that gives the whole thing away.  But after I read the book I thought, um, the jacket really got a lot wrong.  So that was weird.

 

From Cool Mom to Grandmom

Hooked is well written and fast paced and I ripped through it, but I really didn't like Thea's mother at all.  She was obnoxious and a terrible parent (maybe she should "foster") and she was so completely selfish.  She is so super European COOL that she likes to share details of her sex life with her daughter.  Gross!  Who wants to hear that?  And she is always ripping on uptight Americans.  Then go home, Limey!  

Anyway, Thea is a junior in high school at Stuyvestant High School and she meets Will and they fall in love.  Even when he goes to school at Columbia they stick together and Thea ends up getting pregnant.  They decide to keep the baby, well that's what the jacket says, but really Thea does, and Will is a huge jerk about it.  And they live happily together, even though their parents are upset and disappointed.  But the jacket says that they are happy.  Not at all.  Then the book

jacket says that there is a freak accident!  It threatens to tear this non-existant happy little family apart.  Again, not true.  There never was a happy family.  

I did like the book, but I liked How to Save a Life and The First Part Last and Pregnant Pause and Love and Haight better, all because of the off-putting Brit!

Life Saver

Sara Zarr is one of those authors whose website I check out often, looking to see if she has anything new going coming out. Story of a Girl was a terrific book and I loved, loved, LOVED Once Was Lost.

How to Save a Life is Zarr's latest and it is another completely original story with well-developed characters you really come to care about pretty quickly.

HTSAL is told from two POVs. Mandy, a pregnant teen from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Jill, an only child from a wealthy suburb in Denver. Jill has lost her father to a car accident eleven months ago and now her mother has decided to openly adopt Mandy's baby. She met Mandy on the internet and agreed to no contracts, no lawyers, no social workers, etc.

Jill is cynical and seriously still grieving her dad. She is suspicious of Mandy's real motives. Mandy is a lost soul, pretty much, her mother is a such an extreme jerk and has told her never to come back.

This is a very beautiful story of broken lives and broken people and healing. Great book. Made me cry, which is tough to do. Well, for a book!

Decisions

It seems like a lot of the books I've read lately get me started on my foster care rant, and Pregnant Pause was no exception. Pregnant Pause was my first Han Nolan book but won't be my last. It is extremely well-written and unpredictable with excellent characters. Elly is sixteen and pregnant and just married to Lam who is eighteen and has just graduated from high school. Elly and Lam had a great time while they were dating, two self-described screw-ups who got high, drank a lot and got a arrested in their spare time. Elly's parents are missionaries who serve mainly in Kenya with babies orphaned to AIDS. She has a sister, ten years older, who is married, lives in California and has, so far, been unable to have a baby. Lam's parents run a weightloss camp for kids and have allowed Lam and Elly to stay in one of the camp cabins.
I can't give too much away, it would only ruin a seriously awesome story.
One of Elly's options is to give up the baby, which, of course would mean foster care.
 A lot to think about here. Very original and inspired.

Really Stayed With Me...

Great book. Man. For a long time I kept seeing The First Part Last. I don't know why, but I never picked it up. I wonder if the copies I saw before had bad covers. This one has a great cover. I can't seem to find any images of the hardback online though. Maybe it was REALLY bad and that's why you can't even google it! Anyway, I wish I would have read this sooner. It is nothing like I thought it would be.
The book goes back and forth between THEN and NOW. THEN - when Bobby was just finding out he is going to be a dad and NOW - when Bobby is going taking care of Feather all by himself and trying to finish high school as well.
But I figure, if the world were really right, humans would live life backward, they'd be all knowing in the beginning and innocent in the end. - Bobby says this near the beginning of the book. I really think it is beautiful and poetic. Pretty much like the whole book.