Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven | Book Review

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for EVERY POSSIBILITY LIFE HAS TO OFFER. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything.  

Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything in new and bad-ass ways, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone. 
Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. . . . Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.
Jennifer Niven delivers another poignant, exhilarating love story about finding that person who sees you for who you are—and seeing them right back.

Cover: I think the cover of this novel is really pretty, but I have no idea what it has to do with the actual book.  I don't remember there even being a mention of marbles or watercolor or anything that relates to the cover.

My Review: I was excited to read this book because you guys all remember how much I absolutely loved All The Bright Places and although this was a great story, I didn't find it as good as ATBP.  There were parts where I found myself wishing it would move a little faster and get to something more exciting. 
This book was about coming to terms with who you are which is something that I think is crucial.  Libby is proud of herself for what she's overcome, and she's comfortable in her skin, but she often needs to remind other people how to be kind.  And, even though it sounds cliche, people do tend to pick on others because they're insecure about themselves.  Jack explains this to Dusty when the kids at school pick on him.  Jack himself spends the entire book trying to figure out who he is.  He keeps his disease a secret from everyone except Libby and therefore can't get the help he needs.  Jack is also stuck in an on again off again relationship because he can't admit that Caroline isn't who he wants.  He tells Libby about his disease as part of his apology for attacking her in the middle of the cafeteria, but maybe he somehow knew that Libby was the one who was going to be the most helpful person to him.  Even when he was younger and saw Libby lifted out of her house, he sent her a letter saying he was rooting for her.  Jack always believed in Libby and Libby believed in Jack.  The two were meant to have their lives interconnect somehow, and the fact that they fell in love was simply a bonus.  
This book holds an important message and is a great read so I would definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who enjoyed All The Bright Places, but as I said before, it comes in second (for me at least).

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Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover | Book Review

Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: Colleen Hoover, the New York Times bestselling author of Maybe Someday, brilliantly brings to life the story of the hilarious and charismatic Warren in this new novella.

When Warren has the opportunity to live with a female roommate, he instantly agrees. It could be an exciting change.

Or maybe not.

Especially when that roommate is the cold and seemingly calculating Bridgette. Tensions run high and tempers flare as the two can hardly stand to be in the same room together. But Warren has a theory about Bridgette: anyone who can hate with that much passion should also have the capability to love with that much passion. And he wants to be the one to test this theory.

Will Bridgette find it in herself to warm her heart to Warren and finally learn to love?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Cover: The cover of this novella is very similar to the cover of Maybe Someday with the main image and then the image in the title.  The main image is a bed because we know from Maybe Someday that Warren and Bridgette spend most of their time together in bed.      

My Review: I love novellas about supporting characters.  I think they let you get to know some of your favorite people in ways you can't see when they're just supporting characters.  For example, in Maybe Someday we are aware that Warren liked to watch a lot of porn, and think of that what you will, but it was just kind of his thing that no one questioned.  However, in Maybe Not we learn that he's actually watching it in the hopes to find which one Bridgette was an extra in.  Also, in this novella, we got to learn a lot more about Bridgette and what she was coming from that made her act the way she did.  This story was short, but I really enjoyed it, and I think that it actually showed Warren and Bridgette in a way that was expected from Maybe Someday, but also so much more.  If you read Maybe Someday, you should definitely pick this one up next.  Like I said, it's short, only 160 pages, so it doesn't take a long time to read, but it was funny and cute and just great.

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Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover | Book Review

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: At twenty-two years old, Sydney is enjoying a great life: She's in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers that Hunter is cheating on her--and she's forced to decide what her next move should be.

Soon, Sydney finds herself captivated by her mysterious and attractive neighbor, Ridge. She can't take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there's something about Sydney that Ridge can't ignore, either. They soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one.

A passionate tale of friendship, betrayal, and romance, Maybe Someday will immerse readers in Sydney's tumultuous world from the very first page.

Original music created for Maybe Someday by musician Griffin Peterson can be accessed through the website listed in the ebook and paperback.  

Cover: I like the cover of this book because I didn't notice the image within the words at first and I thought it was really creative when I finally saw it.  The main image is them together writing music on whoever's bed, but within the words you see them kissing.  It's kind of like the main image os what everyone sees, but hidden in the words is what is really going on.  Also similar as to how lyrics to music can have a broader meaning than what's actually being said.

My Review: Communication is key in any relationship so what do you do when your ability to communicate is different than most of the people around you?  Sydney and Ridge have it all figured out, they communicate mostly through text messages, and even though they're in love with each other, they will not act on it because Ridge has a girlfriend and Sydney was just cheated on by her boyfriend.  Except they do act on, just once, but does it matter how many times you physically act on something when you've been thinking about it for weeks on end?  From there everything spiraled and looked bad, but then it looked good, and my heart could barely handle it.  Honestly, guys, I always read the last couple pages of a book (I know, I know, I'm awful), so I knew how it ended, but I didn't know how it got to that point and my heart was hammering in my chest from the time she moves out of the apartment to when she goes and watches the band perform with Warren.  It reminded me of Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire and how Cami says that if you fall in love with two people you choose the second because if you were really in love with the first person, you wouldn't be able to have those feelings for someone else.  
Some parts made me think Sydney and Ridge were the cutest people on earth.  One was every time Ridge told her something he never told anyone else, another was when he talked out loud for her, and the final moment was when she learned sign language for him.  The fact that they were willing to communicate the way the other one did made me want to cry because it just showed how much they cared about each other and how far they were willing to go.
I also liked how the fact that some characters were deaf wasn't that big of a deal.  I mean, obviously, the book would have been different if Ridge wasn't deaf, but I liked how the book didn't start, "Hello my name is Ridge, and I'm deaf..."  It came up when it was necessary to come up.  I didn't know his girlfriend was deaf for a while into the book.  I just loved this book.  Please go read it. 

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Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines | Book Review

Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer.

Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away.

As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else.

West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go…

Cover: The cover of this book shows a group of kids looking out onto a football field.  I assume the two sitting on the roof of the truck are Maggie and West.  I'm not certain who the other are but I'm guessing the boy is Brady.

My Review: What a great book to come back with, you guys.  I loved everything about it!  I read the whole thing during a snow day.  And it's a football book, which seems fitting since the Patriots just won the Super Bowl!  
Everyone wants to be heard, even when they're not speaking.  That's what Maggie was able to offer West when he didn't have anyone else to turn to.  She was there for him whenever he needed a friend and she listened to everything he needed her to hear.  Maggie also opened up to West in ways she didn't open up to anyone else around her.  Their relationship was confusing to everyone on the outside, but they were happy in their private bubble.  Of course, things got dicey for half a second when they did let everyone else in and Maggie started talking to everyone else, but it was quickly resolved when West was able to admit she was more than just a crutch to him.  You have a unique relationship with the people who help you through the tough times in your life.  Sometimes those people can do nothing more than be there to listen to you and help you through it, but some people are worth keeping around after everything settled.  Maggie came into West's life when he needed someone to talk to, but she stayed long after.  This story was great and right after I finished it I handed it to my friend and told her to read it.   

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"Victory Lap" and "Sticks" by George Saunders

I'm cheating, and I hate to do it, but I haven't been able to finish the book I have been reading since December, and I feel bad that this was going to be the second week in a row without a book review, so I am going to talk about two short stories I've recently read.

These stories come from George Saunders's Tenth of December, and I am reading this collection of short stories for a book club I have joined at school.


"Victory Lap"
This story is about 25 pages long, and it has three different viewpoints.  The story is about a girl who gets kidnapped, and her neighbor saves her.  It was crazy because her kidnapper literally knocked on her door and then dragged her to his van.  The story is told by the girl, her neighbor, and her kidnapper.  The kidnapper definitely has some mental illness that made him believe what he was doing was okay.  He also mentions some man named Kenny, but the reader doesn't know who he is.  The girl's neighbor comes from a strict household, and he doesn't know if he should help his neighbor or just turn an eye to it.  He does decide to help, and he actually kills the kidnapper.  However, after the fact, both he and the girl are traumatized, and even though their parents tell them what they did was okay and that it saved her life, they both went through such a harrowing experience that they don't really care that the death was justified.

There was no given reason why the girl was chosen to be kidnapped.  She didn't appear to be anything special, just your typical teenage girl, but she was chosen before the kidnapping happened.  I think Saunders gets across that not everything that happens to us is for a concrete reason.  Sometimes we're just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the wrong person sees us.  The boy was taught by his parents to do things a certain way and mind his own business that he hesitates when he sees his neighbor in trouble, but when he does decide to help he acts completely out of passion and doesn't consider the consequences.  Obviously, the death was justified because it saved the girl, but it happened so quickly that the boy didn't have time to think of what it meant for him until it was over.

"Sticks"
This story is about a page and a half long, and it's a man's reflection of a pole that was outside his childhood home.  His father used to dress up the pole depending on holidays or events that happened in his life.  This man was basically obsessed with this pole and when he died, and the house sold the new family ripped out the pole and threw it away.

We all have things that have value to us in ways that they don't have value to anyone else, or we know what other people value.  However, when something only has value to one person, it's easy for another person to come around and get rid of it, and everyone else can only sit back and watch.  That's what happened in this story.  This pole that was around for everything a man went through was simply a stick to someone else.


Again, I'm sorry that this isn't a real book review and I hope I won't have to do too many more of these, but I just don't have many books here at school that is really grabbing my interest.  What books are you guys currently reading?

Smile!  I'll talk to you soon!xxx

The Memory Book by Lara Avery | Book Review

The Memory Book by Laura Avery

Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: They tell me that my memory will never be the same, that I'll start forgetting things. At first just a little, and then a lot. So I'm writing to remember.

Sammie McCoy is a girl with a plan: graduate at the top of her class and get out of her small town as soon as possible. Nothing will stand in her way--not even the rare genetic disorder the doctors say will slowly steal her memories and then her health.

So the memory book is born: a journal written to Sammie's future self, so she can remember everything from where she stashed her study guides to just how great it feels to have a best friend again. It's where she'll record every perfect detail of her first date with longtime-crush Stuart, a gifted young writer home for the summer. And where she'll admit how much she's missed her childhood friend Cooper, and the ridiculous lengths he will go to make her laugh. The memory book will ensure Sammie never forgets the most important parts of her life--the people who have broken her heart, those who have mended it--and most of all, that if she's going to die, she's going to die living.

Cover: I really like the cover of this book.  It's Sammie, but it's almost like she's fading away.  Similar to how her memory is slowly being lost.

My Review: I'm going to apologize now that the first two books I have reviewed in the new year are a little sad/depressing.  But neither of them are sad in the standard way in my opinion.  They were both sad in a way that you saw coming so you were able to prepare yourself for it when it actually hit.  Having time to prepare yourself for the sadness doesn't make it less sad, but it does make you have less of a reaction I think.  Obviously, in Thirteen Reasons Why the reader knows right off the bat that Hannah is dead and in this book it was pretty clear (to me at least) that Sammie's disease was going to cause her to die young.  Yes, there were moments that Hannah said it wasn't going to stop her and that she was going to go off to college, but even reading it I could tell it was a pipe dream.  It was great that she was so optimistic, but her disease was really serious.  It was sad to go through it with Sammie as she documented her good days and bad.  All that being said I really enjoyed this story.  I liked the idea of Hannah writing down her days, even the ones that didn't seem that important so that she could look back and remember them.  For me, it really hit home because that's essentially what I am doing with this blog.  If I ever wanted to, I could go back and read about what I did during any given week of 2015.  
I also loved Copper and Hannah because they shouldn't have worked out the way they did.  If Cooper were a stranger at the beginning of the novel, Hannah wouldn't have liked him.  He was a popular stoner who cheated his way through high school, and Hannah was a nobody on the debate team and valedictorian of her graduating class.  The reason they worked so well was that they grew up together.  A lot of people have friends like that.  The ones who you stick with because you know every side of them and you remember the time (s)he tripped and cried on the playground in third grade or some unimportant thing.  Heck, Style and I always tell each other that at this point in our lives we've simply known each other too long to give up on our friendship.  Plus, Hannah needs the history she has with Cooper because her memory is failing.  She needs someone who can tell her stories about herself from the past and make new memories with her in the present.  
This book was really interesting... I know that term may make you feel like it's some type of informational pamphlet, but that's a good word for it because I have never read anything like it.  
Sure, I've read books about teenagers dying from all sorts of different diseases, but this one was different.  I feel like I always personify diseases when I read books that have to do with teenagers with different illnesses, but I have to say that although any disease is awful, one that takes away your thoughts is just such a low blow.  To me, losing a leg or your hair to a disease is awful and takes away from the individual, but losing your memory is a new level.  Maybe you guys disagree, but I would rather lose a leg than forget where I am at any given moment.
Check this book out if you get the chance.

Smile!  I'll talk to you soon!xxx

Did this book remind anyone who's already read it of the movie "50 First Dates" because that was all I thought about the whole time I was reading it?              

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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher | Book Review

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Reading Group: High School+ and the whole book is about a girl's suicide so if that's not your thing I would stay far away

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: You can’t stop the future. 
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.  

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

Cover: The cover of this book shows Hannah on a swing, presumably at a park, which is where her story begins.  Her story starts on a slide, not a swing, but I think the message is the same.  The innocence of a children's park contrasted with a girl who commits suicide.

My Review: I feel like everyone I know read this book in high school and I'm just getting around to it now.  In fact, this book came out 10 years ago, and there's a new addition out with new scenes that I want to read, but I think I'm going to hold off a little while so that this one isn't so fresh and I don't skim through the new one.  I definitely understand why this book was a best seller and why so many people I know have read it, it was wicked good.  The topic is very heavy, and the whole time I felt like shaking Hannah and telling her to let Clay help her.  I loved that it was stories about the past and that Hannah was already dead.  I didn't like that Hannah killed herself, but that was the whole point of the book.  What I mean is that if Hannah was missing and it was unclear if she were dead or not and it seemed like Clay was in a race against time only to find Hannah killed herself, I don't think I would have liked the book.  The tapes were a slap in the face to everyone who received them because they were listening to someone they would never get the chance to apologize to.  And it's a wake-up call to everyone who reads it.  We have people in our lives and no matter what they might mean to us, how we treat them matters.  Our actions may not be a huge moment for them, but if it adds to everything else that person may be going through, it could be the last straw.  Suicide isn't the answer, and I can imagine that people hate this book because Hannah just kind of gave up when she didn't receive the help she didn't straight up ask for, but that's how suicide happens sometimes.  It's easy to look back and see everything the person needed, but it may be impossible at the time.  That's why I absolutely love the ending of this book.  Clay couldn't help Hannah.  He didn't know how to at the time and when he figure it out she was already gone, but he noticed the same actions in Skye, and he didn't let her walk away.  Sometimes awful things need to happen for us to learn something, but what matters is that you do learn something.  I think everyone should read this book because Jay Asher is a great author and this book holds an important message.  I'm glad this is the book I got to start 2017 with.

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