2015 Quarter 1 Books

[hestergray.livejournal.com]

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

This book is about a teenage girl named Astrid, as she goes through her senior year of high school.  She doesn't have the best home life.  Not that her family is poor or abusive or anything, just that her mom and dad are very distant and worried about their own problems.  Astrid feels like she can't really talk to either of them, especially about how she feels about a girl she works with.  Astrid keeps her sanity by watching planes fly overhead and sending love to the passengers on the planes.  I think sending love to strangers is a lovely idea.  4/5

It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

I wouldn't say I "follow" Andie's blog (canyoustayfordinner.com), but every once in a while, I go there and read tons of posts in one sitting, usually looking for weight-loss motivation and food ideas.  Andie's memoir is a lot of what's already in her blog, plus more.  She talks about her dad a lot at the beginning, and it's sad, and later she talks about her years-long relationship with her boyfriend, which was also sad because I knew from her blog that they eventually break up.  She writes about how, growing up, she had always gotten bigger and bigger and eaten too much and gained weight.  Finally, in college, she decided to change and spent a year eating healthy food and exercising a lot.  She got herself down to a healthy weight and started a food blog.  In many ways, I find her to be inspiring and I'm motivated by her story.  I think she has a lot of good philosophies, like how a healthy dinner for her means eating a reasonable portion of the main course - a piece of lasagna or meatloaf or whatever - and filling up the rest of the plate with vegetables.  Lots of vegetables.

One of her blog posts that I loved was about how she doesn't understand when people lose a lot of weight, and they are suddenly so detached from their past.  They talk about being a brand new person and their old self is gone forever.  But she doesn't like that way of thinking.  She says that she looks back at pictures of herself and she has a lot of great memories.  She was obese, but she was still smiling and having fun times with friends and family.  She was herself then and she is herself now.  From the title of the book, I had hoped she would write more about that philosophy, but she only touched on it near the end, and it was pretty much what she had already said in her blog.  Still, I think she's right and I enjoyed having the reminder.  4/5

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Cady spends summers on an island owned by her grandfather.  She goes there with her mom, aunts, and cousins.  When she was 15 (I think?), she had an accident in the ocean and hit her head on a rock and now she gets really bad headaches.  She doesn't remember anything else about the accident, and it seems that no one wants to tell her.  Very mysterious.  It was a good story, and very well-written.  I was hooked!  4/5

The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave #2) by Rick Yancey

I enjoyed the first book so I thought I would enjoy the second book too.  It was a good story, and the writing was good, but I had a hard time enjoying it.  I was disturbed by the parts where kids, like, really young kids, had guns or were shot or otherwise died or disappeared.  I'm not expecting a book about aliens trying to wipe out the human race to be happy, but the scenes that got up close and personal with families broken apart by violence and illness started to get to me.  Several times I almost turned it off and didn't finish it, but I made it to the end.  How many more books of these are there?  One more for a trilogy?  I don't know if I'll continue.  I don't think it's worth it for how bad it makes me feel.  2/5

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I loved this book so much.  It's about Cath and her first year away at college.  She's a huge fan of Simon Snow, who is a character in a book series about a boy wizard who goes to magic school.  Cath writes fanfiction about Simon Snow, and she's very well-known in the fanfiction community.  Other things that Cath has to deal with: her wild child twin sister, her dad who has a hard time being on his own, her mom who left the family when the girls were eight, and a boy who likes her.  I related to this book because when I started college, that's when my sister and I became really huge fans of Harry Potter.  In the middle of listening to this, I texted Ellen and told her it reminded me of our HP days.  She totally agreed.  5/5

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

I loved this book too.  I can't decide which one - this or Fangirl - I like more.  I relate to so much of this story as well.  This book is about Georgie, who is a TV comedy writer.  She lives in L.A. with her husband Neal and their two daughters, and she's very busy and important.  She gets an opportunity for a big break, but it's a week before Christmas.  She stays in L.A. to work on scripts for her big upcoming meeting, instead of going with Neal and the girls to Omaha for Christmas.  Georgie has a hard time getting a hold of Neal while he's gone because he never seems to have his phone on him.  But she manages to call him from a landline at her mom's house.  Except that when she calls, she doesn't reach current Neal.  She is talking to Neal from fifteen years ago, just before they got engaged.  It's a wonderful story.  I can't get over how much I loved it. 5/5

Comments

[moredetails.livejournal.com]

Oh it's nice to hear a review of that Andie Mitchell book. I haven't read it but wondered if I should check it out. I didn't realize she and her boyfriend broke up! I don't visit her blog a ton, but watched her recent TED talk--did you see that? Anyway, I admire her viewpoint but I have a hard time accepting myself like she seems to!

I'm intrigued by We Were Liars. :)

[hestergray.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the spoiler! :/

Yes, I've listened to her TED talk a couple of times! I really enjoyed it.

It didn't seem so much like she accepted herself when she was really big, but just that she recognizes she was still a person. I think it's about not negating your entire life up to this point just because you lose weight.

[moredetails.livejournal.com]

Oh no it's totally fine!

Yes, she has a good approach.

[mainemilyhoon.livejournal.com]

I agree about The Infinite Sea - the first one was a fun adventure, but this one was so grim and horrifjc that I'm not sure I want to read any more.

[hestergray.livejournal.com]

Exactly! It had some really terrible situations and events. I can't handle more books like that.