Sometimes I choose library books with reckless abandon. I choose them at random and hope for the best. For example, the moment I plucked Sign Language by Amy Ackley from the library stack…I was disappointed. The book cover seemed to indicate that the novel I held in my hands was going to be some generic…
Following my recent re-read of Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison, I decided to check out another book from my teenage days– the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. To be completely honest, I only sort of vaguely remember this book despite its popularity and despite the movie, which of course…
I’m calling it right now– The Mermaids of Lake Michigan by Suzanne Kamata will be one of the top five books I read during 2017. The Mermaids of Lake Michigan by Suzanne Kamata Released: February 14, 2017 Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing Add to Goodreads ★★★★☆ Amazon|BAM|B&N Elise Faulkner is more at home in the waters of…
I used to devour YA Contemporary novels, but the older I become, the harder I am to impress by this once beloved genre. I’ve really struggled over the course of my five years of book blogging to read and enjoy YA Contemporary novels, and at one point, I would have been more than happy to…
It’s not often that I read two books by the same author in the same year (JK Rowling withstanding). And, it’s rarer than a blue moon that I read two books by the same author within 30 days. Yet, I recently devoured Peaches (in one day) by Jodi Lynn Anderson less than 30 days of reading…
Even though Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern is a young adult novel, I’m glad I read it as an adult instead of as a teenager. I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I do now because I wouldn’t have been able to get over the “labels”. I went…
The Carnival At Bray by Jessie Ann Foley Released: January 2014 Publisher: Elephant Rock Productions, Inc. Age Group: Young Adult Add to Goodreads ★★★★★ Synopsis: It’s 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the…
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp Released: May 2009 Publisher: Candlewick Press Add to Goodreads ★★★★☆ Synopsis: For a runaway boy who goes by the name “Punkzilla,” kicking a meth habit and a life of petty crime in Portland, Oregon, is a prelude to a mission: reconnecting with his older brother, a gay man dying of cancer…
This is one of those novels which I’m unsure how to categorize. It takes place during the 1980s, so I initially considered it “historical fiction”. Yet, the goal of the novel is not to define a decade or even just a specific period in the 1980s. I also considered it a coming-of-age story. Yet our…