It's Monday 6/30! What Are You Reading?

Running a little behind today. Things are in an upheaval around here lately, and it's only going to get worse. My dad was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma, so we went to visit him this weekend (in my hometown, Rochester, NY). Hopefully, his surgery will be scheduled this week, but we are heading out to Oklahoma to visit my father-in-law, whom we are in the process of moving out here to Delaware. And my oldest son's chronic illnesses are badly flared up. So, yeah, going through some rough times here, but hanging in there and staying optimistic.

Thank goodness for our books that provide some comfort and escape. Here's what we've been reading this week:

• I finished Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer for a book discussion hosted by my local bookstore, where a local chef prepared foods related to the book while we discussed it. The novel was excellent - about the interaction between a teen girl who's feeling lost and unloved and an older woman who just lost her husband. Much of the book focuses on delicious-sounding Iraqi foods (both the girls' mother and the older woman are chefs), and the lunch was wonderful!
• Now I am reading Endangered by Eliot Schrefer, a YA novel. It's about a teen named Sophie who is visiting her mom in the Congo, where she runs a sanctuary for bonobos, a type of ape. Sophie gets stuck there during a violent coup and must find a way to save both herself and the bonobos. It is great so far - suspenseful and compelling.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Martian by Andy Weir, which I gave him for Father's Day. He really enjoyed it - it's like MacGyver meets Gravity.
• Ken is now reading a modern classic, The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton.
• Jamie, 19, is finished reading the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson on his Kindle, finishing book 2, The Well of Ascension, and then reading book 3, The Hero of Ages. He is fortunate enough to be able to read in the car without getting sick, so he had 14 hours of reading time this weekend!
• Next, Jamie read The Prince of Ravens, Book 1 of The Exile Trilogy by Hal Emerson.
• Now, Jamie is reading Ink Mage by Victor Gischler, another free fantasy novel on the Kindle.

Just one post last week:



Review of  The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

There is still plenty of time to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! You only need to read one book, 400 pages or more, this summer to participate, so join the fun!

Fiction Review: The First Phone Call From Heaven

My online family book group recently chose The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom. Years ago, I enjoyed his famous memoir, Tuesdays with Morrie, and his first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. While this latest novel isn’t quite up to par with those first two books, it was a unique story that kept my interest.

The title event happens on the very first page of the novel, as a woman named Tess hears her dead mother’s voice on her answering machine. Moments later, a local police officer gets a call from his deceased soldier son. And on it goes, as all over the small town of Coldwater, MI, various people hear brief messages on their home phones and cell phones from their loved ones who’ve died. Meanwhile, Sully Harding, whose wife died recently while he was in prison, gets upset by this turn of events in his hometown. His young son keeps expecting to get a phone call from his mom, and Sully is certain this is a hoax with cruel consequences. He sets out to solve the mystery of the heaven-sent phone calls.

As the town’s residents try to decide whether to be skeptical or joyful about this strange turn of events, little Coldwater becomes a media Mecca, with radio, TV, and print media all descending on the tiny town, eager to report on the world’s first connection with heaven.  The result is chaos and fame – much of it unwanted – as the town’s residents try to live their lives and decide what all this means. Throughout the novel, which is a quick page-turner, Albom also weaves in historical facts about Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone.

Spiritual matters and mysteries are a favorite topic of Albom’s, though the insights in this novel felt a bit forced to me. The ending does bring things together nicely, wrapping things up with just the right amount of ambiguity to leave people wondering. I found the writing less polished than in Albom’s previous books that I’d read. It almost felt as if he wrote it quickly and it got little editing, and minor inconsistencies in the story kind of bothered me. Overall, though, it is a unique and engaging story that kept me reading. It’s fast-paced and a fairly quick read….just not quite as clever and well-written as The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

336 pages, Harper

NOTE: I read this novel as an e-book on my Kindle, only the second e-book I have read! I have a long list of downloaded bargain books that I need to get to.

 

It's Monday 6/23! What Are You Reading?

Whew, running late today - the next few weeks are going to be nonstop busy, with lots of stress piled on top! Just dealing with a lot of things right now in our family.

Books always provide a comforting retreat - here's what we've been reading this week:

• I have been reading Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer for a book discussion this week hosted by my local bookstore, where a local chef will prepare foods related to the book while we discuss it. The novel has been excellent - about the interaction between a teen girl who's feeling lost and unloved and an older woman who just lost her husband. Much of the book focuses on delicious-sounding Iraqi foods (both the girls' mother and the older woman are chefs), so I can't wait for lunch this week!
• Second week with no audio book going. I need to get one started, but I just haven't had time to download one or to listen.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Expats by Chris Pavone and enjoyed this modern-day spy thriller.
• Ken is now reading The Martian by Andy Weir, which I gave him for Father's Day. In fact, I gave The Martian to my husband, my dad, and my mother's husband for Father's Day! It's supposed to be the it thriller of the season, about an astronaut stuck on Mars by himself with limited equipment - sort of a McGyver meets Gravity story.
• I think that Jamie, 19, is still reading the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson on his Kindle, working on book 2, The Well of Ascension. He spent the last four days at the Firefly music festival and is sound asleep at the moment.

Not much time for blog writing (or visiting - sorry about that!) last week, but I managed a couple of posts:

Trailer for The Giver movie - coming in August - looks great! 

Review of Velva Jean Learns to Fly by Jennifer Niven, a historical novel set during WWII

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

First Day of Summer was last week so there is still plenty of time to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! You only need to read one book, 400 pages or more, this summer to participate, so join the fun!

Saturday Snapshot 6/21

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Happy First Day of Summer!! My kids have been out of school for weeks, and it was in the high 90's earlier this week, so the official first day of summer feels a bit anti-climactic.

Since we used to take a 3-week long road trip out west to National and state parks every June (back when the boys' schedules were in synch!), I thought I'd celebrate the first day of summer with a few photos of some of the amazing places we've visited on our past summer road trips.

Devil's Tower, WY

St. Louis Arch

Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park, SD (one of our faves!)

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Canoe camping along the Buffalo National River, AR

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Shenandoah National Park, VA

New Mexico, mountains north of Sante Fe & Albuquerque

Crater Lake National Park, OR

Yosemite National Park, CA

Our sons at sunset in Badlands National Park, SD

Sunset at Acadia National Park, ME

I'm ready to load up the pop-up camper and hit the road! Too bad we have to wait for August this year for a brief 10-day trip to NH and VT.

Hope you are enjoying the official start of summer and having a lovely weekend!

Fiction Review: Velva Jean Learns to Fly

When my book group first chose Velva Jean Learns to Fly by Jennifer Niven, I have to admit I was afraid it might be too light for my reading taste. However, the fast-paced plot of the novel, the historical context, and the likable character of Velva Jean pulled me in right away. I not only thoroughly enjoyed the historical novel but I also found it interesting and thought-provoking.

This novel is actually a sequel to Velva Jean Learns to Drive, but we had no problem picking up the story and character without reading the first book. As this book opens, Velva Jean is driving her yellow truck (which she apparently learned to drive in the first book) away from her home in the Appalachian Mountains and toward Nashville to fulfill her dream of singing at the Opry. She’s actually a very good singer and even has a record of a single that a traveling music recording professional recorded of her and her brother singing a song she wrote. The catch is that Velva Jean has never left her secluded little town in the mountains and has never been on her own before.

In the first part of the book, Velva Jean settles into life in Nashville, finds herself a job and an apartment, and starts trying to make a singing career for herself. Before long, the U.S. joins World War II, and Velva Jean’s priorities change, as she learns to fly and decides she wants to become a pilot and help in the war effort. A lot happens after that, but to say any more would give away too much (no spoilers here!).

One of the inspiring things about Velva Jean is that she has been through a lot of rough times, but she still keeps smiling and pushing forward. Here, she muses on how life’s challenges affect us (many of her challenges referred to here occurred in the first novel):

“The more things that happened to me, the more I thought it was like carrying a suitcase – you kept adding things to it, like your mama dying and your daddy going away, heartbreak over your husband, heartbreak over a boy that died. You just started adding these things to your suitcase until the case got heavier. You still had to carry it around wherever you went, and even if you set it down for a while you still had to pick it up again because it belonged to you and so did everything inside it.”

I enjoyed both the Nashville and the pilot sections of the novel, though some of our book group members clearly preferred the pilot portion. That’s where the author brings a lot of real-life history into the story. Although women pilots were allowed to help with certain tasks, like transferring planes from one location to another, they were not an official part of the military and were not welcomed by many of the male pilots. Our group found the most interesting discussion material in those aspects of the novel, about the plight of newly minted women pilots wanting to help with the war effort but facing discrimination that sometimes reached dangerous levels.

Many of our book group members were delighted to hear that the author has written more novels about Velva Jean, so anyone who wants to know what happened to her next can read Becoming Clementine, about her adventures as spy in France, and American Blonde, about her time in Hollywood (to be released July 29, 2014). Velva Jean’s varied adventures set against fascinating historical backdrops make for good summer reading (and this one even qualifies as a Big Book)!

410 pages, Plume

       

Trailer for The Giver Movie

I can't wait!!

The Giver, a classic YA dystopian novel, has been adapted for the big screen, and the movie will be released on August 15, 2014. Here's a recent preview:



IT LOOKS SO GOOD! I love the Wizard of Oz-ish black and white/color thing, and it looks like they chose some great actors for the main roles.

I may need to re-read the novel before August to remind myself of the details...and maybe this will give me just the excuse I need to read the rest of the trilogy!

Are you looking forward to seeing The Giver on the big screen?

What other book adaptations are you eagerly waiting for?

It's Monday 6/16! What Are You Reading?

We had a nice quiet weekend, but now it's back to reality - long to-do list, errands to run, over 200 unread e-mails from that relaxing weekend!

We enjoyed some good books last week, though:

• Last night, I just finished (stayed up too late!) UnSouled by Neal Schusterman, book 3 of the Unwind Dystology (yes, they created a word for it). This series is just sooo good! My son is planning to re-read book 1 this summer, then catch up on the rest of the series, and my husband and I are eagerly awaiting book 4.
• I went a whole week without listening to an audio book - caught up on my favorite book podcasts instead.
• Today, I am going to start Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer for a book discussion next week hosted by my local bookstore, where a local chef will prepare foods related to the book while we discuss it. Can't wait!
• My husband, Ken, is still reading The Expats by Chris Pavone, an e-book I bought on sale for our joint Kindle account. He's enjoying it very much - he says everything is beginning to come together now!
• Jamie, 19, finished Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, book 1 of the Farseer trilogy.
• Now Jamie is reading the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson on his Kindle. He finished book 1, Mistborn, and is now reading book 2, The Well of Ascension.

Super busy last week - first week of summer break for my younger son, so I spent much of my time driving him around! So, I didn't have time for writing many reviews, but I managed a few posts:

Review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares, a teen/YA audio book

Summary of Books Read in May - a record-breaking month for me!

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

Remember, this is the perfect time to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! You only need to read one book, 400 pages or more, this summer to participate, so join the fun!

Snapshot Saturday 6/14

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

My husband and I had last weekend to ourselves, so we went kayaking at a local state park on Saturday morning - it was a lovely day out on the water!

My husband kayaking.

This white duck made a beeline for my husband's kayak!

Beautiful morning out on the water.

Those logs WERE covered with turtles, but they slid into the water when I got near!

A great day out on the water!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!

Books Read in May

Here we are, mid-June, and once again, I am just posting my monthly summary from May! I keep thinking I will just catch up on my reviews first...and I never do!


May was a big month here at Book By Book because I launched my Big Book Summer Challenge for the third year in a row. It's still early (not even officially summer yet according to the calendar), so join in the fun! You only need to pledge to read at least one book of 400 pages or more - easy as a summer breeze.

May was also an outstanding reading month for me, with 9 books finished:

• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater, YA fiction (Virginia)
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a memoir (California)
• Popular by Maya Van Wagenen, a teen memoir on audio (Texas)

• This One Summer by Jillian & Mariko Tamaki, an outstanding teen graphic novel (Canada)
• Velva Jean Learns to Fly by Jennifer Niven, adult fiction (Tennessee)
• The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom, adult fiction (Michigan)

• The Here and Now by Ann Brashares, YA audio book (New York)
• Gypsy Davey by Chris Lynch, YA fiction(no location specified)
• Time Management From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern, nonfiction

 

So that's 9 books for May - I think that's a record for me for one month! Four were adult books and the other 5 were for teens and YA. Three books were nonfiction, and I listened to two books on audio. And one book was a graphic novel. A very nice mix for the month! My favorite? Wow, there are so many to choose from, and I enjoyed them all. I think Wild by Cheryl Strayed was my favorite - so powerful and compelling.

Update on 2014 Reading Challenges:

I added just four new states and one new country to my Where Are You Reading Challenge 2014 this month - woohoo!  I read only one book from my TBR shelves for my 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge this month (and none last month!) - I really need to focus on those TBR books. I listened to two more audio books for my 2014 Audio Book Challenge, so that one's going well so far. And I also added three nonfiction books this month.  No classics - I need to get moving on that one! All in all, an excellent reading month for me.

What was your favorite book read in May? 

Teen/YA Review: The Here and Now

Author Ann Brashares, best known for her super-popular Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, has a new YA novel out that is completely different than her previous novels. The Here and Now has a time travel plot and a decidedly sci fi focus, though it still involves realistic, likeable characters and even some romance.

Seventeen –year old Prenna immigrated to the metro New York area when she was twelve, but she didn’t come from another country. She came from the future, a bleak future where the earth has been decimated by plagues. She and the other members of her inclusive community all traveled back through time to our present in order to survive and start fresh. Although they live among normal contemporary citizens, Prenna’s people are governed by a strict set of rules to avoid the classic dangers of time travel – making harmful changes to the past or letting anyone in the present know what happens in the future. They must not tell anyone where (when) they are really from or interfere in any way with the normal course of history. But the rule Prenna is struggling with the most is to never get close to anyone or be intimate with anyone in any way. It’s hard to go through high school without any close friends.

Prenna has always tried to follow the rules, but things begin to change as she gets to know Ethan, a boy in her class. As Ethan tries to get close to her and get to know her better, Prenna struggles to remain aloof and not give anything away, but Ethan already knows more than Prenna realizes. I don’t want to say much more about the plot because there are a lot of surprises and suspense in this novel.

I was pulled in by this unique story immediately and enjoyed listening to the audio production. I love any novel that has to do with time travel, and this one was especially engaging. The scary future that Prenna comes from was quite believable to me. The plagues that killed so many people came from mosquito-carried diseases that increased exponentially as the climate changed and became more hot and wet. Coming from a family who has battled Lyme disease for many years, it wasn’t hard for me to believe that insect-borne diseases could be humans’ downfall!

While the plot is unique and compelling, Brashares also provides characters with depth and realism. I liked both Prenna and Ethan right away and cared about what happened to them. I think teens will especially like the thread of romance throughout the book, as the two get closer and get to know each other better. However, this novel is also full of action and suspense, as Prenna and Ethan uncover secrets and attempt nothing less than saving the world. It’s fast-paced but also thought-provoking and entirely entertaining from beginning to end.

Listening Library

Listen to a sample:

 

It's Monday 6/9! What Are You Reading?

Wow, super busy last week. My youngest son finished his sophomore year of high school last week. I spent much of the week driving him to various places (36 more days until he can drive by himself!!), and then he headed off to his grandparents for a long weekend. My oldest son was home from college, went to the beach with friends on the weekend, and is now off to his first day of summer session (not too happy about that!). On the plus side, my husband and I were alone for the weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed our preview of the empty nest!

Lots of great reading last week for all of us:

• I finished Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt for my neighborhood book group. It's the story of a teen girl in the late 80's who loses her beloved uncle to AIDS. All I can say is Wow. It was an extraordinary book from beginning to end! Can't wait to discuss it.
• I am now reading my first Big Book of the Summer! I started UnSouled by Neal Schusterman this weekend, book 3 of the Unwind Dystology (yes, they created a word for it!). This series is just so amazing...in the acknowledgements, the author says that he's sold the film rights for the entire series - can't wait to see it on the big screen!
• Incredibly, I started and finished an audio book last week (that's record time for me): We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Another great book! This YA novel tells the story of a teen girl in a wealthy family who spend every summer on their private island. She can't remember the circumstances of a tragic accident two summers ago that took part of her memory and left her with crippling headaches. 
• My husband, Ken, is still reading The Expats by Chris Pavone, an e-book I bought on sale for our joint Kindle account. He says it's a bit confusing at times, as it shifts back and forth in time, but he seems to be enjoying it.
• Jamie, 19, finished Rebel Heart, book 2 in Moira Young's YA Dust Lands trilogy. He had planned to read book 3 right away, but he was a bit disappointed in book 2 so decided to take a break from the series.
• Jamie switched back to fantasy (his favorite) and is now reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, the first book in a series. he says it is great so far!

I tried to catch up on reviews a bit last week - I wrote three of them, though I am still a ways behind:

Review of Popular, a teen memoir by Maya Van Wagenen

Review of Wild, a memoir about backpacking and grief by Cheryl Strayed

Review of This One Summer, an outstanding graphic novel for teens by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

Remember, this is the perfect time to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! You only need to read one book, 400 pages or more, this summer to participate, so join the fun!

Snapshot Saturday 6/7

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but I made sure to grab my camera this week when I saw that our purple irises had finally bloomed! They are so beautiful but the blooms only last a few days:

I hope you are enjoying the beauty all around you - have a great weekend!

And, remember to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! It is easy-going, just like summer - you only need to read a minimum of 1 book with 400 pages or more to participate. So join the fun!

Teen/YA Review: This One Summer

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, and most of the ones I have read have been targeted at middle-grade readers or younger and were fun and light. So, I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional depth, intricate story, and well-developed characters conveyed with so few words in This One Summer, a wonderful teen/YA graphic novel by authors (and cousins) Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki.

Rose, a young adolescent, loves Awago Beach, the tiny town where her family returns every year to spend their summer at the lake in their rustic little cottage. But things are different this year. Her parents are fighting constantly, her mother doesn’t want to do any of their favorite things, and even Rose’s best friend, Windy, seems a bit immature this summer. Windy is her summer friend, and the two girls always hang out together all summer at Awago Beach, even though Windy is a year and a half younger than Rose.

Like always, Rose and Windy swim and ride their bikes, have campfires and cookouts on the beach with their families, and watch movies and laugh together. Some things are the same, but everything feels different to Rose this year, and she is fascinated by the soap-opera like happenings of the older teens who hang out at the tiny general store. She has a crush on the clerk there, but Windy would never understand that, and the boy doesn’t seem to know Rose exists, as he is wrapped up in his own dramas.

Copyright Jillian & Mariko Tamaki, from www.jilliantamaki.com

It’s hard to explain just how amazing this book is, and how much emotion is conveyed through its gray-scale (more like blue-scale, actually) drawings, as you can see in the example I included here from the authors' website. With the pictures and its spare text, you feel all that Rose is feeling: the warmth and tradition of returning to a special place every summer, the agony of family disturbances, and the bittersweet process of growing up and feeling everything so strongly.

The authors have perfectly captured both summer vacation and what it feels like to be an adolescent torn between childhood and teen-dom.  The drawings are realistic and express so much emotion on every single page that you feel like you are there with Rose, experiencing the specialness of Awago Beach and the confusion of that summer. Highly recommended and sure to be a hit with teen girls especially. Just writing about it makes me want to go back and read it all again.

319 pages, First Second

NOTE: The novel does deal with some difficult subjects, like teen pregnancy and adult grief, that might be disturbing to younger kids, although the main character seems to be about 12 or 13. Younger readers might want to talk about some of the more confusing or disturbing aspects of the story with an adult.

To see more of the authors' work, visit Jillian Tamaki's website. 

 

Memoir Review: Wild

As soon as I heard about Wild by Cheryl Strayed back in 2012, I knew it was a perfect book for me. It’s a memoir (which I love) about backpacking (which I used to love before I got sick). My mom gave me the memoir for my birthday, and I finally found time to read it. I was right – I loved this both physical and emotional account of the author’s trip along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Cheryl’s trip along the PCT was relatively unplanned and somewhat impulsive, a decision made when she was feeling like her life had fallen apart. At the young age of twenty-two, she lost her mother to cancer, and over the next four years, her family scattered and her marriage broke up. Cheryl was on a self-destructive path, which she talks about very honestly in the book, detailing her life as she drank, took drugs, and had sex with strangers. Feeling out of control, Cheryl heard about the PCT and made a snap decision to head to California from her home in Minnesota and hike the rugged trail for several months.

Here’s the most incredible part (especially astounding to me given my own backpacking history): she started on this challenging venture with no backpacking experience at all. She grew up in the rugged backwoods of Minnesota, so she was used to getting by without luxuries, but she had never been backpacking before, not even for a single overnight, had never been to the desert, and started her trip with all new equipment that she’d never tried out before. That – and the size of her pack – left me astonished. As expected, her trip was filled with challenges and difficulties with which even experienced backpackers would have struggled.

But this memoir is about more than just a physical journey. It’s mostly about Strayed’s emotional journey, from grieving, self-destructive basket case to strong, emotionally healthy woman.  Along the way, she tells her story with honesty, warmth, and a great sense of humor. The memoir is very well written, with novel-like suspense and a compelling story. She ends up hiking through most of California and all of Oregon on a three-month journey, mostly by herself, though she does make some friends along the way.

Strayed recounts her personal growth as she hiked the trail, and what she learned about herself and about life. As I read this passage, I was nodding along – she perfectly captures the magic and meaning of being out among nature:

“It had only to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles for no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way. “

I kept reading excerpts out loud to my husband. I lived vicariously through her physical journey, since I no longer have the stamina to hike for backpacking, visualized the natural beauty and the challenges, and rooted for Strayed’s emotionally recovery, as she encountered and conquered one trial after another and kept moving forward by sheer force of will. This remarkable story, told by a remarkable woman, is captivating from beginning to end.

315 pages, Vintage

Teen/YA Review: Popular

I love reading memoirs, and the unique premise of Maya Van Wagenen’s new teen memoir, Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, caught my attention. She applies the advice from a 1950’s teen popularity guide to her own modern life and writes about what happens. The result is an interesting, fun, funny memoir about life as a teen today. I listened to the audio book and enjoyed it very much.

Maya was just an eighth grader when she began this project after finding a vintage copy of Betty Cornell’s Teen-age Popularity Guide, published in 1951. Maya is decidedly not popular, as she indicates in her introduction that explains her school’s unwritten popularity scale, with Volleyball Girls at 10 and Substitute Teachers at –3. She groups herself into the Social Outcasts group (at –1). Her mother suggests she follow the guide’s advice for one year and write about what happens, knowing how much Maya loves to write. At first, Maya is skeptical, but a paragraph in Betty Cornell’s book about how everyone wants to be liked and be included convinces her to give it a try.

Maya works on one chapter each month. Some are focused on outward appearance, like Hair and Make-up, while others focus more inwardly on topics like Personality and Shyness. Although some of the advice is decidedly 1950’s, like “always wear a girdle,” other chapters feature advice that is still surprisingly relevant to today’s teens, like not overdoing make-up and being friendly to people. Maya tackles all of it, one month at a time, with considerable enthusiasm. She attracts some attention when she starts changing her hairstyle daily or wearing skirts and pearls to school…but even more when she tries to break out of her own group of social outcasts and interact with kids at all levels of the popularity scale.

Maya writes with surprising maturity and poise. The entire memoir is engaging, interesting, and lots of fun, and Maya has a wonderful sense of self-deprecating humor that pulls the reader in. In some of the earlier chapters, I wanted to reach through the book and tell the poor self-conscious girl not to worry so much about popularity, that having one best friend (as she does) is often enough and that once you get to college and out into the real world, it is not only OK but actually desirable to be smart. It turns out that Maya learns some of those lessons on her own, and by the end, she comes to realize just what I wanted to tell her – that popularity hinges more on kindness and respect than anything else.

In fact, Maya learns a lot from her experience, and she does transform herself during the year-long experiment, not just physically but also emotionally. She gains a lot of maturity and learns that she’s not the only one who feels self-conscious and excluded in school, and she makes a lot of new friends. All in all, Popular is a charming, intelligent, and entertaining book about an ordinary yet remarkable young woman, and it should inspire many other young teens like her.

Penguin Audio

It's Monday 6/2! What Are You Reading?

June? Huh? How did we get to June already, almost to the halfway point of the year?

Last week was really hectic, both online and off! It was my younger son's last week of classes, my mom came to visit for a couple of days for Grandparents Day at the high school, and my older son finished final exams and moved back home from college. Our living room looks like a dorm room exploded in it.

Online, I bravely (stupidly?) went ahead with my plans to participate in Armchair BEA in spite of all that real-life stuff going on, managing several posts for that, plus one review last week.

I did enjoy a nice, relaxing Sunday for a change, but I messed up my medications (for my chronic illness), so I am pretty wiped out today as a result.

With all of that going on, we still found time to enjoy our books - in fact, it was a great week for reading at our house:

• I finished The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom on my Kindle for my online family book group. In fact, if today is June 2, I may have missed the start of our discussion yesterday! It was an interesting premise and an easy read, though not as well written as other Albom books I've read.
• Next, I successfully tried to squeeze one more short book into May and read Gypsy Davey by Chris Lynch, an emotionally powerful YA novel that packs a lot into just 150 pages. This was my first Lynch novel, and I keep finding myself thinking about the characters, so I would definitely like to read more from him.
• I am itching to dive into some of my Big Books for my Big Book Summer Challenge, but I realized I still have two more book groups to read this month first! Yes, I am a bit over-committed. I just started Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt for my neighborhood book group, and I am already loving it. It's the story of a teen girl in the late 80's who loses her beloved uncle to AIDS.
• I finished The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fame) on audio and really enjoyed the time travel story. Now I need to find a new audio to start!
• My husband, Ken, finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King in record time. He said it reminded him why Stephen King is such an amazing novelist!
• Ken is now reading The Expats by Chris Pavone, an e-book I bought on sale for our joint Kindle account. I want to read this one, too!
• Jamie, 19, finished finals and is home for the summer...which means he is reading like crazy! He finished The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham, the first book in The Dagger and the Coin fantasy series, and loved it.
• Next, he decided to catch up on the Dust Lands teen/YA trilogy by Moira Young, since we got books 2 and 3 while he was away at school. He said he's in the mood for some post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels after reading so much fantasy. He started by re-reading Blood Red Road and is now in the middle of book 2, Rebel Heart. My husband and I are both reading this trilogy, too.

Lots of posts last week:

Armchair BEA 2014 Introduction -  info about me and my favorite books & book blogs

 Review of Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

Armchair BEA - Author Interactions, about some of my memorable meetings with favorite authors

Armchair BEA - Beyond the Borders, about books that have transported me to different places and cultures.

Armchair BEA Wrap Up, including some of the new book blogs I discovered last week.

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.  

Remember, this is the perfect time to sign up for my Big Book Summer Challenge! You only need to read one book, 400 pages or more, this summer to participate, so join the fun!