2015 Book Review Roundup

January:
To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
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I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
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February:
Meant To Be by Lauren Morill
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The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
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March:
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
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April:
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
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June:
Bully by Penelope Douglas
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July:
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
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August:
All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
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September:
The Fill-In Boyfriend by Katie West
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Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
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Confess by Colleen Hoover
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Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes
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All Fall Down by Ally Carter
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October:
When by Victoria Laurie
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Playlist For The Dead by Michelle Falkoff
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Mosquitoland by David Arnold
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All The Rage by Courtney Summers
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I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
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Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
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Tonight The Street Are Ours by Leila Sales
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My Heart And Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga
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November:
What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler
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Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
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Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
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December:
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exepury
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Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
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Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino
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Never Never: Part 2 by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
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Book: Mosquitoland by David Arnold

 ★★★★/★★★★★

"Life, it seems, delivers the best punch lines only after we’ve forgotten we were part of a joke."

I honestly thought of putting this down after few chapters but somewhere along after those chapters, I started loving it. Mim's writing to Iz, her putting on war paint, her meeting new/strange/different kinds of people and everything else, I started to get them. It's like after contemplating, over the first few chapters, whether I can relate to her or not, I finally did. Between the writing and adventure and meeting new people, something inside me just connected to her. And I know she's a little weird and odd and a teenager with one blind eye because of the Great Blinding Eclipse and her dad believes that there's something wrong inside her brain because she talks to herself but come on, everyone talks to himself. Don't you? And don't lie!

And because A Thing’s Not a Thing until You Say It Out Loud. So I say it, She is Mary Iris Malone and and I get her.

Mary Iris Malone, or simply Mim, is determined to get to Cleveland, to her mother, before Labor Day weekend after overhearing a conversation that her mother is sick. Mim, now convinced that her dad and stepmother, Kathy, are keeping her away from her mom for whatever reason, decides to set off alone to Cleveland. She's so committed on getting to her mom that she hops aboard Greyhound bus with only Reasons, a bag pack full of, at least, three-day worth of necessities, her mom's lipstick and a coffee can with Kathy's money and letters. And on this bus is where Mim's journey begins.

Mim meets new and different people along the way. A sweet lady like our Dear Old Arlene with her wooden box, a perv like Poncho Man, a someone like Carl-the-bus-driver who is more than what we thought they could be, a handsome new face with a camera, a homeless-harmless new bestfriend like Walt with his rubik's cube, another someone with bad intentions like Caleb, a few good ones like Ahab and his boyfriend and some more other. And then there's Beck-the-handsome-new-face-with-a-camera, again. Beck-the-guy-who-is-to-old-for-Mim-for-now-Van Buren. And I honestly love all the people Mim had met on this journey to her mom because they all each taught her something, if not everything. 

It's a really good story of discovering new things/people, realizing that there is a bigger world around you with different kinds of people that might or might not teach you a thing or two. It's a story of opening up to the world you thought would never understand you and it's a punch on the face to realize that there are actually people who care and understand and get what you say and don't say and they even understand what you feel even though you don't show it. 

"Maybe sometimes we just need someone to tell us that we're okay. Or we will be, at least. And I think of all the times I thought I wasn't okay, and all the times maybe I could've been, if only I'd had a Beck Van Buren around to tell me otherwise."

Becoming friends with Walt and Beck is fate, I guess. Because what Mim really needs are people to show her that she can trust them. That they will be there for her and not to leave without a liquid goodbye. I also love Beck because his character is... I'm-not-sure-what but I like him.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF FRIENDS.

At the end of her journey, when Mim reaches Cleveland (947 Miles from Mosquitoland) when she finally meets her mom and when everything finally sinks into her, she realizes that she should've at least considered all the sides of the story. Like her dad's and Kathy's sides. That she should've understood where his dad was coming from with all those medicine and why Beck wanted to see her foster sister again. They care, that's why. And she should've thought that Walt needs to find his home too. Just like she did. 

Overall it was a really good book. Four-shiny-stars! 'm not sure why I'm not giving it 5 but I guess that's just it. I loved it and Mary Iris Malone is going to be okay.

Now let's get to my favorite part.

Of course it was sad to find out that Beck and Walt had to leave (that was the part where I cried) but I understand why they had to. And somehow thinking that Beck cares enough for Walt to help him find his mom is enough for me to officially fall for him. And hey, hey, they told Mim to meet them at the next baseball game, right? At their rendezvouski. So it's another chance and maybe by then, Beck is not that old for Mim anymore.

Beck holds me like that on the floor well into the night. We don’t talk. We don’t need to. Sleep is close, and I’m okay with that. Because among the not-knowing of sleep, I’ll know Beck. At some point, he carries me to bed and lies down next to me. It isn’t weird, though maybe it should be; it isn’t wrong, though it definitely could be. I curl up next to him, put my head on his shoulder. He wraps an arm around me, and I swear we were once a single unit, a supercontinent divided millions of years ago—like my fifth-grade science project—now reunited into some kaleidoscopic New Pangaea.

“I’m Madagascar,” I say, sleepily.

“You’re what?”

“I’m Madagascar. And you’re Africa.”

He squeezes my shoulder, and—I think he gets it. I bet he does.

--------

And that’s when I know what this is. Or rather, what it’s not. I remember our conversation from last night, out under the stars, in the back of Uncle Phil, and I know. “This isn’t a crush, you know.” I say it with my head in his arm—I want him to physically feel my words.

“I know,” he says.

“It isn’t.”

“I know.”

Tell him, Mary.

It’s deep and real and fucking old-school. It’s a fortress of passion, a crash—a fatal collision of neurons and electrons and fibers, my circus of oddities coming together as one, imploding in a fiery blaze. It’s . . . I-don’t-know-what . . . my collection of shiny.

It’s love.

-------- 

I met a boy. And he is, like, so totally hott. And stuff. Laugh out loud. - Mim

Signing off, Me who liked this book.

October Reading List #1

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the "wastelands" of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland.

So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.

(Goodreads) 

All The Rage by Courtney Summers

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?

(Goodreads)  

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner.

Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince.

 (Goodreads)

 The Five Stages of Falling In Love by Rachel Higginson

Elizabeth Carlson is living in the pits of hell- also known as grief.

Her husband of eight years, the father of her four children and the love of her life, died from cancer. Grady's prognosis was grim, even from the start, but Liz never gave up hope he would survive. How could she, when he was everything to her?

Six months later, she is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and get the kids to school on time. Both seem impossible. Everything seems impossible these days.

When Ben Tyler moves in next door, she is drowning in sorrow and pain, her children are acting out, and the house is falling apart. She has no time for curious new friends or unwanted help, but Ben gives her both. And he doesn't just want to help her with yard work or cleaning the gutters. Ben wants more from Liz. More than she's capable of ever giving again.

As Liz mourns her dead husband and works her way through the five stages of grief, she finds there's more of her heart to give than she thought possible. And as new love takes hold, she peels away the guilt and heartache, and discovers there's more to life than death.

(Goodreads)

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.

 (Goodreads)