Heidi
The first two heart stopper volumes are predominantly fluffy-romantic. Things start to get a little more serious in this volume as Nick starts to notice Charlie's disordered eating.
I initially read this book many years ago. Now that I'm older, I find parts of the book a bit predictable (maybe because I've read it before?), and I can definitely see some of the Mormon influence on the book.
That being said, Orson is a wonderful storyteller, and I'm always sad when I have to put down a book he's written. He does a wonderful job of keeping the reader engaged from the first page to the last.
This series builds a world where people have magic knacks in communities, it's widely known and respected. It's an alternate history fiction, and a pretty good one.
Representation is so important. The main character is aromantic/asexual.
Within the first 8 pages of this book, I found myself saying “It's me! The main character is me!”
Georgia is at her high school after prom party. It's her last chance to kiss someone to complete the “normal” high school experience she is told by everyone in society is important. Yet, she can't seem to do it. She suddenly realises she has been faking a crush for 7 years.
Georgia is going off to University/College, once again determined to have the “normal” university experience everyone else has. She enrolls the help of her roommate, and along the way, she becomes best friends with a seemingly unlikely person while discovering what being aromantic asexual (aro ace) means for her, and what “normal” is going to look like for her.
This was the book I needed when I was in high school.
This was an amazing book. I am a bit further along in the journey of self-reflection on my own racism than the book intends me to be, but it does eventually catch up to the gaps I've overlooked on my journey.
This book itself does make me look closer at the “discrete” ways white people talk about race, some I already knew (anti-immigration, urban vs suburban), and others I hadn't truly noticed before (test scores, good vs. bad neighbourhoods, good vs. bad schools).
This book helped provide pathing on “okay, so I am aware I have implicit bias about races; now what?” and start to question just what I am missing out on in my life because I am so surrounded by white people & white culture. Even the foods I consume that I think of as not-white are considered either white (Italian, French) or ‘honorary' white (Mexican).
This book has helped me further question the ‘agenda' that is unintentionally passed on: Why are black neighbourhoods considered more dangerous? Yes, they're poor, thanks to redlining. Yes, poverty and crime go hand in hand, but if an entire neighbourhood were poor & white, we wouldn't think that neighbourhood unsafe, even if the crime statistics matched a poor & black neighbourhood.
Definitely a lot of things to work on & fix in my own worldview.
This book could have been written about me. From the very first chapter, I was hooked. I highly recommend this book to any other adult with ADHD, especially women who are left wondering where the “H” in our diagnosis comes into play.
One thing I will mention: This was written in the pre-smartphone era. Some of the suggestions on creating order still make a lot of sense, but will need to be tweaked to fit in with our “always on” lives.
This was the first Ramona Quimby book I remember reading. I definitely have fond memories for Ramona learning “present” didn't necessarily mean gift, Beezus teasing Ramona about the “dawn's early light” from the Star Spangled Banner, and Ramona “quitting” school. I remember empathizing with Ramona's annoyance over how slow Howie and grown ups were (I often felt so much the same as a kid!).
As an adult reading this in the 2020s, it's painfully obvious Ramona has ADHD - can't focus on her own work, isn't able to relate well to her peers, can't sit still, very imaginative, incredibly impulsive. I also completely get why her peers do not like her (though I did not pick up that nuance as a kid when I read this book).
I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. It's a really great metaphor for rape culture and statescraft.
I fell in love with the lore in this world, and found myself wanting to hear more about some of the supporting characters (the parents of Celeste, Marie's mother, the teachers on the Mountain, Julia, Miles).
I will say: this is completely a dark fantasy/fiction book. There likely won't be explanations for how/why the moles, freckles & birthmarks change on women's bodies (there certainly was not in this book). If the lack of explanation is likely to bother you, I do not recommend this book to you, as it does require some suspension of belief.
I have not read the Handmaid's Tale yet, but I do understand this is the YA version of it.
As far as literature goes, the language used to write this book was fairly simple. It was a relatively easy read and rather enjoyable.
Dr. Rodriguez is a first generation Mexican American. His parents did not speak much English, and in the first essay in the book, Dr. Rodriguez talks about how in the 1950s, his parents were told to start speaking only English at home (due to Dr. Rodriguez's hesitance to speak English at school).
As Dr. Rodriguez starts to learn more and more English, and starts to emulate his teachers at the school, he starts to feel separated from the culture at his own house (as he loses his ability to speak Spanish, to the point he has to re-take it later on, and as his parents lose the ability to talk to their children as their children's English grows by leaps and bounds).
Dr. Rodriguez makes an interesting point about the downsides of how education can cause people to change and grow in a way that can separate them from their loved ones in their lives. He is anti-affirmative action because he correctly denotes affirmative action only looks at skin tone, and not income level of the parents. He also points out the reason for the lack of diversity in the colleges during the 1960s/1970s has to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of education at the lower levels.
Dr. Rodriguez's own parents spent money they could not afford to ensure Dr. Rodriquez and his siblings all went to a private Catholic college, to ensure they got the best education that could be offered.
Dr. Rodriguez himself did not like the idea of bilingual education, as he personally felt like Spanish was a language for “at home” and English was a language for “the public.” He himself also did not like being considered a “minority student,” as it was yet another way he felt like he was different from everyone else.
The version I read was copy written in 1982, and some parts of that show. Dr. Rodriguez is unsure how he'd be more “qualified” to mentor minority students than the white teachers/professors who educated him are. Dr. Rodriguez does not see how having diversity in leadership does anything for the next generation.
I would be interested in reading what Dr. Rodriguez's views are today, now that we talk much more about how important representation is. I'd be interested to know if his views of bilingual education or affirmative action have changed. I would also be interested to know if he still feels “othered,” much the way he had throughout most of his boyhood, based on the writing of this book.
All in all, this was a very good read and gave me food for thought about education that I had not considered before. I had not considered someone may not want to become educated because it could mean losing the ties they have to loved ones who are unable to journey with them on their path towards knowledge.
This book is an interesting read. Very informative. Not entirely my cup of tea (hence the 3 stars), but it's not a bad book.
Would definitely recommend to friends. I skimmed through a couple of chapters because they bored me (a chapter about how hormones work and the final chapter).
This book is really informative about how your body works when pregnant/breastfeeding, the different releases of hormones through your body that make you bond with the new baby instead of wanting to get rid of it (I must be lacking in that hormone because I do not want any babies. I like cats better), it's informative about why certain areas of women's bodies are more likely to get cancer (the uterus/breasts), and how we tend to stroke each other/pets at the same rate (40 strokes per minute).
The parts I was interested in were well-written and easy to read. The parts I didn't much care about were kind of a bore. To be honest, though, this book was more entertaining than my 8th grade science education about the human body and more informative (although, you should take into account that in 8th grade, I was an ignoramous who didn't believe knowing how my menstrual cycle worked would have any bearing on my life).
Pretty solid book for one written by a teenager. A fast read. I read it many years ago, and I was surprised to remember the plot twist. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. I like the lore of the world Amelia has set up.
It was hard to get into this book at first, since the focus is very different from the other books in this series. Once I made it about 40% of the way through, I was hooked, though!
Carrie is the Holden Caulfield of the book. She reminds me a lot of me when I was a teenager. I found her really lovable because of that (she went through lessons in the book that I had to go through when I was her age), but I can also see why others would not care for her much.
The Ramona Quimby Series was one of my favorites growing up. As a kid, I identified and empathized so strongly with poor, neglected Ramona who no one gave any attention to/the time of day to. I honestly don't know that I have ever read the whole series. I certainly don't recall reading this first book.
In reading this book as an adult, I cannot help but empathize with Beatrice. She just wants peace and quiet, and she has a rambunctious, imaginative, loud, four year old sister!
I wish I was mentoring someone younger at work. I would absolutely recommend this book to her.
The saddest part of any re-reading of this story is that it continues to be relevant today.
loved it! when I thought I didn't like it, by Job, it sucked me back in 3 pages later!
All the events and characters kept coming back full circle. Amazing book, I will recommend it to anyone & everyone.
I have never read Game of Thrones, but from what I have heard, if you liked those books, you will like this one!
If you're looking for Lauren to talk about her work on Gilmore Girls, it's a single chapter in this book, that isn't terribly in depth. There is a bit more on Lauren's work for “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.”
This is a light autobiography, and I got the sense Lauren is a private person in general. That being said, the book is a fast, easy, funny read, and it really shows how blurred the line between Lauren and Lorelai is.
I really found myself dragging through this book at times. Diana is fantastic at showing, rather than telling the plot, and there's just a ton of things going on/a ton of characters to keep track of. As such, I keep a OneNote going of everything I've read through in a previous chapter. I find this read took up a lot of brain space which is what caused me to drag through it at times.
A lot of fascinating insights into our cultural heritage. I've recommended this book to at least five other people already. This definitely explains a lot of the cultural divide and political debates still going on today.
This book covers American history from the 1500s up through 2010. I learned there were multiple parts to the American Revolution, and additional wars that were being fought in the US territories.