Review - Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Size: 224 pages
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Release Date: May 10, 2005
ISBN: 978-0375832994
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 5/5 stars


I have been wanting to read this book forever. I’ve read a couple other books by Levithan (Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Every Day) and really enjoyed them. They are always quirky and fun reads that are heartfelt and entertaining. This book fit that perfectly. It’s quirky, fun, heartfelt, and a good commentary on life in general.

Paul has known he was gay since Kindergarten, he’s had a couple of boyfriends but he knows he has met his soulmate in Noah. Him and Noah are perfect together, with Noah at his side life makes sense. Then Paul blows it when he comforts his ex-boyfriend Karl with a kiss. As if things aren't bad enough Paul’s best friend Jodi has started going out with a colossal jerk and won’t even talk to Paul now. Thrown into the mix is poor Tony, Tony is trying to help everyone when really it’s him that needs help. Tony’s parents are absolutely convinced that he will go to hell if they can’t cure his gayness and he is so sick of dealing with that.

This is an absolutely hilarious and heartfelt read. It takes a humorous and endearing look at high school life and life in general. I was seriously laughing my butt off at a number of points in this book. Some of it is just so outlandishly funny.

Paul goes to a very quirky high school. No one has ever given him trouble about his gayness, the cheerleaders ride Harleys, and the star quarterback (who used to be Daryl) is now called Infinite Darlene and is also the Prom Queen. It is a crazy high school. It’s also surprisingly endearing because despite all the quirkiness it just works so well for all involved. Yes there is a lot of drama here, a lot of high school angst...but it’s dealt with in such a humorous way and with so much grace that it is just a wonderful read.

Paul is an incredibly unique character, he is solid in his identity in a way most people never are. His friends love him for it and are a bit jealous. Paul is always trying to fix everything for everyone, and is a bit blind when it comes to taking care of his own issues. His family is wonderfully supportive and funny too.

There are a lot of wonderful characters in here. They are all interesting, intriguing, and inherently trying to be good people.

As everything starts to fall apart for Paul be finally begins to doubt himself and despair...of course this is when his friends step it up and support him the most. Paul finds maybe that first everything had to fall apart before it could be put back together in a way that totally makes more sense.

Tony definitely deserves a shout out as an excellent side character in this book. He is secure in who his is but tired of his parents not accepting that. He makes some incredibly mature decisions throughout the book and really was an absolutely wonderfully wise and supportive character throughout the story.

Overall an absolutely fun and entertaining read. This is a funny, quirky, hilarious, and heartfelt book about a crazy high school where everyone is just trying to figure out who they are as people and find a way to be happy. This book is about love, friendship, life, and of course all the hilarity that ensues. It’s one of those books that just makes you feel happy and good to read. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge
- Young Adult Reading Challenge

Review - On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Comptemporary Fiction
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Plume
Release Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0142196724
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars


I had seen this book on a number of “Best of 2012” lists and decided it looked like an interesting read. So I picked up a copy from the library. It ended up being an interesting and engaging read. It would have been an exceptional book, except at times the dialogue between characters sounded a bit awkward to me.

This was an engaging read about a woman named Anna who is tutoring a teenage boy named T.J. T.J. is in remission from cancer and is supposed to be catching up on school work over the summer with Anna’s help. On the way to meet up with the boy's parents their plane crashes on a deserted island. They learn to survive on the island dealing with storms, general survival, sharks, disease, and malnutrition.

Anna and T.J. are both excellent characters. They both really keep their cool when they crash on this deserted island. Because of this they figure out ways to cope with the obstacles in their path to survival. I found them both to be very engaging and very realistically done.

There were a couple of things that bothered me about this book. At times the language and talking sounded a bit awkward to me. Also I thought that the fact that these two very attractive people were on this island by themselves so long and kept their relationship platonic was a bit unrealistic. Especially since they were so obviously attracted to each other and pretty much had nothing else to do.

-------SPOLIER START---------
Graves makes a big deal about pointing out how Anna and T.J. wait until T.J. is nineteen before doing anything sexual. It was a bit odd and forced feeling.
-------SPOLIER END---------

Still this ends up being a very engaging and quick read. You are constantly wondering if they will be rescued, if their relationship will go past friends, and if they are rescued how they will deal with the fall-out.

It's a quick fun read. It does go into some issues; like what society thinks about people who fall in love who are vastly different in age. It also delves into the issue of trying to balance happiness with society's demands.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. The story and writing wasn't anything spectacular but it was entertaining. There are parts of the book that are a bit awkward, but it is still a very engaging read. I would recommend to those who like contemporary romance and enjoy survival stories.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Review - Planet Tad by Tim Carvell, Doug Holgate (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: MIddle Grade
Genre: Humor/Fiction
Size: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0061934360
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone?
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 4.5/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. It’s not the type of thing I normally read, but sounded so funny that I had to give it a try. This ended up being a very well done book and a highly amusing read. There were parts of this book where I was laughing so hard I was almost in tears.

Tad is your typical twelve year old and has some specific goals for the upcoming year: 1) start a blog, 2) shave for the first time, 3) Get girls to notice him, and 4) do a kickflip on his skateboard. Additionally he’d like to survive seventh grade. He doesn’t start the blog to share his progress on his goals but mainly to share whatever strange and random thoughts pop into his twelve year old head.

In style the book is similar to Diary of a Whimpy Kid (which I haven’t read). It also reminded me a bit of the style used in The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda. It is much, much funnier than either and I think it will appeal to a much wider range of ages.

The illustrations included throughout add to the hilarity; they are incredibly well done and very funny.

The book is a series of blog entries done by date throughout the year. Some are short and some are long. Some are the entries are strange random thoughts and some are about his adventures in school.

Tad is a down to earth and intelligent boy who is just trying to figure things out. He’s not a wimp, he’s not nerdy, he’s just a normal boy navigating his way through middle school. He’s a great character, likable and easy to relate to.

His sister also features in many of the entries, she is young and smart and a bit evil at times...but well, she is his younger sister so what do you expect?

There are many pop references throughout, so this may not be a book that ages well...but in twenty years the current generation will be able to read it and look back fondly on the culture of their youth. At least for now all the pop culture references add to the hilarity of it all.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It is so funny and Tad is so fun to read about. I highly recommend it to people of all ages. It is a super fun, super hilarious, quick read that will have you laughing your butt off...and, in my case, very happy that the whole middle school thing is well behind me...  Although I would like to read more books about Tad and his life.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge

Review - Gold by Chris Cleave (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Comtemporary Fiction
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1451672725
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars


I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. It was a very engaging book that was hard to put down; but there were parts I didn’t enjoy. I also thought everything was a bit too tidily tied up for this to be an accurate representation of real life.

This is a story about three cyclists on their way to the Olympics. Kate, Zoe, and Jack meet at nineteen years of age during a training camp. They are all exceptional cyclists...they are all seemingly destined for Gold. Kate and Jack marry and Zoe remains competitive and alone. As the years go on things change. Kate misses her first chance at Gold when she has to stay home with her newborn girl. Kate misses her second chance when her daughter is diagnosed with Leukemia right before Kate’s race. Year pass and now it is time for Kate’s third and final chance to go to the Olympics. Will Kate and Zoe finally be able to meet up in an Olympic competition?

This ends up being a story about family versus competition. It is also the story about how one woman can ruin a lot of people’s lives. There are parts in this story that are very engaging and heartfelt and parts that just felt totally wrong. The story itself is told in both the past and present; we hear bits of both past and present from Kate, Zoe, Sophie, Jack and their coach.

Kate and Zoe are interesting and contrasting characters. Kate is naturally more talented but constantly puts others before herself. She is very Pollyanna in character and I absolutely could not understand how she got as far in competition as she had. She pretty much lets everyone walk all over her constantly. You can tell I didn’t really enjoy her as a character; although she did have to make some tough decisions and my heart went out to her at points in the book.

Zoe is an impossible character to like. She is competitive to the point of obsession. Her and Kate are supposedly friends, but even Zoe’s acts of friendship have a motive behind them. Zoe is truly one of the most destructive characters I have ever read about; she destroys everything.

Jack is another character that ends up being very hard to like. As secrets between the three characters unfold you find that Jack has made some very bad decisions in his past that have had huge consequences.

The most likable character of the bunch is Kate’s daughter, Sophie. Sophie is battling a horrible illness and constantly dreams that she is living in a Star Wars world; some of these scenes are heartbreaking but some of them are highly amusing. Watching how much effort Sophie puts into making sure her parents don’t worry too much about her is thought-provoking and again heartbreaking at times. Sophie is by far the most interesting character in this book.

There is a lot of drama in this book which I am not a huge fan of; think Lifetime type of drama. I did however enjoy the discussion of professional cycling and all the training the athletes went through. I myself am a biker and really enjoyed learning about what these athletes went through daily to keep themselves in Olympic condition.

The book ends up being engaging because it is propelled forward by two questions: will Sophie get better and will Kate go to the Olympics. The plot has a huge twist in the middle that was somewhat predictable.

Things are tied up in such a tidy and happy way, that the ending felt contrived and fake. After all the emotional turmoil throughout the book the ending felt completely false.

So, did I enjoy the book? Well I found it hard to put down and really wanted to know what was going to happen to Sophie. I however did not like the characters much; Jack, Zoe and the coach are incredibly selfish human beings who have made horrible life decisions. Kate is completely boring and hard to admire at all because she has no backbone. The plot was contrived, predictable and everything was tied up in a way that felt fake.

Overall this was an okay read. Those who are into the Lifetime drama sort of literature might enjoy this book. Also those who are into cycling might find some of the discussion around the sport interesting. I found it an engaging read, but still didn’t enjoy it much. Too much drama, characters that were hard to enjoy reading about, and a plot that was tied up in a way that felt very false.

I have heard Cleave’s book Little Bee is much better than this one, but after reading this one I am not eager to read anymore of Cleave’s books.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - Shine, Shine, Shine by Lydia Netzer (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Size: 320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: July 17, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1250007070
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Publisher
Rating: 4.5/5 stars


I got a copy of this audiobook to review from Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. This was an excellent read that is more contemporary fiction than science fiction. It’s a book about life in general and how people try to force themselves into a “normal” mold.

Sunny’s life is perfect. She has the perfect house, a successful husband, and good friends. Everything is just right except that: her husband just left on a trip to the moon, her 4 year old son is autistic, her mother is dying, she is very pregnant, and she has no hair. Her husband, Maxon, loves robots and he loves his family and is brilliant, but he’s up in space. As Sunny’s world begins to fall apart she starts to realize that there is no normal, everyone is just as flawed as everyone else.

The audiobook was very well done. The voices for different characters were easy to differentiate and the narrator was pleasant to listen to. The book does jump around in time some, this was denoted by pauses in the audiobook or by the start of a new chapter. The time changes were a bit hard to follow...but after listening a few seconds I was usually able to figure out who was talking and what time frame we were in.

The book explores Sunny and Maxon and their past and present. We learn how they got to be where they are and how Sunny tried to force normality on them when she got pregnant. Sunny and Maxon are both incredibly unique people with an interesting relationship. But Sunny has an idea of what a mother and family should be and tries to force them into that mold. The deeper Sunny digs into the lives of those around her the more she finds that normal isn’t really all that normal.

This is a really great book that encompasses a number of issues really well. This book deals with space travel, robots, autism, motherhood, womanhood, what it means to be normal and just so many things. It is written in a piece-meal way. You hear from the wife/mother Sunny and you hear from her husband, Maxon. You listen to what is currently happening in their lives and what has happened in the past. Despite the way the plot jumps around it all comes together to make an interesting and cohesive story.

The characters are all very real people and the story in very engaging. You keep wondering if Maxon will make it to the moon, if Sunny will have her baby before he gets back, and if their son will do okay off of his meds.

This is definitely more contemporary fiction and just a story about life in general. This is really not a sci-fi/fantasy read. Yeah there is a bit about space travel and robots...but that takes a backseat to reading about Sunny and how she deals with her life. Still I enjoyed it overall and enjoyed how it makes you think.

The one thing I did not enjoy at all was the ending...absolutely nothing is resolved. Although this is in keeping with the story (it's about life and life doesn't have any clean cut answers and endings); I hate endings that are that unresolved and open. So just a warning to those who dislike open ended stories without any resolution.

Overall this was a wonderfully written book, that was creative and engaging. The characters are completely believable and the plot was engaging. This is more of a contemporary fiction than science fiction so keep that in mind; there is some space travel but that takes a back seat to watching Sunny deal with her every day life. This book is about realizing that everyone is different and that there is no normal, instead there are many different ways to lead a fulfilling life. It is a book that will definitely make you think about the way you live your life. Recommended to those interested in contemporary literature, quirky characters, and autism.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge