Before She Was What She Became

Becoming Bonnie by Jenni Walsh

This is a fictional work about Bonnie Parker, the Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde. It picks up when she is about fifteen years old, still in high school, and still in love with a boy she's grown up with. This chronicles her life in how she became involved in illicit and illegal activities, which, in this case, was working at a speakeasy.

While working at the speakeasy, she volunteers herself to go on a bootlegging run with Clyde's brother, Buck. This is when she meets Clyde for the first time, but she is not that interested in him because she is engaged to Roy. Roy is everything she wants until he starts drinking and gambling. He ends up losing all their money and cheating on her.

Since I don't know too much about Bonnie's actual history, I can't say whether this book is out of the realm of possibility or not, but I did like it. Highly recommend this one.

A Modern Interpretation

The Picture of Dulce Garcia by Alana Albertson

This came in one of my Lit-Cubes, but I don't remember which one anymore. This is a modern retelling of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey, which I have never read. I actually started this earlier in the summer, then got caught up in other things. No harm, no foul. This was a quick read.

Dulce is a sixteen-year-old actress in Marin, California. She plays a witch on a tv show. While shooting an episode, Dulce somehow manages to curse herself. She becomes flawlessly beautiful. At the same time, she meets Dorian Grey, who claims to be the real-life inspiration for Wilde's book. Dulce falls for him, but is also in love with her co-star, Sebastian.

This curse has changed aspects of Dulce's personality, and people are noticing. It all causes her to run off with Dorian. Then she discovers that he is sketchy as hell. She ultimately has to determine to live as she is now, or risk her life to break the curse.

I only finished this because I started it. And I paid for it. This was not the best thing I have read. In fact, it's kind of shallow. The characters are blah, and I feel so much more could have been done with it. Nevertheless, I will put it in my classroom, where someone will probably love it. 

Summer Book 25

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

I barely made it, but I met my summer reading goal. I wasn't sure I was going to get to read this book this summer. I put it on hold a few weeks before school was out, and it finally became available the day I went in for in-service. It was definitely worth the wait.

This is Mary's story. She allegedly killed a three-month-old baby when she was nine years old. She served time for it and is now in a group home. She finds out that she's pregnant, and once the person running the group home finds out, it becomes clear that everyone is going to try to take Mary's baby. She contacts a lawyer, and they appeal her case. Through her story, the reader can see the holes, and how it is possible that Mary didn't commit the crime.

So many times while reading this, my heart breaks for this girl. She's sixteen, and her mom sold her down the river to save herself. She's treated abominably in this group home, both by the people running it and the other girls living there. At one point, one of the girls pushes her down the stairs. It's a miracle that she doesn't lose her baby or die herself.

This was a good read. If nothing else, it has opened my eyes to what some group homes are like. The past couple of years, I've had students from a local group home, and it is hard to imagine what these girls go through. Honestly, I pray that none of the girls I have in my classes have experienced the horrors I read about in this book.

Summer Book 24

Puddin' by Julie Murphy

When I heard this was coming out, I couldn't wait to read it. Then I forgot about it. So, a few weeks ago, when I was up insanely late and saw this on my public library's Overdrive page, I put it on hold. I've enjoyed a couple of this author's other books, one being Dumplin', which this is a "sequel" of.

Told in two perspectives, Millie and Callie. Millie is overweight. Her mother is also overweight, and seems to think dieting is a way of life, even though they don't work. She sends Millie to fat camp every summer, but Millie vows she won't go this year because she plans to go to UT journalism camp, if she can get in. In her spare time, Millie works at her uncle's gym.

Callie is on her high school drill team, which happens to be the only team at that high school worth a darn, but all the money goes to football. When Callie and her friends discover that one of their sponsors pulled their funding, they decide to vandalize the company. This goes too far, and Millie is who recognizes Callie in the surveillance video causing the damage.

Callie is kicked off the drill team, which just about kills her, and thinks it was one of her fellow dancers who turns her in. To make restitution to the gym, Callie works there for free. It is at the gym that Callie and Millie become friends. They are unlikely friends: the fat girl and the popular girl. This book is about their ups and downs.

This was a pretty good read, and a quick read. Highly recommended, particularly if you like this author's other works.

Summer Book 23

Out of Orange by Cleary Wolters

This is the story of Alex, supposedly, from the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. Ms. Wolters wrote this in response to the show because Hollywood, surprise surprise, overexaggerated who she was in the show.

The book is quite good, but the majority of it focuses on what led Cleary to the federal institution. Only about a quarter of the book is about her time in jail. I was correct in my assessment of Cleary's character in Piper's book, by the way, but Piper showed up more in this book than Cleary did in hers, if that makes any kind of sense.

In reading both Piper and Cleary's books, I was hoping to find some of the things that make the show so enjoyable, but, as I said, the show is an overexaggerated depiction of what really happened. For crying out loud, Piper and Cleary weren't even in the same facility except when they went to Chicago to testify in the trial of one of their co-conspirators.

If you're looking to read a true story about how easy it is for someone who is seemingly normal/average to break the law, then this is for you. If you're a fan of the show, you'll like this, but for different reasons than the show.

Summer Book 22

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

I have seen several episodes of the NetFlix series of the same name when my husband watched the first six seasons, but he watched a lot when I was at work or asleep, so I missed a good deal of the show. Still, I planned to go back and watch from the beginning myself, but I haven't done so yet. So, one day last week when I was up absurdly late at night, I came across this while puttering around on my public library's Overdrive site. I thought it would give me more insight on the show before I started it. In this regard, I was wrong. Very little of what is in this book translates to the show. It seems the show is an over exaggeration of what Ms. Kerman relates in this book.

Piper Kerman made some mistakes in her early to mid-twenties. Mistakes that involved drug trafficking at the behest of the woman she was dating. After they broke up, Piper sought a "normal" life. This was going well for a while until she received notice that she was being indicted. She obtained counsel, plead guilty, and was sentenced to fifteen months in a federal penitentiary. This book is her recounting of this time in prison. Honestly, it is tame compared to what is shown on screen.

Having said that, I am about to start the memoir written by the woman who inspired the character of Alex on the show. The woman who claims to have had a relationship with Piper. The woman, unless it is the one who enticed her into this mess, is NEVER mentioned in this book. It will be interesting to read her take on this.