Poems That Hit A Little Too Close Sometimes

 home body by rupi kaur

As in the style of her previous books, Ms. Kaur has written and illustrated her own works. She talks of pain, of healing, of feminism, but mostly of being content in your own skin.

Just like in her previous books of poetry, there were poems that hit a little too close to home, and I think that is why I like them. Sometimes we just need to be reminded that we are not alone, and that's what Ms. Kaur's work does for me. 

Not gonna lie though... I bought this as a stocking stuffer for my daughter and very carefully read it so it still looks new. Lol.

Christmas Couple Across the Pond

 Mind the Gap, Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

They did it again! Dash and Lily are one of my very favorite couples to read about, and I always finish the books hoping there will be another one.

In this installment, Dash is in England, attending Oxford, while Lily is still in New York, running her pet business. It's Christmas time and Dash isn't coming home for the holidays, so Lily decides to surprise Dash in London. 

Dash doesn't know if he belongs at Oxford, and Lily doesn't want to fulfill the family legacy of attending Barnard. They are both trying to find happiness, both with themselves and each other. Friends from previous books make an appearance, as do some new friends. 

Will Dash and Lily survive the distance?

A Robbery Gone Bad

 Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Our faculty book club that was started while we were all quarantined back in the springtime is back, and this is the first selection of this school year. The librarian at one of our feeder schools (who used to be one of the librarians on our campus until they foolishly decided we didn't need two librarians on a high school campus) recommended this to our librarian. She even wants to join in our book club discussion, which will be cool.

This book, in a way, reminded me of the movie, Clue, and a little of the book And Then There Were None except that no one died. It jumped around a lot, and just when I thought I was finally figuring it out, the author threw a curveball. It was a fun read because of this.

So, this book is about a bank robbery, but not really. It's about a hostage situation, but not really. It's about an apartment open house, but not really. It's about people and how they interact with each other. This gives the here and now of the characters but also gives their background. 

If all Backman's books are this good, I will read them all.

A Modern, Young Adult Take on my Favorite Book

 Bookish Boyfriends: A Date with Darcy  by Tiffany Schmidt

I'm in the middle of a couple of books. Books that are either sequels or companions to other books I have read and enjoyed, but for whatever reason, I am having a hard time getting through. I decided to peruse Overdrive from my local public library to see what I could see. The title led me to believe it would have something to do with my favorite novel, Pride and Prejudice, and I was not wrong.

This is about sixteen-year-old Merrilee. She has an older sister who is marrying a local politician's son, and a younger sister who is an angsty artist. She lives next door to her best guy friend, and lives reasonably close to her best girl friend (conveniently, her two best friends don't really like each other). She is an avid reader and has proclaimed that book boyfriends are the best. 

The book starts on Merri's first day of her sophomore year at a private high school. She, her best girl friend, and her younger sister are all new students there. On the very first day, she sees a young man looking swoony against a tree, and gets belittled by another cute guy. By the end of the week, swoony guy becomes her boyfriend. 

She has to read Romeo and Juliet for her English class, and she feels a certain kinship to that tale, particularly with her boyfriend having been cast in the school play as Romeo. But he is a bit over the top and doesn't always play by the rules, which ultimately leads Merri to get into trouble (and leads to her breaking up with him). Her English teacher is in charge of Merri's punishment, and she assigns Pride and Prejudice to Merri. 

Merri becomes engrossed in the book (who could blame her?) and sees the characters in people she knows around her. If Merri is Lizzy, then who is her Darcy? 

This was a cute read, and I wouldn't mind reading more like it.

A Worthy Successor

 The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven several years ago, and liked it. In truth, everything I have read by Mitch Albom has been worth my time. They are generally quick reads, but they always touch the heart. This one was no different. 

This was the story of Annie. Annie was injured in an amusement park accident when she was a child (the same accident mentioned in the previous book), and the scars, both physical and emotional, left an indelible mark on her life. 

At the beginning of the book, Annie is marrying her true love, Paulo. They met in elementary school, lost touch for fifteen years when his family moved to Italy, then found each other again. Their love was meant to be. On the night of their wedding, they saw a man stuck on the side of the road in the rain changing his tire, and they stopped so Paulo could help him. The man was appreciative and gave him a business card. He owned a hot air balloon company. The next morning, Annie decides that they should go for a hot air balloon ride.

Instead of the man they helped the night before, his assistant took them up in the balloon. He was not as experienced, and they ended up caught in electric lines. The balloon pilot was ejected from the basket, Annie was thrown out by Paulo, and Paulo fell. They ended up in the hospital, and Paulo's injuries were such that he was going to die if he didn't receive a new lung. Annie offered hers, and despite everyone not wanting to honor those wishes, she gives a lung to Paulo.

Then she wakes up in Heaven, meeting five people who touched her life in some way. Annie always felt that she made mistakes, to the point that everything she did was a mistake. The five people she meets help her to see things in ways she never thought to.

This book was beautiful--sad, but beautiful. I highly recommend it.

What Would You Do For a Friend?

The Request by David Bell

Ever since I discovered Mr. Bell's books a few years ago, I can't wait to get my hands on his new release every summer. There's only been one that I wasn't the biggest fan of, and it was still a good book. This one, however, is more in line with his earlier books, and I loved those. 

At the beginning of this one, Ryan is leaving money in the mailbox of a family of the victims of a drunk driving accident. He leaves money every year because he was the one driving the car, although someone else did the time for the accident. An older sister of the victims catches Ryan and blackmails him to give her $10,000 in a couple of weeks' time. He doesn't have it, but what can he do?

As a reader, you think this is the request referred to in the title, but Bell goes a step further and adds another one. 

Ryan's friend, Blake, surprises him when he is checking in on the bar he is part owner of, and asks him to talk. They go across the street for coffee, and Blake has a request of his own. Blake needs Ryan to go into the house of a woman he recently broke things off with and retrieve some letters he'd written to the woman that told the truth about the drunk driving accident all those years ago. Blake gets Ryan to do it because Ryan knows if the truth gets out, his life will be ruined. 

So Ryan goes over there. While attempting to retrieve the letters, he finds the woman dead on the floor. He flips out and leaves. What happens next is a roller coaster of Ryan trying to find out who killed this woman. Was it Blake? Can he trust his friend?

Like all of Bell's books, I can't recommend this one enough. Find it and read it. You'll thank me later.

An Irish Companion To Italy

Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

A year or two ago, I read Love and Gelato by the same author and enjoyed it, so I was happy to see that there was a companion book to it. As it turns out, there will be another one sometime in the next year, and I will read it too.

This one is about Lina's best friend, Addie, and Lina doesn't actually turn up in this book until the last chapter, which is why I am referring to it as a companion rather than a sequel.

Addie is the only girl in her family. She has four older brothers who are all amazing athletes. Addie thinks of herself as only mediocre, and hates that she is often referred to as Walter/Archie/Ian's little sister at school. She is very close to Ian, in fact, aside from Lina, he is her best friend. They have had a falling out over a guy Addie was seeing, but broke up with. Ian wants Addie to tell their mother about the guy, Cubby, but Addie is adamantly against it. So against it that she pushes Ian down the hill side of a cliff and gives him a black eye while they are at their aunt's wedding in Ireland. Addie and Ian are supposed to go to Italy to visit Lina for a few days while the rest of the family tours Ireland, but this little skirmish between siblings has angered their mother. She has decided that they have to get along while they're in Italy, or they will have to quit all of their sports. This terrifies Addie because she knows that a) Ian will make that difficult and b) sports are the only way she will get to go to college.

So, imagine Addie's surprise when she wakes up on the morning that she and Ian are supposed to leave for Italy only to find him gone. She finds him getting into a sketchy looking car in their hotel parking lot, but tackles him to the ground. She manages to get Ian to explain what he is doing, and it turns out that he is traveling across Ireland on a pilgrimage of sorts to see the final concert of his favorite band. Addie tags along with the intent of going to the airport to go see Lina in Italy, but misses her flight. What ensues over the next couple of days is hilarious--think a combination of National Lampoons European Vacation and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. 

I enjoyed this immensely, and can't wait for the next one to come out.

Still Not Your Everyday Fairy Tale

Beauty's Punishment by A.N. Roquelare

I was even less impressed with this one than the first one in the trilogy. Why would Beauty deliberately choose to be punished more severely than she was in the palace? I don't think that question is ever satisfactorily answered. What we do know is the first thing she does when she gets in the cart to go to the village for punishment, the first thing she does is screw another slave, one she is seeing for the first time ever. Who does that?

So, they go to the village where they are auctioned off and get new masters. Yea.

This disturbs me because gang rapes are almost celebrated. At one point, Beauty is servicing several men at once and enjoying it, even though it wasn't her choice. Somehow, I have my doubts that, if Beauty were real, this would be something she enjoyed. Worse, Tristan, the slave Beauty screws in the cart, falls in love with his "master" who literally treats him like a pony.

Yes, I am going to read the final book. I spent the money, and it would be a waste to do otherwise. I am not sure what I expected, but what I got wasn't it.

Snow Always Lands On Top

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I liked The Hunger Games trilogy when I read it eight and a half years ago, some better than others.  So, when I heard this was coming out, I pre-ordered it. It's a prequel and about President Snow.

I had hoped that, as a prequel, we'd find out what happened that caused the districts to go to war with the Capitol, but as details were released, it increasingly became clear that this would not be the case. Instead, we were going to learn why President Snow was the way he was. For the most part, that's just what we got, though I feel the ending was rushed and didn't answer the pertinent whys.

As previously indicated, this was about Coriolanus Snow before he became President Snow. For the first two thirds, he is in his last year at the Academy, which is the equivalent of his senior year of high school. He is poor, and both of his parents are dead. He lives with his cousin, Tigris, and his Grandma'am. His only hope for greatness is to be awarded a scholarship to attend University, and in order for that to happen, the tribute he is mentoring in the Hunger Games needs to win.

And, poor Snow, his tribute is a small girl from District 12. What chance could she possibly have to win? What conspires is the tenth Hunger Games.

This wasn't a terrible read, but I don't think it was nearly as good as the original trilogy. Still, it was worth the time put in.

Not Your Everyday Fairy Tale

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by A.N. Roquelare

When I read the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy eight years ago, several people told me I should read this trilogy. I kept putting it off, and waited until I could get it fairly inexpensively. That was a week or so ago ($1.99 for the whole trilogy!). I just finished the first one.

I'll be honest: as a middle-aged woman, I find myself single again, and am coming at this from a different perspective than I would have had I read this when everyone suggested it. Given that everyone told me it was better than that other trilogy, I expected better. Plus, it's Anne Rice, an author I typically enjoy, so I thought it would be better. I thought it would be racier. I thought so many things and was severely let down on all accounts.

I will continue to read the trilogy in the hope that I will get what I thought I was going to get out of them, but it's not looking very likely.

KO Book Club Choice 1

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

We had several options, and this is the one I ended up voting for. I was glad it was the one chosen for my school's online book club. I love Jojo Moyes' work, and this was, I think, the sixth book of hers that I have read.

This one is about a group of women in Kentucky in the 1930s. They are part of a WPA program instituted by Eleanor Roosevelt to create libraries in rural areas. These women would ride out into their communities and take books to the residents. Not everyone was receptive, but most were.

The story, as is, would have been fascinating, but Moyes makes her characters so real and believable.

First, there is Margaery. She is the last surviving member of her family. Allegedly, there is a blood feud between her family and another in the area, which will be important, as she is accused of murdering the patriarch of that family. She has no intentions of marrying her boyfriend, Sven, although he would very much like to marry her. She is content with the status quo and thinks a woman should be in charge of her own life--quite the forward thinker of her time.

Next there is Alice. Alice is from England and married to Bennett Van Cleve, one of the owners of the coal mine in the area. Alice would very much like to have a real marriage with her husband, but her father in law is always up in their business (oh, and there's a good chance her husband is gay). Mr. Van Cleve even went so far as to beat Alice because she didn't live up to his expectations as a daughter in law, so she went to stay with Margaery.

There are several minor characters, and all of them put together made for a fantastic read. I was satisfied at the end, which so seldom happens, it seems.

When the Past Blends with the Future

You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story that Never Happened by Amy Weinland Daughters

I initially bought this because a friend and former coworker mentioned it on Facebook. The author is from the same area I am, and graduated from the same high school I did (which is also where I teach). This takes place roughly six years before I moved to the same area, but the things she mentions, I can see them in my mind's eye. We even had the same fourth-grade teacher. So that aspect of the book would have put it near the top of my list of great books this year on its own, but then there is the story itself.

This is a weird mixture of autobiographical and fiction, which is not something you usually encounter--ever--but it somehow works. It starts in Ohio in 2014, where Amy currently lives. It is the day before Thanksgiving, and she is flying home to the suburbs of Houston, Texas, where her family lives, to meet with her siblings and parents to discuss financial matters while her parents are still alive and in sound mind to make decisions. She is taking a tiny plane, flown by her husband's boss' wife. She falls asleep on the plane, and wakes just before landing. They land at the wrong airport. Instead of an airport on the west side of town, they land at Hooks airport, mere minutes from where Amy grew up.

More importantly than landing at the wrong airport, they land on Thanksgiving Day, in 1978. Mary, the pilot of the plane, drives Amy to the house she grew up in, but tells her that is has been explained to her family (including her ten-year-old self) that she is a distant cousin from Ohio. She also tells Amy that she can't screw this up, meaning things will still turn out ok is she messes up. What ensues is both hilarious and touching as Amy re-experiences this time with her family, seeing everyone in a different light. 

I can't recommend this book enough. Go out and buy it and share it with your friends.

It's *Not* The End Of The World As We Know It

When The World Didn't End by Caroline Kaufman

Apparently, I have had this one for a while, but didn't realize it. I was going to read something else tonight, but I accidentally spilled Coca Cola everywhere, and my book was a casualty. Oops. This was one of the books I grabbed off of the stack on the bookcase in my living room, and being poetry, it was a quick read.

I am torn on this one. Some of the poems I related to--ones dealing with relationships and being pressured by boys to have sex (I was a teen once). The ones about harming herself and contemplating suicide, not so much. Even the poems at the end, that were supposed to be sort of triumphant, weren't that triumphant.

I didn't hate it, and may even buy her other book of poetry, if I haven't already.

Apologies

Apologies That Never Came by Pierre Alex Jeanty

I bought this about six months ago, started it and never finished it. It felt right to buy it at the time since I was (and still am) going through a divorce. I felt that odds were pretty good I would relate, as there are several things in my 20+ years of marriage that I will never get an apology for. There are other instances in my life that I will never get apologies for. Reading this, I think I am ok not getting the apologies. The poet seems bitter, which I get, but reading this did not offer me the solace I sought. That in no way means that this wasn't worth the time, just not at this moment for me, I guess.

Ghosts of the Past

to drink coffee with a ghost by amanda lovelace

I have had this book for months and just realized that I hadn't read it yet. This one is about loss and difficult relationships with parents.  Again, to a certain extent,  I can relate. It saddens  me that there are so many of us, but also makes me glad that there's a secret sisterhood who have faced the same things I have and survived.

A New Take on Cinderella

break your glass slippers by amanda lovelace

Lady Book Mad has done it again! I love her poetry/modern spin on fairy tales. In my "newly" single state, so many of these apply, but so many apply to when I was married as well. Clearly, I was more unhappy than I thought. What I do know is that these poems give me hope, because like all her other books, I know that there are others like me who feel these things and I am not alone.

Go buy this book!!

Be Careful Who You Call Friend

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

This is the third book I have read by this pair in the last two years. I have loved them all. I had no idea they had a new book out until I saw it at Hudson's in the Seattle airport last week, so, of course, I bought it. So glad I did.

Hendricks and Pekkanen are becoming quite the masters of psychological suspense, and I love it.

In this novel, we meet Shay. Shay is thirty-one and currently lives with her friend Sean, who she is secretly in love with. Sean has a girlfriend, Jody, who is always at their New York apartment, and it increasingly difficult for Shay to be home. One morning, rather than having to deal with Sean and Jody, Shay decides to get out of the house. As she is approaching a subway train, she witnesses a woman throwing herself onto the tracks.

The next few days happen in a blur, and after meetings with the police, Shay makes the weird decision to go to the memorial for the woman who committed suicide in front of her. At the memorial, she meets the friends of this woman. Over the course of the next few weeks, these women have infiltrated Shay's life, become her friend. For Shay, it's damn near perfect--until it isn't.

What Shay doesn't know is that these women have something to hide, and they are trying to frame Shay for something she didn't do.

This was a riveting read, and I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

A Little Spring Break Poetry

Empty Bottles Full of Stories by r.h. Sin and Robert M. Drake

I went on a long weekend to Montana to see my son, and whenever I travel, I buy a book. This was the book I bought there. I was honestly surprised that the poetry was written by men because much of it sounded like what I read from Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace. There were parts that hit home, and parts that broke my heart. I would recommend this to anyone.

TAYSHAS 2020 #11

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

I had high hopes for this one, as I liked Ms. Acevedo's last offering, but, again, not a great book.

Emoni is a senior in high school in Philadelphia. She has a two-year-old daughter named Emma. She lives with her Abuela. She loves to cook. Near the beginning of the book, she is accepted into the culinary arts classes at school, and they will have a trip to Spain in the spring. That is the book in a nutshell.

What irritated me was that up until the actual trip to Spain, there was a lot going on. Once she got to Spain, there was not a lot devoted to the trip. From that point on, it felt rushed. A point in this book's favor is that it was a quick read with short chapters.

TAYSHAS 2020 #10

Screenshot by Donna Cooner

It was a quick read, they said, and I guess it was. It's just another book on the TAYSHAS list that makes me question the list this year. This was only ok. This had the potential to be great, given the subject matter, but it wasn't.

Skye works at KMart in Colorado. She has two best friends, Asha and Emma. She doesn't feel she quite measures up to either one of them, but she has her eyes on the prize: an internship with a congresswoman for the summer. In fact, she has an interview coming up for the internship.

One night while celebrating Asha's birthday, Skye puts on this nightgown--one that would look great on Asha or Emma, but not so much Skye--and dances in the room. Asha records this and puts it on ChitChat, which sounds very similar to SnapChat. Skye is worried because this video could harm her chances for the internship.

Just when Skye thinks everything is A-Ok, she gets a message from someone threatening to release a screenshot of an image in the video if Skye doesn't do exactly what she's told. It starts our innocuous enough--painting her finger and toenails black. It soon escalates to wearing a prom dress to her interview and breaking up with her boyfriend. Skye doesn't know who is doing this to her, but is diligently trying to figure it out. She figures it out, which is great, but there are so many subplots that needed to be explored.

For example, Asha's mother was diagnosed with dementia in the book. The author felt the need to devote a few Asha chapters to this, but at the end, you're left hanging. Also, Skye's boyfriend? What's up with him? She spends more time with another boy for most of the book while she is still with her boyfriend.

This had great potential, but it was executed poorly.

Bored Teenaged Girls

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

I read this because I got sucked into the show of the same name on Sunday nights on USA. Let me just say, this was a little harder to get a hold of than I would have liked. This book came out in 2012, but everyone wanted to charge at least $15 for a paperback version. No thank you. The library at my school didn't have it, nor did the public library, which started me questioning why this was being made into a tv series if it was not popular enough to be easily obtained. It took me a few weeks, but I got a decent copy for about $5.

I say this rarely, but I think I like the tv series better. There is nothing wrong with the story, but there is so much more going on with the show that I think it is just better.

This is about cheerleaders in a reasonably small town. They get a new cheer coach, and demotes the girl who was calling herself the captain. That would be Beth. Beth's best friend, Addy, starts to bond with the cheer coach, and this bothers Beth because she wants Addy all to herself. So, Beth finds ways to go after the cheer coach, which isn't hard.

A good read, but I think I will stick to the show.

TAYSHAS 2020 #9

Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw

Another graphic novel. Why? Because I can breeze through them in next to no time. Apparently, there are several on the TAYSHAS list this year, which is stupid since graphic novels have their own awards list. In fact, several are double-dipping on both lists. Ok, I will get off my soapbox about the travesty of the books on the awards list that don't belong there.

Unlike the previous graphic novel, this one actually has a decent story. This one is about Amanda. She goes to a Catholic high school, and has a tense relationship with one of her best friends. With the other best friend, well, she kissed her, and this story is told in flashback to show how she got there. And there's a lot that leads up to that kiss, my friends.

This one, I would highly recommend. 

TAYSHAS 2020 #8

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

This is a graphic novel, and I am not the biggest fan of graphic novels. The upside to graphic novels is that they take next to no time to read. So, even though this is 289 pages long, I read it in its entirety during my bath.

It's not complex. Freddy is in love with Laura Dean. Laura Dean, clearly, is not in love with Freddy; she just likes having a girlfriend. This is clear from the beginning when Laura Dean ditches Freddy at the Valentine's Day dance. It's clear every time Laura Dean expects Freddy to drop everything in her life for the few crumbs Laura Dean will give her.

Because Freddy jumps when Laura Dean says jump, Freddy is a shitty friend. She doesn't mean to be, but "love" makes people do stupid things.

To say this wasn't my favorite TAYSHAS would be a huge understatement. Once again, I have to question why this made the list, other than the fact that it was about two girls. It's a shame that that is what we have come to--books make these lists simple for the lesbian factor. I have no issues reading about gay relationships, but there are much better books about it that what this had to offer.

TAYSHAS 2020 #7

Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

This is the third book by this author, and like the first two, I was enraptured. I know it doesn't seem that way because it took me two weeks to read, but that is because my oldest child was home for ten days, and it was more important to me to spend time with him than it was to read.

Josie, aka Rayne, just knows her future involves her being on tv. It's what she wants most, so on Friday nights, she and her best friend Delia, aka Delilah, host a creature feature show on public access tv. Delia just wants to find her father, who left when she was seven. The horror movies they show on their program are from the collection her father left.

Josie and Delia have the opportunity to go to ShiverCon in Orlando, and while there, they plan to meet Jack Divine, who can help them make their show even bigger. What ensues is hilarious. Along the way, Josie meets a boy and both girls learn about who they are.

There are some zingers in this book. I had entirely too much fun reading this, and my students couldn't get over me laughing aloud while reading it to myself. I consider this a must-read for 2020.