My Life in…

Despite the salacious premise, this book fell short for me. Although it is a memoir, it is written without a lot of emotion. The teenage years in particular read like a list of sex partners rather than an exploration of her emotional state at the time. Aside from the obvious parental abandonment, need to fit in, and desire to have a guy really like her, there wasn’t anything additional that really made me interested in her story. I think this is a very common situation, but I didn’t feel like the book worked through the issue successfully.

This is a hard book to describe, because even though the book is largely about the father’s desperate crime, it’s mostly about Jordan and her dealing with her father’s relationship and subsequent downfall, in addition to her changing relationship with her friend and the boys in the her life. I usually like Caletti’s books with some reservations, but with this one, it was just enjoyable all around. I had been spoiled to what would happen at the end, but even with that, the suspense was compelling and the characters were unique. I like the Caletti took some risks in describing Jordan’s relationship with Kale – definitely not your cookie cutter YA romance, even for a bad one.

I almost stopped reading this toward the beginning because I wasn’t in the mood to read yet another dead best friend book. I’m glad I stuck it out though. The grief that Caitlin goes through feels authentic, especially since she does eventually become more connected to others. Dylan, Taylor, Jayson and Maddie are all great characters. I love the parents and how they really try hard for their daughter even when they don’t know what to do. Caitlin’s treehouse and her connection with the local movie theatre really flesh out her character. You could give this one to 13 Reasons Why fans, who will hopefully appreciate this book’s focus on moving forward while dealing with grief.

The premise and execution of this novel can pretty much be summed up by watching Mean Girls, but this book works because of Cook’s characterization. It’s not quite as funny as What Would Emma Do? but it has a nice spirit to it, and the character of Brenda works to balance a lot of the teen girl angst. Enjoyable but not required reading (What Would Emma Do? should be required).

This wasn’t quite as good as the first two books, just because it largely works as buildup toward the next book, but it’s enjoyable as always.

I picked this up because at ALA midwinter I was talking to one of the Orca reps and they made it sound really good. Unfortunately though the premise is excellent, the execution fails. It’s hard to discuss without spoilers but aside from the intial attack, the book really becomes more about Stephanie trying to survive on her own, rather than a book about kidnapping (I was expecting something closer to the Ellen Emerson White book). The mystery is rather easily solved, but any reader could figure it out a lot sooner than it is revealed. It’s a quick read, but I didn’t find it to be very enjoyable.

This was a great book for many reasons, but there were two things that really stood out for me. One is that even though the book is called Riker’s High and Paul Volponi worked as a teacher on Riker’s Island, school is really not the main focus of the book. This is more about teens who are in the system and what happens to them. The school system within the jail is so badly managed that the students barely learn anything and though some of the teachers are quite inspirational, the amount of time and the ability to teach the kids effectively is constantly interrupted by bureaucracy, other bad teachers, and the other people in the institution, for whom education of the inmates is not a high priority. This isn’t a “Gangster’s Paradise” sort of book where the teacher is able to reach these deliquent kids. It’s clear that education would make a difference for many of them and that some of these teachers really mean well, but the system is not set up to help these kids turn their lives around.

The other thing that got me (except for a main plot point that I can’t even allude to without spoilers) is that Martin’s “crime” that got him thrown in jail makes me want to punch a hole in the wall. Martin is a good kid, and he’ll be lucky if he gets out of jail and stays out of trouble, but if he had never gone to jail for something so ridiculously stupid, he’d never be in a position where he’d do something like commit an actual crime. We don’t know a lot about Martin’s life before Riker’s Island but we can see he’s a good kid, but the situation he’s put in definitely has the potential to breed enough anger in a kid that they won’t be the same afterwards.

This book is just lovely. Jeffrey’s struggles are touching but so is the amount of humor he shares with Tad or the affection he has for Lindsey or the disappointment he has for his brother. This book starts at just the right time to tell the story of a kid with cancer after he’s gone through treatment and is in remission and is trying to deal with the rest of his life. To tell you how I felt about the ending would be a spoiler in itself, so I’ll just say that this is another strong book from Sonnenblick.

This book just worked for me 100%. The characters and situations felt extremely real. While ordinarily I would complain that it was a bit one note because Sydney thought about her pregnancy most of the time, the unique situation, well developed characters and thoughtfulness of narration made me care about Sydney and her struggles. I particularly liked that she looked forward to the trip because she enjoyed white water rafting as a child and that Natalia adapted without complaint even though she was more of a girly girl. I thought Mick was interesting and his story shocking (that one word left me with my jaw dropped).

Six Rules of Maybe is another strong book by Deb Caletti who has a lovely writing style (which only goes over the top ever so slightly once or twice a book). I’ve read a few books by her in a short amount of time, and my one concern about the books is that in some of them, it seems like the main character is very secondary to the story. This one tied the main character in a little better than Wild Roses but I was more interested in the secondary characters, particularly Hayden and all of the quirky neighbors. The idea of a teen being in love with her sister’s boyfriend was unique and developed really well. The mother’s relationship with Dean Neuhaus was hysterical and I enjoyed the neighbors who are intrigued by internet scam emails.