September Wrap-Up

My mini wrap-up book reviews have morphed into much longer reviews due to reading so many ARCs from Netgalley and writing lengthier thoughts, so buckle up!

(There will also be roughly a bajillion pictures of Scout. You're welcome.)

Books I Read

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

4/5

This was an excellent book with a ton of LGBTQ+ characters! I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator, so if you're going to pick this one up, I suggest that format. I became addicted to listening to it whenever I could: while I was doing dishes, grocery shopping, driving somewhere, doing laundry, getting ready for the day, etc. It was a contemporary with a very personal, conversational tone that made it feel like you were listening to a friend tell a story. I loved Ramona, Freddie, and pretty much every character (almost). While it could've been a little bit shorter, I liked the story the whole way through. It was refreshing to read a story with a queer character who didn't totally know where she fit on the spectrum. A lot of YA characters are self-assured about how they identify from beginning to end, which is great for a lot of people, but realistically, not all teens know exactly what their sexual orientation or gender identity is or how to label it, and that's okay. Ramona's journey felt very real and honest, which I appreciated.

Me and Me by Alice Kuipers

DNF

The premise of this sounded so fantastic, I requested an ARC right away without knowing anything else about it. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I got about 30% of the way in before I decided I couldn't do it anymore. Maybe if I didn't have so many books on my TBR already I would've stuck it out, but I couldn't rationalize spending reading time on a book I wasn't enjoying. The writing was one of the biggest challenges for me to get through this. It read as juvenile and inexperienced. The dialogue was clunky, too.

And despite the book getting off to a great start when it came to the action, not much seemed to happen after that. Lark's two lives seemed to be pretty much the same, except with a different person in a coma: She visited the hospital, she felt guilty about not saving the other person, she met up with her band, she talked to her friends about how hot Alec was, and she got creepy messages on her phone from her other life. And this happened twice in the book since it's all about her dual lives that seem to be existing at the same time, so it felt really repetitive.

This book had a lot of potential, but it wasn't for me. It might be for somebody else, but I couldn't get through it.

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren 

3.5/5

This was really cute and a lot of fun. If you're in the mood for a fast-paced, fluffy rom-com written in an addictive voice, then this is the book for you. AUTOBOYOGRAPHY was a good book for similar reasons - Christina Lauren has her voice down.

On the one hand, I loved how sugary sweet it was and how it was full on shenanigans. On the other hand, I found that the stakes were pretty low. I didn't have that feeling of "will they/won't they?" even though it seemed like a slowburn romance on the surface. I also guessed the major plot twist toward the end of the book, so while it was a much-needed curveball, it didn't shock me.

The characters were great. I adored them and I cared about their well-being. Josh was sweet, supportive, and such a good friend. I had zero issues with him. Hazel was zany and wild and full of life and love. She reminded me of some of my quirky friends mixed with a cartoon character. I had mixed feelings about her, because I did love her, but there were times when I didn't feel like she was a real person. Sometimes she was TOO strange to the point of becoming unrecognizable as an actual human being I could believe I'd meet outside of that fictional world. It didn't happen a lot, but there were a few moments that her quirkiness was overplayed.

Without giving too much away, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. Not necessarily because of how it ended, but how it was executed. It was tied up with a bow far too neatly. I felt like the entire epilogue could have been cut and I would have been perfectly fine with that. Even in rom-coms, I don't need my happy ending forced down my throat. A happy ending, sure, but it doesn't have to be overdone. I hate, hate, hate flash-forwards into the future when I don't need them.

All in all, not a bad book. It was a fun read and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I rarely felt bored. But there was a little bit of a lack of substance and stakes. The characters were memorable enough that I wouldn't call this forgettable, but it's not my new favorite book or anything. I'd say if you're a fan of Christina Lauren, check this one out.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

4/5

I hopped on the hype train with this one since everyone was in love with the Netflix movie. I actually tried reading this maybe a year and a half ago and got 50-75 pages in before I DNFd it. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mood for it or what, but I enjoyed it much more this time around. I loved the family dynamics (especially Kitty - she is the perfect younger sister) and the fluffy sweetness of it all. I also liked how present the dad was in the story, because that doesn't happen often. Plus, this include all of the perfect rom-com/fan-fiction tropes every reader loves (there's a reason why everyone goes nuts for will-they-won't-they couples who are forced to pretend that they're dating). The only thing I didn't agree with is the love triangle. It didn't work for me because the guy Lara Jean didn't end up with I actually liked better than the main love interest! Oh well.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

3/5

Meh? A lot of people really love this book but I felt pretty ambivalent about it most of the time. It had so much promise in the beginning! I was hooked right away and I liked the writing style, but Scarlett was a blank slate. I couldn't describe her personality to you if I tried. Tella was a much more interesting character, even if she was super flawed, but then she disappeared at the beginning of the book and we hardly ever see her. Julian was great, though, and provided some much-needed snark and sass. The setting was interesting at times, but I felt like the worldbuilding could've gone farther, in general. There was a lot of unrealized potential here. I love twisty-turny, nothing-is-as-it-seems plots with sinister characters lurking in the background, but a lot of it fell flat. Most of the suspense was cut too short and a lot of the plot twists were super confusing. This was a classic case of "this book could have been amazing had it gone a different direction."

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4/5

This is a super short book because it's basically a transcript from a TED Talk, so you could read it in an hour or less. This covers a ton of really important issues when it comes to gender equality and talks about it in a way that is conversational and super easy to understand, so I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone. That being said, I think a lot of already enlightened feminists won't get quite as much out of this book as, say, someone who might be reluctant to join the cause. I didn't find anything to be revolutionary, but it was filled with personal stories that helped to highlight certain issues.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

5/5

I loved reading this in a similar way I loved reading A Man Called Ove. It's a simple story about the relationships between a small cast of characters told in beautiful writing. If you're as much of a sucker for books about family dynamics as I am, boy, do I have the book for you. While the plot does suffer from a classic case of "where the hell are the parents???"-itis, you still get to know them and and a bit about where they're coming from. And the relationship between the two sisters is so complicated and fraught with conflict, yet you can't help but enjoy the rare moments where they do get along. It's a really sweet story about love and friendship and is set during the height of the AIDS epidemic, so we get a closer look at how kids viewed this versus adults and how it affected people's relationships with each other. I had to read this for a book club I'm in and procrastinated starting it for no reason at all, because that's the kind of reader I am apparently, and was forced to cram and read this in a single day, which I (barely) accomplished. It helped that I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.

Movies I Watched

"Crazy Rich Asians"

5/5

This was so hyped, and boy, it didn't disappoint. It had all of the best elements of a rom-com and more, because these characters actually had depth and motivation and complicated relationships. I laughed a lot and I felt very connected to everyone on the screen. Not being Asian or Asian-American, I can't speak from personal experience, but it did seem to capture the culture and the divide between Asians and Asian-Americans pretty well. This seems to be the month of family dynamics, because there was a lot of that in this movie, too. I don't want to give anything away, but the foreshadowing and parallels between the poker scene at the very beginning and the infamous Mahjong scene toward the end were genius.

"The Fundamentals of Caring"

5/5

If you're a fan of Indie movies and roadtrip stories, then I have the film for you. All of the actors fit their characters perfectly and brought them to life, which is especially important for a simple, character-driven story such as this one. It was laugh-out-loud funny and included a lot of dark humor. That line is a tricky one to walk, but I think it was accomplished well.


"To All the Boys I've Loved Before"

3.5/5

I had similar thoughts about this movie as I did the book, except I had to rate it a little lower because I feel like a lot of Margot and Peter's more endearing qualities got lost in translation with this adaptation. I didn't like them as much as I did in the book. That's not to say I hated them, I just didn't get as good of a sense of who they were here.

Quotes I Wrote

Guess who actually wrote this month??? Meee! I got a ton of All the World's Afraid written, and other than me kind of hating the title now but not knowing what to change it to, it's been going really well, which is why all of the following quotes are from that novel. My goal is to have the first draft finished by mid-October, end of October at the latest, so I can focus all of my energy on my NaNoWriMo novel without this unfinished draft hanging over my head. We'll see what happens.

"We're going to be late," he groaned.
"No, we're going to be right on time," I said as I mixed vanilla creamer into the coffee. "If you drive just five over the speed limit, it's fast enough to make up some time, but not so fast that you'll get pulled over."
"Please, never teach your brother how to drive," Mom begged from the table where she was finishing her breakfast and perusing CNN on her phone.
"Hey, I haven't been pulled over yet."
"Yet?"

"I told you it was at ten, you numpty." Neville tossed a balled up napkin at Benny.
"Speak English, would you?"
"I'm as English as they get, mate."

Neville nodded, but his smile seemed automatic, too. His eyes darted toward me, then away again. There was something between us I hadn't noticed before. Our rhythm was all off, awkward and clumsy, like we were trying to sing a duet neither of us knew. We were almost back to the way we were when we'd just met, sitting in long silences, then talking over each other when we both spoke up at the same time. I didn't know what had changed, but I didn't like it one bit.

Tech week is like the week before Christmas: everyone's stressed the hell out, we're all fighting, everyone has gained a pound or two and then freaked out about not being able to fit into their clothes, our "extended family" of a cast is as dysfunctional as ever, it goes by faster and faster with each passing hour, and yet somehow we're all still excited for the big day.

The freshman girl playing Gavroche, Maya, sat in full costume, squirting Flonase up her nostrils.
"Allergies?" I asked her, already internally screaming and wondering where the closest hand sanitizer was.
"I wish," she croaked, and the gravel of her voice--what little there was left--was all I needed to confirm my worst fears.
"Oh no," I muttered, and backed away several feet. A sick cast member and I were stuck in close quarters together, days before opening night, in a germ-filled, unventilated room. This was my worst nightmare. I had to get out of here. "Shit."
"What's up?" Abby asked.
I pointed vigorously in Maya's direction. "Sickness. Lost voice. Congestion. Bad. Very bad." In stressful times like these, I forgot my entire vocabulary and reverted to caveman-like sentences. Three words, max.
"Oh man," Eleanor breathed. "Kyle is going to have a fit."
"Kyle is going to drown us all in hand sanitizer and Airborne," Abby said. I knew that she and I both remembered the infamous "Seussical" stomach bug that ended with the Cat in the Hat puking his guts out onstage in front of a full house. That was the year Kyle almost quit. "We're still a few days from opening, we can make it that far."
"Or maybe it's like a chicken pox vaccination, you know?" I said, trying to find some way to be positive about this. Maya scooted her chair back farther from us and breathed into a tissue so as not to infect us all. "It's better to get it a little bit so it's not worse later? Should we all, like, lick Maya's water bottle or something so we can get the sickness over with?"
"Are you crazy?" Eleanor said. "We are not losing our voices three days before opening night. Do you know nothing about incubation periods? If you try to contaminate yourself tonight, you'll get sick sometime tomorrow at best, but it's more likely the sickness will begin to display symptoms two days from now, which means that by opening night you'll be miserable and--"
"Norrie," I interrupted. "I love it when you get all science-y and stuff, but now is really not the time. I'm freaking out here."

"It's an old door," Eleanor said. "Maybe it just gets stuck from time to time."
I was inclined to agree with her until I saw Maya lower her tissue, her eyes round as coins as she whispered, "The curse."
Of course. Just like Abby's brush with death with the mannequin (or so everyone thought), the curse had struck us all again. First the flooding in the bathroom and now this?
"Now look what you've done," Eleanor said to me with a roll of her eyes. "You've brainwashed young minds with your superstitious nonsense. These are our future leaders, you know."
"And they'd better be prepared for situations such as these," I said.

Without any warning, Abby wrapped us in one-armed hugs so she could squeeze both of us tight at the same time.
"I love you guys," she said. "I'm sorry people suck sometimes."
"That's why I have a dog," Eleanor said.

Obsessions I Acquired

"Atypical" - This is an extremely addictive Netflix original series and I am not one bit ashamed to admit that I binged a season and a half of it this month and will likely finish the last couple episodes in the next week. It's really funny, sweet, and features characters you either love or love to be annoyed by.

Pictures of the Month

Created a mock cover for my NaNoWriMo novel! I'm still somewhat torn between the titles Hook and Captain Darling, but I think I'm leaning toward this one.

Got a Luna Lovegood t-shirt at a bookstore. Thank goodness the only one they had left fit me!

Max and I took a few vocal lessons from our teacher, Sarah Zahn, before our "Peter Pan Jr." auditions, which helped to land us awesome parts. She played Alice Beane in "Titanic" and we had tons of fun watching her. She was hilarious!

The saga of "no glasses to small glasses to GIANT HIPSTER GLASSES."

At the Renaissance Faire with friends!

I've decided to make a scrapbook for each of the shows I've been in, starting with my first one, "Beauty and the Beast Jr." It's weird to feel so nostalgic for a show I did just a year and a half ago!

Max and I were just cast in "Charlotte's Web" as Lurvy and Mrs. Arable, respectively. It'll be quite the switch going from a villainous role to a mom!

Beach vacation!

I drank a mermaid latte, therefore, I am a mermaid now. That's how this works.

On the boardwalk.

Look at that sandy nose!

She loves to dig holes in the sand and then lay in them.

Begging for food, as always.

And for more food . . .

She loves lying on the tops of couches.

And so, for the next several minutes, I was unable to turn the page.

Keeping us company while we play games.

Sound asleep.

I like to imagine that this is her L'Oréal hair product commerical.

"L'Oréal. Because you're worth it."

               

How was your September?