I Wrote More Postcards Than Hooks, I Read More Maps Than Books...

College lets out in about a week, and after that I am in my hometown until mid-June, when I will be heading off to become a camp counselor on the East Coast. Until then, I am going to have buckets of time on my hands. In order to keep myself occupied, I have compiled a list of book that I need to read. it's a weird mix of "literature" and those feel-goods where the couple stays together in the end. Here it is:

A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess

Back When You Were Easier to Love- Emily Wing Smith

The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To- DC Pierson

Bearded Women- Terrie Milbrodt

Dark Places- Gillian Flynn

Eleanor & Park- Rainbow Rowell

The Secret Lives of Gay Men-Ryan O'Connell

Bonfires- Alexander Helmke
The New Age Camp- Chloe Caldwell

Gates of Paradise- Melissa De La Cruz
Lunch In Paris- Elizabeth Band

Just One Day- Gayle Forman

Less Than Zero- Bret Easton

Love and Other Perishable Items- Kerry Winfrey

On The Road-Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey

The Glass Castle- Jeanette Walls

Easy- Tammara Webber

Hopeless- Colleen Hoover,
 The Sea of Tranquility-  Katja Millay
The Coincidence of Callie and Hayden-Jessica Sorensen.
Lola and the Boy Next Door- Stephanie Perkins
Isla and the Happily Ever After- Stephanie Perkins
Small Damages-Beth Kephart
Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork- Scott Hunt

Struck By Lightning-Chris Colfer

The Dice Man- Luke Rhinehart
The Future of Us- Jay Asher

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test- Tom Wolfe

The Realm of Possibility- David Levithan
Love is the Higher Law- David Levithan
I Wrote This For You

The Tragedy Papers- Elizabeth Liben

Slaughterhouse 5- Kurt Vonnegut
Choke-Chuck Palahniuk
Franny and Zooey-J.D. Salinger

Where Things Come Back

I swear, I am not a speed reader. I just queued the previous book post.

     Anyway. Where Things Come Back (by John Corey Whaley) was something else. It was crazy and amazing and one of those books where you need to exhale afterwards. 

At first, it just seems like it's going to be one of those books where the cynical average boy (Cullen Witter, in this particular case) grows up and dates the beautiful popular girl. Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Completely wrong.

It's so difficult to even explain this book, due to the crazy amount of sub plots that go on.

Some oldish guy named John Barling thinks that the "Lazarus" woodpecker (oh the symbolic irony in that name) isn't extinct, and riles up the town.

Cullen's brother, Gabriel, goes missing/runs away/you'll-have-to-read-the-book-to-find-out, and the town cares more about the woodpecker.

Benton Sage has the most crazy sad religious parents and the heavy realization that he has failed at being a missionary.

Cabot Searcy is something else, something that I cannot tell you guys without giving away the story.

And the best part is, it all comes together in the best way for the ending. The ending is so ridiculously satisfying and makes the entire book (I hate unsatisfying endings).

And at first you may be like, "well, that doesn't sound very interesting". But it is, it really is, it's just super difficult to describe. This is the book that our high school teachers should have had us read instead of Fill in this blank with a book you hate (The Scarlet Letter, etc.)

Read it. Read it. Read it. Your life will be better, or something.

Anna and the French Kiss

     Sometimes, school is just boring as all hell, especially when only taking ONE literature class (Gay and Lesbian Lit, love that class to death). Sad day for this English minor. Therefore, I take the opportunity to read when I can. Usually it's young adult fiction and trash, but, like I tell the students in the (high school English) class that I assist at, it doesn't matter what you read, as long as you love it.
     So yeah, I read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. It was kinda beautiful, not gonna lie. The nice thing that separates the young adult genre from older books is its emphasis on the coming of age story, and this novel pulls this off with grace.
     The book takes place at a Parisian boarding school, aka the best setting ever. At first, Anna whines about going there, which is super annoying, but thankfully she overcomes that. It also deals with parent cancer and family issues in a realistic way (my dad had cancer, and I can definitely relate to the characters in this story).
     Oh, and did I mention that Etienne St. Clair, the book's resident hottie, is FRENCH, AMERICAN, and ENGLISH? Read it if you like young adult chick lit, it rarely comes off as cheesy (at least in my opinion), which is a rarity.

     In other reading news, my roommate has her 15 and 12 year old sisters over, and they are telling me about all of the books that they have read. It's probably the English teacher in me, but I think that is the coolest thing ever! It makes me so happy that kids still read.


Pick up a book dudes. Whip out your kindle. Skim a magazine. Read an online article. The back of a cereal box. A billboard. Graffiti on the side of a building. This blog (I am a little biased).