Book Review: Heather Wells Mystery Series

Series Info:

Book 1: Size 12 is Not Fat (2006)

Book 2: Size 14 is Not Fat Either (2006)

Book 3: Big Boned (2007)

Book 4: Size 12 and Ready to Rock (2012)

Book 5: The Bride Wore Size 12 (2013)

Author: Meg Cabot

ISBNs: 9780060525118, 9780060525125, 9780060525132, 978-0061734786, 978-0061734793

Plot Summary of Book 1 (From Goodreads)
Heather Wells Rocks!

Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two — and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen — not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives — even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

Author Meg Cabot

Brittany's review of the Heather Wells Mystery Series
My senior year of high school, I was on my school’s newspaper staff for a semester. I quit after the first semester because I got upset that the advisor seemed to dislike my “book reviews” section idea because the books I was recommending weren’t new.

Like, excuse me, I’m a senior with multiple AP courses, I do not have enough time to read and recommend 5 books that are NEW.

But now, Jeselyn’s letting me write a blog entry for her and I CAN REVIEW WHAT I WANT. SUCK IT, DALTON.

I mean...I’m not bitter about something that happened over ten years ago. Nuh-uh.

ANYWAY. I have been a longtime lover of Meg Cabot since I started reading the Princess Diaries some time in middle school. I’ve read the majority of her work (I think there’s one teen series I just wasn’t interested in, and that’s not her fault). Recently, I decided to revisit one of Cabot’s other series, the Heather Wells Mysteries. The main plot of each book is basically: “Twentysomething former pop sensation Heather Wells is now making her way in the world by working as assistant director at a residence hall and living anonymously with her ex-boyfriend’s private detective brother in New York City when *gasp* a murder happens in the dorm building!”

The rest basically goes the way you would expect a book in this vein to go: lots of accidental stumbling on clues, risky choices, and eventually solving the murder without the help of the police, much to their chagrin.

Unlike most other mystery series (in my opinion), the Heather Wells Mysteries are *FUN.* Like, obviously the murdery bits are fairly gristly, but Heather, like most of Meg Cabot’s heroines, is funny, smart, and snarky. Because the books are written in the first person, we get so much of her internal life, where she worries about the things you’d expect a regular twentysomething to worry about: boyfriends, ex boyfriends, the fleeting fame, your hot roommate, vanity sizing, donuts, beautiful sugary coffee concoctions...you get the picture. Additionally, The supporting cast of characters are diverse, hilarious, and genuine. My favorite (besides aforementioned hot roommate--Meg Cabot is just real good at making sexy love interests) is Magda, the sassy Dominican cafeteria attendant with amazing airbrushed nails. She adores the students that live in the residence hall, and provides a lot of the funniest lines in the books.

Also, even though I’ve read these books multiple times (well, ok...I think I’ve only read the fourth one once), the murderers were complete surprises until pretty close to the end. So that’s pretty cool.

The one criticism I have about the books after this reread is that, because Meg Cabot is a really heavy pop-culture referencer, it’s easy to tell that the books were written several years apart, even though they only cover the span of about a year. They also might end up seeming kind of dated because of that, even though they were written between 2006 and 2012. Hey, you young kids can get an education about late augts-early teens pop culture the same way i got my eighties and nineties pop culture education: reading books with lots of references.

But, look. These aren’t books you’re going to read for learning or anything (although if you’re a writer, you could totally learn from her character building). They definitely fall in the “Brain Candy” category of literature. If you’re looking for a book to laugh your ass off too, then “aw” over, and feel like you’re helping to solve a murder, I 100 percent recommend this series.

All the Books I Read in 2018

This year was not as productive reading-wise as 2017. Work caught up with me big time, and I had some pretty serious health issues for the better part of 2018, so I didn't get to read nearly as much as I had hoped. Even so, I read 22 books of various genres and age levels, so here they are. Perhaps I'll write reviews on some of them in the new year.

Several of these were re-reads, either of books I read several years ago as a younger adult, or as a child. Some people feel like re-reading is a waste of time when there are so many books in the world, but I love it. Every time I re-read something I loved, I notice something different and get a new emotion or life lesson out of it. I try to read my favorite books at least once every five years. It's especially interesting to revisit your past thoughts and see how much you've grown since last time if you're one of those people who underlines passages and makes margin notes (like yours truly). Reading an old favorite book is also comforting, like a visit from an old friend. When I'm not feeling great physically or mentally, I like to revisit books I loved when I was younger.

Middle Grade/Tween Fiction

• Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres
• George by Alex Gino
• Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin (Babysitter's Club #1)
• Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Young Adult/Teen Fiction

• You Don't Know Me but I Know You by Rebecca Barrow
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail
• Blubber by Judy Blume
• Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
• Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters
• Boys Don't Knit (In Public) by T.S. Easton
• You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
• Glass by Ellen Hopkins
• The You I've Never Known by Ellen Hopkins
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• Paperweight by Meg Haston

Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

• The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (fiction)
• Fiend by Peter Stenson (fiction)
• Alice and Freda Forever by Alexis Coe (nonfiction)
• Prophet's Prey by Sam Bower (nonfiction)
• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (ethereal mix of fiction and memoir)

2018 Middle Grade/Tween Fiction:

  
  

2018 Young Adult/Teen Fiction:

                
  

2018 Adult Fiction and Nonfiction:

    

  

Book Review: Everything, Everything

It's recently come to my attention that I love doing book reviews where I can talk about the movie or TV show adaptation as well (see Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher). I am planning to do a review of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda as well, but I just finished Everything, Everything this morning and the ending gave me chills. I had to write about it right this second.

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE COMING. If you haven't read the book, you will learn things you shouldn't until the end of the book. Read the book or watch the movie, then come back and read this entry.

Book info:
Title: Everything, Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon
Year Published: 2015
ISBN: 9780553496642
Interest Level: Grades 9-12

Plot Summary (From Goodreads):

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

I have to be honest when I tell you how my reading this book came about. I saw the movie and thought it was vapid, shallow, and not at all realistic. I mean, an 18-year-old gets approved for a credit card online and her first thought is to rack up huge debt flying to Hawaii with a boy she's known for a few weeks. Her mother is a doctor with a large settlement from the accidental death of her husband and son, but there's still no way she would be able to afford that huge, white, air-locked house with all kinds of specialized accommodations made for her daughter's illness in Southern California, plus paying a full-time nurse's salary and benefits. Mostly, it was like the movie writers had themselves never been out in the real world, and lived in a bubble where money doesn't exist and plane flights and air circulation systems just appear for free when you need them. But we have to explain where they came from, so sure, that seems like something you could charge on a credit card with no spending limit from a magical credit card company who never sends bills. 

I left the movie theater feeling cheated, to be honest. I had heard nothing but good things about this book by Nicola Yoon, and while I hadn't read it yet, I couldn't imagine Hollywood would screw it up too badly. I should have used my past experiences hating almost every movie adaptation I've ever seen and saved my $13.

My negative feelings about the movie is why I saw it in May 2017 and just got around to reading the book this week. I wasn't planning to read it at all, but a little voice in the back of my head kept telling me to try it. "Don't donate that copy you bought on sale at Target," it whispered. "Pick it up and read the first 20 pages." So, I did.

The book still doesn't make my list of all-time favorites, but oh my god, it was SO MUCH BETTER than the movie (as if anyone is surprised. The book it always better). 

When I reviewed Th1rteen R3asons Why, I said the 13-episode TV series could have been pared down to a feature-length film. I feel the exact opposite way about Everything, Everything. The movie didn't go into nearly enough detail. I would, without hesitation, binge a 13-episode series based on this book. 

The beauty of this book is in the details, and we see almost none of them on screen. The reader sees pages from Madeline's journal, IM conversations between Madeline and Olly, pictures of plane tickets, entries from Madeline's blog, and most importantly, the inscriptions she writes in all of her books. This is a small detail, but by the end of the book it has become integral to the plot. After Mady (spoiler) finds out she isn't really sick and (spoiler) goes to New York to find Olly, she sets up her copy of The Little Prince for him to "find" in a used book store. 

The last words in the book are "Found your book," spoken by Olly, the implication being that they now get to be together (forever? As much forever as you can find in a teen book?). We get NONE OF THIS in the movie.

I'm not saying the book is a masterpiece, but I would say I high-level-liked/low-level-loved the book, while I only tolerated the movie. 

Another thing I want to address is one very important character who appears in one scene of the book and zero scenes of the movie. When Madeline and Olly run away to Hawaii (another thing that feels a little more realistic in the book), they meet up with Olly's old friend Zach. From the moment he is introduced with his "dark umber skin and enormous dreadlocks and a smile that's almost too big for his face," I loved Zach. It turns out he is disappointing to his straight-laced parents for two reasons: 1. he is gay, and 2. he wants to be a rock star. We only know Zach for six pages, but I can think of ten thousand reasons he should have been included in the movie, and ways to do it that wouldn't catch them in the position of paying an actor to do only one scene. I won't bore you with those, but ask if you're interested. I am passionate about Zach.

I am passionate about Zach because he understands the lives of both Madeline and Olly in a way that those two characters might not even understand, themselves. He has seen firsthand the evolution of Olly's family from loving to nuclear, and knows what it's like when your parents don't understand you. He would also be capable of helping Mady navigate the world she knows nothing about through the lens of being a person of color. (In the movie Madeline's mom is black, but in the book, they allude to her being light skinned and something other than black). Madeline's only experience with society is through her computer; she's never had a stranger judge her for the color of her skin or ask to touch her hair, because she's never met a stranger. An elongated friendship with Zach would be helpfully educational when it comes to aspects of black culture that she has missed. Also, getting more symbolic, Zach feels figuratively trapped in the oppressive walls of his family and can identify with Mady being literally trapped in her home. 

I feel like I should address the elephant in the room: Madeline's illness. Or, spoiler, lack thereof. Madeline has grown up thinking she has SCID, an incredibly rare autoimmune disorder that comes with environmental triggers that can be fatal. For this reason, her mother has rigged their house with an airlock and multiple decontamination systems that separate Madeline from the outside. Even though Madeline is the narrator, and this is a YA novel, and teens are supposed to read it and identify with the love story between Mady and Olly, I feel like this is really a story about Madeline's mother.

Madeline's mother lost almost everything when her husband and son died. She was left with only baby, chronically ill Madeline. Of course, her instinct was to keep Mady safe and healthy so she didn't lose the one family member she had left. She let this instinct eat away at her until it was her only personality trait; it was everything. She perpetuates this lie throughout her daughter's entire life. She never lets her daughter go outside. Her daughter will never have a first day of kindergarten. A prom. A best friend. She has convinced herself that even though her daughter's entire life will take place inside the walls of their home, it's okay because she won't be dead. Madeline decides the opposite when she (spoiler) decides to run away.

Madeline's mother would rather her daughter survive than live. Madeline herself risks her own survival to thrive in the real world for even a short period of time.

If the book were longer, or if the intended audience weren't teenagers, maybe Yoon would go into this part of it. I do know that Munchhausen by Proxy and SCID awareness groups are not happy with the way either disorder is depicted in the book; maybe if they were portrayed more realistically these ideas would be expanded upon as well.

As it stands, I would give the book a solid 7/10. Could be better, but I've definitely started and never finished much worse novels. 

Book Review: Turtles All the Way Down

Another book review, already??

Yes. But, this one was not written by me. It is brought to you by my smart, funny, thoughtful buddy Brittany.

Brittany reviewed Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, because we have differing opinions on the king of YA fiction. She loves him, I loved Looking for Alaska and tolerated the rest of his body of work. Apparently, though, this book is his big comeback from the land of two-dimensional male characters and manic pixie dream girl love interests. Also, this review miraculously contains NO SPOILERS so feel free to read whether you've read the book or not! She wrote it in the form of a letter to me so convince me to read the book. And it worked. So you might see a companion review in the not-too-far future. 

Book info:

Title: Turtles All the Way Down
Author: John Green
Year Published: 2017
ISBN: 9780525555360

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

 

Author John Green

Without further ado, here is Brittany's review of Turtles All the Way Down by John Green: 

‘Sup, Jeselyn,

As you know, it’s been literal years since I’ve written more than a sentence of anything, let alone a review of something fictional. So this is scatterbrained and quick, but I want to tell you about Turtles All The Way Down by John Green. Look, I know you have *OPINIONS* about his stuff, and you don’t love him as much as I do, but how about this for a spoiler: this is a John Green novel where no one dies at the end! It puts him above 50/50! Hooray!

As is my usual MO with YA novels, I read this book in about 3 hours. Probably a little quick for something that’s going to be reviewed, but I didn’t know I was going to want to review it before I started.

Ok, that’s a lie, because I texted you about 5 pages in telling you how I was sure this was going to be a good one. And it was. Like, it’s been awhile since I read The Fault In Our Stars, but it was better than that.

The thing that made this one special for me is that I could identify with a teen protagonist more than I have since I was an actual teenager. A lot of that had to do with the insular nature of the novel, how much of it is in the main character, Aza’s, head. The prose follows the thought spirals that anyone with anxiety or OCD will recognize and relate to. Aza’s particular obsession involves a lot of body horror, and thoughts about the billions of microbes that live in your body. It’s made clear very early on that Aza has something going on in her head. “By cell count, humans are approximately 50 percent microbial, meaning that about half of the cells that make you up are not yours at all. There are something like a thousand times more microbes living in my particular biome than there are human beings on earth, and it often seems like I can feel them living and breeding and dying in and on me.” (pg 3).

Being a follower of John Green’s internet presence, particularly his projects with his brother, the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel and their podcast, “Dear Hank & John,” I was expecting this. He’s talked a lot about how this book has come out of his struggle with his own mental illness, and you can tell that this book comes from a very deep place, one of those places where the thoughts stay stuck for a long time. In a scene fairly early on in the book, Aza’s therapist says: “One of the challenges with pain--Physical or psychic--is that we can really only approach it through metaphor. It can’t be represented the way a table or a body can . In some ways, pain is the opposite of language.” (pg 89). In a way, John Green has managed to put some of the psychological pain that being mentally ill causes into words, in a way that only living with it and thinking about it A LOT can do.

There are a lot of the tropes that you expect for a teen novel: the high school that everyone hates, the quirky best friend, the love interest. But this, like John Green’s other books, is where it stops being standard YA for me. Aza is a fully formed protagonist. Her best friend Daisy reminded me in some ways so much of you, Jeselyn, that she stopped being just the quirky best friend. There is tragedy and the thought spirals, and love, too. There’s the things we hold on to as we grow, and the things we have to let go even though we don’t want to. There’s being so trapped inside yourself that you forget that other people exist. There’s mental illness, and the reminder that it is something you live with every day, that you are never “cured” of, but something that can be managed.

I really want you to read this book, Jeselyn. Not just because Daisy reminded me of you, but because I know in your work as a librarian, you might be able to put this in the hands of a kid (or adult!) that might need to know that their anxieties, obsessions, and traumas are not something that they have to struggle with alone. Like, it’s not the savior of mental illness for anyone, but it’s a book I would have loved to have read when I was dealing the most with my own anxiety and depression.

Basically, this is a 4.5/5 from me.

Please read it and let me know what you think!

Love,
Brit

Guest Poster: Brittany

This post is an incomplete profile of my best friend Brittany, who lives in Chicago and is a super cool feminist/activist/reader/writer/world traveler. You can find her on Twitter at @britreads4fun.

We have known each other since 2008 when we were freshmen in college, so there are all kinds of embarrassing pictures I could post on this page. HOWEVER, I have given my blog address to children, so we're gonna keep it clean and focused on the books.

She has reviewed the following books for this blog:
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Heather Wells Mystery Series by Meg Cabot

So here are some facts about Brittany:

• She has the biggest wanderlust of anyone I've ever seen. She has visited about a million countries including Chila, Chile, Ireland, Scotland, Jamaica, and I'm sure that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
• Like me, she was a Creative Writing and Literature major in undergrad, where she wrote some fantastic fiction pieces and really solidified her love of literature (but it started in childhood).
• Brittany is a life-long book lover! She had a twenty-book-a-month library habit in the summer growing up, and won tons of prizes from the public library and her school for reading contests.
• Brittany is a super duper major extreme wonderful socially conscious intersectional feminist! I could try to tell you details but she explains it way better than I do. Maybe some day she will explain it for my blog, and/or give me a list of her favorite feminist books to post.
• While being a super duper major extreme wonderful socially conscious intersectional feminist, Brittany is also a heterosexual cisgender female (weirdo). (TOTALLY KIDDING all sexualities and gender identities are valid and have no bearing on whether you can be a good person and care about the plights of others please don't stone me to death). 

Without further ado, here are some pictures of her and us...

Here we are together at the Fall Out Boy concert in Phoenix in 2017

Travel selfie. She is very worldly.

Being cold in Chicago.

Our friend group in college, circa 2009.

Book Review: You Don't Know Me But I Know You

Before I start this review, I'd like to announce that I set my Goodreads goal to 50 in 2018. Since I hit 58 in 2017 I considered making it higher, but I also want to push myself to read more adult fiction and nonfiction this year, which take longer to read. Then again, I will be running two youth book clubs this year, which is 24 middle grade and YA novels right there. So. I will probably read 60-70 children's and YA titles this year. Que sera, sera.

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE COMING. If you haven't read the book, you will learn things you shouldn't until the end of the book. Just trust me, this book is amazing; read it, then come back and read this entry. Recommend it to every teen in your library while you're at it. Yeah, it's that good.

Moving on...

Book info: 
Title: You Don't Know Me But I Know You
Author: Rebecca Barrow
Year Published: 2017
ISBN: 9780062494191
Interest Level: Grades 9-12

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Rebecca Barrow’s bright, honest debut novel about chance, choice, and unconditional love is a heartfelt testament to creating the future you truly want, one puzzle piece at a time.

There’s a box in the back of Audrey’s closet that she rarely thinks about.

Inside is a letter, seventeen years old, from a mother she’s never met, handed to her by the woman she’s called Mom her whole life. Being adopted, though, is just one piece in the puzzle of Audrey’s life—the picture painstakingly put together by Audrey herself, full of all the people and pursuits that make her who she is.

But when Audrey realizes that she’s pregnant, she feels something—a tightly sealed box in the closet corners of her heart—crack open, spilling her dormant fears and unanswered questions all over the life she loves.

Almost two decades ago, a girl in Audrey’s situation made a choice, one that started Audrey’s entire story. Now Audrey is paralyzed by her own what-ifs and terrified by the distance she feels growing between her and her best friend Rose. Down every possible path is a different unfamiliar version of her life, and as she weighs the options in her mind, she starts to wonder—what does it even mean to be Audrey Spencer?

You Don't Know Me But I Know You is without a doubt the most diverse YA novel I have ever come across. I added the disclaimer about spoilers because I can't even list all the ways it shows diversity in modern teens without giving away a major plot point.

The main character, Audrey, is a mixed race teenager who lived with her single, white mom. Her mom, an ex-movie star, adopted Audrey by herself when she was single. So already we have a mixed race family, single parent family, and adoption.

There is also very realistic bisexual representation in the form of Audrey's best friend, Rose. Rose has dated guys and girls, and during the course of the book gets over her ex-girlfriend, sleeps with a guy friend at a party, and then overcomes her relationship fears and enters into a healthy and loving relationship with the new girl in school. This character is some of the best LGBTQ+ representation I've seen in recent YA literature, because this facet of her being is accepted by her friends, and mentioned without it constantly (and unrealistically) monopolizing every conversation. Rose has other things going on in her life, like her absentee parents; like in real life, her queerness does not define everything about her existence.

Sex is presented in a very positive way in this book as well. It is understood that teens have sex, birth control should be made available, and if an accidental pregnancy happens, it's something to deal with and not the end of the world. The adults in the book are very understanding when Audrey and her boyfriend slip up and get pregnant, even though they were using birth control. Once again, the fact that they are having sex does not define them.

HERE IS WHERE THE SPOILERS KICK IN so if you're still reading and haven't read the book yet, bookmark the page and go read the book first.

It is also really realistic how Audrey finally comes to the decision to end her pregnancy. She has a lot of open communication with her boyfriend (something else that doesn't usually happen in books in favor of dramatically fighting couples), and they consider all options. What it would be like to be parents, how it would feel to carry the baby to term and then give it up for adoption, and whether the best choice is abortion. Audrey's own status as an adoptee comes into play in the form of a letter from her birth mother. What ultimately convinces her that abortion is the right choice is, in fact, the letter where her birth mother tells her about her life 17 years after giving Audrey up for adoption. I love, love, love this twist. Audrey reads the letter and realizes that, like her birth mother choosing adoption because it was the best choice for her at the time, she needs to choose abortion so she can go on without disrupting all the important plans she has for her life. She takes a long time to land on abortion after a lot of careful consideration.

The abortion scene itself is very well done. The doctor and nurse are nonjudgmental, the procedure is presented as clinical and not scary, and her mental state during and afterward are curious but calm. It makes me so happy that YA literature has come far enough in its evolution that an abortion scene can be presented scientifically and without any sort of preaching. The genre has come a long way from killing off LGBTQ+ characters as a form of karms after they made out with someone of the same sex. More info about that weird recurring phenomenon in They Have Faces Too: LGBTQ Literature, Then and Now, an article I read this week by Michael Cart on the Booklist website.

I feel like this book would be an amazing pick for my Young Adult Diversity Book Club. Why is it diverse? Let me count the ways...

• Mixed race main character
• Single parent family
• Mixed race family
• Adoption
• Teen pregnancy
• Bisexual representation
• Sex positivity
• Abortion

Most books include one, maybe two subjects that make them diverse. This one has EIGHT! That's unheard of, and amazing. Did you read the book and spot more diversity that I missed? Leave me a comment!

In conclusion, I am completely in love with this book. This is Rebecca Barrow's debut novel, and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with in the next couple of years! She is definitely an author to watch, because great things will continue to come from her. Unrelated, I want to be her best friend. She just looks like she'd be a really cool buddy to eat Chinese food and watch Netflix with, doesn't she?

Author Rebecca Barrow

All the Books I Read in 2017

My goal is to write a short review of every book I read as I read it. I read 58 books this year. While typing out this list, I realized I have something to say about almost every single one, so maybe reviews are forthcoming. But for now, since 2017 is almost over and I didn't do that this year, here are all the books I read from 1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017.

PS, I did write reviews for Thirteen Reasons Why and We All Looked Up for a fellow librarian's blog, Hello Yellow Room. Click the links to read, and check out her site while you're there!

PPS, yes, I did read all 58 of these books this year. Yes, that's more than one a week. Yes, it's possible. I read about this much every year I am not in school, maybe half as much when I am in school. I tend to read several at a time and also listen to audiobooks while I'm driving. Also, because I like to keep up with children's lit, a lot of them are intended for a younger audience. Please don't judge my choices, all literature is valid and I would happily defend any of these to you if you ask. Yes, even Fifty Shades of Grey and the memoirs written rather poorly by people who have stories to tell, but who are not writers.

PPPS, ask me why I picked up any of these books. Ask me whether I liked them. Ask me which I own and which I had to give back to the library. Ask me which I bought after reading the library's copy because I loved it so much. Ask me which were a pleasant surprise, and which were disappointing. Ask me how I felt about anything about anything I read, or ask me why I didn't read your favorite book in 2017. I love to talk to strangers about books.

Middle Grade Fiction:

• The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
• Wonder by R. J. Palacio
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
• Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
• Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

YA Fiction:

• House of Stairs by William Sleator
• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
• Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
• We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
• Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
• Burned by Ellen Hopkins
• 99 Days by Katie Cotugno
• If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
• Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony
• Amity by Micol Ostow
• Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser
• The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi
• History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
• Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan
• Girl [hearts] Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe
• Lock-In by Jonathan Mary-Todd
• What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• Tenderness by Robert Cormier
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan (12 book series)

Adult Fiction:

• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• A Game for All the Family by Sophie Hannah
• Whiskey Moth by A. M. Wegelin
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July
• Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
• Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Adult Nonfiction:

• The Doctor Will See You Now by Tamer Seckin
• Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
• January First by Michael Schofield
• Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

2017 Middle Grade/Tween Fiction:

        

 2017 Young Adult/Teen Fiction:

                  

 

2017 Adult Fiction:

       

2017 Adult Nonfiction: