Hello, all! I’m sorry my blog has been barren for most of the first semester. I’ll do better the second semester, I promise! I’ve got some interesting prospects lined up. I think I’ll give “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” a go, because I heard it was a lot better than “Pride and Prejudice.” I was having a discussion with some friends about how I felt kind of stupid not being able to absolutely LOVE Pride and Prejudice, since it’s kind of the classic love story, and I’m a sucker for good love stories. When I was reading it, I felt like the writing was kind of hard to read and the story was dragging on and on. Even during the exciting parts, I found myself skimming. My friends assured me that they felt the same way. Also, it didn’t mean that I was stupid because I couldn’t enjoy Pride and Prejudice. It is kind of a slow book, they agreed. So, moral of the story? If you don’t like a book, it’s not because you’re not smart enough to grasp it or thoughtful enough to enjoy the depth of the characters. It just means you don’t like it.
Now, onto the critiques. By the way, HiLite.org labels me as the “chick lit expert.” I laughed a bit. I wouldn’t call myself an expert. Except I do know there is a very simple plotline that most chick lit stories follow… GIRL. GIRL WITH PROBLEM. GIRL WITH BEST FRIEND WHO HAS OPPOSITE AND MORE VIBRANT PERSONALITY AND WHO IS PRETTIER. GIRL FEELS INSECURE. GIRL MEETS BOY. BOY MAKES HER FEEL LESS INSECURE. THERE’S A PROBLEM THAT SEPARATES BOY FROM GIRL. PROBLEM IS RESOLVED. GIRL AND BOY END UP TOGETHER / SEPARATE IF THE AUTHOR IS CRUEL OR THE BOY IS NOT AMAZING. I don’t know why I felt the need to write that in all caps. It just felt right.
NOW, onto the critiques.
Twenty Boy Summer, by Sarah Ockler

I really like the books when the cover is only understood after you read the story. This is one of those books.
I thought it was going to be stupid. There was this one moment in the book where the main character, Anna, buys herself a swim suit that is apparently meant for her. She looks at herself in the mirror and says, quote, “I didn’t even recognize myself.” Hello, girly! You’re just wearing a bathing suit! Everything about you is the same! ONE SWIMSUIT CAN’T CHANGE THAT! It’s one of those pet peeves of mine, when a woman looks in the mirror wearing an article of clothing and says, “Wow, who is that? Who am I?” The only piece of clothing I can imagine not recognizing myself in is something that covers my face and entire body, so that not only do I not recognize myself, but I could also be a 40-year old 300-pound man under the outfit. Who am I, indeed. In that case, I probably wouldn’t buy it. Anyways, moving on.
Overall, it was a nice read. Not spectacular, but comfortable. It wasn’t as thoughtful as a Sarah Dessen novel but not atrociously predictable and cheesy like Meg Cabot’s novels have become. I don’t think the characters were very well-developed, but you got the general gist of them. The emotions were fairly honest though. It felt like a real story, not something that Sarah Ockler was fabricating. Did you know that one of her role models is Sarah Dessen as well? Insane!
General synopsis: Anna likes Matt and is best friends with Frankie (a girl. It took about 2 minutes of hunting for “Frankie got a fat little scar above HER…” to figure it out). Matt, Anna, and Frankie are all BFF’s like the Three Musketeers. Matt and Anna have a little something something going on, and Frankie doesn’t know about it, and it goes on for a couple of weeks until Matt gets in a car accident because of his heart defect. Super sad :(. Frankie’s family still decides to go to Cali for a summer vacation, and the whole trip is basically spent coping with the loss of Matt.
In other news, I got about 10 pages into “Jellicoe Road,” which won a Printz award (the same award that Looking for Alaska by John Green received). It got really confusing and made me frustrated so I put it down, but I might give it another shot. Maybe it’s one of those books that starts slow. I’ll let you all know.
That’s all for now, folks! I’ll be back with more stuffy stuff in the next blog.
P.S. Good news! I finally have my own personal copy of “Keeping the Moon” by Sarah Dessen. I was getting tired of hinting at people to buy it for me for Christmas/birthday/whatever, so now I have it in hardback and can take it with me wherever I please. HAPPY ADELE 🙂