Books & Sensibility is taking part in the In My Mailbox meme started by The Story Siren. Each week bloggers post books that have arrived in their mailbox, picked up from the bookstore or purchased. Here are some books we are getting ready to read.…
Kat
Hope’s Journey Spring Tour : Book Review
In My Mailbox 18.
Books & Sensibility is taking part in the In My Mailbox meme started by The Story Siren. Each week bloggers post books that have arrived in their mailbox, picked up from the bookstore or purchased. Here are some books I’m getting ready to read.
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Book Review: The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer
Synopsis: In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy—hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents—and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.
The Pregnancy Project first came on my radar in January, when I watched the Lifetime movie based on the book . I had never heard the story and how could it not peak my interest? A teenager who faked her pregnancy for a school project? What was that all about? While the movie was decent, it left me with more questions, so I headed to the library for the book.
Luckily, this memoir provides a concise and pretty powerful story of not just Gabby’s struggles, but her family’s struggles as well. This is the first book in a while I’ve actually had an emotional reaction too.
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Authors Talk to Teens @ Hooray For Books : Jessica Shea, Tifffany Trent and Caitlin Kitteridge
Hooray For Books, a children’s book store in Alexandria, VA, hosted a teen author panel with Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked), Tiffany Trent (The Unnaturalists, Corsets and Clockwork) and Caitlin Kitteridge (The Iron Codex, Corsets and Clockwork). Here are some highlights from the event :
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Book Review: Shine by Lauren Myracle
“I’d heard a saying about meth, that it took you down one of three roads: jail, the psych ward, or death.”
– Shine by Lauren Myracle
Shine first came on my radar with the drama over The National Book Award debacle, where Lauren Myracle was accidentally nominated and asked to back out. The synopsis intrigued me, so I finally picked this book up.
Shine is the story of Cat, a teenaged girl on the journey for answers when her former best friend, Patrick is the victim of an extremely violent hate crime. Along the way she learns the dark secrets and hidden realities of the town she lives in.
This books starts off brilliantly, there is a certain atmospheric writing style that Myrcale uses that just brings you in to the world of the story. You very quickly learn the life that Cat leads.The setting, Black Creek, North Carolina is a back woods town with a lot of backwards thinking. One of the biggest problems plaguing the town is meth.
There are a lot of rich characters in the novel and you start to feel for them. This reminds me very much of To Kill a Mockingbird, where the context of the story is so much involved in learning about the people in the town. The only thing is their is no Atticus Finch in this story. None of the characters are particularly redeeming or good, not even Cat herself. I think Robert, an eleven-year-old who was born addicted to drugs and yearns for attention from the older teenagers stood out the most for me.
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