Book Review 7

Are you ready for another Book Review?! I am! I have a few popular novels (a couple teen, one adult) and a new inspiring cookbook to share with you today! There are some hits AND misses, so let’s do this! 

{I obviously lent this one to my mom before I could photograph it…}

 

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

 

After watching The Fault In Our Stars 4 times in one weekend (darn you HBO movie marathons!), I decided to fall into another Green novel. At the recommendation of my best friend (who happens to be an English teacher and reads lots of teen novels) I decided to read An Abundance of Katherines.

This book was a really refreshing change of pace! At first I was really worried, because the main character is a savant/genius teen who decides to make a math problem to predict the start and end of a relationship based on his past relationships…math?! I was freaked. But no, you don’t have to even read the graph or give a lick about math to 100% get lost in this story.

The main character (Colin) is loveable for his quirks. He only dates Katherines…19 of them to be exact. And he wonders, now broken hearted from the most recent one, if all of his relationships with Katherines can be charted, thus predicting any relationship’s demise.

He and his strange best friend decide to take a road trip to clear Colin’s head and live a little. They get swept up in a middle-of-nowhere-Tennessee town, and decide to stay a while. They befriend a local girl their age (not a Katherine) and it lets Colin put his guard down and get to know someone besides his type and become friends with someone who truly interests him.

I really enjoyed this one. It was a very easy read and the characters were all relatable. I think this would’ve made a great summer read on the beach (as if we all just prance off to the beach in the summer…).

 

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

 

This book has been very popular lately and was even featured on Lauren Conrad’s book club list. So, because I give into hype, I ordered it immediately. Annnnddd…

Whomp whomp.

I’m sure it would be a great book if I were 15 and a giddy girl with ALL THE FEELINGS, but I’m just not anymore. And I couldn’t even put myself there for this one. I found it terribly boring (the sentences were very clip and mundane) and extremely predictable. It doesn’t help that nothing happens until around 70 pages into the book.

With the premise of the book, I thought it was going to be a different story…but then it turned into a very very typical teen novel. Lara Jean (the main character) has never dated a boy but has been “in love” with 5 (ie her stomach flipped once, so she was “in love”). At the end of each crush she wrote the guy a letter, explaining how her feelings have ended, and she hides the letters in her room. Somehow they get sent out and the guy she has a crush on suddenly has the letter and so does a popular guy in school that she used to be friends with when she was younger.

This one doesn’t follow what could have been a really fun storyline, involving more of the letters and the guys who receive them. Instead it goes the typical: pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend to throw off the guy you really have a crush on and get sucked into your “pretend” relationship and caught off guard…

Yeah. We’ve all seen it a thousand times. I almost set it down, but then I realized I didn’t have anything better to do and I hate not finishing things. Total snooze fest.

 

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

 

This is the THIRD book I’ve read by Moriarty and to say I’m hooked would be a vast understatement. I love that all of her books are different and none of the characters are the same (some authors write comfortably familiar characters for all of their books, which makes them all start to sound the same…).

What Alice Forgot is a book I fell in love with.  Alice has an accident in the beginning of the book (she fell off her Spin bike during the gym class!) and loses 10 years of her memories. In her head, she is pregnant with her first child, she is an easy-going, generally happy woman, totally in love with her husband and the crappy house they bought to fix up together. In reality, it’s 10 years and 3 kids later and Alice is mid-divorce, uptight, way fit, and the head of every staunchy women’s group at her children’s school.

Reading this book was such a mental trip! It unfolded and mysteries were revealed about what happened in that 10-year period. Alice is walking around with the attitude of herself from 10 years ago, and she is wondering why her sister seems to look heavier and act like they hate each other…she wonders why her neighbor hates her…why her husband is screaming at her when (in her mind) just yesterday they’d been so excited about everything in their lives! She doesn’t know her children or remember a thing about their births, their likes and dislikes, their temperments. Why is her mom married to her almost-ex-husband’s father?! Who is that guy who says they’re dating?!

What a trip, right?! I loved this one. I loved hearing the juxtaposition between the life she’s living and her mental attitude, trying to catch up to it. I loved wondering what she decides to fix and what she decides to learn to live with. And I loved wondering when memories would come back to her.

Read this one. You’ll love it.

Read my reviews on The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies here.

 

Deliciously Ella by Ella Woodward

 

Ok ok, I know. This is a cookbook. BUT I love a cookbook with a good story behind it. Ella is a popular blogger! She went through a CRAZY illness that left her so sick, unable to walk, sleeping for days, and puzzled by what would happen to her life (just 2 weeks prior she was so happy and modeling! What happened?!). She read some books for inspiration, completely overhauled her diet and started from scratch, making all gluten-free, plant-based meals (she was an eat-anything person before her illness).

Her recipes are just gorgeous and they’re so simple too. It really inspired me to go back to basics with a lot of my food and be inspired to make some more-colorful meals for Spring! I’m not plant-based (hello steak!) but I love reading recipes for people who are. She doesn’t use any weird meat substitutes and most of her meals can be made in under 30 minutes! Plus, a big positive is that I didn’t feel like she was preaching anything. She’s very enthusiastic about her food but doesn’t force her choices on anyone, because they’re simply what works for her.

I made her Superfood Bread and LOVE  it. I let it cool overnight (because I made it so late that I had to go to bed and pass out while it was cooling) and in the morning, it was perfect! I can slice it super thin and toast it for breakfast or to dunk into soup. Love it. I sliced half of the loaf and froze it so I can enjoy it for another week.

This one is a great one to add to your collection! You’ll find yourself totally charmed by Ella and wanting to make all of her colorful creations.  

 

As always, this is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. I bought these books with my own pennies. And any links are affiliate links of Amazon. Thanks!