13 Reasons Why

This is one of those books that is actually unique. Very good story, story telling, characters, and writing.

Clay is a teenage boy who receives a set of tapes in the mail. They are from his classmate who committed suicide a few weeks ago. These tapes lay out 13 reasons why she killed herself.

It's YA, but definitely only appropriate for older high schoolers.

The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty

This book shows the darker side of humanity. A quirky artistic group of friends who each have their own issues learn that one of them has done something very bad and will try to do it again. Just about all the characters, major and minor are weird but not in an endearing way. In a compelling way. I needed to finish the book but I don't know of I'd say it's a great one. Turned out to contain an element of magic which I just dislike and think is dumb. Wouldn't recommend. 

Brain on Fire

This book is stellar. One of the best memoirs I've read. Susannah wakes up in a hospital room strapped to a bed. She spent months in the hospital and has no memory of it.

She pieced together this book based on many different sources. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Find Me

This is about a girl who ends up in a lock down hospital because she showed she was immune to a disease that makes you forget things, then die. They did tests on her in order to find a cure. 

I heard about this book on NPR. Most of the time, their recs don't steer me wrong.

This one did. The writing was just okay. It had potential to be a great book, but was just ho hum. The characters were weird and not the quirky kind of weird that I think the author was going for. 

Plot had potential but either moved too fast or too slow. Not enough buildup of plot anticipation before revealing something. Almost like stream of consciousness. Over half way done and I wanted to quit. I ended up skimming the rest of the book to see if it got better and if the ending was worth plugging on. It wasn't.

I decided to look up the review on NPR and decided I think I will trust them again on their recs. 

Because You'll Never Meet Me

I thought this book was fantastic. It's about a kid who is allergic to electricity and how he develops a friendship with another kid who has a pacemaker, and thus is electric. Easy and quick read. It's a coming of age story that dark and humorous. I don't remember it being super inappropriate for kids, but I also don't remember passing it along to my 6th grader, so it's probably questionable.

How to Grow a School Garden

This is a great resource for parents who would like to see a school garden installed. From start to finish, it has great tips.

In Some Other World, Maybe

I read this book a month ago and am just now getting to review it. Here's the thing. I don't remember much of it. Even the Goodreads description didn't jog my memory much. I remember finishing it. I remember not loving it, not hating it. But because I don't remember enough to write in my own words, here's what Goodreads says it's about:


"In December 1992, three groups of teenagers head to the theater to see the movie version of the famed Eons & Empires comic books. For Adam it's a last ditch effort to connect with something (actually, someone, the girl he's had a crush on for years) in his sleepy Florida town before he leaves for good. Passionate fan Sharon skips school in Cincinnati so she can fully appreciate the flick without interruption from her vapid almost-friends—a seemingly silly indiscretion with shocking consequences. And in suburban Chicago, Phoebe and Ollie simply want to have a nice first date and maybe fool around in the dark, if everyone they know could just stop getting in the way.

Over the next two decades, these unforgettable characters criss-cross the globe, becoming entwined by friendship, sex, ambition, fame and tragedy. "