Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

February 7, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

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.

Book Overview:

Author: Nicola Yoon | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Bahni Turpin & Robbie Daymond | Length: 6 hours, 45 mins | Publish Date: September 1, 2015 | Genre: YA Contemporary | Literary Awards: Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2017), Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee (2018), Soaring Eagle Book Award (2016), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2017), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2016)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Debut Goodreads Author, and for Young Adult Fiction (2015), Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2017) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“Life is a gift. Don’t forget to live it.”

I don’t understand how some people don’t like this book, honestly. I really loved it, even if it wasn’t the most perfect YA Contemporary book I’ve ever read or ever will read. I loved how it ended, I loved how it began, I loved almost everything in between.

For one thing, the main character is part African-American and part Japanese, just like me! I think this is the first ever book that I’ve read where the main character is literally me! That already made me give many kudo points to this book. She probably doesn’t even look like it, which I know I don’t because people never believe me when I say that I’m part Japanese among other ethnicities in my mix. It’s like they think I’m lying or something. Um, have you seen my mom? Yeah, that’s where I get the Japanese from, so yeah. Let’s not tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about?

Mini rant over.

The difference between me and Maddy is that she has grown up without stepping foot outside of her house once her mother found out that she was basically allergic to the world: SCID. Could you imagine your life if you had the same kind of SCID that Maddy has? Not being able to leave your house without the possibility that anything could end up killing you? How would you go on with your life knowing that the entire world is out there, but you can only see it from the safety of your own house, and never in person? Doesn’t sound very fun, does it? Sure, there are books that you could read, which take you to so many other worlds that we can only begin to dream of, but pretty soon that won’t be enough.

Now imagine living that life for seventeen years.

That’s Maddie, and while it seems like she’s coping well, there’s always the dreams that she has. What if she wasn’t sick? What if she could go to a regular school with regular kids? What if she could go to Hawaii and see the state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a? (Also, hello?! I’m from Hawaii and I instantly got homesick reading about my home in this book.) What if she could walk outside her door without worrying about almost dying, or worse?

“Everything’s a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It’s up to you.”

Then enters Olly and his family, who end up moving right next door to Maddy and her mom. From there, the potential of new friendship blooms and possibly more. Can one person entering Maddy’s life be the reason she may end up risking everything?

There was a certain part of this book that I was so upset about (can’t say since it’s a spoiler and not everyone has watched the movie – like myself!) and it really hurt me. But after knowing exactly what happened in the past to the rest of Maddy’s family, it makes sense to me. I understand what happened, and while I don’t condone it, I understand it. This book has a young eighteen-year-old girl ready to take on everything that used to scare her before, and it makes me wonder why I can’t have her determination? Why can’t I have her drive?

I think I will remember this book for a long time. I’d love to read more books from Nicola Yoon to see what other kinds of stories she can come up with. I really enjoyed listening to Maddie’s mind and seeing the way she reacts to her little slice in the world.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: Jamaica

Website: http://www.nicolayoon.com

Twitter: NicolaYoon

Genre: Young Adult

Goodreads Member Since: October 2013

Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason. Everything, Everything is her first novel.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

February 6, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Ella is a girl with a most unusual gift, and her story has charmed readers and critics alike. Now Miramax Films brings this wholly original Cinderella story to the silver screen, complete with princes, ogres, wicked stepsisters, and a fairy-tale ending fit for a princess.

Book Overview:

Author: Gail Carson Levine | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Eden Riegel | Length: 5 hours, 42 mins | Publish Date: September 1, 1997 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Literary Awards: Newbery Honor (1998), Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children’s Literature (1999), Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award (2000), Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book (1999), Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award for Grade 6-9 (2000)
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award (1999), Iowa Teen Award (2000) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.”

Can you believe that this was the first ever time that I’ve read this book? I never heard about it when I was a little girl, so it was never one of those childhood favorites that I wanted to come back to after I grew up. This was a very first for me, and while it definitely wasn’t one of my favorites, it was still a cute story.

The main thing that I enjoyed about this book was the twist on Cinderella. How horrible would it have been if Cinderella didn’t have a choice in her upbringing? All of the treatment she endured by her stepmother and stepsisters was terrible in and of itself, but what if she was physically forced to obey them due to a fairy’s curse? This is what Ella Enchanted brought to Cinderella’s story, and it made the story that much better.

That was probably the only part of the story that I liked, unfortunately. As I was going through this book, I couldn’t really enjoy it as much as I wanted to. There wasn’t really anything special about it that made me want to read it again, or add it to my collection. Sure, the curse made things more interesting, but it also made her family that much worse. Not to mention her father was a complete jerk, who didn’t even love her the way a father should. How could he allow her to be put into such awful situations and not care about what’s happening to her?

No, Ella’s father was total tool and I did not like him at all.

This book was okay, and it gave me another movie to watch for another Book vs. Movie showdown. Other than that, It just wasn’t memorable to me. Although I am glad I had the opportunity to read this childhood book for the first time.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: In New York, New York, The United States

September 17, 1947

Website: http://gailcarsonlevine.com

Genre: Children’s Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult

Goodreads Member Since: August 2012

Just letting you all know: I’m only going to review books I love. There’s enough negative criticism without me piling on. A book is too hard to write.

Gail Carson Levine grew up in New York City and began writing seriously in 1987. Her first book for children, Ella Enchanted, was a 1998 Newbery Honor Book. Levine’s other books include Fairest; Dave at Night, an ALA Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults; The Wish; The Two Princesses of Bamarre; and the six Princess Tales books. She is also the author of the nonfiction book Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly and the picture book Betsy Who Cried Wolf, illustrated by Scott Nash. Gail, her husband, David, and their Airedale, Baxter, live in a 1790 farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley of New York State.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

February 4, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

Book Overview:

Author: Sandhya Menon | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Sneha Mathan & Vikas Adam | Length: 10 hours, 46 mins | May 30, 2017 | Genre: YA Contemporary | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2017) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“This is our life. We get to decide the rules. We get to say what goes and what stays, what matters and what doesn’t.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I’m so bummed that I didn’t read this last year when I meant to.

This was another book that I don’t normally read – meaning contemporary since I like to read about young adults saving the world – but I thought that this was very enjoyable. In this book, we meet Dimple Shah, a recent high school graduate that wants to attend a two-month long summer program that deals with computer science and app coding, more formally known as Insomnia Con. She wasn’t sure how she was going to convince her parents to let her go, especially since it would cost her parents a thousand dollars for her admission fee.

So when her mom and dad actually agree to let her go and pay a grand to send her to San Francisco for this program, she can barely believe it.

On the other hand, there’s a boy named Rishi, who believes that his future wife will be attending Insomnia Con, and actually embraces the idea of having an arranged marriage that is traditional in Indian culture. So when the time comes to meet this girl, he is so full of hope and love that he could care less that he’s attending a program that has nothing to do with his passion nor degree field.

There definitely wasn’t a “meet cute” instance in this book, and that’s what I loved about it. Dimple is so sure that she doesn’t want to marry or meet any boy during her time at Insomnia Con and in the future. Rishi is so sure that he wants to get married and start a family and have that woman be one of her parents’ choosing. So you can imagine how these two complete opposites are having such an interesting time together.

I think Rishi is one of my all-time favorite characters that I’ve read about, and I may have to enlist him as my book boyfriend. The way that he is so sure of his culture and his traditions without being ashamed of where he comes from is so rare these days. I really admire that about him, and how he will stand up for those that are being mistreated.

“I feel like I need to speak out, because if no one speaks out, if no one says, this is me, this is what I believe in, and this is why I’m different, and this is why that’s okay, then what’s the point? What’s the point of living in this beautiful, great melting pot where everyone can dare be anything they want to be?”

I highly recommend reading this book and enjoying a young friendship that may or may not blossom into something more.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads