BOOK REVIEW: Paper Towns (Task #3 Complete!)

Paper Towns by John Green is not only my book club's discussion piece for March, but it is also the third task I've completed as part of the BookRiot Read Harder Challenge as "A book by a person whose gender is different from your own."  It could also count this as my YA novel - but I  have already reviewed that one! (Do I have a YA lit problem? Honestly, I probably do.)

Paper Towns has been on my list ever since my best friend, Brooke, gave me The Fault in our Stars. I bawled for days over that one. SO WONDERFUL!  I went into Paper Towns not really knowing what to expect.  I knew it was coming out as a movie, but other than that, I wondered how closely it would align with the only other book by the author I had read.  To my pleasant surprise, I found it quite different and in a very good way!

The book begins Quentin Jacobsen (also known as Q) and Margo Roth Spiegelman riding their bikes to a local park.  When they arrive, they find the body of a man who has committed suicide.  Q and Margo have very different reactions to the situation - Q is scared and wants to go find help. Margo is a bit enthralled and steps toward the body to get a closer look before Q snaps her out of it.  

"I think I maybe know why," she said finally.

"Why?" 

"Maybe all the strings inside him broke," she said.

Flash forward to present day, when Q and Margo are now in high school.  They aren't friends - in fact, Margo is basically the queen bee of their high school and Quentin is one of the band kids. They haven't really been friends since they stumbled upon the body as kids. 

Then one night Margo appears at Quentin's window, wearing black face paint and a black hoodie.  She has a long list of wrongs to right and talks Q into chauffeuring her around as she marks items of the list.  After their crazy night of shenanigans, Quentin gets to school and Margo isn't there.  Margo is nowhere to be found and at first, everyone just assumes it's another one of Margo's legendary trips and she'll be back eventually.

Except, she doesn't come back.  After speaking with Margo's parents and the police, Quentin sees that someone has lowered the window shade in Margo's room - and there is a clue staring him right in the face.  Joined by his friends Ben and Radar, Q begins the most epic scavenger hunt that ever existed hoping that, in the end, he could find Margo.

There were so many things that I liked about this book.  There are wacky and specific details about each character that really bring everything to life.  For example, Radar's parents own the largest collection of black Santa's.  Ben calls all people of the female persuasion "honeybunnies."  I really felt a connection with Quentin as the narrator.

What I loved most, though, is the sense of seriousness and humor that John Green wove throughout the story.  It begins with the seriousness of suicide, draws you in with pedantic attention to high school life - where the most important thing is whether or not you're going to prom - followed by possibly the funniest revenge plot I've ever encountered.  Then you're hit with the harder hitting parts during Q's search for Margo.  Green really digs into the "coming of age" story line here.  Q and his friends question what it is to really know someone and what it is to really know yourself and the different personas one may have depending on the situation they find themselves in.  

This book, like The Fault in our Stars, absolutely has an existential thread to it. I think that's what I like best about John Green's writing - it's light, it's goofy, it's fun, but it also tackles these larger ideas of what it means to exist in this life.

I would give this book a 3 out of 4 stars.  There is a lot here for readers to connect with, even if YA lit isn't your thing.

BOOK REVIEW: The Light Between Oceans (Task #2 Complete!)

The Light Between Oceans is a book by M. L. Stedman that my book club selected to read for our February meeting. Therefore, I decided that it would count as the second item crossed off of my BookRiot Read Harder Challenge list as "A book that someone else has recommended to you."

I thought this book was beautifully written, but also quite heartbreaking. I was incredibly moved by the story line. 

It is about a couple, Isabel and Tom, who cannot conceive a child, when one day a baby washes up on shore in a boat with a dead man. Instead of notifying authorities about the body and the baby, the couple decides to keep and raise the baby as their own. It's only years later that they realize the impact this decision has had outside of their little family. There were moments where I wanted to cry and scream because things just weren't fair, and there were moments where I was just so frustrated I was beside myself!

On one hand, I could absolutely understand Isabel's grief and want to keep the baby as their own; however, I am a guilty sort of conscience like Tom, so I think the weight of the decision would eat away at me in a similar fashion.  And then, of course, after they'd already made the decision to keep Lucy, it muddied the water that much more because then they were in way over their heads at that point.  There were times when I just felt so awful and wished there was a clearer answer, rather than just a whole lot of anguish for everyone.

It's a book that I would recommend to most people. However, I wouldn't necessarily say the plot is fast paced, so for people who are looking for an exciting plot, this book wouldn't be suitable. I would give it 3 of 4 stars, though!

BOOK REVIEW: Second Hand Stops by Katie St. Claire (Task #1 Complete!)

I recently completed a review on OnlineBookClub.org for a book called Second Hand Stops by Katie St. Claire.  It's a YA novel about six adolescent telepaths who begin to unlock the truth behind their mysterious benefactor and an elixir that allows the drinker to live forever.

Read the full review here!

I also counted this as my BookRiot Read Harder Challenge books.  So, task #1 complete!

A challenge for 2015!

As you may or may not know, I love to read. I recently learned about BookRiot's 2015 Read Harder Challenge. What is this goal you ask?

"...24 tasks, averaging out to two per month, that will hopefully inspire you to pick up books that represent experiences and places and cultures that might be different from your own. We encourage you to push yourself, to take advantage of this challenge as a way to explore topics or formats or genres that you otherwise wouldn’t try. But this isn’t a test. No one is keeping score and there are no points to post. We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help to even know which perspectives to try out. That’s what this is – a perspective shift – but one for which you’ll only be accountable to yourself.

I love this idea. I get into a rut (though I don't like the word rut, per se, because of the negative connotation) where I read gobs of books that are similar to the books I just read, and never really branch out too much. With this challenge (especially bingo card that I've just printed off to help me remember all of the different categories), I can mindfully select books for each category and really stretch myself.

Is anyone else participating in this challenge? What's the first task that you plan to tackle? I myself have already completed the YA Novel (book review(s) to come!) and plan to tackle a book that someone else has recommended to me. There is even a Goodreads group dedicated to this challenge - check it out for book recommendations!