How To Breathe Underwater

Kate is a competitive swimmer, best in the state actually, and her father is the coach pushing her to perfection. Until one day at swim practice he is caught in the arms of a swim mom, in front of everyone! Suddenly Kate and her mother are moving an hour away to restart their lives, and Kate is no longer sure who she wants to be or what she wants to do. Enter Micheal, the cute boy across the hall, and Patrice the pretty and sweet girl who welcomes her in Chem class, who also happens to be dating Micheal, something Kate finds out after developing a major crush on the boy. Then out walks Harris, Kate's best friend for nearly her whole life! Kate's entire world is turned upside down by everything, most importantly, her decision to stop swimming. And suddenly Kate, at nearly seventeen years old, has to figure out where she is going from here.

I would like to start by saying the only thing I allowed to be colored by my favor of the author (who is my baby sister) was the fact that I picked the book up in the first place. I do not traditionally read YA Romance, or really very much romance at all these days. I am also completely against first person narrative, it bothers me, I find it hard to get into, and so I avoid it, a fact I am sure I have mentioned before. It takes a lot to get me to read a book combining these too elements, but I have read some of my sister's previous, unpublished works, and I knew she was a great writer, so there was never I doubt I would pick this book up. And I in no way doubt that decision because this book was amazing!

Vicky' writing style is on point! With a unique perspective thanks to the events of her life, she was able to write characters and events that were real, heartfelt, and altogether incredible! Every moment of this book was so perfectly descriptive and emotional! The characters were believable and lovable (even for a moment the father, whom you can't help but feel a flash of pity for). Kate's moments of panic were so accurate they stung, and created an appreciation for the author's ability to craft such scenes that I want to thrust this book on so many of my fellow readers. From the start I was pulled into the narrative and dragged from page to page needing to know how it would all turn out, how Kate would handle everything being thrown at her, how things could possibly work out in the end. And I was not disappointed as I finally laid the book down only a day after picking it up.

Vicky Skinner is a truly gifted story teller! And I can't wait to see what the future holds for this talented young writer! Knowing what is coming next year, what she is working on after that, I am so incredibly excited to add her stories to my shelves and delve into more of her unique tales! Go pick up this book now and get ready to discover a new beloved author!

The Sisters

In the beginning was Mabel and Bertie. In the summer of 1927 Mabel knew something would soon happen to Bertie and that the only way to escape would be to take her sister away. She thought she planned out the only way things could be done to give them a restart at life. Only, something went wrong. Bertie never got on the train. Suddenly both Mabel and Bertie are thrown out into the world, alone and uncertain, and full of emotions they keep tucked away from prying eyes.

What follows is a story like most others, Mabel finds herself in photography and unusual friendships, Bertie marries and devotes herself to making sure her little family holds together. But the original tragedy colors everything.

Jensen weaves a tale that may seem simple enough, only that there is a thread running through all of it that most of the characters are never aware of even as it changes things for them permanently. This family that hides truths about what they are doing, what they feel, and they change the course of each other's lives with these hidden facets. Amazingly, something that happened in 1927 effects the great-granddaughters in 2007, even as the child has no idea of the events that occurred.

Not only is this an amazing story to show how tragedy colors each and every one of us without us having gone through the event itself, Jensen is an incredible writer. Her imagination is vast as she develops this family and chronicles their lives. At the worst moments in the book she gives us just enough of the scene to make it stick with you, make you cringe, without having to take it too far. And her characters are so diverse and real that you can't help but feel for each and every one of them.

I am so glad that picked up this novel and I will be looking for more of Jensen's works in the future! I recommend everyone pick this book up!

You're Never Weird On The Internet (almost)

June: Books written by celebrities.

When did I first become aware of Felicia Day? I don't even know. I remember seeing her on Eureka and recognizing her immediately, so I had to have seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog by then. I don't know if I saw the episodes of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer before or after I knew her name. But I know for a fact when I saw her on Supernatural I fangirl squealed and did a jumping dance in the middle of the living room because Felicia Day was so cool and on my new favorite show! I didn't get to watch her show The Guild when it first aired but I have since made up for that by watching it multiple times and mentioning it to all my friends. So basically it's like I've always been aware of Felicia Day, even though she has only been an actress since 2001. Maybe it's like Joss Whedon said in his intro: "She's something more than a self-made woman - I sometimes think she's not a human woman, that she willed herself into existence, before willing the world to make a place for this new, unfathomable creation." Felicia Day willed herself into my life, and it has been glorious ever since.

In her memoir Felicia tells the incredible tale of how she grew up home-schooled, managed to start college at age 16, and obtained two Real Degrees while never getting her GED. Than she moved to LA with the feeling that she was just meant to be an actress. And it seemed that anything she wanted to do, she put her mind to, and rocked it.
Only, it didn't keep happening that way.
While most of the world sees Felicia Day as this incredibly bubbly, happy, bright person who is not only beautiful but is also a gamer, which is just awesome, people don't suspect the underlying anxious, over-worked, neurotic that hides behind the games she played until she had pushed most of the world out.

And this is why I love Felicia Day. On top of the fact that I always love her bigger characters, I started to catch glimpses of the real Day sometime after she stared in Eureka and what I saw fascinated me. I'm not a major gamer, but I love to sit and loose myself in some Zelda when I can. I spent most of my teen years behind a computer screen in RPG chatrooms because I could be better than who I was IRL. I am addicted to stories because they are the easiest way for me to loose myself (and reading is something that people will encourage). And with all the convention panels I was getting to watch on YouTube, I started to see someone that I could relate to. And she was awesome!

Reading this book I got a closer look at Felicia Day than I ever had before. She opens her soul for the readers and welcomes them in to follow her journey through not only her childhood and move to LA, but the tough years including the two she spent literally addicted to WoW and then later when depression and anxiety got a hold of her so bad that her health took a turn for the worse. Day does not sugarcoat how hard things got for her, and I love that, because people that go through the same need to see that other have it just as bad. And her making her way out of it and doing something incredible, gives the rest of us real hope.

When I saw that Felicia Day wrote a memoir I got so excited, because she is awesome and I love to read about peoples' lives, how they got to where they are, and what they take from that experience. I got so much more in this book. I got to see hope that even though I am incredibly anxious and what people think of my work terrifies me, I can still put it out there, because I made a think #LookIt.

I really encourage everyone to read this one. It's full of laughter and sweet stories and awkward moments. And then it's full of truth and honesty. For the gamers, the women, the socially awkward creative people. Everyone feeling like maybe their passion is just too weird. Everyone that overthinks things to the point of insomnia. Here is a book written by a woman that gets it. And says that it is ok to be like that, you can make something of it, you just got to try. So give the book a read, and tell me what you think about it!

Three Good Things

May - Books with numbers in the title.

I loved the premise behind this book, the story of two sisters, one a recent divorcee with a bake shop that's just trying to figure out life after her husband, and the other a successful lawyer and new mom trying to figure out how to balance her life. Loosing their mother at just sixteen and six, they have only her imparted words of wisdom to help them these years later: "At the end of every day, find three good things about it."

I think the fact that I rarely pick up mainstream books has effected me. While I greatly enjoyed this book, loved the story and the writing style, even found myself talking aloud at the characters near the end, I felt the book was a little watered down. I believe this to be a side affect of far too many life and death harrowing storylines in my recent read list. Something so simple almost fell flat for me. That is not to say that I didn't love the book, that I don't recommend it, on the contrary, I suggest everyone, especially women, pick this book up. Join the McClarety sisters on their path to trying to discover themselves in their own little ways at a time when most people expect to have all their shit together. This book is wonderful, so much like life with moments of joy, confusion, pain, misunderstandings, awkward moments, The characters are so adorable in their little Wisconsin town where the worst that can happen is a little too much snow to make someone late for work. Well, at least on the surface, because under that is two women who are a little too scared of making the wrong move and having everything they want in life slip through their fingers. And what's a little pastry without a side of drama?

This was a really enjoyable read and I look forward to holding on to it to recommend for all my friends that ask me for a good book and they don't want anything too heavy. And if you read the book and try the recipe for kringle, something I am really considering, let me know how it turns out!

Lift

"No matter when and why this comes to your hands, I want to put down on paper how things started with us." -Kelly Corrigan, Lift (pg6)

Kelly Corrigan knows that as her two girls grow and change she will too, as a mother. She doesn't know how she will change, if it will be good or not, and she decides she wants her girls to remember her how she was in the beginning. This is a wonderful idea. So, keeping this in mind, Corrigan writes down memories from when her girls were young; just a few little things but enough to mean so much.

This was a short read, but it still had enough that I smiled, laughed, and nearly cried many times. It was an incredible read that got me thinking about my own children and the relationship we have. I loved it and am looking forward to getting my hands on her other book, The Middle Place. And I must recommend this book to any and all mothers.