Book: Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Length: 560

Format: eBook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: It's on my list.

Basic Premise: Twin sisters Olanna and Kainene grew up among the wealthy and privileged in Nigeria. When civil unrest turns into all-out war, the sisters and their significant others struggle to make sense of this new life and their roles in it.

My Take: 4 out of 10 (scale here)

First of all, I would take this book off every YAL list on which it appears. I suppose it's there because one of the three narrators is a young houseboy who journeys into manhood, but I don't consider this a story for young adults. It is very "adult" and explicit often times to the detriment of the story. Most of the time, when I hear there is a movie about a book I'm reading, I want to see it. This one is even free on Amazon and I still don't really want to watch it. It's rated R for "some violence and sexual content." If they used the word "some" they must have really trimmed both.

Aside from the violence and sex, the story didn't really move well. It felt disjointed and hollow. The author did a nice job developing characters, but the characters just weren't very likable. Maybe I'm being too harsh. But I will say that what I like about this book and books like it are the settings - the environment, the cultural backdrop, the place in history - and the way I feel it broadens my understandings of these countries and cultures. That part I LOVED. The rest...well, I'm just not a fan.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Book: A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

Length: 640

Format: eBook
Price: $2.99 on Amazon

How I heard about it: It's on my list.

Basic Premise: Johnny Wheelwright tells the story of his life in terms of his best friend, Owen Meany, whose presence in his life affects everything from the existence of his mother to discovering his long-lost father to developing his own unwavering faith.

My Take: 5 out of 10 (scale here)
I looked, and I originally downloaded this book in March of 2015. MARCH. I just finished at the end of November. Want to know why? Because this book was soooooooooooooooooo long. On your Kindle, you can't really tell how long a book is. It has a page counter, but sometimes pages are multiple screens long. It also has a percentage count, but sometimes there is an interview with the author or the first chapter of another book or something, so you can't exactly tell when the book is going to end. All I know is that, after reading solidly on the drive to and from my aunt and uncle's over break (5 hours total), I had read only 10% of this book. UGH.

Aside from the length, the book was well written. The language was such that it would have been very pleasant to listen to someone read it aloud. It took FOREVER for the conflict (finding out how his real father was) to emerge, and I've come to hate books like this that spend too much time on introductory details. As often happens with books like this, the second half was much better and easier than the first half. The ending was satisfactory, I suppose, but it just took so long to get there. I feel like the editor could have axed at least 40% of this book and my rating would go up to a 7.5.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Big Blue

My check-engine light had been on for awhile...like, a few months. When it came on originally, Husband took it to the mechanic and they said it was a sensor problem - there was nothing wrong with the mechanics of the vehicle, but I'd need to take it to a dealership to fix it. So I called and they said they could get to it NEXT WEEK. That was not convenient, so I tabled it for the time being. And then I sort of forgot about it. I mean, it dinged at me every time I started the car, just like it does when I'm running low on gas, but I got used to that (so used to it, in fact, that I didn't notice my gas gauge one day and ran out of gas...but that's a story for another post).

Finally a few weeks ago, I had a few hours so I called and they said they had immediate availability. I had Husband follow me, I drove it over, and we left it there. The next day, Husband got a phone call. The prognosis was NOT good. It was going to cost $1700 to fix my car. They would give us $1500 in a trade-in.

We were then faced with a dilemma. Do we pay to get the car fixed, or do we get a new car? My car had about 145,000-ish miles on it, had lots of things wrong with it, and after consulting a mechanic who knew the nature of such a problem and told us this could be the tip of the iceberg, fixing the old car was looking less and less appealing. However, the old car was a good car (otherwise) and I had some sentimental ties to it. It's the car I have driven my babies in since they were born! And, most importantly...IT WAS PAID FOR. And since our debt plan includes us being COMPLETELY DONE WITH DEBT BY 2016, BUYING A NEW CAR WOULD BE A BIT OF A SETBACK.

In the old car. She is so stinking cute.

I can't tell you how devastated I was about this whole ordeal. 2015 had been a year of financial wins for us and we had some serious momentum going. Purchasing a new car would bring things to a screeching halt. We talked and prayed, and finally decided that fixing the car was too risky. We needed to bite the bullet and get a new one. I wanted no part of this process (truly, there are no words for how much I HATE this sort of thing), and since I was driving to Oklahoma that weekend anyway, Husband handled the finding of the new vehicle. Of course I wanted a van (we drove Husband's mom's van to Colorado one summer and OHMYGOODNESS it was so nice! There was so much space!) but I was pretty sure we weren't going to be able to afford one. But Husband did thorough research and God provided this:

 Meet Big Blue (as the kids call her). She has lots of things The old car didn't, like space, leather, power seats, power liftgate (which is already revolutionized my grocery shopping game), space, heated seats, driver memory (so that when Rick drives, he doesn't have to manually adjust the seat every single time…he can just push the "driver 2" button), A THIRD ROW, and SO MUCH SPACE. This isn't a great picture, but you can kind of see the third row:

We have already taken it to Oklahoma, grabbed cousins and gone to the library, and taken a road trip with friends (FOUR friends!) to Lawrence. It has been wonderful!

The downside is that we had to take another loan. The good thing about that is that this is the first loan we have taken after completing Financial Peace, so we were much smarter about it. Thanks to good saving and spending habits, we were able to put half down and we will have it paid off within six months. So even though it was a bit of a setback, it was a necessary one. And in the meantime, we are really enjoying our new van!

Book: A Night Divided

A Night Divided

by Jennifer A. Nielson

Length: 336

Format: Hardback
Price: Free...checked out from the school library

How I heard about it: A student recommended it

Basic Premise: When the Berlin Wall goes up with half her family in East Germany and half her family in West, Gerta begins to plan the unthinkable - an escape to the West.

My Take: 7.5 out of 10 (scale here)

This was a very interesting book. The older I get, the more interested I find myself in historical fiction. I have done a lot of reading about Germany during the second world war but not much about after. That part of this was really, really intriguing. The actual story was less so. The author was unspecific about many things I wanted more information about (which isn't completely unusual) but the kicker was that the method and success of the escape were all so outrageous that there was no way to suspend my disbelief. There is NO WAY this could have happened. The YAL part of it did slow me up a bit - I'd love to find some historical fiction about this time period with a little more grit.

Book: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Length: 368

Format: eBook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: It's on my list.

Basic Premise: Nine-year-old Oskar lost his father last year in the 9/11 terrorist attack, but as he is going through his father's closet one day, he discovers an envelope and an unmarked key. Believing them to be part of a last message from his father, Oskar launches a search for his father's last secret.

My Take: 6 out of 10 (scale here)

This story is told mostly from Oskar in a first-person narrative, but there are bits scattered throughout which are told by his grandmother and grandfather, but you don't realize who they are or how their stories connect until later in the book. Although this can often be an effective story-telling tool, I wasn't a fan of that particular approach with this particular story. One of the reasons was that one of the characters was so fundamentally un-likeable. Another was because it tended to complicate things rather than clarify, which was obviously intentional, but it didn't really work for me. However, the primary storyteller, Oskar, was highly entertaining. He has an extremely brilliant mind but lacks certain basic social skills, such as the ability to determine whether something he thinks is appropriate to say out loud. It made for many amusing moments. It also made Oskar incredibly endearing. I also loved how his two favorite adjectives were "extremely" and "incredibly." The story was heartfelt and, although I won't be looking up other books by this author, I did enjoy this one.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer 
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Audio Book: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Length: 6 hours, 24 minutes

Format: Audiobook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: My girls have been reading this book right and left. It's also on my list.

Basic Premise: Clay Jensen receives an anonymous set of 7 cassette tapes in the mail. Amused (who listens to cassettes anymore?), he pops the first one in his dad's old stereo and discovers the tapes are the final thoughts of Hannah Baker, who killed herself two weeks ago. Each side of the tape includes a name - a reason why.

My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
It's hard to say I liked this book, given the dark and gut-wrenching nature of the subject matter. It was well-written and formatted. Each side of the tape contained the name and story of one person whose interactions with her contributed to her decision to end her life. In most cases, people had done really terrible things to her. But a few of them were positive interactions, and for whatever reason, they weren't enough for Hannah to keep from giving up. It was an incredibly eye-opening story about what can happen when people feel beaten down, overlooked, and as if they have no way out. Several students popped into my mind at various points in the story, as did kids I went to high school with. It was a good book, but hard.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Book: Does My Head Look Big in This?

Does My Head Look Big in This?

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Length: 368 pages

Format: Hardback
Price: Checked out from the library

How I heard about it: I've heard of it before (I think first at my young adult literature conference and next in my school library). It's also on my list.

Basic Premise: Sixteen-year-old Amal has done a splendid job of fitting in at her prep school in Melbourne, Australia. That is, until she decides to ¨go full-time¨ and wear the hijab as a token of her Islamic faith. 

My Take: 5 out of 10 (scale here)
If I hadn't read it on the heels of I am Malala, I probably would have liked it better. As it was, this story felt petty and superficial. After all, when you read a book about a girl who was shot in the head for what she believed, it's hard to have the same kind of sympathy for a girl who gets strange looks and curious questions for wearing a head covering. There was little to no explanation of why Amal felt compelled to wear the head covering, other than calling it a badge of her faith. I would have liked to know why she wore it. Does it say to in the Koran? Is it so others will identify her as a Muslim? Is it an issue of modesty? (That's what I always thought.) I still have no idea. What I did appreciate about this book was a broader understanding of the challenges that Muslims face in the Western world. And, given recent events, the timing couldn't be better.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here