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Title: My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park
Author: Steve Kluger
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: This book won the Nerds Heart YA tournament, where I served as a judge in the earlier rounds.

Summary: T.C. and Augie are not only best friends—after T.C.’s mom passes away, they adopt each other as brothers. Their freshman year brings first love, a Mary Poppins-obsessed 6-year-old boy, and of course lots of baseball.

Review: Y’all know how I feel about alternating points of view. And it was a little difficult to get into this book at first as T.C., Augie, and T.C.’s crush Alejandra took turns telling their stories.

But once I got a feel for the different characters, I found myself wearing a perma-smile as I read.

It was a bit like going to a baseball game. You get settled into your seat, excited for the game to start, but it’s a little slow-going at first. Then your team gets a good hit, and you can’t help but get caught up in the fun.

That’s exactly what this book is—good, clean fun. The romances were sweet and more than enough to satisfy my girly sensibilities. Alejandra was opinionated and saucy—my kinda girl. Augie’s penchant for musicals kept everything light. And T.C. was a good kid who I never got tired of hearing from.

The novel is told in narration, snippets of instant messenger conversations, emails, and diary entries, which was kept it fresh and entertaining.

My only criticism would be that the kids sometimes seemed a little too well-adjusted for being freshmen in high school. (Or maybe I was just an exquisite little mess in high school, and these kids are closer to normal.)

Above all, this is a feel-good book. Chris and Nymeth picked a great winner for the first Nerds Heart YA tournament!

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

• The Last Exit to Normal
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks—My rating: 5/5
• Sunrise Over Fallujah
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Audience Pick!

Title: Devilish
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Seniors Jane and Allison aren’t popular, but they have each other. When Allison makes a dangerous deal to gain a little popularity, can Jane save her?

Review: This was the first book I read after my month-long Harry Potter revival, so I sort of expected to be let down. But this is Maureen Johnson, so I should have known better.

What I loved:

• Cupcakes—On the cover, in the story. Mmm. After I finished the book, I ran right out to our local cupcake shop to stuff my face.
• Hella funny—I don’t often laugh out loud while reading, but MJ is one of the few authors who can make me.
• 116-year-old love interest—Maybe this is my Angel crush showing a bit, but that’s hot stuff.

The only thing I would have changed is to add one more teensy clue about how Jane was going to save the day. There’s one clue halfway through, but my dulled mama’s brain didn’t catch it.

Have a little bite and see for yourself. In this scene, Jane’s best friend Allison just had an embarrassing day at school—of the vomiting-in-public variety.

And we have trolleys in Providence. That’s how we get around if we don’t drive. It was no shock that I found Allison waiting for the trolley or that I found most of our school waiting with her. In fact, it seemed like half of Rhode Island was waiting for our trolley.

Allison barely turned as I approached. It wasn’t cold. She just looked like she wanted to be unrecognizable. I think she would have gladly erased her entire existence and embraced that happy state of nonbeing that Eastern religions are always talking about. I stood by her silently. Unfortunately, my joining her only drew attention. A clump of weedy Sebastian’s guys started chin-upping in interest.

“Hey, barf bag,” one of them said.

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

• The Bermudez Triangle
• Girl at Sea—My rating: 2.5/5
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

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Title: Along for the Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Auden will start college in the fall, but she can’t stand to be around her mom for another summer. She escapes to her dad’s house, where she has to find her place among his new wife, their newborn baby, girls like she’s never known in her private-school existence…and quiet, intense Eli.

Review: The story got off to a slow start with a lot of background information. But it soon picked up, and I finished it in less than a day.

Even though it hasn’t made the top three LibraryThing recommendations, This Lullaby was similar in some ways—the summer between high school and college, an uber-responsible girl testing her self-imposed boundaries.

And satisfying banter among girlfriends. Here’s a snippet of Auden’s three new girlfriends talking:

“What I find,” Maggie said, “is that when you get gum, you always need something else. Because gum isn’t really a snack.”

“So true,” Esther agreed.

“If I do get gum, I always grab some chips, or maybe a cookie two-pack, as well. That way you know you’ve got your food and something refreshing for afterward.”

Leah shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “What about Tic Tacs? They’re like gum, but I’ve been known to eat them for a meal before.”

“Tic Tacs you actually swallow, though,” Esther pointed out. “You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed.”

Maggie turned to her, smiling. “Impressive.”

“Thank you,” Esther replied. “I always feel inspired here at the Gas/Gro.”

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Lock and Key
• Wintergirls—My rating: 5/5
• Keeping the Moon
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: King of the Screwups
Author: K.L. Going
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Liam is a high school senior, and everyone loves him. Except his father. Somehow, no matter how hard he tries not to screw up, Liam disappoints his dad. When his dad kicks him out, Liam’s only option is to live with his dad’s cross-dressing brother. Which pisses off his dad even more.

Review: I will definitely be reading more by K.L. Going. (Can you believe I haven’t read Fat Kid Rules the World? YA sacrilege!)

I love it when a main character breaks out of tired old stereotypes. Liam is straight and yet surprisingly comfortable in his own masculinity for a guy who’s inherited the sensibilities of his supermodel mom. Still, he has to figure out how to live in the real world, where even his dad is homophobic.

And my goodness, his relationship with his father is screwed up. I sometimes wished that I had a little more insight into why his dad was the way he was, but then again parents don’t come with an owner’s manual to explain all their hangups.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, so I’ll be passing it along to my rarely-reading hubby.

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Punkzilla
• Dope Sick
• Project Sweet Life
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Title: This Lullaby
Author: Sarah Dessen
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: This book made the YA summer reading list from Miss Shortskirt.

Summary: In the summer between high school graduation and college, Remy has a plan to tie up all her loose ends so she can start fresh. Until a clumsy musician named Dexter—the exact opposite of her type—barges in on her neat little plan.

Review: A perfect read for my summer beach vacation. This is my first Dessen book, and I will definitely be reading more.

I got so wrapped up in this romance that I stayed up two hours after my family went to bed to see how it would turn out.

Here’s where Remy meets Dexter:

I just looked at him. Wrong day, buddy, I thought. You caught me on the wrong day.

“The thing is,” he said, as if we’d been discussing the weather or world politics, “I saw you out in the showroom. I was over by the tire display?”

I was sure I was glaring at him. But he kept talking.

“I just thought to myself, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together.”

“You got all this,” I said, clarifying, “at the tire display?”

“You didn’t feel it?” he asked.

I also loved the banter between Remy and her closest girlfriends. Kind of like the Sex in the City gals, YA style.

Your Turn: Which Dessen book would you recommend next?

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Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Just Listen
• The Truth About Forever
• Someone Like You
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing