Weekly Reads: Meternity

Every once in a while I like to read really fluffy chick lit. It used to be almost ALL I read, but then I got sick of it being so predictable. But I still like to check out Emily Giffin, Sophie Kinsella, and Beth Harbison's new books each year. When I read the description for Meghann Foye's Meternity I thought it looked like the perfect book to read after reading some heavy teen books. I was right. It was a fun light read, that surprisingly had some good meat to it. Definitely a good read for fans of the aforementioned authors.

My rating: 4 stars*

Summary from goodreads:

Not quite knocked up… 

Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she's plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers.

Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses—boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.

By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?

As her "due date" approaches, Liz is exhausted—and exhilarated—by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant…about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.

*I received an e-ARC of this book to read and review to the publisher, as well as promote to library customers if I like it! 

Weekly Reads: We Are the Ants

I had heard quite a bit of buzz about We Are the Ants and I was so excited to get my hands on the book. And it did NOT disappoint. I think this book has such a strong chance at recognition from the Printz committee. I've been recommending it left and right at the library.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

There are a few things Henry Denton knows, and a few things he doesn’t.

Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.

What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.

But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.

The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.

Weekly Reads: Kindred Spirits

Kindred Spirits is a short story written by Rainbow Rowell for World Book Night in the UK. Emily was kind enough to gift me a copy and I devoured it. It was amazing, and left me wanting MORE! When can Rainbow and I be besties? That needs to happen asap.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

If you broke Elena's heart, Star Wars would spill out. So when she decides to queue outside her local cinema to see the new movie, she's expecting a celebration with crowds of people who love Han, Luke and Leia just as much as she does. What she's not expecting is to be last in a line of only three people; to have to pee into a collectible Star Wars soda cup behind a dumpster or to meet that unlikely someone who just might truly understand the way she feels. Kindred Spirits is an engaging short story by Rainbow Rowell, author of the bestselling Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On, and is part of a handful of selected short reads specially produced for World Book Day.

Weekly Reads: The Great American Whatever

So good. That's almost all I can say about The Great American Whatever. The two previous books I've read by Tim Federle have been more middle school aged, and this one is definitely more teen appropriate. I laughed, I cried. It was amazing. My only regret is that I read this before it came out so I didn't get to here the author narrate the audiobook himself! Note: Always LISTEN to Tim Federle's books. Always.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before—before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before Annabeth was killed in a car accident.

Enter Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—a hot one—and falls hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending—if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story.

Mic Check... 1... 2.... 3....

Is this thing still on?

Good news, I once again have wifi and inspiration to write and share, so stay tuned for some massive catch up posts and an update on training and stuff.

What have you missed???? Besides me and Ollie, obvs. I'm excited to catch up with everyone again.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Ollie loving her favorite sunny spot in our new house!