Michelle

An Insightful Look at Adolescent Behavior

Revisado: 07-06-21

Professor Abigail Baird shares the latest perspectives on the cognitive and behavioral growth that happens in the teen years, and sheds light on both the how and why this is responsible for a lot of the behavior we associate with this age group. She also shares her years of research to support the importance of these brain changes, and how we as parents, teachers, adult role models, and even teens themselves can understand what is happening neurologically, to better work with the behavior. She also offers some insight into understanding when these changes may be outside of the normal scope, and how to handle instances where outside intervention may be needed and how to address this.

As both a parent of a teenager, and someone who has lived through this milestone, I found it refreshing to match common teen behaviors to specific changes in the brain. Who knew there were neurological changes at the root of these common behaviors? By offering an objective perspective on why this happens, opportunities are created for conversation, support, and new ways to approach the changes instead of constant battling against them. For me, these lectures created a deeper understanding, which was both enlightening and empowering at the same time.

One thing I bookmarked was when Professor Baird discussed a bit about how to handle concerns if your teen is exhibiting behaviors that might warrant professional help. Instead of threatening professional help in the heat of an argument, calmer minds prevail, and in offering advice on how to approach this, she likens it to something a bit more relatable:

“If your teen had a sore throat that lasted more than a few days and was preventing them from doing things they wanted to do, would you assume they could just pull it together and make it go away? Or would you take an hour to bring them to a doctor and find out if it required additional intervention?”

So she’s not saying caregivers need to understand everything, but her lectures and research provide a roadmap, for both parent and teen, that navigates the normal changes and when to escalate the not-so-normal ones and some advice on how to handle some of the more common situations.

While reading, I immediately recommended this book to several friends who are parents of teens, and now I recommend it to you.

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A short book with a powerful punch.

Revisado: 05-12-21

Why, oh why, did it take me this long to pick-up Okorafor’s work? I loved Binti!
Nnedi Okorafor is an author I heard mention of in the sci-fi circles. I even listened to her 2017 interview on the 88 Cups of Tea podcast series. Still, I did not read any of her work, until now when looking to fulfill the “Afrofuturist book” prompt on the 2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge.

Okorafor is known for combining African culture with sci-fi and fantasy, which is most definitely found in Binti—the first novella introduces us to the sixteen-year-old that shares the name of the novella and Okorafor’s Binti series. I am in awe of Okorafor’s skill in building memorable, complex characters and revealing them to us through a delicate dance of situational change. She paints a picture so honest and beautiful, and yet so human, that the characters come to life.
“As I moved past seated passengers far too aware of the bushy ends of my plaited hair softly slapping people in the face, I cast eyes to the floor.”

This is the kind of story that expands readers’ minds, but also roots readers in the fine threads of reality. Here is a quick overview of the story.

Binti leaves the only place she’s ever known, her home and her family, to attend the prestigious Oomza University. En route, she comes face-to-faces with prejudice, perils, and the warring alien race of the Meduse. To survive, Binti must use her knowledge and gifts, or everything is lost.

The story engages with imaginative world-building that rivals novels triple the length, which no doubt is why the novella boasts wins for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.

Now I know and love Okorafor’s work, I look forward to more journeys with so many of her other stories.

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A poignant read about self-identity, love & family

Revisado: 03-04-21

A poignant read about self-identity, love, family, and sexuality set against a backdrop of cultural coming-of-age. This story follows Darius Kellner—at a point of self-acceptance and exploring what that means—when everything starts to unravel once again. He is maneuvering relationships between his boyfriend, Landon, and his soccer teammate Chip Cusumano, his grandmothers, the connection with his Dad, a job, and a recent trip to Iran.

I started the book with high expectations, not realizing I picked up book 2 instead of book 1. I would have liked to come to this story with some of the foundations established in the prior book, since this one picks up right where the previous book ended. Overlooking that, this story still read seamlessly on its own.

The strengths of the book include an honesty in the writing, strong character development, and a real relatability in addressing teen issues like consent, sexuality, and the intersection of culture and society. It was a poignant and heartfelt read. I did find at times that I wasn’t sure where the story was headed, as there wasn’t a lot of plot driving it to an end result.

Overall, I thought this was a solid story with strong characters that readers will relate to, but I would have liked to have a bit more plot to carry the story forward.

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Revisiting A Story 15 Years Later

Revisado: 11-10-20

What a cool experience to come back to this story of Bella and Edward fifteen years later, and now from Edward’s perspective. I absolutely LOVED this! It made me remember why I enjoyed the original book, and how ingrained the characters became in my mind then; now quickly returned like old friends.

I knew the story, so there were no plot surprises of course, nor did I expect any, but I was surprised at how many new layers were added by getting this story from Edwards point-of-view. Reading this was fulfilling, delightful, and the exact bit of familiar comfort & escape I needed during this time of COVID; like a grilled cheese sandwich and cup of soup on a rainy day.

The experience of reading Twilight so many years ago was a huge catalyst in defining my own voice as a young adult author, so to read Midnight Sun now after publishing two of my own YA books, was a coming home and a way to pay homage to a work that inspired my own creativity, voice, and writing direction. Thank you for paving the way Stephenie Meyer!

For those who are not familiar with the love story of Edward and Bella, here’s a quick blurb on what you can expect from reading Midnight Sun:
Edward Cullen is an atypical vampire who abstains from the blood of people. He is broody and handsome and lonely. And then Bella Swan enrolls in the same high school that Edward attends. She is human, clumsy, and always in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are opposites with not much in common, but there is something between them nonetheless, something that defies all odds. We watch them fall in love, overcome the differences of their two opposing worlds, and try to escape fate that could be the end of them both.

I certainly don’t think you need to have read Twilight to enjoy Midnight Sun. It is a stand-alone story, but anyone who is a fan of the original work will also enjoy this retelling. Highly recommended for fans of the paranormal, Stephenie Meyer, vampire love stories, young adult literature and books with strong adult crossover appeal.

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John Bolton writes a fly-on-the-wall style memoir

Revisado: 10-25-20

There were points in this book I found myself gasping out loud at encounters with Trump and other government officials and world leaders. Are they all true? We’ll never know most likely, but even if only a few of them are true, the revelations are eye-opening to say the least.

Here is one excerpt I bookmarked as a prime example.

President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping
“…then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”

John Bolton writes a fly-on-the-wall style memoir that gives us a peek into a world most of us will never be a part of. The writing is solid, though at times it feels like someone took a thesaurus to the draft to insert fancy word replacements. Maybe John Bolton talks this way naturally, but not knowing him personally, I can only judge the language as a general interest reader and the language often felt stilted.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in politics, memoirs, and solid non-fiction stories, and a must-read for anyone still undecided on who they will vote for in the US election.

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A Wonderful New Layer to the Hunger Games story!

Revisado: 07-25-20

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins peels back history to share the story of Coriolanus Snow, a much younger version of President Snow whom we met in the Hunger Games trilogy. Here we see an 18-year-old young man still in school, his family on the brink of homelessness, and the Hunger Games still in its infancy but evolving. We meet an innocent and righteous Snow, ambitious and trying to make his mark as a mentor for the 10th edition of the Hunger Games, and we watch a slow transformation into the devious leader we come to know in the later books. He is ruled by one message passed down from his family, “Snow lands on top.”

In the original trilogy, Snow was portrayed as the evil dictator with little warmth or compassion to his character, but in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes readers are given a unique opportunity to glimpse into the defining circumstances that shaped him. We see the events and decisions that lead him to veer away from the casual Coryo, and toward the Machiavellian leader President Snow. In this journey we see Snow interact with family, overcome immense hurdles, fall in love, betray and be betrayed, and even empathize at times with those from the districts. We see him as human, traversing the highs and lows of life, succeeding at times and failing at others. We are a witness to the moments that define him.

I loved the layers this story created to Snow, to Panem, and to the overall fabric of this world created by Suzanne Collins. She gives us a deeply juxtaposed society, and then makes the opposites collide and then yet again shows us what happens after impact. The result is a story that explores poverty vs. wealth, freedom vs. slavery, decision vs. consequence, and life vs. death.

Wow. I really missed the emersion into Suzanne Collins’ masterful storytelling and worldbuilding, and this was a delightful dip back into that world. I hope she continues to fill in the gaps of time between the story we knew before and the story she told in this installment. I have a feeling there is still a whole lot of story left to tell.

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Fast-paced thriller & kick-ass protagonist

Revisado: 06-27-20

From the author that brought us the Twilight series and The Host, Stephenie Meyer surprises with something completely different. In this fast-paced thriller, an on-the-run female agent skilled in using chemical interrogation must escape her own assassination, using honed talents to track down and outsmart her former employers who now want her dead.

What a pleasure to read! The main character, who goes by several different identities, is a kick-ass protagonist who is crafted with substance and an innate likeability. She is not just a caricature of a gun-toting, suit-wearing government agent, but instead a multi-faceted person that jumps off the page.

I also loved the fast-paced storyline, and ease with which the author thrusts us into this world of espionage. It feels well-researched, which made me buy-in immediately as a reader. Yes, there is a love interest element, and Meyers expertly crafts this subplot with substance and quirkiness to a level far beyond her prior books.

Interesting side note, while reading this book I found myself reminded of another recent read, The Girl in the Moon by Terry Goodkind. Many of the traits shared by the characters in both books are similar, as are some of the plot points, but the two stories are still very different in many other ways. Also, The Chemist has readability with both adult and teen readers whereas The Girl in the Moon is extremely explicit and only applicable to adult readers.

I highly recommend this book to readers who love thrillers, espionage, and kick-ass protagonists.

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A Fast-Paced Modern-Day Adventure with a Kick-Ass

Revisado: 04-10-20

I have been a Terry Goodkind fan since reading his epic fantasy series, The Sword of Truth, but never ventured a title by him outside of that series...until now. The Girl in the Moon is a complete 180 degree departure from The Sword of Truth, BUT there are similarities in his precise writing and how he writes his female characters.

Right from the beginning of the book, I knew I was in for more strong writing from Terry Goodkind who has a unique ability to balance description and character development within an Action-Adventure story. His writing draws a reader in and immediately plops you in the middle of the action. To illustrate this, the first paragraph sets up everything,

"When Angela glanced up and saw him out in the parking lot beyond the neon beer sign hung in the bar's small front window, her first thought was to wonder if this was the night she was going to die."

The Girl in the Moon is the story of Angela Constantine, who as a girl comes from a rough family life (or lack of it) filled with abuse, a meth-adict mother, and many issues. But all of this is key to understanding how she evolves into the kick-ass, strong character she becomes in this book. She is an unlikely hero, but a hero nonetheless. And I LOVED it!

A final note: There are some rough scenes, like a gang rape and intense violence, so this book is not for all readers.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Fast-paced but needed more character developement

Revisado: 03-20-20

I am torn on this one. I thought the concept of the story was original, solid-paced and full of kick-ass teen girls, and I enjoyed the read…but I didn’t LOVE it and I so wanted to. I think what was lacking for me was the character development. In this story, I needed to care more about the characters in order for me to really care about what was happening to them and for this story it was crucial. The pacing overshadowed the character development and in the end it left me feeling meh about the book.

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esto le resultó útil a 14 personas

Beautiful & Haunting Character-driven Tale

Revisado: 02-11-20

Of course I heard of Where the Crawdads Sing, but until now I didn't feel the call to pick it up and read it, but with so many people talking about it now was finally the time to get this one off of my TBR list. The book started slow for me, but many character-driven stories do because they need time to percolate and build the character within the pages. The reward of staying with the story though was totally worth it. By the end, I felt like Kya was a girl I knew, someone who grew up down the street. I felt for her with every up and down, twist and turn of her life as she grew from a child to a woman. This book had a little of everything- tragedy, romance, mystery, court-room drama, and some wins and losses


for Kya along the way. The prose is beautifully written and transports you to this world where Kya is forced to grow-up and depend on her natural surroundings, so well developed the location feels like a character unto itself.


This is a character-driven tale, both haunting and beautiful at the same time and totally hard to put down once your are immersed into Kya's life and her home in the swamp.

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