For Your TBR Pile - Reimagined Shakespeare

YOLO JULIET by Brett Wright
SRSLY HAMLET by Courtney Carbone
Published: May 26, Random House

My Thoughts:
These books are SO cool! I love reimagined classics, but have a hard time reading them because sometimes I never understood the source material.

I was really familiar with Romeo and Juliet, but had never read Hamlet before. Surprisingly, srsly Hamlet wasn't hard to follow as a first read.

These were so well done and flawlessly executed. Told in texts, voice memos, check ins and group chats, Shakespeare's work comes to life in a whole new way. They're the kind of books you want to shove into someone's hands and pass along right away. In fact, I'm sending my copies to a friend who works in a high school library. I can't wait to see how kids and Millennials respond to these books.

Recommended for those who love reimagined classics, such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. I was actually quite surprised Random House snagged these books before Quirk Books. 

For Your TBR Pile - Every Last Word

Every Last Word
By Tamara Ireland Stone

Published: June 16, Disney Hyperion

From GoodReads: Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off. 

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

Thank you NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for the eARC!

My Thoughts:

Every Last Word cracks open the life of a teenager living with a very specific type of OCD. As Samantha tries to hide her condition from her friends, she wanders into a secret poetry club that meets in a hidden room underneath the school stage.

I enjoyed this book, and feel Stone portrayed the main character in a positive light--as a girl seeking help and actively attending therapy to find new coping mechanisms and make decisions about her relationships. When Sam attends Poet's Corner, a group of misfit characters with deep, emotional issues, they are able to vent their frustrations and share their fears with each other through their songs and poems.

Not only was the writing creative and fun, but the story's pacing was quick and plot twisted in all the right places. Not an issue book in the least, Every Last Word explores common teenage fears of being socially accepted and navigating toxic friendships. 

Currently Reading - May 2015

Last week I was going through my shelves and getting really overwhelmed. I have sooooo many books! And I want to read allllllll the things! 

Jodi Meadows suggested I pull out a few books and make a smaller TBR pile, which then turned into our summer reading challenge. Here's what I picked out:

• Read a book you really want to read. For me, that's The Miseducation of Cameron Post. It's been on my dresser for months, and I always keep saying it's next.

• Read something little. I bought What Hearts...six years ago? And, I'm guessing because it's small, it keeps getting shoved to the back of my shelf.

• Read a book you've had forever. I've been dying to read September Girls for so long now.

• Finish a series. For me, it's the Mara Dyer series. I need to read books 2 and 3.

• Read something new. Bone Gap!

• Read something your friend wants you to read or they'll disown you. BFF Kelly always reads my book recos right away and The Boleyn Wife was the ONE thing she's ever given me and asked me to read. Being a good rec'er goes two ways.

• Read an old ARC. I cheated and chose two. Between You & Me and Beneath a Meth Moon.

• Read an adult fiction book. My mom gave me The Poisonwood Bible soooo long ago and she's always wanted me to read it.

• Read a friend's book. Vivi Barnes' Olivia Twisted!

• Read Nil. Jodi and I both had this on our TBR shelves and decided it's the best way to reward ourselves for a finished book challenge.

What are you reading this sumer?