Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

This book came with multiple promises--first, a good book about a fat main character, which is pretty hard to find, I guess. Not that I've been looking for it or anything. Second, it promised a humerous book. Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have is about a fat kid who decides he's tired of conforming and not doing what he should be able to just because he's fat. I won't say it fell flat in every way. It kept me entertained. Was it funny? Meh. It made me grin once or twice. Did it provide a good MC who didn't fit the standard MC mold? Yeah, I guess you could say so. So that means that it was the story that I didn't like. First, I didn't really buy much of the football parts at all. I don't pay attention to the sport at all, but Center seems like an improtant position. I get the whole 'this guy can kill you' part, but still, wouldn't the coach put in somebody who had, I don't know, played before? And you can really tell that the author is into theatrics. The story does lots of things that wouldn't happen in real life. Uh...yeah. So there's that. Anyways, I give this 3/5 stars. It's a pretty good book, but the whole thing was just sort of fake feeling, if you know what I mean.

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Everybody has something about them that they wish that they could fix. Sometimes, fixing it would be a good thing. Sometimes, that thing isn't so bad, and fixing it could damage you.

In the long awaited and much anticipated companion to Impulse, four high school seniors tell themselves that they want to be perfect, no matter what it takes to get there. Cara wants to make her parents proud, and while good grades have always came easy to her, she has a whole new set of problems. Sean wants the perfect body and to be the best baseball player around. Kendra wants to be a model, but to do so, she feels she needs to drop some pounds, even though she's already only a size two. And Andre wishes that he could make his ancestors proud while doing what he loves to do--dance.

This book is just as beautiful and just as fucked up as all of Ellen Hopkins' books. I absolutely loved the stories of each character. They are all perfectly crafted and realistic. The only thing that I didn't like so much about this book is that because it took place at the same time as Impulse, you already know the ending if you read Impulse. However, this one does go more in-depth, I guess. Also, the poetry seemed sort of rushed in this one. Not to say it's bad--the words are perfectly okay. What I'm saying is that she didn't seem to craft it as much as it feels like she does in others of hers. It was still great, but it's kind of fun to read her books when the words make certain shapes. This one didn't do that so much. However, the characters and the stories seemed to make up for that--it still had me reading late into the night and into the early hours of morning.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Okay, because of the recent popularity and the movie that have been atached to this book, along with the comparison to To Kill a Mockingbird, I decided to pick this one up.

The Help is about an ambitious college graduate, Skeeter (Played by Emma Stone in the movie), who wants to write. She's hired at the Jackson Journal, but writing a housekeeping advice colum isn't what she had in mind. After some thought and advice from a New York City editor, she decides that she wants to write a book of interviews about black housekeepers and their white bosses. The good and the bad. And in the early 60s in Jackson, Mississippi, you can't get much more dangerous or scandalous than that.

My personal thoughts on this one? I absolutely loved it. It was sad and funny and intimate in the same breath. I actually figured it would be sadder than it actually was, because when my English teacher saw me reading it, she said, "I couldn't stop crying at all during that book!"

Drama queen.

Yeah, this one didn't make me cry (although the movie came close), but it's still an excellent book. Well-paced plot, beautifully crafted characters--some that you want to hug and some that you want to hit with a sledgehammer--and a few other elements made this one of my favorite books of all time. Read it.

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Best Book

http://kathyanncoleman.blogspot.com/2011/08/re-road-trip-wednesday-94-best-book.html#comments
This blog is hosting a giveaway, and I am entering, so you should check it out.

And it got me thinking, what's the best book I've ever read?

And while my opinion will be different if you ask me tomorrow, my answer has gotta be To Kill a Mockingbird. It's so beautiful, heartbreaking, and human. One of the best books on earth. But maybe on another day, I'd tell you Impulse by Ellen Hopkins or It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, but today, it's To Kill a Mockingbird. Check back!