Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

I started out thinking this would be a cute, quick, fun audiobook to listen to--an easy YA romance. It ended up having every single stupid romance trope that I hate all combined into one book. The main character had no personality (even at the end, she was talking about everyone's personality traits and said she couldn't think of what she had to contribute, but she'd figure it out). Her best friend had sex once and got pregnant (WORST STORYLINE EVER) from it. The friend refused to even consider other options but was determined to keep the baby without thinking about how it was going to change her life (nobody seemed too concerned about what she was going to do about childcare despite the fact that she was only 16 years old?). She also goes into labor AT PROM. The main character falls in love with a typical bad boy guy who also has no personality and is clearly a jerk, but she is convinced he loves her. The main character's mom is apparently a professional therapist for parents of teenagers, but is shocked when her own teenager stops telling her everything and starts arguing with her, like she has no idea how to handle it despite it being HER PROFESSIONAL FIELD.

I just hated this by the end, but I had to finish it, thinking there might be some redeeming twist. There was not. I don't know if I'll ever read another Sarah Dessen, although I really enjoyed the one of hers I listened to last year. But man, I don't know if she can come back from this one.

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

I really enjoyed this memoir of Ruth Reichl's. I've seen people talk about her writing many, many times, but I don't think I've ever read anything by her. This is her memoir of the time she spent as the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine before it got shut down in 2008, and it was a fascinating look into the world of magazines and the foodie world of New York in the 2000s. It sounds very glamorous and fancy, but Reichl's down-to-earth style comes through and saves the book from being annoying or snooty. She clearly was at odds with the elitist style of the magazine when she came in, and she brought it out of that world while she was the editor. Reichl's chops as a food writer come through in this book as well, in her occasional descriptions of cakes and chocolates and the very specific words she uses to describe foods. I thought it was beautiful how she could write about them and how much joy food brought her.

I really enjoyed this, and I think I will read another one of her memoirs sometime soon. I don't know that it will be a huge priority--I have so many other books on my nightstand right now--but someday!

Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan by Sonia Kamal

I read every Jane Austen fan fiction rewrite that I come across, and many times am disappointed. This is one of those. I guess it lives up to its subtitle; this book was an exact attempt at a copy of P&P in a different setting. When people include every single small plot point from P&P in a rewrite, it starts to lose its enjoyment for me. The main thing that I liked about this book was the setting in Pakistan, and I did like seeing the similarities between Jane Austen's culture in Regency England and modern-day Pakistan (according to this one book and this one author). I thought some of the settings and descriptions were really beautiful, and it made me want to go visit Pakistan sometime. However, much of this writing wasn't very good. The conversations were really painful to read and didn't feel realistic at all. And the main character, Alys, was one of those kind of obnoxious overly strong female characters that does things just to be fierce instead of because they make sense. This was less enjoyable than I hoped.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

I wish I had more mental power or energy or time to analyze and write about all these Shakespeare plays I've been reading (all three of them, haha)--it feels cheap to review them with a number of stars and a one-paragraph summary of what I thought about them. All I can say for now is that I really liked reading this. It definitely raised a lot of thoughts about men and women and romance, with all these misconceptions about who Viola was and who was falling in love with whom, and I'm sure I could have written a huge essay about this years ago in college. But for now, I'll just say that I didn't realize the quote "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them" came from this play, and that it is read in a comic situation and has an ironic twist being read by Malvolio. It gives a whole different meaning to the quote, haha.

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

I checked this out hoping for a quick, easy read for my trip, and I thought the premise sounded cute: one twin is forced to step in for her sister in a beauty pageant when the other gets a terrible allergic reaction. It was definitely a quick and easy read, but I'm going to sound snobby here--it was just not that good. It was about as cute good-feeling as you could get about a beauty pageant--all the contestants are sweet and nice to each other, and the unwilling twin ends up having all these nice fuzzy feelings about the true meaning behind beauty pageants--which just seemed a touch unrealistic to me. And I absolutely did not believe the romance even one bit. I am willing to suspend my disbelief to a certain limit, but this girl wore a nerdy t-shirt and the guy quoted Harry Potter to her and she immediately swooned for him, and actually used "steely blue eyes" five hundred times until I was just way sick of it. The beauty pageant part was much more enjoyable than the romance, so overall not exactly worth the read.

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

I wasn't expecting to love this book so much--but I totally did. I started listening to it just a few days before we left on our trip, and I thought I wouldn't finish it. But I listened to the whole 9-hour audiobook in one day--on double speed, but still--I couldn't stop listening. I couldn't wait to figure out what was happening. I loved how this was a murder mystery but also really a story about the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. You wanted to find out who did the murder, but that came after finding out how the two of them kept misunderstanding each other over years, and how they never really knew each other or saw what the other was trying to do to be kind until the very end. I liked having both perspectives from Lucy (the daughter-in-law) and Diana (the mother-in-law); you can see how Lucy might be seen as skittish and clingy, although when you hear her thoughts she definitely doesn't come across that way; and how Diana is firm and unbending, but you get more information about why. It definitely was a great choice for a book club book, which we are going to be discussing in a few weeks for our ward book club.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

I read this for my book club, and I feel like this book would be a great one to read with the kids. I liked it enough for myself, but I think they would really like it. The story is about Minli, a young girl in China, who goes to find the Old Man in the Moon to ask how she can change her fortune for her poor, struggling family. She has to go on a journey to get to his mountain, and has all sorts of adventures along the way. The message of the book is that she and her family learns to be content and thankful for what they have, and once they have learned that, their fortunes also change for the better.

The story is sprinkled with all sorts of Chinese stories and legends, and Lin's writing is sparse yet beautiful in a way that seems fitting for the style of this story. I really liked how quickly-moving the story was, and how it only took me a few hours to read, but how sweet and simple it was as well. I definitely plan to read this with the kids sometime soon.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

I loved, loved this book. I've heard about it as a great read-aloud for kids for years, but hadn't ever gotten around to reading it. It was one of my main goals for this summer to read it to the boys, and although it basically took me all summer to get through it (because we didn't read much on our trip), I really enjoyed it. The boys really got into the story too. It's a story of four sisters and the boy they meet on their summer vacation, and each sister has their own distinctive, strong personality, which causes all sorts of mischief, especially when you take into account the snobby and mean Mrs. Tifton they have to deal with. I loved how the story really represented each girl so clearly, and how they each had their own realization and growth that happened over the course of the novel. The blurb on the back of the book compared the Penderwick sisters to the March sisters from Little Women, which comparison definitely works. It was a sweet family story where the sisters rely on each other, and I really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if this one would be less interesting for the boys because it's a "girl book" (or at least, one about girls) but once again, they loved it. There are four more books in the series and I am totally interested in reading the rest... at least to myself.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

I am making good progress on my goal to read a few Shakespeare plays this year. I finished this one last week and am just getting around to writing about it. I loved how many memorable, oft-quoted lines were in this play, particularly "The true course of love never did run smooth" and "Though she be but little, she is fierce" (which I always think of with Lucy in mind). And, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind / And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." I thought this play was funny, cute, and really enjoyable to read. I thought the last act was not a great ending to the play, though--it seems like something that actors/playwrights would think was funny but not the audience. I wanted more drama from the forest with the lovers instead.

I feel silly having only about 8 sentences to say about a Shakespeare play and basically concluding "I liked it" and that's it, but I don't have the brainpower or time right now to write much more. So, I liked it!