One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

Honestly, I didn't really like this book. But I guess that goes along with the fact that I don't really get the Bachelor either. This book was basically telling the story of a girl who becomes the Bachelorette and her experience filming the show--except that she's overweight and has to deal with a whole lot of crap from awful people about her weight as the show goes along. I think it was empowering and very good to raise awareness about how one-sided and not representational those shows really are, and I was happy that Bea ended up happy at the end. I loved how confident she was, even as she also had to deal with a lot of body image issues (which every single woman in America deals with, no matter what size we are). But I really didn't like the many different romances she had going on as part of the show--none of them seemed at all believable--and I especially didn't feel it with the person she ended up with. I basically did not believe it at all. But again, I think that goes along with how I don't believe the romances on the real Bachelor, and this was just reading that in book format, and I was rolling my eyes the whole time. I ended up skimming quite a bit of the show parts because it was making me so annoyed. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

I kept seeing this around and thinking it sounded somewhat interesting, recommended over and over and over, until I finally decided just to jump on board and read it. I read it on my phone in short bursts (this is working for me lately, since I don't have a lot of concentrated time to sit down and read) and I thought the story was really compelling. I really admire Gottlieb's honesty and bravery in sharing her journey through therapy, and the stories she told about her patients' transformations and journeys were even more worth reading. I really loved all of her patients she talked about after you learned everything they were going through and their efforts to be better and make it through their struggles. I also liked learning a little bit of armchair psychology through it and to see what it was like to be a therapist and what it was like to go to therapy. I can totally see why people say everyone should go to therapy--it sounds like it would actually be kind of fun to have someone to talk to like that. 

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev

This is the sequel to Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, and I loved it almost as much as that one. This book was about Trisha's cousin Ashna, who was a minor character in the first book, and follows the basic storyline of Persuasion--Ashna and her high school boyfriend were separated by her father, and now, twelve years later, they are thrown back together as partners on a new cooking show and Ashna has to start letting go of the walls she's built up over the years. I really loved the idea of the story and how well Dev incorporated the Persuasion storyline. I also loved how she included this backstory of Ashna's about her mother trying to come back into her life and trying to apologize for how she's left her alone for so many years, and how she addressed some serious issues. I was just a little turned off by some of the less believable aspects of the story--like Ashna has panic attacks any time she tries to cook anything other than her father's recipes? Yet she's been a chef at her restaurant for the last ten years? I don't buy it. I also felt like Ashna and Rico's misunderstandings were a little juvenile and could easily have been handled by either of them saying ANYTHING to communicate... but I still really enjoyed the book and how they fell in love with each other all over again. Definitely a fun read and definitely an exciting ending. I would love to read another one of these if Dev writes any more. 

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

This book was RIGHT up my alley--a Jane Austen, P&P rewrite, set in modern times with an Indian family in California. What's not to love? It also didn't do too much to force the original story on this new timeframe--it just included the original disliking and then having to overcome and rethink what they had thought of each other. I also loved that the woman, Trisha, was the really prideful and obnoxious Darcy character, and the man, DJ, was the Lizzy character. The writing was solid and didn't distract from the story, the characters were lovable, and I tore through this book like nobody's business. Totally loved it and I was super happy to find out there was a sequel which I immediately checked out and read.

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

I read about this book a while ago, and thought it sounded promising: it's about a Chinese-American girl named Ever who is forced to go to a Chinese camp in Taiwan for the summer so she can connect with her roots, and she gets there and finds out the camp has a reputation for creating plenty of relationships because all the kids hook up and fall in love there. You basically have the whole plot right there--there are going to be some hijinks and escapades and you know there will be a love triangle, plus a lot of exposure to Taiwan and Chinese culture. This book was very cute and you really wanted to root for Ever to be able to throw off her parents' ridiculously high expectations for her, and for her to find herself. She starts by going a little bit too crazy, but learns what she actually wants and begins to try to do her own thing. I felt like there were a few of those forced-not-real miscommunication things between her and her love interest, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a great look into life in Taiwan. It also addresses some of the racism that Asians and specifically Asian-Americans face, which is something I have been thinking a lot about lately with the current civil rights movement and my hometown and high school having a high Asian population. And it made me want to go visit Taiwan, if the Sevys move back there someday.

Juana and Lucas and Juana and Lucas: Big Problemas by Juana Medina

I had heard several times about this cute early chapter book and finally checked it out to read with Graham. We read both books in just a day each (they are so short--each only took us about an hour) and both of us loved them. They are so cute, about a little girl named Juana living in Colombia, who has to learn English in the first one and whose mom is getting married in the second one. I thought Juana was such a sweet character (clearly autobiographical based on the author) and it was so great reading a book set in South America, with a normal little girl living a normal life, learning English and doing things that our kids do. Graham said he wants to go to Bogota after reading this, which I never had considered doing until reading this book too, but Juana makes it sound magical! It was absolutely darling and gets bonus points for adding diversity to our bookshelf. I want to buy them and keep them at our house.