Teen Book Review

Since moving to Florida, Fin has felt like her life is spiraling out of control. Her parents split up, she doesn’t have any friends, and, well, it’s just hard. The only thing that brings control and stability to her life is counting. Completing her rituals is one thing she can take control of.

Medication only makes her feel more messed up, and Fin doesn’t really know what to do. Neither does her mother. She does have one person, though, that she’s beginning to feel she can maybe trust and count on: Thayer, a boy in her class at school who, like Fin, doesn’t see the world quite like everyone else.

Total Constant Order is an honest, powerful debut novel that will appeal to all teens, but perhaps particularly to those who have problems of their own (like OCD) that make them “different.” Even though we don’t all have Fin’s problems, though, isn’t that outsider-ness universal? Even if it can’t be diagnosed, there’s something in all of us that makes us feel different, and so we can all relate.

Crissa-Jean Chappell’s novel is a compelling, captivating story that readers will devour. It’s smart and true and wonderful. I love her witty observations of high school life (and life in general). Chappell’s perfectly created, real characters, a story that needs to be told, and Fin’s distinctive voice combine to create a brilliant first novel that will ring true with readers. I also particularly enjoy books that make use of setting, and I like the glimpse we get into Fin’s Miami (and, in fact, would have liked to see a little more of this–but that’s just me, as I love interesting settings). Chappell is a talented new writer, a fresh new voice in YA fiction, and I am greatly looking forward to reading whatever she writes in the future.

I personally find it more difficult to get into books written in third-person. It’s a perfectly valid choice of writing style, of course, and many of my favorite books are written from a third-person POV, like, oh, I don’t know, the Harry Potter series! Tamora Pierce usually writes in the third-person, too, and so does Melissa Marr. So, obviously, it can turn out awesome. But for me, it’s harder to get grabbed from the first page, harder to get completely into the story to the point where I don’t want to answer the phone or eat or anything! It has to be done very well to capture my attention immediately. Also because it’s a little more difficult to get to know the characters, because you’re not inside the main character’s head all the time. I guess it’s just less personal or something. And while I realize that is entirely a personal bias and that neither first nor third person point of view is intrinsically better than the other, it sometimes affects my opinions on books that I read.

And with that in mind, The Juliet Club, written in the third-person (with lots of head-hopping, which was handled with minimal confusion, thankfully–with six main characters, that had to be a little difficult!) did not fully grab my attention. I enjoyed it all the way through, but I wasn’t racing to the next page. I didn’t feel close to the characters. I kept reading, hoping I’d get drawn into the story more, but sadly, no.

The Juliet Club is about six teenagers spending a month in Verona, Italy, the city where Shakespeare’s famous Romeo and Juliet takes place. The three Americans are winners of an essay contest whose prize is to study at the Shakespeare Seminar, and the Italians are there for various reasons.

Kate, Tom, and Lucy have flown halfway around the world (not together, as they are from different parts of the country) and are excited for a summer in Italy! Kate’s father is a noted Shakespeare scholar teaching at the seminar, and they’re all staying in a villa owned by his chief rival, Francesca Marchese. Kate is suffering from a broken heart after a bitter breakup, and, as she is a very practical and sensible person, thinks that means love is not worthwhile. Her two best friends, however, think her heart will be thawed with the promise of a summer romance in Italy! Tom is not much of a scholar–his main interest is soccer (er, football, now that they are in Italy!). Lucy is a charming, bubbly Southern beauty who is absolutely swept away by the fact that she is in Italy!

Benno, Giacomo, and Silvia all live in Verona. The three teens come from different backgrounds, and are studying at the seminar for different reasons, and with entirely different attitudes about it. Benno is short, cheerful, and a hard worker who is always having to dash off to run an errand for whoever pays him. His best friend, Giacomo, is the handsome type all the girls fall for, but he never really cares about any of the girls always flocking to him. He flirts, has fun, breaks their hearts, and moves on. He is less than thrilled about having to study Shakespeare all summer, but his mother insists. Silvia is an angry beauty, lashing out at the world for various reasons that will later be revealed.

The six of them are thrown together for a summer of studying Shakespeare by acting it out and answering letters for the Juliet Club. Apparently, people all over the world write the fictional character for advice in romantic matters, and they are supposed to answer these letters. The study of romance is not limited to text and letters, however; there are some romantic sparks flying around in reality, too! And, of course, with that comes romantic mishaps and misunderstandings and all sorts of things that don’t go exactly as they’re meant to.

While this sounds like a lot of fun, and it is, I do think that perhaps Suzanne Harper has taken on too much with this novel. There are six main characters, but I don’t really think we get to know any of them. Kate is in the spotlight more than the rest, but still not very much. Because Harper has to divide the story between all six of them, their motivations and personalities, everything that makes a character seem real, is just explained rather than really shown–she takes the easy way out. As a reader, I didn’t feel close to any of the characters, and didn’t feel like I knew them well. They were not well-developed.

There’s some potential in this story, certainly. I do love books with fun settings, so a summer in Italy is perfect! However, this would have been a much better book if the author had focused on one of the couples, rather than all six characters, and let the reader really get to know them, switching viewpoints. This is making me wish for what might have been! With some changes, this could have been a great book rather than a mediocre one. Especially if the ending had been less tidy. Real life is rarely tidy.

The Juliet Club is enjoyable, but it could have been so much better. You might be better off checking this one out from the library rather than spending money on the hardcover, if you are so inclined to read it. It will be released in June.

Siobhan Vivian is the author of the fabulous A Little Friendly Advice, an impressive debut about a sixteen-year-old girl named Ruby, her friends, her family, her possible love interest, and, well, life. It’s one that I highly recommend you all read as soon as possible! Anyway, without further ado, the interview. Thanks, Siobhan, for doing this!

Can you tell me a little about your road to publication?

It was a pretty straight shot that began and ended with my acceptance into the New School Univeristy MFA program in Writing for Children. I felt that hard-core training in this very specific genre was the best way for me to approach completing a YA novel. I wrote my butt off for two years whenever I could find a spare moment from my day job as an editor.

During my last semester at school, I started working on A Little Friendly Advice. David Levithan was my thesis advisor, and he helped me massage a very rough idea into a full-fledged novel. He was vital in helping me tell Ruby’s story in the best, most engaging way. I adored working with him!

After graduation, David said that he was interested in publishing ALFA. I got an agent and sold the book, unfinished, to Scholastic a few weeks later.

What authors are some of your biggest writing influences?

Rachel Cohn is a master of voice, Blake Nelson writes the most crisp, clean prose, David Levithan makes me fall in love with words, and Cecil Castellucci oozes creativity and inspiration.

One of the book’s characters, Beth, celebrates her birthday every year with a big Halloween party. What was your best Halloween ever?

I’m going to say sophomore year of college, when my two friends and I went as the PowerPuff Girls. Our costumes were dead on! Everyone knew who we were and wanted to take pictures with us. It was so awesome.

Are you a lot like Ruby, or one of the other characters?

Of all the characters, I think I’m the most like Ruby. We’re both thoughtful and optimistic (to a fault), a little bit weird, not too girly-girly, and we both love our Polaroid cameras.

Do you have a favorite character in the novel?

Hmm. Good question. I’ll say that Katherine was the most fun character to write. Whenever she showed up in a chapter, she brought so much tension with her. And I loved thinking up sharp, snappy things for her to say.

And Charlie was awesome too. I wished he was real, so he could be my boyfriend.

Do you outline before writing?

Yes! I am a firm believer in outlining. I like to know where I’m going before I get there. But I try not to put in too much detail when I’m writing an outline, so I can still let happy accidents and discoveries happen along the way.

How did A Little Friendly Advice change from first draft to final published book?

At the very, very beginning, ALFA was about four girls who came from divorced families. That circumstance was what united them as friends, and they all took care of each other. Ruby’s dad came back the same way he does in ALFA, but in the old version, he wanted to patch things up with her Mom. Ruby worried about how that would affect her friendships, so she actively tried to keep her parents from getting back together.

I still really like elements from that original concept, but it’s a lot stronger now.

A Little Friendly Advice is written for teenagers. Why did you choose to write for this audience, and do you or would you like to write for other audiences?

I have absolutely no interest in writing books for any other audience but YA. I’m a little like Peter Pan, in that I have very much resisted the idea that I had to grow up. I feel way more comfortable in a room full of teenagers than I do with adults. And the story ideas and characters floating around in my brain are always of that genre. I think it’s just how I’m programmed.

A Little Friendly Advice is realistic fiction. Do you or would you like to write other genres?

I’d like to try and write YA magical realism. I took a class on magical realism in college and loved every single book we read.

Ruby begins to take an interest in photography in this book, when her mother gives her an old Polaroid camera. Are you a photographer?
Not officially, but I love snapping photographs. I own a few cameras, including my beloved Polaroid, and took a few photography classes back in high school, when you actually had to load the film by hand in a dark room.

What are you writing now?

I’m working on my second young adult novel for Scholastic. It’ll be out in Spring 2009 and it’s called SAME DIFFERENCE. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it’s about a girl named Emily who struggles with having two different identities—depending on whether she’s at home with the popular, suburban friends she grew up with, or hanging out in a city with a super cool, wild new girl she befriends in a summer art class.

What are some of your favorite books or authors?

Aw, thank you so much!

Crimes of the Sarahs is about a clique of four girls, all named Sarah (though Sarah Cody had to change her name, legally, and show the paperwork to prove it, in order to become part of the group)–and all criminals. Admittedly, it’s nothing too serious–they’re not the mafia or anything. Almost entirely shoplifting, it seems like, stealing silly things like snacks and books. No murders or anything. Aside from being criminals, the Sarahs are very popular, good students, and good singers. Anyway, Sarah Trestle is the narrator of this story. She drives the getaway car.

Being a Sarah isn’t all about petty crime; they are a very organized bunch, in other areas as well. Like getting into the same great college, or maybe ending the “purity vow” they made together years ago (basically, don’t interact with boys at all). Sarah Aberdeen leads the group, and when she hints it may be time to downsize the clique, Sarah Trestle knows that can’t end well for anyone who is cut–but she never thinks it’ll be her, until she screws up a shoplifting attempt at Barnes & Noble…by wetting herself. Unfortunately, her anxiety sometimes manifests itself in a complete lack of control over her bladder. A little embarrassing for someone in high school.

In any case, that leads to a lot of uncertainty about her fate in the Sarahs. She’s willing to go to great lengths to keep her spot–but why?

Crimes of the Sarahs is a wonderful, funny book about friendship and finding yourself. Kristen Tracy is great at creating believable characters and relationships between them. This is a smart, fun book that readers will really enjoy. I could hardly put it down, and I’ll definitely be reading Kristen’s first book, Lost It.

I put this book aside for ages after reading it, because I wasn’t sure what to say about it. I’m still not entirely sure. It’s an engrossing read, yes. Interesting, certainly. But did I even like it? I’m still not sure! I loved Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat books. And this is certainly written in a similar style–that odd, haunting, lyrical prose that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. It’s like something out of a dream. It’s like Salvador Dali in book form (surrealist).

Blood Roses is a collection of short stories. Some are kind of connected, but they are all stand-alone stories. And they are very intriguing. Very mind-bending sometimes. Thought-provoking. Lots of words come to mind about this book. None of them are bad. I think I enjoyed it; it certainly stuck in my mind. I’m not sure it’s for everyone, though. But I liked it. I think.

Elizabeth Scott’s debut novel, bloom, is wonderful, so her fans will be expecting something pretty amazing to live up to that! Stealing Heaven will not disappoint. It’s amazing; I absolutely loved it, and I’m sure I won’t be alone when it comes out in May! Order your copy now!

Dani and her mother do not live a traditional life, not by a long shot. They travel around the country, making their living with burglary. They are master thieves. Every job is well-planned and well-executed. Every step is calculated. It’s the only life Dani has ever known. She’s never had a normal life, with friends or school or a boyfriend or anything.

When they get to the beach town of Heaven, it seems like it’ll be just like any other place. They’ll pick the best of the big houses sure to hold lots of silver (their item of choice to steal), scout it out, find an in, grab the loot, and take off. Dani’s mom will use her looks to her advantage somehow, maybe to secure them a place to stay or find some useful information. Dani will make no lasting, important connections with anyone. That’s how it always is.

Except Heaven might be different. Dani might have an actual friend. And then there’s the guy who won’t leave her alone (and who happens to be a cop!). She has to choose–the life she’s always known, or the life she’s always secretly dreamed of?

Elizabeth Scott is amazing at creating wonderful, believable characters. I love that despite Dani’s very unusual and interesting life, she is a very relatable character, who is dealing with some very normal teenage girl problems (and some less normal ones). Stealing Heaven is a well-written, absorbing book that grabbed me from the first page and refused to let go! I highly, highly recommend it.

I have to be creative with the names of the link posts, or else I find out that I’ve used the same name before and the URL has the number “2” at the end, and I don’t like that. So, Marvelous Links today! I’ve always liked the word marvelous.

Ahem. I ramble.  So without further ado, on to said marvelous links from around the internet.

First of all, I found this link in a variety of places. The most awesome staircase/bookcase ever ! I so want that in my house. The perfect solution to the teetering stacks of books everywhere!

Liz on A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy is on the Printz committee this year, and she’s got some interesting posts on how the whole thing works.

I recently discovered adbooks, an email list for discussion of YA books. Lots of very interesting stuff!

Just in case you missed it, the Cullen family has been cast in the upcoming Twilight movie. Check out pictures on Stephenie Meyer’s website! Also, the release date for Breaking Dawn, the fourth installment in the series, has been announced: 2 August 2008. I can’t wait! On May 31, a special edition of Eclipse will be released, with the first chapter and cover art for the fourth book included.

Little Willow always has great author interviews going up! She has tons of them, and you can find a full list here.

I know we have a lot of great books to look forward to, but this list of books by the 2009 Debutatntes will have you wishing it was already ’09!

I’ve also been updating my links in the sidebar quite a bit, so check those out.

Earthly Pleasures is written for an adult audience, but teens will enjoy it as well. It’s a fun, fresh, and funny book starring Skye Seabring, a greeter in Heaven. Skye’s job is to help the newly dead find their way in heaven, a place that is far from the pearly-gates-and-harps-and-clouds pictures we see sometimes in old paintings. It’s a lot like Earth, really.

One of Skye’s clients is a man named Ryan Blaine, who is only dead for a few minutes before he is pulled back to his earthly body. That should be the end of it–but it’s not. Skye can’t stop thinking about him, or watching him on Earthly Pleasures, a television channel in heaven that lets souls in heaven watch people on earth, anyone from celebrities to friends and relatives. She’s head-over-heels for a man in another dimension!

There are lots of other narratives going on on this story, too, besides Skye in heaven, but they all come together wonderfully by the end of the novel. Earthly Pleasures is an engrossing read, one that I absolutely couldn’t put down! It’s well-written and full of great characters. I loved Karen Neches’s envisioning of heaven and the workings of the universe, too. This novel is smart and enjoyable and highly recommended.

The Story Siren is hosting a giveaway in which one lucky reader will win a copy of each of the following three books by Maria V. Snyder: Poison Study, Magic Study, and Fire Study. I haven’t read them, but they look good! Enter here.

I loved Tara Altebrando’s first YA novel, The Pursuit of Happiness. It was really amazing, so I’m pleased to be able to say that What Happens Here is far from disappointing! It’s an impressive, unputdownable, really marvelous book.

Chloe, the narrator, is going on a fantastic vacation to Europe with her family. Travelling has always been a dream that she and her best friend, Lindsay, shared, so she’s disappointed that Lindsay won’t be coming along. She and Lindsay have been best friends their entire lives. Their mothers were best friends, too–the families even moved from North Carolina to Las Vegas together before the girls started high school! This will be one of very, very few experiences that Chloe and Lindsay will not share. But, still–two weeks in Europe! Chloe is understandably excited (though her older sister is less so–for Zoe, it means spending time away from her boyfriend, Johnny, and Zoe’s not really that into travelling anyway).

And the vacation is amazing, though marred by the fact that she and Lindsay fought right before Chloe left, at the top of a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. Chloe sees sights she’s only dreamed about, sights that before were only pictures plastered on her bedroom walls. All Lindsay gets is post cards. Chloe doesn’t know what Lindsay’s up to all this time, as her father has confiscated her phone and they’re not allowed to use email on the trip.

Luckily, she’s met someone outside of her immediate family to talk to: Danny, a cute, funny guy who also lives in Vegas. They see the sights of Europe together, and Danny wants to be together when they get home, though Chloe can’t help but wonder if there’s someone else she’d rather have with her–Lindsay’s brother, Noah. Of course, she’d never do that to Lindsay, who subtly let them both know she didn’t want Chloe and Noah hanging out, years ago.

There’s some serious use of foreshadowing here. Chloe is having such an awesome time, and saying this is how things are supposed to go in her life, the reader just knows some tragedy is about to strike. And they’re right. Tragedy strikes.

I loved this book for so many reasons. The settings! Much of this book is set in Las Vegas and the rest of it is set in various exciting locations around Europe. I loved reading about these places. I’m always one for books that involve traveling or just exciting settings; I plan to travel all around the world someday. Backpacking through Europe is one of my dreams, just like Chloe. I could especially relate to her about that, and loved that whole aspect of this story!

All of the characters are fantastic. Chloe in particular is such a real, three-dimensional character; Tara Altebrando really understands people. Their relationships are so real, too. What Happens Here deals with all different types of relationships: friends, family, romance. And all are done so well!

It’s a very well-written book, too. Tara Altebrando is a talented writer, and she does a great job with Chloe’s voice. This is quite an engrossing story; I couldn’t stop reading, once I picked it up (luckily that was on a Saturday afternoon where I had nothing else to do!). I read it in one sitting.

What Happens Here is an honest, powerful, moving book about love, loss, friendship, holding on to (and figuring out) your dreams, and growing up. It’s about putting the pieces back together, too, after a tragedy; things can never be like they used to be. I adored this book, out in May, and strongly suggest you go get copy as soon as it’s available!

Princess Mia is the ninth in Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series. I have to admit, I haven’t read them all. I’ve read all Meg’s other YA books, but after the first couple of Princess Diaries books (which I did enjoy), the titles and covers were too similar and I couldn’t keep track of them and remember which ones I’d read, so I kind of just gave up. I still don’t know which ones I’ve read. Maybe I have read them all. I don’t think I’ve read the one where Mia runs for class president, though. Hmm. I’m really not entirely sure. I know the basic timeline of events, though, and am familiar with the characters, and that’s all that’s really necessary to reading this book (although it would have helped to have read the eighth before–they are so connected that I went ahead and read it anyway after finishing this one!).

In Princess Mia, Mia is struggling with the loss of her boyfriend, Michael. (He didn’t die; she broke up with him over something kind of stupid and then he moved to Japan to make a robotic surgery thingy to save people). She might have been able to function through that, except that then she immediately lost her best friend, Lilly, because Lilly thought she kissed her recent ex-boyfriend, J.P. (which, Mia did, kind of, but only accidentally, and they’re just friends). Now, she doesn’t have either of the Moscovitzes, her boyfriend or her best friend, and that’s just too much for a girl to handle! Add that to the fact that she’s expected to give a speech to two thousand of the world’s most elite businesswomen, and, yeah, she’s a little stressed. What’s a princess to do?

I really enjoyed this book. I literally laughed out loud at some parts; Mia’s distinctive voice just makes everything so hilarious, even if she didn’t get into so many mishaps. It’s certainly not all light-hearted fun, though; Mia’s dealing with some serious sadness in this book. Meg Cabot shows herself in this book to be very good at creating great characters, and she really does, after nine books (plus those weird little half-books or whatever they’re called that come in between some of the main books) about them, know this cast of characters very well (and so does the reader).

I think I may very well go back and read the rest of the series in order; it really is that good. This book is highly recommended! It has restored my faith in Meg Cabot (a couple of her recent books were a little disappointing to me, but maybe just not my kind of books; they weren’t necessarily bad).

Lock and Key is a fantastic book from Sarah Dessen, goddess of YA literature. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I haven’t read everything she’s written, but what I have read, I’ve really loved. This Lullaby is one of my very favorite books! Anyway, knowing how awesome Sarah Dessen is, readers would be disappointed at anything short of marvelous with her name on it, but her latest effort will not let them down.

In Lock and Key, Ruby and her mother move around a lot, and their life is rather unpredictable. It’s not unusual for her mother to disappear for days at a time, but Ruby knows something is different when her mother doesn’t come back for months, leaving Ruby on her own. She tries to hide the fact that she’s underage and living by herself, but, eventually, her landlords find out, and the state sends Ruby to live with her older sister, Cora. Ruby and Cora haven’t seen each other since Cora left for college, years ago, escaping their mother and abandoning her younger sister (or so Ruby thinks).

Now, though Cora has built a life for herself: a successful career, a big house, a great husband. She’s living the American dream. Ruby has never lived a life anything like that, and she certainly doesn’t want to start now, being tied down like that and being a burden on a sister who doesn’t want her. Somehow, though she keeps meaning to escape, she ends up going to a fancy private school, staying with her sister and her husband, Jamie, finding a job, finding friends, maybe even something more in her neighbor, Nate.

Lock and Key is an amazing novel. Sarah Dessen tells a captivating story, demonstrating her considerable talent at really understanding people and their relationships. She’s a brilliant writer, and this story will draw in readers and leave them unable to put the book down until the very last page! This is a fresh, moving, honest book that will impress both fans of Sarah Dessen’s work and those new to reading it. The summary calls it “funny, perceptive, and touching,” which is exactly right and completely true.

Anyone who reads Melissa Marr’s debut, Wicked Lovely (not necessary to reading this book, but certainly highly recommended, as it’s quite brilliant, and will give readers a fuller grasp of what is going on in Ink Exchange), will have very high expectations for Ink Exchange. I know I did, and I was far from disappointed.

Ink Exchange is not a sequel to Wicked Lovely, but the main characters here were minor characters there, and the main characters in Melissa Marr’s first novel do have parts to play in her second. Leslie is a friend of Aislinn’s from school–a good friend of hers, one of the friends that Aislinn wants to protect from her new life as a faerie queen.

Leslie has a tough life, no question about it. A father who hasn’t been much of a father since her mother left and a brother who’s addicted to drugs are Leslie’s family, and, add that to the dangerous people her brother brings home, you can see why Leslie doesn’t like to go home more than she has to. Aislinn has guards protecting Leslie, but they can’t keep her safe from her own family very well.

Leslie wants to take control of her own body after an awful experience, and the way she sees to do it is to get a tattoo. None of the typical images, however, appeal to her, so Rabbit, the tattoo artist, shows her a book of designs that most customers don’t get to see. When she finds one that she likes, however, she has no idea of what the consequences will be, that she will soon be involved in a world that has, up until now, been invisible to her. I don’t want to give too much away, but, trust me, it’s awesome. I’ve talked about Leslie, but she’s not the only main character–Irial is the king of the Dark Court, and he certainly plays a major part in this story, but I feel like talking about him might be giving a little too much away, more than I’d like. The same goes for telling Niall’s part of the story, beyond the fact that he is one of Keenan’s top people, and one of Leslie’s guards, and that she has feelings for him, but neither of them can act on it.

Ink Exchange is a captivating, well-told story. It’s haunting and dark and lovely and amazing–just as good as, and maybe even better than Wicked Lovely (though I couldn’t decide for sure). It’s a darker story than its predecessor. Melissa Marr creates a wonderful story, dealing with serious topics such as addiction and rape (yes, it is a faery story, but these are certainly not of the Walt Disney variety!). There is also the same fascinating mythology from Wicked Lovely, and Melissa Marr again shows her talents at creating wonderful characters. This is yet another brilliant book from a brilliant author! I can’t wait for her third book, which will be a more direct sequel to Wicked Lovely.

So often, we see a book defined by its main character. Books are classified as being African-American, Hispanic, LGBTQ, whatever the characteristic may be. Why? Why can I, being a white straight female, not enjoy a book with a Vietnamese gay male (for example) as the main character?

That’s the beauty of fiction. Understanding people who are not us, lives not like ours. It would be incredibly boring to only read books about people like me. And, anyway, we are all people, are we not? Regardless of ethnicity or sexual orientation or socioeconomic background or whatever. We all know we shouldn’t stereotype people, so why do we stereotype books?

Not Quite What I Was Planning is a collection of six-word memoirs by average people and celebrities alike. Six words, to sum up something significant about your life. Harder than it sounds, isn’t it? I’m a contributor to this book, and what I wrote has a lot more meaning than you might think from my six words, but I don’t think that matters; no matter what the writer intended, their six words will speak to different people on different levels, and whatever it means to the person who reads it is true to that person, and that’s good enough.

These memoirs, illustrated by the authors themselves with photographs and drawings, cover a range of emotions, from funny to bittersweet to regretful to angry to happy to sad to, well, anything you can think of, anything that applies to humanity and life. They are all wonderful and touching in their own way, and this is highly a recommended book. It would also make a great gift! Every person will be able to relate to at least a few of these selections.

Seeing as we are readers and writers here, I’d like to point this one out: “EDITOR. Get it?” by Kate Hamill (p.211)

Edited to provide a link to the website, where you can read more six-word memoirs and submit your own: Smithmag.net.