Book Review: "Providence" by Craig Willse

“Before I completely destroyed my life, I taught English at Sawyer College in Ohio. I wasn’t the world’s greatest professor, but I also wasn’t the worst—although it’s possible I would become that.”

Mark is growing weary of teaching, of the pressure to publish and schmooze. He’s definitely one of those people who is happiest alone, which isn’t particularly satisfying for his boyfriend, a mathematics professor at Sawyer, or his fellow professors he considers his friends. He knows there’s got to be something better out there.

Two weeks into the semester, Tyler comes into his class. He’s a sophomore, a scholarship student among an immensely wealthy student body, yet he’s highly intelligent, as Mark witnesses when Tyler participates in a class lecture.

Little by little, Mark finds himself growing obsessed with Tyler, even though he knows pursuing a student is the last thing he should be doing. But one night, Tyler makes the first move, and they wind up having sex. It becomes a strange relationship, alternately attracting and repelling Mark, yet he starts losing sight of everything but Tyler.

Mark starts to realize Tyler hasn’t been entirely truthful with him. But while the red flags should be a sign to stay away, Mark winds up getting manipulated by Tyler into helping with something unspeakable. Can Mark take control of his life before it goes fully off the rails? Does he even care?

I loved the concept of Providence, and the idea of a teacher obsessed with a student. But while this book is marketed as a thriller, I didn’t find it particularly thrilling; while there is a bit of mystery, the pacing of the plot drags for three-quarters of the book and then leaves you hanging a bit at the end. While these issues dampened my enjoyment, I did like the intense mood of the book.

Book Review: "Today Tonight Tomorrow" by Rachel Lynn Solomon

So much to love about Rachel Lynn Solomon's new book, Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Neil and Rowan have been bitter rivals all four years of high school. From an essay contest freshman year, they’ve battled over everything—grades, SAT scores, pull-ups in gym class, college acceptances—they even had to be student council co-presidents. They constantly taunt and torture one another, and Rowan is hoping that today, the last day of high school, she’ll be named valedictorian over him.

When that doesn’t happen, she has one more chance to beat her rival, playing Howl, a senior-class game that is part scavenger hunt, part “assassin.” But when Rowan overhears a group of classmates talking about beating her and Neil together, she decides to pair up with him for one opportunity for them to finish one-two.

As they race all over Seattle for the game and take care of some other obligations along the way, they start to let their guard down with the other for the first time, and discover there’s more to like about their rivals than they ever knew. Both have been hiding secrets which few other people know, but for some reason they feel comfortable sharing them with each other. But what does that mean ultimately?

So rom-com fans know where this book is headed, but it has such charm and heart, it doesn’t matter that the plot is predictable. There were lots of things Solomon threw in the book to give the characters more depth and I loved them—some things aren’t typically discussed in YA rom-coms.

"But I do want something big and wild, something that fills my heart completely. I want a fraction of what Emma and Charlie or Lindley and Josef or Trisha and Rose have, even though they're fictional. I'm convinced that when you're with the right person, every date, every day feels that way."

This could be such a fun movie, with gorgeous Seattle as a backdrop and great music as a soundtrack. Hope someone is paying attention to that idea!!

Book Review: "The Secret of Clouds" by Alyson Richman

It takes a talented storyteller to get you completely hooked on a story even if you can pretty much predict everything that is going to happen. It takes even more talent to make you get all choked up even when you know what is coming.

In her new novel, The Secret of Clouds, Alyson Richman proves she has exceptional talent, because even though the plot moved as I expected it would, I was hooked on this book from the very start, and I found myself sobbing late last night as it ended.

Maggie Topper is a teacher with a true passion for what she does. She loves the feeling of reaching her students, of making connections with them, and inspiring them. She looks at each school year as a new challenge, and tries not to fall prey to the cynicism that often plagues her fellow teachers.

At the start of a new school year, Maggie is asked by the principal to take on an extra task—to tutor a student, Yuri, whose heart problem hampers him from being able to attend school on a daily basis. Maggie is reluctant at first, because the thought sparks painful memories from her own childhood, but she realizes that Yuri deserves to be inspired and challenged just like every other student she teaches.

Yuri at first rebuffs Maggie's attempts to connect with him, until she realizes she may be trying too hard. She finds the key to Yuri's intellect and his heart is through baseball—even though he cannot play the game, he is a diehard Yankees fan like his father, and has tremendous passion for the players and the stats. Little by little, she realizes how much wiser and more insightful he is than a typical sixth-grader, and he opens Maggie's eyes to the need to live life to the fullest.

Maggie and Yuri's relationship deepens, and she begins to understand just how his parents, Katya and Sasha, who emigrated from the Ukraine in the mid-1980s following the Chernobyl disaster, are torn between wanting to protect him and wanting him to be a "normal" kid, between believing he will get better and fearing for the worst. But Yuri seems to give everyone the strength he so desperately needs for himself, and touches people in ways they never quite expected.

"We can't be so afraid of experiencing pain that it interferes with the things we love."

The Secret of Clouds is in many ways, a love story—romantic love, the love between friends, parental love, the love of baseball, and above all, the love of life. Richman has created some beautifully fleshed-out characters and tugs at your emotions without being too maudlin (most of the time). Maggie's mother also is supposed to be an amazing Italian cook, so it's best not to read this on an empty stomach! (She does provide a recipe along with the acknowledgments at the end of the book.)

You may not be surprised by the book's plot, but I hope you'll be moved, and that you'll think about these characters long after. I know I will.

Book Review: "Trust Exercise" by Susan Choi

Wow, this one didn't work for me at all. Given how much I read I guess it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often.

Susan Choi's newest book, Trust Exercise, is a marvel of language and imagery, but on the whole, I found it confusing, a bit meandering, and once Choi flipped the script on the plot, I wondered whether what I was reading was actually happening or if it was a figment of the characters' imagination.

The book took place in the early 1980s at the Citywide Academy for the Performing Arts. The first-year students are ready to being learning Stagecraft, Shakespeare, the Sight-Reading of Music, and, of course, acting, where their charismatic teacher, Mr. Kingsley, puts them through a variety of trust exercises, challenging their sensory perceptions and awakening their emotions.

Two students, Sarah and David, fall for each other, and begin a passionate yet mercurial relationship in full view of their fellow students. But neither of them are ready for the ramifications of a relationship, and they're not prepared for the manipulations of their peers—or Mr. Kingsley, for that matter. In an effort to drown out the pressures of everyday life, Sarah makes a decision which has major ramifications, ramifications that ripple long into the future.

And then Choi speeds up the timeline and sets the book in the future, and the whole narrative goes hazy, so you're not sure if what you read actually happened, or if Choi simply wants you to question the storyline. But that's not her only gimmick, as she throws yet another twist into the plot that once again left me shaking my head.

Susan Choi has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and certainly there's no doubt about her writing ability. But unfortunately, Trust Exercise never worked for me. I have seen some really positive reviews, however, so it may work for someone else.

NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company provided me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "The Perfect Stranger" by Megan Miranda

Sometimes I think we put unfair pressure on authors. Let's say an author writes a book that blows you away. You eagerly anticipate their next book, sometimes you get impatient if it takes them too long to write another one, and then when you get the chance to read it, you expect this one to blow you away, too, right? (I know I'm not alone here.) But if it doesn't come close to the last book, at least in your mind, whose fault is that, yours or theirs?

I pondered this as I got ready to read Megan Miranda's The Perfect Stranger. Her last book, All the Missing Girls, was fantastic, both for the mystery itself and the unique way Miranda let the story unfold. The book even made my list of the best books I read in 2016. So needless to say, I tried very hard to ratchet back my expectations of her new book, because I didn't want to be disappointed just because I loved her last book so much.

Did she deliver? While The Perfect Stranger isn't perfect, it's a good, suspenseful read. And I think I might have liked it even more if I didn't read Miranda's last book and expect to be dazzled. If you go in knowing that, you'll hopefully enjoy it.

"I can only explain it this way: that I knew her deeply, if not thoroughly; that a four-month relationship can supersede all the boyfriends, all the friendships, that came after and lasted longer, that our friendship was born from the one time I'd stepped off track, done something unexpected that did not follow the predicted steps of my life. And for that reason, it shone brighter, and so did she."

Leah Stevens was a journalist in Boston who got a little too emotionally invested in an exposé she wrote. When she refused to reveal her source, and things related to her story unraveled, a restraining order was taken out against her and the newspaper she worked for was threatened with a lawsuit. Without a job and feeling utterly betrayed, she needed to get out of town—fast. She ran into an old friend, Emmy Grey, with whom she lived just after college.

On the run from a bad relationship, Emmy is desperate to leave Boston as well, so she involves Leah in her plan. The two head to a small town in Western Pennsylvania, where Leah gets a teaching job, and they can both keep off the grid. Leah and Emmy live on parallel schedules, and the two rarely if ever see each other for more than a few minutes, especially when Emmy starts dating someone new. But Leah keeps getting the sense that Emmy is still on her guard, that she's waiting for something to happen.

One night, a woman with a strong resemblance to Leah is assaulted and left for dead. A teacher who has shown a little too much interest in Leah is the suspect, which puts Leah a little more in the spotlight than she'd like, since her previous life has been kept a secret. But when Emmy disappears a few days later, Leah has no choice but to put herself out there and try to find out what happened to her friend.

Leah cooperates with the handsome young police officer who is assigned to the assault case, and tries to get him to help find Emmy. As the police investigate, she realizes that despite feeling tremendously close to Emmy, she never really knew her, which leads the police to suspect that Leah may be making the whole story up, that Emmy may not really exist, especially once they learn of Leah's past. But she knows the truth, and she is determined to find out just who Emmy was, and what happened to her, even if it means returning to the scene of her past transgressions, and possibly putting her own life and her own future at risk.

How well do we really know someone? How far would you go for a friend who has done a lot for you? Does one questionable action in our past doom us forever? The Perfect Stranger strives to answer all of those questions. It definitely keeps you guessing, because you aren't sure how reliable of a narrator Leah really is. The book's setting helps add to the tension, adding an almost moody feel to the whole thing.

As I mentioned earlier, there are things I didn't like about the book. There were a lot of things happening at once, and some of the storylines seemed unfinished, even unnecessary to the core of the plot. But Miranda really is an excellent writer, and knows how to slowly let details unfold so you stay hooked. So of course, what this means is, I'll eagerly await her next book, and remind myself to dial back my expectations again. (I never learn...)

NetGalley and Simon & Schuster provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan

David Levithan, you have slayed me once again. Every Day, and, of course, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which you co-wrote with John Green, have taken their place among my favorite books of all time. And while I didn't think it could be possible, I loved Two Boys Kissing more than those. Seriously.

Seventeen-year-old former boyfriends Harry and Craig are planning to set a new Guinness World Record for continuous kissing. To do so, they'll need to kiss continuously for over 32 hours. This will take physical strength, yes, but also significant emotional fortitude and support from many, many people, since the sight of two boys kissing at all—let alone publicly for 32+ hours—will be difficult if not downright unacceptable for some.

While Harry and Craig undertake their record-setting quest, navigate their true feelings for one another, and deal with the myriad number of issues that will arise during this period, two other young couples are dealing with their own issues. Peter and Neil, who have been together for over a year, are struggling with trying to determine what their expectations of each other and their future should be, while Avery and Ryan, who just met, are struggling with issues of gender identity and all of the nerves of a blossoming relationship. Meanwhile, Tariq, a friend of Craig and Harry's, is trying to overcome his fears after being beaten up by a group of thugs, and Cooper is dealing with the aftermath of his parents' discovery of his homosexuality.

All of these storylines may seem somewhat typical, but Levithan develops each with depth and empathy in a short number of pages. And what lifts this book up even further is that it is narrated by a nameless Greek chorus of men who died of AIDS. Part lamentation for what they lost, part reflection on the struggles each of the characters are going through, since they've seen it all, their words are so insightful, so moving, so dead-on in many, many ways, I literally found myself tearing up multiple times as I flew through the book.

"You must understand: We were like Cooper. Or at least had moments when we were like Cooper. Just as we had moments when we were like Neil, Peter, Harry, Craig, Tariq, Avery, Ryan. We had moments when we were like each of you. This is how we understand. We wore your flaws. We wore your fears. We made your mistakes."

I read this entire book in one day, and I was moved and inspired beyond my expectations. Levithan made me laugh, think, and, as I mentioned earlier, cry with his words. I can't even begin to count the number of times he so perfectly captured many of the feelings I had as a teenager struggling with my sexuality, with self-esteem, with bullying, with wondering if my parents and family and friends would ever be able to accept me for who I was. And the book was pitch-perfect in its portrayal of the rush of emotions when you first meet someone you like and realize they feel the same way, the anxiety of wondering whether there will be a second date, the beauty of a first kiss.

I've said before how much I marvel at the state of YA fiction today, especially LGBT-themed fiction. I wish that Two Boys Kissing had existed when I was a teenager, because it would have been a tremendous help and comfort to me. I wish there was some way this book could be required reading for those struggling with their sexuality and with self-acceptance, as I believe it really could make a difference. Levithan doesn't create an unrealistic world where there are no problems and no struggles, but he shows how wonderful life has the potential to be, even when you don't think it can.

This is honestly one of the best books I've read in some time. Thank you, David Levithan, for this experience. I feel changed for the better.

Same Love...

The first time I heard Same Love, the song by hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert), I literally started crying. I was blown away by the song's message, and the way it challenges those who believe sexual orientation is a choice, those who discriminate, those who are afraid, and those who just don't understand.

Here are some of the lyrics that resonate for me:

The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing god, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And god loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written 3500 years ago
I don’t know

And then, this challenge to hip-hop:

If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
"Man, that’s gay" gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we’re saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don’t have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it

Last month, Susan Johnson, a middle school teacher in Detroit was suspended for three days for playing the song for her class. The school district said Johnson’s suspension was warranted because it broke basic curriculum rules teachers at the school are meant to follow, in that she needed to get prior permission to play something like this. (She probably wouldn't have gotten that permission.)

Students and others, including Macklemore himself, protested Johnson's suspension. But more than that, Johnson's students were moved by what they heard. One student even sent Macklemore an email about the incident:

If you've never heard the song, I encourage you to put your preconceived notions of hip-hop aside and listen to it. Or share it with those who need to hear it. I commend Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for sharing this message.