Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I. am. so. uncomfortable. I am having so much second-hand anxiety...like... But also can we just...hug Eleanor (after asking her if she's ok with a hug)
fdklsajj;l;j Raymond....I guess you could say everybody loves Raymond...haha. I'm funny.

Soft. Look at all the soft. Like....People caring and like....valuing Eleanor... I'm fine...
My feelings. Like....

Meow. kitty. I love her.
352 Pages

TS Song: Tolerate It, It's Nice to Have a Friend, this is me trying, Clean, Cold As You, 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Hey look, the character that I was most intrigued by was from Missouri. Ha. Yes. It's Henry. 
Alexa play All Too Well...simply for the line "you keep my old scarf.. and it smells like me" nothing else. just that. 
I think I'm going to have to like...go sit in a chair and stare out of a window and think about this book because like.... I just want to sit and think about the characters because like...You only get Richard's perspective and his views of the people around him.
Everyone is awful. I love it, give me more. 
When you see a glimpse into Henry's motivation, and you're afraid...because you literally just wrote about having a similar feeling....
576 Pages

Scorched by J. Lynn

Scorched by J. Lynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was generally good, though not especially memorable. One of the characters deals with some serious issues and not always in the best ways. Since about a year passed since I had read the first book, I couldn't really remember these characters, which were previously side characters. However, it didn't really matter, because this stands alone pretty well.

Pages: 238

Bright Side Series by Kim Holden

Gus by Kim Holden (Book 2)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was difficult at first, as Gus worked through his grief, but it then became a heartfelt story about rebuilding your life after loss and trauma. Gus is wow, but I almost enjoyed Scout more. She had a hard time finding her strength, but it was always there, which made her a fascinating character who showed a lot of growth throughout the story.

Book 245 read in 2018

Pages: 389

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Franco by Kim Holden (Book 3)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure if I could love this one at first, because it's a big change from stories that primarily revolved around Bright Side. However, the longer I read it, the more I loved it. Franco is fantastic. This book has a lot of humor and warmth, which was needed after all the tragedy and drama of the previous books.

That's not to say there is no hardship experienced in this story, because there is. But you leave it feeling refreshed, instead of crushed.

Book 246 read in 2018

Pages: 207

Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall

Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is very upsetting, until the point where it becomes EVEN MORE UPSETTING.

This is the story of an obese teen who grows up in an extremely abusive situation. I spent 50% of the book mentally pleading with the MC to run away. RUN AWAY, SUGAR, JUST RUN AWAY.

I desperately wanted her to flee the terrible situation, because I couldn't take reading about it. This is something I normally wouldn't advocate for with a teen, as even though it seems like nothing can be worse than staying in a terrible situation, the reality is that things usually can get worse for young runaways. But the heart wants what the heart wants.

Also, did I mention there's an EVEN MORE UPSETTING thing that you should prepare yourself for? Unfortunately, it was something Sugar couldn't have even run away from. Life came and just gave her another big punch in the gut, as if she wasn't able to become who she would be without hitting rock bottom. That's why this gets 4 stars, instead of 5, as I don't love the whole, take everything away from the MC, in order for her to become her best self mentality. I think people can become their best self with a little love and support, too. But overall, it's a good read if you don't mind being depressed throughout, with small flashes of beauty and hope.

Book 182 read in 2018

Pages: 276

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good look at poverty and violence, and the struggle it is to grow up inside them and to then try to make a life outside of them. It's a lot about class, community culture, and the persistent trauma of growing up inside a culture of constant stress and drama. Honestly, this hits very close to home, even in Missouri, and I know many people who grew up in such a way or are still trapped and impacted by similar childhoods.

My brother said this was a boring book, because it's everything he already knows about the impacts of growing up in poverty and despair. In fact, his exact words were, "I thought it was boring and not that good, but we grew up in a poor area, so it wasn't anything groundbreaking."

This had me thinking about why my brother would expect a book about a culture in crisis to be groundbreaking. Does he feel as if there is some kind of reason or solution to poverty and violence that he does not yet know about? And why doesn't he want to see the reality of some of our life experiences reflected back in his literature?

My mother said, "It is suited to those who have always had advantages and money and don't understand those who haven't."

Now, on some level, I understand her comment, because she's suggesting that the value of the book may be in its shock value for all of those who haven't grown up in or surrounded by some level of poverty and hardship. But who in the world are these people? And what world do they live in that I don't? How many

"Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities" by Claudia Kalb

This excellent book covers the mental illnesses and/or personality disorders of 12 very famous people:  Marilyn Monroe (borderline personality disorder), Howard Hughes (obsessive-compulsive disorder), Andy Warhol (hoarding), Princess Diana (bulimia), Abraham Lincoln (depression), Christine Jorgenson (transgender), Frank Lloyd Wright (narcissism), Betty Ford (alcoholism/drug addiction), Charles Darwin (anxiety), George Gershwin (hyperactivity), Fyodor Dostoevsky (gambling addiction), and Albert Einstein (Asperger's syndrome).  I love personality theory and found this book to be extremely engrossing and accessible with many sources and notes listed for each person, some of which I can't wait to read for a deeper understanding.  The author is not making diagnoses on her own (she's a journalist and editor) but used these many sources to paint a fascinating and usually compassionate portrait of these well known people.  I found all except the final two figures and their diagnoses to be engrossing, probably because I don't find gambling addiction and Asperger's syndrome to be all that interesting.  However, the fact that all of these people made great contributions to society while trying to deal with sometimes debilitating problems makes their accomplishments all the more remarkable.  (Except for Frank Lloyd Wright - he was just a huge jerk to everyone around him and probably could have achieved even more if not for his extreme narcissism.)  320 pages.

Dry

Title: Dry
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Pages: 293 pages
Audio: 12 hours 30 min



Inside cover blurb: From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.


My take: I really like Augusten Burroughs, I think there is only one book of his that I wasn't too keen on. He is funny and honest. This book is no different from his other works. Read this book, read his other books as well.