Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Hexagons are the bestagons


"Statistics: the con artist of math"
My math brain. I love it. My love of information. Yes. Tell me all the things.
The humor. The writing style. I love it.

The technicality arguing is just. Chef's kiss.
7 AM MASS. YAAAAAAAS.
It's the trying to figure the other person out and also knowing you'll never figure them out, and loving people with a mental illness for me.
I'm just...gonna be over here dying....because I feel seen....
304 Pages

TS Song: the verses of Dress, Archer

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a solid YA contemporary novel about diverse step-siblings, one who is dealing with issues and labeling in regards to mental health, and the other who is dealing with conflict and labeling, in regards to sexuality. This is a solid read, with a diverse cast, and it touches on some very important issues.

If you haven't read a book like this before, you'll probably feel it is excellent. If in the past you have read a ton of diverse stories dealing with mental health and sexuality, then you'll probably find this to be average. I enjoyed the story, overall, even though a few things just didn't ring true. I especially appreciated the diversity, of which there was plenty. However, I wouldn't ever reread this book, nor will I likely remember what it is actually about after a few weeks have passed. Instead, I'll probably just have one of those general feelings of like towards it, without remembering exactly why I liked this.

The story and plot are more of a 3.5 for me, but it gets the extra half star for the diversity and dealing with tough issues at the YA level. I expect there will be some teens who pick this book up and finally see a character who is something like them in literature, and that is fantastic.

Book 16 read in 2019

Pages: 330

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This middle grade novel is about Lilly, a trans girl who is still attending 8th grade as a boy, while trying to figure out how best to express to the world that she’s a girl, and Dunkin, a boy with bipolar disorder who just moved to the neighborhood with his mom after something mysterious occurred with his father. The story is told in alternating POVs.

I really wanted to finish this book and give it 5 stars, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. And it’s really bothering me. In fact, for the past 30 minutes, my mind has been whirling, and I have been interrogating myself, much like this:

Was this a good book: YES

Was it well-written: YES

Did it address important topics: YES

Do I appreciate the diversity: YES

Were the characters interesting: YES

Does the world need more books like this: DOUBLE YES

So I’d recommend this to everyone:
*hesitates*
*lectures self*
*reviews previous questions*
*hesitates and lectures self some more*

What? WHY NOT?
*shrugs and cowers*

Is it the (probably unintentional) gender stereotyping: Maybe

Was that hard to swallow: Yeah, sometimes.

Did it bother me how some of the plot points and subplots seemed unnecessary and distracted from the story more than they added to it: Kinda. . . sorta. . . yes, okay.
Definitely.
*sigh*

What about the friendship between the two main characters: It didn’t feel as authentic as I wanted it to.

Whoa! That was quick. Who are you to judge their friendship: Well, I’m nobody….except the reader. So I kind of showed up to judge, in a non-judgey sort of way. . . right?

How about that ending: Acceptable but lacked a certain resolution and stirred up more cans of worms

Um, is that an appropriate use of that idiom: *rolls eyes*

But really, are any of these issues solid reasons not to love and promote the book: Probably not. . . but maybe? I don’t know! Stop pressuring me!

Okay, fine. Calm down. What’s the real problem here? Are you just hating on middle grade, because you prefer YA: No, that’s not it. I like how middle grade it is.

Are you letting stupid little things take away from your complete enjoyment of this story: Potentially

Are there better stories out there on being transgender and on bipolar disorder: Yes, but maybe not for this age level . . .?!?!?

So should an almost great story be labeled as satisfactory, considering that’s better than no story at all: I want to say yes, because it seems like any representation should be better than no representation. But my heart keeps thudding, may-be-not. May-be-not. May-be-not. . . Po-ten-tially? Per-haps? Pro-ba-bly?

Then what in the world is your problem: I DON’T KNOW.
*holds book at arms length*
*despairs*
*reconsiders for far too long*
*shakes head*
*sighs again*
*facepalm*

*Whispers into the void:*
Unmet potential leaves me twitchy.

Conclusion: Any book that leaves me with this much internal struggle is probably worth reading and discussing.

Pages: 352

When We Collided by Emery Lord

When We Collided by Emery Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story is chaotic and delightful on so many levels. Vivi and Jonah are complex, well-developed characters who are dealing with a lot of big issues, such as Vivi's bipolar disorder, and the fact that Jonah's mom checked out after his father died, leaving him to carry the burden of parenting his younger siblings.

This story manages to be both playful and heavy. It probably deserves a 4.5, but I'm going to stick with my original gut-impulse rating system.

Pages: 352

"Wishful Drinking" by Carrie Fisher

In this memoir by actress and writer Carrie Fisher, she says that she is a product of "Hollywood inbreeding."  With icons Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher as parents, she has first hand knowledge of the old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction."  Fisher claims that she decided to write this memoir after undergoing electroshock therapy for bipolar disorder.  She lost some of her memory because of it but what she has left is enough to keep listeners entertained.  Her father left the family for Elizabeth Taylor when she was two, so Fisher has much more to say about her mother . . . and does a darned good imitation of her voice.  She covers how, when, and why she got hooked on drugs (the undiagnosed bipolar disorder played a large part), telephone interventions by Cary Grant, her long roller coaster romance with Paul Simon, her pregnancy by a man who ultimately left her and their daughter for another man, and more.  One of the best stories is about George Lucas' explanation of why she was not allowed to wear a bra during the filming of "Star Wars."  All this is interesting to a point, but she doesn't really delve very deeply into her own psyche to account for her choices or how much of an impact her folks' parenting (or lack of) made her into who she is.  I listened to the audio version, read by Fisher, and the quality wasn't very good.  Many times I had to adjust the volume, especially when she yelled, which was often.  This was written in 2008, before the death of her father and before filming of the newest "Star Wars" movie, in which she will appear.

Audio:  3 hours
Print:  176 pages