Book #28: Bless Me, Ultima

I just realized I hadn't blogged about this book yet, despite the fact that it should have been book #23 or so. I could rearrange the order, but I'm not going to, so here goes. This book was assigned in the online English course I took, which was lovely and fun not really at all, which I took about eight or so months procrastinating on. Talk about hardcore subconscious awesomeness.

So I finally read it, which was rather like pulling teeth, but I did it and I don't want to talk about it anymore because ahhhh help I don't know. I just don't want to. It existed. I wrote an essay on it. Great fun, I assure you.

Book #27: Best Foot Forward

Let me tell you a story. When I was about eleven or twelve years old I visited my grandparents in their summer home in Colorado, which was very boring la la la awesome, and one day my grandma gave me a book she'd gotten at a garage sale. This book was Rules of the Road, which I read and loved et cetera.

Fast forward five or so years and I find that there is a sequel to the book I find a bit iconic of my childhood (in that I liked it and... things). No pressure or anything.

So I finally got around to reading the sequel, Best Foot Forward, and I have to say that while I liked it, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe this is typical of something like this, something with Expectations, but I suppose it is still a valid feeling. Much like book #26, I enjoyed many parts of it. I loved Mrs. Gladstone and Murray, but everyone else just confused me, including the main character. I think this may have something to do with my not having reread it in a while, but Jenna's obsession with [insert name of person who she knew for a week in previous book and had a big impact on her life] confused me. Also, the whole Tanner dynamic, then OH I LIKE THIS DUDE SORT OF, confused me.

This is all probably to do with the fact that I haven't reread the previous book in a long time, as well as it being more of a book for middle grade readers, and that I loved Rules of the Road so much when I was younger. But anyway. This may have been confusing, but that's how I felt when reading it. I didn't quite know what was going on.

Book #26: Lock and Key

Lock and Key felt very different to me in comparison to Dessen's other works. Maybe that's because it is rather different, though. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it caught me off guard a little.

Still, and maybe because of this, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed pieces of it, I know, and I think the minor characters made the book for me. It was also very weird to read this book, almost a bit surreal, because I wear a key on a chain as well. Talk about deja vu.

I didn't not like it, if that counts for anything.

"Do you even realize how happy the average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We're at the mall. I want to buy you things. It's like adolescent nirvana." (342)