Will Grayson, meet Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

This book is about a teen boy and his homosexuality.  A large football playing teen named Tiny with wealthy parents and an unbelievable personality is a homosexual and always has brief love affairs.  He ends up dating a guy called Will Grayson which name also happens to be the same name as Tiny's best friend who is straight. The boyfriend Will Grayson also has depression and the story talks about how he feels having depression and how other people treat him when he has to deal with depression and they find out he takes medication for it.

Although this book, to me, is written really well with humor in spots which made me laugh, I would rather not read another one like it.  I would give this book a 5/10.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Too much swearing - taking the Lord's name in vain, F-bomb and not as good as The Fault in Our Stars. There was a scene of a girl riding a guy in a field completely naked, so if you want your teen to read about it, this book is for you.  I suppose it isn't as bad as a movie scene of it, but still. It was still pretty good though, and some parts were so funny I laughed out loud. The story was kind of flat for me in parts, but the book at the end was very satisfying as far as my tastes go.

I think John Green is a very good writer.  I really enjoy his style of writing and how I connect and understand what is written.  I understand all the references he makes and this enhances my understanding of what message I take from the book.  The math footnotes were interesting as well and I enjoyed reading the appendix explaining the math footnotes at the end.  If you can make math interesting, you've got talent! Daniel Biss wrote that part, but it was amusing as well, which I didn't expect coming from a math person.

I think the story was somewhat unrealistically optimistic, but, it's a story.  I don't know how many parents would let their children take a road trip to they don't know where and then stay at a total stranger's house for the entire summer, who just happens to be very wealthy and have a beautiful daughter who happens to be the same age as the self-proclaimed unpopular nerd teen boys who stop at her gas station to see the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria's grave in the middle of Gutshot Tennessee. But I didn't really care, because the novel was great and whose to say it's impossible to happen?  I found it interesting that Colin, the main character, was best friends with a Muslim person named Hassan. I enjoyed how the Muslim culture was brought into the novel in a nice way and how kind Hassan was.  Such a potent culture so violent in the news with such a kind person in the novel really enhanced the book's interesting factor. I would give this book an 8/10. Maybe a 7/10 because of the flat parts.  7 1/2/10.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

I was impressed by the quality of writing in this novel and I was secretly ashamed of my own lack of skill compared to this author.  A sixteen year-old girl named Hazel has lung cancer and falls in love with a boy who has bone cancer.  The boy ends up using his Wish from Make a Wish or some organization like that to fulfill Hazel's wish to travel to the Netherlands to meet a reclusive author of one of her favorite novels and find out what happens to the characters in the novel's abrupt ending.
What really helped me enjoy the novel was the unexpected twists and original story-line.  It was very unique.  The traditional and normal reactions were dealt with regarding what one would expect when one is dying a slow and painful death of cancer, however, the twists in the story made it very original.  The humor was very well-placed and amusing. The pain the parents had to deal with and how the friends felt were covered adequately as well.  I would give this novel a 9 1/2 out of ten. Very enjoyable.  I hope I can write as well some day.  I'm already almost 46 though, so I don't know, but anything's possible!

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Although this book wasn't, for me, "...impossible to put down..." (Lost Angeles Times), I did find it interesting enough to read.  I think Piper Kerman's experience in jail was probably not like most people's experiences because of her race.  I think she may have had it easier.  It was still jail though, and it could have been worse if she had a horrible personality.  I think Piper's integrity and behavior played a large part in how her jail experience was regardless of race, but race helped I suppose.  I can't tell exactly, but she mentions in her memoir often that it did help.

I like how human and respectful she is to all the other inmates.  I've always thought that it was bizarre that people were all of a sudden treated as if they weren't human when they were in jail.  They are still human and they made mistakes, just like all of us.  I think she's right in that we need to change a lot regarding who goes to jail and how they are treated once there.  Someone who murdered someone else and crimes along those lines are different from fraud for example.  I enjoyed the book enough to read it and I am glad Piper is working toward helping people in prison.  I think I should help as well.  I think this book was worth the read. I don't like her hard left attitude (politically speaking) and I'd give this book a 6/10.

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

I don't know very much about China.  It seems like a very foreign country to me and a culture I cannot relate to.  My experience with it is very limited, however, I did read one book involving Chinese culture recently and this happens to be my second called Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah and is an autobiographical novel.  It was an interesting book and sad.  I felt horrible for Adeline as she was treated unbelievably badly by her Step-Mother and Father and the rest of her family.  She had pretty much no one and everyone she tried to love or be kind to was taken away from her on purpose so that she would continue to have no one and so that she would experience sadness in her life.  The Step-Mother was so unbelievably horrible I can't imagine it's real.  The family was so messed up I couldn't stand it. I guess though, a lot of families are like that and so is my own to a certain extent.  What a sweet little girl I had pictured in my mind when I saw the photos in the middle of the book.  It is so sad to read this story.  That family could easily have been very happy.  It is a good lesson to read this and stop anything we are doing wrong to each other in our own families and try to love each other the best we can with the best intentions.

A great deal of Chinese history is referred to in this book.  I did not know that people were mean to Chinese people just because they were Chinese.  This happened fairly recently and in Europe.  I guess I never really paid attention to it. I thought Chinese people were usually doing fine socially and were not discriminated against at all.  I think it helped me learn more about China and it's history reading this novel.  I also obtained an idea of what the Chinese culture is like from one person's opinion anyway.  I will have to read more books regarding China and pay attention to what it is like for Chinese people today.  I would give this book an 7/10.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

So J.K. Rowling's writing was pretty good as far as I judge it.  I enjoyed the way she bounced between scenes and kept the story steady with an understated but constant crescendo regarding the climax of the book.  It was thought-provoking in that I became acutely aware of how I treat other people and how I think about them.  I am resolute to be kinder to everyone I come in contact with after reading this novel.

It was very dark and the language was very sad.  I found it unbelievable in the lack of joy the characters had in their lives.  Even their religions seemed empty and meaningless in their portrayals.  I liked and agreed with how Rowling made Krystal, who was portrayed as one of society's most undesirable people into one of the most innocent and the most vile creature, Krystal's mother Terri, was actually just dealing with the life she had and could have used help in order to survive.  I enjoyed the way that Rowling described these characters and once we understood the descriptions made our decisions regarding them as, perhaps, one of the citizens in the town would have.  As the novel unfolds, we understand that things are not what they may have seemed and perceptions very likely have changed in most readers' minds regarding the characters we were getting to know.  Maybe some readers or all do not feel Krystal and Terri were innocent victims to the circumstances they faced in life, and I do not mean to say I think they should not be responsible for their actions and that they had no other options but the choices they made; I think the characters could have made far better choices, but the ones that were made were totally understandable to me considering their backgrounds.

Basically, I was made to realize that meanness to fellow humans is not usually the right choice to make regardless of who you are.  I think that is good.

The swearing is very bad.  I can't believe most people talk like this.  It seemed disingenuous for the characters to speak with such improper grammar so constantly and use such copious amounts of vulgarity and profanity.  The drudgery that was life seemed overdone in that there was no happiness that any of these characters experienced.  Too unbelievable to me.  I don't know if I'm just that off in my own reality and happy for no reason or if my perception is like most peoples'.  I've had super horrible things happen in my life, but in the center of it, I am happy and experience many joyful events.  These people are portrayed (all of them) as miserable entities of wretched existence, including the teenagers.

I also find certain aspects of British culture very unenjoyable and Rowlings captured the essence of whatever it is (I don't know what it is I don't like) in this novel.  I felt like I was watching an episode of Downtown Abby or Doc Martin, both of which I can't stand.

I would give this book a 5/10 and I would be cautious about reading another of J.K. Rowlings' adult books.  I am sure this book is good for other people though.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

I thought this book was very good in terms of learning about the history of China and America and the relations the two countries had.  It is shameful the awful way in which people treat each other and hopefully from this novel we can be more aware of it and more respectful of differences.

This book is about two female sisters and their lives together from childhood to adult.  Two sisters lived in Shanghai to a moderately wealthy family and then all was lost.  When war broke out the sisters ended up living in the United States.  What life was like in China in the 1930s and what life was like in the United States for Chinese people in the 1940s and 50s in California is described.  How a Chinese person may have felt is recorded as well as a glimpse of Chinese and Chinese/American culture.

I enjoyed the book.  The story was very sad.  I would give this book a 7/10.