My Beautiful Hippie by Janet Nichols Lynch

Title: My Beautiful Hippie
Author: Janet Nichols Lynch
Series: N/A
Source: Publisher for review
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication Date: January 15, 2013
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Inspired by Lynch's students' fascination with the sixties, in which they wear sixties styles and T-shirts with sixties rock stars, and listen to sixties music; set in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco, with a 15-year old female protagonist who's an aspiring pianist that falls in love with a hippie; representing themes that echo today with traditional values vs the counterculture, the morality of wars in general and the Vietnam War in particular and the effects of the women’s movement on American society.

I have to admit-- this wasn't exactly what I expected. I had myself psyched out about this book, because I thought that there was no way it could end on a good note. Thankfully, I was wrong, and it ended on a fairly good note. But for some reason, I had it in my head that when Joni met Martin-- well, I figured Martin wasn't as hippie as we'd like to think. Turns out that he was, though. Which was nice, because I was afraid that this was going to be a novel of abuse.

And it wasn't, so that was great.

I thought that it was realistic. What must it have been like in the summer of love? LSD is everywhere-- and who would want to do that? (Seriously, if LSD makes you retreat into your mind, I won't be having none. My mind is a scary place without that, thank you very much.) Pot is everywhere too-- and it's talked about in this book. Drug references/use, check.

I think that my only problem with My Beautiful Hippie  was that Martin holds all the cards on Joni. He's a straight-up hippie, meaning he's traveling, etc. And all she wants is for him to stay, ultimately winding up with her being hurt by him.

And Joni was pretty cool, so that just sucked.

Joni was actually one of the high-points of this book-- she had a rocking personality. She's rebellious, she tie-dyes her own clothes, and well, she was just a cool main character for a book like this. She made a good flower child-- and I liked most of the secondary characters too. Most notable, Pete rocked. He's such a nice guy. Unfortunately, there's just not much for me to say about My Beautiful Hippie.

All in all, I enjoyed this "blast from the past", but it wasn't particularly for me, you know?

"I've found it's just the same after a few times. I'm not going to learn anything else by doing more. Sure it's beautiful-- a good trip is. The mind expands to show you a million possibilities. You feel 'one' with everybody. But then you come down. Every time, you come down and you're the same, with your same problems." ~ Pg. 45, ARC

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust by Leanne Lieberman

Title: Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust
Author: Leanne Lieberman
Series: N/A
Source: Won via Librarything
Publisher: Orca Books
Publication Date: April 1, 2013
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Lauren Yanofsky doesn't want to be Jewish anymore. Her father, a noted Holocaust historian, keeps giving her Holocaust memoirs to read, and her mother doesn't understand why Lauren hates the idea of Jewish youth camps and family vacations to Holocaust memorials. But when Lauren sees some of her friends--including Jesse, a cute boy she likes--playing Nazi war games, she is faced with a terrible choice: betray her friends or betray her heritage.

Told with engaging humor, LYHH isn't simply about making tough moral choices. It's about a smart, funny, passionate girl caught up in the turmoil of bad-hair days, family friction, changing friendships, love--and, yes, the Holocaust.

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust  was an interesting read, but it wasn't all that I hoped it would be. I guess that I just expected it to be more profound, or for it to be...I don't know, just more? In the end, I liked this one but I didn't love it. The ending was a little too abrupt, and the character relationships could have been better. But those are the only problems that I had!

I liked that the focus of this book seemed to be growing up and finding yourself. All of the things that Lauren experience have probably happened to all of us, and that made her a good character. She was completely honest with herself, and she had a no fear way of looking at life. She knows exactly what she wants, even if she isn't always able to immediately achieve it. One thing about her did bother me, though. She's able to so easily dismiss her heritage (she's Jewish), but she keeps coming back to it over and over.

I don't think that I would be able to dismiss my heritage-- even if I did continually come back to it. Not in my cards, you know? But Lauren tried so hard to be different, and she kind of was. For a teenager, she has some really complex thoughts about heritage and such-- but I definitely believe it! I loved seeing a racial minority for once!

And in the end, I think that Lauren really did grow as a character-- and I respect her as one. She made some good choices, even if they weren't always something that her friends agreed with. All in all, I liked this, even if I didn't love it!

"Burning something doesn't make history or memory go away." ~ Pg. 193

Every Day by David Levithan

Buddy read with Sarah! Woohoo! *imagine awkward dancing* Check out Sarah's review too! (:

Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Series: N/A
Source: Traded for
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
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Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

I feel like Every Day was written just for people who are romantic. People want to believe in true love, along with loving the same person even when they're in different bodies. What's my problem with that, you ask? Nothing. I want to believe it too. But I had a hard time believing it in this book. Our main characters, A and Rhiannon, simply fell in love way too fast. Page 22, first day meeting each other for A, and 5 days later for Rhiannon. I do not believe in love at first site, so that was a little off the grid for me.

Rhiannon was a little off the grid for me too. She seems nice and fun, but she doesn't have enough development as a character to really work for me. Neither does A, in a sense.

However, I was willing to play along with that. And I learned that A is apparently not a teenager, because no teen that I know talks metaphorically. He (I say he) thinks philosophers' thoughts, which makes him kind of unbelievable. I just have issues with that kind of telling, because no teenager says things like that! At least, none I know.

Which brings me to my third point-- we get to see so many different lives, and yet it's not like we're experiencing it. It's like we're being told about all the things going on. I never really felt like I could get immersed in the story, which was unfortunate. It kept me reading, though. I did really want to know what happened, because the premise was just so unique!

I feel like the ending was perfect. It all worked out so fantastically, which makes me oh-so-happy! I was really afraid that A was going to do something stupid, but it turns out that he didn't, so yay! It all worked out, even if it wasn't exactly the way that I expected.

All in all, I enjoyed Every Day, but I expected a little more.

I want to get back to her. I want to get back to yesterday. ~ Pg. 47, ARC