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Goodbye Ed, Hello Me was an interesting read. It was a book that was suggested to me by my EDA sponsor. It's written by Jenni Schaefer, a woman who successfully recovered from an eating disorder.
This book gave quite a few good strategies for working through recovery. I found myself actually taking notes the whole time.
She talks about how to her, her eating disorder was like a controlling husband. She had to "divorce" Ed and learn to love herself in the process.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who has, or knows someone who has, struggles with eating and with their body.
3.5/5
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Choosing Charleston was another book that I randomly downloaded for free so that I would have something to read during my break at work. It's about a woman named Carly who finds her husband of less than a year in bed with the neighbor. She immediately goes back down to her parents' in South Carolina to try to sort out what to do.
While she's there she finds out that a land developer is building a store that will put her parents out of business. She also meets one of the construction workers that is working on this building and she's very much attracted to him. Her grandmother also lives at home because she is dealing with memory problems (which make for some great laughs in this story).
She knows she should be working on her marriage, but there's something about Charleston.
4/5
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Miss Match was loaned to me by my friend Meghan who said that it was one of her favorite books.
Lauren is a girl who works at a photography studio, but her real life calling is playing matchmaker. She introduced her sister to the man she married and that was just the beginning.
Lauren is able to tell who should end up with who and finds fun ways to make it happen.
There's some underlying Christian themes in this book (The main character is very active in church and Bible study), which was a nice touch.
4/5
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The Problem With Crazy focuses on 18 year old Kate. She is super excited to be leaving town and going on tour with her boyfriend and his band. However, when her dad shows up drunk to her high school graduation, plans get changed.
She finds out that her father (who had been gone for over a year) actually has a very bad illness, which is eventually going to kill him. Kate then learns that she could have inherited this illness.
All this news is too much for her boyfriend, who leaves her because he can't deal with his "crazy" girlfriend when he wants to get famous. Kate has to deal with the break up, taking care of her dad, making new friends, and the idea that she could have a deadly illness.
The only thing that threw me off about this book is that it was written by an Australian, so there were a few times where the wording would be different than what I would think. But it didn't really make it any harder to read. Just something to watch out for.
4/5
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Scrawl is about a young boy named Tod. Tod is known for being a bully, stealing kid's lunch money, that kind of thing.
One day, Tod and his friends get caught doing something really bad (though you never find out what it is) and are forced to serve a detention. While his friends are outside picking up trash, Tod is forced to sit in a room with his counselor and write in a notebook. He's encouraged to write anything he thinks or feels.
Scrawl is his notebook, along with some notes from his guidance counselor. This made it really interesting, because we get to see what happens from the main character's point of view. He's brutally honest and quite funny.
3/5
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Thirteen Reasons Why is about a boy named Clay who finds a box full of tapes one day. When he opens the box and starts to play the tapes, he finds out they were recorded by a girl named Hannah, who had just ended her life by suicide.
There are 13 tapes, one for each person who she claims had a role in why she chose to end her life. Everyone on these tapes will have the chance to receive the tapes and listen to them to find out what they did.
The story is told through both Clay and Hannah's points of view. The dual narrative switches between what Hannah says on her tapes and what Clay thinks as he listens to them.
Thirteen Reasons Why beautifully demonstrates the snowball effect of how the (seemingly insignificant) actions of one person can snowball out of control into something you'd never expect.
5/5
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| Goodbye Ed, Hello Me Jenni Schaefer |
This book gave quite a few good strategies for working through recovery. I found myself actually taking notes the whole time.
She talks about how to her, her eating disorder was like a controlling husband. She had to "divorce" Ed and learn to love herself in the process.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who has, or knows someone who has, struggles with eating and with their body.
3.5/5
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| Choosing Charleston T. Lynn Ocean |
Choosing Charleston was another book that I randomly downloaded for free so that I would have something to read during my break at work. It's about a woman named Carly who finds her husband of less than a year in bed with the neighbor. She immediately goes back down to her parents' in South Carolina to try to sort out what to do.
While she's there she finds out that a land developer is building a store that will put her parents out of business. She also meets one of the construction workers that is working on this building and she's very much attracted to him. Her grandmother also lives at home because she is dealing with memory problems (which make for some great laughs in this story).
She knows she should be working on her marriage, but there's something about Charleston.
4/5
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| Miss Match Erynn Mangum |
Lauren is a girl who works at a photography studio, but her real life calling is playing matchmaker. She introduced her sister to the man she married and that was just the beginning.
Lauren is able to tell who should end up with who and finds fun ways to make it happen.
There's some underlying Christian themes in this book (The main character is very active in church and Bible study), which was a nice touch.
4/5
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| The Problem with Crazy Lauren K. McKellar |
She finds out that her father (who had been gone for over a year) actually has a very bad illness, which is eventually going to kill him. Kate then learns that she could have inherited this illness.
All this news is too much for her boyfriend, who leaves her because he can't deal with his "crazy" girlfriend when he wants to get famous. Kate has to deal with the break up, taking care of her dad, making new friends, and the idea that she could have a deadly illness.
The only thing that threw me off about this book is that it was written by an Australian, so there were a few times where the wording would be different than what I would think. But it didn't really make it any harder to read. Just something to watch out for.
4/5
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| Scrawl Mark Shulman |
One day, Tod and his friends get caught doing something really bad (though you never find out what it is) and are forced to serve a detention. While his friends are outside picking up trash, Tod is forced to sit in a room with his counselor and write in a notebook. He's encouraged to write anything he thinks or feels.
Scrawl is his notebook, along with some notes from his guidance counselor. This made it really interesting, because we get to see what happens from the main character's point of view. He's brutally honest and quite funny.
3/5
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| Thirteen Reasons Why Jay Asher |
There are 13 tapes, one for each person who she claims had a role in why she chose to end her life. Everyone on these tapes will have the chance to receive the tapes and listen to them to find out what they did.
The story is told through both Clay and Hannah's points of view. The dual narrative switches between what Hannah says on her tapes and what Clay thinks as he listens to them.
Thirteen Reasons Why beautifully demonstrates the snowball effect of how the (seemingly insignificant) actions of one person can snowball out of control into something you'd never expect.
5/5
