Book Review: The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

Book Review:  The Inexplicable Logic of My LifeThe Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
four-stars
Published by Clarion Books on March 7th 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 452
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:  The first day of senior year:  Everything is about to change. Until this moment, Sal has always been certain of his place with his adoptive gay father and their loving Mexican-American family. But now his own history unexpectedly haunts him, and life-altering events force him and his best friend, Samantha, to confront issues of faith, loss, and grief.

Suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and discovering that he no longer knows who he really is—but if Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?

 

MY REVIEW

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life is a moving story about love and about what it means to be a family.  It follows the journey of Sal, a young man who is starting his senior year of high school.  Sal, who lost his mother at an early age and never knew his real father, lives with his adoptive gay father, Vicente, and has been raised in a loving Mexican-American family.  Up until now, Sal has always been sure of who he is and where he belongs, but when he unexpectedly starts getting into fights at school, he starts to question everything about himself. How can he have these random violent tendencies when he has been raised in such a loving environment and has never known violence?  He feels like he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.  As if questioning his very being wasn’t enough, Sal is confronted by mortality when a beloved family member is diagnosed with terminal cancer. It seems like his whole world is coming apart and Sal feels lost.  Thankfully his best friend Samantha is there to help him try to make sense of what he’s feeling, but when her world is turned upside down too, they are both left trying to make sense of the cards they’ve been dealt in life.  In many ways, this is a coming of age story for them both.

 

LIKES

There’s so much to like about The Inexplicable Logic of My Life. I love the fact that it’s primarily character driven.  Sure, there’s a plot. Lots of things – big things actually – happen throughout the story.  But it’s not really so much about what happens, as it is about how the characters react to and learn and grow from what happens to them.

I really loved the characters and the relationships too.  Sal is a great kid and since we’re getting the story from his perspective, it’s impossible not to feel sympathetic towards him, especially with everything he goes through.  Thankfully he has an incredible support system in the people around him.

This book is filled with incredible relationships, and not the romantic kind.  I’m talking about familial relationships.  The father-son bond between Sal and his adoptive father is wonderful.  Vicente is a nurturing father who always seems to know the right thing to say to put Sal’s mind at ease.  He’s such a great dad that Sal’s friends, Samantha and Fito, have practically adopted him as their dad as well.

Speaking of Samantha and Fito, the friendships in this book are beautiful too.  Samantha and Sal have practically grown up together and are as close as if they were brother and sister.  Samantha has a less than ideal relationship with her mother and so she probably spends more time hanging out with Sal and his dad than she does with her own family. Like siblings, Samantha and Sal spend a lot of time mocking and teasing each other.  Their hilarious banter was actually one of my favorite things about the book.  But even though they constantly pick on each other, also like siblings, they always have each other’s backs no matter what.

Fito is a newer addition to Sal’s circle of friends.  Like Samantha, he has a pretty rough home life and, at one point, even gets kicked out and is living on the streets for a while until Sal and Samantha find out and find him a place to stay.   Fito isn’t used to anyone looking out for him and doing nice things for him so their kind gesture brings him near tears, which made me fall head over heels for this poor kid.

There were many other beautiful relationships too, including that between Sal and his adoptive grandmother, Mima.  Their bond reminded me of my relationship with my own grandmother.  When I was growing up, she was one of my best friends and biggest confidantes and that’s the way it is with Sal and Mima.  Growing up with such nurturing influences as Mima and Vicente in his life, I could understand all the more why Sal was so confused by the violent outbursts he keeps having at school.

Aside from the characters and relationships that drive the story what I also loved about The Inexplicable Logic of My Life is that it’s a book that makes you think.  It unflinchingly tackles big topics like love, family, death, grief, nature vs. nurture, and even homophobia and racism and how all of these things impact Sal and his family and friends.

My absolute favorite thing about this book though is its message about family.  The Inexplicable Logic of My Life beautifully illustrates that family has little to do with biology and genetics and everything to do with who you let into your heart and who lets you into theirs.  Blood may be thicker than water, but love is thicker than blood.

 

DISLIKES

The only real criticism I have of this book is something that is hard to go into without giving away spoilers, but it’s about a loss that Sal, Samantha, and Fito each experience.  Even though it definitely added a moving and dramatic element to the story, I couldn’t help but think “What are the odds that that same tragedy would actually happen to all three friends?”  If you’ve read the book, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t read it, you’ll figure it out.  Other than that one quibble, I was really pleased with this read.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re looking for a moving and thought-provoking story about love and loss and what it means to be a family, I’d definitely recommend The Inexplicable Logic of My Life.

 

RATING:  4 STARS

four-stars

About Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Benjamin Alire Sáenz is an author of poetry and prose for adults and teens. He is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Book Award for his books for adults. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was a Printz Honor Book, the Stonewall Award winner, the Pura Belpre Award winner, the Lambda Literary Award winner, and a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. His first novel for teens, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book for teens, He Forgot to Say Goodbye, won the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, the Southwest Book Award, and was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. He teaches creative writing at the University of Texas, El Paso.

Waiting On / Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on Wonder Woman: Warbringer

New WoW

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  This week I’ll also be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa.

My selection for this week is Wonder Woman:  Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo.  Wonder Woman is my all-time favorite superhero and has been since I was a little girl watching Lynda Carter play the part on TV and kick ass every week.  Having just finished reading my first Leigh Bardugo book, Six of Crows, and falling madly in love with it, I truly can’t wait to see what she does with Wonder Woman. I think it’s going to be absolutely brilliant!

 

WONDER WOMAN: WARBRINGER by Leigh Bardugo

Publication Date:  August 29, 2017

 

From Amazon: The highly anticipated, entirely new coming-of-age story for the world’s greatest super hero: WONDER WOMAN by the # 1 New York Times bestselling author LEIGH BARDUGO.

She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WONDER WOMAN:  WARBRINGER

Warbringer is straight-up dazzling, every sentence waking up your senses with a ‘Yeah, that’s right, this is BRAND-NEW, SUCKAS!’ punch.” —LIBBA BRAY, New York Times bestselling author of The Diviners

“Will absolutely satisfy pre-existing fans of Wonder Woman, but it also readily stands alone for non-superhero fans.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

“Wonder Woman is the epitome of a kick-butt heroine, and Bardugo does her justice with aplomb.” —The Bulletin

“Bardugo breathes zippy new life into the story with a twisty plot, whip-smart characters, and her trademark masterful writing.” —Booklist

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your WoW selection for this week. 🙂

My Top Ten Favorite Reads for the First Half of 2017

 

top ten tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Reads for the first half of 2017.  I had originally planned to do only 2017 releases but didn’t really have enough favorites to make a top ten list.  Instead, I’ve chosen to just go with my favorite reads, regardless of when they were released so there’s a mix of 2017, 2016, and even at least one 2015 book that I read and loved this year.

My Top 10 Favorite Reads for the First Half of 2017

 

1. THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas

Why I Loved It:  I tend to measure how good a book is by how many emotions it makes me feel while I’m reading and The Hate U Give is off the charts in that respect.  It made me sad and brought me to tears several times, it made me frustrated and angry, and it even managed to make me smile and laugh a few times along the way as well. I also felt the love between Starr and her family, as well as the love that held her community together.  When I say it’s a powerful read, that’s what I’m talking about.  This book is just so real and honest and raw that you feel EVERYTHING the characters are going through.  (Read My Full Review…)

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2. A CONJURING OF LIGHT by Victoria Schwab

Why I Loved It:  I just finished this book over the weekend and haven’t even begun writing my review, but the fact that I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. Sunday night, even though I had to be up by 6:00 a.m. for work should tell you just how much I adored this book.  Everything about this series is amazing — the elaborate world building, the intricate system of magic, and my favorite part  – the complex relationship between the characters and the final book gave me exactly the ending I was looking for.  Schwab really outdid herself with this finale. (Review still to be written…)

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3.  SAINTS AND MISFITS by S.K. Ali

Why I Loved It:  S.K. Ali’s debut novel Saints and Misfits is a beautifully written coming of age book about family, friendship, love, religious faith, and so much more. It’s also a book that focuses on the importance of not judging people, of not making assumptions about people you don’t even know based on how they look or how they’re dressed, or maybe even how religious or not religious they may seem.  Saints and Misfits tackles all of these important themes and allows us to explore them through the eyes of a hijabi teen, Janna Yusuf, as she navigates her way through life in her high school, at home, and in her Muslim community.  I adored so many of the characters in this book, but main character Janna was definitely my favorite.  I adored everything about her.  She’s super smart, hilarious, a little bit snarky, and just an all-around likeable character, probably one of the most likeable characters I’ve read so far this year.  As if all of that wasn’t cool enough, Janna is also a Flannery O’Connor loving book nerd! If I had gone to school with Janna, I totally would have wanted to be friends with her.  I also found her voice to be authentic and I loved seeing the events of the story unfold from her perspective.  Her journey to find herself and to ultimately decide what kind of person she wants to be is such a compelling one and it just made this book one I couldn’t put down once I started reading. (Read My Full Review…)

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4. SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo

Why I Loved It: What I loved most about Six of Crows are the characters.  Leigh Bardugo has crafted some of the most fascinating and unique characters I’ve come across in YA fantasy.  I always enjoy stories that feature an anti-hero and with Kaz and his “Crows,” we have 6 anti-heroes! I love anti-heroes because they’re always such complex characters and these characters are no different. What each of the Crows have in common is that they have no family and they’ve each had to do some pretty awful things in the name of survival, including resorting to thievery and murder.  Through flashbacks that give us backstory on each of the characters, however, Bardugo manages to make this gang of thugs so sympathetic that you can’t help but fall in love with them.. (Read My Full Review…)

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5. THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED by Becky Albertalli

Why I Loved It: Another book where the characters just captured my heart.  Becky Albertalli really has a gift for making adorable and relatable characters and Molly Peskin-Suso is no exception. I really loved Molly. In addition to being smart and funny, Molly also has anxiety issues and I found the inner monologue running through her head to be so relatable throughout the book.  I just loved the way Albertalli wrote Molly’s voice and could empathize with all of Molly’s insecurities.  If you’ve ever experienced anxiety or felt the fear of rejection, it’s easy to understand where Molly is coming from and why she’s so hesitant to put herself out there.  I also loved that even though Molly is somewhat overweight, she still has a great sense of style and a healthy self image. She isn’t trying to starve herself to make herself more appealing to anyone.  Molly is who she is and makes no apologies for it.  When a boy at a party tells her she’s “gorgeous for a big girl,” Molly’s very candid response is “F*** you.” I mean, seriously, how can you not love this girl?  (Read My Full Review…)

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6. SWIMMING LESSONS by Claire Fuller

Why I Loved It:  Swimming Lessons was a powerful and unique read for me.  There’s a huge mystery that runs through the story with respect to Ingrid: ‘Is she really dead or could she possibly be alive and off living a secret life unbeknownst to her husband and children?’ Instead of being this huge dramatic event, however, it’s written in such a subtle and elegant style that it wasn’t this huge melodramatic event, more just the quiet reveal of a troubled family.  I also liked one of the book’s central themes – that we all bring our own meaning to the books we read.  And in keeping with that theme, Swimming Lessons leaves the reader to interpret what really happened to Ingrid.  (Read My Full Review…)

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7. THE INEXPLICABLE LOGIC OF MY LIFE by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Why I Loved It: Another book that I’ve just finished and haven’t completed the review for.  I fell in love with this book because of its strong focus on family relationships and especially on the idea that being a family doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being related by blood.   Main character Sal has been raised all his life by his incredible adoptive dad – the kind of loving and supporting dad that every kid wants, that all of Sal’s friends wish they had.  When Sal suddenly starts to have issues with anger and starts getting into fights at school, he starts to question who he is.  Where is this violence coming from?  Is he somehow more like his biological father who he has never even met than he is like the wonderful, gentle, nonviolent man who has raised him all his life?  The nature vs. nurture debate has always interested me, so I found Sal’s journey very compelling.  (Review still to be written…)

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8. THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES by Mindy McGinnis

Why I Loved It: The main reason why I loved this book is  its fascinating main character, Alex Craft.  Alex has always had a dark side. She can feel the violence bubbling beneath the surface, just waiting to be unleashed.  For most of her life, she has been able to keep this dark side under control.  However, when her older sister Anna is sexually assaulted and murdered and the murderer goes free, the beast within Alex awakens and she takes matters into her own hands to get justice for her sister.  Alex gets away with her crime but feels like she could easily do the same thing again if she encounters another predator so she doesn’t really trust herself to be around other people.  Because of this, she doesn’t really make any friends at school and is mainly known by her classmates as “the girl with the dead sister.” That is, until she unexpectedly becomes friends with Jack and Peekay, her first real friendships, and it suddenly becomes a lot harder to hide her true dark nature.  I loved the complexity of Alex’s character.  On the one hand, she’s a straight A student in line to be valedictorian of her class and she also volunteers at the local animal shelter and is super gentle with all of the animals that she cares for.  On the other hand, she’s a stone cold vigilante who will go after anyone she views as a predator.  (Read My Full Review…)

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9. UNDER ROSE-TAINTED SKIES by Louise Gornall

Why I Loved It: This is another book where a wonderfully drawn main character makes this a standout for me.  I really adored Norah.  She’s smart and funny, incredibly resourceful when it comes to coping with her illness, and she’s also much braver than she gives herself credit for being.  I found Norah so likeable that I immediately wanted to know more about her condition since agoraphobia is something that I know next to nothing about.  Being in Norah’s head as she struggles through each day made the story especially powerful and gave me a much clearer picture of the illness and how truly crippling it can be.  Norah’s frustration is palpable throughout, especially the fact that she is very much aware that most of her fears were irrational, but still can’t stop their paralyzing effects.  By allowing us access to Norah’s thoughts, Gornall paints an authentic and vivid portrait of agoraphobia and allows us to see beneath the surface of what is often considered an “invisible” illness.. (Read My Full Review…)

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10. STALKING JACK THE RIPPER by Kerri Maniscalco

Why I Loved It:  Two words…Audrey Rose.  Maniscalco does a wonderful job of fleshing out her main character, Audrey Rose Wadsworth and making her seem so realistic.  She’s fiercely independent, headstrong, and sassy as all get out, which makes her such a fun character to follow.  Even with the overriding creepy serial killer plot, Audrey Rose still managed to make me chuckle quite a few times throughout the novel.   You just never know what she is going to say at any given moment, but you can pretty much guarantee that it will be completely inappropriate based on society’s expectations.  Speaking of society’s expectations, Audrey Rose truly doesn’t give a flip about those and instead is way ahead of her time and wants to pursue a career in forensic medicine.   When the novel opens, she is, much to her father’s chagrin, working as an apprentice to her Uncle, who is an expert in the field. I kept thinking to myself “She’s like a Victorian Era Maura Isles” (from the popular series Rizzoli and Isles).  (Read My Review…)

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Question: What have been your favorite reads so far this year?

Book Review: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Review:  One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins ReidOne True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Also by this author: Daisy Jones & The Six, Carrie Soto Is Back
four-stars
Published by Washington Square Press on June 7th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Chick Lit
Pages: 327
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:  From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour and USA Today—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

 

MY REVIEW

A book with a love triangle I actually enjoyed?  As much as I usually rage against them, I totally did not see that one coming, but in One True Loves the main character Emma finds herself at the center of what I’d consider to be a pretty realistic love triangle.  When her husband and high school sweetheart, Jesse, is lost at sea in a helicopter crash, Emma is devastated.  His body is never found and after months and months of hoping he’ll return to her, Emma finally decides that she needs to face the fact that he’s gone and move on with her life.  She moves back home and starts working in her parents’ bookstore and runs into one of her good friends from high school, Sam.  Sam was in love with Emma in high school, and even after all these years, he still feels the same way so he asks her out.  They take things very slowly, because Sam really wants to make sure Emma has finished grieving for Jesse before they move forward as a couple.  Emma does fall in love with Sam and, over the next couple of years, starts to build a life with him.  They’re in the midst of planning their wedding when Emma gets an unexpected phone call – it turns out Jesse is still alive and is on his way home to her.

The rest of the novel follows Emma as she tries to figure out what to do.  Does she break Sam’s heart and go back to Jesse, who she always said was the love of her life?  Or does she break Jesse’s heart and tell him that she has moved on without him? 

LIKES

It’s truly an impossible situation to be in and what I enjoyed most about the book was how well Taylor Jenkins Reid captures all of the conflicting emotions that not only Emma is feeling, but also those of both Jesse and Sam.  Both men know how difficult this is for Emma, yet both of them are also completely devoted her to and want a future with her.  Sam even goes so far as to remove himself from the equation for a while to give Emma the space she needs to really think through what she wants.  If she’s going to choose Sam, Sam wants it to be because she truly chooses him, not because she would feel too guilty to dump him and go back to her husband.

I also liked the way Reid structures the novel.  We start out in the present with Emma getting the phone call letting her know Jesse is still alive, but then we go back in time to when they were all in high school and watch Sam and Emma meet and become good friends, and we also watch Emma and Jesse meet and fall in love.  As we work our way back toward the present and see each of these relationships develop over time, it becomes all the more gut wrenching to think about having to choose between these two men because they’re both so great and because both relationships are such healthy ones for Emma and she’s truly happy and deeply in love with each of them.

DISLIKES

The only thing I didn’t care for in One True Loves was that I thought the ending wrapped up a bit too quickly.  It was like once Emma made her choices, we hit fast forward and zoomed to the ending.  I was still happy with the ending; I just would have liked a little more.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Even with my issue about the ending feeling rushed, I still thought this was a wonderful read.  Being a married woman myself, I found it very easy to put myself in Emma’s shoes and wonder how I would handle being put in the same situation that she found herself in.  That allowed me to get so absorbed in the story that I devoured the book in a day.  That said, I’d highly recommend One True Loves as a great vacation or beach read.  It’s an engaging read that you won’t want to put down until you find out who Emma chooses.

 

RATING:  4 STARS

four-stars

About Taylor Jenkins Reid

TAYLOR JENKINS REID lives in Los Angeles and is the acclaimed author of One True Loves, Maybe in Another LifeAfter I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her most recent novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, came out June 13, 2017. Her novels have been named best books of summer by People, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, InStyle, PopSugar, BuzzFeed, Goodreads, and others.

In addition to her novels, Taylor’s essays have appeared in places such as the Los Angeles TimesThe Huffington Post, and Money Magazine.

Weekly Recap # 6: Week of 6/18-6/24

It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week.  Mine was interesting, mainly because my son was at his grandmother’s house all week and my husband was out of town for work, so I was home alone the entire week.  I thought for sure that meant I would get a ton of reading done, but somehow that didn’t happen. I finished The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, which I really enjoyed, and got a pretty good start on A Conjuring of Light, which is absolutely fantastic so far, but that was pretty much it.  I don’t even know where the rest of my week went, haha!  I did watch Moana on Netflix and finished Season 5 of Orange is the New Black, which I have very mixed feelings about.  Oh and I’ve been having issues with some people not being able to comment on my blog posts so I’ve been trying to resolve that.  It’s times like that when I wish I was a lot more computer savvy than I am.  I feel a little helpless right now waiting for someone else to help me.  A huge thanks though to those who have contacted me and let me know there was a problem.  Otherwise, I would have just assumed it was a light traffic week on the blog and been oblivious that there was a problem.

This week I’m hoping to finish A Conjuring of Light and then move on to a couple of ARCs that I need to review soon.  ACOL is over 600 pages long though so we’ll see how that goes.

Last week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic really got me thinking about how many series I’ve started but not yet completed, so my big goal for the summer is to finish up a couple of lingering series so that I can move on to the ones I’ve been meaning to read for ages.  Once I finish ACOL, which wraps up the Shades of Magic series, I plan to move on to A Court of Wings and Ruin to finish out that series, and then move on to The Illuminae Files.  Somewhere in there or maybe in August, I also need to finish up The Lunar Chronicles.  So yeah, probably ambitious goals for me but I feel pretty good about making them happen.

Well, that’s pretty much it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

 

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

    

UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

      
 

 

STACKING THE SHELVES

 

     

 

TOTALLY RANDOM

Book Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Book Review:  Six of Crows by Leigh BardugoSix of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo
Also by this author: Crooked Kingdom, Wonder Woman: Warbringer
four-half-stars
Series: Six of Crows #1
Published by Henry Holt and Company on September 29th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 462
Also in this series: Crooked Kingdom
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:  Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he’ll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:

Break into the notorious Ice Court (a military stronghold that has never been breached).  Retrieve a hostage (who could unleash magical havoc on the world).  Survive long enough to collect his reward (and spend it).

Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done – and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable – if they don’t kill each other first.

 

MY REVIEW

Six of Crows is one of those books that I could truly kick myself for waiting so long to read.  Now that I’ve finally finished reading it, all I keep thinking is what a fool I was to deprive myself of one of the most original and amazing fantasy stories I’ve ever read.  I feel like I’m not even going to begin to do this book justice, but hopefully, since I’m pretty sure I’m one of the last people on the planet to actually read it, you guys will all just nod your heads in agreement because you already know why Six of Crows is such a fabulous read.

For those unfamiliar with the basic storyline, Six of Crows follows Kaz Brekker, a teenage criminal mastermind, who has been offered an opportunity to achieve wealth beyond his wildest dreams.  How?  By completing what can probably best be described as Mission Impossible.  He has to break into the Ice Court, a heavy guarded military stronghold that has never successfully been broken into before. Once inside, his mission is to locate and smuggle out a scientist who is being held hostage there because he possesses knowledge on how to amplify and weaponize magic. Kaz knows enough about the dangers of the Ice Court to know that, without the right team, this heist is going to be nearly impossible, possibly even a suicide mission.  Lucky for Kaz though, he knows exactly who the right team is:  a deadly gang of young thugs, thieves, and runaways who are just desperate enough to agree to be part of this crazy mission.

 

LIKES

What I loved most about Six of Crows are the characters.  Leigh Bardugo has crafted some of the most fascinating and unique characters I’ve come across in YA fantasy.  I always enjoy stories that feature an anti-hero and with Kaz and his “Crows,” we have 6 anti-heroes! I love anti-heroes because they’re always such complex characters and these characters are no different. What each of the Crows have in common is that they have no family and they’ve each had to do some pretty awful things in the name of survival, including resorting to thievery and murder.  Through flashbacks that give us backstory on each of the characters, however, Bardugo manages to make this gang of thugs so sympathetic that you can’t help but fall in love with them. I also liked the angle that each character seemed to have their own, sometimes selfish motives, for wanting to be a part of Kaz’s mission and it added an element of suspense at times, as I wondered if someone would sabotage the mission to serve their own needs.

It’s hard to pick a favorite character because they’re all so badass, but Kaz is definitely near the top of my list.  As I’ve already mentioned, he’s a criminal mastermind. Even though he’s a teenager, his reputation precedes him and he is feared by many in Ketterdam, the city where the story takes place.  Kaz can be as greedy as he can be cruel, but he’s also so brilliant, brazen, and daring that you can’t help being drawn to him.  Kaz is also haunted by events from his past that left him alone and destitute, and he’s highly motivated by the desire for revenge against the man he holds responsible for what happened.

In addition to Kaz, there are also two badass female characters, Inej and Nina.  Inej, known as the wraith, has a reputation for being somewhat of a ninja.  Kaz calls her his spider because she can climb her way pretty much anywhere and can do so undetected, a very handy skill in their line of “work.” She’s also very skilled with knives and is perhaps the most murderous member of Kaz’s team. I just loved watching her in action as she cut down anyone who posed a threat to the team.  What made Inej especially fascinating to me was the connection between her and Kaz.  As much as Kaz tries to be all business, all the time and never show any emotion or weakness, it’s clear that he has a soft spot when it comes to Inej and her safety.  It’s also pretty clear that there’s a good chance the feeling is mutual.

Nina is what is known as a Grisha, which means she possesses magical abilities.  For the purposes of Kaz’s mission, Nina can use that magic to do useful things like slow people’s heartrates down until they lose consciousness.  She can also use her powers for healing purposes, also handy when you’re on a super-dangerous mission. As we learn from her backstory, Nina’s people have been persecuted for years because of their magic — imprisoned, tortured, and even burned at the stake.  Because the Grisha are the ones whose magic would be weaponized, Nina has personal reasons for wanting to take part in this mission.

Matthias is one of the characters that intrigued me the most.  At first, I couldn’t stand him, but the more I got to know about him, the more I just grew to adore him.  Kaz recruits him by breaking him out of jail and offering him a pardon for his crimes in exchange for his help with the mission.  Kaz sees Matthias as one of the biggest assets to the team because he used to work in the Ice Castle and can therefore give them the overall layout of the place, how the security works, etc.  Matthias is torn because he knows he should be loyal to the Ice Castle, but at the same time, how can you turn down a chance to be pardoned so that you can get your life back?  What makes the whole situation even more complicated is that he and Nina have shared history and he holds her responsible for his imprisonment.  Tension, much?  I swear I was convinced those two were going to kill each other for about half the book!  Beneath all that hate they seemed to have for each other though, you could sense there was something more, an almost smoldering attraction for one another.  Let me tell you – I’m not usually big on romance, but I was shipping the heck out of Nina and Matthias!

Jesper and Wylan.  While these two guys were clearly assets to the team as well with their knowledge of weapons and explosives, respectively, what I loved most about Jesper and Wylan was that they provided a bit of comic relief where the other characters were so intense all the time.  Jesper and Wylan teased each other relentlessly and their banter was just hilarious at times.

* * * * *

The world building in Six of Crows is also top notch.  Bardugo paints a vivid picture of Ketterdam with its rival street gangs swarming around duking it out for power.  It’s a dark and gritty world, as well as a dangerous one, filled with assorted thieves, predators, and traitors.  It’s hard to know who, if anyone, can be trusted.  The atmosphere definitely creates a sensation that all of the characters are vulnerable to attack by anyone anywhere so they have to be in survival mode at all times.

The Grisha magic system is also well thought out and vividly drawn. I went into Six of Crows without having read the Grisha series, which was probably a mistake as I’m sure it would have further enriched my understanding of the Grisha magic and their history, but even without having read it, I still felt like I completely understood the magic and why it would be such a valuable weapon if it could be amplified and harnessed. Imagine practically indestructible armies of Grisha fighting on your behalf.  You’d be unstoppable.

Action, Action, Action!  As I’m sure you can imagine just based on the details of their mission, Six of Crows is truly action-packed.  There are endless twists and turns, obstacles that need to be overcome, enemies that need to be taken out, plans that fall apart and then need to be improvised.  Although the novel starts out at a fairly slow pace as we are meeting each character and establishing the world of Ketterdam, once Kaz and his gang get started on their missions, it’s like jumping on a thrill ride that doesn’t stop until the final page.

 

DISLIKES

I can’t really say this is a dislike of the book, but it did take me about a hundred pages or so to really become invested in the characters and get sucked into the story.  Again, I’m chalking up my slow start to needing extra time to understand the Grisha magic and how it worked because I didn’t read the Grisha trilogy first.  Once I did get sucked in, however, there was no stopping me.  It probably took me 3 or 4 days to get to page 100, but then I inhaled the last 300 or so pages in another day and a half.  I guess my advice would if you are struggling to get into it, stick with it until they actually get started with the planning of their mission.  It might be a slow build in the beginning, but it’s a wild ride from that point to the very end.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

I truly loved pretty much everything about Six of Crows, hence why I’m kicking myself for having waited so long to read it.  Up until now, Victoria Schwab’s Shades of Magic series has been, hands down, my favorite YA fantasy series.  I have to say though, Six of Crows is seriously giving it a run for its money.

 

RATING:  4.5 STARS

four-half-stars

About Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the Six of Crows Duology and the Grisha Trilogy (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising), as well as the upcoming Wonder Woman: Warbringer (Aug 2017) and The Language of Thorns (Sept 2017).

She was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, and graduated from Yale University. These days, she lives and writes in Hollywood where she can occasionally be heard singing with her band.

She would be delighted if you followed her on Twitter, elated if you visited her web site, and fairly giddy if you liked her selfies on Instagram.

Waiting on / Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on The Readymade Thief

New WoW

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  This week I’ll also be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa.

My selection for this week is The Readymade Thief by Augustus Rose.  I have to admit up front that it’s Colson Whitehead’s advance praise of this book that really makes me want to read this book.  Whitehead says “In his highly addictive and multi-faceted first novel, Augustus Rose pits an irrepressible and gritty young heroine against a sinister group of fanatics. The Readymade Thief is a kickass debut from start to finish.”   An irrepressible and gritty young heroine versus a sinister group of fanatics?  Ummm, yes please! How badass does that sound?!

It sounds like a read that is guaranteed to be a wild and suspenseful ride from start to finish and I also like that it’s advertised as being great for fans of Ernest Cline since I really loved Ready Player One.

THE READYMADE THIEF by Augustus Rose

Publication Date:  August 1, 2017

 

From Amazon:  “A debut novel that’s unexpected, uncategorizable, unputdownable.” –Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

An addictive literary puzzle that introduces an unforgettable young heroine plunged into the twisted world of a secret society with a dark agenda.

Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run, alone on the streets of Philadelphia.

Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all.

Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her—and why.

A novel of puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, urban exploration, art history, and a singular, indomitable heroine, The Readymade Thief heralds the arrival of a spellbinding and original new talent in fiction for fans of Marisha Pessl and Ernest Cline.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE READYMADE THIEF

 “In his highly addictive and multi-faceted first novel, Augustus Rose pits an irrepressible and gritty young heroine against a sinister group of fanatics. The Readymade Thief is a kickass debut from start to finish.”  —Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad

The Readymade Thief is my favorite kind of book: an improbable one. The novel is a map of things—urban exploration, secret societies, the city of Philadelphia, Marcel Duchamp, very possibly the Home Alone movies—and if those things don’t seem to fit together, well, that’s the magic of the improbable book, and the transmutation of obsessions, by energy and intellect, into something wholly new: a novel that’s unexpected, uncategorizable, unputdownable.”  —Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

The Readymade Thief is a brilliant, suspenseful, and cinematic novel with an unforgettable heroine and a big story about art, the nature of consciousness, and all points in between. Be prepared to lose yourself in it.”  —Edan Lepucki, author of California and Woman No. 17

“I fell more than a little bit in love not just with Lee—the gutsy protagonist of Augustus Rose’s gorgeous debut novel, The Readymade Thief—but with the book itself. It’s a hypnotizing amalgamation of love story and mystery. I am in awe.”  —Hannah Pittard, author of Listen to Me

“In The Readymade Thief, Augustus Rose shows that he has one of the steadiest hands in fiction. How else to explain how effortlessly he complicates and expands the mystery at the heart of the novel, adding Marcel Duchamp, the Darknet, Urban Exploration, and a unified field theory along the way to such amazing effect. Each time I thought I had found my way to solid ground, another level opened up, and I eagerly tunneled deeper. Rose has crafted something memorable, crackling with energy, a truly wonderful tale.”  —Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang

“A rewarding novel full of pleasures and surprises. Every time I thought I knew where the story was going, it took me somewhere stranger and deeper than I could have imagined. A rich, heady mix of ideas and thrills.”  —Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your WoW selection for this week. 🙂

Top 10 Series I’ve Been Meaning to Start But Haven’t Yet

top ten tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top 10 Series I’ve Been Meaning to Read But Haven’t Yet.  I don’t know about you guys but this week’s topic hits home for me.  Series are my biggest weakness when it comes to reading.  I love, love, love reading them, but OMG, it just takes me so long to actually make it through a series.  While the list below represents series that I’m dying to start reading, I have a list probably twice as long of series that I’ve started but haven’t finished yet.  I think when I look for reading challenges next year, I’m seriously going to look for one that focuses on series to give me the push I need to wrap up some of the ones I’ve been working on for ages. But anyway, below are the series I’m hoping to get to as I finally finish up some of the ones I’m currently reading.

 

Top 10 Series I’ve Been Meaning to Read But Haven’t Yet

 

1. VICTORIA SCHWAB – MONSTERS OF VERITY 

 

     
 

* * * * *

2. JAY KRISTOFF – THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE 

 

     
 

* * * * *

3. JESSICA CLUESS – KINGDOM ON FIRE

 

    
 

* * * * *

4. SABAA TAHIR – AN EMBER IN THE ASHES

 

     
 

* * * * *

5. AMIE KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF – THE ILLUMINAE FILES

 

   
 

* * * * *

6. MARIE LU – THE YOUNG ELITES

 

   
 

* * * * *

 7. RENEE AHDIEH – THE WRATH AND THE DAWN

 

     
 

* * * * *

8. MAGGIE STIEFVATER – THE RAVEN CYCLE

 

      
 

* * * * *

9. KIERSTEN WHITE – THE CONQUERER’S SAGA

 

     
 

* * * * *

10. EVELYN SKYE – THE CROWN’S GAME

 

     
 

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Question:  What series have you been intending to read but haven’t quite gotten around to them yet?  Do we share any series?  If so, maybe we could do a buddy read!

Book Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Book Review:  The Upside of Unrequited by Becky AlbertalliThe Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Also by this author: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Leah on the Offbeat
four-half-stars
on April 11th, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 336
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:  Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

 

MY REVIEW

To be perfectly honest, I went into The Upside of Unrequited assuming that there was no way it could possibly be as great as Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.  I’m thrilled to report that I was dead wrong in my thinking and that Becky Albertalli has done it again.  The Upside of Unrequited is every bit as cute, funny, heartwarming, and relatable as Simon and destined to end up one of my favorite reads of 2017.

The Upside of Unrequited centers on 17-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso.  Molly is many things – she’s smart, has a hilarious sense of humor, is super crafty and obsessed with Pinterest, and she’s a twin.  In addition to being all this, Molly is also a hopeless romantic who is infamous within her circle of friends for having had 26 (and counting!) crushes in her life.  The catch with Molly and her crushes is that all of them are unrequited – Molly has never once put herself out there and tried to act on any of them.  She has a major fear of being rejected and somehow ending up the punchline of a joke because she’s overweight and is uncertain as to whether anyone would ever seriously be attracted to her.  In her mind, it’s safer to not even try to find out.  That’s the upside to those unrequited crushes — if you don’t put yourself out there, you can’t be rejected:

“There’s a reason I’ve had twenty-six crushes and no boyfriends. I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances. It’s almost unfathomable that it happens as often as it does.”

There’s also, however, as Molly has learned, a downside.  You’re left alone on the sidelines while all of your friends, and even your twin sister, are flirting and falling in love.  It feels like everyone is leaving you behind?  The big question of this book:  will Molly stay on the sidelines in the safe zone where she never has to worry about being rejected or will she take a chance in the hopes of finding that special someone who is more than just crush number 27?

 

LIKES

Molly.  I really loved Molly. In addition to being smart and funny, Molly also has anxiety issues and I found the inner monologue running through her head to be so relatable throughout the book.  I just loved the way Albertalli wrote Molly’s voice and could empathize with all of Molly’s insecurities.  If you’ve ever experienced anxiety or felt the fear of rejection, it’s easy to understand where Molly is coming from and why she’s so hesitant to put herself out there.  I also loved that even though Molly is somewhat overweight, she still has a great sense of style and a healthy self image. She isn’t trying to starve herself to make herself more appealing to anyone.  Molly is who she is and makes no apologies for it.  When a boy at a party tells her she’s “gorgeous for a big girl,” Molly’s very candid response is “F*** you.”

I also liked all of the nicknames that Molly gives to the boys she is potentially crushing on.  When Molly’s sister Cassie falls for a girl named Mina, Molly develops a crush on one of Mina’s friends and dubs him ‘Hipster Will.’  Then when she scores a job at a local shop, she meets Lord of the Rings fan, Reid, and dubs him ‘Middle Earth Reid.’  The story takes an especially interesting turn when Molly meets these boys because with each one, there appears to be the potential for more than becoming crush numbers 27 and 28. These two boys both seem genuinely interested in Molly.  Hipster Will would be great in the sense that she could continue to hang out with her sister, who seems to have ditched her to hang with Mina.  But could it be Middle Earth Reid that brings her out of her shell instead?  I have to admit to having a soft spot for Middle Earth Reid.  He’s got that “adorkable” vibe going on and I thought his obsession with Cadbury mini eggs was just too cute for words. It immediately made me think of Simon and his Oreo obsession.

Speaking of Simon?! I thought it was just so cool that Albertalli was able to work in a cameo appearance from Simon and some of the other characters from Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.  Best surprise appearance ever!

Sisterhood. One of my favorite parts of this book is the relationship between Molly and her twin sister, Cassie. Albertalli does a beautiful job of realistically depicting all of the nuances of the bond between siblings.  Molly and Cassie each know exactly what buttons to push if they are fighting and want to hurt each other, but they also always have each other’s back if anyone else tries to hurt them in any way.  I liked that one of the major themes running through the story was how sibling relationships change over time.  No matter how close you are as children, you’re going to grow up, move away, and probably start families of your own.  When Cassie meets Mina, her first serious girlfriend, and starts spending almost all of her time with her, it really makes Molly start to think about what it’s going to be like when she and Cassie grow up and start to draft apart.

Diversity.  There is so much diversity in this book.  Molly and Cassie have two mothers, one is white and the other is African American. Molly and her family, as well as Middle Earth Reid and his family, are all Jewish, while Mina’s family is Korean. The sexuality represented in the book is richly diverse as well. There were straight characters as well as gay characters, and Mina considers herself to be pansexual.  The diversity itself was fantastic, but what made it even better was how naturally it was all written in. It didn’t feel like Albertalli was just shoving as much diversity in as she possibly could, for diversity’s sake.  All of the characters and relationships felt realistic and authentic.

 

DISLIKES

I can’t think of a single thing that I disliked about this book aside from the fact that it’s over and I want more.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re looking for a book about relationships, being brave enough to take chances, and following your heart, I’d highly recommend The Upside of Unrequited.  It’s just a sweet and warm-hearted book filled with positive message about what it means to grow up and find love.

 

RATING:  4.5 STARS

four-half-stars

About Becky Albertalli

Becky Albertalli is a clinical psychologist who has had the privilege of conducting therapy with dozens of smart, weird, irresistible teenagers. She also served for seven years as co-leader of a support group for gender nonconforming children in Washington, DC. These days, she lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons, and writes very nerdy contemporary young adult fiction. Her debut novel, SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA, released from Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins on April 7th, 2015.

Weekly Recap # 5: Week of 6/11-6/17

It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

First, let me take a minute to wish all of the Dads out there, mine included, a very Happy Father’s Day!  I took my dad out to lunch yesterday to celebrate and we had a lovely time.  Today I’ll be celebrating with my husband, son, and Father-in-Law so it has been a full weekend of Father’s Day festivities.

Off the blog, this week was all about my son.  This week he finished up the fourth grade so we were busy with awards ceremonies and other end-of-year activities.  He finished the year with straight A’s so that was definitely a proud mom moment for me.  I took him to the library yesterday to pick up a few books for summer reading. Right now he’s really into the Henry Huggins series from Beverly Cleary, which were some of my favorites growing up so it’s fun to watch him enjoy the same series I did.

Let’s see, on the blog I had a pretty good week, although I came down with a head cold on Thursday and so have had such a case of medicine head since then that I haven’t read much.  I did start The Inexplicable Logic of My Life and it’s fabulous. Great pick for Father’s Day weekend because it features a wonderful father/son relationship between the main character and his adoptive Dad.  As you’ll see from my Stacking The Shelves section below, I also had several books on reserve at the library that became available this week so I need to get moving on those and I also got approved for a couple more ARCS so I have plenty of books to keep me busy for a while. 🙂

That’s it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

 

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

 

UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

   

 

STACKING THE SHELVES

 

     

   

 

TOTALLY RANDOM