RTW: Best Book of August
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's
contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question to write
about on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination
and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
This week's topic: Best Book of August
I will not continue my lament that summer is over. I will not continue my lament that summer is over. I will not continue my lament....
 |
| August Books |
I read some great books in August.
Look at the treasure I found in the library's copy of THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER:
This is why I'm a writer. If I can move one person, compel one reader to mark passages in blue crayon in a book that does not belong to them -- words that have made an impact, words they need at that exact moment -- then I will have succeeded.
My favorite quote: "I would give someone a record so they could love the record, not so they would always know that I gave it to them."
As much as I loved THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and am looking forward to the movie next month, it wasn't the Best Book of August for me.
That honor goes to THE SUMMER OF NO REGRETS by Katherine Grace Bond.
From Goodreads:
This was the summer that would change my life.
No more being what everyone expected. No more doing what everyone else wanted.
So when Luke came into my life, I decided to keep him a secret. Maybe he was a dead-ringer for notorious Hollywood bad boy Trent Yves. And it was possible that everything he told me was a lie. And yes, I was probably asking for trouble. But all I saw was Luke--sweet, funny, caring--someone who would let me be the real me.
But which was the real him?Oh, this book. Where to begin?
The cover. I will start with the cover. It's a bit deceiving. Yes, there is a summer romance, a good one, but this book is so much more than that.
Brigitta spends her summer searching -- for the truth, for the Truth (the universal one), for understanding, for a way to grieve, for her place in the world. The net of her search captures the ordinary and the extraordinary, baby cougars, a shaman (her father), a boy who may or may not be a famous teen heartthrob, a secret blog, a friendship on the rocks, and a road trip home.
It's a lovely book, serious yet with just the right amount of lightness. At many points, I was on the verge of tears. Brigitta's story spoke to me, grabbed me at the heart of the seventeen-year-old girl I once was, the one full of questions and theories, lighting candles and burning incense and wondering about the world outside herself.
I've read several reviews from readers who had different expectations for this book based on the cover and the blurb and were disappointed. I strive to read books without expectations, although sometimes the hype of a book precedes it. But when I do, when I approach a book with an open mind and an open heart, sometimes I find a most amazing gift.
THE SUMMER OF NO REGRETS is one of those gifts.
What was August's Best Book for you?