2020’s First Book Read

This is the first book I read in 2020, beginning it on New Year’s Day.  I chose it because one goal I have for 2020 is to deplete my TBR shelves. Sanchez’s novel has been sitting on a TBR shelf since it was chosen as the “required read” of all freshmen at UHCL, where I teach, a year or so ago. It is both humorous and heart-warming, plus according to students who read it, authentic.

Julia, the younger sister can not live up to her parents’ expeditions for her to be like Olga, her perfect older sister. When the novel opens, Olga has been killed in a horrible accident, and the family is unraveling in the wake of the tragedy.  Lorena, Julia’s best friend does her best to bring Olga out of her grief and anger at her parents’ demands, but Julia sinks lower and lower into depression and begins to find out mysterious things about Olga’s life. Maybe Olga was not so perfect after all. Maybe Julia will never achieve her dream of gong to college and becoming a writer. The Latino culture and the family’s issues and relationships provide good reading for anyone interested in an engaging story.

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ALPHABET SOUP CHALLENGE,AUTHOR VERSON

After doing the Alphabet Soup, (Title Edition) Challenge during 2019, it s just too tempting to follow with the author version in 2020. So, Dollycas, count me in!

My first read of the new year/new decade was a book whose author’s name  started with an “S,” Sanchez, but that was before I started this challenge. I will be reviewing  Daughter on PWR soon.

My first read of the 2020 Alphabet Soup Author’s Edition is Lara Avery’s YA novel, The Memory Book. Sammie Mc Coy has Niemann-Pick Type C disease, and she is trying to  record her memories before they leave her as she dies. Two love interests are present: Cooper, her neighbor who has “gone wrong” and is no longer a friend at the opening of the novel and Stuart, the dreamboat every girl wants, but for some reason is interested in Sammie.

The novel is Sammie’s journal directed at her future self “so she will never forget the most important parts of her life.” This story definitely appeals to John Green fans, including this blogger.