Traveller's History of Oxford

A Traveller's History of Oxford by Richard Tames, 298 pages

There are a number of great universities in the world - at least two in England alone - but Oxford has a mystique all its own.  A great deal of this derives, of course, from its nine centuries of accumulated history, the people who studied and taught there and the traditions they fostered or defied.  This is the focus of A Traveller's History of Oxford, an introduction to both the university and the city presented as a journey through time a well as space.

The author, Richard Tames, is a proud graduate of the other university, which gives him an outsider's objectivity.  Unfortunately, while his snarky tone is amusing for a time, it sours and becomes tiresome long before the end.  This is aggravated by inconsistencies and basic errors - claiming, for example, that the putative author of The Screwtape Letters is Satan himself instead of Uncle Screwtape, or implying that Latin was a language unknown beyond the clergy before referring to it as "universally accessible" a few pages later.  Still, for those looking for an unconventional guidebook that focuses on the development of the place rather than whatever tourist spots happen to be hot at the moment, this book may be indispensable.

Am I Normal Yet?

Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne     434 pages

All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…

But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?

Wow, this book was a roller coaster of emotions to read. Evelyn, or Evie, is just starting to lower her medication to combat her OCD symptoms. Wanting to experience a "normal" teenage life, she begins to make new friends and perhaps experience real romance for the first time. Except her symptoms start creeping back - only this time, Evie's not willing to admit they're back, afraid that she'll disappoint her family, that her new friends will find out and not want to be around her to deal with mental issues, that she will be "mental" for the rest of her life. Bourne did such a good job conveying the struggles someone might go through with this mental illness, drawing out the problems in our society with stigmas about mental illness, society's casual use of mental illness buzzwords, like "OCD" or "crazy," without realizing how much such casual use of these words might hurt those with actual illnesses. With the character of Evelyn, Bourne is able to bring a light to this issue while still constructing a teenage character with real teenage problems that traditional YA books attempt to highlight. Evie gets crushes, she has family problems, she worries about what her friends might think, all issues tackled in many YA novels. While highlighting mental illness, Bourne does not let it define Evie's character, still showing her in the same light as any other YA-driven novel. This story was so compelling - I felt things very deeply while reading Evie's character, and I especially enjoyed how feminism became a rallying cry for her and her friends, who start their own "spinster" club, to take back the word spinster and perhaps bring about a new, enlightened way of living in a world full of benevolent as well as blatant sexism. While the type of feminism discussed isn't as intersectional as I'm sure some would like, it is still an important component that most YA books do not even attempt to touch, so I applaud Bourne for bringing the topic of feminism, as how teen girls experience it, in this book. The narration was so witty and the cast of characters all felt well rounded and real. I am so happy I finally got a chance to read this book and I will definitely be recommending it to everyone.

Emergency Contact

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi     391 pages

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn't actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it's seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can't wait to leave behind.

Sam's stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he's a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it's less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch--via text--and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

This was a really fun read! I enjoyed the premise of the two main characters forming a relationship over the concept of being eachother's "emergency contact." Their text conversations are funny, relatable, and cute and it made this romance a very contemporary, unique one. 

I will say that this book will become dated very quickly because of how niche the lingo can be at times. There are references to YouTube, Instagram, emojiis, and iphones galore. This story is very grounded in the early 21st century, not just with the technology, but also the slang and the references to apps. However, I still find it an enjoyable read. Only time will tell how the content holds up for the future.

I think both Penny and Sam are well written characters - they are unique in their observations and very human in their reactions. I'm glad the author was able to give them distinct voices, despite how similar they were in many ways. All the side characters were interesting and brought some lightness to the angst of the main characters - I would loved to have seen more of Jude and Mallory, but I understand that the focus was not on college-life, per say, and more on the intimate workings of Penny's and Sam's thoughts and feelings and how they processed the world.

Overall, I'd recommend it to those who are looking for a slightly less "juvenile" YA - and by that, I mean, the young adult period of college/almost adulthood, rather than high school drama. Sam is 21, so we're dealing with a more mature young adult (if you can call him mature), with more adult problems. This would be a great read for teens transitioning from reading YA to Adult Fiction. I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for a cute, young romance book.

We Are Okay

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour     234 pages

Over the winter holidays, college freshman Marin opts to remain in an empty dorm in New York rather than go home to California. The reasons she decides to stay gently unfold one layer at a time, in an introspective novel that powerfully explores her solitude and conflicted emotions against the backdrop of a stormy, icy winter.

This book is very much an homage to a grandfather. It's about loss, and love (many different kinds), and patchwork families. Though it's a YA book, I read it as an adult and still felt a kinship with it. I think I would only recommend this book to teens that enjoy more literary type reads - it's not a plot-driven piece, it's much more a study of grief. 

ghosts of el grullo

ghosts of el grullo by Patricia Santana   296 pages

ghosts of el grullo  is the follow-up to Patricia Santana’s debut novel, motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility, which was selected as one of the best fiction books for young adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.

The time is now 1973. Many things have changed for the Sahagun family. Carolina has married her boyfriend Tom, Ana Maria is still secretly dating Tony, Antonio is married, and Octavio has chosen bachelorhood and lives in a trailer park a few doors down from Chuy. Chuy remains haunted by his tout in Vietnam back in 1969. The narrator, Yolanda (or Yoli for short) is still best friends with Lydia. But now Yoli has been accepted at the University of California---San Diego and is preparing to go live in a dorm.

When Mama dies from cancer and Papa decides to sell the house, Yoli struggles between wanting to keep the family together (she, Ana Maria, Monica and Luz are still living in the family home) and wanting to cut all the ties and live life on her terms. In an effort to understand her mother now that she is gone, Yoli goes to visit her aunts, her mother’s sisters, in El Grullo, Mexico. There she encounters the ghosts of past and present. She learns what her parents were like before they married: Mama an upper-class senorita who fell for her poor Papa.

I struggled to find Yoli’s voice in this second novel. There were times when I could hear the voice and that kept me reading. I had trouble trying to care about what happened in El Grullo; I was much more interested in what was happening in the San Diego suburb of Palm City where the Sahagun home was located.

I Googled Patricia Santana to learn if she had written any more follow-ups or other stand-along novels. I was disappointed to find her website only this book and  motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility. I think she is a wonderful writer.

As much as wanted to love ghosts of el grullo as much as I loved motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility the first time I read it, I found myself just not caring about Yoli’s search for her past, present, or future.  That’s why ghosts of el grullo, receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.