Sushi For Beginners

Marian Keyes always write good books with good plots with interesting and loveable characters. It revolves around the lives of three different women in Dublin. There's Ashling Kennedy, nicknamed "Little Miss Fix It" by Jack Devine. She is very practical and is always ready to help colleagues from simple stuffs as bandages to hairsprays. Lisa Edwards, Ashling's bitter boss who felt she was demoted after being transferred to Dublin to launch a brand new magazine from her previous glitzy London editor job. And there's Clodagh Kelly, a beautiful working woman married to a handsome, successful man with two equally beautiful babies but can't seem to be satisfied with her husband and seems to be having the urge to kiss a frog!

Sushi for Beginners is a wonderful chicklit about the search for happiness and the continuous search for it. Unlike Keyes previous novels, this one does not tackle alcoholism, drug abuse or violence because this is more of a family roots examination and its impact to the working women's lives. As usual, Marian Keyes delivers a funny, poignant tale that might be predictable at times but a satisfying read at the very end.

The Truth About Forever

Often, our lives are mapped out way ahead with all the plans and dreams we have intricately written. Then something comes between it that we are force to rethink our plans. Macy Queen was supposed to spend all of her summer working at the library while her boyfriend is away in some Brain Camp. On her free time, she will study for her SATs or thinking about the recent death of her father, which she personally witnessed. She might look so composed and everything with all the stuffs that happening in her life but deep inside, she is actually drowning.

All of this have changed though when she met the Delia who runs a catering service named Wish Catering after her late sister who died of cancer. She runs the business with her nephews Bert and Wes with Kristy and Monica. They are everything that Macy isn't. They live for the moment, fun albeit chaotic most time and endearing. Macy ditched her summer job in the library and is soon spending all her time with the Wish crew. Plus the romance between Macy and artistic Wes is interesting. Go ahead and find out why when you read Sarah Dessen's enjoyable book.

Stargirl

I read this book a long time ago that I don't really remember much what it's about. So recently, while I was on a vacation, I collected all the books I wanted to read (and reread) every book that I've ignored and books that I've missed over the years. And so Stargirl has come back to life. She is not your average 16-year-old for she possessed a mysterious, almost magical personality. She is not one to conform in the popular crowds, in fact with everything. Who brings their pet rat and ukelele in school everyday, dresses in long prairie skirts, decorates her desk with flowers and cheers on the other team during school games.

At first the studen in Mica High were in awe with her, she's different, eccentric and egoless. Her classmates doesn't know whether to love her for her guts or hate her for having the gall to break the school rules. She caught Leo Borlock's attention upon her arrival, the narrator of the book. It's a book about conformity, acceptance, free-spirits, friendship, love and diversity. When someone is different from us, we tend to outcast them and make them feel so left out just because they have a totally different outook in life and does not go with the flow. It's a book that can be read and enjoyed both by young and the old!

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

The first book among the series about a 14-year-old Georgia Nicolson who is so much like a younger version of Bridget Jones. She thinks that most things in her life are very wrong. Like a bedroom that smells a little because of her little sister who tends to leave wet nappies at the foot of her bed, her cat Angus causes terror to neighboring animal pets, parents who embarrassed her and friends that think she is an alien after having accidentally shaved her eyebrows!

Despite all this, and trying to survive an all-girls school everyday, life is pretty much normal for Georgia who has great interest in boys: meeting them, attracting them and likely snogging with them! This book is so funny I really had a great time reading it and learning some British expressions along the way. It's enough to make anyone laugh, even the "most pofaced bloke" (sad looking guy). I couldn't agree more. Share it with friends and you'll never regret it.

Louise Renisson Is Georgia Nicolson

In a way. At least that's what she admitted in most of her interviews. Louise Renisson is the award-winning and bestselling British author of Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series that has been the craze ever since it came out. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging is the first among the series followed a lot more books that is insanely hilarious and addicting to read. There is every bit of Louise in Georgia so imagine the odd yet funny things she have done when she was still in school.

She grew up in Leeds but at the age of 15 her family have migrated to New Zealand. She was a journalist before she became an author. She is also a major contributor of comedy scripts and has a one-woman live show, "Stevie Wonder Felt My Face" that ran in the 1990s. Currently she is residing in Brighton which she often describes as "The San Francisco of England" (minus the Golden Gate bridge and earthquakes though). Go ahead to your favorite bookstores and read for yourself why Louise Renisson is such a beloved author worldwide.

Rules

Rules is a very relevant and and interesting book that tackles about autism. It's about 12-year-old Catherine's life who loves art so much, longs for a friend but often times baby-sit his autistic brother, David. See, the problem with making friends for Catherine is mainly because of her brother. She is having a hard time fitting in with her classmates because of David's behavior. So she made this make-up rules to help get through life. Things that Catherine believed other people must figure out for themselves.

Simple things such as learning to knock on the bathroom door especially if Catherine has friends over, learning to keep his pants on and leaving toys on the aquarium. When a neighbor and prospective friend moved in next door, Catherine is hopeful that they will become good friends. But she was embarassed to talk about David. It's a good book that tackles the often sensitive issue of autism and other handicapped people but Cynthia Lord made an awesome and sensitive story about it that is just right.

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf

It was the title that first caught my attention. It was pretty catchy right? I'm far from being a middle school student but I only have great and not so great memories from my own experiences. When I opened it, I was surprised. It wasn't like any other ordinary books because instead of regular texts, the story is told through to-do lists, notes, instant messages and report cards! I think I'm gong to love Jennifer Holm more starting from now. She captured the very essence of middle school life.

The main character of the story is Ginny Davis who thinks that the worst thing she will face in middle school is the school meatloaf. Yes. As simple as that. Upon further reading I learned more about her and her family through IMs. I found out she likes ballet and hopes that her mother remarry, her older brother is described as a mess, making his family's life more miserable. This is really a wonderful book that should be read by every middle school student and those who've been through it. They will certainly relate to Ginny's experiences at one point.