Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was expecting this book to be great since everyone and their mother has read it at some point in their life and has high praise for it. When I told a friend (who'd obviously read and enjoyed it during her childhood) I'd finished it and found it disappointing, she gasped with shock! I guess I'm spoiled by the 'Ramona Quimby' series and the fact that Bev Cleary really knows how to write the way children think. I found this book so-so and main character 'Peter Hatcher' to be a bit whiney and unlikeable.

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Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single by Heather McElhatton

Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Single by Heather McElhatton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!***
This book was hilarious and had me guffawing and reading excerpts aloud. It was as if my funniest girlfriends teamed up and wrote it. I would have given this book 4 stars had it not been for the super crappy ending. The HUGE downer of this book is that she completely gives up who she is to be with "Prince Charming". It was so hard for me to believe she'd go through with the wedding after her fiance comes home from his bachelor party after being arrested with a prostitute. Which she is told by his overbearing and ridiculous mother-in-law as being "part of the sacrifice" she'll have to make to marry a man who will "someday be powerful". When her funny co-worker Ted professes his love for her and rattles off a list of the things he loves about her - the things that really make her who she is, she still goes through with the wedding to the magnificent turd that is her fiancee. I couldn't believe it! I was sure she'd wake up, the ceremony having been a nightmare, and she'd call it off! I am truly hoping there will be a sequel in which she reclaims herself, realizes that she is a wonderful person AS SHE IS and doesn't need to stop visiting the Cinnabon counter or collecting oddball plastic toys via eBay.

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Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel by Heather McElhatton

Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel by Heather McElhatton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was fun! I kept starting over and making different decisions in the hopes of avoiding calamity but only succeeded to evade death and doom twice. It was very humorous, though! Definitely a good conversation book and one I'd loan to anyone so long as they promised to tell me what their final fate was! It's like 'Oregon Trail' in book form; sometimes no matter how copious your rations or how skilled you think you are at fording rivers, somebody bites the dust from scurvy.

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Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
What started off as a promising novel with an interesting main character and excellent use of adjectives quickly veered off the tracks into Depressionland. I felt more and more dispassionate about the story and characters as the book progressed until I began to strongly dislike both. The father is so wrapped up in his own intellectual pursuits that he fails to notice anything falling outside of his scope of interests, most pointedly the fact that his behaviors and actions have completely alienated his children and his wife. Calling Mrs. Naumann a "mother" would be tantamount to calling David Letterman a gold medal-winning figure skater. She's not built for it. Her introspection and complete disinterest in her family is amazing. By the time the book reaches it's mid-way point, I didn't really care what happened to either parent. My first thoughts upon completion were of how grateful I was it was over and how the next book I read needs to be an upbeat one to wash away this one's residual gloom.

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