Smile For The Camera: A Memoir Review

Smile for the Camera: A Memoir by Kelle James

Title: Smile for the Camera: A Memoir

Author: Kelle James

Series: None

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: November 2, 2010

Genre: Nonfiction; Memoir; Young Adult

Pages: 392

Format: Hardback
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Kelle James left an abusive home at the age of sixteen and went to the best place she could imagine: New York City. She had big plans of becoming a model, but within a week she was homeless and broke. What follows is her exceptional story of trying to make it on her own with nothing to her name and no one to trust. She encounters a string of people who take advantage of her youth and beauty, endures many disappointments and rejections, and has a surprising connection to an infamous murder trial. This sparse narrative of a girl who loses herself before finding her way is not only utterly compelling; it’s entirely true.

I made a pact with myself that I would pick up at least one nonfiction book from the library every time I went. This was my pick.

I don’t usually read nonfiction, and to be honest what avid young-adult reader does? I always convince myself that fiction is better, but the truth is that sometimes a real life story is more priceless than a thousand made up ones. I learn something every time I read a nonfiction book. For example, I learned that it would probably not be the wisest decision to move to New York and try to become a model. Not necessarily the most sound plan in life. But hey, it worked for Kelle James. As hard as it was for her.

This novel was gritty in every sense of the word. It is a classic story about girls against the world. Kelle James is running from a hard past life when she goes to New York with a dream of becoming a successful model. She and her best friend Rayna try to conquer the concrete jungle all the while trying to escape the exploitations it brings.

I don’t love this novel. I don’t even dislike it. It’s one of those books that I know I won’t forget anytime soon, but not because I loved it or hated it. It was inspiring how, even though she went through things I could never dream of going through, Kelle James still succeeded. Even with the tide going against her, she made it. She did it. And that’s something to admire.

The writing was simple and real. James refuses to sugar coat anything about her story. This story could be brutal at times but heart felt at others.  

Smile for the Camera: A Memoir was an interesting read about a life I’ll probably never come close to living. Overall, definitely not a bad book.

Keeping The Moon Review

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

Title: Keeping The Moon

Author: Sarah Dessen

Series: None

Publisher: Speak

Publication Date: May 11, 2004

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Young Adult

Pages: 228

Format: Hardback
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Colie expects the worst when she's sent to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira while her mother, queen of the television infomercial, tours Europe. Always an outcast -- first for being fat and then for being "easy" -- Colie has no friends at home and doesn't expect to find any in Colby, North Carolina. But then she lands a job at the Last Chance Cafe and meets fellow waitresses Morgan and Isabel, best friends with a loving yet volatile relationship. Wacky yet wise, Morgan and Isabel help Colie see herself in a new way and realize the potential that has been there all along.

“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.” 

When Colie visits her unexpectedly eccentric Aunt Mira, her life gets flipped around as she meets new friends, learns how to deal with the ordeals of waitressing, and discovers how to love. When you’re the daughter of a famously optimistically person, known for changing her life with her incomparable amount of self-motivation, people tend to expect the same from you. Colie, however, finds it hard to be positive about her life, even with her newly thinned physique and stare-inducing lip ring. She must learn to unconditionally love herself before she can confront her haunting past.

“It's so, so stupid what we do to ourselves because we're afraid. It's so stupid.” 

How do you do it Sarah Dessen? How do you manage to make the most perfect stories with just the right proportions of love, friendship, self-learning? How do you know so much about life and how to live it? The writing in Keeping the Moon was perfect in every sense of the world. Even when the book was finished, that warm fuzzy feeling that I only seem to get when I read really well done contemporary novels still remained. I have yet to read a Sarah Dessen book that I didn’t like. Coming-of-age journeys you simply can't not learn from, and deliciously sweet romances that are realistic in the rawest of ways, all at the same time. Who could say no? Really? 

Keeping the Moon brought up some themes about life that I whole-heartedly agree with. It’s like I’ve always known they were true, but never could put it into words the right way. Like, you have to love yourself before anyone else can. Don’t ask permission to be respected; demand it. Everyone is beautiful in one way or another. This book is so filled with brutally honest quotes, I didn’t know what to do with myself!

“Self respect, Colie. If you don't have it, the world will walk all over you.”

I can’t say that I related with Colie, because I didn’t. At all, really. And sometimes her wallowing pulled just a little bit too hard on my nerves. But one character I honest-to-God loved? Isabel. If I could have one friend from a book it would be Isabel. Pure awesomeness personified in a character from a book. Most of the really good quotes come from her. Her don’t-give-me-crap attitude was amazingly refreshing and inspiring. She expected nothing less than the best. And I admire that.

This book was just another one added to the list of Sarah Dessen successes. Perfect summer read.

All Our Yesterdays Review

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Title: All Our Yesterdays

Author: Cristin Terrill

Series: All Our Yesterdays #1

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Publication Date: September 3, 2013

Genre: Science Fiction; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 360

Format: Hardback
goodreads

What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside. 

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

“Time travel isn’t a wonder; it’s an abomination.”

What if you suddenly found that you were in possession of a DeLorean time machine? Or a Time Turner? Or even a Time Sled, right out of H.G. Well’s imagination? Some would say that time travel was a gift. Others a curse. All Our Yesterdays shows the brutally horrific side of time traveling along with some of the advantages of being able to change the past and all the future that goes along with it.

The book opens to Em, a girl incarcerated in a cell neighboring a boy named Finn. Together they try to persevere the torturous activities of “the doctor”. When Em discovers a slip of paper with scratched out phrases written in her handwriting, she can’t seem to forget the final perfectly readable phrase right at the bottom of the list. Just five words holds the future in its hands, but will Em have the courage to do something that could possibly destroy her?

All Our Yesterdays took me on a roller coaster ride that was not limited to turning my mind upside down and backwards. The incomparable complexity of time travel was made surprising simple, even with all its paradoxes and loops. Terrill spun magic into her words, making it impossible for me to put it down for anything other than bathroom breaks and food. The plot twists made my mind implode. The romance made my heart try to break out of my ribcage. Honestly, I’ve only read average books before this one, and I was just so happy to finally have a book to obsess over.

“Basically, space and time are really one thing, a kind of giant film stretched across the universe called space-time.”

Terrill knows how to do time travel right. Incorporating just a dash of science, a pinch of mystery, and somehow concocting the perfect recipe for science fiction at its best. The ending made me slam the metaphorical brake. Should I cry or should I jump with joy? I was so conflicted I didn’t know what to do myself! Let’s just say, that night, I did not sleep very soundly. I want the sequel. Now. Right Now. At this moment. Literally, cannot wait another moment. *slams head on keyboard*

Read this book. Just do it. Please. You won’t be disappointed.

“People weren’t mean to travel in time.”