Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon 3 / 5	Published September 1, 2015 First Sentence "I've read many more books than you."
Publisher's Description: This innovative, heartfelt debut novel tells the story of a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more. My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.
Dear Reader, No. No, no, no. I was so disappointed - going into this, and even when I began reading, I thought: Great! I am going to totally dig this book, and fly through it, and it'll be a nice break from all the dense reading I've been doing this summer! And, well, it was the latter. But I was so thoroughly disappointed, especially given how great the ratings were on Goodreads! I was totally riding along on the premise, and then...it suddenly hit me, about 1/3 of the way through, The Twist. And I just spent the whole rest of the time reading going, "No. She wouldn't. Would she?!" Because this is essentially the plot of a movie. One that I've never seen, but while I was explaining the expected twist to my husband, he said, "Yeah. Like ______?" (I won't spoil anything for others, but that blank is clickable, if you'd like to see what I am talking about) and I said, "No way, for real?!" So on top of the book being predictable, it was kind of a copycat of a terrible premise of a movie. Blerg. I can see someone going into the book and not seeing the twist as being blown away by the ending, and that is awesome, and I am kind of envious of those people. Because had I been taken by surprise, I think I would have loved the book, too! I loved the characters, I loved the concept (in a strange love/hate way), and I loved the relationships. Everyone was believable and real and I flew through it over the course of two bedtimes. But. Yeah. Dang. I only rated it so highly because I could not put it down until the end. And I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book! I just hated that dread in the back of my mind...and was so frustrated when it was confirmed. Le sigh. Yours, Arianna

Support Shelf Notes! Purchase your copy of this book here:

Hardcover:

Kindle:

California

California Edan Lepucki 4.5/5	Published 2014 First Sentence "On the map, their destination had been a stretch of green, as if they would be living on a golf course."
Publisher's Description: The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable despite the isolation and hardships they face. Consumed by fear of the future and mourning for a past they can't reclaim, they seek comfort and solace in one other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. Terrified of the unknown but unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realize this community poses its own dangers. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust. A gripping and provocative debut novel by a stunning new talent, California imagines a frighteningly realistic near future, in which clashes between mankind's dark nature and irrepressible resilience force us to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love.
Dear Reader, If you've been following my letters to you, I'm sure you haven't missed my excitement for this book. I'll admit it, this was brought to my radar through the great Mr. Colbert. For those of you living under a rock or who don't follow all book related news religiously (Like ME!) I'll give you a short breakdown of what has probably made Edan Lepucki a very happy debut Author. I love these kinds of stories and so this book gave me all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings, knowing that a deserving Author has been given this incredible "bump" that is usually unheard of for an unknown. Do you know about the dispute between Hachette and Amazon? If not, just read this. That should give you a nice background on what's been going on. I don't have a particular side I'm standing on here, I think these are two giant companies disputing a contract and I find the whole thing a little overdone. However, while watching Colbert one night with my boyfriend, he had Sherman Alexie on and started talking about this dispute. Obviously Colbert is going to side with Hachette (he has books published with them), so he decided to take a stand on his show and asked Sherman Alexie to pick an upcoming Hachette book to promote, claiming HE could sell more books than Amazon. Sherman selected "California" and Colbert went with it, asking the audience and viewers to go BUY the book from Powell's Books (a larger but independent bookseller that has a fantastic online site). So what happened next? California became Powell's Books number one seller and surpassed "The Silkworm"! Can't get any better than that. Yours truly bought the book from Powell's online and was surprised when it came SIGNED in the mail. I guess, Lepucki decided to give all those supporters a surprise and a thank you, and I was thrilled. Thank you Edan Lepucki, you have made a forever fan out of me. Let's get back to the important part of all of this... the BOOK! Yes, this is a truly heartwarming story which pushed "California" into the hands of many who might not have picked it up. I'm certainly glad I did because this is MY kind of book. I had such high expectations (due to the hype) and this book lived up to them, which is hard to do. I sprinted through this book, wanting to find out what happens, totally engrossed with the characters and their surroundings. I want this to be turned into a TV Show, a series, I want more, more, more! Just when you thought Dystopian books were getting old and stale, Lepucki comes from left field and hits you in the face with a totally refreshing dystopian story. I say refreshing, but I also have to stress how ADULT this book is, you won't find any youngsters here... nope, the characters are full of adult angst (not teenage). I don't have any problem with teenage angst per se, but I do find myself missing those adult problems in many of the latest genre books. I'm not sure if this is a genre book or a literary book, maybe both? What did everyone label "The Road" as? Again, digressing... let me rewind and give you a little more background about the story. "California" starts with Cal and Frida living in the woods after L.A. has completely broken down (not to mention the rest of the world). The reader isn't told much about what went down to cause Cal and Frida to flee to the woods, but we do know that things must have been pretty bad. At first, the story is really more of a psychological one, trying to get into the heads of this couple and understand them. We get asked really hard questions from Lepucki, we are lead to think about how we would react in a situation like that. The start is slow, unnerving but somewhat calm, almost like Lepucki wants you to feel comfort and get to know the characters before she throws them into the whirlwind that comes next. The next half of the book is all about the excitement and has a little more edge of your seat-ness to it. Just when you thought things couldn't get any better, they do! I don't want to go into this part of the book much because you discover many surprises along the way, which was part of the beauty of the book. I'd hate to spoil anything for you, I knew very little about the book myself before I read it and I have to say the experience was fantastic. I want you to have that same experience when you read it. I just hope the hype of the book doesn't start giving away all those little gems. Don't look at the shiny things, turn away... you'll be thankful you did. The one thing I will comment on is the connection I felt to these characters, I found myself loving their relationship... cheering them on. I wanted them to succeed in the wilderness, I wanted them to break free from all the crap and be one with nature. But can you REALLY live with only one person without getting on their nerves? That struggle between Cal and Frida was heartbreaking, you felt pangs for them when they kept a secret or when they got into a little spat. I wanted them to have that happy ending (I'm NOT telling you if that happened or not) but I just felt so connected to them. I have to admit, the love scenes had me blushing, I'm not really used to that since I don't read romance. I like that they made me realize how lovey dovey these characters are, how they aren't that married couple that loses interest. They have a very strong bond and again, I found myself in their corner cheering them on. Lepucki did an excellent job with this debut novel. I'm actually going to see her at RJ Julia later this month and I look forward to hearing what she has to say. Stay tuned, I'm sure we'll do a follow up post with all that Lepucki insight after the event! Can't wait! Happy Reading, AmberBug

Instead of supporting Self Notes, this time...  go buy the book from Powell's Books OR your local bookstore.

The Wives of Los Alamos

The Wives of Los Alamos TaraShea Nesbit 4 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "Over the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Pacific, the Arctic, the Atlantic; in sewers, in trenches, on the ocean, in the sky: there was a war going on."
Publisher's Description: Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with a P.O. box for an address in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.  And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind. The Wives of Los Alamos is a novel that sheds light onto one of the strangest and most monumental research projects in modern history, and a testament to a remarkable group of women who carved out a life for themselves, in spite of the chaos of the war and the shroud of intense secrecy.
Dear Reader, This book was so interestingly done, and surprisingly good despite its unique approach.  The author wrote the book from the second person, inviting the reader into the "group" through the use of "we" and "us" - which also positioned the wives as a group, and I really liked that.  This wasn't a story about one person's experience, but rather a kind of study about the situation that the families of Los Alamos experienced in the early 1940s.  Los Alamos being, of course, the main project site for the development of the atomic bomb during WWII.  I was fascinated by the shroud of secrecy that (understandably) surrounded the place.  The government went so far as to make the scientists and their families go by different surnames, particularly if they had very foreign-sounding names like Fermi or Bacher (they became Farmer and Baker, respectively).  The wives had no idea what they were getting themselves into, and no matter how close they were to their husbands, the men would not divulge anything related to their work.  I can't imagine being in that situation as a wife and mother - uprooting your family in the middle of regular life, bringing them halfway across the country to a remote locale, being told nothing, simply obeying with the understanding that your husbands are working on something vital to the war effort.  The women had to leave their parents and siblings behind (and could only communicate with them through censored letters; they were not allowed to leave to visit family members unless someone died).  They had to say immediate goodbyes to the lives and homes they had established, as did their children.  I suppose the lucky thing is that they were all in this same situation, and so while of course there was pettiness and gossip at times, there was also a strong sense of camaraderie between these women, no matter their backgrounds.   They supported each other through such surreal times.  They fought to make the best of a very strange situation - this included starting fights with the officials regarding the supplies and furniture they were allotted. I just can't imagine what it would be like to live in "Sha-La," as they jokingly referred to this ultimately horrific site: short for the paradise of Shangri-La.  These women kept their heads up and retained their sanity despite the close quarters, poor housing, uncertainty, new climate, and totally foreign landscape (in more ways than one).  You may not agree with the Los Alamos project or what these people did there, but I guarantee you'll be as fascinated as I was when you read about it!  I learned so much. I'm including below a few pictures of the site at the time; it has since been developed into a modern atomic testing laboratory site.  Note the dryness and the baking sun, especially! from Los Alamos National Laboratory from The Manhattan Project from National Nuclear Security Administration If, like me before reading this book, you are largely ignorant about Los Alamos?  Do yourself a favor and read Ms. Nesbit's book. If only for the amazing history lesson. Yours, Arianna

Support Shelf Notes!  Purchase your copy of The Wives of Los Alamos here: