Galgorithm - Aaron Karo

After a girl Shane nicknames Voldemort breaks his heart, he becomes a love guru to the hopeless guys at Kingsview High.  Shane has come up with a formula he has named the galgorithm to help out the clueless guys.  He doesn't charge for his services, as he believes this is a calling for him.  His next client is a skinny kid named Reed, who has a crush on Marisol.  She didn't know who he was until Reed accidentally hit her with a tennis ball in gym class.  From there they became friends on social media.  Now in Shane's view he's ready to ask her out.  When he's not giving out advice to the hopeless romantics, Shane spends his time with his best friend, Jak.  They have known each other since they were babies.  As they hang out Jak is telling Shane that Harrison, resident jock, and Rebecca, the one who is involved in everything at school, have hooked up.  They don't understand how, but it happened.  The next day at school Anthony and Brooke a.k.a. Hedgehog and Balloon, tell him they want to set him up on a date with Tristen Kellog, the hottest girl of the junior class.  Shane declines as he remembers what Voldemort did to his heart.  As Shane heads to his next class his old math teacher, Mr. Kimbrough, comes looking for him.  He wants advice on how to ask out the history teacher Ms. Soloman.  Shane tells him to do a group e-mail but put her address in the BCC, so it looks like he's sending the e-mail to the group when it is going to her.  Mr. Kimbrough thanks him and they agree not to mention this conversation to anyone.  On Saturday Shane is helping Reed pick out new clothes.  A few girls overhear Shane and Reed talking, and Shane asks where they got the belt buckle.  The girl with the nose ring points to the display.  Shane asks if it's for her boyfriend and she says no it's for her.  She asks if that is weird.  Shane asks Reed what he thinks and he freezes for a moment.  Then he answers it is weird, but the color doesn't go with her nose ring.  After the girls walk away Reed is amazed at what happened and puts his trust into Shane.  Later that night Shane is hanging out with Jak and asks her if it's a good idea for him to go out with Tristen.  She thinks so and he should go for it.  After school the following week there is a college fair, and this is a good way for Reed to talk to Marisol.  She is with Rebecca and while Shane distracts Rebecca about senior parking, Reed talks to Marisol.  Everything works to a T and Reed gets a date with Marisol. The next day he goes on the double date with Tristan along with Anthony and Brooke.  It goes well and he already has a second date with her.  The following day Shane is held up by Mr. Kimbrough.  Everything went well at the Civil War exhibit and wants to know how to get a second date.  Shane gives him more advice, but is questioning whether his methods work with adults.  Jak is pissed at him as they get to the gym to work out on free passes.  He tells her he got held up in Spanish.  While they are there Tristen is texting him and Jak makes fun of him about his textual relationship with Tristen.  Later that night Shane is driving to the beach to meet up with Adam.  Adam tells him that Olivia cheated on him and ended it.  Shane tells him that everything will be OK and he'll meet someone who understands how busy he is.  The next day Reed is telling Shane about his date with Marisol when Harrison throws a baseball in their direction.  As he comes to get it Harrison is pissed at Reed thinking he was out with Rebecca, when Reed was out with Marisol and Rebecca showed up.  Later while Shane is with Tristan at the mall for their second date they run into Jak.  Tristen invites her to stay for lunch, but Shane communicates with her that he wants it to be him and Tristen.  The following day Jak plays hooky from English class so she and Shane can go get lunch.  When Shane comes out of the bathroom Adam is there hitting on Jak, using some of the galgorithm techniques.  After some awkward moments Jak suggests they hang out sometime.  Adam agrees and heads off to class while Jak and Shane go to lunch. Later on Shane and Tristen head to the movies, but the movie they want to see is sold out.  They head back to her house where she questions him about past relationships.  He realizes that unlike Voldemort, Tristen is into him.  The next day Shane runs into Adam at the beanery waiting for Jak.  Shane waits with Adam until Jak shows up and leaves them be.  After a few days Jak had two more complementary passes for the gym and she and Shane head there to work out.  They make friendly jabs at each other about who they are going out with.  They decide to go to one of the jock parties they hear about the following week.  The night of the party arrives and Jak is drinking like crazy, as she isn't comfortable in social situations.  Adam shows up followed by Rebecca.  Harrison comes over to give them crap about recycling, and then Tristen shows up.  Jak, who has had a lot to drink already, excuses herself and Shane follows shortly after.  Shane ducks into a bathroom after hearing Harrison and Rebecca argue, only to find Jak throwing up in the toilet.  Shane takes her home and as he is getting the vomit stained clothes off of her in the shower he realizes that he has feelings for her.  After this night everything begins to fall apart for Shane. 

I enjoyed this book and was laughing through out.  While it was funny, it was also serious when it had to be.  Especially after Shane realizes he has feelings Jak, and the awkwardness between them after.  No matter who you go out with, the one you might end up falling for is the one you least expect.  The one thing that bugged me was the way the passage of time was done.  Some times I couldn't tell if a few days or a few weeks had passed in some parts of the book.

T.B.
6/20/15

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me by Jason Schmidt

From inside jacket:

"Jason Schmidt wasn't surprised when he came home one day during his senior year of high school and found his father, Mark, crawling around on the kitchen floor in a giant pool of blood. Things like that had been happening a lot since Mark had been diagnosed with HIV three years earlier. From watching Mark get arrested in their living room when Jason was three years old to enduring a series of house fires, homelessness, and a bout of flesh-eating staph infection, Jason had figured out a long time ago that his home life wasn't like most other people's."

 

This book may not be for everybody, that being said I think this memoir is great. Jason seriously lives through some ordeals that you can't even fathom happening. This isn't a very PG rated book. There is swearing. There are situations that some parents may not want younger teens to read, but ironically many of those situations happened to Jason when he was even younger. 

This is a great read for teens that thinks their family is dysfunctional, have issues in their home life, or even feel lost.  Many of us have lived a sheltered life compared to Jason, but there are plenty of times while Jason is growing up that we can all relate to him. I think the major benefit of reading memoirs like Jason's is being able to step back from your own life. We are all egocentric but it's memoirs like these that we can appreciate people like Jason for their perseverance and honesty about their struggles in life, and ultimately reevaluate our own major problems in life and downgrade them to annoyances or, better yet, take them on with a new sense of tenacity.   

My only issue is that while Jason takes the majority of the 419 page book to tell us about his childhood and teen years, once he is on his own really struggling with his future, we only get the last page in the book tackling that. I would have liked to read about his struggle with adulthood and how he eventually came to peace with his dad (if he really did forgive him) and how much he has "settled down." 

my rating: A-

 

A.B.

Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti

Waiting for You is all about the complicated life of a teenager. Marisa is dealing with everything most teenagers face - finding a boyfriend and fitting in. She has the slight complication that she has an anxiety disorder which nearly destroyed her freshman year, but now that she’s a sophomore, she’s got it all figured out, or so she thinks. Things start to get complicated when she becomes lab partners with her neighbor Nash. At first it’s an amazing friendship, but then he has to go and like her more than she likes him. Now that friendship is on the rocks. Then she gets her dream boyfriend Derek, but that puts a strain on her friendship with her best friend Sterling who doesn’t have a boyfriend. On top of that, Derek is still awfully friendly with his ex, which has Marisa questioning his commitment to her. To make matters even worse, Marisa’s parents - whom she always thought were the perfect example of parents - are getting a divorce. While Marisa fights to keep her cool through all of this drama and not give into her anxiety and depression, there’s a podcast by DJ Dirty Dirk, the only guy who genuinely seems to understand everything she’s going through.

This novel spans Marisa’s entire sophomore year. You could relate to the characters and cheer for them to figure it all out. While it is jam-packed with drama, it all felt very basic. This is a decent coming-of-age novel for girls struggling to find a balance in high school, friendships and being true to yourself. It is a quick read that hits the bare-necessities of a novel wanting to make a statement about relationships and identity and the things that matter in life. Marisa finds a way to get through all of the drama and her disorder to come to appreciate everything and everyone she has in her life.

MMK