Out of Character (YA romance)

     Senior year isn't starting out well for Cass, protagonist of Jenna Miller's Out of Character. Her parents' marriage had been tempesteous. But the fighting didn't prepare her for her mother's sudden announcement that she was on her way to Maine to live with her boyfriend. This sudden abandonment is heart breaking. Her surgeon father has been preoccupied with work for most of her life; her mother has been there for her.

     Having her long term crush become her girlfriend is unexpectedly problematic. Tayor is gorgeous, romantic, ready to commit, and moving much too fast for Cass who isn't comfortable with more than kissing. She believes that Taylor deserves better but doesn't know how to make it happen. 

    Cass is a member of an online role play based on her favorite two-book series. She not only enjoys interacting as her character with the other characters, but confiding in the other four girls in an intimacy she can't achieve with offline peers. 

     Cass keeps her online world a secret. She's afraid that her now parenting father will cut her lifeline. It is having quite an adverse affect on her grades and distracting her from college applications. She's afraid that Taylor won't understand. And she may be falling for one of her fellow role players in a way she can't for her official girlfriend. 

     To keep her two lives separate or try to integrate them, knowing the risks inherent in either choice--this is the dilemma posed in this highly engaging coming of age narrative. 

On a purrrsonal note, Eugene was not my first boyfriend. I'd even been engaged a few times. But, like Cass, I'd never wanted to take these relationships to deeper levels. It took me awhile to figure out what made Eugene different. My father had been such a terrible parent I was subconsciously looking for someone who would be a wonderful father to our future children. Marrying him was the best decision I ever made.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene with whom I'm still madly in love. Today is his birthday. I've baked his favorite cake for the quiet celebration he prefers.

Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Tobago with Squismallows

Isn't she just too adorable for words?

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here (YA romance)

     Rosemead, an elite girls private school, has a serious problem. Its swimming coach is a sexual predator who behaves very inappropriately with the students. The administration takes his side, silencing anyone who tries to report him. A ex Olympian, he's good for the school's image and income. In Erin Gough's Amelia Westlake Was Never Here two protagonists who could not possibly be more different join forces to try to take him down. 

     Will (short for Wilhelmina) has a troublemaker reputation. Actually she speaks her mind even if she knows she'll be punished for it. She is no fan of the school or her privileged peers. She longs to be in "A world in which people like [Coach] Hadley get what they deserve. A world where my classmates care about sticking up for each other more than they care about whose parents have the most expensive car." In other words she's a social justice warrior.

     Harriet is a model Rosemead student, highly engaged academically and in athletics. She sees her arrival at the school as the defining moment of her life. She obeys every rule and wears her uniform perfectly and proudly. TBH she's a bit of a suck up when it comes to the administration. 

  Needless to say, neither is a fan of the other.

   But an unexpected meeting leads to an unlikely collaboration. They create a fictitious student, Amelia Westlake, to take credit for their actions. 

     Amelia quickly becomes quite popular with the students. But her actions get her on the administration radar. If their identities are discovered Will and Harriet will be in a world of trouble. 

     Could they possibly succeed in their mission with the odds seriously against them? Could they go from enemies to more than just friends? 

     Amelia Westlake Was Never Here combines an engaging plot with candid discussion of a problem that exists in too many schools today. 

On a purrrsonal note, I was a high school first year student. In swimming class the teacher told me to stay in the pool when he dismissed the class. He touched me very aggressively under my bathing suit and then told me it was our little secret. The next day I told the principal who called me a vicious little liar and said she wouldn't let me destroy a good man's reputation. It makes me angry that girls today still have to deal with that evil. 

A great big shout out goes out to all who see something and say something. 

Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Blackballed (adult nonfiction)

     It was a Saturday night. The University of Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon had rented a party bus. Everyone on the bus was white. The alcohol was flowing. People started singing a reprehensible piece that used the N word and alluded to lynching with the message that Blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity. 

     Not everyone on the bus was OK with this. One brother filmed it and sent the video to a Black student campus group that was looking for evidence of campus racism to present to the administration. 

     This is the incident with which Lawrence Ross opens Blackballed, his expose of the racism that is still sadly alive and well on historically white college and university campuses. The book is full of descriptions of incidents that shocked me, many of them the work of white fraternities and sororities. There were also descriptions of the microaggressions that Black students experience all too often. 

     I was deeply bothered by the responses of the administrations to the incidents. As Ross summarizes they were reactive rather than proactive, seemingly more concerned with image control than with the well being of the targeted students. 

     But some of the racism is institutional and systemic and carried out by none other than the administration. One example that takes place not only in the South, but all over the country is the refusal to take down statues and rename buildings honoring particularly virulent racists. 

     If you want America's historically white colleges and universities to become truly welcoming, affirming, and valuing spaces for Black students you owe it to yourself to read the book. 

On a purrrsonal note, I have finished a crafts kit Amber gave me. It's assembling miniature books that have pages you can read. Most have pre-written stories but I had to write the content for ten. It was fun but very challenging. I'm sure it was good for my post stroke fine motor skills. And it looks so adorable in my studio. I'll post a picture. 

A great big shout out goes out to Amber for all the support she has given me in my stroke recovery and the just right presents.

Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Girls With Sharp Sticks, Girls With Razor Hearts, Girls With Rebel Souls

     Remember earlier this winter break I was over the moon about Suzanne Young's In Nightfall? I could not put the book down. So I did what I always do with a new author crush--see if they've written other books. With Young I wicked lucked out. The sister is prolific. 

     I sent for a three volume series by inter library loan. And I started having misgivings the second I put my request in. It's been awhile since I've read a good dystopia. I have higher standards for dystopia than other genres. The author has to craft and maintain a world that is seamlessly believable. I've been let down before. I wasn't sure any author could pull this off for not one, but three books...

     ...Luckily I was wrong. The narrative arc was so suspenseful, so compelling, so believable the second I put one book down I picked up the next. 

     The first book in the series, Girls With Sharp Sticks, is like Stepford Wives meets elite private school with cutting edge AI thrown in. Narrator Mena and her friends are students at Innovations Academy, a very exclusive all girls school. 

     "We're top of the line, they like to say, the most well-rounded girls to ever graduate."

     But the school's definition of well-rounded differs greatly from yours or mine. Their academic grades are based on subjects like modern manners, social graces etiquette, and modesty and decorum rather than chemistry, algebra, and French. They must always be perfectly coiffed, made up and dressed. Beauty, they are told, is their greatest asset. They're constantly accompanied by a guardian who reports any non compliance on their part.

     The school's disciplinary methods are barbaric. 

     Mena and her friends decide to not only escape the school but take it down so it can't destroy more girls. In the second book, Girls With Razor Hearts, they're in the outside world. Mena and Sydney are students at Ridgeway Prep, a private school that may have hidden connections with Innovations Academy while Annalise, Brynn, and Marcella do research online. While they're trying to find what they need to know for their mission they also need to protect themselves from the very powerful people who will stop at nothing to destroy them...

     ...and the rich, entitled boys who can get away with everything. 

     In the final volume, Girls With Rebel Souls, the urgency and tempo have stepped up. It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell ally from enemy. And the bad guys have a terrifying new targeted weapon the girls are powerless against. 

     When I put that book down I felt like I'd just run a marathon. 

     The very best dystopias have enough in common with the readers' world that they carry a seed of possibility, the sense that at least some aspects of their narrative could come to fruition in the future. This is true in spades for this fine trilogy. Look no further than who is about to start a second term in the oval office. 

On a purrrsonal note I'm going to read and review more books by Young. But I'm going to wait on her six book series until the summer. 

A great big shout out goes out to Young who hopefully will keep dishing out the suspense for a long time. 

Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Arlene Hathaway's chocolate chip 🍪 recipe

Dissolve 2 tsp baking soda in 1 1/2 cups applesauce 

Mix in 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves or ginger 1/2 cup shortening. 

Stir in 1 package chocolate chips. 

Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets.

Bake 14 minutes at 375.

Don't say I never taught you anything useful.