Book Nerds Across America: gayle forman

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Book Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Goodreads Overview:

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there's an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

Jacque's Review:

Just One Day has been on my TBR list since 2014. I loved If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman, so I was pretty sure I would love this series as well. I'm not sure what took me so long to read it, but I'm certainly glad that I did.

Allyson receives a European vacation as her high school graduation present from her parents. It wasn't what she had hoped for until she has one magical day in Paris with Willem De Ruiter, an actor she meets at a street performance of Twelfth Night. When he is nowhere to be found the next morning, she assumes the worst of him.

She returns to the United States and goes off to college to fulfill her Mother's dream of becoming a doctor. Her first semester of school is a disaster. She is not interested in her classes, has very poor grades, and isn't fitting in socially. She is consumed by what happened in Paris and simply can't put it behind her. She is depressed and the book drags as a result. When the guidance counselor convinces her to take a class on Shakespeare and some other electives outside of the pre-med curriculum, she finally begins to find her place and the book takes off again. She meets Dee, who is a drag queen, and begins to form her first real friendship on campus. She eventually opens up about what happened and the two begin searching the internet for a way to contact Willem. She needs to know what really happened so she can move on with her life.

Very little turns up, so she decides to get a summer job. She saves enough money to return to Paris to continue her search for clues. Just when her quest appears to have gone bust, she finds a glimmer of hope. Perhaps Willem didn't just disappear after all.

The ending was very abrupt with a bunch of unanswered questions left hanging in the balance. I can hardly wait to read Just one Year to get Willem's take on the events that took place that day in Paris and to see what he went through this past year.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Review: My True Love Gave to Me - Twelve Holiday Stories

I have had this book on my TBR list for over a year and a half. I wanted to read it over the holidays, but in typical holiday fashion, things came up and I didn't get around to it. With Summer Days and Summer Nights being released May 17, 2016, I needed to tackle this one before I found myself even further behind.

I downloaded the audio book from the library and listened to the first five or six stories while I trained for my next half marathon. Each story is about 50 minutes long, which helped push me a little further than the 35 - 40 minutes I had been running each day. I listened to the last half of the book during my five hour drive to BEA and the time literally flew by.

The stories were all very different and I enjoyed seeing how the various authors expressed their personalities and styles. I have read several books by Holly Black, Ally Carter, David Levithan, Stephanie Perkins, and Rainbow Rowell, but the rest of the authors were new to me. Not new to me in the sense that I haven't heard of them, but rather they have been on my TBR list forever and I simply haven't gotten around to reading their books yet. I was really impressed with Kiersten White and Gayle Forman's stories and will have to bump their books further up my TBR list.

Overall this was a very entertaining collection of stories that will put anyone in the holiday spirit. I would, however, recommend taking a break between each story to allow yourself time to process what you have read before moving onto the next. When I listened to the stories back to back in the car, I found the transitions to be a bit awkward. It was more enjoyable for me when I started each story with an open mind. For example, moving from a contemporary romance to a supernatural story involving a mysterious disappearing elf was easier to process when I listened to them independently.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins

Book Summary
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.

Flo's Review
I was in the library hold queue for this book and literally picked it up on the way to the airport to fly back to my parents' house. I'm really glad I got it! I enjoyed the twelve stories a lot. Some of them had some fantastical elements, and while those were fun, I think I tended to like the straight up contemp stories the best. And now I will try to rank them, starting with my most favoritest. Here goes!

It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins

Midnights by Rainbow Rowell

Angels in the Snow by Matt de la Peña

Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White

What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman

Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter
Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire

Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han

Krampuslauf by Holly Black
Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link

Thursday, August 7, 2014

If I Stay Tour Recap and GIVEAWAY!

Photo credit: https://twitter.com/ifistay

In case you haven't been avidly keeping up with everything about this upcoming movie like I have, let me tell you -- there is a tour going on right now and it is incredibly awesome! I was lucky enough to experience it this past weekend and want to share some of the wealth. But first let me tell you about it!

Thursday night was a pre-screening of the the movie and a party. Personally, I was just expecting it to be a regular pre-screening where you go, watch the movie and then head out. Boy was I (happily!) mistaken! After I had checked in and received my wristband, I made my way to the area where staff members were walking about offering delicious mini munchies: fish, veggies, pizza, you name it! We were also given a ticket for a free drink.

On one side of the room, they had a tattoo station set up:

You got to choose from a few different designs. This one was my favorite:

But the coolest thing they had was this Machine of Amazing:

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay. When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines. Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!(from Goodreads)

Flo's Review
Okay, I LOVE If I Stay and Where She Went. I LOVE to travel. And so many people LOVE Just One Day that I basically went in thinking it was going to be my new favorite book.

...maybe that was my first mistake. I know I am in the minority here, but I just couldn't connect with this book. I've always had a hard time when I don't like the protagonist or any of the main characters in the story. And I just didn't like Allyson. I understand that she had to start off in one place in order to experience growth over the course of the novel and end up in a better place than where she started. But does that growth have to take forever?! I'm going to be honest -- I didn't make it all the way through the book. I got to page 172 of a 368 page book and she was still hanging on to this thing that happened half a year ago and living a mopey life. She wasn't being at all nice to the people who loved her most -- her parents and her best friend. Still, I can understand. One of my favorite books started off with the character being a complete jerk. (I'm looking at you, Sam Kingston!) But I didn't feel that Allyson was growing at all. She was in the same rut and I just couldn't make myself keep reading to see if she got out of it. I kind of skimmed the second half of the book, and I see that more travel is involved. But even that couldn't motivate me to sit with Allyson any longer.

On the positive side, the actual Day? Pretty cool. I liked that it wasn't the typical touristy Paris that Willem and Allyson did. They just kind of went with the flow and experienced Paris as it was happening to them.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

WOW, Gayle Forman. You really know how to break my heart, but do it so artfully that I'm thinking it's beautiful while it's shattering.

I loved If I Stay so much, and I'd had the foresight to pick up Where She Went from the library, so as soon as I finished the first one, I dove into the second one. Where She Went is told from Adam's point of view. The story takes place three years after the events of If I Stay. Mia wakes up, gets better, and goes to Julliard in the fall as she'd originally planned. But soon after she gets to New York, she simply stops talking to Adam. Now, it's three years later and Adam's band Shooting Star has skyrocketed to phenomenal success...yet, Adam still struggles with the question of Mia and where she went. One night in New York City, their paths cross and...

Adam is a beautiful broken bad boy. I have to admit, I am a sucker for these YA guys! Because they're not really bad -- they're broken. And beautiful. Adam, you can write me enough songs to fill an entire CD anytime you want! Here is my favorite quote in the book:

"Mia's smile is melting chocolate. It's a kick-ass guitar solo. It's everything good in this world."

If you enjoyed If I Stay, then definitely, definitely pick up Where She Went.

~Flo~

*Note: The image above is one of almost 40 "Team Adam" button contenders. Go to Gayle's blog to vote for your favorite.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

"In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck... A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands." (From ifistay.com)

Pros of listening to If I Stay on audiobook: The music. Mia plays the cello, and at the beginning and end of every CD, cello music plays. It adds the perfect context and emotion to the story, touching the listener in a way that only music can -- which is a big part of how Mia understands and relates to the world.

Cons of listening to If I Stay on audiobook: You can probably figure out just from the synopsis that it's a tearjerker. And bawling your eyes out when you're driving?! Kinda hard.

I had heard a lot of great things about this book, so I went into it with high expectations. Luckily, these expectations were met. Gayle Forman develops her characters so well. By the end of the book, I felt I personally knew Mia, Adam, Kim, Teddy and Mia's parents. This book also did a good job at taking a somewhat hazy issue and giving it a clear path.

I definitely recommend it! Listen to it if you can, but if you can't -- at least have some tissues on hand!

~Flo~

Teri's Review

I wasn't sure how I would react to this book. I picked it up on a whim, I def. didn't think I would like it or relate to it as much as I did .The subject of the books is both heart wrenching and tragic. Mia, is in a coma after a horrific car accident that takes the rest of her family. She somehow has an out of body experience and is able to witness and tell us the events that are taking place around her. These moments are intermixed with memories of her past to help us understand the characters in the book.
I think Forman did excellent job in her secondary characters. I am usually not a fan of parents in YA series, they either come off as completely over protective or so uncaring you wonder why they are in the book , Mia's parents were in a happy middle ground. Parents that were once carefree and were now trying to make the best for a family. I loved how Mia's fathers description is of a former rocker and now a English teacher geek , there was lots of humor on the subject.
This book was truly written about Mia, and her struggle to stay among the living or join her parents in death , but it was Adam who brought the story home for me. He wasn't a main character so much, but his presence in the book greatly affected me. The year my son was a sophomore in high school his long time girlfriend was in a car accident and several days later was taken off life support. My son was with her at the end. When I read the speech that Adam gave Mia, the one begging her to stay, my heart was wrenched out. I have never asked my son what he said to Bek when she was laying there and he has ever felt he could tell me, this was their last moment together and it still remains theirs. I think I related so much to Adam because of the few horrific days in my life, I know first hand not only does it affect the people involved, but it also affects the people on the fringes of the accident, such as Mia's friends and family, as we were left to deal with my sons roller coasting emotions. I think for these reasons alone I shed a few tears while reading this book, something I usually do not do.
My son has moved on, slowly at first, but this has always played a key in his life choices . I look forward to picking up Where She Went. I want to know how this affected both Mia and Adam, because I know it will. This book was a great read, I laughed, I cried, it defiantly made me feel.

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