Reading, Writing, and Me

I graduated just over a week ago from high school, and I still don't know what to do with myself. I haven't talked a ton about my schooling on the blog, and, while I've shared a little on Twitter, I wanted to talk about it a bit since I've now graduated. I also wanted to talk about my unconventional gap year that's coming up, and how I'm framing it. For those of you who don't know, I enrolled a year and a half ago in an online school called Laurel Springs. While I'm going to save a lot of details about that for a later post, I will say that a major reason for this was the ability to take a far broader variety of classes than any school I'd ever been to and to self pace my schedule. When choosing classes, I found myself with a sort of buffet mentality, piling my plate with every class that looked remotely interesting. Beyond the required core classes that first year I took things like mythology, intro to law, and philosophy. It was a lot, but it w

Dissenter on the Bench  by Victoria Ortiz (June 4) Overview: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is probably one of the coolest women alive. She's done countless amazing things, and she currently sits on the Supreme Court, advocating for the living and evolving nature of the Constitution. She's fought for equal rights for everyone: women, men, racial minorities, people of the LGBTQ community, and others who are taken advantage of under laws. She's crafted her career around taking gender biases out of laws that only set us all further behind. Whether her opinion is recognized or not, she always states it loudly and with perfect word selection. Beyond that, the book digs into her modern family life and her childhood. Overall: 4  Content: 4 I loved getting the chance to learn more about my favorite Supreme Court Justice (and role model). It's pretty amazing to see all of the landmark decisions she's been a part of and the work she had to put in to achieve what she did in a time

Going Off Script  by Jen Wilde (292 pages) Overview: Bex has dreams of being a show runner, but, first, she has to rise through the ranks of the writers' room. Luckily, she's scored an internship with one of her favorite TV shows, Silver Falls . Unfortunately, the LA dreams she's fought so hard to get aren't as fun as she imagined. The show runner is horrible and even steals a script that Bex wrote. In an environment that has far too many echoes of high school for Bex's taste, she has to figure out how to make the most of her situation. Overall: 4.5 Characters: 4 I really like Bex. She's made a major life change from living in Washington state and working at Sonic with her mother to help support her family. Living with her cousin makes the transition slightly better, but her new life feels both too different and too familiar. Bex is also dealing with understanding her sexuality.  She's nervous about telling her friends and family, even though she knows

I thought that I would make a bonus post for all of you to celebrate summer finally starting to arrive! I've compiled a list of books that I've read this year and last that either take place in the summer or give me total summer vibes. A lot of these books are ones that I think should get a lot more love. Let me know in the comments what books make you instantly think of summer! I've linked reviews to all of these books in the titles below. Going Off Script I read it last weekend in nearly a single day because it is such a refreshing, quick read. While I don't think it takes place in the summer and it focuses on a TV internship, it's set in LA which serves up eternal summer vibes. The Way You Make Me Feel This is one of the ultimate books on my summer playlist. As a punishment for a school prank, Clara has to spend the summer working with her nemesis in her father's food truck. With mouthwatering Korean-Brazilian food, tons of snark, and summ

I'm super excited to finally be jumping into summer! June already has a ton of amazing books on the way, and it looks like the rest of the summer is jam packed as well. I'm excited to have more time to write and work on the blog! For Saturday discussions, I'm thinking about talking about graduation and maybe my experience with the SAT this month along with some more bookish thoughts. I'll also be working on a summer reading list of summery books from the past some that are coming out!  Let me know in the comments if there are certain posts or topics you'd like to see from me. Happy summer everyone! Dissenter On The Bench Ruth Bader Ginsburg is amazing . I was super excited to stumble upon a new YA biography about her! I'll be sharing my review of the book on Friday the 31st of May.  Virtually Yours More college YA! This time, an NYU freshman decides to try a new VR dating app. Inside their system, she reconnects with her exboyfriend under a fake n

We Contain Multitudes  by Sarah Henstra  TW: Abuse, Homophobia, Drug Use Overview: Letter writing is often called a lost art, but an English class assignment in Minnesota brings it back to two teens. Kurl hates school, he doesn't do many assignments, and everyone is hoping he'll do enough to graduate. Jo, his sophomore pen pal, is locked in a battle with horrible bullies who torment him on the daily because he's gay and dresses in the style of his idol, Walt Whitman. While Kurl feels totally detached from Jo's dense language and different ideas, they get to know each and suddenly writing letters isn't as much of a chore. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 Kurl is a former football player, sort of the joke of the school on the academic front, and the guy no one wants to mess with. His hard exterior, though, starts to melt through his letters with Jo. Kurl works through his sadness over his father's death and his brother Mark's hard adjustment after serving in th