Summer Blog #3 - Anything but Typical

Pages Read: Finished
Prompt: Did you enjoy what you read?

Anything but Typical  is a book about Jason Blake, a boy with high-functioning autism. Jason doesn't like talking to people because of his autism. It makes it difficult for him to talk to people.

"Neurotypicals like it when you look them in the eye. Just because you are not looking at someone does not mean you are not listening. I can listen better when I am not distracted by a person's face: What are their eyes saying? Is that a frown or a smile? Why are they wrinkling their forehead or lifting their cheeks like that? What does that mean? How can you listen to all those words when you have to think about all that stuff?"

 So, he writes stories online. There, he doesn't have to worry about looking at people or people looking at him. He likes making up these stories and eventually wants to become an author. The book is mainly about Jason and a particular person that commented on a story he wrote online. It's a girl, and it turns out he really really likes talking to her. Later, Jason finds out his parents have arranged for him to go to a writing convention in Texas. Rebecca, the girl Jason has been talking to, is also going. Jason doesn't want to go anymore. He's scared that Rebecca won't like him anymore because of his autism and it's all she'll notice about him. And I'm not going to spoil if he meets Rebecca or not!

I've read two other books where the main character has high functioning autism like Jason does and all these books I find very interesting. Of course, the plots of all these books have been very interesting, but in all the books, it's been in first-person view. This is what makes them very interesting, I think. I think it's just really interesting to hear a story told from the POV of someone who has autism. People with autism understand things different that how those without do, so reading a book with a POV of someone with autism is just a whole different view on things. It's just really interesting, so I really liked this book for that.

The plot of this book was also pretty good. The big important question of whether or not Rebecca will still accept him is kind of a risky thing. It made for an interesting finale. Since Jason writes stories, we even get to see a bit of the plot of two of his stories. Both of his stories are about a character who has something about them that make people dislike the character, like how many people would dislike Jason because of his autism. As the story itself goes on, Jason keeps adding on to one of his stories in particular. It's about a dwarf who's given the opportunity to get a surgery to become the same height as everyone else. I really liked this story because it had an interesting message and just the plot itself was really neat.

Overall, I really liked this book. A lot. I really recommend it.

Summer Blog #2 - Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets

Pages Read: Finished
Prompt: Did you enjoy what you read? 

This book was amazing. That's all I can say. I hate how when I genuinely enjoy a book (like how I enjoyed this book) I can't really write about it. You'd think that the more you like a book, it'd be easier to write about. Not the case for me. It makes it really difficult and I don't know why! I loved this book and I can only say one good thing about it! Anyway, here we go. My explanation on why I loved this book.

The book had a great mood. Throughout the book, the mood fluctuated quite a bit. Parts of the book were sad, happy, angry, just the whole package. Whatever mood the book was in, it was always great. The way the story developed during the change of the moods was great. The way the characters experienced different emotions. The mood was developed in really good and interesting ways. Sometimes in books, you might not really notice the change in mood. In this book, you really do. Each mood made the book even better.

Great plot. Just wow, great plot. This book centers on a boy named James. He lives in a really bad and kind of actually abusive household with his mother and father. His sister is kicked out of the house one day when she gets fed-up with their parents and their parents get fed-up with her. James spends a lot of the book trying to find out just why his sister became fed-up that day. This means investigating her room and talking to her old friends/enemies. As he pieces things together and learns new information, it just becomes really interesting. After a while, I think you even begin to become pretty curious yourself. James also suffers from severe anxiety and depression. James struggling to deal with his problems is also a really interesting part of the book. James battling his problems is also kind of like a little side-story happening while James tries to get his sister to come back and live with him and his parents. There were a lot of twists in the story, both good and bad. The plot was just amazing. My description of it probably makes it seem pretty boring, but trust me. It was amazing.

The characters! Also amazing! James and all the sort of character-layers put into him is just really amazing. It made him seem like a really really realistic person. His sister is also really realistic. The mystery that centers around her was also a great addition to her character. James parents, although rather mean people, were also pretty good characters. Their problems with their children added a lot of depth to both themselves and James and his sister. You learn more about James and his sister when you learn more about how the parents talk and act. It's like they came hand in hand. Also, I felt that all the character fit together very well. In some books, there might be that one character that just doesn't belong. You know? Like it's great for all the characters to be different from each other but then there's that one character that just...doesn't seem to belong in the story. Like they've just been copy and pasted into the book to take up some space. In this book, all the characters just clicked together. They were all well developed and some were pretty connected. Even characters that were only around for a page or so fit in well with the story or particular moment they were in the book.

The pigeon. I loved the pigeon. Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets... Dr. Bird. Dr. Bird is an imaginary pigeon inside of James's head that he often talks to. Dr. Bird, a girl pigeon, acts as James therapist to help him cope with his problems. Since she's inside of his head, James says he can't lie to her because she already knows everything going on in his head. Although she was a pigeon, she was also realistic somehow. The way she was described was great. You could really see a pigeon doing those things. There were also a few bird puns when she spoke, so that was just awesome.

So, this book was just really cool. I completely recommend it to anyone. It's also pretty funny. Just saying.

If they ever make this book into a movie,

I want Dr. Bird to just be a person with a 

pigeon mask on. Please.