Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Director's Cut!

David Levithan on EVERY DAY

Every Day by David Levithan

“Every day I am someone else. I am myself-I know I am myself-but I am also someone else.”

When trying to write a review for this book, I wasn’t sure how to begin. This book blurs the lines between who we are as a body and who we are as a soul. A is the main character of the book. He is only A, a name he gave himself, to remind himself that he is someone. A soul, a spirit, a person who is passed around from body to body each day, a never ending cycle of being someone that is not him, and until now he has been alone. Then he meets Rhiannon, Justin’s girlfriend, and for one day he is able to love and laugh and be himself. That is when his world changes forever. Rhiannon is the first person to learn his secret, the first person he really loves. Through Rhiannon he is able to truly show who he is.

I found myself drawn to A, wanting this torture to end for him, and I was a little angry at Levithan for putting him through this unhappy life in a situation that may never end. I found myself, as a mom, sad that A never had parents to love him or hug him, but I guess this is a life other people have had, his is just a little stranger.

Through his book, David Levithan makes us question what love really is. Is it a gender, a physical attraction, or is it with heart that we really love someone? He makes us question who we are. Are we merely a body; are we merely a mind; are we both? Beautifully and seamlessly written, Every Day is a book that makes us think long after we put it down, and Levithan I am really hoping for a sequel. 

Levithan is the author of many amazing books including Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist  and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Okay, can I just start off by saying that Ransom Riggs is probably one of the most awesome names ever created. You know a book will be good when the author’s name is something cool like Ransom Riggs. As a fellow double consonant named person I understand how important your career choice is, and I highly failed when I became a librarian as opposed to becoming something more fitting for a double consonanted person like a news reporter or an author, as Ransom Riggs has done. Author names aside, if I were to judge a book by its cover (come on you know you do it too), I would read this book cover to cover in a matter of days, which is funny, because I did. Just look at that cover, how could you not want to read a book by Ransom Riggs with a picture of a girl levitating on the front cover.

To the actual book itself, even if you do not like to read, Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a great book because it is peppered throughout by black and white, somewhat disturbing images that Ransom Rigg’s actually used from collectors. The fact that these pictures are real makes the pictures even more disturbing. The story to go along with those pictures doesn’t disappoint. Jacob is the main character, who leads an extremely ordinary life until something extraordinary happens to him (yeah, it’s cliché I know, but it’s true). Jacob has listened to the stories from his grandfather’s childhood all of his life, stories that include a girl who floats, a boy who is invisible, and an old smoking bird that watches over all of the peculiar children. As Jacob gets older, he begins to see the ridiculous fantasies that his grandfather has told him throughout the years as just that, fantasies. However, once Jacob’s grandfather dies and Jacob is put to the edge of insanity, he learns that maybe the stories his grandfather told were actually not that fantastic; maybe those stories were true, and the children and the bird do exist somewhere. And, maybe it is up to Jacob to save them all.

The book is quirky and suspenseful, and I’m not going to lie, it may have made me a little scared of the dark, especially when I am still getting up with a ten week old every three or four hours. Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is just as amazing and entertaining as Ransom Rigg’s name, and even sleepless nights, an unclean house, and three children couldn’t stop me from reading this book.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Well, it's been awhile. I've been super busy with my kids and Celebrity Apprentice and writing my new cookbook and designing my million dollar mansion. Oh, wait, for a second I thought I was New Jersey Housewife, Theresa Guidice, silly me. But I really have been busy, so I thought for the first book back, I should pick something truly amazing. This post should be about a book that carries a lot of weight with the world, a book that changed my life forever (or at least for that particular week), a book that I will never forget for as long as I live. So, after much soul searching, I decided that this first, extremely important book would be... (drumroll please), Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. Okay, Kaling might not have changed my life, but she definitely brought some laughter into it. In case you don't know who Mindy Kaling is (and may I say, how dare you not know her), she is one of the brilliant writers on the television show The Office. No, not the British version, although, I think if she could talk in a British accent all of the time she would, because she does seem to have a rather unhealthy obsession with Bridget Jones. But then again, who doesn't? (most men, right)

Things I learned about Mindy Kaling, besides the fact that she is comedic genius: Her first break came when she and her roommate wrote a play about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Yes, The Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Oh to be a fly on the wall of their crappy New York apartment to hear that script. When she was young, she lost a lot of weight and a boy made fun of how fat she USED to be. Yes, Mindy Kaling that is truly unfair. She loves margarine (I'm more of a butter fan myself). She loves Amy Pohler (but who doesn't). She once got a guest writing spot on Saturday Night Live, but her only accomplishment was thoroughly confusing Antonio Banderas. I'm sure it was a language barrier issue. She hates Rainn Wilson (but I actually think they are besties). Someday she wants to get married, but she wants it to be a good marriage, like when your husband is actually your best friend.

What did I learn from the book, you ask? Well, I learned the longest Ava and Emma can play on their own is about enough time to get two chapters read. After that you have to put on a television show or feed them something to get any more reading time. I learned that Jim now hates Mindy Kaling. Sorry Minds (that's the nickname I would give her if we were for real friends), but anytime I choose a book over watching The Walking Dead with him... well, let's just say it doesn't make him happy. While Mindy Kaling might not have exactly changed my life, she did make me fall in love with her all over again, and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans she comes up with next.