The Hate List-Brown (Book #17)

A powerful YA book about a girl who is living with the after effects of her boyfriend performing a "Columbine-like" massacre on the students that had picked on him and Valerie, his girlfriend, for years. Valerie and him had compiled a notebook with a list of people they hated. It was from this list that her boyfriend picked his victims. Though Valerie never knew he would use the list as anything more than a tool to vent with, she is looked at with suspicion when she returns to school not only from teachers and classmates, but from her own parents who also not-so-secretly blame her for what happened. This is a story about healing and forgiving oneself. I enjoyed it though it followed a very predictable format for me. Still, over all, a poignantly written novel.

Up a Road Slowly - Hunt (Book #60)

In the lovely book Shadow of the Wind, the author describes how the first book a reader reads and loves remains forever in their hearts much like first love. I agree and this statement prompted me to turn to Up A Road Slowly for a re-read, perhaps my fifteen re-read since childhood. This is a young adult tale of growing up. The story finds Julie, seven years old, recovering from an illness that took her mother's life and hysterical with grief and fear. She is taken five miles up the road into the country to be raised by her spinster aunt Cordelia because Julie's father is busy teaching and her eldest sister busy with school. Julie hates it there at first but overtime she grows up in the home and this is a gentle, slow story about the pain of growing up and the lessons we learn along the way. This book held magic for me as a child and now as I read it fully grown reading this book felt like visiting my childhood once again.

Harry Potter Book 7- Rowling (Book #56)

Unless you've lived under a rock you've likely heard of Harry Potter. This was my second read of Book 7 but I kind of needed to lose myself in a good book and though its a bit lengthy particularly considering I'm on a 100 book challenge and falling behind, it was worth the detour. Not much to say by way of summary except she touches on many issues that go beyond the wizarding world and her last book is by far my favorite.

Confetti Girl- Lopez (Book #44)

I finished this book wanting to give it a standing ovation. This book was beautiful, flawless. This is a YA novel about Lina, and her life after losing her mother. She lives with her father, a book aficianado who is coping with his wife's loss by turning to his books and fumbling with all sincerity to be a good father and mother. Her best friend lives across the street with a single mother who begins the novel hating men and making confetti eggs. This is a snapshot of the life of a middle schooler dealing with love and loss. I wept at least three times reading this book. The writer has a gift with words, and I plan to buy this book one day.

I've tasted tears before. They're salty, just like the water below, and I wonder if the ocean is made of tears from all the peple and all the animals that have lost their mothers. After a while my dad comes and sits beside me. "I miss her," I say. "He says, I miss her too, m'ija." Then he puts his arm around me and we spend a few minutes filling the ocean together.

On Hearts: real hearts are reddish purple -- like bruises. No wonder it hurts to love.