Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney

*Disclosure of material connection- I received the book in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book- 

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by debut author Joya Goffney is an own voices story of an overly enthusiastic list maker who is blackmailed into completing a to-do list of all her worst fears. It’s a heartfelt, tortured, contemporary YA high school romance. Fans of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Kristina Forest’s I Wanna Be Where You Are will love the juicy secrets and leap-off-the-page sexual tension.

Quinn keeps lists of everything—from the days she’s ugly cried, to “Things That I Would Never Admit Out Loud” and all the boys she’d like to kiss. Her lists keep her sane. By writing her fears on paper, she never has to face them in real life. That is, until her journal goes missing . . .

Then an anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram for the whole school to see and blackmails her into facing seven of her greatest fears, or else her entire journal will go public. Quinn doesn’t know who to trust. Desperate, she teams up with Carter Bennett—the last known person to have her journal—in a race against time to track down the blackmailer.

Together, they journey through everything Quinn’s been too afraid to face, and along the way, Quinn finds the courage to be honest, to live in the moment, and to fall in love.

My thoughts-

I think I will be forever drawn to young adult novels. I think people that count them out because they have "young" in the description are missing out tremendously. Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry is a prime example of why I love this genre. It is full of raw emotion, and learning about the world and I think we can all use a little bit more of the latter. My favorite thing about this book was all of the lists. They really help bind the novel together and really help us understand Quinn. Another thing that added some drama to the story was her journal being stolen. I always enjoy a good mystery and trying to figure out what happened as the story goes along with the main character. This is definitely a coming of age story that I think anyone can enjoy. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys young adult fiction or contemporary fiction. 

Raised in the kitchen by Carrian Cheney

 

*Disclosure of material connection- I received the book in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book- 

From the time her children were toddlers, family cooking blogger Carrian Cheney found creative ways to get her children interested in cooking, partly to teach them basic kitchen skills so they could be part of the solution when they were hungry and partly to instill in them a joy of creating and presenting delicious meals, as her own mother had taught her.

From food prep to clean-up, this unique cookbook guides the way through every step, including meal lists and easy-to-follow recipes, and features dollops of heartwarming family stories, insights, and kid-friendly food activities to keep young chefs focused on fun in the kitchen.

The book includes 75 recipes that begin with basics such as fried eggs, pizza dough, and baked potatoes. As new cooking skills are learned, the recipes progress to guaranteed kid favorites like chocolate chip pancakes, steak fajitas, and apple dumplings. Recipes are joined with tips to help home chefs master the art of cooking, from stocking a pantry to proper kitchen etiquette and safety to how to add flair to a table setting—even how to coax a picky eater by tempting their tastebuds.

Raised in the Kitchen is a cookbook for parents and kids about much more than learning to love to cook. It’s about bringing families together with cooking memories that will last a lifetime.

My thoughts-

My kids are getting older. They are all in the pre-teen to teen stage but something we have always done is hang out in the kitchen to gether making recipes, so I adored the concept of this book. I thought maybe we could find new recipes for my 11 year old boys who still love to cook both with me and without me now. I love the way the book is set up, starting with simple, basic recipes and progressing into family friendly favorites that might be a little more challenging (yet still doable) for little ones. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends with younger children, and we will also be utilizing some of these recipes in ourkitchen as well! 

The Bad Muslim Discount by Sayeed M. Masood

 

*Disclosure of material connection- I received the book in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book- 

Following two families from Pakistan and Iraq in the 1990s to San Francisco in 2016, The Bad Muslim Discount is an inclusive, comic novel about Muslims immigrants finding their way in modern America.

It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is a restless, rebellious, and sharp-tongued boy doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamentalism takes root within the social order and the zealots next door attempt to make Islam great again, his family decides, not quite unanimously, to start life over in California. Ironically, Anvar's deeply devout mother and his model-Muslim brother adjust easily to life in America, while his fun-loving father can't find anyone he relates to. For his part, Anvar fully commits to being a bad Muslim.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, Safwa, a young girl living in war-torn Baghdad with her grief-stricken, conservative father will find a very different and far more dangerous path to America. When Anvar and Safwa's worlds collide as two remarkable, strong-willed adults, their contradictory, intertwined fates will rock their community, and families, to their core.

The Bad Muslim Discount is an irreverent, poignant, and often hysterically funny debut novel by an amazing new voice. With deep insight, warmth, and an irreverent sense of humor, Syed M. Masood examines universal questions of identity, faith (or lack thereof), and belonging through the lens of Muslim Americans.

My thoughts-

When I am looking for a debut novel, I always look for stories that will help me gain perspective on different types of people. I grew up in a household from the time I was a toddler with a Pakistani Muslim step dad, so sometimes I can relate maybe on a higher level to these types of stories than most white people can, but I also don't pretend that I know exactly how they feel, especially actual first generation immigrants so there is always something new I can learn, even in a culture I am familiar with. I absolutely loved this book. Parts of it were incredibly difficult to get through, not because it wasn't well written, because it was, but because of the content, but it was necessary to the story. We can't just brush over the challenges in life for the sake of a pretty novel wrapped up with a neat bow (I say this because I saw a review about this same novel being too difficult to read for sensitive readers. It is a story that needs to be told none the less). The main characters were all relatable, they were all fallible humans, struggling with living their lives, and that is something I think most adult people can relate to, even if not on the same drastic level as these characters. Anvar keep's the story moving as the character that ties everyone together and lightens things up with his humor which was much appreciated. I like that the story begins with Anvar in Pakistan and Safwa in Iraq during their earlier years. It really helps depict why the characters are the way they are. I thought this an excellent debut, and I look forward to more stories from the author in the future.