Miss Lowe's Book Nook

This week I read the new hit on the indie circuit- Me and Earl & The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but it blew everything I even sort of thought out of the water. I laughed out loud nearly every single page. (People commented on my laughter because it was so obnoxious.) The subject wasn't too laughable itself, but the writing style and asides were HILARIOUS. Our main character, Greg, is The King of Blending In. He's everybody's friend and yet nobody's friend. His only real sort-of friend is Earl, a tough, chain-smoking, tiny, cursing burrito of anger. (I LOVED HIM.) They make films together and are generally disgusting and hilarious. Greg is our narrator, and the first few chapters were dedicated to introductions and backstory. Usually I'm not a huge fan of this, but Greg's self-depreciation and Earl's foul mouth made for an entertaining ride that I quite enjoyed. The meat of the story sounds like the beg...

My brain hurts thanks to this book. Megan Shepherd's The Cage  is pretty twisted. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not. The concept was really cool- Cora, an American girl, and five other international sixteen-year-olds are abducted by aliens called the Kindred. They wake up in a freakish world that contains a desert, a jungle, a farm, and other biomes that don't really mesh. All Cora wants to do is escape for this strange world that makes her brain hurt. But the odd climates and the stores in the tiny hodgepodge town are full of puzzles. The six are supposed to solve them, and follow three rules. If they don't follow all three within 21 days, they will be "removed". Without my giving anything away, Cora does everything she can do to escape before the 21-day mark.  Overall, sounds cool, right? It was more of an "eh" for me. For some reason, while the majority of the chapters are told from Cora's perspective, every few is from the...

After a long hiatus, I return with a stunning read- Diamond Boy by Michael Williams. When I first picked up this book, I wasn't really expecting to be wowed. It sounded interesting enough, but I really just though I was lacking in the semi-historical fiction department. But this book delivered. We are spun a tale of change, desperation, hope, tragedy, and rebirth. The book seems to begin slowly, but within a chapter or two I could barely but the book down! Patson Moyo is our main character, a young boy from Zimbabwe. At the beginning of the story, he and his family are traveling to a new home. Many obstacles ensue, and they end up arriving on the doorstep of his step-uncle, who runs a diamond mine. When other options fall through, Patson and his father end up working for the mine. We experience everything from Patson's POV, in first person, which makes the story all the more personal. Williams' writing surprised me with its deftness- I could imagine the entire story with ...