BOOK REVIEW: Where There's Hope: Healing, Moving Forward, and Never Giving Up, Elizabeth Smart

★★★★★

I vaguely remember the media coverage surrounding Elizabeth Smart's disappearance and subsequent rescue. She's only a year older than I am, and I didn't really pay attention to news until I got to high school at least. I remember her disappearance and her eventual rescue, but I didn't know any of the details. When I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway, I decided it'd be better to have more of an understanding of her ordeal. I listened to My Story on audiobook and found it moving and uplifting.

The subject of Where There's Hope: Healing, Moving Forward, and Never Giving Up is fairly self-explanatory. What I appreciated most about the book, though, is that it's not just Smart's story of moving on from her ordeal. In each chapter, she interviews one or two people who have been through or are currently dealing with difficult circumstances, and she doesn't shy away from those whose stories are far different than her own. In this way, it's not Smart telling the reader there's only one way to move on and that's her way. Instead, she presents other peoples' stories and examples in ways that allow the reader to see there are many roads to recovery. I also found the book to be well structured. Smart uses the interviews as well as her own experiences to highlight the themes of each chapter, among them hope, loss, faith, forgiveness, and more.

The one quibble I had is that during one chapter, a mother who lost her daughter to suicide after not being weaned off properly advises alternatives to antidepressants such as exercise and being in nature. The truth is just that everyone needs a different combination of healing options. While certain people do react poorly to antidepressants, they're extremely helpful for other people. I just think it's a tricky topic and Smart could've spent a bit more time on it.

Nonfiction, especially titles in the self-help category, tends to be subjective in a different way than fiction, so I find that I can't really judge this book or recommend it in the way I do novels. The only thing I can say is that if you are even a little bit intrigued, it's probably worth picking up.

Overall, I really enjoyed this reading experience. I dogeared a lot of pages and quotes to return to. I'm probably going to pass this on to my mom because I think she'd appreciate it, too. One of the marks of a really good book, for me, is if it keeps me thinking afterward, and this one certainly has.

GIVEAWAYS: The Stroke of Thirteen

For the release of The Stroke of Thirteen, I'm giving away four copies total! A Goodreads giveaway will run from July 13th through July 21st for one print copy. Starting tomorrow, you can enter using the link below.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Stroke of Thirteen

by Carrie Gessner

Giveaway ends July 21, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

If you prefer to read electronically, I'm giving away three Kindle copies through Amazon. That giveaway also runs through the 21st. 

Book Review: The She Code, by Chris Marie Green

I received a copy of this via a Goodreads giveaway.

I was intrigued by the premise because, let’s face it, nerd girls are not often used as heroines in their own right. The heroine in question is Mandy Halsey, who works as a receptionist at Gaslight Comics and aspires to become an artist there. She also lives her life by a girl code, which her best friend and roommate, Sheila, is dangerously close to breaking. Mandy’s not exactly forward when it comes to men, but Sheila, who should know Mandy’s cues after being friends for so long, keeps making moves on her crushes. While dealing with the terrible but common problem of a friendship falling apart, Mandy also has to tackle the reappearance of her father in her life, her crush on the cute but unavailable neighbor guy, the attentions of her mysterious boss, and the general awfulness that is growing up.

There’s a lot going on in this book, so much so that for a long time, I wasn’t quite clear on what the primary story was and which were the subplots. That uncertainty was part of what kept me reading. I could have done without the fake-out regarding Mandy’s ex-boyfriend toward the end, but other than that, the storylines came together well. The meandering pace contributed to Mandy’s struggle to figure it all out. I’m sure not every twenty-something’s life is spiraling out of control, but I found it relatable.

However, the multiple storylines crowd the story so much that Green doesn’t have room to flesh some of them out. I loved Didi, Mandy’s new friend at Gaslight, but we barely saw her. For a story that focused so much on friendship, I would have loved to see Didi be a bigger part of it. In a similar vein, the conclusion to the boss taking interest in Mandy’s work seemed to be there just to wrap it up.

Overall, I liked the message that no matter how much you want to hold on to something, sometimes it’s better, though not easier, to let it go. You can’t grow if you’re held down, and that’s something many of us ‘new adults’ need to learn. I also appreciated that Mandy is allowed to be geeky without apologizing for it. The book featured comics by Billy Martinez of Neko Press Comics, which were a neat way to show Mandy’s professional and personal progress. The She Code was a fun, light read, perfect for summer reading in the sunshine.