Rainy Day Reads

TBR Jar review: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan I’m really pleased I finally got around to reading this. I’ve never read anything by Levithan before, but I was pleased with what I read, so I look forward to more from him.  This book is centered around two boys kissing. Harry and Craig used to be a couple, but they are not anymore. When Craig gets the idea to go for the world record for longest kiss, Harry is there to help and support. As they kiss we meet a number of boys trying to navigate a world where so many people think that who they are is wrong. All the main characters of this book are gay, and each has his own struggles trying to fit in or finding the courage to stand out. Their struggles are followed with avid interest by the spirits of all the men who died of AIDS in the 1980s. These men put a wider perspective to each boy’s own personal struggle, and I thought that was a really interesting concept.  Although we don’t really get to know the char...

This was my latest pick from my TBR Jar and I looked forward to reading it as I really enjoyed reading "Before I Fall" by the same author. This book is about Lena who lives in the United States a number of years in the future. In this future people undergo a "cure" when they turn 18, ensuring that they won't contract the "disease" that is love. This cure is essentially a lobotomy that leaves people docile and dispassionate, "protected" from the throes of not just love but any strong feeling. It's not really clear to me why the government thought that this "cure" was necessary in the first place, but apparently they deemed it important. Lena is looking forward to being cured as her mother was smitten and killed herself when Lena was younger, and now Lena is afraid of ending up like her. Of course, in the last summer before her cure, she meets a boy. But not just any boy. Thi particular boy turns out to be exactly what she...