I was trying to decide on a book, when I came across this one with nesting dolls on the cover, and decided to give it a try.
Stranger Here: How weight loss surgery transformed my body and messed with my head, by Jen Larsen was…sad. It’s a good read, but it is a sad read. It did make me think about how there is no magic bullet to any success. Weight loss surgery is no easier than hitting the gym. There is still a lot of will power required, and possibly even more required thought about food and eating than doing something like Weight Watchers. It isn’t easy to have your insides rearranged, and it isn’t easy to change your life to fit new innards. Even harder is the work required to get your head right because if you don’t love yourself fat, skinny isn’t going to change the self-loathing. And that’s the whole point of Larsen’s memoir.
4 out of 5 stars.
13 Little Blue Envelopes is a book by Maureen Johnson. Clearly, I did not choose this one for the cover. I chose this one because it was $.99 when I bought it, and I was looking for light reading. It is a sweet, but not cloying YA novel that follows 17-year-old Ginny across Europe. I’m not going to tell you anything else about it, other than that I loved it. I loved it so much that I actually clapped when I saw that a sequel had arrived.
The Last Little Blue Envelope follows Ginny back to Europe and introduces new friends. I loved this one, too. Yes, you could see the end coming from the beginning, but it was an end worth getting to, and just as easy and enjoyable as the first. Read this.
4.75 out of 5 stars for both.
I also read Here’s the Story, by Maureen McCormick. I loved Cindy Brady best, but clearly Marcia’s was the hair to have. Her memoir was a little like if Mackenzie Phillips and Melissa Gilbert’s memoirs had a baby. Yeah, let that sink in. Definitely worth reading if you like memoirs, and especially if you grew up watching the Brady Bunch, but not really easy prose.
3.75 out of 5 stars.
The Outside Lane 
Yes I enjoyed Larsen’s book. It was very interesting and true.