Contemporaries I Want to Read

A few weeks ago, I did a wrote a blog post where I talked about some classics that I want to read.  I enjoyed writing that, so I thought I would continue the trend and talk about some contemporaries that I want to read!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family, and first love.  Cath is a Simon Snow fan.  Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…  But for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she’s really good at it.  She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.  Reading.  Rereading.  Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.  Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go.  She doesn’t want to.  Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates.  Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone.  She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words…  And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.  For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?  Can she make it without Wren holding her hand?  Is she ready to start living her own life?  Writing her own stories?  And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Fangirl is one of the most beloved books in the reading community, and I’m almost a little ashamed to admit that I haven’t read it yet.  It’s been on my TBR for awhile, though, and I definitely want to pick it up soon.  I’m almost the same age and in the same place in my life as Cath is in hers during this book.  I’m a senior in high school, so the upcoming year is going to be a big transition for me.  From what I know about it, this book deals a lot with that (along with all of the fangirl stuff, of course).  I think reading about someone going through that time of change will be something that could help me get to the next stage of my life.

I’m also excited to read about Cath because of all the fangirl aspects of her character.  That’s something I can identify with (although I’ve never been enough of a fan of anything to write or read fanfiction about it).  I think I’ll identify with her a lot.  I can’t wait to see if this book lives up to its hype!

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous.  Basically, I’m allergic to the world.  I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years.  The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.  But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door.  I look out my window, and I see him.  He’s tall, lean and wearing all black-black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit hat that covers his hair completely.  He catches me looking and stares at me.  I stare right back.  His name is Olly.  Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things.  For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly.  It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Nicola Yoon is an author whose books having been getting so much buzz lately, but I have yet to read either of them.  The premise of Everything, Everything is so unique, and I’m interested to see how everything plays out.  Also, I know that this is being made into a movie with Nick Robinson and Amandla Stenberg.  I’m a big believer in reading the book before seeing the movie (because, let’s face it, the book is almost always better), so I definitely want to pick this up before that comes out!

Sidenote: the cover of this book is so gorgeous!  I love how simple yet colorful it is.

Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman

Anise Sawyer plans to spend every minute of summer with her friends: surfing, chowing down on fish tacos drizzled with wasabi balsamic vinegar, and throwing bonfires that blaze until dawn.  But when a serious car wreck leaves her aunt, a single mother of three, with two broken legs, it forces Anise to say goodbye for the first time to Santa Cruz, the waves, her friends, and even a kindling romance, and fly with her dad to Nebraska for the entire summer.  Living in Nebraska isn’t easy.  Anise spends her days caring for her three younger cousins in the childhood home of her runaway mom, a wild figure who’s been flickering in and out of her life since birth, appearing for weeks at a time and then disappearing again for months, or even years, without a word.  Complicating matters is Lincoln, a one-armed, charismatic skater who pushes Anise to trade her surfboard for a skateboard.  As Anise draws closer to Lincoln and takes on the full burden and joy of her cousins, she loses touch with her friends back home – leading her to one terrifying question: will she turn out just like her mom and spend her life leaving behind the ones she loves?

This book isn’t quite out yet (according to Goodreads, it comes out on May 2), but I will be snatching up a copy as soon as it’s published.  This seems like the perfect summertime read.  I mean, just look at that cover.  You can’t look at that without thinking of the warm sun and gentle breezes that summer brings.

I always like it when the contemporaries that I read are more than just happy, fluffy books (although, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with cute, fluffy stories in my eyes).

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen…  Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy.  When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy’s funeral has just ended.  Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist-even if they don’t understand her peculiar need for books.  Marooned in a farm town that’s almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend’s memory.  All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life.  But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town.  Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love.

I’m obviously a book lover, so reading a book about someone who loves books and starts a bookstore sounds like a dream.  Granted, this book doesn’t have the best reviews on Goodreads, they’re kind of middle-of-the-road, but I still want to give it a chance and see what my opinion of it is.

It sounds cute, heart-warming, and just the kind of contemporary I like to read.

Girls in the Moon by Janet McNally

An exquisitely told, authentic YA debut about family secrets, the shadow of fame, and finding your own way.  Everyone in Phoebe Ferris’s life tells a different version of the truth.  Her mother, Meg, ex-rock star and professional question evader, shares only the end of the story-the post-fame calm that Phoebe’s always known.  Her sister, Luna, indie-rock darling of Brooklyn, preaches a stormy truth of her own making, selectively ignoring the facts she doesn’t like.  And her father, Kieran, the cofounder of Meg’s beloved band, hasn’t said anything at all since he stopped calling three years ago.  But Pheobe, a budding poet in search of an identity to call her own, is tired of half-truths and vague explanations.  When she visits Luna in New York, she’s determined to find out how she fits in to this family of storytellers, and to maybe even continue her own tale-the one with the musician boy she’s been secretly writing for months.  Told in alternating chapters, Phoebe’s first adventure flows as the story of Meg and Kieran’s romance ebbs, leaving behind only a time-worn, precious pearl of truth about her family’s past-and leaving Phoebe to take a leap into her own unknown future.

This is another book that has been getting a lot of buzz recently.  The premise of the story is so interesting, and I’m intrigued to see what the truth that Phoebe is searching for turns out to be.  I love music, and Girls in the Moon obviously has a lot about music in it.

Also, this is another cover that makes me turn into the heart-eyed emoji.

Those are five of the contemporary books I want to read!  Let me know what contemporaries you are interested in picking up!  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks so much for reading!