Bookish Thoughts

I feel like I've been hearing about this book for my entire life, so I was surprised to discover that it was published in 2004, after I'd graduated high school. It, and Jodi Picoult, are things I've always written off as something I clearly wouldn't be interested in. Chick lit, tear jerkers, books that I (foolishly) turned my nose up at. Then I found out what this book was about, and I knew that I had to read it as soon as possible. When two-year-old Kate is diagnosed with Leukemia, her parents opt to have another child, one who has been genetically engineered to be the perfect donor match for their sick daughter. Fast forward and 13-year-old Anna, having spent her entire life in and out of hospitals with her sister providing blood and bone marrow and whatever else she needs, has reached her limit. Kate needs a kidney that may or may not save her life and Anna doesn't want to undergo the risky and invasive procedure. So she sues her parents for medical emancipat...

I'd been hearing extraordinary things about John Green's latest novel, The Fault in Our Stars , for a while. They were good enough and numerous enough that I finally decided I simply couldn't wait for the paperback edition. And holy crap you guys, this book. This book . Emotional whiplash in the best possible way. It only took me 14 pages to fall so in love with the main character that I was weeping. A few pages after that the tears turn to laughter. And then Hazel Grace Lancaster went and punched me in the gut with this line: I told Augustus the broad outline of my miracle: diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer when I was thirteen. (I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die.) The rest of the book was a similar roller coaster ride of emotions as Hazel deals with the cancer that is going to kill her (probably sooner than later) and with the fact that she migh...