Just One Day, by Gayle Forman (2013)

What if Shakespeare had it wrong?

Allyson Healy has just graduated from high school.  Her life is planned and organized so that she'll begin college in the fall and study pre-med.  Her parents gave her a three-week "adventure" in Europe as a high school graduation present.  Every minute of the trip was organized, planned, and prepped.  Until Allyson met Willem.

"They subbed Budapest in for Paris," I say.  "And I liked Budapest, but I can't believe I'm this close to Paris and not going."

Willem looks at me intently.  He twists the tie on his backpack around his finger.  "So go," he says.

Allyson is stunned.  Willem has given her a nickname, Lulu.

"So, Lulu?  What do you say?  You want to go to Paris?  For just one day?"

It's totally crazy.  I don't even know him.  And I could get caught.  And how much of Paris can you see in just one day?  And this could all go disastrously wrong in so many ways.  All of that is true.  I know it is.  But it doesn't change the fact that I want to go.

So this time, instead of saying no, I try something different.

I say yes.

Follow Allyson's one day in Paris.  

Rating:  8 out 10 stars
* language, sexual inferences, underage alcohol

To check out this read at NOLS, click HERE!

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The companion novel:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan (2010)

When I was little, my dad used to tell me, "Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."  This seemed like a reasonably astute observation to me when I was eight, but it turns out to be incorrect on a few levels.  To begin with, you cannot possibly pick your friends, or else I never would have ended up with Tiny Cooper.

In a strange set of circumstances, two strangers meet.  Both are named Will Grayson.  Narrated from each teen's point of view, climb into the world of Will Grayson.

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*language, underage drinking, sexual references, gay slurs, crude humor

Goodreads

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage (2012)

Trouble cruised into Tupelo landing at exactly seven minutes past noon on Wednesday, the third of June, flashing a gold badge and driving a Chevy Impala the color of dirt.  Almost before the dust had settled, Mr. Jesse turned up dead and life in Tupelo Landing turned upside down.

Tupelo Landing, North Carolina.  Population 148.

Miss Moses LoBeau is a 6th grader.  She lives with the Colonel and Miss Lana.  They are the closest things to parents that Mo has.

I was born eleven years ago, during one of the meanest hurricanes in history.  That night as people slept, they say, the rivers rose like a mutiny and pushed ashore, shouldering houses off foundations, lifting the dead from graves, gulping down lives like fresh-shucked oysters.

Some say I was born unlucky that night.  Not me.  I say I was three times lucky.

Lucky once when my Upstream Mother tied me to a makeshift raft and sent me swirling downstream to safety.  Lucky twice when the Colonel crashed his car and stumbled to the creek just in time to snatch me from the flood.  Lucky three times when Miss Lana took me in like I was her own and kept me.

Trouble comes with Detective Joe Starr comes to town.  And then Mr. Jesse is murdered.  Three Times Lucky tells the story from Mo's point of view of her quirky town as she solves the mystery behind Mr. Jesse's murder.

I loved this book!

Rating:  10 out of 10

Goodreads

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (2006)

The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath.  Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never to do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down.

Child prodigy Colin Singleton has only dated girls who are named Katherine.  And he's been dumped by 19 girls named Katherine.  His best friend Hassan tries to help Colin with the aftermath of Katherine XIX.

Hassan stood up and abruptly moved to serious mode.  "So, what's the problem exactly?"

"The problem exactly is that she dumped me.  That I'm alone.  Oh my God, I'm alone again.  And not only that, but I'm a total failure in case you haven't noticed.  I'm washed up, I'm former.  Formerly the boyfriend of Katherine XIX.  Formerly a prodigy.  Formerly full of potential..."

Hassan has a solution to help Colin's heartbreak.

"Kafir, you have a very complicated problem with a very simple solution."

Follow Collin and Hassan as they go on an adventurous road trip.  I literally laughed out loud while reading this novel.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual reference, crude humor

Goodreads

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!