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mehsi's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars!
Short review:
This book was wonderful, it is about a girl who can speak various languages, High School, Friends, Break-ups and more, but all she wants is to speak in her Native Language. And she also wants to know the language of love.
I really liked Josie, though I felt like she was a bit obnoxious at times with how smart she was. I also felt like she was making fun of people and how they speak. Don't get me wrong, I liked the idea of various languages, but I felt that when she had to translate she had to dumb down and go to their level. And that was a shame. I also didn't like how she behaved towards the boyfriend/fiancé of her sister (though, granted, he behaved like a total ass at times and was in many ways quite similar to her (though of course she doesn't think so)). I loved her relationship with her dad (they were great together). I was however sad with the ending and whom she ended with. I had hoped someone else, though the hints were strewn through the book (even at the beginning), but one can hope for a change. :)
But for most part I was cheering for Josie. Hoping she would find someone to love.
I seriously disliked, no hated, the sister. My God. She was making mean remarks towards her little sister. Nothing seems to be good for her. I felt sorry for Josie, and also found it strange that the parents barely did anything against this.
I also didn't like how Kate changed, at the beginning I kind of liked her, but that was soon over. She was a total bitch, and I didn't like how she treated her sister like a baby. Even discussing things Josie talked to with her sister with her fiancé and also with other family members. I mean, what? Why are you discussing it with him? Why are you acting like you are a parent? Why are you doing all that? But she got what she deserved (at the wedding), so I am happy.
All in all a fun book, and I would really recommend it.
Review first posted on http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Short review:
This book was wonderful, it is about a girl who can speak various languages, High School, Friends, Break-ups and more, but all she wants is to speak in her Native Language. And she also wants to know the language of love.
I really liked Josie, though I felt like she was a bit obnoxious at times with how smart she was. I also felt like she was making fun of people and how they speak. Don't get me wrong, I liked the idea of various languages, but I felt that when she had to translate she had to dumb down and go to their level. And that was a shame. I also didn't like how she behaved towards the boyfriend/fiancé of her sister (though, granted, he behaved like a total ass at times and was in many ways quite similar to her (though of course she doesn't think so)). I loved her relationship with her dad (they were great together). I was however sad with the ending and whom she ended with. I had hoped someone else, though the hints were strewn through the book (even at the beginning), but one can hope for a change. :)
But for most part I was cheering for Josie. Hoping she would find someone to love.
I seriously disliked, no hated, the sister. My God. She was making mean remarks towards her little sister. Nothing seems to be good for her. I felt sorry for Josie, and also found it strange that the parents barely did anything against this.
I also didn't like how Kate changed, at the beginning I kind of liked her, but that was soon over. She was a total bitch, and I didn't like how she treated her sister like a baby. Even discussing things Josie talked to with her sister with her fiancé and also with other family members. I mean, what? Why are you discussing it with him? Why are you acting like you are a parent? Why are you doing all that? But she got what she deserved (at the wedding), so I am happy.
All in all a fun book, and I would really recommend it.
Review first posted on http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
kathydubs10's review against another edition
5.0
I randomly picked this up at my local library because I thought the cover looked interesting (I know, I know).
I have to say though, that this is the best book that I have read in a long, long time. Even though I think the description of how Josie thinks may be too descriptive at times, it really helps with the understanding of her character. Overall, Josie is so very, very relateable. All of the characters in this book were great, and I thought it was all really well connected by the end of the book. A+!
I have to say though, that this is the best book that I have read in a long, long time. Even though I think the description of how Josie thinks may be too descriptive at times, it really helps with the understanding of her character. Overall, Josie is so very, very relateable. All of the characters in this book were great, and I thought it was all really well connected by the end of the book. A+!
paug's review against another edition
2.0
Creo que desde que comente ayer, cuando puse lo que opinaba de la mitad del libro, me sentí bastante fastidiada con nuestra protagonista.
A partir de unas paginas más adelante, estaba el esperado giro, conoce a lo que podría ser un posible enamorado y eso cambia mucho las cosas para ella.
Cambia su verborragia insoportable, por pensamientos mas reflexivos y por silencios mas pensados.
Pero ahora la que entra a ser un fastidio es su hermana Kate, que se comporta como si tuviera 5 años.
La verdad es que empiezan una guerra bantate boba, donde se rebaja a pelear con una persona 10 años más chica.
Un libro que lo único que me dejo fue la reflexión de que el amor es un termino ambiguo que hay que aprender a interpretar, porque no siempre lo hacemos de la forma correcta.
Dejando eso de lado, me pareció un libro pasativo, no me dejo gran cosa.
A partir de unas paginas más adelante, estaba el esperado giro, conoce a lo que podría ser un posible enamorado y eso cambia mucho las cosas para ella.
Cambia su verborragia insoportable, por pensamientos mas reflexivos y por silencios mas pensados.
Pero ahora la que entra a ser un fastidio es su hermana Kate, que se comporta como si tuviera 5 años.
La verdad es que empiezan una guerra bantate boba, donde se rebaja a pelear con una persona 10 años más chica.
Un libro que lo único que me dejo fue la reflexión de que el amor es un termino ambiguo que hay que aprender a interpretar, porque no siempre lo hacemos de la forma correcta.
Dejando eso de lado, me pareció un libro pasativo, no me dejo gran cosa.
bluebeereads's review against another edition
4.0
Quite The Novel Idea ~ Words from the Clouds
Well, this was a nice surprise! Why aren't more people talking about this book?? I would've read it much sooner, which means I would've been able to gush about it sooner too. Honestly, you're all letting me down. Let me pause this review to shake my head in disappointed and tut at all of you. Because Love & Other Foreign Words is absolutely adorable and sweet and heartfelt and funny and you should read it. Let me tell you why in more detail so you really get the message, okay? Okay.
♦ It has nice writing that's easy to read and will keep you hooked the whole time. Yes, this is in the writing-style that I so adore that seems easy to write but actually is not at all. It's very realistic with great dialogue and gives you feels. What more do you want, honestly?
♦ It's FUNNY. Yes, it is! I love funny books! And this one was very funny to me. Josie's voice and her humor were SO my style and I loved it and I laughed and I love it when a book can make me laugh like this.
♦ The family dynamics in this book are golden. There's sister-love and awesome parents and I love it. I love awesome parents in YA! Josie's dad was the best and I loved him. I also loved her sisters and all their bonds and just YASSSS. Give me all the family love.
♦ All the characters! So much love for them. I loved Stu and Sophie and Jen and Stefan and even Geoff grew on me after a while. All the side-characters were great, honestly. I loved their friendship with Josie and each other and while Geoff annoyed me at first, he grew on me too as I got to know him.
♦ Josie is a fantastic main character. She's just so amazing really. I adore her. She's supersmart, which makes her a bit different from other people and she thinks differently. But she's also very funny and sweet and kind of quirky and I related to her in a lot of ways. I really felt for her and rooted for her all the way.
♦ I love how it accurately portrays someone that's above average intelligence. Because life is different for them. They think differently and sometimes they can come across as autistic to some people and I love how this book handled all of that stuff.
♦ I also loved that this book didn't have the straight-forward romance between two people while also not going all love-triangle on us. It's hard to explain but ultimately the romance was very well done and it was very cute and I ship it a lot.
Yes, you should check this book out. It's funny, heartfelt, cute, very focused on family and friendship, but also on growing up and all that stuff. You know, like a lot of books. But this one does it in a very very nice way. If you are a YA Contemporary fan, you should absolutely read it. Please and thank you.
Well, this was a nice surprise! Why aren't more people talking about this book?? I would've read it much sooner, which means I would've been able to gush about it sooner too. Honestly, you're all letting me down. Let me pause this review to shake my head in disappointed and tut at all of you. Because Love & Other Foreign Words is absolutely adorable and sweet and heartfelt and funny and you should read it. Let me tell you why in more detail so you really get the message, okay? Okay.
♦ It has nice writing that's easy to read and will keep you hooked the whole time. Yes, this is in the writing-style that I so adore that seems easy to write but actually is not at all. It's very realistic with great dialogue and gives you feels. What more do you want, honestly?
♦ It's FUNNY. Yes, it is! I love funny books! And this one was very funny to me. Josie's voice and her humor were SO my style and I loved it and I laughed and I love it when a book can make me laugh like this.
♦ The family dynamics in this book are golden. There's sister-love and awesome parents and I love it. I love awesome parents in YA! Josie's dad was the best and I loved him. I also loved her sisters and all their bonds and just YASSSS. Give me all the family love.
♦ All the characters! So much love for them. I loved Stu and Sophie and Jen and Stefan and even Geoff grew on me after a while. All the side-characters were great, honestly. I loved their friendship with Josie and each other and while Geoff annoyed me at first, he grew on me too as I got to know him.
♦ Josie is a fantastic main character. She's just so amazing really. I adore her. She's supersmart, which makes her a bit different from other people and she thinks differently. But she's also very funny and sweet and kind of quirky and I related to her in a lot of ways. I really felt for her and rooted for her all the way.
♦ I love how it accurately portrays someone that's above average intelligence. Because life is different for them. They think differently and sometimes they can come across as autistic to some people and I love how this book handled all of that stuff.
♦ I also loved that this book didn't have the straight-forward romance between two people while also not going all love-triangle on us. It's hard to explain but ultimately the romance was very well done and it was very cute and I ship it a lot.
Yes, you should check this book out. It's funny, heartfelt, cute, very focused on family and friendship, but also on growing up and all that stuff. You know, like a lot of books. But this one does it in a very very nice way. If you are a YA Contemporary fan, you should absolutely read it. Please and thank you.
jinginsg's review against another edition
4.0
It was good, well written. Didnt like that it was too PG though and seemed church-ish. Made me learn about lds fiction. So i guess this is it. Otherwise, enjoyed the story immensely. I also wish she and Stu got together faster. The main character felt like Celeste from Flat Out Love, but Flat Out Love this ain't.
si_hui_olive's review against another edition
4.0
I really really enjoyed this book.
Josie is a great character, I love her personality, the way she thinks and the thing she says.
The ending especially was great. Even though its a cliche to have a boy and girl best friend fall in love eventually this one didn't feel typical.
Its a sweet, hilarious and insightful book. 4/5
Josie is a great character, I love her personality, the way she thinks and the thing she says.
The ending especially was great. Even though its a cliche to have a boy and girl best friend fall in love eventually this one didn't feel typical.
Its a sweet, hilarious and insightful book. 4/5
coranada's review against another edition
3.0
I have a lot of feelings about this book. At first it was hard to get into for me. As it went on, I found myself thinking about it a lot between reading. If there's a book that *should* be a bit hard to get into it would be this one because it fits as part of the characterization. I both rooted for and disliked the main character, often feeling both at the same time. This also fits the characterization to me. Honestly this is one I intend to read again later. Part of the ending was obvious from page one while the other part surprised me. Without being spoilery, I'll just say it would be a good discussion book.
angievdbroeck's review against another edition
4.0
Review verschijnt op mijn blog! https://boenkerop.wordpress.com/
bookph1le's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. More complete review to come.
Full review:
After feeling like I've been in a bit of a slump with YA lately, I'm thrilled to find another contemporary author whose books hit me right where I like to be hit. This book's blurb suggests that fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell will like this book, and for once I agree with a book's blurb. I haven't read much John Green, but I have read everything Rainbow Rowell has written because I love her style, and I can confidently say I think readers who enjoy her work will enjoy this book as well. I'd also throw in that fans of Stephanie Perkins are likely to find a lot to love in this book. Some minor spoilers to follow.
So what is it about this book that ties it to those other authors? A lot of it has to do with the voice. I feel like a lot of people tend to see teenagers are this monolithic entity, as if all teens are exactly the same: partying, staying out late, and making an art of defying their parents. This, however, doesn't offer a complete picture of teenagers. I speak from personal experience as both a former teenager and someone who has worked extensively with teenagers. What's fantastic about this book is that it's about a different sort of teenager, one who's precocious, smart, and mature for her age, but who still has a propensity for screwing up in a big way.
I absolutely adored Josie in all her frustrating, maddening, beautifully flawed wonder. As a highly intelligent and gifted teen, she tends to look at the world from a different perspective from her peers. At first I admit I was a little annoyed by the way the book used languages as a device, but it really does make sense. Over the course of the novel, it becomes apparent how hard it sometimes is for Josie to find her place in the world, so in many ways she is like a foreign visitor trying to talk to the natives, which ultimately makes the language device very apt. There's a core to Josie that she doesn't share with many people as she morphs from one culture to the next, trying her best to fit in but never quite finding her place. This makes her sister's engagement have greater impact, because Josie feels she risks losing one of the few people to see the real her, someone who understands her and loves her not in spite of her quirks, but because of them.
It took me a while to really get what was going on with Kate's fiance, Geoff, but when I did, I admired the brilliance of the writing. I don't want to get too in depth with it as I feel it's one of the major elements of the story. I will say, though, that I often found myself annoyed by how oblivious everyone but Josie seemed to be to Geoff's undesirable traits. McCahan does such a masterful job of weaving the story through Josie's eyes that it took me a while to understand why no one else notices the bad side of Geoff, and when I did figure it out, the payoff was well worth the confusion.
The romance was another element I very much enjoyed. I don't always like romances because I think that many of them focus on the superficial aspects of attraction and love at the expense of the more cerebral aspects, but that's not the case with this book. Josie wants to date and finds herself attracted to a few boys, but she also needs to feel that intellectual connection. This element ties the book strongly to Rainbow Rowell's work, and that of Stephanie Perkins. The romances that appeal the most to me are the ones where it's crystal clear to me why the characters end up together, where I can see how the way they think and their values mesh in a way that goes above and beyond physical attraction. I was rooting for Josie to end up with who she ended up with, because it was clear to me how well the two characters meshed, that they understood one another on a level that no one else understood.
I devoured this book and was sad when I'd finished reading it. I'm excited to add Erin McCahan to my short list of authors whose books I will immediately push to the front of my to-read pile.
Full review:
After feeling like I've been in a bit of a slump with YA lately, I'm thrilled to find another contemporary author whose books hit me right where I like to be hit. This book's blurb suggests that fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell will like this book, and for once I agree with a book's blurb. I haven't read much John Green, but I have read everything Rainbow Rowell has written because I love her style, and I can confidently say I think readers who enjoy her work will enjoy this book as well. I'd also throw in that fans of Stephanie Perkins are likely to find a lot to love in this book. Some minor spoilers to follow.
So what is it about this book that ties it to those other authors? A lot of it has to do with the voice. I feel like a lot of people tend to see teenagers are this monolithic entity, as if all teens are exactly the same: partying, staying out late, and making an art of defying their parents. This, however, doesn't offer a complete picture of teenagers. I speak from personal experience as both a former teenager and someone who has worked extensively with teenagers. What's fantastic about this book is that it's about a different sort of teenager, one who's precocious, smart, and mature for her age, but who still has a propensity for screwing up in a big way.
I absolutely adored Josie in all her frustrating, maddening, beautifully flawed wonder. As a highly intelligent and gifted teen, she tends to look at the world from a different perspective from her peers. At first I admit I was a little annoyed by the way the book used languages as a device, but it really does make sense. Over the course of the novel, it becomes apparent how hard it sometimes is for Josie to find her place in the world, so in many ways she is like a foreign visitor trying to talk to the natives, which ultimately makes the language device very apt. There's a core to Josie that she doesn't share with many people as she morphs from one culture to the next, trying her best to fit in but never quite finding her place. This makes her sister's engagement have greater impact, because Josie feels she risks losing one of the few people to see the real her, someone who understands her and loves her not in spite of her quirks, but because of them.
It took me a while to really get what was going on with Kate's fiance, Geoff, but when I did, I admired the brilliance of the writing. I don't want to get too in depth with it as I feel it's one of the major elements of the story. I will say, though, that I often found myself annoyed by how oblivious everyone but Josie seemed to be to Geoff's undesirable traits. McCahan does such a masterful job of weaving the story through Josie's eyes that it took me a while to understand why no one else notices the bad side of Geoff, and when I did figure it out, the payoff was well worth the confusion.
The romance was another element I very much enjoyed. I don't always like romances because I think that many of them focus on the superficial aspects of attraction and love at the expense of the more cerebral aspects, but that's not the case with this book. Josie wants to date and finds herself attracted to a few boys, but she also needs to feel that intellectual connection. This element ties the book strongly to Rainbow Rowell's work, and that of Stephanie Perkins. The romances that appeal the most to me are the ones where it's crystal clear to me why the characters end up together, where I can see how the way they think and their values mesh in a way that goes above and beyond physical attraction. I was rooting for Josie to end up with who she ended up with, because it was clear to me how well the two characters meshed, that they understood one another on a level that no one else understood.
I devoured this book and was sad when I'd finished reading it. I'm excited to add Erin McCahan to my short list of authors whose books I will immediately push to the front of my to-read pile.