Recent Reads: YA and Modern Romance

Cup from Momiji

Hi everyone! Today I'll once again be sharing the books I've recently read. This time it's two young adult books (one of my all time favourite genres) and one that's more of a funny research essay kind of thing.

Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
My boyfriend  was actually the one who pointed this out to me. He really wanted to watch the movie of it so we went to see it at a theater downtown a few weeks ago. It was a great movie and especially Earl was hilarious. As usual though, the book is SO MUCH BETTER. Earl is even funnier. In short the story is about two guys who make movies together and a girl who has leukemia. The storyline is a little different from the movie. Thinking about it, there were some parts in the movie I really wish would've been in the book! In a way it's a funnier, more cynical and more down to earth version of The Fault in Our Stars if I were to compare it to anything (the movie of that completely ruined my love for the book, and it's the same case for Paper Towns. Ugh). It was a great, unpretentious and funny read that I would definitely recommend you put on your summer reading list!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowel
I heard so much about this book that I simply felt like I was obliged to read it. Now, I'm obviously a little outside of the age group for YA readers, but usually it still works just fine. This was probably the first book I felt way too old to be reading it. It kinda felt like reading my diary when I was 12 years old and obsessing over every little thing my crushes were doing. It was just too much for me. Too cliché, too cutesy, too dramatic. Did it remind me of having my first crush? Yes it did. Would I have enjoyed this book 10 years ago? I most likely would have. But as a twenty something it was just too much..

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
You may know Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation. He's a hilarious comedian and as it turns out, a writer too! Once again my boyfriend picked out this book to read, but then I kinda stole it from him when I didn't have anything else to read and got completely sucked in. This book compared love and romance in the old days to our new, modern, digital love world.It was very interesting, shocking and sometimes even sad. But then Aziz would throw in a joke here and there and you could laugh it off and not feel as bad as the pretty sad state this world is in. At least, that's my opinion. Yeah we have a lot of options now and can find our 'perfect match'. But maybe what we think we want, isn't really what we want or think we need. It's also a lot harder to commit yourself to someone, more fear that you're missing out. You browse through instagram and see all these other potential partners and wonder if you really made the 'perfect' choice. Cheating is easier, lying is, leading a double life is. But then again, I most likely never would've met my boyfriend if it weren't for the internet. So there's that. I definitely recommend reading this if you need something different from the usual fiction and fairy tales, or if you just want to laugh out loud while reading a book!

I think I'm done with reading YA fiction for a little bit now. I really want to read At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen next. I loved Water For Elephants and Ape House so I'm sure I can't go wrong with that!