The cover got me to check this one out, it’s GORGEOUS. And to be fair, the story is interesting too. Set just far enough in the future that some implausible things can happen (2030), but not so far in the future people aren’t relatable, The Exchange is about time travel exchanges. People from previous times come forward to the year 2030 to live for 3 months in the idea that they can explain how life was where and when they lived. To help them integrate into the world while they’re visiting, the Institute chooses teenagers, who go to high school with their guides. Then they’re sent back to the same day they left with a memory wipe.
Ari hates the Institute, which created the time travel option. She has been known to screw with things in the past, to the point her father’s job is in jeopardy. To help him out, she agrees to become a Guide: a teen that helps a time traveler adjust to life in 2030. She’s assigned James, who’s from Heppner, Oregon, in the year 1903. And against her better judgment, she starts falling for him, and he for her.
The book is set in Pendleston, Oregon, which isn’t all that far from Heppner. The fact James is that close to the Institute is unusual, along with the fact he’s from such a small place. A member of the Institute lets it slip that James being chosen is unusual, which starts some wheels turning in Ari’s head.
The rest of the book moves along at a decent pace, and I really enjoyed it. Ari’s best friend is a pink haired, gay teen named Michael who’s fun in his own right. He’s also a Guide, and his charge, whose name escapes me at the moment, is an activist from the racially charged 1960s. She’s smart and takes no crap, and gets involved in wonder why the Institute works as it does.
Overall, a fun read that I devoured in a few days, with a gorgeous cover. The ending isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, but it does leave it open enough for a sequel.
Harriet The Spy – Louise Fitzhugh
Written in the 60s, and read by me in the 80s, Harriet the Spy is about 11 year old Harriet, who spends her days writing in her notebook about all the people she sees. She comments on her friends, and on the people who she has in her spy route. When her spy notebook falls into the hands of her classmates, things go pear shaped, and Harriet has to cope.
When I was a kid, I loved this book. I thought Harriet was so cool, with her notebook and her slipping in and out of people’s houses. I had to have a dumbwaiter explained to me, and then had to have it explained why we couldn’t put one in the house. I didn’t know what an egg crème was, but it sounded both awesome and disgusting. I found out later it doesn’t have eggs or crème, but still, as a kid I wanted to try one.
As an adult? I want to smack Harriet. She’s loud, she’s obnoxious, and she’s a brat. I get part of why she’s misbehaving is her governess/nanny/whatever, Ole Golly, leaves partway through the book, and her parents don’t really know what to do with her. I feel bad for her for that. She’s raised by Ole Golly, and the Cook, who is a grumpy thing, and she doesn’t relate to her mostly absent parents. But she’s annoying. I wasn’t like that as a kid, so maybe that’s why I can’t relate.
Regardless of the fact I find Harriet annoying as an adult, I think the book is fantastic. It’s one of those books that sticks with you, and you remember for years, even into adulthood. I enjoyed it as a kid because it was a girl doing not normal girl things, and as I wasn’t a girly girl, I could relate to Harriet. Reading it in 2019, I think it holds up, even though a lot of things aren’t as common as they once were.
Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories – Alisa Krasnostein, Julia Rios
Not sure how I found this one, but the title pretty much says it all. The stories are of people of colour, people with disabilities, those whose sexuality isn’t necessarily straight, those who are not neurotypical, or those who gender identity is not as straightforward as some assume. It’s a nice variety of stories involving characters you don’t usually see.
To touch on a few of my favorite stories: “Cookie Cutter Superhero” is how it sounds: there’s a machine that makes superheroes, and every 6 months, someone is called up to become the new super hero. In this case, it’s Joey, and everyone’s sure she’ll be the new token chick of the group. They also assume that her arm, her curve, as she calls it, will be fixed to have a hand on it.
I loved this one because it’s a super hero story, but it’s a unique one, and as you might expect, the ending isn’t what you assume will happen. I love it ends with her joining the super hero group, and we get to wonder what’s next.
“Vanilla” is another one I loved, where Kylie befriends the !gontok at her school, a race of aliens whose planet has died. They have petitioned, and been allowed, to live on earth, and assimilate as best they can. Kylie isn’t afraid of them, like a lot of others are, and befriends two of them.
This one has an ending I started to see, but it was still fun to read. It’s told in journal entries, which I enjoy, although only in short story format. In this case, it’s perfect.
“Careful” is another one I enjoyed. It explores Chaos and Order magic through the eyes of a teen with OCD. There’s a problem needing taken care of, with an unexpected twist.
This one resonates with me. I’ve had to talk to my doctor in the past about my own OCD tendencies, and while I can keep most of them under control, I can relate to the heroine of the book. Plus, the magic in this one is neat. Chaos and Order, what’s not to like?
Of the rest of the stories, some I loved, some I didn’t. “The Legend Trap” confused me, because it deals with alternate reality and quantum physics and all this stuff that’s far smarter than I am. And, there’s some gore in it, which made me uneasy.
“Walkdog” made me sad. It’s an essay about the Walkdog, a supernatural creature, but it’s more than that. The essay’s author is a friend of the nephew of the teacher, and we get to experience not only the Walkdog, but her friendship with him at the same time. It’s not a happy story.
“Double Time” was a time travel story that was smarter than I am. It’s about figure skating, which I know little about, but the time travel aspect was fun. Trying to keep the current and past/future/older/younger versions straight gave me a headache though.
The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying Fuck About You, You Are Dying, and Your World Is a Lie, and Disobey – Johnny B. Truant
I’d wanted to read Tuant’s series of essays for a while, so when I saw they were trending in 15 minute reads, I picked them up. Free is a hard price to bear.
The Universe Doesn’t Give a Flying Fuck About You is one I’ve wanted to read a long time. When I first found him, and Sean Platt, this essay was on my list, but I never got around to it. I’m reminded of the Shia Lebouf “You can do it” video, but with a more macabre twist. He’s quick to point out that in the life of the universe, you exist for a nanosecond. But, if you’re lucky, you might make something that lasts for a millisecond, and that’s a pretty good thing.
Disobey is the other one that stuck out at me. It talks about the Truant’s decision to home school their son, and how it’s more schooling than typical homeschooling. The article deals mostly with the idea we’re expected to live our lives a certain way, and when we deviate, people think something is wrong with us. As someone who wants to just write for a living and not hold down a normal job, I can relate to this. Sometimes I hate my job, and want to say “fuck it” and quit. So I can relate to Disobey.
You are Dying and Your World Is a Lie I kind of glossed over because it sort of blended into the first and last essays.
How to Manifest Your Desires by Having None – Beau Norton
Weird short essay type thing about how we keep manifesting fear instead of desires, and how we’re always striving for better instead of appreciating what we have. Sadly, the audiobook link included doesn’t work anymore.
Not 100% sure what to think of this. I think Norton has a point, that we’re afraid, and that we want more than we have. We get so focused on the having of the thing that we don’t realizing that things are just that, things. I suspect it’s a combination of “can’t see the forest for the trees” and “keeping up with the Joneses” that keeps us from being happy. I don’t know if I wanted to hear this, but it didn’t hurt to hear it, and I thought on it for a few days.
Instagram Growth Secrets – Alec Scherger
Picked this up because it was popular in short reads. It’s okay, but doesn’t really answer all my questions.
I want to grow an Instagram, this looked like the ideal book. Scherger’s Insta only has 500 followers, which made me wonder. I’m assuming this is a new account or a personal one.
By the end of this book, I had a pretty good idea of how to reach close to 3000 followers, but no more. The first few points are aimed at getting followers, the rest is what to do once you get huge numbers. And by huge, I mean 50,000 or 100,000 followers.
This is a good primer if you don’t know Instagram and want to get started, but I’d hardly call it a way to get a massive following. There’s too much missing from the book to be that.