Retrato do autor

Erin McCahan

Autor(a) de Love and Other Foreign Words

4 Works 390 Membros 26 Críticas

Obras por Erin McCahan

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

Not what I expected at all. So much more than I expected. Yeah!

I went into this book thinking I would be getting a romance. Nope. This is more like realistic fiction. Josie is gifted, straddling two worlds: high school and college, fitting into neither of them well, and like many gifted kids, she overthinks things. Her sister is getting married to Geoff, who makes a poor first impression on Josie. Josie then decides he is not right for her sister, and she proceeds to try to prove it to everyone, at the risk of alienating her whole family and favorite sister. In her zeal, she manages to discover the difference between crushes and love, what role family plays in our lives, and see an old friend in a new way.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
readingbeader | 9 outras críticas | Oct 29, 2020 |
Loved this book! It has a lot of humor, but that's the icing on the cake of the charming characters, fun summer beach setting, and changing relationships that fill up the story. Briggs is excited to begin his new summer job, just after high school graduation, as a personal assistant and handyman to an elderly widow living alone in a giant house on the beach in South Haven Michigan. He figures he'll save money for college and meet new friends to help him get over his breakup with his girlfriend. He has his life planned out--get a law degree and make lots of money, and never live in a "shoebox" like the years his family had to after his dad lost all of their money from investments gone wrong. He comes from a family of overachievers, and his relationships with his high expectations father and his stern no-hugging no-affection-of-any-kind grandmother Ruth give him stomach knots at times. But he's going to have a great time on the beach all summer; he's used to working with older people from his time volunteering at a nursing home, so he can handle this--but "Mrs. B." throws him for a loop the minute he meets her and she asks him to take her to her funeral! Between translating her hilarious English vocabulary gaffes and thick Serbian accent, trying to avoid embarrassing faux pas at various funerals, and figuring out what's up with the mysteriously intriguing quiet girl next door--who seems to be totally immune to his charms and also disappears for days on end--Briggs has quite a full summer. And that's not even mentioning the changes that will happen to Briggs and his family as the sunny days go by. Mrs. B is the quirkiest old lady I've read in a book in a long time, loved her character! And seeing how she and Abigail both affect Briggs' character was enjoyable to read. This is a great book for fans of summer romance and fans of books that are full of heart, a little drama, a little sadness and a lot of chuckles.

Up til now I've always thought of "the lake effect" as something that happens in winter: the wind off the Great Lakes causes huge snowfalls near the shore. But now I will forever think of the *summer* lake effect, as well! "Over and off," everyone!
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
GoldieBug | 1 outra crítica | Oct 23, 2020 |
Wonderful book by an Ohio author (scenes set in the Columbus area make it cool for local readers to recognize places). Fifteen-turning-sixteen year old Josie is a gifted senior in high school, very smart academically, attending college classes alongside her senior classes. But she's immature socially, and the charm of her character is seeing how she learns about love and acceptance and adapts to her changing family relationships, making some mistakes along the way but coming out of it okay. She is very close to her older sister Kate, but their relationship changes when Josie meets Kate's fiance, and decides she doesn't like him. And that she is going to do everything she can to get Kate to drop him. Josie's also dealing with a crush at college, and completely oblivious to some other obvious things going on with the people in her life, such as her best friend Stu. I found her a very interesting character, because she is so brilliant, is a real know-it-all, relates better to older adults than to her peers, loves languages--real foreign languages and the strange English of what to her are the unknown languages of other teens (she calls that language "OHMIGOD") or college students--and is pretty clueless about a lot of little things, just like teenagers are. And she has quirks like "Sensual overexcitability," which is similar to what some people on the autism spectrum experience: not able to tolerate scratchy clothes or repetitive sounds, etc. She's also very funny! I also loved the parents and other adult characters; nice to see supportive yet quirky parents in a YA book. Great book, I look forward to reading more from this author. Good for middle school (7th and 8th).… (mais)
 
Assinalado
GoldieBug | 9 outras críticas | Oct 23, 2020 |
This was my family. The Henrys. We had expectations. We achieved. We catalogued our successes, and we never needed our hair cut. We were a riot at Thanksgiving too.

Briggs Henry has just graduated high school and he's got big plans. He'll be attending university in the Fall where he plans to earn an MBA-JD on his way to his first $million$ before he's 30. But first, he's got a summer job as live-in personal assistant for an elderly woman who lives on the lake shore. Mrs. Bosic is Serbian, can't decide on a paint color, and has an obsession with attending funerals.

I was expecting a light read, something kind of brainless and superficial as a break from some of the heavier reading I've gotten into lately. And for about 2/3's or 3/4's of the book, that's pretty much what it was. Some witty banter, a few crude comments here and there, and not especially deep. The change was abrupt, but didn't feel sudden or even out of place because by then I felt pretty invested in these characters and compelled to keep reading. And it turned out not to be the shallow light YA read I expected but a story with some real depth about family and growing up. And it was serious without feeling too serious... if that makes sense. Either way, I really enjoyed it.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
J.Green | 1 outra crítica | Mar 15, 2019 |

Prémios

You May Also Like

Estatísticas

Obras
4
Membros
390
Popularidade
#62,076
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
26
ISBN
17
Línguas
2

Tabelas & Gráficos