Review | The World of Postsecret

The World of Postsecret by Frank Warren
October 2014 by William Morrow & Company
288 pages
Five stars


"A ton of secrets, one postcard at a time." - Goodreads

I loved this book. I've always been a fan of Postsecret. I grew up with it and sent in my own postcards. It helped me through hard times and helped me accept my own secrets about myself. Postsecret is very close to my heart and I'm sad to see the end of an era. Frank has created an amazing thing. It has gone through so many changes and on so many platforms (ie. the Postsecret app, www.postsecret.com, many books, live events and museum exhibits). It's really wonderful to see what an impact it has made on so many generations. This book was the perfect ending of the project as we know it now. For 10 years Frank has been getting secrets in his mailbox and sharing them with the world. This book shares the history of the project and how it came to be what it is now. It shares stories from people who the project has helped, stories from Frank's mail carrier Kathy and Frank shares his own secrets.One of my favorite things about Postsecret is the world it has created. It's about more than just sharing secrets. It's a community that is full of support and has worked with suicide prevention. This book was wonderful. It has the best parts of the community and a bunch of new secrets. I just can't say enough good things about this book and the project. I highly recommend it.

Book UnHaul 2015

Recently I've noticed a lot of Booktubers have been posting "unhaul" videos. The general reading goal of 2015 it seems is to not have any books on your tbr shelf by 2016. I too hope to clear some space off my tbr shelf. So, I decided to go through my books and donate a bunch that I wasn't going to be reading. A lot of them I have lost interest with, decided to read an ebook version or wanted a nicer copy of the book. These are the books that I unhauled:


The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Miles To Go by Miley Cyrus

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

The Sea of Monster by Rick Riordan

Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Married by Heather McElhatton

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Lo Down by Lo Bosworth

Marley & Me by John Grogan

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

Marked by PC Cast and Kristen Cast

The Day The World Came to Town by Jim DeFede

Tattoos by Alice Osborn

Angry Housewives Eating BonBons by Lorna Landvik

Finding Casey by Jo-Ann Mapson
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Tigerheart by Peter David
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Michael Jordan by Chip Lovitt
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
I'd Tell You I Love You but Then I'd Have to Kill You by Aly Carter
Witch Child by Celia Rees
Life Drawing for Beginners by Roisin Meaney
A Wedding in Deccember by Anita Shreve
Time After Time by Sue Hassler
Do Penguins Have Knees? by David Feldman
The Twilight Companion by Lois Gresh
Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn by Donald Spoto
The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks


My shelves look so much better now and I actually have space to put the new books I've acquired in the last few months. I think this was a great thing and I might do it again later this year once I've read some of the books on my tbr shelf. 

Review | Winger

Winger (Winger #1) by Andrew Smith
May 2013 by Simon & Schuster
439 pages
Five stars


"Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking."- Goodreads


I absolutely loved this book. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it when I learned the main character, Ryan Dean aka Winger, was 14 years old. I remember how I was at that age, and I was so annoying. I tend to stay away from books where the characters are that young. It just depends on how the book is written and how the characters come off. The Percy Jackson series for instance, is written in a way that I have to keep reminding myself how young they are. The things they deal with and the way they behave is so grown up. Also, I don't read many books where the main character is male. This book worked perfectly though. Everything about it made sense. It was real; funny and heartbreaking all at once. I was reading it while on a road trip and there were times when I would actually laugh out loud.

I had a few problems with Winger. He did some stupid stuff and acted impulsively. What 14 year old doesn't though? I wasn't a fan of the Megan situation. I'm team Annie all the way.

I loved Joey; he was by far my favorite character in Winger. He was the perfect best friend for Winger, when all of his other friends were just kind of arrogant jerks. He seemed to be the voice of reason and steered Winger towards making better decisions. As the captain of the rugby team, he stood up for his teammates, even if he didn't like them much off the playing field.

When I started this book, I didn't realize there would be a second book. I didn't realize the story would continue until after I finished. The loss of a character in Winger will change the flow of the story, which is something I am not excited to explore. The end was very dark and heavy. I am excited to see Wingers relationship with Annie play out and how he moves through his senior year, now that the environment has changed.

Andrew Smith is a fantastic writer and I am so excited to read more novels by him.

**Spoilers**

The loss of Joey was heartbreaking. It was so unfair. The few days leading up to the dance had me worried and I thought something bad would happen. The situation was so real and so heartbreaking. Jerks like Casey exist and this is a very important topic to our youth. It's not okay to treat anyone that way because of their sexual orientation, race, gender, hobbies or whatever else bullies choose to hate about others. I've dealt with my fair share of loss and connected to the way Winger dealt with his grief. Something so tragic as that changes you forever.