#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring S.K. Ali

The book is told through the alternative perspectives of Zayneb and Adam, both of them writing in “Marvels and Oddities” journals of their own. Both of them are Muslim – Zayneb, a Muslim high-schooler living in middle America, and Adam, a Canadian going to college in London, but who’s home visiting his family in Qatar – yes, that’s a mouthful. And they couldn’t be more different.

Zayneb is fueled by anger. All around she sees of the injustice of the world, amplified because she’s a Muslim woman who wears a hijab who has been regularly mistreated simply because of her religion and a headscarf. She wants to fight the injustices around her, but it’s not easy to fight with everyone telling you to be quiet and not cause a scene. It’s this anger that brings her to Qatar – she’s suspended from school after “threatening” her anti-Islamic teacher. *eye roll*

Adam is pretty much the exact opposite. He’s not angry, even though he has plenty of reasons to be. He converted to Islam when he was a kid, after his mother passed away because he wanted to find peace like his father. He is loving, kind, and caring, but he’s also scared of the fact that he’s been diagnosed with the same disease that killed his mother: MS. He’s scared of confronting the reality of this and thinks he can keep his family safe by keeping it a secret.

Adam and Zayneb meet on a plane, one of them struck by a bright blue hijab and a journal with the same title as their own, the other by a cute boy. What follows is a love story that comes on slowly, and takes on many hurdles. They may share a religion, but they’re utterly different. As they struggle to come to terms with their feelings for each other, their Marvels and Oddities remain constant. They catalog the world this way, and in the end that binds them together.

This a sweet story, but it’s so much more than that. It’s representation for those of Muslim faith and it’s an education for those that might not face the same injustices and split-second judgments; the everyday microaggressions that pick away at a person, the big injustices, like a teacher who thinks he can make you a teachable moment and spread his hateful personal opinions and call it “education.” It’s a heavy book but will leave you feeling light in the end.

Peg and Clark have reached a point in their lives where they can sell their business, relocate and relax. Clark is dead set on moving to Key West, FL despite the fact Peg can’t swim and is afraid of bridges.

Leaving Chicago and her best friend behind, Peg reluctantly gets onboard with her husband’s plan with results she could never have predicted. Plagued by humidity, local fauna, loneliness and even ghosts, Peg hilariously experiences a surprising new life. With the help of her neighbor Randolph and a local landscaper named Pierre, Peg will learn she is strong enough to overcome boob sweat, hurricanes and a storm of a different nature.

There is definitely something about Sweetie. What a brave, intuitive, special lead character. And she certainly deserved a happy ending.

This story is sweet(ie), with just the right amount of sass. I love to see a woman chase after what she wants, nay-sayers be damned. Especially when that woman is curvy. We need more representation like this, and this is an instance when it’s done very well. Sweetie didn’t have a problem loving herself, she just had a problem with other people not feeling the love. In my experience, this happens a lot. Your mom or your grandma say terrible, terrible things to you under the guise of care or concern. And it’s crap. If you love yourself, others will follow. Sweetie proves that.

Ashish this the perfect counterpoint to her – this perfect high school guy who’s lost his mojo. Who better to bring it back than a girl who’s his opposite? Their love story was fun. Just enough angst to fit in with the YA tropes, but enough joy to make it stand out.

Lillo is not sure why she decided to attend the wedding of a friend she hasn’t seen in years. She and Jess had been close during the summers Jess’s parents sent her to the “fat camp” run by Lillo’s parents in Lighthouse Beach, Maine. But now Lillo is a bit of a loaner and feeling adrift after a recent tragedy.

Little does she know her whole world is about to turn upside down when she and Jess’s friends, Allie and Diana, help Jess escape her controlling parents and cheating fiance. Upon entering Lighthouse Beach, visitors read a sign that says “Once You Visit Lighthouse Beach, Life Will Never Be the Same.” Just as Lillo, Jess, Allie and Diana each have their own issues, the residents of Lighthouse Beach are in need of some assistance as well. Stubborn Mac who cares for the aging lighthouse, Ian the troubled and mysterious veterinarian and a group of trouble making young boys all need some guidance to carry them through tough times. A lighthouse might just be the thing to direct them on a course to healing.