"All the Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven

***Spoiler Alert***

Jennifer Niven, an experienced adult author, enters new territory with this touching, tender book for the YA market. Theodore and Violet are made for each other -- in so many ways.  They are both "broken" and yet, in their darkest moments, they find solace and laughs, joy and healing when they come together.  For a book that begins with a possible suicide, I found it to be very life-affirming (and tremendously well-written) until the end.  It's not that the end is bad -- it's not.  It simply goes where I was really, really, really, hoping it would not go.  The author had "A Point" to make, and she made it -- without being heavy-handed and moralistic.  She simply let the tale go where it kind of had to.  Which, unfortunately, I hated.  I didn't cry as much as get angry.  Why couldn't Ms. Niven provide an "out"?  Jacqueline Woodson, when hounded about the end of "If You Come Softly" stated that she wrote 12 endings for the book, but only one rang true.  And so it was, I suspect, with this book.  Told in alternating point-of-view chapters, it is easy to connect with characters who feel very real (and, if you read the afterward, based on real people kinda sorta).  Taking them in a "happy shining" direction may satisfy my girly wishes, but would likely have undercut the power of the story, particularly for one character, who comes to a level of peace and understanding that the author may never have found in her own experience.  For fans of novels like "13 Reasons Why" there is some closure, but not a lot, as situations like this are far more complex than we can imagine.  Don't avoid it because of the end, however.  This is a page-turning novel that will suck you in and it is totally worth it.  So worth it, that a movie based on the novel is in production now.  As always, read it before you see it.

"Wherever You Go, There You Are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn

I had been interested in reading this book for some time as it was constantly being quoted in Yoga classes.  A little "added stress" in my life and I pulled it off my rather impressive pile.  It was a good call, but I don't think I read it correctly.  This is a manual, a handbook of sorts, helping readers to be more mindful, to practice mindfulness, and the impact that mindfulness can bring to your life.  I tried, as I do with all books, to read the whole thing through, as my list of "to read" is constantly growing.  Ideally, what I should have done is read it in small bites, not big gulps.  The chapters are short and grouped.  Reading one to three chapters in a sitting is preferable than 50 or more pages at a time.  You need time to absorb the sometimes very deep, dense text, and other times you simply need to think about what was said.  Quotes from a wide variety of people -- from Walt Whitman to Lao Tzu -- pepper the end of each section.  I liked the center sections the best, where Kabat-Zinn breaks out different ways of meditating and "being present."  Although I practice many of them already, it was nice to step back and examine that a bit.  I particularly liked his suggestion of doing walking meditation in a grocery store, as no one cares how slowly you go when you have a cart in front of you.  That one made me laugh.  He did, of course, go over the wonders of getting up with the dawn.  I've occasionally found that to be a lovely experience when it happens naturally, but these days, watching sunrise from my car window on my way to work, I'm not always feeling it.  It was a nice reminder to appreciate the moment.  He did something odd at the end of the book, however.  Some will enjoy it, others, not so much.  I was kind of on the fence.  He had several chapters on parenthood.  These seemed fairly personal and some sort of catharsis -- which was an odd contrast to the didactic nature of the rest of the book.  Since I am not a parent, I couldn't fully connect, although some of his stories were amusing.  I honestly didn't know what to make of the whole "dirty cat dish" tale other than he was trying to make a public apology to his wife.  He then went on to try and separate the focus of this book from spiritualism.  Given that many of the quotes he used were from spiritual leaders, this seemed odd.  Again, it felt as if he was trying to use that section to speak to a specific reader, rather than readers at large.  In any case, I did find this book to be both interesting and useful.  For me, I was able to take from it "what I took from it" -- and suggest you do the same.

"The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley" by Shaun David Hutchinson

Reading this for an upcoming conference, I was quite blown away, initially, by very strong, occasionally lyric, writing.  Andrew's story is powerful and the premise fascinating.  The inclusion of cartoons was interesting -- I didn't get most of them, but they increase the appeal for teen readers, I suspect.  Andrew is in his own "five stages" (hence the title) after losing his family.  The path he takes, and the feelings he wrestles with, are hidden in metaphors within a carefully woven tale.  Given the subject matter, it wasn't overly dark.  There is a good deal of light humor, realistic day-to-day living and terrific character descriptions.  There is even love, with a message or two about how making connections is the path to life.  As with all books destined for school shelves, there are questions -- is the language strong?  Yes, so keep this one at high school.  Is religion, which is touched on a good bit, appropriate?  Yes, I believe so.  No one religion is put over another, although various characters embrace or don't embrace it as they feel so compelled.  Religious conversation is natural, I believe, for young people facing death, as it is so "out of sync" with the natural rhythms of the world.  The book is both predictable and not.  While I guessed at some of the back-stories and character motivations, I was truly shocked by one turn I didn't expect.  My only beefs with the novel are, as is often the case, timeline and character age as well as length.  I felt that the book could have wrapped up way earlier, as the last few chapters before the climax seemed circular and didn't add much to the final outcomes.  As to age and timeline, it is made clear on the first page that Andrew is 17.  His reflections seem young for his age, which make sense if the event that took his family happened when he was 14, which is hinted at early on.  Later, however, it is made clear that he was at least 16 when it happened.  And it is never clear as to whether Andrew has been in his current dilemma for a few months or a full year.  It was a distraction in an otherwise good story.  This one will appeal to fans of the now-cancelled "Red Band Society" TV show and John Green's Fault in Our Stars.