The Reading Nook - Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda Review

 I recently finished Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Adgenda by Becky Altertalli and here are some of my thoughts on the book.

 

This book took me completely by surprise, being a visual person the cover was ashamedly what drew me in to begin with, but that soon faded as I started reading.

This is contemporary YA book which was witty and funny in all the right places. Centered around Simon our 16 year old protagonist who is exploring his sexuality as he faces the highs and lows of highschool life.
This book follows a cute and adorable love story between our beloved Simon and a boy who we first only know as 'Blue' an anonymous  and rather charming email buddy. At first our not-so-openly gay Simon and Blue exchange harmless daily emails that soon turn into a blossoming e romance before our very eyes.

I enjoyed the fast pace nature of this book, the quirky ins and outs of friendships and the beautifully written family dynamic when it came to Simon's family. There are some very lovely moments written into this book,Some I loved and some I didn't really care for.  It showed the many facets to how people react when finding out someone in their life is gay. Which I really appreciated, it wasn't all just Oreo's and rainbows which is appealing to me as a reader.
Following Simon on his journey to revealing to the world that he is in fact gay, we  are taken on his journey as he deals with this development and how he comes to terms with this in a high school setting.
We watch as Simon lusts after a boy through email conversations while trying to keep a normal persona in school, which in time becomes hard to do as news gets out about his sexual preference.
 

I think a lot of people will connect well with this book, as memories of my teenage years flashed before my eyes during certain scenes in the book, the way love was portrayed within the pages was bang on how I remember it as a 15 year old girl, and I love that about this book, its a heart strings puller.

Most characters in this book aren't fleshed out, which is a shame because I feel the writer has created such a colour cast of characters that I wanted to get to know a little better, but never got the chance to. That really is my only criticism to this book. I just wanted some more meaty characters as Simon is such a well fleshed out character, I expected his friends to be on the same level within the book.

Overall I thought this book was a lovely light read, a little too perfect when it came to the ending, but certainly not a book that disappoints. Even though this book is like nothing I've ever read, I am quiet surprised how quickly and easily I read this. Simon's character makes this book worth picking up alone. And of course who doesn't love a good romance.  

I gave this book a 4/5 stars on goodreads. 

I got an E Arc Copy of this book from http://www.penguin.com.au/ and this in no way shapes my review. 

Seeya Soon! with some art! 

x Courtney

The Creative License - Raven Ink Book Review

A new segment that will feature on the blog will be art book reviews, I know there are many of us out there that adore some eye candy, and I am a confessed art book buying crazed woman. So many ask me what my favourite books are when I show a new acquisition so I thought as a monthly blog post I would review the books in my collection and any other new ones that may happen to be adopted by yours truly. 

The book in question is The Creative License by Danny Gregory This book jumped into my basket while I was perusing the books at Kinokuniya which is a wonderful bookstore in the city, it is always such a treat when we visit this book store, with all the lush books, and stunning stationery department I could in fact spend many hours and not get bored. I always find myself in the art section of the book store, how could I not! I was feeling rather blah this day, and saw this brightly coloured watercolour  and instantly was drawn to it. The words 'Giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are' written right up front caught my attention. I as an artist struggle daily calling myself an actual artist, no I'm not famous, no I don't have work in galleries, but I do art...most days in fact so I wondered what this book could do for me, since I struggle so much with OWNING the title artist when referring to the question...'and what do you do?'

This book changes the way you look at things, I love things that have passion about them, and reading the words while drinking in the artwork it oozes passion for art, drawing and journal keeping. He uses his own experiences to explain things, with little challenges to keep you on your toes, telling you to embrace mistakes as they are what you learn from. Creative license helped me overcome my blank page paralysis. 

Danny urges you to draw in pen, something I still struggle with but hope that in the new year I will throw myself into the whole no erasing things notion this book preaches. 

The images in this book are a visual pleasure to look at, they make reading this book a dream, I still to this day open the book up and fip through it to be inspired all over again, catching myself reading sections over and over never tiring of it. 

If you are entertaining the thought of keeping a drawing journal, or a visual account of your days and I know many of us are doing this to an extent in our Hobonichi journals this book is a great companion for you. It gets you out of your little box, and pumps you with confidence, whilst helping you get a feel for drawing even if you haven't ever entertained the idea of drawing a stick figure. 

I high recommend this book for the beginner and for the intermediate, we as artists like to feel that we are not alone in the love for keeping a journal and this book shows such love and joy for drawing everything down and keeping it between the pages of a journal. I have since purchased several other books by Danny Gregory and have devoured every single one of them, each as amazing as the last. 

This book should be your next purchase, you wont regret it! 

8/10

x Courtney