'Tis the Season to Be Readin' is a month-long event in which Perusing Bookshelves is updated with Christmassy posts to spread the Christmas cheer and love of books. To know more, click on the graphic above!
Love and Other Unknown Variables was a book that tore my heart open and made all my feelings go into overdrive. The author of this book, Shannon Lee Alexander, is a really inspring person. I love her posts on her website and how she emphasizes on hope and how important it is. Therefore, we have Shannon on PB today, talking about the books that inspired her! Let's give a warm welcome to Shannon and her book, Love and Other Unknown Variables!
(clicking on the cover will take you to Goodreads!) | Title: Love and Other Unknown Variables Author: Shannon Lee Alexander Published on: October 7th 2014 Publisher: Entangled Teen Genre: Contemporary (YA) Author's website Part of a series?: No. Get a copy: Amazon I Barnes & Noble Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he’ll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover solutions to the universe’s greatest unanswered questions. He’s that smart. But Charlie’s future blurs the moment he reaches out to touch the tattoo on a beautiful girl’s neck. The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she’s counting on the present. She’s not impressed by the strange boy at the donut shop—until she learns he’s a student at Brighton where her sister has just taken a job as the English teacher. With her encouragement, Charlie orchestrates the most effective prank campaign in Brighton history. But, in doing so, he puts his own future in jeopardy. By the time he learns she's ill—and that the pranks were a way to distract Ms. Finch from Charlotte’s illness—Charlotte’s gravitational pull is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he’s always relied on or the girl he’s falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second squared). |
Guest Post: Five Books that Inspired You and Gave You Hope
Happy holidays, Perusing Bookshelves readers! I’m Shannon Lee Alexander, author of Love and Other Unknown Variables, a contemporary young adult novel about a math prodigy whose meticulously planned future is cast into chaos when he meets a girl with a tattoo of a mathematical symbol and a devastating secret.
Love and Other Unknown Variables is a story of first love, heartbreak, and hope. Hope is important to me. It’s essential. It’s the piece of the grand puzzle that makes squinting over all those crazy tiny pieces worthwhile in the end. Hope carries you through to the moment that you set the last piece in, sit back, and think, Well, it all makes sense now!
So I was thrilled when Kat asked if I’d share five books that have inspired me and brought hope into my life.
Anyone who reads Love and Other Unknown Variables will immediately see that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is at the top of the list of books that inspire me, but for this list, I wanted to pick out some other gems, some going waaayyy back in my life.
Love and Other Unknown Variables is a story of first love, heartbreak, and hope. Hope is important to me. It’s essential. It’s the piece of the grand puzzle that makes squinting over all those crazy tiny pieces worthwhile in the end. Hope carries you through to the moment that you set the last piece in, sit back, and think, Well, it all makes sense now!
So I was thrilled when Kat asked if I’d share five books that have inspired me and brought hope into my life.
Anyone who reads Love and Other Unknown Variables will immediately see that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is at the top of the list of books that inspire me, but for this list, I wanted to pick out some other gems, some going waaayyy back in my life.
1. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
I have a stuffed bunny lovey, so of course, this book was right up my alley as a kid, because, of course, my bunny was really real. No doubt about it. When I was a young woman, the story took on a whole knew meaning as I was experiencing transformative love. And as a mother, watching my kids grow, succeed, and sometimes fail, I’m reminded that love is messy, exhausting, and sometimes bittersweet, but it lasts for always.
2. The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery
This is another one of those books that has grown with me. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be treated like an adult. I wanted to be anywhere other than my own small hometown. Reading this book allowed me to travel wide and far, but also reminded me that perhaps being young wasn’t all that bad. As an adult, it helps me remember what an elephant looks like when it’s been eaten by a boa constrictor.
3. & 4. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: a Book of Womanist Prose & Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
Both of these books have gone missing from my shelves, which leads me to believe I loaned them to someone and haven’t gotten them back. I don’t remember who borrowed them though. If it was you, and you’re finished reading them, could I have them back, please?
I read these books in my late teens, early twenties when I was in college. Alice Walker shook up my limited worldview. When I was living in Denver, she came to speak in this beautiful old theater. I sat in a balcony, sandwiched between two very different women, different both from each other and from me, and cried as she read to us. Cried because what she said was beautiful, but also because I wanted to find the courage to speak my mind just like her.
I read these books in my late teens, early twenties when I was in college. Alice Walker shook up my limited worldview. When I was living in Denver, she came to speak in this beautiful old theater. I sat in a balcony, sandwiched between two very different women, different both from each other and from me, and cried as she read to us. Cried because what she said was beautiful, but also because I wanted to find the courage to speak my mind just like her.
5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
I read this book a few years ago, and when I was done, I flat out demanded that EVERYONE read it. Well, I demanded it once I had stopped sobbing enough to catch my breath and make intelligible sounds. For those unfamiliar with it, Ness picked up this story about a boy dealing with his mother’s cancer after Siobhan Dowd passed away. She had written a synopsis for the story, but her own cancer took her before she could write the rest. Ness wrote a brilliant, beautiful story that truly encompasses the emotional spectrum of love.
Now EVERYONE go read it so we can talk about it more!
Thanks for hanging out with me today. I’m always looking for hopeful books to add to my TBR list, so I’d love it if you’d share a few of your favorites with me in the comments.
Here’s to hoping for happy holidays for all!
Thanks for hanging out with me today. I’m always looking for hopeful books to add to my TBR list, so I’d love it if you’d share a few of your favorites with me in the comments.
Here’s to hoping for happy holidays for all!
Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife and mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. Math makes her break out in a sweat. Love and Other Unknown Variables is her debut novel. She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family. |