The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel

The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I liked this book until the ending. It kind of fell off-not really a cliff hanger-it just stopped. It is the story of 5 cousins each the only child of his/her family. They don't live in the same city but their families get together about five times a year and somehow the kid table that they are forced to sit at together appears at each event. Suddenly the oldest kid is not longer force to sit at the kid table as she brings her boyfriend from college to their uncle's "coming of age" party. The boyfriend becomes smitten with the main character, Ingrid, and over the course of the next four family events he is there mixing up her feelings, but doesn't go too far with it. I was really hoping for a different ending. I would have given it four stars but the ending...



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Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I loved this book! Read it if you haven't. It is fun and sweet and snarky. Naomi and Ely have been friends forever. They live in NY in the same apartment building. Ely lives with his moms and Naomi's parents are divorced after her dad had an affair with one of Ely's moms. Now Naomi and Ely are in their first year at NYU and have trademarked a No Kiss List, which lists all the boys that neither of them can kiss. But Ely breaks the rule when he kisses Naomi's current boyfriend and Noami refuses to forgive or talk to him. Still Naomi is hoping that Ely will someday marry her but Ely has no desire to marry Naomi or any girl for that matter. The trick now is for Naomi to recognized that and for Ely and Naomi to become friends again.



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Vacation

On Saturday Rob and I decide to take a little vacation with the kids and travel to
Cincinnati for the Reds game at 7:15 that evening. We sit just behind third base with the jumbo tron to our left-good times. The ballpark is packed with happy, sweating Reds fans and lots of Cardinals fans as well. Around the 4th inning we are hot and thirsty so I take the kids to get something to drink and a beer for Rob.

Holy smacks! A bottle of water is 5 bucks-but the nice cold slushies are just 4.50 -yum- 4 slushies it is. Next we stand in the beer line, even the kids wait with me because it is actually cooler on line than in the park at our seats. The young twenty something in front of us starts a conversation with me about how he just got money from his settlement(?) and wants to treat his friends to a night at the park. Believe it or not, but I resisted the urge to find out about this settlement instead I just complimented him on being so nice to his buds. Then he says he might need more than one ID to get more than one drink. Well I panicked a bit because I didn't have my ID on me and didn't want to lose my place in line. So I said that I hoped I wouldn't need it for beer as I didn't have mine on me and he proceeded to say, "Ah, you won't need it." Wait, by the way he said that so matter of fact, I got the feeling that he thought I looked well beyond 21, so I probed this one a bit. "So are you saying I look old or do this three kids give me away. I am holding a slushy maybe I'm too young to drink beer?" Subtle, right? His only reply was "Yeah, you'll be fine." What?? I am left pondering.

The young man, whom I complimented before about being so nice to his buds, was now a little bit evil in my eyes. Lucky for him he got his drinks and was happily skipping off with his jack and coke not knowing the wreckage he had left behind. I'm next to order. I thought that if I don't get carded than that twenty something was right and I look my age of...43. I order Rob's beer and the worker doesn't card me! Darn, I am old!. Wait, maybe she just doesn't card anyone so I loiter for a moment after I get Rob's beer, fussing with napkins, to see if she cards the lady behind me. The moment of truth arrives-and this darn lady who is ordering gets carded. AHHHHH! So I take a good long look at the lady ordering, of course doing this as stealthy as I can, and she is younger, maybe twenty something, but obviously over 21. Come on!

I go back to our seats, the kids left me while this was going down, they know a train wreck when they see one, and I laughingly relay the whole scene to Rob. Okay so maybe I do look my age but to my relief the nice lady sitting next to me smiled and said she didn't get carded either. Wow, I am so lucky. This super nice and kind lady, really almost a friend, looked younger and more beautiful than any other women in that whole ballpark-I swear!

Beat the Band

Beat the Band by Don Calame

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was as much fun as Swim the Fly by Calame. It is told by the POV of Coop,the girl obsessed sophomore who is crass and unlikable only because his main goal is to round the bases with the hottest girls in school. Then he is matched up with Hotdog Helen who is ridiculed by the entire school, to complete a project on contraceptives for Health class. To fight this uncool happening he forms a band with his two best buds in the hope of winning the school's battle of the bands. He soon finds out that Helen is more than she appears with a voice to match. How can he save his sophomore year with Helen around?



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