Be Chic Literate: 100 Days of Cake and The Flip Side

My daughters and I have embarked on our own summer reading program - we each set a goal of how many books we wanted to read this summer {I picked 25, Peyton - 30, Little Miss Lo - 40, and my oh so ambitious Kenziekins decided that we should read her 60}, the person who meets their goal first will get the ultimate bragging rights and I'll buy them a book of their choice when the competition ends {right before they go back to school on August 8}. Lately I've found that I'm more attracted to titles in the YA genre, so I think Peyton and I may have to toss a coin to see who gets to read which of these new books from Simon & Schuster first! {Books provided for review/feature consideration}

100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen: This is Shari’s YA debut, but you may recognize her from her adult novel, In Some Other World, Maybe. In 100 Days of Cake, Molly struggles with sometimes debilitating depression and anxiety. She’s also hilarious, relatable, and has a team of family and friends around her, each with their own complications and desires, that makes this a layered and personal read. This heartwarming and real novel is an open and honest conversation about depression.

I'm really happy to see more books like this in the YA genre - depression is a real malady and something that needs to be recognized, addressed, and discussed so that it loses its stigma. I'm looking forward to Peyton and I reading it and the dialogue it will open up for us. 

The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson: Timed to the Summer 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Olympic gold medalist and reality TV star Shawn Johnson’s debut young adult novel, The Flip Side goes behind the balance beam, giving Olympic fans an inside look at what it takes to win the gold. It tells the story of Charlie Ryland - a young lady leading a secret life. She may seem like your average high school sophomore—but she’s just really good at pretending. Because outside of school Charlie spends all her waking hours training to become one of the best gymnasts in the world. And it’s not easy flying under the radar when you’re aiming for Olympic gold…especially when an irresistible guy comes along and threatens to throw your whole world off balance.

Inspired by her own experiences as a fifteen-year-old Olympic gymnast, gold medalist Shawn Johnson writes a delightfully entertaining novel about chasing big dreams and falling in love, all while trying to keep it real.

We've literally been binge watching gymnastic events this past week, so even Little Miss Lo wants to read this book! I've been reading a lot of mystery/sci-fi/fantasty books lately and this seems like the perfect little palette cleanser. We're visiting the Jersey Shore soon and I'm sure this will make for a great beach read!

These are just a few of the books that Peyton and I hope to add towards our goals - do you have any recommendations for more? I have a "bookstagram" account now, so please follow along as I share our selections there. I also added a widget to the right sidebar that share my latest reads on GoodReads so please feel free to follow me there as well! Until next time...