Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan {A Book Review - Summer Reading Challenge}

This post is sponsored by BookSparksPR in honor of their 

4th annual Summer Reading Challenge. Check out all the details here.

Hi okay. So I'm really excited to bring you this post. So summer is coming. And I get most of my reading during the summer. So when I heard about BookSparksPR Summer Reading Challenge I knew I had to join in. I will be participating as a reviewer of 13 amazing books, from today all the way to August. So excited, it's my first time. And you know me, I love books, and I especially love to recommend books. So here is the first one up. 

Title : Love and Other Foreign Words

Author: Erin McCahan

Publisher: Dial

Release Date: May 1, 2014

Summary from GoodReads:

Perfect for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, Love and Other Foreign Words is equal parts comedy and coming of age--a whip-smart, big-hearted, laugh-out-loud love story about sisters, friends, and what it means to love at all.

Can anyone be truly herself--or truly in love--in a language that's not her own?

Sixteen-year-old Josie lives her life in translation. She speaks High School, College, Friends, Boyfriends, Break-ups, and even the language of Beautiful Girls. But none of these is her native tongue--the only people who speak that are her best friend Stu and her sister Kate. So when Kate gets engaged to an epically insufferable guy, how can Josie see it as anything but the mistake of a lifetime? Kate is determined to bend Josie to her will for the wedding; Josie is determined to break Kate and her fiancé up. As battles are waged over secrets and semantics, Josie is forced to examine her feelings for the boyfriend who says he loves her, the sister she loves but doesn't always like, and the best friend who hasn't said a word--at least not in a language Josie understands

Quotes:

So what is love...? It is a connection, almost like a private language between two people, or an invisible dance. It is an invincible force that binds us to one another and can never be broken.  Stretched and tested, even worried about, but never temporary, never fleeting, never broken.

My Take: I really enjoyed the book. And I think it was mostly because of Josie. Josie is funny, witty, smart, sarcastic and she had me giggling throughout the book. 
The book follows a very smart high school student who is also a sophomore in college. Her family calls her the "gifted" because she is very smart, and pretty much questions everything about life, and knows everything about life, well almost everything. Except about one thing.. Love. 
When her closest sister, falls in love and gets engaged, Josie freaks out and sets out a plan to break her sisters engagement apart. She didn't understand that her sister was really in love, all she saw was that her sisters fiancee, a guy names Geoff, whom Josie cannot stand, was taking her confidante away from her. 
When her sister tells her she knows nothing about love, Josie sets out to try to find out what love is. She goes out with a boy named Stefan but fails to fall in love with him and ends up breaking his heart. She then has this out of body connection with Ethan, which she claims was love at first sight, but realizes that it is not so.    Josie realizes that everyone has their own language. And she has become a pro at translating different modes of speaking when she is with different groups of people, from her Volleyball friends, to her best friend Stu, to the language of high school and college, to her home's language. She has been able to translate all of them to her own language, Josie. But the one language she fails to translate is that of Love. She has a hard time grasping it. But who doesn't, I know I have had and still have a hard time grasping the idea of Love and I'm 24. 
At the end, this over-thinking, witty, sarcastic teenager, realizes that Love is a language on its own. Love has multiple meanings. But most of all it is a language between two people. She admits, which by reading the books you will know that Josie will hardly admit that she is wrong, that she doesn't understand what love is, but is open to explore it. 
I liked  the book. Like I said it was witty and smart, and funny. Sometimes Josie frustrated me by being a little selfish, and other times I sided with Josie and agreed with everything she said. I think this book would be a great for Summer Reading. 

4 out of 5

Find my other reviews here: Book Thoughts Thank you again to BookSparks for letting me be a part of this Book Blog Tour for amazing books. 

What does love mean to you?

Bout of Books {Updates #2}

Here are some of my updates for Bout of Books. How is everyone else doing in the challenge?

Monday:

What I've read today: Keeping the House by Ellen Baker  and Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Number of pages read today:  100 pages (49 of Keeping the House; 51 of Love and other Foreign Words)

Total number of books completed:  0

Total number of pages read: 100

Read-a-thon thoughts: Not the best day of reading today. I got called in to substitute today, so I didn't have much time to read during the day or the afternoon. I couldn't participate in the challenge or the Twitter chat, because of work. By the time I got to reading at night, by eyes were giving up on me and would not stay open. I'm hoping I have better luck tomorrow. 

Favorite quote:

"Now we have a hero in the family, he thinks. Strange, though: In his mind's eye, Chase is still ten years old. John simply cannot conjure a picture of him any older than that. Amazing thing to contemplate, a ten-year-old war hero." - Keeping the House page 156

Mini Challenges: 0 out of 1

Tuesday:

What I've read today: Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Number of pages read today:  123 pages

Total number of books completed:  1 -{Love and Other Foreign Words}

Total number of pages read: 223 pages

Read-a-thon thoughts:  It was slightly better reading day today. A little bit better than yesterday but not the best. I did finish reading one of the book that I had started, woot. Look out for the review of Love and Other Foreign Words here on Friday. :) I also participated in a mini challenge, which was fun, it was coming up with a list of books we are looking forward to reading. And I also participated in a Twitter reading spring, in which we read non-stop for an hour. It was great, and got me into the reading mood. Hoping that I get more reading in tomorrow.  

Favorite Quote:

"So what is love..? It is a connection, almost like a private language between two people, or a invisible dance. It is an invincible force that binds us to one another and can never be broken. Stretched and tested, even worried over, but not temptrary, never fleeting, never broken..." - Love and Other Foreign Words page 305

Mini Challenges:  1 out of 2
Shannon over at River City Reading asked us to come up with a list of books we are looking forward to reading. I was able to bring it down to 10: here they are. 

1. The One and Only by Emily Giffin

2. The Fault in our Stars by John Green

3. Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

4.  Insurgent by Veronica Roth

5. Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

6. Cure for the Common Break Up by Beth Kendrick

7.  Girls in white Dresses by Jennifer Close

8. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

9.  My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal

10. Tell the Wolves I'm home by Carol Rifka Brunt

What are you looking forward to reading?

Wednesday:

What I've read today: Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

Number of pages read today: 46

Total number of books completed: 1

Total number of pages read: 269

Read-a-thon thoughts: Not a good day. I think I've been getting down on myself lately on not reading as much as I would like to. But I did see a Tweet from Bout of Books Twitter, that said, as long as you are reading you are winning. So I know I haven't had much time to read, but I should be happy that I got at least a bit of reading done. 

Favorite quote:

"'You will be his,' her mother has gone on, ' but he'll be his own, and the only way you really have anything is to have your children.'" - Keeping the House page 163

Mini Challenges: 1 out of 1

Anmiryam over at My Overstuffed Shelves asked us to think about the perfect pairing, whether it be another book, a movie, a drink, or whatever, that goes perfect with the book we are currently reading or one we have read before.  I choose to pair up Keeping the House with a cold lemonade. Today reminded me of a hot day that the ladies in the book described, and thought that a lemonade would be the drink of choice for them.

Thursday:

What I've read today: Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

Number of pages read today:  67

Total number of books completed: 1

Total number of pages read: 336

Read-a-thon thoughts: Today was a little better in reading. yay. Tomorrow I have work and not sure I'm I'll get any reading done during the day, but I will try. I'm hoping Saturday and Sunday will be the best days. I had fun participating in the mini challenge, I debated whether to spell out my whole name or just Adri. I decided the whole name and it was challenging. :) 

Favorite quote:

Mini Challenges: 1 out of 1

Kim over at Kimberlyfaye Reads challenged us to spell any word with different book titles. 

Are you participating in Bout of Books, how was your week been going? If you are not participating, what are you currently reading?