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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
This story is about meeting that person who understands you when the rest of the world can’t. This person knows what you are feeling and verbalizes things that are only in your mind. They know when to be quiet and when to engage you. They help you process your emotions and are just there when you need them the most.
Catherine Ryan Hyde’s books hold a special place in my heart because she is an amazing storyteller, touches my soul and makes me believe in the goodness in the world.
Ru Evans is extremely smart. She is so smart that she doesn’t fit in with her peers, doesn’t have any friends and it bored by the traditional education tract. At age 13, she is going to college and to make that happen, she needs to leave home and board with another family. This is where Ru meets Gabriel, the seventeen-year-old son from the boarding family. Although, not the same as Ru, Gabriel is different in his own way and just seems to connect with Ru. They begin to form a bond.
While Ru is attending college, her mother dies unexpectedly. Because of these circumstances, Ru can no longer continue boarding and attending college at the current location but must move in with her aunt. Ru’s relationship with her aunt is less than desirable and rather than face such a future, Ru decides to run away and Gabriel joins her on her adventure.
This becomes a bucket list trip for Ru and Gabriel, where they have amazing adventures and meet some interesting characters along the way. However, always in the back of their minds, is the sense that they will eventually get caught knowing that Ru is only 13 and Gabriel is 17. Despite this, their adventures are life changing and provide them with memories that will last a lifetime.
Thank you to NetGalley for this amazing book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
#LifeLossandPuffins #CatherineRyanHyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde’s books hold a special place in my heart because she is an amazing storyteller, touches my soul and makes me believe in the goodness in the world.
Ru Evans is extremely smart. She is so smart that she doesn’t fit in with her peers, doesn’t have any friends and it bored by the traditional education tract. At age 13, she is going to college and to make that happen, she needs to leave home and board with another family. This is where Ru meets Gabriel, the seventeen-year-old son from the boarding family. Although, not the same as Ru, Gabriel is different in his own way and just seems to connect with Ru. They begin to form a bond.
While Ru is attending college, her mother dies unexpectedly. Because of these circumstances, Ru can no longer continue boarding and attending college at the current location but must move in with her aunt. Ru’s relationship with her aunt is less than desirable and rather than face such a future, Ru decides to run away and Gabriel joins her on her adventure.
This becomes a bucket list trip for Ru and Gabriel, where they have amazing adventures and meet some interesting characters along the way. However, always in the back of their minds, is the sense that they will eventually get caught knowing that Ru is only 13 and Gabriel is 17. Despite this, their adventures are life changing and provide them with memories that will last a lifetime.
Thank you to NetGalley for this amazing book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
#LifeLossandPuffins #CatherineRyanHyde
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This is one of my favorite books, I want to re-read it and feel the magic again. Thanks NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Catherine Ryan Hyde for this ARC.
Life, Loss, and Puffins" resonates with me on a personal level, evoking memories of my travels with Andy. The genuine connection between Ru and Gabriel echoes the shared emotions of our adventures. As I immersed myself in their journey, it sparked a deep desire to share similar experiences and emotions I want to share with my own children. Catherine Ryan Hyde's masterful storytelling not only elicits nostalgia but also ignites a yearning for future connections and adventures. This heartfelt narrative is not just a book; it's an invitation to reflect on our own stories and the stories we hope to create.
*SPOILER*: My favorite parts in the book:
“I love the vast reaches of the universe because it's so completely beyond us, physically and otherwise. I love it for that, not in spite of it Its impenetrable nature makes it something like a higher power to me. I study at its feet. I never expect to really know or understand it. I never strive to be equal to it, because such a thing would be patently impossible.
The very nature of it stretches my brain almost to the breaking point, and that's pretty much the textbook definition of awe, in my opinion. And awe is good. If you want a piece of advice, always choose to live your life in a way that promotes awe.”
“Revel in the feeling that a thing is so big you can never know it. Know what you can about it, but love the fact that it can't truly be known, because that means it's so vast and complex that it's almost like what people talk about when they talk about God. Why would you want to bring that down to our size just to help yourself feel secure? Then nothing so awe-inspiring would exist."
“If you'd never seen natural light, and then all of a sudden you were taken outside to see the sun, the sky, the clouds. Mountains, rivers, forests.
The ocean. The desert. It changes everything. It changes you. It adds something to the inside of you, to your spirit, that was never there before, and then you don't ever want to go back in that basement again."
“Kids just pop out into the world as their own people. But also, they're getting a lot of pressure right now, your boys. They're in school with a bunch of other boys, and they're all trying to figure out what it means to be a man these days."
"I was hoping they'd model themselves after me, Freddy said.
"They probably will. In the long run. But right now they're being bombarded by these crazy messages of what a man is in this country. In music and movies and on TV. And most of them are really bad messages.
Really toxic and twisted, I'm sure they're good boys, but they're young and impressionable and it's easy to get confused. And if you get it wrong, peer groups of kids are so brutal. Nobody wants to fall onto the wrong side of that. So maybe cut them a little slack."
“And I think the reason we got so brave and adventurous is because within every living soul is the instinct to live really live-before you die.”
“She breathed for us, and pumped blood through us. And there's only one person in the entire world we can say that about. So we're less separate from our mothers than anybody else on the planet. We're not literally one body with them anymore, but I think we carry this really instinctive subconscious memory of the time when we were.
Until we could breathe on our own there was no surviving without her. And even when we came out into the world we would have died without her care.
Actually somebody else could have cared for us at that point, but we didn't know it. We just knew she did. So when we lose our mother, it's different. It's just different from any other loss. And it isn't all about what a great relationship it was. It isn't necessarily a loss of all these wonderful things you shared. It's not only with the best mother-child bonds. It's all of them.
If it was great, you miss that. If it was troublesome, you suddenly realize the door has been slammed on it ever being any better way. So no matter what it was, it's really hard to lose.”
“Staying utterly in the moment. Maintaining a near-complete situational awareness. Not overthinking our lives.
Being amazed at all times.”
Life, Loss, and Puffins" resonates with me on a personal level, evoking memories of my travels with Andy. The genuine connection between Ru and Gabriel echoes the shared emotions of our adventures. As I immersed myself in their journey, it sparked a deep desire to share similar experiences and emotions I want to share with my own children. Catherine Ryan Hyde's masterful storytelling not only elicits nostalgia but also ignites a yearning for future connections and adventures. This heartfelt narrative is not just a book; it's an invitation to reflect on our own stories and the stories we hope to create.
*SPOILER*: My favorite parts in the book:
“I love the vast reaches of the universe because it's so completely beyond us, physically and otherwise. I love it for that, not in spite of it Its impenetrable nature makes it something like a higher power to me. I study at its feet. I never expect to really know or understand it. I never strive to be equal to it, because such a thing would be patently impossible.
The very nature of it stretches my brain almost to the breaking point, and that's pretty much the textbook definition of awe, in my opinion. And awe is good. If you want a piece of advice, always choose to live your life in a way that promotes awe.”
“Revel in the feeling that a thing is so big you can never know it. Know what you can about it, but love the fact that it can't truly be known, because that means it's so vast and complex that it's almost like what people talk about when they talk about God. Why would you want to bring that down to our size just to help yourself feel secure? Then nothing so awe-inspiring would exist."
“If you'd never seen natural light, and then all of a sudden you were taken outside to see the sun, the sky, the clouds. Mountains, rivers, forests.
The ocean. The desert. It changes everything. It changes you. It adds something to the inside of you, to your spirit, that was never there before, and then you don't ever want to go back in that basement again."
“Kids just pop out into the world as their own people. But also, they're getting a lot of pressure right now, your boys. They're in school with a bunch of other boys, and they're all trying to figure out what it means to be a man these days."
"I was hoping they'd model themselves after me, Freddy said.
"They probably will. In the long run. But right now they're being bombarded by these crazy messages of what a man is in this country. In music and movies and on TV. And most of them are really bad messages.
Really toxic and twisted, I'm sure they're good boys, but they're young and impressionable and it's easy to get confused. And if you get it wrong, peer groups of kids are so brutal. Nobody wants to fall onto the wrong side of that. So maybe cut them a little slack."
“And I think the reason we got so brave and adventurous is because within every living soul is the instinct to live really live-before you die.”
“She breathed for us, and pumped blood through us. And there's only one person in the entire world we can say that about. So we're less separate from our mothers than anybody else on the planet. We're not literally one body with them anymore, but I think we carry this really instinctive subconscious memory of the time when we were.
Until we could breathe on our own there was no surviving without her. And even when we came out into the world we would have died without her care.
Actually somebody else could have cared for us at that point, but we didn't know it. We just knew she did. So when we lose our mother, it's different. It's just different from any other loss. And it isn't all about what a great relationship it was. It isn't necessarily a loss of all these wonderful things you shared. It's not only with the best mother-child bonds. It's all of them.
If it was great, you miss that. If it was troublesome, you suddenly realize the door has been slammed on it ever being any better way. So no matter what it was, it's really hard to lose.”
“Staying utterly in the moment. Maintaining a near-complete situational awareness. Not overthinking our lives.
Being amazed at all times.”
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Excellent book by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I fell in love with the main characters and enjoyed their highs and suffered through lows. Highly recommend this book and this author.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated