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gmamartha's review against another edition
2.0
NN. I'll have to remember to suggest this one for those who think changing their looks will solve all their problems.
kittenesque's review against another edition
3.0
Was going to give this 2 stars but the extra one is for having a lovely uplifting ending about self
love and finding your own path. Also for having a likeable male lead!
love and finding your own path. Also for having a likeable male lead!
kristid's review against another edition
3.0
This was such a fun book to read! It was absolutely charming/hilarious/authentic throughout the entire novel! Jory’s character was phenomenal. It’s easy to relate to her and her self-esteem/self-image issues, because honestly if it’s not your big nose, it’s your big ears, your big butt, maybe even your lack of certain assets! But whatever your insecurity is we all deal with it. Salter told Jory’s story though a uniquely hilarious and heartfelt way. It was nice to see Jory overcome her issues with her nose in a way that she nor I ever expected.
There was an insane amount of layers in this novel, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was refreshing to read about a girl that wasn’t perfect, or thought she wasn’t perfect.
My only complaints were Jory’s friends and mother. Talk about some of the most unsupportive friends in the universe! Wow, I would have kicked those girls to the curb. And Jory’s mother! Here honey, let me dab some more of this nose minimizing make-up on your face! Although, I think she had more of a problem with herself and it was projected onto Jory as a result.
Overall, an awesome debut novel!
(I kinda feel bad for poor Wooster Tom! I’m sure he wasn’t expecting giggling when he whipped out his manhood!)
There was an insane amount of layers in this novel, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was refreshing to read about a girl that wasn’t perfect, or thought she wasn’t perfect.
My only complaints were Jory’s friends and mother. Talk about some of the most unsupportive friends in the universe! Wow, I would have kicked those girls to the curb. And Jory’s mother! Here honey, let me dab some more of this nose minimizing make-up on your face! Although, I think she had more of a problem with herself and it was projected onto Jory as a result.
Overall, an awesome debut novel!
(I kinda feel bad for poor Wooster Tom! I’m sure he wasn’t expecting giggling when he whipped out his manhood!)
lilrongal's review against another edition
5.0
Chapter 11. Read the book for that alone. It had me in tears I was laughing so hard.
heremireadz's review against another edition
3.0
Although borderline way-too-long with excessive underage drinking and references to large noses, this book is, in the end, a humorous and uplifting read. I actually laughed out loud several times. Jory (the main character, a seventeen-year-old girl) and her friends make lots of bad decisions involving alcohol, college-age boys, and late-night parties; Jory makes her summer goal to not die a virgin; and practically every other sentence is Jory complaining about her "Super Schnozz." At first these aspects bothered me, seeming unrealistic and even offensive; in the end I appreciated Salter's honestly about the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that many teenagers deal with. Jory is an easy-to-relate-to teenager who doesn't have much direction from her friends, who are trying to find their identity as well, or her family, who are more worried about paying the bills (Dad), dieting and fitting in with the rich neighborhood gossips (Mom), or their own popularity (brother Finn). When all is said and done, Jory finally finds someone she can relate to and who helps her (start to) see the best in herself. The story is one of self-discovery and development of self-confidence in a impressionable teenager, and conveys a powerfully positive message for this young generation. I wouldn't recommend it to the average adult, but I might recommend it to teenagers or young adults (with "caution") or adults who are trying to better understand that age group.
fdterritory's review against another edition
2.0
For some odd reason, I've been reading a lot of girl-focused teen lit lately...especially since I'm nowhere near the demographic. :) Salter's effort here didn't impress me at all, and I get the impression that she was trying to write the story that she *thought* she should write rather than a *good* story or an *interesting* story.
The after-school-special lessons (body image issues, friendship, responsibility, parental relationships) are so overbearing that they diminish the characters themselves. Jory, the protagonist, is depicted as being so insecure that she can barely function without an angst-ridden inner dialogue. She's likable enough, but too-easily summarized as "big-nosed worried klutz". Her friends are shallow and one-dimensional, and the male characters are ten times worse--either so oversexed that they're feral or so ambiguous that any amorous activity comes as a complete surprise to the reader when it happens.
Salter's text, as a whole, is simply too ambitious. There are enough foci here for three or four books, and if they were taken one at a time (in a series, perhaps) Jory's story would have had a chance to develop. As it stands, everything is too abrupt, too shallow, and too much. It's a decent read for the summer, but there are a lot of better books out there.
The after-school-special lessons (body image issues, friendship, responsibility, parental relationships) are so overbearing that they diminish the characters themselves. Jory, the protagonist, is depicted as being so insecure that she can barely function without an angst-ridden inner dialogue. She's likable enough, but too-easily summarized as "big-nosed worried klutz". Her friends are shallow and one-dimensional, and the male characters are ten times worse--either so oversexed that they're feral or so ambiguous that any amorous activity comes as a complete surprise to the reader when it happens.
Salter's text, as a whole, is simply too ambitious. There are enough foci here for three or four books, and if they were taken one at a time (in a series, perhaps) Jory's story would have had a chance to develop. As it stands, everything is too abrupt, too shallow, and too much. It's a decent read for the summer, but there are a lot of better books out there.
missprint_'s review against another edition
4.0
Remember Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing? Back then she was a cute young actress with a rather distinct nose that gave her a unique face. In the 1990s she had a nose job that so altered her appearance that she was unrecognizable with the result that her career was arguably over. I found a site with two of the most unflattering pictures of Grey I have ever seen, but they illustrate my point. The change is so great that it's hard to say what the nose job actually accomplished because the before and after photos look like different people.
While reading My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters (2009) by Sydney Salter, I kept thinking of one thing. That thing was Jennifer Grey's nose job and how it totally changed her life in a not-so-great way.
Jory Michaels desperately wants to be one of the beautiful people. Or at least one of the smart people. She'd even settle for being an athletic person. But Jory is none of those things. Instead, she is the mediocre sheep in a family of beauty and talent. All, Jory is certain, because of her big nose--another outlier in a family with cute, small noses. Like Jennifer Grey, Jory is convinced that a nose job will solve her problems and ultimately make her life better in every possible way. She will be smarter and prettier, her family will appreciate her the way they worship her little brother, and her gorgeous crush will finally realize that she is perfect for him. In other words, with a new nose, Jory will be as perfect as everyone else in her life.
In order to ensure that she and "Super Schnoz" will part ways before the start of her senior year in high school, Jory take a job as a cake delivery person to fund her cosmetic surgery. She also begins a nice nose notebook to be ready for the big day.
It seems like everything is going Jory's way until an unlikely acquaintance, an unfortunate driving mishap or two, and other (natural) disasters force Jory to rethink everything she thought she knew about her nose, herself, and the perfect people she wanted so badly to emulate.
Set in Reno, Nevada My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters offers an interesting perspective on cosmetic surgery. Her hyperbolic fantasies about Super Schnoz and her new dream nose illustrate the irrational hopes Jory has pinned to the possibility of plastic surgery. At the same time, as the story progresses Jory begins to realize that there might be more to reinventing herself than restructuring her nose. That thread, set against the backdrop of friend-drama, and the social-climbing ambitions of her ever-dieting mother, gives this ostensibly quick read a fair amount of depth.
I enjoyed a lot of this book. At times the characters read younger than I would have expected for sixteen and seventeen-year-olds, but that likely says more about who I was at that age than anything else. Jory also reminded me a lot of Georgia Nicholson with her singular focus on boys but in a far less annoying way. I also had issue with the way friendships were treated. It must be the latin in me but I would have held a grudge a lot longer than Jory (and other characters in books I've read recently), but again that's probably just me.
I loved Jory's humor throughout the narrative, which made her lack of self-esteem at the beginning of the novel bearable. As part of a mother-daughter jewelery making duo, I also loved that beading came up in the story and was handled so realistically. At the start of the novel I will admit that I was not sure I could like Jory as a character, but by the end of the book I not only liked her, I was proud of her. My only disappointment was that the book didn't go on a little longer so I could spend more time with this new and improved heroine. Beyond that, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters is a clever, humorous book about how finding beauty sometimes involves more introspection than anything else.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
While reading My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters (2009) by Sydney Salter, I kept thinking of one thing. That thing was Jennifer Grey's nose job and how it totally changed her life in a not-so-great way.
Jory Michaels desperately wants to be one of the beautiful people. Or at least one of the smart people. She'd even settle for being an athletic person. But Jory is none of those things. Instead, she is the mediocre sheep in a family of beauty and talent. All, Jory is certain, because of her big nose--another outlier in a family with cute, small noses. Like Jennifer Grey, Jory is convinced that a nose job will solve her problems and ultimately make her life better in every possible way. She will be smarter and prettier, her family will appreciate her the way they worship her little brother, and her gorgeous crush will finally realize that she is perfect for him. In other words, with a new nose, Jory will be as perfect as everyone else in her life.
In order to ensure that she and "Super Schnoz" will part ways before the start of her senior year in high school, Jory take a job as a cake delivery person to fund her cosmetic surgery. She also begins a nice nose notebook to be ready for the big day.
It seems like everything is going Jory's way until an unlikely acquaintance, an unfortunate driving mishap or two, and other (natural) disasters force Jory to rethink everything she thought she knew about her nose, herself, and the perfect people she wanted so badly to emulate.
Set in Reno, Nevada My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters offers an interesting perspective on cosmetic surgery. Her hyperbolic fantasies about Super Schnoz and her new dream nose illustrate the irrational hopes Jory has pinned to the possibility of plastic surgery. At the same time, as the story progresses Jory begins to realize that there might be more to reinventing herself than restructuring her nose. That thread, set against the backdrop of friend-drama, and the social-climbing ambitions of her ever-dieting mother, gives this ostensibly quick read a fair amount of depth.
I enjoyed a lot of this book. At times the characters read younger than I would have expected for sixteen and seventeen-year-olds, but that likely says more about who I was at that age than anything else. Jory also reminded me a lot of Georgia Nicholson with her singular focus on boys but in a far less annoying way. I also had issue with the way friendships were treated. It must be the latin in me but I would have held a grudge a lot longer than Jory (and other characters in books I've read recently), but again that's probably just me.
I loved Jory's humor throughout the narrative, which made her lack of self-esteem at the beginning of the novel bearable. As part of a mother-daughter jewelery making duo, I also loved that beading came up in the story and was handled so realistically. At the start of the novel I will admit that I was not sure I could like Jory as a character, but by the end of the book I not only liked her, I was proud of her. My only disappointment was that the book didn't go on a little longer so I could spend more time with this new and improved heroine. Beyond that, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters is a clever, humorous book about how finding beauty sometimes involves more introspection than anything else.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
shelbycolada's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book in middle school when I was struggling to accept parts of my body just as Salter's main character does. What I love most about books like these are, the characters teach us that it's okay to struggle or to fight for what we think is best for us, but to also decide at the last minute that we want to be someone entirely different. We can re-write our own stories at the drop of a pen. Salter takes her readers through the struggle of wanting to accept the impossible and ache to change what we see in the mirror, while bringing us to the end where we realize we decide what we do and don't love about ourselves. No one else has that power.
suey's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, I liked this one way more than I thought I would. It had a very powerful message that I completely related to. And I think Gideon is my new favorite male lead in a teen novel!
vellanorah's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this sweet coming of age tale. I laughed out loud thorough out this book. And I was completely engrossed in what Jory was gonna get herself into next. She was a great character who I grew to love. She was funny, cute, and so much like the girl in all of us.