Review: Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maya Vidal may only be 20 years old, but she has been through a lot in that short time. Sent to live in a remote village in Chile after battling great challenges in her life, Maya uses her notebook to write about and learn from those challenges. The mistakes from her past will help her to hopefully lead a more productive and promising future.

Told from Maya's point of view, we are transported all over the world. Most of the book takes place in Chiloe, Chile, but you will also spend time in Berkeley, California, in Oregon, in Las Vegas and other countries throughout the world. Taken back and forth in time from Maya's present to the events of her past that brought her to Chile in the first place. This book is full of strong family ties that help Maya to keep her head on somewhat straight.

Overall this was a great story, but it took way too long to read. Full of great details it makes you feel as though you are in the setting of the book.
Favorite quote from the book: "...there's no fuel for the bonfires of despair."

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Review--If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mia is a typical 17 year old girl.  She has a great family, plays the cello, has good friends and an incredible boyfriend.   On a very non-typical day in her home of Oregon, a dusting of snow keeps the whole family home from work and school.  Her family decides to take a drive and visit some family and friends.  Unfortunately, on this journey, tragedy strikes.  Mia's family is involved in a car accident.  As Mia's life hangs in the balance, she reflects on all that has happened in her short time on earth and what would or could happen if she decided to stay.

I thought this was going to be a tear-jerker, but it wasn't so much.  The events that took place are sad for sure, but I didn't find myself crying like I thought I would.  Imagine if everyone in your immediate family is killed in a car accident and you are the only survivor.  What do you do?  You watch your whole family laying in pools of blood and then you watch yourself being operated on and see the looks in the eyes of your friends and family as they try to make sense of it all as well.  In the book, the movie Ghost is referenced, and this book does remind me a bit of that movie.  Patrick Swayze is dead though, and Mia is just trying to figure out if she should stay with the living, or go and be with her parents and her brother.   It's a hard decision to make and I'm not sure if it is one that I could make.  For me or for any other member of my family.  How can  you make the decision to let someone live or die?  How do you make that decision yourself?  Are we really able to make that decision?

My favorite part of this book, is looking back into Mia's life.   Getting an understanding of who she is and who her family was.  I love the fact that her family was so close and most of her life treated her like a little adult instead of a child.  They were encouraging and always there for her. Her boyfriend and her best friend were the same way.  They may not have always agreed on everything, but they were always understanding and willing to give a listening ear.   I'm not sure if the series follows Mia along the rest of her journey, but I would like to know what her decision was.


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