Love and Other Foreign Words (English)

Author : Erin McCahan

Genre Young Adult, Romance, Comedy, Fiction

Publisher : Dial Books

Year : 2014

Ranking : 3.5/ 5

 

 

Synopsis

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.

The Author

Erin McCahan's second novel, LOVE AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS was optioned by Warner Bros. in a pre-empt. The novel will be released in English by Dial Books, May 1st, 2014. Also in 2014, it will be released throughout the world in 10 languages. 

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU SOMEONE ELSE, Erin's first Young Adult novel, was a 2010 Cybils Finalist and a 2011 RITA Awards Finalist in two categories -- Best Young Adult Romance and Best First Book. It was also named one of the Best 100 Books of 2010 by Librarians' Choices.

Erin lives in Columbus, OH, with her husband of over 14 years, Tim, and is a member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, SCBWI, Intertel and Mensa. She is also a certified Peer Mentor for an organization called TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors).

When she is not writing or taking walks with her husband, she can be found in any number of local coffee shops having chai and long conversations with friends.

Personal Experience with This Book

I started reading this book because it had many good comments on the internet and I thought, why not. However, I cannot say that I loved it. Nor tell you I did not enjoy it. I enjoyed it enough to say it was "cool ", but not enough to recommend it to everyone because it's that " must read " as often found on the internet .

The story by itself does not have something you “click up” with, but the main protagonist. Everything revolves around her, and the rest is just filler. It might be fine for some people, and when speaking about Josie, our protagonist, you might find yourself wanting to read it. But for me the fact that there was not something beyond Josie’s personality that catch me and made me feel good about reading it, is important. It gives you this empty feeling that something was actually missing. To me, the story is quite predictable ... you know what will happen at the end from the first chapter of the book ... or at least I knew. It also gives the feeling that the author disentangles all in the last three chapters. One freezes..... what happened there? .... And why is it so fast?... or and now, it all makes sense and get solved but just in the last chapter was not like that. I will try to concentrate from this point in Josie and only Josie, she is the only interesting thing… Sorry for calling her a thing…. In the book.

Josie, as the synopsis says, is a girl who lives surrounded by all kinds of people. Very sociable and highly intelligent. Josie speaks many languages; this simply means that is expressed differently depending on who the receptor is. The language she uses depends on the person with whom she speaks, and this is so into herself that she actually translates everything in her mind, differently to: her friends, her sisters, her parents, her teachers, etc. .

Josie is a girl who thinks too much (basically the story goes in Josie’s mind so you'll be in her head all the time). I 'm not sure if I've ever worried about so minimal things that Josie actually does. Unless if I can say I am like her when I get something stuck into my head and I want to find a solution. At the beginning of the story, Josie can make you upset and mad.  She is bossy, narrow-minded in her way, and she never stop talking! Really she  says everything that comes to her mind. But after that, you'll realize that Josie is really a kind girl who loves her family very much, especially her sisters.

The fact that Josie thinks too much can give you a headache as a reader. Seriously this girl is concerned and some things that almost no one will. But this is not annoying, is not bad, on the contrary I found it very interesting. Josie thinks about things you take for granted. For example, when can you know you're in love? Why you can go from love to hate in one second? What is love? What are the meanings of the word “cool”? How many times have you eaten rat meat in a burger? And so many other examples that let you thinking. 

Josie always wants to look for some logical sense, scientist method, something you can see to prove an answer to your questions. And while his best friend Stu and his sister Kate repeated that she cannot explain everything, she just does not understand. And, she keeps giving people around her a hard time about this. Raise your hands if you haven’t been like Josie at least once in you life. I think everyone has something they want to prove in some way but she just cannot. That is why you identify with Josie.

I disliked that Josie’s attitude with her sister’s boyfriend, and future husband was completely bias just because “She thinks Kate is choosing a wrong person” then, it is her right as her sister to stop her from making this mistake. It bothered me very much the attitude of this girl when she did that. Maybe because I would not want that my sister would do that… lol. 

The book.... I recommend it ... but not something so good .... It is a normal reading. Not bad, not super. It's there but it is not something you would die for and you can actually live without reading it jajajaja. Although Josie is a very interesting girl…. If you liked how I described her, you might like the book. 

Links

1. Goodreads