Book Banter -- Second Helpings

Title: second helpings
Author: Megan McCafferty
Length: 373 pages
Genre: YA/chick lit
Plot Basics: Jessica Darling is embarking on her senior year of high school. She wants to figure out her college plan and she wants to not think about He Who Shall Remain Nameless (also known as Marcus Flutie... the mysterious boy in "sloppy firsts" who charms her). Both things, of course, are not quite as easy as she would hope, particularly when Marcus starts wearing his ideas on his t-shirts with iron-on letter messages.

Banter Points: Jessica Darling is one of the best first person voices Word Nerd has read in a while. She has such a defined perspective that makes reading it really fun. Also, it's a little bit over the top, but if you want to get a bead on what high school life is truly like nowadays, based on what Word Nerd sees in her day job, this isn't that far off.

Bummer Points: Word Nerd is so unhip sometimes. She tries to stay up to date on slang, etc, but there were a few moments in the book where she needed a translater to decode the lingo. There was not so much of it that the book was unreadable.

Word Nerd recommendation: When Word Nerd read "sloppy firsts" it was for research, to compare it to the "Opal Mehta" book. Word Nerd picked up "second helpings" solely for fun. Fun it was. (Word Nerd even stayed up late to finish the book... something that for being an avid reader, she doesn't do often). And reading about high school is way more fun now than when Word Nerd was a high school student.