Hey, guys! I know I haven't been on here in a few months, but I have about 48 or so reviews to write, so don't worry! More reviews are on their way. I've read some seriously good books in the last few months, so get ready and check back in the next few days!

37) I'm With the Band-Pamela Des Barres

Pamela Des Barres didn't want to lead an ordinary life. Luckily for her, she grew up in the freewheeling 1960s in Southern California. Once she realized that high school and obsessing over the Beatles was no longer fun after discovering oral sex with her first boyfriend, she decided it was time to change things up. So, what did she do? She headed straight to the Sunset Strip for the burgeoning rock n' roll scene. It wasn't just the music she was immersing herself in. No, it was the sex and the drugs that went along with it as well.

From inhaling weird substances with Jim Morrison to trysts with Mick Jagger to a tumultuous courtship with Jimmy Page to nights wrapped up in Waylon Jennings to being a caretaker to the Zappa children to becoming one of the most notorious groupies in rock music, Miss Pamela had a wild time between the late 60s and the entire decade of the 70s. The life you dreamed of having if you were alive at that time can be found between the pages of this book and you cannot believe that all of what she did is real. 

I liked this book. For the first 100 pages or so, I was out of this world bored. I was ready for a riotous romp through the legends of rock n' roll, but first you had to get through all of the boring stuff before Pamela Miller became Miss Pamela of the GTOs. However, once you got through that and landed at the drug soaked bandana sniffing naked time with Jim Morrison, you wanted to know more. Who else had she slept with? What other bands did she see rise from clubs with sticky, alcohol stained floors to ruling the arenas? Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Rolling Stones, all four of the Beatles, Alice Cooper...every big name from that time is here.

However, I didn't love this book. It's an entertaining read, but it was slow moving at times and the parts from her diaries could get hard to understand, but it was still interesting. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but some might enjoy it.

36) Bossypants-Tina Fey

Do your thing and don't care if they like it.

If you don't know who Tina Fey is, you've been living under a rock for quite some time now. She was the first female head writer at Saturday Night Live until Lorne Michaels suggested she be used in a sketch. She kills it as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock. She's one of the handful of women to win the Mark Twain award for American Humor.

The woman wrote Mean Girls. What else do you need to know?

But how did Tina Fey get to be the women who brings the humor and gave us Cady Heron? Was she always this funny? Did she always make the people around her keel over with laughter from awkward observations? That's what this book is about. She starts from the time she was born through her local theater days to her awkward adolescence to studying improv at Second City in Chicago while working at the local YMCA to getting the job at SNL to creating 30 Rock, all the way up to what she hopes for her daughter in the future and addressing all of the haters. 

It's hysterical.

I absolutely loved this book. She shows no mercy and proves that women aren't fragile, porcelain dolls that need to be rescued by a much more powerful man. Tina Fey proves that you can be feminine but be a powerhouse as well. That is what more women need to know. If you don't know that yet, read this damn book. It's hilarious and relatable and sweet and wonderful. I can't recommend this one enough.

35) Lola and the Boy Next Door-Stephanie Perkins

Just because something isn't practical doesn't mean it's not worth creating. Sometimes beauty and real-life magic are enough.

Lola Nolan is a different person every day. Hoping to one day become a costume designer, she changes her outer appearance every day. On the inside, though, she's just as sweet as ever. She loves her dads, her dog, Heavens to Betsy, her job at the movie theater, her best friend and her boyfriend, Max. Everything seems to be going really well in Lola's life. That is until she sees the Bell family moving back in next door. Before she can freak out, she scopes out the house and notices that he's not with them. Phew, that was a close one. No need to freak out! Or is there?

Days later he's there. Cricket Bell. The one that got away. The one that broke her heart. What is she going to do? Lola decides to be as nice seeing as she's completely over him. Or is she? No, she's in love with Max! Max, the guy that neither of her dads likes. Max, the older guy. Max, the jealous type. Max, the one she's suddenly not sure of as she gets closer to Cricket Bell once again. It doesn't help that Cricket lives in the same dormitory as Lola's co-worker, Anna's, boyfriend, Etienne at Berkley. But this isn't the same Cricket Bell that broke her heart. This is a more mature, grown up, ready to stand on his own two feet version of Cricket. Could Lola still be in love with Cricket?

Okay, seriously. I was as in love with this one as I was its predecessor. I literally just couldn't stop giggling and smiling the whole time! (To be clear: I neither giggle nor blush in my daily life. This is a shift in the cosmos for me. Smiling, yes. Giggling, no.) It was just such a sweet book. And it was absolutely wonderful to see Anna and Etienne. I thought that it was really funny and really well written and it flowed just like French Kiss. You really did just want to jump into the pages and hangout with these people. They're just really great characters and their situations don't seem at all overdramatized or entirely unrealistic. It felt, again, like learning about your friends.

I was incredibly sad to have finished it so quickly, but upon flying to my laptop once again I discovered: Stephanie Perkins is writing a third! Ah! It's so exciting to me. I can't wait to read all about Isla and see exactly how Anna, Etienne, Lola and Cricket play into her story. I'm sure it will be wonderful. The only problem? I have to wait all the way until next fall. Why must you do this to me, Perkins? So hurtful!

34) Anna and the French Kiss-Stephanie Perkins

For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we're finally home.

Anna Oliphant is finally a senior. Only she won't be spending it in Atlanta where she's spent her whole life. No, she'll be spending it in the American boarding school in Paris. While most kids would be over the moon about the opportunity, Anna isn't too pleased. She doesn't speak French, she doesn't know anyone and her being sent there is only so her "Great Southern Romance Writer" of a father can say that she goes to school there. She's leaving her friends, her little brother, her job and a certain guy she just started to get to know a little better. What's so great about Paris anyway?

When she arrives in Paris, she cries the first night. Luckily for her, the walls are paper thin and the girl living next door comes over and takes Anna under her wing. She introduces Anna to her group of friends and within seconds, Anna is taken by Etienne St. Clair, an American-born Englishman living in Paris. Only problem is: he's in a relationship. And what about Toph back home? Anna makes the decision to keep her feelings to herself and do her best to fit in in this brand new world. But can she keep her feelings to herself for long? Will she actually start to love living in Paris? What will happen when she goes home for Christmas? Is this the experience that will change her life in more ways than one?

I absolutely loved this book. I picked up a copy of it last fall at a book conference and thought I would eventually get to it and probably not like it. Oh, was I wrong. I could not put this down. I giggled and blushed and smiled my way through it. Somewhere on the back one of the blurbs say that you will want to date this book and I'm here to tell you that that is entirely true. I wanted to jump into the pages and fall in love with Etienne in a big way. There was so much humor and the romance aspect wasn't overbearing and you really did feel like you were just learning about what your friends had been up to, which I think is always really great. 

If you like a good, fun, really cute read, this is totally for you. You'll breeze through it and totally want more. Best part? There's a companion novel! It might not center around Anna, but she's still part of the story and it's wonderful. Who wouldn't want more of these characters once you've read this story? If only Stephanie Perkins would write nothing but this group's stories. Sigh. One can dream, right?

33) Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami

But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.

Toru was a student studying in Tokyo in the late 1960s. While on a plane later in life, he hears a version of "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles and thinks back to the time when that song really meant something to him. He's transported back to the time in his life when Naoko was the one person he truly cared about. He had met Naoko when they were much younger and she was dating his best friend. When his best friend committed suicide, the two stopped speaking until they ran into each other while he was studying at university in Tokyo. The two would spend their Sundays together walking around the city and talking about life. It was during these Sundays that he truly started to fall in love with the emotionally closed off Naoko. 

After an event gone awry for her, she stops speaking to Toru altogether. He's hurt and isn't sure what he did, but doesn't push it. He starts to hangout with an older guy in his dormitory and starts to see just how scummy guys can be. This guy has it all, but still manages to screw around just because he can. Toru isn't sure how he feels about all of it, but goes along with the guy to dinners and bars where they pick up girls. One day, while eating lunch alone, a girl comes and sits down next to him and starts a conversation. He starts to spend time with Midori and eventually finds his love for Naoko ruining things with Midori. But Naoko isn't capable of loving Toru. What will it take for him to realize that?

I was really excited to read this book. I think Haruki is an incredible writer and I think any book that was brought to life by a Beatles song should be read since I'm a huge Beatles fan. What? It's a thing. Anyway, although I thought that this was a really good book and full of really insightful pieces, it took awhile before there was a real flow to it. By that I mean it took awhile before I could really ease into it and not put it down. There was a lot of death and despair in this that I was not expecting and that also made it a little more difficult to get through. A suicide would just pop up out of nowhere and you'd need to put it down and think happy things for a bit! 

Would I recommend this book to others? Absolutely. I really do think that Haruki writes really well thought out plots and really beautiful lines. It's a great coming of age story for someone who is looking for something a little bit different. Just be prepared for the amount of sadness that resides within these pages. It can be overwhelming at times. Nevertheless, it's a really nice read.

32) Your Voice in My Head: A Memoir-Emma Forrest

Time heals all wounds. And if it doesn't, you name them something other than wounds and agree to let them stay.

Emma Forrest is an English journalist. When she was 22-years-old, she was living in New York City and realized that maybe it was time to start seeing a therapist. Luckily, she discovered one that would help her through bulimia, failed relationships, cutting and suicide attempts. However, when she called him to tell him all about some good news years later, she discovered that he had passed away from lung cancer. 

By telling her own story of mania, depression, ups, downs and everything in between, Emma gives you stories from others that experienced the brilliance of the doctor while simultaneously telling her history with him as well. So, you're getting more than just her story and how he helped her. You're also reading how he saved and how much he meant to others. 

This is an incredibly intense book. Emma Forrest has had a very intense battle with mental health and there is more than one suicide attempt throughout the book. There are bits of hope and it ends well, but from start to finish, things get a little hairy. I was sort of blown away by how much she had gone through, but it was a completely fascinating read. It read really quickly, but I'm not sure if it was due to the writing or if it was because I was so ready to be done with it because of the intensity. 

If you read it now, you'll be ahead of the curve, kids! It's about to become a film with Emma Watson and the perfection that is Stanley Tucci. It'll be interesting to see how it goes from page to screen, so get going, guys! Say you read it before the film!