We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist 4/5 stars

Hey, guys! I recently found Josh Sundquist's youtube channel and appreciated his sense of humor. From there, I heard that he wrote a book about his dating failures, We Should Hang Out Sometime. Of course, I had to read it.

The Cover:

The Cover:
It shows the title in the form of an infographic, which is surprisingly relevant to this book. Josh shares his story with the help of silly graphics (bar graphs, venn diagrams, etc.) in a way that's similar to the cover. It's simple and elegant, as well. A+ cover

Official Description:
A bright, poignant, and deeply funny autobiographical account of coming of age as an amputee cancer survivor, from Josh Sundquist: Paralympic ski racer, YouTube star, and motivational speaker.
Josh Sundquist only ever had one girlfriend.
For twenty-three hours.
In eighth grade.
Why was Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down the girls he had tried to date and asked them straight up: What went wrong?
The results of Josh's semiscientific, wholly hilarious investigation are captured here. From a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), to a misguided "grand gesture" at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love--or at least a girlfriend--in all the wrong places.

My Review:
We Should Hang Out Sometime is a very wholesome book. It tells of Josh's struggles with awkwardness as he grows up, especially as it relates to girls. The narration is funny and often sarcastic, with many diagrams of various situations he finds himself in. 

It is a nice, pleasant book that you could easily read in a day or so, or stretch it out over a longer period of time. The book is broken down into the various girls he tries (and fails) to have a relationship with. Each of these sections is about 50 pages, so you can read them back-to-back or just pick up with a new story, a new girl, later. 

One of the unique aspects of this book is that Josh tries to meet up with his old almost-girlfriends while writing this book and records their interactions. It definitely adds something to this memoir. However, oftentimes, his interviews are a bit lacking. He doesn't necessarily ask what he wants to hear and makes some assumptions. While this is still a fun part of the book, it would have been nice to have a more complete look into the girls' minds.

Overall, I really enjoyed We Should Hang Out Sometime. It was sweet, inspiring, and funny. Definitely a light book that will help you pass a lazy afternoon. It didn't knock my socks off, but it was pleasant. 

Phrase:
When are we going to hang out?

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Happy Reading!

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Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer 3.5/5 stars

Hey, guys!  Sorry that I haven't posted recently!  To be honest, I just haven't had the time to read with school starting back.  I meant to post this review about a week ago but got behind.  Sorry!
I read Into Thin Air for my Summer Reading book this year.  (Well, I actually chose Pride and Prejudice and had to abandon that (more to come on that disaster of a book).)  Into Thin Air seemed much better.  According to descriptions it was Jon Krakauer's account of his perilous climb up Mount Everest.  While I can't deny that it was, I was also a whole bunch of irrelevant mountain statistics.  It wasn't a bad book, but it was very heavy and very little happened for the first two thirds.
Anyways, the cover:

The Cover:
It is formatted like a newspaper article (in a way), like Jon's role in climbing Mount Everest, a journalist.  The photo is of Everest in a storm.  It fits the book well, but it isn't a particularly interesting cover.  B cover.

Official Description:
On May 9th 1996, five expeditions launched an assault on the summit of Mount Everest. The conditions seemed perfect. Twenty-four hours later one climber had died and 23 other men and women were caught in a desperate struggle for their lives as they battled against a ferocious storm that threatened to tear them from the mountain. In all, eight climbers died that day in the worst tragedy Everest has ever seen. 
Jon Krakauer, an accomplished climber, joined a commercial expedition run by guides for paying clients, many of whom had little or no climbing experience. In Into Thin Air he gives a thorough and chilling account of the ill-fated climb and reveals the complex web of decisions and circumstances that left a group of amateurs fighting for their lives in the thin air and sub-zero cold above 26,000 feet - a place climbers call 'The Death Zone'. Into Thin Air reveals the harsh realities of mountaineering and echoes with frantic calls of climbers lost high on the mountain and way beyond help.

My Review:
I enjoyed Into Thin Air once the storyline truly started moving.  However, that took probably 250-300 pages.  Those first pages were full with all of the factual information about Everest and the backstories of characters that you could ever want to know.
The author introduced a few too many irrelevant characters and would rarely bring them back up again.  This led to some confusion of who the characters were and whether or not they would be important later on.
I just didn't find myself engaged in the story.  If you are interested in Everest, I would recommend Into Thin Air because I actually learned a lot.  If not, maybe choose a different book.

Phrase:
Altitude Sickness

Happy Reading!

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