September Book Review (3)

Happy Tuesday everyone it's not Tuesday,

I have a goodreads account now.

1.) The Ideal Man by Julie Garwood

My rating: ★★★★

Upon returning to my Kindle I went through my library to delete some books as my reading choices have changed a bit since I used it last. I got my kindle for my fourteenth birthday when I was almost exclusively reading Nora Roberts and a few other romance writers including Julie Garwood. I eventually reached my limit of the amount of cheezy romance I could read and started wandering genres. Rereading this book was a little bit weird for me because I am now very aware of the cheese and cringe involved in this genre were when I first read it I ate it up. I still like this book and will keep it on my Kindle but it's just a little bit cringey to me at this point so it lost a star.

And when I added this book to my goodreads account I found that it's the 9th book in the Buchanan-Renard series?!?!

2.) Raising Ryland by Hillary Whittington

My rating: ★★★★★

In my psychology of women class, we watched this video about a young transgender boy named Ryland who at a very early age knew that he did not identify with the gender he was assigned at birth (female) and amazingly his family encouraged him to transition. After we watched this video we talked to an older transgender man named Connor (Front Center) about his life and transition as well as a little bit of Ryland's story because Connor knew Ryland and his family. He mentioned being in the book Ryland's mother wrote so I decided to read it not only because I thought it was cool that someone I had met was written in a book but also because I wanted to learn more about Ryland.

I wasn't expecting the book to be from the mother's point of view although it does make sense as she wrote it and it's hard to tell any point of view other than her own. I also wasn't expecting the book to start with Hillary, Ryland's mother, meeting Jeff, Ryland's father. It continued to follow their relationship and their marriage up to their first child being born and then, for the most part, focusing on Ryland. But the book really digs into their families life and not just Ryland's. And it gives a really deep look into Hillary's mental state while raising her child through something so difficult. And what I mean by that is you really see how a mother cares about her child. Hillary is constantly anxious and losing sleep over her child's troubles. When she gets to the point of realization that her child was not happy living as a girl you can see her thought process of putting her child's happiness above all else.

It's beautiful, it's emotional and it's inspiring. My review could never do it justice.

3.) High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips

My rating: ★★★★★

Mackenzie Phillips, born Laura Mackenzie Phillips, is the daughter of the famous rock god, John Phillips, the lead singer of the 1960s band, The Mama and The Papas. Now when I say famous I feel I need to clarify he is not famous to me or most of my generation I imagine. But in his day he and his daughter were wildly famous. My generation is more likely to know Mackenzie from playing Barbara Denning in season six of Orange is the New Black as well as Pam the therapist in the remake of One Day at a Time. What I didn't know was that Mackenzie was the star of the original One Day at a Time show but had to be written out due to her drug use.

After my mom and I finished watching the latest season of OITNB we discussed which Denning sister we liked best and my mom told me a little bit about Mackenzie and I was interested enough to do some googling. That's when I came across this memoir. Mackenzie describes her struggle with drug abuse that started when she was just 11 years old with amazing candor.

Totally Ky