I am SO very excited to be a part of this blog tour! Andrew Smith is a favorite author of mine and if you haven’t gotten your hands on this book yet, this web you’ll be convinced by the end of this post to get your hands on it!
Blog Tour Schedule
November 3rd ~ The Pirate Tree – Review
November 3rd ~ Roof Beam Reader – Review
November 3rd ~ Cabin Goddess – Mom & Son Review with a Recipe
November 3rd ~ Bookish – Review
November 3rd ~ Lookandseebeanazed – Review
November 4th ~ The Reader and the Chef – Review
November 4th~The Bookish Confections – Review
November 4th ~ Fangirlish – Review
November 4th ~ Reads All The Books – Review
November 5th ~ Word Spelunking – Review
November 5th ~ Debbie Bookish – Review
November 5th ~ Books and Bling – Review
November 5th ~ Falling For YA – Review
November 5th ~ I Read Banned Books – Review
November 5th ~ Ringo The Cat – Review
November 5th ~ A Leisure Moment – Review
November 6th ~ Reading on the Farm – Review
November 6th ~ Blogging Between the Lines – Review
November 6th ~ Bookhounds YA – Review
November 6th ~ What A Nerd Girl Says – Review
November 6th ~ Movies, Shows & Books – Review
November 6th ~ Deal Sharing Aunt – Review
November 7th ~ Pixie Vixen Book Reviews – Review
November 7th ~ roro is Reading – Review
November 7th ~ The Reader and the Chef – Review
November 7th ~ Cabin Goddess – Review
November 7th ~ Reads All The Books – Review
November 7th ~ Laura Kreitzer, Bestselling Author – Review
November 7th ~ LRB – Karin Baker – Review
November 7th ~ Read Now Sleep Later – Review
About Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed WINGER (Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness—an Amazon “Best of the Year”) and THE MARBURY LENS (A YALSA BFYA, and Starred reviews and Best of the Year in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist).
He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. STAND OFF, the sequel to WINGER, coming in January 2015, is his ninth novel. He lives in Southern California.
You Can Find Him At:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
About 100 Sideways Miles
Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.
Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.’
Purchase the book at your local bookstore or the following links:
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository
The Giveaway
My Review!
What has always struck me as the most wonderful thing about Andrew Smith’s books is that they can be weird, wacky, straight up confusing and out of this world. There’s always a little something about his book or his story that is just a little weird. But it never feels that way. You never really think about it while you’re reading. Actually, I usually only ever think about it when I’m trying to convince other people to read his books. “I know, it sounds so weird, but trust me, this book will change your life!”
But that’s the beauty of it. He writes such incredible, realistic, relatable characters that the story is always believable from beginning to end. His characters are some of the richest characters I’ve read in a book before. They have all stayed with me as some of the most memorable characters. They’re so incredibly real, and I need that a lot for teen characters. They have their faults, and they make mistakes and they think some of the most incredibly stupid things but they’re also clever, and emotional and full of so much potential. This is true of Finn Easton.
Finn is basically on a journey to figure himself out. He’s the boy out of his father’s novel. He’s the boy plagued with seizures. He’s the boy who is best friends with Cade Hernandez. There are so many labels but none of them really tell us who he is. Its the journey he takes in this book, both with his relationship with Julia and his actual venture to go see her, that we really see him come into his own. A coming of age story is not a new thing and yet Andrew Smith manages to make each and every one he writes seem unique and entertaining. I was rooting for Finn the entire way, hoping that he figured out what he wanted, and that he would make his way back to Julia.
And there’s just always that little fact that Andrew Smith’s books can make me laugh like no one else. Its just the smallest little things, little quips that just make me crack up. Sometimes I don’t even know if its intentionally funny but its just great. He writes as if you’re really and truly in the head of the character and its brilliant, because you get all of those side thoughts that you normally don’t get in books, and it just makes me laugh and it makes his story and his characters better, more genuine and more authentic. I absolutely love it.
Bottom line is this, if you haven’t read an Andrew Smith book, what are you waiting for? You definitely should! In the past year-ish, he’s released Winger, Grasshopper Jungle and now 100 Sideways Miles and they’ve all been so fantastic. If there’s a book that you’re going to pick first, do this one! Its funny and real and beautiful and you’re going to laugh and you’re going to get emotional and you’re going to love every minute! And its not too long and its a standalone and there’s just about a bajillion (that’s a real number, I swear) more reasons to read it so just do it already!
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Thank you Lady Reader for hosting this blog tour and for letting me be a part of it!
