Books I've Read: Ordinary Girls

I really enjoyed reading this book, but weirdly, when I was finished, I realized I couldn't tell you exactly what it was about.

It's the story of two sisters, Plum (short for Patience somehow) and Ginny.  They live a fairly chaotic life in a ramshackle house with their distracted, artistic mother.  The book follows Plum as she deals with her sister's increasing hysteria over getting into college and her own secret as she falls for a handsome jock.

It's written in a very humorous way and I enjoyed Plum's voice very much.  Much of what actually happens in the story is fairly absurd too, with the house they live in becoming as much a character as anyone else.

And to be honest, not much does actually happen.  But it doesn't matter because just being in Plum's company is enormous fun.  And seeing her world, through her eyes, is refreshing.  Just normal things like watching a basketball game on TV is different when seen through her unique lens.

So I'd recommend this to people who like quirky characters and amusing observations.  And probably to those who like classic literature too,  Both Ginny and Plum are big fans of those British classics and references to Jane Eyre and Jane Austen abound.  But that said, I don't think you would have to have read those books to understand this one, although I feel like you might enjoy it more...

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Mlynowski, this heartfelt and humorous contemporary take on Sense and Sensibility follows two sisters—complete opposites—who discover the secrets they’ve been keeping make them more alike than they’d realized.

For two sisters as different as Plum and Ginny, getting on each other’s nerves is par for the course. But when the family’s finances hit a snag, sending chaos through the house in a way only characters from a Jane Austen novel could understand, the two drift apart like they never have before. Plum, a self-described social outcast, strikes up a secret friendship with the class jock, while Ginny’s usual high-strung nature escalates to pure hysterics.

But this has always been the sisters’ dynamic. So why does everything feel different this year? Maybe because Ginny is going to leave for college soon. Maybe because Plum finally has something that she doesn’t have to share with her self-involved older sister. Or maybe because the girls are forced to examine who they really are instead of who their late father said they were. And who each girl discovers—beneath the years of missing their dad—could either bring them closer together…or drive them further apart.