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The Holding Pattern

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Lex's World

Last week, I wrote about contentment. This week, I want to talk about waiting.

All summer, it has seemed I have been in this season of waiting. There is a fabulous job opportunity that may or may not come to fruition and I am waiting. It seems like I will always be waiting.

If you’re like me, your brain just doesn’t shut off. I have played out so many scenarios in my mind. How will I react if I get it? How will I react if I do not? Will I cry? What will I do if it is full time? Will that effect my freelance work? What if I don’t get the job and will never make enough to get out of my parents basement? Does that mean I have to take up video games? What if they thought my outfit was awful in the interview? Did the color of my resume paper offend the interviewer? What if? How will I?Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?

The other day I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize and nearly had a heart attack. Could this be the call at last?

… It was just a wrong number.

I wondered if the guy on the other end had been calling ‘Teresa’ to tell her she got a job. Congrats Teresa! I hate you.

Okay, not really.

But it’s frustrating. It’s disappointing. It sometimes feels like I’m going crazy! And I don’t mean the phone call.

I am in a holding pattern in which I have no control. So where do I go with that?

God is so much more patient than I. And he actually is in control.

When the buzzing monologue of what-ifs overwhelm my thoughts, I have found taking time to pray has been essential in this season. I am not going to get an answer in that time with Him. I am not really looking for an answer. That will come when the hiring folks make their decision in their time.

When we want something so badly, it is easy to get swept away with worries and what-ifs and miss what God may be up to. That’s usually what I do with my waiting periods. I worry. Until I figure out what’s going on. Then I’m usually disappointed when things don’t go my way or unfulfilled if they do.

The waiting is just as valuable as the thing you are waiting for.

I don’t care if it is for a job, a spouse, enough savings for a new car, dinner, cats to go extinct: the waiting is where God does some of his best work. It is a playground to experience gratitude, examine motives, and encounter the character of the Father.

And, yeah, sometimes it sucks! This summer has crawled by for me. I have a hard time scheduling things over a week in advance because I’m not really sure what life will look like in that short amount of time. I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket like phantom limb, having to remind myself it’s in my purse. I want this so badly, but I am not getting it right now and I have to learn to be alright with that.

I’ll tell you this though: God has met me in this holding pattern. He is sitting beside me while I wait to land. The moments when he invites me to into silence, to ‘Be still and know that he is God’ are what keep me sane. He offers peace. I find that I just have to trust that his way is best. Waiting and all.

I hope that if you are finding yourself in a holding pattern as well, that you find God beside you. Take some time today to enjoy the silence with him. Please enjoy as you loosen your grasp on the thing you are waiting for and offer it to Him with open hands.

The waiting is just as valuable as the thing you are waiting for.

I promise.

What is Contentment?

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Lex's World

I’ve been living in a state of limbo for some time now.

In previous posts, I’ve talked through job loss and the struggle in waiting for that next something to come along. I have the prospect of an opportunity that I’m supposed to get an definitive answer on any day now. It has been a long waiting process that has given me a chance to wrestle through some things with God.

Like contentment.

At the start of this year, I told you guys that was what I wanted to seek this year; godliness and contentment. Shortly after that, I was laid off from my dream internship, turned down for a couple promotions, and left in this state of waiting and hoping.

So how is one supposed to be content when nothing seems to be right. When you’re not happy. When you’re not satisfied. For some reason, this is what I believed contentment to be. Happiness. Satisfaction. And if not those things, fooling yourself into believing you were those things.

What on earth is contentment if not satisfaction and happiness?

This was the question on my heart. If I was supposed to be content, why wasn’t I able to make myself comfortable with where God had placed me?

I ran across a quote from Sinclair Ferguson that helped me wade through my confusion.

Christian contentment…is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to the Lord and to be totally at his disposal in the place He appoints, at the time He chooses, with the provision He is pleased to make.

That was it. Contentment was my calling. Contentment was what was supposed to come from trusting where God had me for the length he had me there. It wasn’t happiness. It wasn’t satisfaction. It was trust. Trust that this was the destination for now. Trusting that it was the best place for me in this season.

It is so hard when we are not in the place we thought we would be at this point in life. There is so much ambiguity in this post-grad, pre-whatever stage. I have a hunch that there is a whole lot of ambiguity in live in general.

And it’s not fun and it’s not easy, but it it good. It is good to realize you are not in control. It is good to realize that you must rely on something bigger than yourself. It is good to seek contentment when it seems like the farthest thing from your grasp.

So it’s been two months of waiting to see if this job opportunity will come to fruition. And yes, I want it to come to fruition. But I know I will be okay if it does not. God has a plan. He will place me where I need to be and not a moment before I need to be there.

And I am surprised to say that that is something I can be content with.

Is there an area of your life where you haven’t been seeking contentment? Have you been struggling with the meaning of that word?

The Five Unfortunate Phrases I Use Unironically

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Writing Thoughts

I really do love words. I promise

There’s just a small thing. When I hear a word I think is less than, well, usable, I tend to use it. It’s usually just too ridiculous not to!

When I was in Ireland, our host introduced our group to the word ‘Craic’ (pronounced ‘Crack’), which is defined as:

Craic is a term for news, gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland. It is often used with the definite article – the craic.

At first, we didn’t believe that this was a term actually used by people, but I looked it up. It’s not commonly used. According to one slang commentary, it’s only used by sleazy guys in track suits.

Never the less, I was enchanted by the ridiculousness of this new phrase. So I started using it ironically. And then I just started using it period. Not gonna lie, I attempted a one-woman campaign on twitter and instagram trying to get #totescrack to trend.

But I do this often. I encounter a word or phrase I think is dumb or unfortunate and I begin to use it to make fun of it. And then little by little, it works its way into my vocabulary.

So here are the five phrases I can no longer use ironically:

1. Totes
This is an abbreviation of totally and just makes anything requiring an adverb sound silly. Sad but true, I pair this with a lot of words.

2. Adorbs
An abbreviated form of adorable. Thanks to the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, this is probably one of my most common pairings with ‘Totes.’ If something is cute, it really is only appropriate to use cutsie words to describe it, yes? Yeah, so that’s how this one became incorporated into my vocabulary.

3. BTDubs
By the Way! I became acquainted with this one my freshman year of college. Who would use BTW when you can use BTDubs? I mean, really.

4. Supes Dupes
Super Duper. This is probably my least used ridiculous phrase. Probably because I never even use ‘Super Duper’. Supes Dupes is just so fun to say, though!

5. The Biz
The business–as in what’s the business? or what’s up? This is probably the worst phrase I use the most often. If someone is giving me an update or walking me through a task, I will probably respond with ‘Cool biz.’ over ‘Sounds good.’

If I have lost your respect, I am quite shocked that didn’t happen sooner… I try not to use these phrases too often in my actually writing, but in day-to-day conversation, yes, I definitely use these gems.

There you go, I’ve confessed to my word crimes! What about you? Do you have any pet phrases that are less than acceptable?

…#totescrack

Everyone Needs a Paul, Everyone Needs a Timothy Part II

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Lex's World, Spirituality

Last week, we started a discussion on mentoring. It’s important to be poured into by those further along life’s path. But what do you do once you’ve been filled?

I have found that as I have been so generously poured into, that I must pour into others.

Everyone needs a Paul. Everyone needs a Timothy.

We need to support and mentor and hold one-another accountable; encouraging one another toward the father, not shaming each other into isolation. This is community. We also need to serve those behind us on the path. We need to mentor as much as we need to be mentored.

So now the lies tend to sink in. I’m too young.  I have nothing of value to say. I’ve messed up too many times. No one should look to me as an example.

Please recognize these as lies, my friend. God has redeemed and forgiven you. He has been working in your life, growing and stretching you, revealing himself through your life.

My small group leader in high school recently gave a sermon about mentoring those further down the path from us. He says, “So often we feel that our failures disqualify us from any influence. You’re on your second marriage, you’ve been bankrupt, you can’t get a certain part of your life under-wraps, you’re still struggling with porn once a month. I say this: if you’re struggling once a month, what has God done in your life to whittle it down that far? Find somebody who’s struggling on a daily basis and go public; expose your own journey. It’s in the killing of the shame and secrecy and alienation that comes from sin that we can actually step into the discipleship process at a multi-generational level.”

He continues, saying that our failures have taught us some of the greatest lessons in life. And why not share that wisdom we have been gifted with through the pain and heartache and shame? Why not allow that to be used to build the kingdom?

The reason the women who have discipled me have had such an impact in my life is not because they are bible-thumping, church-goddess women. Not at all! It is because they are real. They have invited God into the struggle and are beginning to learn to do that well. It is because they are soft and willing to share what has been revealed to them.

This is the kind of woman I want to be. Soft, strengthened by the Father. This is the kind of woman he is shaping me into. And as such, I am not to keep silent about what he has been teaching me. I am to go out and speak. I am to pour into the lives of those behind me on the path out of what God as done in me.

The girls I mentor add a vibrance to my life. Their excitement and potential are encouraging. Watching them embark on their own relationships with Jesus has been a privilege.

Are you influencing someone’s life? Think about a young girl in your life who may want the input of a young adult woman in her life.

It’s a beautiful blessing to be poured into and turn to pour out into someone else.

So who is your Paul? Who is your Timothy?

Everyone Needs a Paul, Everyone Needs a Timothy Part I

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Lex's World, Spirituality

A friend once shared a phrase in a small group that I thought was a great piece of wisdom:

Everyone needs a Peter. Everyone needs a Timothy.

I want to spend a couple weeks taking about this concept. Mentoring and being mentored has been such a huge part of my life and I’d love to talk about that with you.

Essentially, who are you pouring into? Who is pouring into you?
I have shared previously that I lost my mentor to cancer in my Sophomore year of college. She was a wonderful woman who really influenced my love for serving high school students and I am forever grateful for her impact in my life.

After she passed, all I really wanted was to talk about it with someone. Someone older, outside of my home. My family had heard me talk about her a lot. I wanted someone else’s perspective. I wanted to talk to her.

That was probably the hardest part. In this dark season, all I really wanted was for someone to pour into me, to share their wisdom and bring some comfort. I wanted a mentor. And I had had one. And she was gone.

It was a hard and heavy cycle.

It wasn’t until a very dear friend and professor met with me to talk about what was going on, how I was handling things. She gave me permission to grieve and affirmed where I was at. She asked me some questions that I had to chew on for a few months before I could actually answer them. It was good. It was beautiful. It was redemptive.

This woman took time out of her life to pour into me. It was a gift I am forever grateful for.

We’re all in need of community, but not always just a community of peers. We are called to be part of the body of Christ which is made up of multiple generations who are given the opportunity to bless one another with their wisdom and experiences.

Recently,  a few women have spoken into my life. They are just in the next camp in life and have so willingly shared with me their experiences with me. We have gotten to lift one another up in prayer and to pace along side each other on the journey. It has helped so much in this season as God is stretching me for whatever he has next.

Do you have someone in your life to speak wisdom and encouragement to you? Someone who will share their journey with you?

If you don’t, I highly suggest looking at the older women in your life. Is there someone at your church who may want to share their story with you? Do you have a small group program for young adults? If you don’t have an individual in your life right now who might fill this role, please pray for God to bring her along.

We are in community together to build one another up. We are to be taught and discipled. It’s humbling, energizing, and necessary. Having an older, wiser voice in your life is a wonderful gift I pray you have or will soon receive.

Next week, we’ll talk about being a mentor, even if you don’t feel you don’t have anything to share.

Friday Favorites: July

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Friday Favorites, Lex's World

This month we’re back to a classic Friday Favorites post. I’ve been saving up some random loves that I am quite excited to share. Here’s some random favorites for you to check out and see if you might enjoy!

1. This Disney Short
This video was so lovely. ‘The Duet’ wordlessly tells a beautifully simple love story in a matter of minutes. Definitely worth taking the time to watch.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/GuX52wkCIJA&source=uds

2. This Owl Mug

Last week I bought a mug on a doughnut run for work. It was an adorable owl mug that I figured would be nice to use the small stock of tea bags I had on my shelf in the office. It’s odd, but having the mug there and the ability to have tea during breaks really helps me keep my sanity at work. I have added this to the list just to suggest that a small little happy in your day goes a long way. What’s a small thing that helps you step out of your complaints and reminds you that life is gift?

3. This Engagement Shoot… fur real though…

See what I did there? If not, well, just take this in for a minute.
I am a sucker for odd pins on Pinterest. Those pins that seem so illogical. Like why? Just why? A friend and I stumbled upon this one and found it so charming and just plain odd, I had to share it with you guys. I present the bear-head engagement photo shoot. This is a really thing. It’s whimsical and features wonderful photography. The couple is also wearing bear heads. This is a thing, people!

4. This Web Series
The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy is one of my new favorite things on the internet. For any fans of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, I would highly recommend this. This adorable series is a re-telling of J.M. Berries Peter Pan set in modern day Ohio. It’s so precious. I really can’t get over how adorable the actress who plays Wendy is. This is a very fun way to kill four to seven minutes of your life at a time. Check it out!

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/NVT0xT6yf_I&source=uds

5. This Band
I’m not a rap fan.
That said, a friend introduced me to Movits!, a Swedish hip-hop group. It’s like Mumford & Son’s rapping to jazz. And it’s a lot of fun. Check out this playlist. I hope you enjoy it!

Joy and the Shepherd

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Lex's World, Spirituality

I accompanied a friend and her wonderful family to a wedding a couple weeks ago and had such a splendid time. Everything was so beautiful and the reception was such a blast. I love dancing like a weirdo with great friends. I had not seen many of her family members in a while, so there was plenty of catching up over dinner.

While describing to her mother where I am at in life, I found myself feeling like a cheese-ball. All I could talk about was even though this season was pretty ambiguous, things were actually really great and God had been so faithful. I kept repeating how great God was in this midst of the unknown. If I was hearing me talk, I would probably have rolled my eyes. (Inwardly, of course.)

Except that I was being totally honest.

 Which was a shock to me. I was happy. No, not happy–Joyful. God has been so wonderful in the midst of all my I -don’t-know-where-my-life-is-headed-this-is-so-confusing meltdowns. He has allowed me to be angry with him and to pray through that to a place of peace and trust.

I’m not going to lie, this has been one of the most difficult seasons. It has been–and continues to be–an inward struggle. What will I choose today? Contentment or worry? Trust or control? I don’t often choose correctly. But it’s a moment by moment choice. I am always welcomed to choose to turn.

The pastor at my church spoke this week, using his grandchildren as an illustration. Last year he challenged them all to memorize Psalm 23 and to reflect on the question ‘Who are you tempted to follow as your false shepherd?’ And this wasn’t just a question they had to answer once, but think on for the entire year.

I’ve been thinking on it for the past week as I meditate on the Psalm. Who am I tempted to follow as my false shepherd?

As God and I have been wrestling for the past couple weeks, it has become very apparent that I demand control. I want things my way and in my timing. If I cannot manipulate to make that happen, I fret about all the possible outcomes and dream up ways to compensate. I become consumed by what I cannot control or have or make yield to me.

I hold a death-grip over what is not mine.

But the Lord is my shepherd! I am just a sheep. It is the shepherd’s job to provide for his sheep. To lead them beside quiet waters, to make them rest in green pastures.

He is making me rest in green pastures in this stage of limbo. To slow down and rest in what he provides and nothing more. And it’s hard. I want to get up and go and make my way. But I am just a little sheep.

I must hand over my want for control and rest up. To take in God’s grace and the wisdom from his people and his word and prepare for the unknown next. So I have begun to open up my fists and let go of what I have wrongly grasped.

And what have I found in the handing over?

Joy.

I wish and pray for the same thing for you, my friend.

So what about you? Who are you tempted to follow as your false shepherd? I would love to hear in the comments or by email! Tell me your story!

The Empty Bookshelf Challenge

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Book Review, Books, Empty Shelf Challenge, Summer Reading, Susie Finkbiener

Dear friend and awesome author, Susie Finkbeiner introduced me to the Empty Bookshelf Challenge this year through her blog. This was started by Jon Acuff and I think it’s absolutely brilliant!

If you’re following me on Goodreads, you may have seen the list I’ve been building over the past six months. You are supposed to empty a shelf in your house and fill it with the books you’ve read from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2014.

I did have empty shelves on Dec.29th,  but they
were quickly filled after unpacking my books.

I don’t have a house, I just have a room with not a lot a shelves in it so I thought I’d just keep a list running on Goodreads instead.

So here at the half-way point of this challenge, I can tell you that I have read a lot more than I did the year before… mainly because 2013 was the year of the  undergrad thesis. Sure I read a lot for that, but it was journals and historical documents and my own writing. Bleh.

I have LOVED having the freedom to educate myself again and have been reading many varied things as a result.

So I thought I would break down some of my favorites from the year so far.

–Letters and Life–Bret Lott
A dear friend introduced me to the world of Lott telling me that she luffed him. Not love, luf. It’s much deeper.

Well I luf him now too! This book is a wonderful collection of essays on Lott’s musings on being a writer and a Christian. I loved his essay on precision–wonderful subject to think on while drafting a novel. Reading it to the student writing group I am a part of produced some great discussion.

His essay on Flannery O’Connor is a great tribute to the short-story goddess. The friend who introduced me to Lott told me upon reading it that everything he says about O’Connor can be said about him. I have to agree. He has developed the wonderful talent to get out of the way of his writing and let is stand on its own legs.

Great writer with some great thoughts!

–Fool–Christopher Moore
There is a stigma that the works of Shakespeare have come to own. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just something I’ve observed. We look at them like this hallowed tombs that cannot be touched by any writer before or sense.

Poppycock! And Christopher Moore has written the book to prove it!

Fool is a retelling of King Lear from the perspective of the fool. Moore presents the tale to a modern reader as Shakespeare did to his audiences. Bawdy humor mixed with wordplay and obvious symbolism. His sensitivity to what Shakespeare was trying to do is carried through to perfection–to entertain. This book is witty, thought-provoking and just fun.

–Idiot Psalms–Scott Cairns
Switching up my regular intake of fiction with some poetry, Like Lott, I found Cairns at Calvin’s Festival of Faith and Writing and LOVED his work.

Idiot Psalms is a collection of musings on life and God and scripture. Throughout the collection are sprinkled the Idiot Psalms. Written in the style of the biblical Psalms, Cairns explores the trials and trivialities of every-day-life. My personal favorite is Idiot Psalm 3 which he wrote during an English division meeting at the university at which he teaches.

These are just a few examples of what I’ve taken in the last six months. I’m excited to pick up the pace and read more in the back half of this year.

What book have you read this year that stick out in your mind? Please share! I’d love recommendations for the next six months of reading.

Wading in Tension

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Contentment, Stages of Life, Tension, Waiting

A few months ago, an acquaintance of mine shared a thought that I had to chew on for a couple days:

An artist has to wade through the tension in life, but really, the tension is the gift.

The tension is the gift.
Do I ever look at it like that? I don’t know about you, but I spend my days striving to rid my life of tension. Solving problems, knocking things off my to-do list, trying to free up as much time for myself as possible. Toil free, work free, problem free, tension free.
And yet, tension always seems to show up. In relationships, in my schedule, in my work. It is always there. Like the pimple that just won’t die!
preppy bohemia lens clouded womanAt least, that’s how I’ve been seeing it through the glasses I’ve had on for most of my life. But through a new lens, tension begins to look a little different.
For the past few weeks, I have been going through the interview process for a job I would really enjoy. I am optimistic as I wait, but just over my shoulder is the fear that I may not get it. It seems like the perfect fit for my current employment needs and my experience, but a lot of things in the past few months have looked so positive and then fallen through. So that niggling voice in the back of my voice keeps saying ‘If you don’t get this, you’re not going to find anything else. This is the only job that will fulfill your needs and desires. Don’t get this, and you’re stuck, kid.’
There’s the tension: hope and fear, truth and lies, success and failure.
So I’m in this holding pattern. Waiting. Interviewing. Hearing from references called. Everything looks really good, but there is still that chance it may not work out.
This is the tension I wade through. I’ve become super jumpy, waiting for my phone to ring with a number I don’t recognize…which has happened and it has not been the employer. Lots of near-cardiac arrests without much reason.
But this is the gift.
In these two weeks, I have got to put to practice what a friend calls giving up ‘material for sacrifice.’ I have been given a good desire–to do good work that encompasses my gifts. And I have no control of that desire being satisfied. I can get really drawn up in fret and desperation if I let myself. But it’s not supposed to be that. That’s not what tension is for.
Tension is the gift. It’s the offering.
When I trust in God, offering my desires up to him, that is when I experience the freedom and peace he offers. I am able to look towards either outcome of this process with courage. I am learning to trust my father and his good gifts.
This tension of being so close, but not close enough to know is my playground right now. It is a season that is hard, but full of rich discoveries.
Tension is the gift.
Dwell on that. I hope you find it true.

Friday Favorites: Guilty Pleasure Reads

Posted on by Lex De Weese in Books, Recommendations, Summer, Summer Reading

Hopefully you’ve received and opportunity this summer to go to a beach or a pool or at least somewhere you can relax in the sun. One of my favorite things to do on a warm summer day is to relax in the shade of the little pergola next to our pool. It is a wonderful work, writing, and reading space that I have really come to treasure in the time we’ve lived here.

And honestly, summer is the time for beach reading. Something I also call candy reading. Those books that you can read in a highly distracting environment and still take in. It’s easy and simple and sweet. These kind of books may also be known as guilty pleasure reads.

So now I expose to you some of my top favorite candy reads. The unintelligent stuff I enjoy with slight embarrassment that you may actually like as well. If you’re looking for a semi-good book for the beach or pool-side, here’s what I got:

1. Anything by Sophie Kinsella
No, it’s not literary by any means, but Sophie Kinsella (of Confessions of a Shopaholic fame) has numerous
romantic comedy novels that are truly funny. Her heroines are sweet, snarky, and super relateable. I always find myself smiling like an idiot as I read the hi jinx of these sassy characters and hope you might as well.

Some of my favorites include Can You Keep A Secret, Remember Me, and I’ve Got Your Number.

2. Odd Thomas–Dean Koontz

Koontz’s market is usually middle-aged men, but I picked up this novel as a kid in high school and loved it. (It was recommended to me by a middle-aged man, if that helps…) Odd, Koontz intriguing main character with a supernatural ability, has a GREAT voice. The novel is told through his perspective. Though the Koontz thriller is a mass-market commercial phenomenon, there is a fabulous sense of symbolism and subtle foreshadowing that no book-snob should dare turn their nose up to. Also, there is an ending that you probably won’t see coming unless you are a careful reader. And if you are a careful reader, you will be so impressed at how he leads up to such a pay off.

Apparently there is a movie adaptation of this on Netflix. I haven’t seen it, but I’m leery because I don’t recall it ever going to theaters… Book is most likely better.

3. the Percy Jackson series–Rick Riordan
So I pretty much read like a middle school boy. I love that books marketed to this demographic always have action, start to finish, as well as a decent amount of humor. You got to keep this rowdy bunch entertained, right? And I find myself in that ADD, keep me stimulated all the time camp.

Enter Percy Jackson! This modern exploration of Greek mythology is brilliant. Told through the eyes of Percy Jackson, a regular boy who discovers he is a demigod, we get to explore Camp Half-blood (Pretty much Hogwarts for the children of gods) and even venture on a quest across America. Great storytelling, wonderful characters, and a simple, fast-paced read. This seriously is one of my favorite series ever. Five books in all. Start with Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.

There is a movie adaptation of this one too. Just ignore that.

4. Blink–Ted Dekker

So any time I’ve mentioned that I don’t like Christian fiction here in Bohemia, it has been shortly followed by a recommendation of Christian fiction…huh. Well this is no exception. Blink is a fabulous, action packed, sci-fi thriller, laced with a love story. Seriously love this book. You can also find a second edition under the title Blink of an Eye.

Seth is a brilliant, but directionless young man who develops the mysterious ability to see multiple outcomes of the future, only a few second before it happens. He and a runaway Saudi princess cross paths and must depend on one another to decide the fate of the future. (How’s that for cheesy back-cover-copy synopsis!)

Could not put this one down and I know you won’t be able to either.

There is not a movie adaptation of this one. There probably should be…Unless it is the same quality of the ones listed above. Then no. No one should touch it!

5. Teen Idol–Meg Cabot
Travel back to high school with one of my childhood favorites. This was a fluff read that totally changed how I viewed my relationships with people when I was in middle school. That said, don’t expect anything profound. Instead, just enjoy some of the good parts of those awkward years through this wonderful little story.

Teen Idol is about a girl Jen in her junior year of high school. She writes the anonymous advice column for her school paper and has become the confidant of most of the students in her small Indiana high school. Teen heartthrob Luke Striker comes to town to research a role, undercover, at her high school. And only Jen knows his secret. Great book that can be read in one sitting…a whole day sitting at the beach.

Hope these recommendations are helpful for any of you looking for the brainless but fun book to take to the lake!