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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Sophomore Switch


Sophomore Switch
by Abby McDonald
Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and "The Hot-Tub Incident" and you've got two thoroughly unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara.
This was a great book! I really love stories where someone is thrust into a new bewildering situation and must basically adapt or perish! Now, this is obviously not life or death...more Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde, but it is both hilarious and touching.
I loved that both girls grow. They explore new facets of their personalities, turn to each other for social survival skills, and eventually learn to be true to themselves. Not to completely ditch the personalities that got them into trouble originally, not to just become the complete opposite, but to take all the different versions of themselves and incorporate them into a new, true self.
I laughed, I cried, and I wanted to read more.

3 comments:

  1. At first, I wasn't interested in reading this book, or even in buying it. But as I read more about it, I changed my mind. Now I find I'm thinking about reading it. It'll be a nice change from some of the more intense books I'm reading, too.

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  2. I LOVED this book. I have to admit that I like the hardcover cover MUCH better.

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  3. Hmmm...this is actually a case where I like both covers. I read it in paperback, so I got used to looking at that one, but I do have to say that the hardcover is just a little better because it doesn't automatically represent the two girls as very different based on their clothing. I like the fact that both girls look kind of "generic" on the hardcover.

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