Love And Other Foreign Words (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Often amusing and pretty much always smart, this novel introduces readers to Josie, whose IQ is north of 150 and whose eccentricities probably number higher than that. She interacts with the world at large a bit as do travelers to a land where they hardly speak the language or as a sociologist studying a puzzling culture. Though she’s not quite sixteen, her skipping a grade in elementary school and doing a simultaneous early college program with high school have her at nearly sophomore status at a nearby liberal arts status in her junior year of high school. No wonder she struggles a bit to speak teenager.She does manages to speak the language of some high school friends, primarily those who play on the volleyball team with her, but she can’t stand the lights, noise, and crowds of parties and malls for very long. She’s fascinated by questions such as whether she has eaten enough processed meats, like hotdogs, to have consumed an entire rat by now. There’s got to be a mathematical formula to answer it, she's sure. A more pressing problem, though, is her beloved middle sister Kate’s bizarre attraction to boyfriend Geoff, whom Josie dislikes intensely almost immediately for a pompousness that reads a bit like some of Jane Austen’s fools. Nonetheless, Kate accepts his proposal, sending Josie into a campaign to stop the wedding that threatens her relationship with Kate, who lives on her own nearby and works as a pharmaceutical rep. (Josie is significantly younger than both her sisters, and the eldest is a doctor married to another doctor whom Josie adores.) Josie doesn’t attend the university alone or ponder these problems alone, as she has a guy best friend and neighbor named Stu who is nearly as smart as she is, and he even has a sister named Sophie who is gorgeous and who tries to keep them both grounded to interact with more average people. Josie teases Stu about being the love-‘em-and-leave-‘em type because he doesn’t tend to stay with the girls he dates for long. Josie has dabbled in dating herself by consenting to go to Homecoming with Stephan, who made a critical error in mentioning that a primary reason her asked her out was because she was tall. Her response is pure logorrhea: She babbles in nervousness and discomfiture for the rest of the night, pretty much killing any chance for a second date--or so she thinks. Surprisingly, though, come the following springtime—the chronological start of the novel—the two give it another try when Josie realizes he still likes her, and she can see if she speaks Stephan by going to Prom with him as well. Such semi-romantic forays and Kate’s strange affection for the hideous Geoff fuel Josie’s curiosity about what constitutes love and whether she’ll even feel any kind beyond the strong affection she has for her psychiatrist father and nursing professor mother. It’s hard to say whether anyone outside the family will understand her if she speaks only Josie—if she doesn’t switch to their language of “cool” and “shut up” will she be able to communicate at all?Not much of a plot here, but a nice exploration of the character of the highly gifted teenager, her amazing family, some close friends, a boyfriend, a crush, her adoration of Styx and Denis DeYoung, and her frequent visits for tea, cookies, and conversation with an 80-something, former schoolteacher neighbor. There’s a wedding on the horizon, a summer spent away from best friend Stu, and always more to learn. An obvious choice for bright YA readers, this one won’t transition that well to reluctant readers, but it can be sold to young women trying to define love for themselves. They will enjoy speaking Josie for a while. Josie es una chica superdotada que es capaz de hablar muchos idiomas diferentes desde frances e ingles hasta variaciones de este último, como el lenguaje de los universitarios, del instituto...pero hay uno que no sabe : El amor.En el libro irá pasando por probos muy parecidos al de lemas con su hermana, un profesor con gustos muy parecidos al de ella y un amigo que parece entender su idioma pero le habla en uno desconocido...Este libro me gustó mas de lo que pensaba y me sorprendió bastante asi qe creo que se merece las cinco estrellas que le he puesto.
What do You think about Love And Other Foreign Words (2014)?
4.5-ish stars. Kate annoyed me a lot but overall I loved the book. It was so unique and cute.
—ilikealmondmilk
Josie gives me life. She's smart, witty and really kind.I specially loved the sisters bound.
—Yessi
Good. A little predictable but I liked it.
—likeforrealz
