{"id":5120,"date":"2015-04-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5120"},"modified":"2015-04-23T11:12:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T16:12:16","slug":"x-is-exactly-as-in-me-being-me-is-exactly-as-insane-as-you-being-you-by-todd-hasak-lowy-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5120","title":{"rendered":"X is eXactly, as in Me Being Me Is Exactly As Insane As You Being You, by Todd Hasak-Lowy (book review)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5663\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=5663\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?fit=1399%2C2114&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1399,2114\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?fit=678%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5663\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly-199x300.jpg?resize=199%2C300\" alt=\"book cover of Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy published by Simon Pulse\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?resize=678%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 678w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?resize=900%2C1360&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Me-Being-Me-is-Exactly.jpg?w=1399&amp;ssl=1 1399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a>1. Parents shouldn&#8217;t change<br \/>\n2. Friends shouldn&#8217;t move<br \/>\n3. Lists should make it easier to cope<br \/>\n4. Really, they should help&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Darren&#8217;s life seems so out-of-his-hands right now, after the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/shortcuts\/2013\/feb\/05\/divorce-difficult-for-teenage-children\" target=\"_blank\">divorce<\/a> and Dad&#8217;s lifestyle change and Nick being at college.<\/p>\n<p>He copes by making lists, and skipping school with amazing artist Zoey to visit Nick, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/the-creativity-cure\/201403\/how-making-lists-can-quell-anxiety-and-breed-creativity\" target=\"_blank\">making lists<\/a>, and wondering where Zoey has gone&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Just published last week, <em>Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You\u00a0 <\/em>lets Darren tell his story in his own way.<\/p>\n<p>What have you done to keep things under control during an extremely hectic time?<br \/>\n**kmm<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>: Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You \/ Todd Hasak-Lowy. Simon Pulse, 2015.\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.toddhasaklowy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/books.simonandschuster.com\/Me-Being-Me-Is-Exactly-as-Insane-as-You-Being-You\/Todd-Hasak-Lowy\/9781442495739\" target=\"_blank\">publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FCN97hJu7Hg\" target=\"_blank\">book trailer<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My book talk<\/strong>: Making lists and enduring all the changes in his life leaves Darren enough energy to skip school (just once), get in trouble at brother&#8217;s university (just once), and have two girlfriends at the same time (just once), but the high school junior is still trying to figure things out &#8211; in lists.<\/p>\n<p>After Dad and Mom divorced, they both were different &#8211; Darren&#8217;s not sure he likes either change, but what can he do? Making lists helps.<\/p>\n<p>Names that he&#8217;d rather have, reasons that he can&#8217;t drive yet, ways to convince Zoey to take him to see Nate at college &#8211; lists are good.<\/p>\n<p>But somehow, all the lists haven&#8217;t made it easier to tell a girl at band camp that he&#8217;s sort of dating Zoey or know why Mom suddenly needs to have Shabbat dinner every Friday or figure out what to tell Dad&#8217;s analyst&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Is visiting Dad&#8217;s new place going to be okay?<br \/>\nWhere has Zoey suddenly gone?<br \/>\nWill anything be back to normal by his 16th birthday? (c&#8217;mon, universe!)<\/p>\n<p>This Chicago teen tells his story in lists, but who knows what the last entry will be.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abookandahug.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. Parents shouldn&#8217;t change 2. Friends shouldn&#8217;t move 3. Lists should make it easier to cope 4. Really, they should help&#8230; Darren&#8217;s life seems so out-of-his-hands right now, after the divorce and Dad&#8217;s lifestyle change and Nick being at college. He copes by making lists, and skipping school with amazing artist Zoey to visit Nick, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[90,4,75,11,20,5,16,18,40,43,107,231,187,39,27,49,96,15,206,9,21,35,3,6,8],"class_list":["post-5120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-abandonment","tag-belonging","tag-brothers","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-growing-up","tag-homosexuality","tag-illinois","tag-lgbtq","tag-love","tag-medical","tag-memories","tag-mental-health","tag-relationships","tag-religion","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-teens","tag-travel","tag-us-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5120"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5805,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120\/revisions\/5805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}