I am doing the 6-6-6 Around the World Reading Challenge again this year, but of course everything is different during the pandemic and I anticipated more trouble than usual in getting books set in 36 different countries... so I ordered a bunch of them from bookoutlet.ca; they came today and this book was amongst them.

This appears to be the first copy of this book registered on BookCrossing... it's always exciting when that happens :)

I was looking for something lighter/easier/happier than what I read last (which was a Holocaust memoir) and this is what I picked!

I knew this book was about a teenager (last year of high school) before I started reading it, but books about teenagers/young adults are not necessarily... teenager-Y, you know? I found this one pretty 2010s, and pretty teenager-y.

I found that I had some trouble sometimes because there are times when the book focuses a lot on preconceived notions/lack of understanding about the two main characters' different cultures (she is a Roman Catholic from the USA, he's a Muslim from Egypt) and I don't share any of the cultures in question so... I don't know, I guess my own perspective is a little different and that made parts of the book difficult for me? My Canadian culture is similar in some ways to the American culture, and all this stuff is affected by more specifics such as regional populations and even just individual experiences, of course-- but I found that sometimes I would be reading and say to myself "Is that really a prevailing attitude in the States?" Or "Really? People on the other side of Lake Erie don't generally know that Arabic term (which, in my experience, seems like common knowledge on the north shore)?" or whatever. I think it was hard because I couldn't tell if the book exaggerated, or if these things were just differences between my own cultural/individual experiences and those of the American girl in the book.

Anyway, aside from all that there were times when I quite enjoyed the book. The love story made me smile sometimes and actually it often reminded me of the early days of dating my husband as we faced a lot of similar attitudes and situations (and words coming out of certain parents' mouths) in spite of the fact that we are from the same place and from much more similar cultures! Also, the book ended in a way that I find satisfying, and that goes a long way with me! I also found it interesting that it's set in modern day Cairo, because other than the odd short piece of nonfiction in travel books, I think my experience of books set in Egypt is that they're set a long time ago. I'm also much more interested in Egyptian food after reading this (as a journal photo, I'm adding the book's description of koshary, the food this book has made me want to try)!

So, in short, this was not my favourite book ever-- there were things about it that I struggled with a bit, I guess-- but it had an interesting setting and a nice story, as well as an ending that I approved of. If we're working on a pass/fail system, it gets a pass from me!

I've wanted to try koshary (koshri) since reading this book, and we found out there is a food truck in London called Koshri Express, so today my husband and I drove to London to try it! On the way, I read my husband the book's description of koshary (pictured above) and when we tried it, he thought the book was absolutely right-- a few of the things in koshri are things he doesn't normally eat/like, but we both agreed that it was delicious. After we ate, I left this book on our picnic table-- it was the one nearest to the spot where Koshri Express was parked/the one closest to the hill that goes right down to the water (in case anyone is hunting this after the trucks are gone).

If you've found this book, thanks for picking it up and checking out its journal! If you're new to bookcrossing, welcome. We'd love it if you'd stick around with us a while. I really hope that you enjoy both this book and the whole bookcrossing experience!

This book was released as part of the 2021 "52 Towns in 52 Weeks" Release Challenge. London was Town #46 for me.