This summer, I have upwards of fifteen books on my reading list. As I progress through the list, I will be updating and reviewing each one! I just finished "We All Looked Up" by Tommy Wallach.

Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this read. In a nutshell, this book is about an asteroid called "Ardor" that is on track to destroy the earth. They find out two months before Ardor is supposed to hit that it has the potential to destroy everything that they have ever known. This gives the characters in the book a greater purpose to live. Though the world may be in chaos, they continue on their way of living as if the world is about to end.

Something that I found particularly interesting about this book was the way that the chapters were set up. Instead of the chapters being numbered, they were identifiable by a character. Each chapter is a different character's point of view. Where one character would end, another character would pick up on their part of the story. It took me a few chapters to get to know each character and to understand their current circumstances. Once I finally could differentiate the characters, the novel began to really piece together. This was interesting because you could then figure out what each of the characters thought of everything that was going on and it gave different perspectives to the reader.

A couple of my favorite quotes from this book include:

"Why had he assumed time was some sort of infinite resource?"

For some reason, we seem to live as if the world is never going to end and that everything that we are doing is somehow insignificant. It took the character's in the book until there was a large fireball headed towards Earth to start living as if there was no tomorrow. Though the character's struggled with the end of time and began having many regrets, they were able to turn that around for the good and to make their last couple of months count. They did things that they never thought that they would have and really embraced the circumstances. Shouldn't we all live like this?

"Laughing in the face of what they couldn't predict or change or control."

This quote is found at the end of the book. Anita and her friends take on life by laughter. Though there is so much unknown and there was nothing that anyone could do to change the world's circumstances, they decided to be as positive and happy as they could. Worrying and living in a state of self-pity was not going to change the outcomes; it was only going to make their time left more miserable. Even though the world was in constant fear, they did not fear Ardor. What was going to happen was going to happen.

In addition to the wisdom found within the pages, this book allows you to really think about how you are living. Are we living like we are going to live forever or are we living as if there is no tomorrow? It makes you think about how you would act during these circumstances. How you would respond, what you would do in your last moments on Earth, and the people that you would include in that time. If you think about it, shouldn't we always be living in this mindset? The one that we are going to live with no regrets; the one that causes us to be fearless.

At the end of the book, a bunch of lyrics surfaced and I learned that the author actually wrote and recorded songs that play a role in the book. You better believe that I downloaded them immediately. This is just a little added fun to the novel. The author did such an incredible job with everything encompassing "We All Looked Up", whether it be romance, circumstance, or outcome. This book is worth opening.

Loyally,
Jamie