Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney

() The process of reading this story can be a bit exhausting. The first half of the story follows the day-in day-out struggles of the "plain" main girl character, Miranda, as she grows up at school and with her father on Crab Island, Maine.

She's naturally quiet and stays out of trouble. She takes care of her father, including the cooking, cleaning, and typing duties. Her father works as a classical Greek translator, and a lot of this book is constantly interrupted by her describing an annoyingly wearisome Greek story.

She doesn't fail to run into trouble though. Peer pressure and school pressures cause minor acting out, which gets her nowhere.

After high school, Miranda heads to New York where her father has used old connections to get her a job in a University library doing data entry. Here, she openly recognizes her dad's sexuality and has her first meaningful relationships. First she casually dates a guy but as things get serious, she becomes overwhelmed by his disapproving family (among other things). Then, she develops a new, exciting relationship with a very different, unexpected person. In this relationship, she finds more of herself, her preferences, and her first real love.

Miranda eventually returns home after the summer, and brings her significant other with her. This is where the book ends. It's a good story about finding oneself and identity, but it's very tedious - as I said before. Just okay.