Lake Remake: One to Play on Repeat

Carley Fortune's Every Summer After seemed like the perfect book to finish the day after the last day of summer.  It's Fortune's first novel and a lot like her second, Meet Me at the Lake.  It's also a lot like The Summer I Turned Pretty (at least it's like the Amazon Prime adaptation, as I haven't read Jenny Han's trilogy).  But that's okay.  More than okay.  Because as Every Summer After's Persephone says, "I liked how each book was both predictable and unique, comforting and unexpected.  Safe but never boring." (10)  Although scream queen Percy is talking about horror instead of romance (apparently, she finds bloodshed soothing), I get what she means.  Readers choose genres for a reason, and it's not to be surprised.

That said, Every Summer After is another Canadian story about angst-ridden, lovesick teens who weather a decade apart due to a misunderstanding.  Also, there's a lake.

It's lovely.

POV Grays and UV Rays: Screening the Sun on the Spectrum

Sunglasses: Amazon

They say that what you see is what you get.  And also that how you see things is colored by what you see them through.  Both are true of my heart-shaped sunglasses.  And also of the Amazon Prime dramedy As We See It.  

As We See It is about three twentysomethings on different places on the autism spectrum.  They share an LA apartment and a caretaker (Sosie Bacon).  Sometimes funny and sometimes sad, As We See It follows Jack (Rick Glassman), Violet (Sue Ann Pien), and Harrison (Albert Rutecki) as they muddle through work and relationships.  They have to go through everything that everyone else does but without the protection of the same lens.  Dealing with a sick dad and iffy job, Jack spews that everyone's a liar.  Violet has trouble accepting that the romantic overtures of a male coworker don't necessarily mean love.  And Harrison doesn't understand why he can't be friends with the tween who lives in a nearby apartment.  With them, what you see is what you get.  So they look at other people that way too, taking them at face value without recognizing the layers of subtext, manipulation, and doublespeak that grease the gears of daily life.  And that makes life harder for them.   

I was already moved by this series.  Yet it wasn't until I saw the actors on Tamron Hall that I learned they're on the spectrum in real life.  Knowing that made me happy that they get to do this show and tell a version of their stories.  Because As We See It is a reminder of the importance of kindness -- and of seeing someone else's point of view.

And sometimes there's no better way to do that than through a pair of rainbow sunglasses.