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Ordinary
Roxy is a shy and insecure girl who has never been kissed and believes she never will. She is the perfect example that we are our toughest critics. As you move through her life you learn her most intimate thoughts, which include tirades of self hate and contemplations of love.
The journal describes events in Roxy’s life that slowly move her to stepping out of the box she places herself in. One of those events is helping her sister overcome a drug addiction to heroin. Roxy has to overcome her shyness and believe in herself to step up and help her sister. Roxy also goes through a battle with herself to get past the feelings of anger she has towards her sister to be able to help her through the drug addiction and get her life back together.
Roxy slowly moves from feelings of self hate and insecurity to loving and embracing who she is. With her new found confidence she discovers her ability to attract the attention of men and the reader gets first hand experience and all the juicy details of Roxy’s first relationship and the disaster that it turns into.
Through lessons learned in that dysfunctional relationship and the new found confidence gained, Roxy is ready to take the world by storm and find a man that is worthy of her. Of course this proves to be a difficult task to accomplish and Roxy stumbles through the dating world and the world of cheap shallow men. There are times she questions her ability to ever find love.
Ordinary is a book written in the form of a journal in which a nineteen year old college student records her most embarrassing moments and most shocking thoughts. It is the story of one girl’s personal growth and discovery.
The journal describes events in Roxy’s life that slowly move her to stepping out of the box she places herself in. One of those events is helping her sister overcome a drug addiction to heroin. Roxy has to overcome her shyness and believe in herself to step up and help her sister. Roxy also goes through a battle with herself to get past the feelings of anger she has towards her sister to be able to help her through the drug addiction and get her life back together.
Roxy slowly moves from feelings of self hate and insecurity to loving and embracing who she is. With her new found confidence she discovers her ability to attract the attention of men and the reader gets first hand experience and all the juicy details of Roxy’s first relationship and the disaster that it turns into.
Through lessons learned in that dysfunctional relationship and the new found confidence gained, Roxy is ready to take the world by storm and find a man that is worthy of her. Of course this proves to be a difficult task to accomplish and Roxy stumbles through the dating world and the world of cheap shallow men. There are times she questions her ability to ever find love.
Ordinary is a book written in the form of a journal in which a nineteen year old college student records her most embarrassing moments and most shocking thoughts. It is the story of one girl’s personal growth and discovery.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2013
About the author
Roxy Richards
1 book3 followersI was born in Texas and moved to rural Wisconsin when I was ten, but I still display a slight southern accent when I get angry or really excited. While growing up in Wisconsin I lived with my mother and twin sister across the street from my grandparents. It truly was a blessing growing up surrounded by such a loving and supportive family. I attended the same high school as my mother and grandfather and like them, I graduated as the Salutatorian of my class. After high school I attended one of the largest universities in the nation, Michigan State University, and graduated with honors with a degree in plant biology. While in college, I made some of the best friends of my life and my eyes were opened to a whole new world. I learned that it was much easier to love myself than to hate myself. I learned not to fear life, but to embrace it. Life is so full of experiences and I want to experience them all, good and bad. We learn best from our mistakes and I am a full believer that it's the hard times that truly make us better people. I have blossomed from a painfully shy, naive girl to a confident woman ready to take the world by storm.
With that philosophy in mind, I currently reside in beautiful Seattle, Washington where I am attending medical school to study alternative medicine. It's my dream to become a Naturopathic primary care physician, treating the cause of disease, not just the symptoms. Nutrition and exercise are very important to me, even though the exercise part is a love/hate experience. I also love to cook and read. I can sit for hours reading a good romance novel, though, it is hard to find time to do those things while in medical school.
With that philosophy in mind, I currently reside in beautiful Seattle, Washington where I am attending medical school to study alternative medicine. It's my dream to become a Naturopathic primary care physician, treating the cause of disease, not just the symptoms. Nutrition and exercise are very important to me, even though the exercise part is a love/hate experience. I also love to cook and read. I can sit for hours reading a good romance novel, though, it is hard to find time to do those things while in medical school.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 3, 2016
This coming-of-age diary follows the trials and tribulations of the author in her pursuit of first love and sexual experiences. We witness the author’s travels, parties, daydreaming, and her sister’s troubled life, which I found quite sad. I admire the author for her patience and the support she gave her sister during this hard time.
Personally, I didn’t enjoy this book very much, but I believe the author could be a good writer with guidance. Full of feminist tirades and repetitive language, it was otherwise a quick read, but I struggled to find much value or plot, which I normally deem essential, in this journal.
Also, I found it hard to follow the ‘story’ for the abundance of names mentioned. Nearly all of the countless persons are ‘fifty shades of grey’ – blurred, faceless, without any presence or personality. There is lots of description but little characterization in this book. Examples:
Rebecca, one of the author’s friends, is described as whiny, grouchy, touchy, and always the one messing up our plans or throwing a wrench in things. We do not see Rebecca doing anything, and therefore cannot verify for ourselves if she is all that.
Most of this book is written telling rather than showing, and this is where dialogue could help – to make scenes come alive and play out in front of the reader’s eyes. Dialogues make characters real and are easier to absorb than she said that… etc. But sadly there are none throughout the whole memoirs. I was constantly thrown into scenes described as amazing, interesting, and exciting, but I was never shown what exactly was happening, what people did in the scenes, what they said, what their body language was.
My favourite part of this book:
Sometimes when you kiss a frog you get Prince Charming and sometimes when you kiss Prince Charming you get a frog!
This is so true, and brilliantly put.
I found it problematic to rate this book as I feel it is quite far away from the quality of 4-star novels, also because of a few typing errors, but at the same time I appreciate that I am not the target audience. If you are aged between 18 and 22, sexually inexperienced, and looking for a kindred spirit rather than an ambitious read, this book is for you.
Personally, I didn’t enjoy this book very much, but I believe the author could be a good writer with guidance. Full of feminist tirades and repetitive language, it was otherwise a quick read, but I struggled to find much value or plot, which I normally deem essential, in this journal.
Also, I found it hard to follow the ‘story’ for the abundance of names mentioned. Nearly all of the countless persons are ‘fifty shades of grey’ – blurred, faceless, without any presence or personality. There is lots of description but little characterization in this book. Examples:
Rebecca, one of the author’s friends, is described as whiny, grouchy, touchy, and always the one messing up our plans or throwing a wrench in things. We do not see Rebecca doing anything, and therefore cannot verify for ourselves if she is all that.
Most of this book is written telling rather than showing, and this is where dialogue could help – to make scenes come alive and play out in front of the reader’s eyes. Dialogues make characters real and are easier to absorb than she said that… etc. But sadly there are none throughout the whole memoirs. I was constantly thrown into scenes described as amazing, interesting, and exciting, but I was never shown what exactly was happening, what people did in the scenes, what they said, what their body language was.
My favourite part of this book:
Sometimes when you kiss a frog you get Prince Charming and sometimes when you kiss Prince Charming you get a frog!
This is so true, and brilliantly put.
I found it problematic to rate this book as I feel it is quite far away from the quality of 4-star novels, also because of a few typing errors, but at the same time I appreciate that I am not the target audience. If you are aged between 18 and 22, sexually inexperienced, and looking for a kindred spirit rather than an ambitious read, this book is for you.
January 15, 2014
From chrysalis to butterfly
This foray in the mind of a 19 years old girl from Wisconsin was a hidden gem from me. For a US reader this book can be classified as a “reality book”, a diary of everyday life.
Only that I come from a different culture, a tougher one that didn’t allow for this type of childhood. Wishing and hoping were not a choice for the lack of time and Nora Roberts was not on the mandatory reading list. The fact that your parents were rich (let’s say that they have more than the average) didn’t matter during communism. Either you were smart and read all the classics from Stendhal to Dostoyevsky until 18 or you were nobody. Also there was no “politically correct” ways of talking. If somebody called me fat, I would accept it as my own failure or prove that a great body comes with an even greater mind.
Roxy Richards is a girl that hopes and wishes for things that are listed as success or higher values in her society from having money to buy expensive things, a certain lifestyle, or from getting that kind of man that fit the description of sexy. Her diary follows the transformation from a chrysalis, as described in the previous sentence, to a butterfly, a woman that wants things and acts upon hear wishes making them real.
The hidden gem for me was the personal perspective into a part of the American culture, one that it is not shown by most books due to the chase for something out of ordinary that will create different emotions for the reader.
A book name Ordinary has a very special message hidden in the continuous inner fight of the character: you can become what you want when you really work for it and have the strength to move on even when things get hard.
This foray in the mind of a 19 years old girl from Wisconsin was a hidden gem from me. For a US reader this book can be classified as a “reality book”, a diary of everyday life.
Only that I come from a different culture, a tougher one that didn’t allow for this type of childhood. Wishing and hoping were not a choice for the lack of time and Nora Roberts was not on the mandatory reading list. The fact that your parents were rich (let’s say that they have more than the average) didn’t matter during communism. Either you were smart and read all the classics from Stendhal to Dostoyevsky until 18 or you were nobody. Also there was no “politically correct” ways of talking. If somebody called me fat, I would accept it as my own failure or prove that a great body comes with an even greater mind.
Roxy Richards is a girl that hopes and wishes for things that are listed as success or higher values in her society from having money to buy expensive things, a certain lifestyle, or from getting that kind of man that fit the description of sexy. Her diary follows the transformation from a chrysalis, as described in the previous sentence, to a butterfly, a woman that wants things and acts upon hear wishes making them real.
The hidden gem for me was the personal perspective into a part of the American culture, one that it is not shown by most books due to the chase for something out of ordinary that will create different emotions for the reader.
A book name Ordinary has a very special message hidden in the continuous inner fight of the character: you can become what you want when you really work for it and have the strength to move on even when things get hard.
January 5, 2014
We've had Jersey Shore reality TV, which focus on the ordinary lives of eight housemates without a game format, are books next? If so, Roxy Richards perhaps aims to be the next one! It takes a lot of courage to reveal the sordid innermost secrets of your life, to be picked up by anyone all over the world. I know I could never personally write a book like this. You know your family and close friends will be examined by one another as they learn of this book. Despite some names being changed, those in the "know" will know who is who.
To be fair, the author presents the details of her sexual awakening in a honest, balanced, non-sensational manner, unlike reality TV. This is then, non-fiction, not fiction. This would appropriately be slotted into the category of "memoirs." This is not new - hundreds of celebrities have revealed their trashy pasts and, in many cases, refreshing, down-to-earth details on the commendable morals of their upbringings and adulthoods. I, for one, enjoyed Alan Alda's book, "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed."
This book is almost entirely about the author's sexual awakening, interspersed with her relations with close family and friends and her success at college. I think I particularly enjoyed reading about her sister's struggle with compulsive disorders (I hope the sister didn't mind being featured in the first place!) Mental disabilities are very profound challenges for anyone to deal with. I agree with the author that time-proven family and friends come first, and no one can tell you how to run your life.
It is an easy read, with a few typos. Despite the honest tone of the author's life into womanhood, and the use of a balanced, non-sensational voice, I sometimes felt like a voyeur reading this book. Some readers may lap this up!
Note to the author: congratulations on your success at college in a challenging field of study. This is an incredible asset to have as you march forward in life. A 3.9 GPA (at one point) is amazing.
To be fair, the author presents the details of her sexual awakening in a honest, balanced, non-sensational manner, unlike reality TV. This is then, non-fiction, not fiction. This would appropriately be slotted into the category of "memoirs." This is not new - hundreds of celebrities have revealed their trashy pasts and, in many cases, refreshing, down-to-earth details on the commendable morals of their upbringings and adulthoods. I, for one, enjoyed Alan Alda's book, "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed."
This book is almost entirely about the author's sexual awakening, interspersed with her relations with close family and friends and her success at college. I think I particularly enjoyed reading about her sister's struggle with compulsive disorders (I hope the sister didn't mind being featured in the first place!) Mental disabilities are very profound challenges for anyone to deal with. I agree with the author that time-proven family and friends come first, and no one can tell you how to run your life.
It is an easy read, with a few typos. Despite the honest tone of the author's life into womanhood, and the use of a balanced, non-sensational voice, I sometimes felt like a voyeur reading this book. Some readers may lap this up!
Note to the author: congratulations on your success at college in a challenging field of study. This is an incredible asset to have as you march forward in life. A 3.9 GPA (at one point) is amazing.
January 26, 2014
As I was reading Ordinary, I kept asking myself what is the genre of this book - clearly not fiction, and not a memoir either. The reason I believe it is not a true memoir is that a memoir always turns out to be way more that what happens to an author. Take Angela's Ashes, for example, a book that became relevant to so many people because it talks magnificently about Ireland at-large and not narrowly about McCourt himself.
I would say that perhaps Ordinary is a log of author's daily life, most of it told in a low-key voice. The one segment of book that showed some intensity was the author's relationship with sister Alison. The quest for sexual adventures, the daily tribulations about loneliness, etc, really didn't do too much for me, although other people may find comfort in reading such passages.
I was also a bit surprised to see that a student with such a high GPA does not see the difference between [as just an example of (the many) typos] "Your" and "You're", repeatedly, through the book. Therefore, my little bit of advice is that the author should hire asap an editor.
I would say that perhaps Ordinary is a log of author's daily life, most of it told in a low-key voice. The one segment of book that showed some intensity was the author's relationship with sister Alison. The quest for sexual adventures, the daily tribulations about loneliness, etc, really didn't do too much for me, although other people may find comfort in reading such passages.
I was also a bit surprised to see that a student with such a high GPA does not see the difference between [as just an example of (the many) typos] "Your" and "You're", repeatedly, through the book. Therefore, my little bit of advice is that the author should hire asap an editor.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews