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Honestly Ben

By Bill Konigsberg
Honestly Ben Ben Carver is back to normal He s getting all As in his classes at the Natick School He was just elected captain of the baseball team He s even won a big scholarship for college if he can keep up his

  • Title: Honestly Ben
  • Author: Bill Konigsberg
  • ISBN: 9780545858267
  • Page: 229
  • Format: Hardcover

    • Ben Carver is back to normal He s getting all As in his classes at the Natick School He was just elected captain of the baseball team He s even won a big scholarship for college, if he can keep up his grades All that foolishness with Rafe Goldberg last semester is over now, and he just needs to be a Carver, work hard, and stay focused.Except There s Hannah, a gorgeousBen Carver is back to normal He s getting all As in his classes at the Natick School He was just elected captain of the baseball team He s even won a big scholarship for college, if he can keep up his grades All that foolishness with Rafe Goldberg last semester is over now, and he just needs to be a Carver, work hard, and stay focused.Except There s Hannah, a gorgeous girl who attracts him and distracts him There s his mother, whose quiet unhappiness he s noticing for the first time School is harder, the pressure higher, the scholarship almost slipping away And there s Rafe, funny, kind, dating someone else and maybe the real normal that Ben needs.

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    Honestly Ben

    About Author

    1. Bill Konigsberg says:
      Bill Konigsberg was born in 1970 in New York City Expectations were high from birth at least in terms of athletics His parents figured he d be a great soccer player, based on his spirited kicking from inside the womb As it turned out, the highlight of his soccer career was at Camp Greylock in 1978, when he was chosen for the Camp s D team There were only four levels Bill played alongside the likes of the kid who always showered alone, the chronic nosebleeder and the guy with recurrent poison ivy.Early in his life, Bill decided he wanted to be a disc jockey, a professional baseball player, or the Indian from The Village People None of these career paths worked out for him Yet He still holds out hope for a Village People revival and has set up a Google Alert in case it happens.A B student throughout high school, Bill was voted Most Likely to Avoid Doing Any Real Work In His Life by a panel of his dismissive peers He proved them wrong with a series of strange but true jobs in his 20s driver recruiter for a truck driving school, sales consultant for a phone company, and temp at Otis Elevators.He moved to Denver in 1996 and was voted Least Stylish Gay Guy in the Metro Denver Area including Loveland for each of the years from 1996 98 His fashion free wardrobe robbed him of prospective dates countless times, as did his penchant for wearing a mustache that didn t suit him.He worked at ESPN and ESPN from 1999 2002, where he developed a penchant for sharing too much information about himself That character flaw earned him a GLAAD Media Award in 2002, for his column Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays That coming out essay made him a household name to tens of people across the country.He continued oversharing in graduate school at Arizona State, where he added People Pleasing to his growing list of character defects and parlayed that into the title of Most Chill Teacher of freshman composition.As a sports writer and editor for The Associated Press in New York from 2005 08, Bill once called his husband, who was at the time working a desk job, from the New York Mets dugout before a game I m so bored, Bill whined He slept on the couch for a week after making that call.He wrote a novel called Audibles at Arizona State, and sold that novel to Dutton Books for Children in 2007 His editor asked him to change the title so that it would appeal to people other than football players who read The resulting novel, Out of the Pocket, received strong reviews from his mother, father, significant other and one girl who had a crush on him in high school It won the Lambda Literary Award in 2009.His second novel, Openly Straight, hit the bookshelves in late May of 2013 He describes the novel as Twilight like, only without vampires and wolves and angsty teenage girls Also, set in an all boys boarding school in Massachusetts Otherwise, it s like an exact replica Openly Straight won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor and is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.Bill currently lives in Chandler, Arizona, which is the thinking man s Gilbert, Arizona.His blog and website is at billkonigsberg.

    Comment 269 on “Honestly Ben”

    1. Freakls says:
      Please pleeeease let them end up together pleeeease pleeeease.
      Reply

    2. Kai says:
      We change We keep changing We won t be finished products til the day we die.Openly Straight is one of my all time favourite books No wonder I was hoping for a sequel, especially because the ending wasn t exactly what I had wished for.Honestly Ben made my wish come true, while not fulfilling it at the same time.The Good Stuff Ben Rafe finally end up together Bill Kongisberg s sense of humor is A most of the time The author touches many important subjects such as sexuality and sexual identity and [...]
      Reply


    4. prag ✨ says:
      Bill Konigsberg sure knows how to write an important book What he doesn t know, is how to write a fun contemporary Or maybe it s just me Don t get me wrong this could possibly be a five star read for you I just didn t connect to it at all.WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK even though I rated it 3 stars It s hilarious Ben s narration is so much better than Rafe s, I can hardly remember why I gave that four stars I am convinced that in many, many ways buoyancy included I am a Czech dumpling And it s n [...]
      Reply

    5. âš” Silvia âš“ says:
      BR with Prag TW for psychological abuse not acknowledged with this particular name , homophobia maybe 4,5 stars Idk, the rating system is messing with my brain I really enjoyed this book, maybe even than Openly Straight It s just that Ben s voice resonated better with me and I was interested in his background than Rafe s Honestly Ben is the sequel to Rafe and Ben s story, but to me it feels like than that Sure, it s a story about two boys surrounded by a cast of amazing characters, but it s a [...]
      Reply

    6. Dahlia says:
      It was really interesting reading this immediately after Ramona Blue, since the two had a lot in common in terms of the approach to sexual fluidity, but coming from opposite ends of the queer spectrum Both kept the protagonist pretty but not entirely firmly in their original ID, preferring to focus on their current partners rather than a label, and both rejected the bisexual label because it didn t feel like the right fit.I know the idea of Gay For You which ends up being the closest thing to an [...]
      Reply

    7. Ton says:
      I NEED A MORE SPECIFIC RELEASE DATE FOR THIS BOOKPlease tell me this this book is a follow up of what happened in Openly Straight Promise me there ll be Rafe in it and that he s one of the main characters I ll read it as soon as it s released.Edit I read it review to come
      Reply

    8. Megan Collene says:
      NOPE.After almost an entire book of biphobic remarks, Konigsberg does NOT get to have a character casually drop bisexual invisibility into a conversation in the last ten pages of the story.Like, WHAT Yargh Okay, let me begin again.I have been so excited for this book I loved Ben when I read Openly Straight, and like many, I wanted to see the continuation of his story I was so excited that, two days ago, I actually went to the book release party, but after reading the blurb at the bottom of the c [...]
      Reply

    9. katwiththehat says:
      Loved this sequel to Openly Straight even than the first book Ben is such an interesting character, and it was so great to get a novel from his perspective where his family relationships could be explored As much as I loved Rafe and the original drama between the two of them, the developments here were even interesting to read as now things have been taken to a whole new level and Ben has to decide what it is he really wants.This sequel raised some great questions about language and privilege [...]
      Reply

    10. Natasha says:
      This is a really great sequel and it didn t totally disappoint I will say that this does use the gay for you trope, however Ben does consider bisexuality and concludes that the label isn t right for him That s a real drawback for me as I was really hoping he would be bisexual, as that was what I thought when I read the first book back in 2014 However, his feelings for Rafe don t disappear just because he is straight, which I really liked But I wouldn t recommend it if you want bisexual represent [...]
      Reply

    11. RavenclawReadingRoom says:
      3.75 stars I think I have been looking forward to this book for a REALLY long time now Well For at least a year I read Openly Straight at the beginning of last year and thoroughly enjoyed it with the exception of the AND THEN THE BOOK ENDS ending, which made me scream rude words about Bill Konigsberg So when I found out that there was going to be a sequel, I was pretty thrilled.And for the most part, I enjoyed this I liked Ben s voice a lot It s a compelling if frequently frustrating story Konig [...]
      Reply

    12. Kristi says:
      I think I get what Konigsberg was trying to do with Ben, but it still comes off as bi erasure from a character and by extension, an author who THINKS he understands what bisexuality is but really, really doesn t He thinks because he s only been seriously attracted to one boy and only had fleeting thoughts about others, and is still mostly attracted to girls, that means he can t be bisexual He also falls into some of the false stereotypes about bi people always being interested in than one perso [...]
      Reply

    13. Vernie says:
      Received from Edelweiss in return for an honest review Mr Konigsberg has done it again, I am even in love with the story and characters than I was prior Honestly Ben takes place a little while after Openly Straight with both characters still dealing with pain and heartbreak Except for this time, we re following Ben s perspective Ben is the quiet, history nerd who just wants to play baseball, get good grades and make his family proud Well, at least that s what everyone thinks This book allowed f [...]
      Reply

    14. Kaje Harper says:
      This is the third book in the series if you count the free short story as second and I strongly advise reading them in order Not just because you need to know the events and context, but because each of the novels is written in a single POV The first book was Rafe s And you need to have read it for that intimate knowledge of Rafe of his own confusion and insecurities Because here, only seeing him from the outside, he can appear less than sympathetic in this story Ben goes through some rough mom [...]
      Reply

    15. Brigid says:
      I loved this Well worth the wait to read about the continuation of Ben and Rafe s story Now I want to go back and read Openly Straight again Openly Straight is currently 99 cents for the ebook, and one of my favorite books, so go check it out if you haven t read it
      Reply

    16. Sapphire says:
      4.5 stars Don t be fooled by the fun looking cover of this book Bill Konigsberg excels at writing important must read books that make you think, but Honestly Ben is a little too heavy to be fun.Sharing my favourite quotes Misogyny is so pervasive that the idea of being associated with female behavior freaks guys out I think that it says something interesting about men that they love women so deeply and yet hold them in such low esteem What if your limit is unacceptable to you Complicated is ofte [...]
      Reply

    17. JN says:
      This rating was tough and I feel very conflicted There were parts of the book I absolutely loved e.g Toby being genderfluid, I liked Hannah, discussions on privilege locker room culture, the friendship between the four guys and they made me want to give it 4 stars But there were some major issues for me too.My main issue with this sequel was the gay for you I ve always disliked gay for you stories because the bi erasure is incredibly frustrating I m disappointed because I honestly expected bette [...]
      Reply

    18. Suyapa says:
      I am little bit disappointed in this book.Before HHNNNNNNNNNJAJJAJSJDJDKEJ.I m just tad bit excited about this.
      Reply

    19. Cale Andersen says:
      I need this book badly cause the last book left a bittersweet feeling in my chest I need sweetness, a lot of it and I m gonna need it from this book Let me have a happy ending for these two.
      Reply

    20. Tara says:
      My brain isn t functioning at full capacity today for some reason, so I m having a really hard time writing this review lol Bear with me.Okay, so this one was better than the first, but not by much It was not nearly as annoying to be in Ben s head, and I wasn t rolling my eyes every time he spoke, so I count that as a win Some things still felt unnecessarily dramatic, especially things with Rafe He is just not a great person imo and I still can t stand his family or Claire Olivia , and most of t [...]
      Reply

    21. Elise (TheBookishActress) says:
      It wasn t bad by any means, I just fling myself slightly unengaged It s probably a me thing, so don t worry too much Honestly Ben focuses on sexuality confusion Ben gets the chance to explore his sexuality in a productive way While he doesn t end up deciding on a label, he does consider labeling himself as bi, and the book never decries bisexuality It was nice to see a character not putting himself in a box without it coming off as an obvious way of avoiding the word bi The romance was a major a [...]
      Reply

    22. Bee says:
      I don t know how to feel about this book I love the characters but I was kinda hurt as a bisexual person at the way the book treated bisexuality I read the explanation the author gave but it was basically I m aware of bi erasure but I ll contribute to it anyway so idk I thought this book would make me happy but it kinda hurt me instead I m still giving it two stars bc like I said I love the characters and I appreciate the happy ending but yeah ETA u know what i do know how i feel it was an ugly [...]
      Reply

    23. Gordon says:
      I NEED THIS IMMEDIATELY WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL TO GET THIS IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW OMG i m okay, gordon just breathe breathes heavily
      Reply

    24. Patrick Lights says:
      Endings are important They are the lasting impression of the book most of the time And sometimes they determine wether I m up for a reread or not Here s the thing about the author of this book his endings are always lacking.When I first read Openly Straight, I was gutted by the abrupt way the book just seemed to stop But upon knowing there s a sequel, I rested assured that it was a single case and that it was actually a cliffhanger, not an ending, and that sucked less But then I read another boo [...]
      Reply

    25. Vanessa says:
      Let me get the sole reason why this book got a star than the predecessor out of the way right off the bat Ben isn t just the better narrator, he s also a much sympathetic character He s kind and always tries to do the right thing He actively avoids hurting people, even if he hurts himself in the process He constantly questions himself and his motives He grows while the story develops and the other characters grow with him.Aka he s almost the opposite of Rafe, who might have felt bad about cert [...]
      Reply

    26. Susan says:
      Will wait to read this until someone can confirm that Ben and Rafe end up together I know, I m a wimp But I m not gonna go through the heartache only to find out the result is friend zone only SPOILERS WELCOME on my comment thread for this
      Reply


    28. Pomelo Gin says:
      We want an HEA PLEEAAASE 3 I cant wait to read this book Openly straight left me hanging a few years ago but learning that there will be a sequel totally makes up for it im ecstatic
      Reply

    29. Michelle (Sherbet Lemon) says:
      3.75 5I think I enjoyed this the tiniest bit than Openly Straight I think it s because I identify so much with Ben s struggle to want to be himself yet trying to live as others want him to live while being unsure about his label or if he should be labelled at all Of course it was at times extremely frustrating, but I ve also been there so I could relate The themes of standing up for what you believe in and not just accepting misogyny because that s what others expect you to do, was really refre [...]
      Reply

    30. T. says:
      One character saying about another I think he s asexual doesn t count as ace rep _ And in literally the same scene that Toby, wearing a skirt and makeup, passes out fliers coming out as genderfluid and asking people to refer to her with she her pronouns if she s dressed femininely, Ben still calls her he headdesk Also, I ve never heard the phrase gender orientation used except in this book it seems like the author just made it up It would be gender identity or just gender Overall I actually enjo [...]
      Reply

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