Tomato Stakes by Melanie Jo Moore

Tomato Stakes is a sequel to Letters to Young Chong.

Melanie has many more crazy stories to share with her readers in this one.

If you read Letters to Young Chong, you know of her interesting obsession with a Mexican man named Julio.

Much of this books details the ups and downs of their times together. Just like everything else in her life, it just can’t go as she planned and it cant be easy.

There is a lot of alcohol, a lot of karaoke, and a lot of tequila insanity.

Some people have lives that are meant for memoirs, and Melanie’s is one of them. I often found myself laughing out loud while reading part two of her memoir series. 

She has a very entertaining and engaging writing style that makes it easy for the reader to not put the book down. I often said “One more chapter. . ., “ and it would turn in to two or three chapters before I could put it down.

Read Letters to Young Chong first. If you enjoy it as much as I did, you have to read this one too.

It is really funny even though you may feel like yelling at her decisions from time to time.

I can't wait to see where she takes us next. 

4.5/5 Stars. Sometimes you just need to laugh at someone else. This is a perfect book to help you do that.

Memorable quote: "Remember our discussion on diagnosing insanity.   A key component I forgot to mention was that the insane will make sudden and rash decisions, even when they made a perfectly rational one SECONDS ago."

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Letters To Young Chong by Melanie Jo Moore

Letters to Young Chong is a memoir written by Melanie Jo Moore that is built on her friendship (well… sometimes friends, sometimes cousins…. Sometimes sisters) with Melissa Moore (no actual relation).

It has a very good flow to it by working in chronological order. Some memoirs can try to get too much information into one book and jump all over the place while losing the reader in the process. I did not find this to be the case here, although maybe the incredibly crazy stories had some hand in that haha.

This book takes you through the beginning of Melanie and Melissa’s friendship that began during their early school years when they would constantly be confused for one another due to their similar names. Melanie held quite a grudge over Melissa for this, and wasn’t very fond of her for a long time.

I guess that could be how all great friendships began.. or maybe they are just a very unique pairing. I will go with a mixture of both.

They grew up in a rural area and did not have much to do. So, obviously, this translates to them causing havoc everywhere they went.

Then the book jumps a little to when they are older.

You thought there was a lot of alcohol, boys, and trouble when they were in high school.. just wait until you continue reading.

This book is pretty long, but the length is also a bit deceiving. It has a very quick pace to it, so the length is actually pretty irrelevant. I read over half of it in one sitting.

Although this memoir is packed with crazy and hilarious stories, it also follows some rough topics as well including bad relationships and losing people close to you.

The writing is very good. It flows nicely, and the way Melanie writes interactions and descriptions of the people in the book, you can really visualize them and feel as if you know them a little bit.

Overall, it is actually pretty addicting once you pick it up. It is hard to stop reading while you are in the middle of it.

I am excited for the sequel!

4.5/5 stars

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