This book isn't going to be for everyone. Teenagers have sex. Young ones. I personally love this author's style and Sam's voice is brilliant. The characters in this are nothing sheer of brilliant. You'll never forget them, that's for sure. Lydia is possibly my favorite supporting character in any novel ever. I would hate to have her for a mother, but I would love to know her. These kids are in way over there heads and clearly, that's kind of the point, but there is a heart to this story. Its not for everyone, but I personally loved it.

The stuff that happens in this book is...MESSED UP. I can't explain it. Read it and you'll understand. I was shocked to find out this is the first in a trilogy. And after looking at the synopsis, the complete and utter trainwreck that is these character's lives killed any interest in reading more of Sandlin's writing.

A few amusing bits in this book. But it was difficult to believe all those things happening to a 13 year old in the space of a year. The graphic conversations with his mother just about tipped this book over the edge in terms of believability. Some of the dialog (from any character) was so contrived it cannot have been thought through properly. I would definitely not read it again and will have probably forgotten about it in a year's time.

read this in high school...i think my friend ben stole a copy from the library :-( I was BADDDD.
Anywho, i loved the characters, and i pictured maurey pierce to be way cooler than the character depicted later on in film by mischa barton. not at all how i had pictured the feisty teen at all!!! but the movie was cute, but did no justice to the book.
see, maurey, if i remember correctly, breaks her leg falling off of a horse, which sent her into labour.
well that is what i remember, anyway.

the book is so damn good. just read it, then see the movie. i guess jackson hole wyoming was too built up to film it there so they filmed it in Regina, Saskatchewan.

So I downloaded this free kindle book without having seen the cover or the YA designation (Young Adult as in teen). So glad I wasn't predjudiced and judge this one by the cover. I'm going to try to figure out the Facebook link with my Kindle, so that I can post a quote from the book. There have been too many to count, and kindle lets you highlight them and share them, supposedly, on Facebook. Hope I can manage it. Story of a teen boy and his weird mom, his pov is great and the writing has brilliant moments. Loving it so far...

Great author, some great moments. I'm keeping this one on my kindle.

Teenager Sam Callaghan and his dysfunctional mother are forced to move from North Carolina to Wyoming by his grandfather.

Out of place Sam falls in with local girl Maurey and they set out to find out about the Skipped Parts of the title - the bits that literature doesn't tell you about sex.

Set in 1963 against the background of the Kennedy assassination, the subject matter tends towards the dark at times. However, aspiring writer Sam's flights of literary fancy and the overall style of the narration keep things light.

I'm always a sucker for smart-alec teenage narrators so this had me hooked from the start. The other characters are well drawn too and Sam's sense of displacement is nicely captured.

The subject matter might put off some people but they'll be missing out on a nicely constructed and sharply written novel.

Quick summary: teenaged pregnancy in the early 60's told from the boy's perspective.

I can't say I liked this book at all. But much as you can't help slowing down to look at an accident on the highway, I couldn't help but finish reading the book. It started off slowly for me but as I read on, the characters began to grow on me. Disfunctionality thrives within the characters, in a way that makes them very real to the reader. Think reading instead of watching an episode of Teen Mom, set in another era. The characters grew on me. And while I came close to abandoning reading within the first few chapters, I now have a need to find the sequels to this so I can watch the remainder of this slow speed car chase.

Occasionally something in this book would remind me that the narrator/main character is thirteen years old. This always seemed like a jolt out of nowhere as the writing doesn't at all seem like a teenager. It feels much more like an adult trying to be a teenager by claiming ignorance of some things. Unfortunately, the book then goes on to explore those things, most of which involve sex, which is really unpleasasnt when I'm reminded that the main characters are thirteen.

There were some bits in the book that made me laugh, sure, and I'm kinda glad to find out that this is only the first book in a trilogy, as I recall the ending not really ending much, however, I could never really relate to this book at all and felt kinda uncomfortable reading it most of the time, or just thinking that these people are ridiculous.

I thought it was funny to see that one review of the book (New York Times, maybe) compared it to Catcher in the Rye, because that's what it reminded me of; an angsty book that didn't really draw me in much at all and after reading it I didn't really feel like I got anything out of it.

Oh well, I guess there are bound to be some books I don't like along with the good ones that I find for free in the Kindle store.

I couldn't believe some of the things I was reading. Sam is 13 and his mom treats him more like a friend then a son. THey have a strange relationship. Sam becomes friends with local girl Maury and together they do a lot of firsts.....and I mean "firsts!" The movie is on netflix and even so...I just couldnt believe what I was reading/watching because Sam is only 13. At age, 13 I was far from doing the things Same and Maury were doing. Even so...This book was a really good coming of age story. It didn't censor anything.

This book is not the great piece of literature it's been touted to be. There is a few funny moments, but I would definitely not call it "hilarious." Several grammatical errors grated on me. However, Sam is a sweet kid you can't help rooting for. Maurey is an impressive character and Lydia, though she'll never win Mother of the Year, means well. It surprises me that a man can write these female characters so well. I think anyone 16 and up can appreciate the deep moments of the book without being distracted by the raunchiness. The book starts out slow, until about 1/3 in. Then things get interesting. I haven't decided if my interest has been piqued enough to read the subsequent titles in the series. I am curious about Maurey, but I'm not sure how much I'll care about this book after some time has passed.

In Sam Callahan, Sandlin creates one of the great characters of recent American literature. Equal parts Walter Mitty and Holden Caulfield, Sam is a hilarious narrator with a truly unique voice. If the book were nothing more than a series of comic misadventures of Sam and his irreverent Southern Belle mother, Lydia as they are transplanted from the good ol' south to rural Wyoming, it would be a great read.

However, Skipped Parts is far more than that. Beyond Sam and Lydia, Sandlin populates GroVont with no end of fascinating characters--almost all multidimensional and colorful--the kind of folks you only find in quirky places like Sicily, Alaska. In this book, its easy to imagine that folks like Dot,Hank Elkrunner and the old guys who populate the local diner have interesting lives and stories outside of the light they shed on the main characters and that they didn't just show up in the scenes to move the plot along. This gives the story an incredible richness.

Beyond that, the book has a heart as big as the Tetons and frequently wears it on its sleeve. Rarely is a book so laugh out loud funny also so poignant and touching. There are moments that are truly noble, truly sad and truly beautiful and its a credit to Sandlin that none of them seem contrived. If you can get past the stuff about precocious 13 teen year olds experimenting with sex, you find a great novel about growing up, dealing with family, redemption and the endless disappointments and possibilities of life. A wonderful, wonderful book.

Alcoholism. Dysfunctional family relationships. Mental illness. Teenage pregnancy. Doesn't sound hilarious, does it? Yet somehow Sandlin makes this coming-of-age story set in GroVont, Wyoming in the early 1960s, funny and touching as well as appalling.

13-year-old Sam Callahan and his irresponsible alcoholic single mother Lydia have been sentenced by his wealthy grandfather to live in GroVont in hopes that something there will help Lydia mature. And Sam and Lydia do mature in various way, finding friendship, love--Lydia with a local Blackfoot Indian, and Sam with the intelligent and beautiful classmate he impregnates-- and heartbreak along the way. This was really an incredibly good book--I was alternately laughing and shaking my head all the way through.