Alavi Anan Meem
Mmm...this book grew on me.
It was one of those books you had to keep on reading, even if you were bored with it. By the time I had finished The Duff, I liked Keplinger. Not bad for a debut. Not bad at all. Yes, cliché, but then isn't chick lit supposed to be? And it's funny too. I like the idea of the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. I like how it's Wesley who nicknamed her “the Duff.” But I didn't really fall all that hard for Wesley Rush. I didn't really like Bianca either. Or anyone else. But I liked the story. It all works out for the better, there's a ‘yeah, everything's going to be okay' ending.
I'll read anything else she likes when I'm caught in a reading rut.
Hello, readers! This happens to be the first book I added to Goodreads. So I will consider it my first “review”.
Since I was young I've identified as an avid reader, and I believe I'll remain a lifelong lover of books. In my formative years I fortunately gravitated towards literary classics. They made me love reading, by 1) being imaginatively epic, and 2) letting me eclectically explore a diversity of perspectives. Reading has been deeply personal for me. I do not know why others read. I know I read so immoderately in my youth, books left concussions on my mind rather than conclusions. Feeling like a cosmic misfit, I turned to contemporary fiction in my teens to ease a discontent of the mind that classics couldn't and found it to be too blindingly brilliant, offering little relief. Most of the books I have read in between have been for solace or escape - a plain but sustaining fare of romance, fantasy and thrillers providing a sanctuary from reality.
I found connection and community through reading too. I met my former partner, the strongest reader I know, on Goodreads. He remains a cherished friend because I can confidently say he is one of the best people I know, and the world is a better place because he exists in it. Would I have been able to say that if he had not been a reader?
This was one of my favourite books as a teenager, Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella; I had a dog-eared paperback of it back home. When I first reviewed it I'd written “Nothing I've ever read in this genre has measured up to Can You Keep A Secret. I've read this book a gazillion times, and it still makes me laugh until my sides split every time. A lot of people (okay, none) agree with me, but this is Kinsella's best book.” Thinking of it years later, I can still say I remember it affectionately.
To me, this ordinary book is akin to a long, hot bath. So as you can tell, reading to me is a comfy escape from life's discomforts.
You've reached my review's finale, so I will take your leave with these questions:
1) What compels you to read?
2) How do you measure a book's worth?
3) Are bookworms as precious to you as books?
Queer but quirky.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was perfect for me when I was little. But when I read it again a few years later, from an eerie blend of wistfulness and caffeine...I became aware of a few things that the child me hadn't really deigned to perceive.
1. Food fetish Alert. (It's becoming a cliche for this genre. Like eyes in chick lit.)
2. What's with the sexism? Has anyone else noticed how Dahl always make the fathers have a certain dry, witty sense of humor that is clearly lacking from the hysterical, daft and deranged mothers?
3. The Oompa Loompa songs are just massive nursery rhymes.
4. Is it just me or is Willy Wonka one sexy sob?
5. If I was one of the lucky five, I'd definitely be one of the bad kids. I'm slightly spoiled, but that doesn't mean I want to be thrown down the rubbish chute!
6. I chew a lot of gum. But a lifetime of unlimited chocolate supply does not make up for an eternity spent as a primary color.
7. Also, I watch more TV than Mike. That doesn't mean I'm not reading books.
8. I'm greedy too. But so would every other kid in the world be when faced with a giant chocolate river!
9. I think Wonka's magical chocolate factory would be more like a carnival of horror for me! I'll fall into a hot chocolate river, turn into a giant blubbery, and shrink to thrice my size. No, thank you.
10) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could have been an unforgettable Goosebumps!
My Life Next Door. This was supposed to be a “a dreamy summer read.” Huntley Fitzpatrick shouldn't have taken on writing about something so serious. I'm echoing everyone else's sentiments here. The first half, where Sam and Jace fall in love, is fucking fantastic. Exactly what I want in a summer read. Jace Garrett. There's one boy I won't be forgetting in a while. But all through the second half, my mind screamed, not enough. Nowhere near enough. The rest...it just didn't measure up to the start.
That said, I love the way Huntley Fitzpatrick writes. This is an engaging, funny debut that made me laugh and nearly cry. I've stayed up all night reading and I'm still smiling.
And
.
.
.
well.
It's
not
going
to
deliver
itself.
That was really adorable, but as cool as Cabel is, I liked Janie's voice better.
Well, it is a memoir, after all. History has to be tedious, so she gets points for authenticity.
I loved Lola so much I ended up dyeing my hair purple and I still have such a big crush on Cricket I keep comparing him to my boyfriend. This is the book that makes me keep coming back to Stephanie Perkins. I will keep coming back to her even if she churns out a dozen [b:Anna 6936382 Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1) Stephanie Perkins https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358271931s/6936382.jpg 7168450]s and [b:Isla 9627755 Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss, #3) Stephanie Perkins https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362064564s/9627755.jpg 14515040]s before she throws out another Lola.
Amazon's Top 20 Books of the Year (#6)Amazon's Best Young Adult List (#1)2011 New York Times Notable Children's BookHuffington Post Top 10 YA Books of 20112011 Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year2011 Kirkus Best Books for TeensAmazon's Top 20 Books of the Year (#6)Amazon's Best Young Adult List (#1)2011 New York Times Notable Children's BookHuffington Post Top 10 YA Books of 20112011 Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year2011 Kirkus Best Books for TeensAnd there has never been a better place to say this:BELIEVE THE HYPE, PEOPLE. I can't do Daughter of Smoke and Bone justice, no matter what I write.It's going to be legen-wait for it-NO LOVE TRIANGLE! Yet another book with no love triangles! Laini Taylor writes about starcrossed insta-love and still manages to make me fall in love with her words. I take my hat off to her. (This review will sing praises of her. You've been warned.) She is a true story teller, like Homer. I think she can literally breathe life into letters on a page, like Silvertongue from [b:Inkheart 28194 Inkheart (Inkheart, #1) Cornelia Funke http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328866790s/28194.jpg 2628323]. Her lyrical prose! She writes pure magic. This woman is a abstract daydream of the writer I want to be one day. STORY:Daughter of Smoke and Bone is about, among other things: doorways to another world and wishes made out of teeth. Yes, you read that right. There is a violent war raging between the Seraphim and the Chimera as I write this, and a mysterious, seventeen-year-old girl from Prague is caught in between. KAROU: “Skip meeting him? The butterflies, the pounding heart, the blushing? The part where you enter each other's magnetic fields for the first time, and it's like invisble lines of energy are drawing you together-“ Karou, our artist and the heroine of this novel, is the daughter of smoke and bone. She collects languages and teeth. She has long (bona fide) azure hair and she lives with monsters. She isn't annoying at all, at odds with most other teen heroines. AKIVA: “By the time he was sent back to his regiment at Morwen Bay, he could have used a little more time to perfect his Chimaera accent, but he thought he was basically ready for what came next, in all its bright and shining madness.” Akiva is nothing more than gorgeous eye candy to begin with. Just one more tortured soul, I thought. Except he was a warrior. But then he changed. I fell in love with him about the time he began to fall in love with Madrigal. From DREAM-LOST and BLOOD WILL OUT, where he tells us about how he fell in love with her, I fell for him HARD. So, yes, I do end up liking Akiva a whole lot more than I should by the end.And then there's Zuzana and Brimstone, the two who made this story so much better for me.ZUZANA: The perfect best friend.BRIMSTONE: Need I say more?All I can say is, if “Hope is the real magic” . . . can I hope [b:Days of Blood and Starlight 12812550 Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) Laini Taylor http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337964452s/12812550.jpg 17961723] into existence sooner then?
I loved The Little Carol Singer and Stand On Your Own Feet. The Proud Fir Tree reminds me of this story I once read, The Ungrateful Birch. On Firework Night was clever. Christina's Kite, The Toy Soldier's Adventure, A Great Big Story, He Couldn't Be Trusted, Jiffy Gets Into Trouble, The Boy Who Never Put Things Back, Silly Sammy, They Wouldn't Be Friends With Him, Sally Simple's Mistake, No Present For Benny, and Betsy-May in Disgrace were all fun.
I hate how this story has no power over me anymore. A year ago, I would've been swept away by it, but now it just completely fails to move me.
“in the shape of a small tin heart”
howls in grief
How could you do this to me, Hans Christian Anderson? HOW?
