The Best Moments In Reading Are When You Come Across Something- A Thought, A Feeling, A Way At Looking At Things- Which You Had Thought Special And Particular To You. And Now, Here It Is, Set Down By Someone Else, A Person You Have Never Met, Someone Who Is Even Long Dead. And It Is As If A Hand Has Come Out, And Taken Yours.

Alan Bennett

The History Boys

Monday, May 25, 2015


Let It Snow
Authors: John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle.
Publisher: Speak: The Penguin Group 
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
Genre: YA
Length: 352 
Buy the book (Waterstones)| Buy the book (Book Depository)

Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks. Thanks to three of today’s bestselling teen authors—John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breathtaking kisses.

So I decided to pick this book up in the first place because a really good friend of mine was fangirling over it like: "It's the best book ever you have to read it! It's just the sweetest holiday romance ever!" The problem with me reading a "holiday" book is that I usually find it somewhere in my room with ten books on top of it a few months after Christmas. I actually decided that to fully experience this book I would wait until.... wait for it... next Christmas. And anyone who ever tried to do that knows it's impossible. I mean even telling myself that I will wait, I hear my subconsciousness yelling at me that there is no way that will ever happen. Anyways the whole point is that I could simply not resist and a week later I was reading Let It Snow. The first thing I noticed was that it was written by three authors, and okay I read John Green and I really enjoyed all the books I read so far from him(Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns) so I thought it was impressive that he decided to collab with two other authors which were on my to-read list. I started the book and quite honestly I was really impressed, I mean I have to admit that originally I thought the story would be a little more intertwined but that might be because I just wasn't entirely seeing all the connections. Do you know that feeling that in the middle of a book there is a name of a character you recognize you just can't remember who exactly they are? Yep, that happened a lot in this book (one of those times when I'm also really happy to have built in X-RAY in my Kindle. 

Anyways, the book was amazing and seriously brought some Christmas atmosphere into my sunshine filled the-middle-of-May room. I loved how it was told from different perspectives of the characters (don't we all?) Each character brought some new life to the story making it more detailed and accurate, detangling the mess it used to be when I first started reading. I must admit I liked some stories better than others but I just cannot imagaine the book with a single story written by a different author. The reason why I am only giving it four stars, is because it was not that memorable and some parts of the book just seemed unecessary (hate when that happens, and the character just keeps talking about something we do not care about. I mean please I just want to know what happens next!) I have to conclude by saying it was an amazing Christmas chick flick.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Giver

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: 1993
Genre: YA, dystopian, science fiction.
Length: 179 pages
Where you can get yours: Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Waterstones.
Back cover: 
Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.
When Jonas turns twelve he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back. 

This book was one of the most brutally honest Dystopian novels I have ever read. It was fascinating and somehow a realistic caution like most dystopian novels are. However what what was memorable and what made it stand out from the other Dystopian books was that the truth was hidden so well, that only a single person actually knew the truth about the world he was living in. In other dystopian books the imperfections are clear (I am looking at you Suzanne Collins), but it seems like no one can do anything until a brave heroine/hero saves her/his people and changes the community to the better(still looking at you Suzanne Collins). The giver is about a world were there is no hunger, no pain, no fear. There is only one person who has to keep and take care of these often very painful memories, he is the only one who knows about these problems. There however is a problem. The giver also keeps all the "un-efficient" memories of real emotions, of happiness... of freedom. Also people are assigned what they are allowed to be like, and what they are allowed to think, which is crazy. Their jobs, their husband/wife, even their kids are assigned like objects, and no one even considers it wrong. It is not until a boy called Jonas becomes the giver that he sees the flaws in his community and world, and he knows he must do something, except that no one believes or listens to him since they are all lost in their own fake world full of fake ideas. It is fascinating (at least for me)how someone can consider something like feelings and emotions to be so useless. 
 
I highly recommed this as it is an amazing dystopian classic, and I will also look onto the other books in the series in which I believe there are three more.