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, July 18, 2016

MUC and The Great Gatsby Giveaway!



I hate to say it but it’s the end of summer vacation approaching! (Must finish reading ALL the books). If you know me, or have been reading my blog for a while now, you know that I love reading YA and Classics alike. I thought that it would therefore be a good idea to giveaway one of my all-time favorite classics (drum roll): The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. How I got it is actually a funny story. It was my birthday in June so I decided for my birthday I’d buy myself some books from the money I got. I have already read the Great Gatsby however my copy got destroyed when I took it to the beach one day…Why are you so cruel and heartless sea water why?! I found a small unabridged book which I thought would be perfect for my trip to France, however (cues dramatic music) a friend of mine knew how upset I was about losing my copy so she got me the exact same book I bought! which I know is really sweet but I wasn’t sure what to do about the copy I bought. But then I realized, I could do my first giveaway! 



I’m also giving away a copy of one of my favorite book series’ first book Model Under Cover: A Crime of Fashion. The reason I’m giving it away is because I have two copies since I won a signed copy from Carina Axelsson back in October and I have to get rid of books I have more copies of. It is a really good book (my review) , and hopefully you’ll like it! I’ll actually visit Paris in a few days’ time and there’s a really awesome small guide to the Author’s favorite places which I’ll definitely try to see while I’m staying there.



To enter all you have to do is follow my blog and my Instagram. The rest is only for extra entries. The winner will be announced a day after the giveaway ends (August 1st).

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Good Luck Teen Page Turners!

Friday, July 15, 2016

Articles

Blog Articles
Summer 2016 Book Haul (read here)
My Thoughts on Guilty Pleasure Books (read here)
My Bucket List (read here)
Reading Pop Sugar Challenge (read here)
February Favorites (read here)
More Books in your Inbox (read here)
Japan Crate (read here)

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Title: All the Bright Places 
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: January 6th, 2015
Genre: YA/Fiction/Romance
Length: 378 pages

Theodore Finch wants to take his own life. I’m broken and no one can fix it. Violet Markey is devasted by her sister’s death. In that moment we went plowing through the guardrail my words died too. They meet on the ledge of the school bell tower, and so their story begins. It’s only there that they can be themselves… I send a message to Violet: You are all the colors in one, at full brightness. You’re so weird, Finch. But that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. How far will Violet go to save the boy she has come to love?

Finch is considered a freak by most that know him, no-one special often contemplating suicide. Violet is popular and pretty, however the moment her older sister Eleanor dies, she feels as though nothing will ever make her happy. Violet gets into a near death situation when she nearly falls of the school bell tower, when she’s saved by Finch (who’s there due to his suicidal thoughts) and they become friends. After Finch asks to be partners with Violet for a group project, they explore various parts of the state they live in (Indiana) together. Violet realizes she loves Finch however, one day after doing their project, they fall asleep and only wake up in the morning. Violet’s parents are very upset due to the fact that they didn’t know where Violet was and were scared something had happened to her (like to her older sister Eleanor). Therefore thinking it is Finch’s fault they decide he poses as a bad influence on Violet and not allow her to see him anymore (Romeo and Juliet Cliché alert). Juliet… I mean Violet realizes how depressed and suicidal Finch is and she’s determined to save him from himself no matter at what cost…

I don’t think I’ve experienced this much heartbreak since Fault in Our Stars. Why Augustus, WHY????!! This might include some spoilers but let me just tell you, you don’t see the end coming and when it comes it hits you with all it’s force right in the feels. While I don’t think this is going to be the next FIOS I did really like the book and the way it talked about suicide and identity. I just feel that there are now more and more books about teens dealing with bullying, mental as well as anxiety disorders and depression which opens up the way to talk about it more instead of it being considered something you just keep to yourself and don’t talk about with others such as your loved ones and friends. 

Some parts were a little corny, and to be honest I kept liking and then not liking the characters because they just seemed so childish. They were really more like fourteen or fifteen year olds than eighteen year olds nearly adults. I can see how so many people think it’s going to be the next FIOS as the main character Theodore Finch is very similar to Augustus Waters up to the point where you have to think about the possibility that the author (Jennifer Niven) definitely was heavily influenced by FIOS... For example Finch also sometimes has an unlit cigarette playing with the idea whether he should light it (even though Augustus’s explanation for why he didn’t light it was so much better), Finch is also an outcast like Augustus and has this strange and a little mysterious, poetic side to him when he plays with analogies, and generally words, sometimes quotes by famous long dead authors (even though honestly quotes by long dead authors are more of Miles’s Halter’s thing if you ask me)…

The Events are mostly pretty unpredictable which is always good and let me tell you that the way some of the places this story takes place is being described really wants me to be there. I would not re-read the book but the one time I did read it I enjoyed it. Everything is pretty fast paced in the book so there weren’t really any parts in which I was bored but I sometimes felt that there wasn’t enough character development as I didn’t really associate with the characters, and the time the author could have used for character development was used up by the awesome (but long) descriptions of the places they went and what they did instead of focusing on the characters themselves.

It’s hard to choose what my absolutely favorite part was because there were so many heartwarming scenes but I do have two favorites. One of them is when there’s this part in the book where Finch is returning back home in his car after (unsuccessfully) trying to do a part of the project himself since Violet is busy, and he decides that going by car is too slow, gets out and runs to the nearest villages which is miles away. He then proceeds to find a flower nursery (which is closed) but begs the owners to let him in as it’s a matter of “life and death”. They let him in and after choosing a whole bucket of flowers for Violet (which you guessed it, includes violets) he tries to pay them however the really sweet owners let him have them for free. The other one is when the two of them are doing their project and one of the places is a garden owned by this man, in which there are two homemade rollercoasters (only seating one person though) which Finch and Violet drive a billion times. That was also a really nice description as well as book part. 

The only reason I’m not giving this the full amount of stars is the characters and the character development thing but it is a good book so read it if you have the time!
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Persepolis (Book 1 and 2)



Title: Persepolis (The Complete Persepolis)
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Publisher: Pantheon
Publication Date: October 30th, 2007
Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir/Young Adult
Length: 341 pages

The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-granddaughter of Iran’s last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis points an unforgettable portrait of daily in Iran and the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. This is a beautiful and intimate story full of tragedy and humor- raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

I already wrote about this book and how much I loved it in my 2016 Summer Book Haul, so I’ll just basically quote myself and put that in here as I though it explained the synopsis of the novel well.

“For anyone who does not know Persepolis, just please find it on Amazon and read the first six pages. Like right now and return to this post when you’re ready for the amazingness that is Marjane Satrapi’s work. Her work is similar to Malala Yousefzai’s in means of speaking up for what she believes is right with the exception of instead of a book, being a graphic novel. It’s so honest and raw discussing themes like parents, education, identity, drugs, first love, growing up, and doing what you love no matter what. It’s sounds so close to home yet it was written by a woman who grew up during the Muslim revolution in Iran, under circumstances so different from my own. If anything it shows how much teens feel alike no matter the culture or circumstances they grew up in it’s this very book. And while I know many people have this weird bias against graphic novels “because they’re like comics” I can’t imagine this book in any other format but with beautiful minimalist black and white images drawn by Satrapi herself depicting her childhood in Iran and Vienna.”

+I’ve just discovered the amazing thing that is a graphic novel, and so far, reading about five ones considered popular by the general public, I have to say: “Yes, these are very much like comics.” And Yes I know you might be thinking “Is that actually everything you want to say about them??!” and “Are you saying that graphic novels aren’t “real” books.” Well here’s the thing: many people hate on graphic novels because “They aren’t actual books.” and “They are just text with pictures, but mostly pictures.” But really a graphic novel is just a medium through which an author gives us information and I can’t imagine Persepolis any other way. 

+I’ve actually read the first book a long time ago as the series is made up of two books, however since I wanted to order the second and there was an opportunity to buy a book including both books at the same price as one, I jumped at the opportunity. I feel like I can say that overall both books were about the same regarding the quality of the story and writing, and there weren’t any significant changes from one book to the other regarding the style the author wrote in. However, I do feel that the first book was meant to be a little more fast paces with twists and turns happening every chapter (or at least the way it was written as it’s an autobiography), while the second book is more fluent and you just can’t stop reading due to how soothing it is to just read on. Truth be told this is one of those books which you can’t wait to continue reading when you have the time, and can just spend hours in this time vortex, not knowing how long you’ve been reading.

+Actually occasionally I do this thing where I don’t necessarily even have to be bored with a book, but I’m just obsessed with how much progress I made. For example I’ll constantly flip to the end to see how many pages there are in all, then subtract it by the number of the page I’m currently on to see how many more pages until the end. Truth be told, I tend to do that a lot. Most books really. It is however helpful to help me measure how much I enjoy the book at certain times and the book overall. If I don’t do this often or not at all, I know I’m reading a really good book. I can say I don’t really remember doing this a single time for the duration of the entire book.

+Marjane herself is a very likable character and maybe the reason why I loves this book was because she was so well developed and it just really made me feel like I was talking with a good friend instead of of reading.

+Reading Persepolis was incredible because for example there was this time when she said that she wanted to be a communist because communists were all equal. And I, having grown up in a country in which there was communism (after WW2) which meant that of course I had my bias and my opinion about it, and here is someone saying they want to be a communist... I was really puzzled at this because I grew up being told communism was not at all that equal for everyone, and here is a girl who I think is really nice and seems kind, wanting to be something I was disgusted by. Yet I realized I still liked her, I still liked the character. It made me do a lot of thinking, and I realized how different people’s perspectives can be about things which you don’t necessarily have to like, but understand what they mean, for example I can see why Marjane thought communism would be a good thing, as she believed it would bring equality to a country which needed it.

-The only thing I did not like was the size of the lettering. I know it isn’t very important and it’s not like it changes the story or characters, but still. It being a graphic novel just kind of makes me realize things I usually would’t even though they are in a regular book as well, for example the size of the lettering and the font. This brings me to the last point  which is about the illustrations.

+If you haven’t seen Marjane Satrapi’s work before (because you’re incredibly stubborn and didn’t check it out when I told you to) her work is all black and white and incredibly illuminating (that’s what the blurb said) yet it can go from light and fun to outright depressing and sometimes poetic as when she describes war in Iran (have you ever heard anyone say that a graphic novel is poetic? Because if no, you should stop reading and order that ish right now.

I recommend Persepolis to anyone and everyone, actually it should be mandatory for EVERYONE.



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Friday, July 8, 2016

Summer 2016 Book Haul

Hi people out there currently on my blog! 
Summer vacation is finally here! Which means more time to read stuff, write stuff, and also actually have a good night’s sleep for once. And what better way is there to get ready for nine weeks of essentially doing nothing than buy books? LOTS OF BOOKS. Because now, you’re finally allowed to not be productive and do math all the time. In my school we actually don’t have any mandatory reading for thirteen year olds, but I asked the two English teachers in my school to borrow me their copy of books they want their students to read. One list is for fourteen year olds which I turned this June, and the other list is for secondary three to four, so the equivalent of sixteen to seventeen year olds. As soon as I got my hands on the list I rushed to the bookstore closest to my house, (which is still pretty far as I live in a village with no bookstores) while my parents were buying necessary, boring commodities such as sun lotion and toilet paper. So the first list is about two pages long while the second one is around four. That’s right, four pages of book recommendations written in Times New Roman 11pt. I know it’s amazing, it’s basically like this good book cheat sheet for whenever you can’t control yourself and step into a bookstore to spend all your life savings! I am however lucky enough to have an amazing family that supports my hobbies, so since my grandparents were visiting for my birthday they actually got me a couple of books from the list, and I payed for the rest. 

Disclaimer: I did not actually buy all of these books in one day (as the nonexistent rules of a book haul state), however they were bought within three days of each other, more or less at least… I did buy one of these online from www.bookdepository.com which is my go-to site for buying books not available in Eastern Central Europe, however I bought all the rest of them in the same store. Basically the first day (when my grandparents were there) I ended up buying four books and three days later I was in the same mall and saw them unpack some of the books on my list, so after an (unsuccessful) moment of looking for them myself, the lady working there was nice enough to approach me and help me find three more which I also bought. Altogether that’s 8 books, plus the two books I got for my Name’s Day. I had a couple of friends from the U.S. in school who told me they don’t , that is really a lot. Anyways here’s a list of some of the books that I bought and the reason why they grabbed my attention while going through the list.

The Martian by Andy Weir I have (obviously) heard about the movie which came out (this year?), but I haven’t seen it since I’m the kind of person that either sees four movies in one month or none at all.This was the week I wasn’t going to the cinema and now I’m really delighted that past me didn’t go as the pleasure of reading the book wouldn’t be as strong. I’m actually nearly done reading it today (40 pages to go) and hopefully a review will be up soon. However reader be aware that there is a lot of complicated Physics and Math stuff going on. The book is basically complicated Physics and Math stuff voiced over by a smart ass character who is admittedly really funny but the Math is just… no…. like no… The whole reason of me reading is avoiding math. 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald I just realized and this is really random, but it’s weird how I have two books here that both have movie adaptations and the leading actors who played in them competed with each other for an Oscar for the best male leading actor. Can you guess who they are? (Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon from the before mentioned book: The Martian.) Anyways, as for the Great Gatsby itself, everyone kind of has that movie that they feel is just so comforting. Like whenever you have a bad day at school or a bad day in general you just feel like watching it twice in a row while eating Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter cups ice cream. The Great Gatsby is just this movie that essentially get’s better whenever I re-watch it (if that’s believable). Since I loved the movie so much, the book being on the list finally gave me an excuse to at last read it. This is in point of fact the book I bought online, and when it comes to books I just can’t resist finding a good price for a book I’ve been looking for forever. This version cost like 3 euro something, yet I panicked when it finally came in the mail because it was wafer thin (only 120 or 130 pages) when in reality I have already seen a The Great Gatsby book and it was around 300 pages. I really despise accidentally buying condensed versions of books, and although it did say it was unabridged (so it should be the full version) I still don’t see how they got it from 300 pages to a 100… I just don’t trust those types of things. That’s what I get for being a cheap skate (sighs).

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchet Phew, I’m finally going to read a Terry Pratchet book! I feel like every bookworm has like a list of books that have to read at some point and Terry Pratchet is nearly always present. I feel that people either love or hate him, and he has books that you just find sold in like random airplane bookstores and train stations by the magazines, so I thought I might finally give him a try. Admittedly one of the problems to buying my first Terry Pratchet book was that I didn’t know where to start? He just has so many books, which are divided into sub series, but somehow the order doesn’t matter? I don’t know. What really helped me and came in handy was this chart from Epic Reads which had a pretty cool graph on how to get into Terry Pratchet. Inserts link somewhere here: 

All the Light we cannot See by Anthony Doerr I don’t know a whole lot about this book except that it won best (something) genre for the year 2015 and since it already was on my reading list before I thought I would try it.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind Murderer? Perfume? Innocent women? Famous? Paris? That’s about everything I need to know and since we’re going to France this year for summer vacation, and we might see Paris for a day or two I’m leaving this book for then, plus it’s small so I can carry it around when we bike or sight see.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Recommend to me by my mom as well as my English teacher, worth a read. Also can we talk about how pretty the cover is? At least my edition which I’m sure will soon appear on my Instagram is!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Classic. I legit don’t know anything about this book except that it’s supposedly one of the first real dystopian books. Maybe like divergent?

The Circle by Dave Eggers Retelling of  Brave New World but a little more modern? 

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne A puritan woman commits adultery in a the strict puritan society and has a child. She is made to wear a scarlet colored letter “A” on all her clothing to tell everyone she meets she’s an adulterer. 

Persepolis (both book 1 and 2 edition) by Marjane Satrapi For anyone who does not know Persepolis, just please find it on Amazon and read the first six pages. Like right now and return to this post when you’re ready for the amazingness that is Marjane Satrapi’s work. Her work is similar to Malala Yousefzai’s in means of speaking up for what she believes is right with the exception of instead of a book, being a graphic novel. It’s so honest and raw discussing themes like parents, education, identity, drugs, first love, growing up, and doing what you love no matter what. It’s sounds so close to home yet it was written by a woman who grew up during the Muslim revolution in Iran, under circumstances so different from my own. If anything it shows how much teens feel alike no matter the culture or circumstances they grew up in it’s this very book. And while I know many people have this weird bias against graphic novels “because they’re like comics” I can’t imagine this book in any other format but with beautiful minimalist black and white images drawn by Satrapi herself depicting her childhood in Iran and Vienna.

There it is! I hope you guys are having an amazing vacay (and have lots to read) in the comments down below tell me what book you want to read during summer vacation!

Stay Awesome,
Nina

The Teen Page Turner