books
Sunday, 9 September 2018
To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Book and Movie Review)
To All the Boys I've Loved Before just got adapted into a Netflix movie and it was so adorable I had to read the book it was based on! It's one of those mushy, funny romantic high school comedies where the actors actually look like teenagers and you don't have to think a lot about it, you just sit back, grab your popcorn and spend a good hour and a half.
Sixteen-year-old asian Lara Jean Song-Covey keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her but rather ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved - five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control. She likes her sister's ex-boyfriend but starts fake-dating an ex-friend-ex-boyfriend so she can escape her sister's ex-boyfriend questions. Confused? Read the book or watch the movie to see how this ends!
After watching the movie I went ahead and read the book and realised how amazingly well the actor did their parts. They translated the book perfectly on the screen, it's one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've ever watched! They made some changes in the adaptation and, honestly, I think they made the movie better with that. For example, in the book, Lara Jean's younger sister, Kitty, is the one who mails the letters out of spite but in the movie she does it out of love, hoping Lara Jean finds love somehow. To be honest, I loved movie Peter Kravinsky more than book Peter.
I would definitely recommend you watching this movie, if you're into this kind of stuff (and even if you're not, do give it a try). Netflix did a great job including some diversity in their movies and, even though I saw some blacklash because the male protagonist wasn't asian as well it just seems slightly silly to cast someone asian just because, as the book was written the other way. Like I get the white-washing blacklash but I don't understand the argument that the male protagonist should also be asian. I think the actors were amazing in their roles anyway!
I'm really hoping Netflix decides to make the rest of the series, even though I haven't read the sequels yet. I did love the characters so I can't wait to see where they go from there and I'm planning on reading the books very soon so I'm ready when the movies come out!
Sixteen-year-old asian Lara Jean Song-Covey keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her but rather ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved - five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control. She likes her sister's ex-boyfriend but starts fake-dating an ex-friend-ex-boyfriend so she can escape her sister's ex-boyfriend questions. Confused? Read the book or watch the movie to see how this ends!
After watching the movie I went ahead and read the book and realised how amazingly well the actor did their parts. They translated the book perfectly on the screen, it's one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've ever watched! They made some changes in the adaptation and, honestly, I think they made the movie better with that. For example, in the book, Lara Jean's younger sister, Kitty, is the one who mails the letters out of spite but in the movie she does it out of love, hoping Lara Jean finds love somehow. To be honest, I loved movie Peter Kravinsky more than book Peter.
I would definitely recommend you watching this movie, if you're into this kind of stuff (and even if you're not, do give it a try). Netflix did a great job including some diversity in their movies and, even though I saw some blacklash because the male protagonist wasn't asian as well it just seems slightly silly to cast someone asian just because, as the book was written the other way. Like I get the white-washing blacklash but I don't understand the argument that the male protagonist should also be asian. I think the actors were amazing in their roles anyway!
I'm really hoping Netflix decides to make the rest of the series, even though I haven't read the sequels yet. I did love the characters so I can't wait to see where they go from there and I'm planning on reading the books very soon so I'm ready when the movies come out!
Sunday, 27 May 2018
Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
“Be a little kinder than you have to.”
I was looking for something light and easy to read and this book had been sitting on my shelf for a while now so I decided to bring it with me for my trip to Belgium and The Netherlands, hoping it would last me the whole week (it didn't). We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
So what exactly is it about? It's a book about beautiful and distinguished family, the Sinclairs, and history. It's about a private island, where this family spends their summers every year, real estate and distorted, juvenile Marxist ideals. It's about a brilliant, damaged girl and a passionate, political boy, and a group of four cousins - the Liars - who've been inseparable all summer, every year, and whose friendship turns destructive. It's about memory loss, plain old loss, and recovery. It's about privilege and money, the way they can wrap people and rip families apart - and the drastic steps some self-righteous kids might take to free themselves of the tyranny of material possessions. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Also, it has a plot twist. And another.
Have I convinced you yet? No? Here's 5 reasons why you should read it, then:
1 - The writing style
It's not very descriptive but it's poetic prose and it has a nice flow to it. It's very simple in a way you can follow everything and still be amazed but how it all comes together in a big picture. It's about feelings and sensations and you're not just reading a book, you're experiencing everything with the narator.
2 - Go in blind
I feel like the best experience with this book is when you go in blind (which is what I did). Don't try to search for a lot more of the plot because it'll ruin the whole book and the experience.
3 - It's small
So it's easy to go through it quickly and believe me, you'll want to do just that.
4 - You'll get invested
Cady is seventeen and she hit her head when she was swimming during summer, two years ago. She doesn't remember what caused it to happened and everyone in the family refuses to talk about what happened so this is her journey to finding out how did the accident happen. And you get to discover that with her, step by step! You'll become invested in the story and, everytime she finds out something new, you'll gasp with her! And, finally, you'll let out of your lips the final gasp when you read the final twist.
5 - It'll stick with you
You'll want to go back and reread it. Believe me, you'll think about it after you're done (whether you liked it or not). I'm crossing my fingers, hoping this will turn into a movie because I think it has a lot of potential!
So take home message? Just read it. Do yourself a favour and read it. You can order it on BookDepository with free shipping and then you can thank me and we can scream about the ending together! Oh, and if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE!
“Do not accept an evil you can change.”
Sunday, 8 April 2018
The "BBC" Book List Challenge
What is the BBC book list, you may ask? I learned about it this week and it's a list of 100 books which has been widely circulated on the Internet with the tagline "The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books on this list. How many have you read?"
Apparently, though, this list wasn't created or endorsed by the BBC since on their site there are no quotes, articles, or any mention whatsoever about the 6 book number. Do you remember back in 2009/2010 when there were notes on people's profiles of lists with questions and whatsoever all over Facebook? Do you feel old yet? Yes, it seems like that is exactly how this meme list started: going arround the internet, making people feel better about themselves for having read over 6 books of a list. I've seen worse memes.
The average Goodreads member has read 23 out of 100 books on this list. I have read 16 (marked with ✔) and 12 are still on my to read list (marked with ✉) so basically, if I didn't always read other books instead of sticking to me to read list I would have read 28 books and would be above the average Goodreads member. I'll get there someday, though. How about you? How many of these have you read? Let me know!
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling ✔
2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ✔
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ✉
4. Animal Farm by George Orwell
5. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ✔
6. 1984 by George Orwell ✉
7. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ✔
10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
11. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ✔
12. Lord of the Flies by William Golding ✉
13. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
14. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
15. Life of Pi by Yann Martel ✉
16. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✔
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ✔
18. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
19. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ✔
20. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott ✔
21. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
22. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
23. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
24. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
25. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
26. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl ✔
27. Atonement by Ian McEwan
28. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ✉
29. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
30. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis ✔
31. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
32. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen ✔
33. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
34. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
35. Dracula by Bram Stoker ✔
36. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
37. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
38. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
39. Holy Bible
40. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
41. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
42. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
43. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ✉
44. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
45. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ✉
46. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
47. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
48. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
49. Persuasion by Jane Austen ✔
50. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ✉
51. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
52. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
53. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
54. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
55. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
56. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
57. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
58. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
59. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
60. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
61. Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville ✔
62. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
63. Emma by Jane Austen
64. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ✉
65. The Complete Works by William Shakespeare
66. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ✉
67. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
68. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
69. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
70. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ✔
71. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
72. Middlemarch by George Eliot
73. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
74. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
75. Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh
76. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath ✉
78. Possession by A.S. Byatt
79. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
80. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
81. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
82. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
83. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
84. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
85. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
86. The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
87. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
88. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
89. Dune by Frank Herbert
90. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
91. Watership Down by Richard Adams
92. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
93. The Secret History by Donna Tartt ✉
94. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
95. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
96. Ulysses by James Joyce
97. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
98. Germinal by Émile Zola
99. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
100. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Apparently, though, this list wasn't created or endorsed by the BBC since on their site there are no quotes, articles, or any mention whatsoever about the 6 book number. Do you remember back in 2009/2010 when there were notes on people's profiles of lists with questions and whatsoever all over Facebook? Do you feel old yet? Yes, it seems like that is exactly how this meme list started: going arround the internet, making people feel better about themselves for having read over 6 books of a list. I've seen worse memes.
The average Goodreads member has read 23 out of 100 books on this list. I have read 16 (marked with ✔) and 12 are still on my to read list (marked with ✉) so basically, if I didn't always read other books instead of sticking to me to read list I would have read 28 books and would be above the average Goodreads member. I'll get there someday, though. How about you? How many of these have you read? Let me know!
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling ✔
2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ✔
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ✉
4. Animal Farm by George Orwell
5. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ✔
6. 1984 by George Orwell ✉
7. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ✔
10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
11. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ✔
12. Lord of the Flies by William Golding ✉
13. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
14. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
15. Life of Pi by Yann Martel ✉
16. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✔
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ✔
18. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
19. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ✔
20. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott ✔
21. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
22. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
23. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
24. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
25. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
26. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl ✔
27. Atonement by Ian McEwan
28. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ✉
29. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
30. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis ✔
31. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
32. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen ✔
33. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
34. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
35. Dracula by Bram Stoker ✔
36. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
37. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
38. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
39. Holy Bible
40. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
41. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
42. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
43. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ✉
44. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
45. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ✉
46. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
47. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
48. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
49. Persuasion by Jane Austen ✔
50. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ✉
51. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
52. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
53. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
54. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
55. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
56. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
57. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
58. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
59. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
60. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
61. Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville ✔
62. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
63. Emma by Jane Austen
64. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ✉
65. The Complete Works by William Shakespeare
66. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood ✉
67. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
68. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
69. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
70. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ✔
71. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
72. Middlemarch by George Eliot
73. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
74. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
75. Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh
76. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath ✉
78. Possession by A.S. Byatt
79. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
80. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
81. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
82. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
83. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
84. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
85. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
86. The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
87. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
88. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
89. Dune by Frank Herbert
90. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
91. Watership Down by Richard Adams
92. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
93. The Secret History by Donna Tartt ✉
94. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
95. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
96. Ulysses by James Joyce
97. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
98. Germinal by Émile Zola
99. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
100. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Sunday, 4 February 2018
Book review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
“Unless one of us is lying. Which is always a possibility.”
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. Pay close attention and you might solve this. They say it's a mix between The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars and while I've watched both and I can see where they're coming from I can say I was more entertained reading this book than I was watching both the movie and tv show they use to compare it to.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention for having phones (which are not theirs) with them with a certain teacher who doesn't tolerate technology. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess but holding together the cracks in her perfect life. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing and is one misstep away from a life of crime. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher who greatly improved during the summer. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app, About That, and won't ever talk about any of them again.
Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, he's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident: he was highly allergic to peanuts and somehow peanut oil ended up on a cup he was drinking from. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
I really liked how this book started with presenting typical american high school stereotypes as main characters. It has multiple points of view, one for each suspect and, as you get to know them, McManus keeps breaking the stereotypes they are one by one so it is anything but cliché. The book has a few trigger warnings as it touches on cheating, emotionally abusive relationships, mental health and homophobia, but without making it all about it because this is still a mystery book. It does get side tracked sometimes but since it's narrated by the main suspects it's understandable they sometimes need to stop thinking about the crime itself.
So did I figure out who the murderer was? Yes, I had two main suspects from the beginning and I got very suspicious about a certain someone halfway through but they keep throwing new evidences at you. I ended up being correct, though! The problem with Simon being dead is that there's always someone updating this Tumblr with new information being thrown at you from the killer's prespective. I got very frustrated with the police because they are clearly incompetent and someone else actually had to solve the crime for them.
All in all, it's a very fast paced, fun to read book. The last two chapters are pure pain, so be prepared. If you like young adult mystery books this is definitely worth a shot! I look forward to reading more from Karen M. MacManus (and honestly I'm still trying to understand the peanut oil problem)!
You can get One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus on Book Depository with free shipping. Let me know if you figured out who the killer was!
Sunday, 21 January 2018
Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life) by Mark Manson
“Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.”
In this self-help guide, a blogger shows us that the key to being happier is to stop trying to be "positive" all the time and instead to become better at handling adversity.
You know those self-help guide books that sell you the idea that lots of positive ideas and optimism thinking are the key to a happy, rich life? If you love those, this book is definitely not for you. "Fuck positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest; sometimes things are fucked up and we have to live with it." For the past few years, Manson - via his popular blog - has been working on correcting our delusional expectations for ourselves and for the world. Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. Instead, he tells it like it is: a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. He now brings his hard-fought wisdom with The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.
Manson makes the argument, backed by both academic research and jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to better stomach lemons. As he writes, "Not everybody can be extraordinary - there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Human beings are flawed and limited. Manson adivses us to get to know our limitations and accept them. This, he says, is the real source of empowerment. Once one embraces their fears, faults and uncertainties - once one stops running from and avoiding, and starts confronting painful truths - one can begin to find the courage and confidence one desperately seeks.
"In life, we have a limited amount of fucks to give. So you must choose your fucks wisely." You need to figure out which ones really matter. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. This wasn't a breakthrough revelation to me. I have been doing this for quite a while now since material things solely do anything for me and I always ask for experiences/memories for my birthday. Manson brings a much-needed grab-you-by-shoulders moment of real talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor. I'm not much into self-help books but they say The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a refreshing slap in the face for all of us so that we can start to lead more contented, ground lives. For me, it wasn't only a slap in the face. It was an ice cold shower after running a marathon in 40ºC weather (which should be illegal in the first place).
So why did I enjoy this book? First of all, let me tell you, it's not a book designed to read in one sitting. I tried that at first since I had a deadline but the best way to read this is definitely in between some fiction or any other gender - unless, of course, self-help books are your favourite book gender. I feel like a chapter a day is a better way to read this because you have to let it sink in and you will miss a lot of good stuff if you just skim through it. I liked Mark's writing. It's easy to read, fun and very entertaining.
This book has good advice for those who, like myself, tend to overthink. It will make you go back to all those situations and think how you could have handled them differently. “The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.” and “If you want to change how you see your problems, you have to change what you value and/or how you measure failure/success.”
You can get The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: (A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life) by Mark Manson on Book Depository with free shipping and let me know if it made you see life differently!
“Maturity is what happens when one learns to only give a fuck about what’s truly fuckworthy.”
Sunday, 17 December 2017
Book review: La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1) by Philip Pullman
Twenty-two years after publishing the ground-breaking His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman returns to his amazing parallel world in a masterful new novel: La Belle Sauvage, the long-awaited volume one of The Book of Dust. This first volume is a prequel of His Dark Materials, set ten years before Northern Lights, while the next volume will be set twenty years after the events of La Belle Sauvage, and ten years after the events of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
My copy of Northern Lights is from 2002, a portuguese second edition (!), so I must have been around 10 or maybe slightly older when I started the series. I was thrilled when I found out the author of one of my favourite series as a teen was finally going to release a new series of books set in the same universe! The long wait was finally over! I have a friend who is as much obsessed as I am and I sent him the same book edition I got over the Atlantic Ocean so we could read it together and let me tell you: despite the package having arrived in less than perfect conditions (we still don't know which country's post office we should blame) the book was perfect. Let me tell you: being able to read something at the same time as someone else and discussing as you go is amazing!
Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at a pub called Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them: a baby called Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pan (who shifts into every adorable baby animal he knows). Malcolm's life in the pub beside the river is safe and happy enough, if uneventful. But during a winter of unceasing rain the forces of science, religion and politics begin to clash, and as the weather rises to a pitch of ferocity, all Malcolm's certainties are torn assunder. Finding himself linked to the baby Lyra, he is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change both of them forever.
The book is fast paced. A lot. I mean, it takes a while to get to the main issue: it climbs slowly at first and then all at once and then you won't be able to put it down! Philip Pullman manages to take us to his world again, capturing the feeling of His Dark Materials as it was like no time between the two series has passed. We get to see old characters of that series, fall in love with new ones and burn with hatred towards the villan! I'm sure this book stands on its own if you've never read His Dark Materials (why wouldn't you, though?) but I believe you'd be able to get more out of it if you'd read it first because there are few returning characters you'll like to see. You can also choose to do the other way around, that is, read La Belle Sauvage first and then embark on the amazing His Dark Materials journey (and then cry because The Secret Commonwealth still has no release date).
So please do yourself a favour a read La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman and get it on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon and the let me know which animal do you think your dæmon is!
My copy of Northern Lights is from 2002, a portuguese second edition (!), so I must have been around 10 or maybe slightly older when I started the series. I was thrilled when I found out the author of one of my favourite series as a teen was finally going to release a new series of books set in the same universe! The long wait was finally over! I have a friend who is as much obsessed as I am and I sent him the same book edition I got over the Atlantic Ocean so we could read it together and let me tell you: despite the package having arrived in less than perfect conditions (we still don't know which country's post office we should blame) the book was perfect. Let me tell you: being able to read something at the same time as someone else and discussing as you go is amazing!
Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at a pub called Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them: a baby called Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pan (who shifts into every adorable baby animal he knows). Malcolm's life in the pub beside the river is safe and happy enough, if uneventful. But during a winter of unceasing rain the forces of science, religion and politics begin to clash, and as the weather rises to a pitch of ferocity, all Malcolm's certainties are torn assunder. Finding himself linked to the baby Lyra, he is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change both of them forever.
The book is fast paced. A lot. I mean, it takes a while to get to the main issue: it climbs slowly at first and then all at once and then you won't be able to put it down! Philip Pullman manages to take us to his world again, capturing the feeling of His Dark Materials as it was like no time between the two series has passed. We get to see old characters of that series, fall in love with new ones and burn with hatred towards the villan! I'm sure this book stands on its own if you've never read His Dark Materials (why wouldn't you, though?) but I believe you'd be able to get more out of it if you'd read it first because there are few returning characters you'll like to see. You can also choose to do the other way around, that is, read La Belle Sauvage first and then embark on the amazing His Dark Materials journey (and then cry because The Secret Commonwealth still has no release date).
So please do yourself a favour a read La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman and get it on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon and the let me know which animal do you think your dæmon is!
Sunday, 5 November 2017
Book review: Harry Potter: A History of Magic (Various Authors)
This year, 2017, J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury and the curators of the British Library joined together in a once-in-a-lifetime colaboration to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. A brand new exhibition opened its doors in London, taking visitors in.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is the companion to that unique collaboration, filled with weird, wonderful and inspiring artefacts from the British Library archives and unseen treasures from J. K. Rowling's personal collection. This book invites you to delve deeper into the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry - from Astronomy and Potion classes to Charms and Divination.
A host of experts (Steve Backshall, the Reverend Richard Coles, Owen Davies, Julia Eccleshare, Roger Highfield, Steve Kloves, Lucy Mangan, Anna Pavord and Tim Peake), who offer a personal perspective on their magical theme, are on hand to guide you through each magical subject with a commissioned essay, leading you into a treasure trove of artefacts from the British Library and other collections around the world. Readers will be able to pore over ancient spell books, marvel at celestial globes and unfurl amazing illuminated scrolls that reveal the secret of the Elixir of Life, vials of dragon's blood, serpent wands, curious mandrake roots, painted centaurs and a genuine witch's broomstick, in a book that shows J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their cultural and historical forebears with exclusive manuscripts, sketches and illustrations from the Harry Potter archive.
Naturally I went to my local bookstore when I heard this book was out which, unfortunately for me and the portuguese people, it took one week from its publication date to hit the portuguese shelves. Let's be real, though: we've waited way longer than that for other books so we can sort of consider ourselves lucky because one week is not that much. I had both this book and its companion in my hands (Harry Potter: A Journey Through A History of Magic) and here's a piece of advice: buy the first if you're interested. From the quick look I took at it, the companion is merely a shorter version and I felt like it was directioned towards a younger crowd.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a book filled with historic artefacts somehow related to many subjects J. K. Rowling talks about in her books and we can see where she drew her inspiration from so if you're looking for an actual Harry Potter History of Magic this is not for you. To be honest, what I enjoyed the most weren't the exhibition parts but the books' excerpts where they show J. K. Rowling's doodling and her thoughts and early drafts planning the series where you can see how it has evolved. I also loved the illustrations done by Jim Kay included in the newest illustrated editions of the first three books. After reading the book I can say I will definitely not miss being in the London exhibition because I feel like the book has it all, except, perhaps, the souvenirs.
So if you're both a history and Harry Potter fan you can get Harry Potter: A History of Magic through Book Depository with free shipping and Amazon. Let me know what you though of it afterwards!
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is the companion to that unique collaboration, filled with weird, wonderful and inspiring artefacts from the British Library archives and unseen treasures from J. K. Rowling's personal collection. This book invites you to delve deeper into the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry - from Astronomy and Potion classes to Charms and Divination.
A host of experts (Steve Backshall, the Reverend Richard Coles, Owen Davies, Julia Eccleshare, Roger Highfield, Steve Kloves, Lucy Mangan, Anna Pavord and Tim Peake), who offer a personal perspective on their magical theme, are on hand to guide you through each magical subject with a commissioned essay, leading you into a treasure trove of artefacts from the British Library and other collections around the world. Readers will be able to pore over ancient spell books, marvel at celestial globes and unfurl amazing illuminated scrolls that reveal the secret of the Elixir of Life, vials of dragon's blood, serpent wands, curious mandrake roots, painted centaurs and a genuine witch's broomstick, in a book that shows J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their cultural and historical forebears with exclusive manuscripts, sketches and illustrations from the Harry Potter archive.
Naturally I went to my local bookstore when I heard this book was out which, unfortunately for me and the portuguese people, it took one week from its publication date to hit the portuguese shelves. Let's be real, though: we've waited way longer than that for other books so we can sort of consider ourselves lucky because one week is not that much. I had both this book and its companion in my hands (Harry Potter: A Journey Through A History of Magic) and here's a piece of advice: buy the first if you're interested. From the quick look I took at it, the companion is merely a shorter version and I felt like it was directioned towards a younger crowd.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a book filled with historic artefacts somehow related to many subjects J. K. Rowling talks about in her books and we can see where she drew her inspiration from so if you're looking for an actual Harry Potter History of Magic this is not for you. To be honest, what I enjoyed the most weren't the exhibition parts but the books' excerpts where they show J. K. Rowling's doodling and her thoughts and early drafts planning the series where you can see how it has evolved. I also loved the illustrations done by Jim Kay included in the newest illustrated editions of the first three books. After reading the book I can say I will definitely not miss being in the London exhibition because I feel like the book has it all, except, perhaps, the souvenirs.
So if you're both a history and Harry Potter fan you can get Harry Potter: A History of Magic through Book Depository with free shipping and Amazon. Let me know what you though of it afterwards!
Sunday, 22 October 2017
Book review: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
“Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.”
"A second book review in a row? Are you serious?" You ask.
Yes, you read correctly. As it happens, the fourth trimester of the year is filled with book launches (I'm looking at you, Philip Pullman and J. K. Rowling) and a bookworm like me has to do quite a bit of budget management so not to spend all my paycheck on books (the struggle is real, my friends). Turtles All the Way Down came out on the 10th so last friday I marched to the nearest bookshop to pick it up.
I've been a John Green fan for quite a while now. I've read all his books except Will Grayson, Will Grayson (which I'll get to, eventually) and enjoyed them immensely though my favourite is definitely The Fault in Our Stars. So since I heard he was going to finally release a new book I've been counting the days until October 10th. I tried not to have my hopes up since I knew it would be difficult to top The Fault in Our Stars and I must say it didn't, mostly because it's so different than his other books, but it came quite close.
Turtles All the Way Down is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Aza Holmes living in Indianapolis. She never intended to pursue the mystery of the fugitive billionaire Russell Picket who disappeared in the middle of the night from his mansion and no one never heard from him again, not even his sons. There is a hundred-thousand dollar reward at stake and her best friend, aka famous Star Wars fan fiction writer Daisy, is eager to investigate the case. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett's son, Davis, and start their investigation.
This book is different from his other works as it is a bit more slow paced than what we're used to from John Green, and the plot is also more subtle. Instead of foccusing on romance between two teenagers this one's main focus is Aza and her mental health, living with the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. She is terribly intelligent (I learnt SO MUCH with her, especially about Clostridium difficile and human microbiome) and she's very much in her own head, as noted in the book towards the end, because of her anxiety and OCD. And this is not just the type of person who needs to have all her pencils lined up and makes sure she locks all her doors. No. This is the real and brutal type of OCD. You are not just reading about her OCD, with John Green's writing you're actually experiencing what it's like to have real OCD with her intrusive thought-spirals. And that's why it's very different and, honestly, what makes it so good, having a lot of psychology and metaphors involved. It's very intense to live as Aza, going through her experiences and how she tries to fight her mental health disease. Because “The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.”.
By the way, there's no turtles involved in this book except the metaphorical ones. There is, however, a pet tuatara named Tua, a reptile from New Zealand that will get the whole Picket's fortune if he's dead.
So please do yourself a favour, even if you've never read a John Green book, and get Turtle All the Way Down on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon. You can thank me later!
Turtles All the Way Down is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Aza Holmes living in Indianapolis. She never intended to pursue the mystery of the fugitive billionaire Russell Picket who disappeared in the middle of the night from his mansion and no one never heard from him again, not even his sons. There is a hundred-thousand dollar reward at stake and her best friend, aka famous Star Wars fan fiction writer Daisy, is eager to investigate the case. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett's son, Davis, and start their investigation.
This book is different from his other works as it is a bit more slow paced than what we're used to from John Green, and the plot is also more subtle. Instead of foccusing on romance between two teenagers this one's main focus is Aza and her mental health, living with the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. She is terribly intelligent (I learnt SO MUCH with her, especially about Clostridium difficile and human microbiome) and she's very much in her own head, as noted in the book towards the end, because of her anxiety and OCD. And this is not just the type of person who needs to have all her pencils lined up and makes sure she locks all her doors. No. This is the real and brutal type of OCD. You are not just reading about her OCD, with John Green's writing you're actually experiencing what it's like to have real OCD with her intrusive thought-spirals. And that's why it's very different and, honestly, what makes it so good, having a lot of psychology and metaphors involved. It's very intense to live as Aza, going through her experiences and how she tries to fight her mental health disease. Because “The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.”.
By the way, there's no turtles involved in this book except the metaphorical ones. There is, however, a pet tuatara named Tua, a reptile from New Zealand that will get the whole Picket's fortune if he's dead.
So please do yourself a favour, even if you've never read a John Green book, and get Turtle All the Way Down on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon. You can thank me later!
“You're both the fire and the water that extinguishes it. You're the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick. You're the storyteller and the story told. You are somebody's something, but you are also your you.”
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