Month: July 2015
Document Your Life – July 2015
Every Day by David Levithan – REVIEW
I read a paperback edition published by Electric Monkey.
Published: September 10, 2013
Publisher: Ember
Pages: 384 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 8 hrs and 30 min
Synopsis by the publisher:
Every day I am someone else. I am myself – I know I am myself – but I am also someone else. It has always been like this. Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There’s never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that’s fine – until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with – every day…
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The Writing
This was my very first Levithan novel and all I’d ever read from his beforehand was his short story in My True Love Gave To Me. I’d heard so many great things about his writing and now I really do understand why. His writes beautifully and in such an engaging way. There’s something very poetic and different about it and it had me mesmerized.
The Characters
A was a very interesting character. I could definitely relate to a lot of A’s thoughts and I think one of the things that really made me appreciate A was the way A talked about love, no matter what gender. A was very reflected and smart. So many could learn from A when it comes to not being so judgmental.
What made this book so special was the fact that the reader get to meet so many characters. You get to know the people that A turns out to be every morning I that made it all so interesting.
So many interesting and real characters and a very special inside look to all of their lives.
The Plot
This novel had a very steady pace to it and I flew through it. It was wonderfully unpredictable and so original.
I had no way of knowing where this story would end up and in that way Every Day had me glued to the pages all the way!
My Thoughts
This is another book that I went into blind and was so pleasantly surprised! It was so different and interesting. A wonderful story about love and finding yourself in it.
Highly recommend and I can’t wait to read Another Day!
Another Day (the companion novel to Every Day) is out on July 30, 2015 (UK) and August 25, 2015 (US).
Do you want your own copy of Every Day? Click on the logos below:
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I Was Thinking About Silence
When thinking about silence one can’t help to think about noise as well.
Wikipedia says this about noise:
Noise is a variety of sound. It means any unwanted sound. Sounds, particularly loud ones, that disturb people or make it difficult to hear wanted sounds, are noise.
Roland Barthes also observes that noise can be perceived either physiologically or psychologically. We perceive noise physiologically when we “hear” it. On the other hand, when we “listen” to a noise we are doing this psychologically.
Yesterday we were taking the subway home from a barbecue and on this particular ride there were mostly party goers on their way out on the town. We’d had a little to drink as well, but not nearly as much as the people around us.
I have very little to no patience when it comes to drunk people if I’m not on the same level as them and the “kids” (yeah, I know that makes me sound old as hell) we shared the subway with yesterday was clearly on a whole other level!
Be young, have fun and explore your lives by all means, but why do you have to be so loud and obnoxious about it?!
There were screaming and breaking of bottles. Beyond loud conversations and burping.
I too kick my speaker volume up a couple of notches when I drink but I do not give everyone around me a headache. These “kids” did!
At one point on that ride I just closed my eyes and wished for silence. I tried to concentrate on it and remember where I enjoy the most of it, but the truth is that there is a whole lot of noise all over the place these days.
From a very young age I found my love for the late night hours and I think that has a lot to do with the silence. Those few hours when most of the lights are out, everyone is sound asleep and I can actually hear my own thoughts.
I’ve dreamt about going away to some secluded island for a week or two just to write and relax all alone. No noise, no fuzz, just me and my own thoughts with no interruptions. This is still a dream that I hope will one day come true.
Because even though I do enjoy that a lot of things are happening around me, I don’t think I take the mental breaks that I definitely should too often. I just stand there in the middle of all the noise and try to find something positive to focus my mind on. But maybe that just isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to remove yourself from it completely. One way I try to escape from it is by reading and that definitely works as long as the noise isn’t overpowering.
But what about when your own thoughts and worries become noise inside your head? I’ve been there. Still struggle with it way too often, but I don’t really have a quick fix for it. I’ve decided to try meditation and mindfulness to see if that might help in moments like that, but the things that work for some might not work for others. Nevertheless I’m willing to try it out.
This post is turning into a ramble without any particular direction so I will soon finish it, but I guess what it is that I’m trying to get across in these rambled words is that in a world filled with noise we must not forget to appreciate and find our own silence.
It’s okay to take a break! It’s okay to log out and turn off! It’s okay to be silent!
The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes- REVIEW
I read this book in a paperback edition that I got as a present.
Published: May 21st 2015
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd.
Pages: 560 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 15 hrs and 1 min
Synopsis by the publisher:
‘Name: Stella Sweeney. Height: average. Recent life events: dramatic.’
One day, sitting in traffic, married Dublin mum Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life. For she meets a man who wants her telephone number (for the insurance, it turns out). That’s okay. She doesn’t really like him much anyway (his Range Rover totally banjaxed her car). But in this meeting is born the seed of something which will take Stella thousands of miles from her old life, turning an ordinary woman into a superstar, and, along the way, wrenching her whole family apart. Is this all because of one ill-advised act of goodwill? Was meeting Mr Range Rover destiny or karma? Should she be grateful or hopping mad? For the first time real, honest-to-goodness happiness is just within her reach. But is Stella Sweeney, Dublin housewife, ready to grasp it?
***
The Writing
I remember reading her book This Charming Man a long time ago and really enjoying her writing, but I was worried that my taste in literature had changed too much for it to still be a part of my favorite cups of tea. Turned out I was worried for no reason.
Marian Keyes’ writing is so easy going and witty even when they touch on darker and more serious subjects. The dialogue of the characters is done so well and this book had me laughing out loud as well as drying my tears.
The Characters
Oh Stella, my dear Stella! A character that definitely found her way into a special place in my reading heart!
We had our moments where I was pulling my hair out of frustration caused by her choices and reaction, but all in all I just loved her as a character.
I won’t go too much more into the characters because it could possibly spoil you a bit, but this book definitely has a good assembly of original and lovely characters! Some will warm your heart, others will have you laughing and then there are the few that will make you mad!
The Plot
I went into this book very much blind. I didn’t really want to know much more than what the synopsis told me and I’m glad that I did.
This turned out to be a very different story than what I thought it would be, in a very positive way!
It took some twists and turns that I really did not see coming and then there were a few that I had a hunch about but I still felt was the right choices for the direction of the story.
This story captured me from the very first page and had me to the very end, something that rarely happens when it comes to me and “chick lit”.
An amazing story with all the right elements of an interesting summer read!
My Thoughts
This is a book that I would have probably never bought for my self, but I’m so glad that it found its way into my hands because I really enjoyed it!
It was a surprise gift wrapped in another surprise!
A perfect summer read!
Would you like your own copy of the book? Click on the Amazon or BookDepository logo below:
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I Was Thinking About Soulmates
If you Google the word soulmate, this is the definition that pops up first:
“A person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.”
On Wikipedia I also found this:
In his dialogue The Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes present a story about soulmates. Aristophanes states that humans originally had four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces. He continues that there were three genders: man, woman and the “Androgynous”. Each with two sets of genitalia with the Androgynous having both male and female genitalia. The men were children of the sun, the women were children of the earth and the Androgynous were children of the moon, which was born of the sun and earth. It is said that humans had great strength at the time and threatened to conquer the gods. The gods were then faced with the prospect of destroying the humans with lightning as they had done with the Titans but then they would lose the tributes given to the gods by humans. Zeus developed a creative solution by splitting humans in half as punishment for humanity’s pride and doubling the number of humans who would give tribute to the gods. These split humans were in utter misery to the point where they would not eat and would perish so Apollo had sewn them up and reconstituted their bodies with the navel being the only remnant harkening back to their original form. Each human would then only have one set of genitalia and would forever long for his/her other half; the other half of his/her soul. It is said that when the two find each other, there is an unspoken understanding of one another, that they feel unified and would lie with each other in unity and would know no greater joy than that
***
Two very interesting definitions of the term Soulmate.
I will share my own.
I believe that a soulmate is a person that you feel naturally drawn to. An instant connection that cannot be explained in any other words. Someone who dares to tell you the truth even if it hurts.
A soulmate is someone who cries with you, laughs with you and goes the distance. Someone who is always there even when you might feel like you don’t deserve it.
They are the light that forces itself through the darkest of times and help you find your way.
When i was younger I always thought about “The One” when I heard about the word soulmate, but now I see my closest friends as my soulmates.
Relationships come and they go, but the friends that stay by me are the mates that matches my soul.
To me soulmates are more about friendships than lovers!
You guys are the ones that I love no matter what. The ones that I will always forgive. The ones I can never imagine my life without and I’m so incredibly grateful for having found you guys!
I know that I can always come to you with my joys and my sorrows and I love that you guys can do the same.
I probably don’t tell you guys how much I love you as much as I should but I’m hoping that you know just how a big part of my life you are! You guys are my everything through thick and thin!
You guys are the best soulmates a gingerkid like me could ever have!
You guys know who you are!
*hugs and kisses*
My Pale Skin – You Look Disgusting
When I first saw this video it made me want to cry! The second time I got angry! And as I’m sharing it would you guys I’m both with a sprinkle of motivation and inspiration on top! We need to change the way we talk to each other and don’t even get me started on internet trolls! I’ll save that for a later post.
Watch this and go forth as a great example when you travel through the world wide web.
SPREAD LOVE, NOT HATE!
I Was Thinking About Hotels
I love staying in hotels!
Some people give me the weirdest look whenever utter this statement and I can understand that. If the person do a whole lot of traveling for work and sleeps more in strange places than at home, then of course it’s not going to be the most exciting of experiences. You’ll grow tired of going from place to place when the only place you might actually want to be is at home between your own sheets.
I on the other hand, don’t get to enjoy hotels as often as the traveling worker, so whenever I do get the chance it really is a fascinating experience. There’s just something so incredibly inspiring in staying somewhere new and different. And especially if the room/hotel has a lot of personality and history. And one of the things I enjoy the most is trying to get a feel of what kind of people that lives there besides me. Their stories, their lives and their next direction of choice as they leave the hotel.
At this very moment I’m sitting in my hotel bed in Gothenburg (away on a little family vacation) and the thoughts are rushing to all the stories and lives that this room (and all the others) are keeping as a secret from everyone else.
I’m sure there’s a whole lot of stuff that I don’t want to know about, but then again there are probably a whole lot of interesting history in every single place that I’ve ever stayed. Stories never told of life, love and loss. Of vacations, work and escape routes.
What if these walls could talk?
For one thing they might be able to tell me why most of the staff in the restaurant had no sense of good customer service, but that’s not really what I want to hear. I want to know about the people that has stayed here, the ideas that came to life and the relationships that formed or ended. The turning points in people’s lives that suddenly appeared in a strange place away from home.
If the walls would talk to someone in the future, my stay here probably would not make the list of the most interesting tales. It would be the story of a ginger girl who sat in bed and wondered. She wondered about the past, the present and the future. And when the wonder factory got too full of wondering she had to let it out before the factory exploded. So she did what she had to do.
She wrote!
2015 June Wrap Up
IT by Stephen King – REVIEW
I read a paperback edition of IT.
Published: September 1986
Publisher: Viking Press (now owned by Penguin Random House)
Pages: 1104 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 44 hrs, 57 min
Synopsis by the publisher:
It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real….
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.
***
The Writing
Stephen King is an absolute master when it comes to setting that creepy and dark mood in the readers mind. The way he explains surroundings, events and people’s inner most scary thoughts is done so brilliantly that you feel like you’re a part of the story.
The way he hints to what is going to happen throughout the story makes reading it like watching a disaster happening in slow motion. You are mesmerized and can’t look away and you badly want the warn the characters at the same time.
And I just love how he adds references to other books of his as well as the work of authors that he admires.
The Characters
Even though King is known as the master of horror, I think that what makes him such a talented writer is the way that he shows a reader the very worst and the best that hides inside a human.
Let’s start with Pennywise (because how could I not?)! I can definitely see how so many was traumatized when it came to clowns as they read this book at quite an early age. I myself (not being that easily scared when it comes to books) wasn’t scared for life and runs away screaming whenever I see a clown after reading IT, but Pennywise definitely pops into my mind every time I see a floating balloon or look down the drain pipe in a bathroom. So I might have been somewhat affected by this creepy clown. But there was so much to this mysterious character and I was so incredibly intrigued by IT (and horribly disappointed when it came to the movie when I watched that for the first time after finishing the book! But more about that later.)
In the beginning of the book there were a whole lot of characters being introduced and I was a bit confused for a little while, but in true Stephen King style, it wrapped itself together pretty fast and then it was almost impossible to not be hooked into every single character’s story.
The Plot
I really had no idea where this story would go or end up when I started reading.
The plot twists and turns and tells so many stories in one book, and as long as it’s done as well as this is then I’m loving that concept.
I was never bored, I always had a feeling of the possibility for absolutely anything to happen and my heart was already racing at page forty-seven.
And that ending! Woah! Stories like this with endings like that is what makes me such a big fan of Stephen King’s work!
My Thoughts
IT was such an amazing ride of a story. I loved every step of the way, even though I was a little confused at times. When I finished reading, it did not feel like I had been through over 1100 pages.
Definitely a book that I want to reread again some time and one that made me respect King as a writer even more.
And (as I mentioned) I did watch the movie after finishing the book and I was so disappointed. It did not stay true to the story, it hardly explained what IT was and there were so many parts that I missed from the book when I had it so fresh in my memory.
I was really rooting for the remake of IT and was actually really sad to hear that it was put on ice for now. We need a better movie adaptation of this horrific masterpiece!
Do you want your own copy of IT? Click on the Amazon or BookDepository logo below.
Christina de Vries 