The Girl Who'll Read Anything

I've posted my first Note To Self entry on my blog days before I read this book. After reading this, I'm more than inspired to encourage myself and others. This brings the definition of "self-help" in a whole other level. There's literally no other person who can help us but ourselves. We make decisions. We make mistakes. We break. We get up and try harder. We choose what to do in this life and no one is responsible for that but us.

This book is really inspiring, heart-warming and in some ways, life-changing. Thank you, Alex Elle for your beautiful and enthralling words of wisdom and encouragement.

"But dreams scream as loud,
whether thriving or dying"

This poignant novel which was written and told in verse radiated heartache, pure loneliness, angst and longing. This work is remarkable just thinking about the rhyming and timing of every word and line. I also loved how every person in the story is connected in some ways and factor each and own's perish.

I've been seeing The Giver ever since I was in high school but I haven't really given any thought on reading this book. I can say that the reason behind it is because I wasn't particularly enticed by the book cover. I could even remember a time back then when an aunt of mine asked me if I have a copy of The Giver, which my answer was obviously "No". After reading this today, I briefly became angry with myself because WHY THE HELL DID I NOT READ THIS BEFORE????

The book started with Jonas, the protagonist of this book, feeling apprehensive about the upcoming event which was an annual Ceremony on the month of December that includes the Naming (wherein "newchildren" will be assigned to their respective "units") and the Ceremony of One up to Twelve (which represents the children's age) with matching rituals, symbolisms and/or new roles to play in the community. Jonas was specifically dreading the Ceremony of Twelve wherein their group will be assigned to different roles/jobs in the community and would train from then on by the Committee of Elders who has meticulously observed every child in the community to know what lies ahead for the future Twelves.

The book sounds dystopian right? Well, yes, you're right but unlike other dystopian novels like The Hunger Games wherein there was torment, destruction and unhappiness, every bit from the story gave way to the notion that they were living in a world/community of utopia. A place where there's only serenity and harmony. A place where people felt no real pain. A place where people have no recall of the past and everything alongside it. But with that monotonous order and peacefulness implies that there are so much that the people have been neglected of experiencing and feeling. People had no memories of the past. Only The Giver has them. That's what makes it dystopia. Who would have liked to live in a colorless and painless world right? That would have been excruciatingly BORING. Dull. Gray. Jonas learned more of the truth and the horrors and beauty behind it. He started to really "feel" which I thought was beautiful. It was as if I was witnessing a small child learning his way to the world. 

The writing style suited the story very well. I love the open ending, the mystery and all. This classic book surely did not disappoint and should be read by every human being at least once in their lifetime. (Again, WHY THE HELL DID I NOT READ THIS BEFORE??)

I've been seeing this book long before but haven't really had the urge to pick it up and read it. At first, I thought it's another YA book about a cheesy romance that resulted to a bad break-up or something, but this book is beyond that simple equation. This book is mostly focused on, Yunior, a Dominican man living in the States, experiencing a LOT of shit and fuck-ups in his life. Aside from Yunior's fucked up family life, Yunior's experienced many bad break-ups mostly because he cheated. His brother, father and most of his friends were cheaters. People think that it runs on the blood. Yunior denied that at first. But when he stepped his feet on the road of cheating, he cannot further deny it. He fell in love with a handful of sensible women but being the cheater that he is, he fucks it up. It took a very long time before Yunior decided to flip the coin and started anew.

I love the animated, excruciating and frangible truth about modern love. The use of profane and Barbaric language only added up to the honest picture of human weakness and also added a comedic air in it.

This is the first work of Junot Díaz that I have read and it certainly won't be the last one. It did not disappoint. This is absolutely and easily one of my favorite books.

First of all, I wanna discuss the reason/s why I chose to read this book. I fell in love with the cover when I first saw it. Shortly after, I went to Goodreads and read the book blurb. It looks promising and tragic so I gave it a go. 

I really love the cover and the meaning behind it. It doesn't only represent the traumatic and tragic incident that happened to Toby at the roller coaster ride at Disneyland, but also symbolizes life itself. that life is a roller coaster ride. Sometimes we're up. Sometimes we're down. Ezra's life is a definitive example of this. 

"I was no longer Ezra Faulkner, golden boy, and maybe I hadn't been for a while, but the more time I spent with Cassidy, the more I was okay with it."
Ezra encountered a really unfortunate incident that changed his life. He was no longer the Golden Boy. Everyone looked at him differently after the accident as if the accident defined him. He doesn't want to hang around his old friends anymore because he thinks that the only thing that will glue him to them is pity. Well it's because they weren't his true friends. True friends stick around no matter what shit happens to your life. Which is why I love Toby's character. Toby is a true friend of Ezra's and it took Ezra a while to realize that. Then Cassidy came along. I also love Cassidy's character. She's mysterious, intelligent, beautiful and sarcastic without being annoying. Their conversations are smart, profound and punny (get it? pun-ny? ha!). I also can't get enough of all the hilarious puns that the characters are using. 

This book is one of those with heart-wrenching endings. It didn't end the way we wanted to be but it just proves that life isn't supposed to be that way. People will enter our life either to fuck it up or change it for the better. Obstacles will come our way either to ruin us or to make us stronger and better persons. 

I love the writing style. It speaks of true emotions yet put into strings of simple words. It's my first time to read a work by Robyn Schneider and it surely didn't disappoint. 

"Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people just exist, and that’s all. I don’t know if he’s right, but I do know that I spent a long time existing, and now, I intend to live."

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To be honest, I only got curious as to what this book will deliver because it's B.J. Novak. I adored him in The Office and Saving Mr. Banks which led me to actually reading his book. This book contained different stories. Some connected. Most are not. Some pretty long. Some really short. But if you'll ask me about the whole experience, I didn't particularly enjoy it. Some stories are a bit dragging. There are a few stories that I liked. A few lines that i remember but that's it. Nothing really special about this book, to be honest.

This book is captivating and honest from the very start. This book opened my mind to how OCD and having cerebral palsy truly feels like. It's tough but seeing how the characters try hard to go beyond their sickness is inspiring. It's both excruciating and fun to watch Amy and Matthew not admit to each other, at first, how they feel about each other. The ways they show how they like each other is gratifying! They're both willing to go beyond what they're going through and beyond themselves because they're starting to like each other. They're both different and the same.

"That's the whole point. If you want to get better, you don't make the easy choice; you make the hard one."

I admire Amy's strength and determination. She genuinely wants to help Matthew get better. She helped Matthew realize that he really has a problem and needs help. Acceptance is hard for someone who tried hard to keep everything a secret. Progress was slow for Matthew but Amy helped him. There may have been rough roads in their relationship, it's really inspiring to see two different (and the same), people struggle in such a cruel world but struggle together.

"If you care what they think, they have all the power."

The struggle of having to prove to a person that you could do good on your own is really high and hair-grabbingly hard and exhausting. It sucks to live a life that has been set up and planned out by anyone but you. And that is one of the issues that have been tackled in this book. I absolutely love this book and would give it more than 5 stars if I could. 

To be honest, I didn't get my hopes up before I actually read this book. But as I breezed through it, I was actually starting to like it. Especially when time travel was on the table, Rebecca Stead, you caught me! I've always been fascinated by the idea of time travel and Rebecca mixed it with innocence and curiosity of a 12-year old which made it so easy, fun and adorable to read.