Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.
Ender’s Game
It’s our job. We’re the wicked witch. We promised gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards alive.
Ender’s Game
THIS BOOK. GOOD GRIEF. 

THIS BOOK. GOOD GRIEF. 

I’m so tired. Sleep’s been stalking me for too long to remember. Inevitable I suppose. Sadly though, I’m not looking forward to the prospect. I say “sadly” because there was a time when I actually enjoyed sleeping. In fact I slept all the time.
House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
Books read in February: 1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins I didn’t want to make a blog post about rereading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire for February so here goes a photo of me holding one of the notes I use to scribble down thoughts of every book I’ve read so far.  I promised myself I’ll finish 52 books this year and I plan on making that happen!  LOL @ my enthusiasm.

Books read in February:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I didn’t want to make a blog post about rereading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire for February so here goes a photo of me holding one of the notes I use to scribble down thoughts of every book I’ve read so far. 

I promised myself I’ll finish 52 books this year and I plan on making that happen! 

LOL @ my enthusiasm.

Books Read in January:

  1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
  2. Let It Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle
  3. Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  4. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
  5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

**

I’m actually pretty happy I was able to read five books last month. I’m currently between reading Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mixtape and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games on my Kindle. I’m rereading The Hunger Games on my Kindle because I lent my actual copy to my boyfriend who just started reading it. Fingers crossed he falls in love with it as much as I did. 

Here’s to February! :) 

The Fault in Our Stars John Green I read this during probably one of the happiest weeks I’ve ever had. That was a bad decision, because just a couple of pages in I was already crying.  I was laughing and crying, sometimes slow, like how a child starts to cry, and sometimes its so quick I didn’t even realize I was already sobbing into a pillow.  John Green, why you wrote such an amazing book that made me fall into a cry-inducing curse, I will never know. The story is about Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, two teenagers who meet in a cancer support group. That is the only thing I’m telling you about the book. You can listen/watch John Green read the first two chapters here and here. Then tell me if you’re not intrigued by it. Even just by a little.  The hype surrounding The Fault in Our Stars lived up to it. Green wrote The Fault in Our Stars in a way where you feel every single thing they felt. It didn’t matter if you were a teenager or had cancer or you weren’t, you’d feel it. He reaches into the darkest corners of your heart and tug it enough for you to feel like absolute crap. You will cry. That I can promise you.  There are a lot of lines from the book that I had written down, but let me just pick three for this post. Reading these lines made me think of someone in particular, someone who made that particular week worth smiling for.  As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly, and then all at once. “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities… There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbound set. But Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.” “I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

I read this during probably one of the happiest weeks I’ve ever had. That was a bad decision, because just a couple of pages in I was already crying. 

I was laughing and crying, sometimes slow, like how a child starts to cry, and sometimes its so quick I didn’t even realize I was already sobbing into a pillow. 

John Green, why you wrote such an amazing book that made me fall into a cry-inducing curse, I will never know.

The story is about Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, two teenagers who meet in a cancer support group. That is the only thing I’m telling you about the book. You can listen/watch John Green read the first two chapters here and here. Then tell me if you’re not intrigued by it. Even just by a little. 

The hype surrounding The Fault in Our Stars lived up to it. Green wrote The Fault in Our Stars in a way where you feel every single thing they felt. It didn’t matter if you were a teenager or had cancer or you weren’t, you’d feel it. He reaches into the darkest corners of your heart and tug it enough for you to feel like absolute crap. You will cry. That I can promise you. 

There are a lot of lines from the book that I had written down, but let me just pick three for this post. Reading these lines made me think of someone in particular, someone who made that particular week worth smiling for. 

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly, and then all at once.

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities… There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbound set. But Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.”

“I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

Source: sospelldennisse

The Name of the Star Maureen Johnson A Jack the Ripper story set in modern London, how could you not be intrigued? I wish I didn’t read this in the middle of the night where every single sound was amplified and my scared self didn’t have to freak out so much. Maureen Johnson wrote a hauntingly beautiful story about a transfer student from Louisiana, Rory Deveaux, and her start at a boarding school in London.  I was so so thrilled at the end of the book, because I knew it was going to be a part of a series. I wanted to know what happened next, because there will be a cliffhanger at the end, there, I said it! You will want to read the next book, even if its ten times creepier than the first one.  And I also loved that Doctor Who reference. Like, really. This book! Amazing. The only thing that I probably didn’t like as much was the whole Rory-Jerome thing. I felt like that there wasn’t enough to go with it. I can picture Rory with Stephen, but not with Jerome.  This was the quote that I really, really liked: “Fear can’t hurt you. When it washes over you, give it no power. It’s a snake with no venom.”

The Name of the Star

Maureen Johnson

A Jack the Ripper story set in modern London, how could you not be intrigued? I wish I didn’t read this in the middle of the night where every single sound was amplified and my scared self didn’t have to freak out so much. Maureen Johnson wrote a hauntingly beautiful story about a transfer student from Louisiana, Rory Deveaux, and her start at a boarding school in London. 

I was so so thrilled at the end of the book, because I knew it was going to be a part of a series. I wanted to know what happened next, because there will be a cliffhanger at the end, there, I said it! You will want to read the next book, even if its ten times creepier than the first one. 

And I also loved that Doctor Who reference. Like, really. This book! Amazing.

The only thing that I probably didn’t like as much was the whole Rory-Jerome thing. I felt like that there wasn’t enough to go with it. I can picture Rory with Stephen, but not with Jerome. 

This was the quote that I really, really liked:

“Fear can’t hurt you. When it washes over you, give it no power. It’s a snake with no venom.”

Source: sospelldennisse

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares Rachel Cohn & David Levithan These are two great authors who wrote one of my favorite books (possibly of all time, although can’t tell for sure; but it’s up there) which also got turned into a movie which I also loved, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I have yet to finish Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List, so maybe that’ll be next on my book pile. But for now I want to talk about this book. THIS BOOK. So many feelings.  Like Let It Snow, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares was also set around the holidays. Here’s the thing I’ve noticed about myself during the holidays when everyone’s getting kissed under the mistletoe and I’m in a corner stuffing my face with leftover Halloween candy: I always imagine the characters in the book I’m reading to be actual living people.  I can imagine Lily, this optimistic, Christmas-loving, lebkuchen cookie-baking girl actually scribbling on a red notebook. Or she could be at the Strand, talking to her cousin, asking him to do this one tiny favor. Then threatens him if he refuses. I can see this actually happening. I can picture Dash hunched over, talking to his dad, annoyed and just a tad snarly. I can see him getting hugs from Boomer, and he actually likes it. Or him going to the supermarket because he ran out of yogurt. I can see someone just like Dash actually doing all of this. Cohn & Levithan create these characters that I instantly connect with and fall for. After reading the book I secretly wished to meet someone like Lily, who’ll bake me cookies or take me with her to walk dogs when I’m feeling down; or maybe someone as articulate as Dash, who, even if he’s only just met me, would make sure I got some safe and not leave me all alone in a party just because some guy couldn’t get in my pants. If anything, I wish I was there to witness the story unfold between them.  The book was amazing, I wanted more! I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted to know what didn’t. I wanted to keep reading and falling in love with them. But the book had to end somewhere or else it’ll end up as massive as the unabridged OED. (Book inside joke, sorry?) I will say this though: Cohn and Levithan can do no wrong in my book. And now I am so very tempted to go to Barnes & Noble, leave a red notebook with very specific instructions, and wait. Because sometimes the waiting is the best part.  Some lines that I adored: It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest. I want to believe that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there is reason to hope. Now could someone please tell me how much it is to make my own Muppet? Maybe I should ask Boomer.

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

These are two great authors who wrote one of my favorite books (possibly of all time, although can’t tell for sure; but it’s up there) which also got turned into a movie which I also loved, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I have yet to finish Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List, so maybe that’ll be next on my book pile. But for now I want to talk about this book. THIS BOOK. So many feelings. 

Like Let It Snow, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares was also set around the holidays.

Here’s the thing I’ve noticed about myself during the holidays when everyone’s getting kissed under the mistletoe and I’m in a corner stuffing my face with leftover Halloween candy: I always imagine the characters in the book I’m reading to be actual living people. 

I can imagine Lily, this optimistic, Christmas-loving, lebkuchen cookie-baking girl actually scribbling on a red notebook. Or she could be at the Strand, talking to her cousin, asking him to do this one tiny favor. Then threatens him if he refuses. I can see this actually happening.

I can picture Dash hunched over, talking to his dad, annoyed and just a tad snarly. I can see him getting hugs from Boomer, and he actually likes it. Or him going to the supermarket because he ran out of yogurt. I can see someone just like Dash actually doing all of this.

Cohn & Levithan create these characters that I instantly connect with and fall for. After reading the book I secretly wished to meet someone like Lily, who’ll bake me cookies or take me with her to walk dogs when I’m feeling down; or maybe someone as articulate as Dash, who, even if he’s only just met me, would make sure I got some safe and not leave me all alone in a party just because some guy couldn’t get in my pants. If anything, I wish I was there to witness the story unfold between them. 

The book was amazing, I wanted more! I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted to know what didn’t. I wanted to keep reading and falling in love with them. But the book had to end somewhere or else it’ll end up as massive as the unabridged OED. (Book inside joke, sorry?)

I will say this though: Cohn and Levithan can do no wrong in my book.

And now I am so very tempted to go to Barnes & Noble, leave a red notebook with very specific instructions, and wait.

Because sometimes the waiting is the best part. 

Some lines that I adored:

It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.

I want to believe that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there is reason to hope.

Now could someone please tell me how much it is to make my own Muppet? Maybe I should ask Boomer.

Let It Snow Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle I am a big fan of John Green ever since I read Looking for Alaska. I watch his videos on YouTube religiously (or, if I fail to, watch them all in one go) with his brother Hank whom I also adore. I am a proud Nerdfighter. I support their cause of decreasing world suck. John Green and his family (especially Henry! Oh, what a cutie pie) are awesome. I wouldn’t expect anything less.  Through John Green I found out about Maureen Johnson. At the time I had just gotten my Kindle and was looking for a quick summer-type read, when John retweeted one of Maureen’s tweets, and after a quick search in Amazon, downloaded 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope. I’m actually halfway through finishing The Name of the Star. Needless to say, I loved them.  I have not heard of Lauren Myracle at the time when I bought this book but I was insanely jealous of her last name. (Hehe)  To anyone who wants to read Let It Snow, I suggest you read it prior to Christmas, or at exactly Christmas. It is a nice book to cozy up to, with a fuzzy blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. Sounds cliche, I know, but that’s how this book feels to me: fuzzy, warm, comforting.  I don’t really want to go into details with this one, for fear that I might spoil it, but I truly loved it. I am a big fan of stories that are somehow interconnected with all the different characters from different stories without it seeming too forced. A perfect example of this would also be one of my favorite movies to watch during the holidays, which is Love Actually. I liked, how, even if three stories were written by three different authors, they were all able to mesh well together to create one beautiful novel. It’s a YA book, a genre that I just can’t quit, so my sentimental self can’t help but think back on all of my past Christmases, the good and the bad. I wondered to myself if I had a memorable Christmas that was so good I can write a whole book around it. I don’t think I have one yet, so we’ll see where that goes.  Here are some passages/quotes from each of the stories that I really liked. There might be a mild spoiler in one of them, but I’m sure you’ll need to read all three stories beforehand. :) God… I’d been bored for a year. I hadn’t talked about myself in ages. Stuart was talking about me. He was paying attention. It felt foreign, a little embarrassingly intimate, but kind of great. My eyes filled up. —The Jubilee Express  I always had this idea that you should never give up on a happy middle in hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose.  —A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle Silly girl, it’s not what the universe gives us that matters. It’s what we give the universe. —The Patron Saint of Pigs Let It Snow is a wonderful book. I wish there was a part two lurking around in Johnson, Green, and Myracle’s heads.

Let It Snow

Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle

I am a big fan of John Green ever since I read Looking for Alaska. I watch his videos on YouTube religiously (or, if I fail to, watch them all in one go) with his brother Hank whom I also adore. I am a proud Nerdfighter. I support their cause of decreasing world suck. John Green and his family (especially Henry! Oh, what a cutie pie) are awesome. I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

Through John Green I found out about Maureen Johnson. At the time I had just gotten my Kindle and was looking for a quick summer-type read, when John retweeted one of Maureen’s tweets, and after a quick search in Amazon, downloaded 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope. I’m actually halfway through finishing The Name of the Star. Needless to say, I loved them. 

I have not heard of Lauren Myracle at the time when I bought this book but I was insanely jealous of her last name. (Hehe) 

To anyone who wants to read Let It Snow, I suggest you read it prior to Christmas, or at exactly Christmas. It is a nice book to cozy up to, with a fuzzy blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. Sounds cliche, I know, but that’s how this book feels to me: fuzzy, warm, comforting. 

I don’t really want to go into details with this one, for fear that I might spoil it, but I truly loved it. I am a big fan of stories that are somehow interconnected with all the different characters from different stories without it seeming too forced. A perfect example of this would also be one of my favorite movies to watch during the holidays, which is Love Actually.

I liked, how, even if three stories were written by three different authors, they were all able to mesh well together to create one beautiful novel. It’s a YA book, a genre that I just can’t quit, so my sentimental self can’t help but think back on all of my past Christmases, the good and the bad. I wondered to myself if I had a memorable Christmas that was so good I can write a whole book around it. I don’t think I have one yet, so we’ll see where that goes. 

Here are some passages/quotes from each of the stories that I really liked. There might be a mild spoiler in one of them, but I’m sure you’ll need to read all three stories beforehand. :)

God… I’d been bored for a year. I hadn’t talked about myself in ages. Stuart was talking about me. He was paying attention. It felt foreign, a little embarrassingly intimate, but kind of great. My eyes filled up.

—The Jubilee Express 

I always had this idea that you should never give up on a happy middle in hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose. 

—A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle

Silly girl, it’s not what the universe gives us that matters. It’s what we give the universe.

—The Patron Saint of Pigs

Let It Snow is a wonderful book. I wish there was a part two lurking around in Johnson, Green, and Myracle’s heads.