Only For Him by Cristin Harber: Book Review

Synopsis:

Grayson Ford and Emma Kinglsey—close since they were kids, opposites in every way. He’s the stuff high school crushes are made of, Mister Popular, and captain of every team. She’s artsy, cute, and not in his league, though fully aware of Summerland’s “I Dream of Dating Grayson Ford” support group.

I can’t say no. The girl’s had my heart since before I knew it went missing.

He hides a life of hell. His father hates him, his mother’s gone. Emma is his only savior, yet she doesn’t know her power over him. She’s the only girl he wants, the only one he could ever tell—though he won’t.

I’m stronger, bigger, more of a man than he’ll ever be, but because I ruined his life, I’ve taken his crap, his attacks, the vulgar nature of his existence.

Until she discovers Gray’s embarrassment, his humiliation. Emma fights for him, for a chance. Theirs is a Cinderella story that she believes impossible. But as the layers peel back, it’s just a guy who needs a girl in order to keep breathing.

My mind is already doodling Mrs. Grayson Ford in imaginary notebooks. He has no clue where my head is at… But, given that I didn’t see what just happened coming, maybe I have no clue where his head is at either.
______

* ONLY FOR HIM is the first book in the Only series, all of which will release in Spring 2015. (less)

Publication Date: February 24, 2015

Source: Netgalley

Date Read: January 30, 2015

Review:

Ahhh cliffhanger!!!

Why must the author do this??? Give me the second book!! Shit.Shoot.Shit (sorry I always make reference to the book I just read, don’t worry you’ll get me after reading this book) I got an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. First, I requested this one from netgalley because I was in the mood for some new adult, and as most of you may know, new adults often run the same storyline, that after you have read so many of them you could not actually pinpoint which is which. Sad to say, but this book will soon have the same fate, it can easily be mistaken from another novel. Let’s just say that it isn’t something you have not seen before. It was familiar as it was generic. But don’t get me all wrong about it, I really enjoyed it in its truest and sincerest sense, because I am such a sucker for romance and those cheesy stuff. What I’m saying is you can give this a try, and there is a big probability that you will like and enjoy it too.

The storyline goes something like this, they were best friends and is in love with each other since forever but is too afraid to admit it to each other. And then there are buried secrets that would change everything. You get the idea, I think that is the theme of new adult novels nowadays. I am not saying it is particularly bad, but I just wished there is something more to it, something fresh, something that would make it a cut above the rest.

One more issue is the description of the characters, the guy – Grayson Ford was described as the beach god, hot with soapy scent and all that jazz – again the all too familiar descriptions of guys in books, I know it is supposed to make girls like me swoon and all, I did swoon, yes, but after a while, when the same thing is repeated over and over, it gets old. And of course the description of the girl – Emma Kingsley, of course she thinks she’s not beautiful enough for a god like Grayson Ford, it took every ounce of patience in me not to roll my eyes because obviously Grayson’s world revolved around her. I have seen this too many times, and yes it does get old.

Secondly, well this time I am going to say something positive. I don’t want you to get the idea that I loathed the book, because I really liked it. I loved the huge turn of events! I was shocked it had come to that. I was itching to know what happened after the beach and to Grayson’s mom. Props to the author for being such a tease, now I will have to patiently wait for the next book. I loved the character growth and the progress of the story. I loved that it started in highscool and ended when they are adults. You can see the transition, Emma being the reserved type in the beginning then letting loose towards the end and Grayson, well he was consistent, I don’t know if I like it or not. He had been second guessing himself most of the time and always throwing the pity-party, which I wish he could just snap out of sooner rather than later.

Thirdly, I liked the cover, not too over the top and not too simple, just right. And I also love the two point of views! Now I wish the second book will be greater, because as I have said a million times I need the book two like yesterday! So all in all I enjoyed it, so if you fancy reading New Adults and the romantic stuff. Then this book is definitely for you!

Rating:

The girl’s had my heart since before I knew it went missing.

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Three Little Words by Jessica Thompson: Book Review

Synopsis: As a dark evening draws in, the lives of three women are changed forever.

The worlds they have been living in, the people they thought they knew – in an instant it all changes.

But when everything seems to shatter around them, could three little words be enough to help put the pieces back together again?

Date Published: August 15, 2013

Publisher: Coronet

No. of Pages: 429

Date Read: January 28, 2015

Source: Bought my copy from book depository. You can order here 

REVIEW

Three Little Words: Amazing. Enthralling. Beautiful

This is now another favorite book by my favorite author. No one can possibly understand the love I have for this author. From the first book I have read by her (This Is A Love Story) I knew right then and there I will be buying all her books and get lost in each one of them over and over. She has this writing style that I just couldn’t get enough of. To date, I have all her published books and I can’t wait for more. I heard she just finished another book! Ahhh!

Three Little Words is a book that is so different and realistic. The lives of all the characters were intertwined by one incident, and I loved how the author was able to stretch out everything, how everything turned out to be connected in the end. It was carefully woven making everything coherent. I also loved the different point of views but set in third person narration, not all books could pull that off, but this book made it with so much ease. I also commend how this book is different from This Is A Love Story , you can see the variation of the books, that they didn’t run in the same storyline.

I had a good cry towards the end, I was too emotionally invested that it would be hard to find something quite like it. I loved how it tackled love, loss, friendship, grief and all other facets of human experience. It was a mix of everything amazing and then some. It will literally let you see your life in a bigger perspective, that there is so much more to life than meets the eye. That we are entirely missing out on simple things which in the end would matter the most to us. I was able to relate with this book in more ways than one. I think this book will establish a connection at one point or another to almost everyone who will read it. The story was huge and all-encompassing, and I truly admire the sincerity in the book, the distinction of characters and the progress leading to the end. It is not your typical book, it is that kind of book that you will never forget.

P.S. I badly wish Jessica Thompson would write a story about Adam and Bryony, because I love them so much!!

RATING: 

He had shut himself away in a book, to read about other people’s emotions to get away from his own.

Book Bargains #6

All from BookSale SM Dasmarinas

How is everyone? I’ve been missing in action for a while. I got a new job so I would be busy during weekdays. I will try to update my blog as much as I can, even my reading time is sacrificed 😦

Today I am going to share my newly acquired books. I spent a little over 8$ for all these books. The Hobbit in hard cover, The Fellowship of the Ring both by JRR Tolkien. I have been wanting to read the Lord of The Rings Series for the longest time, it is just so hard to find a decent copy at secondhand bookstores and the ones in bookstores are in mass market paperback format which I am not a fan of. So it was really a good deal to have found these two books. I hope I can find The Two Towers and The Return of The King too so I could finally marathon them!

And Siddhartha by Herman Hesse I bought for only Php20 or .40c. this book is included in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge so I was really stoked when I found it at very cheap price! So these are the books I got over the weekend, did you get any books? Show me! 🙂 Have a great week ahead!

Book Bargains #5

The first three books I got from BookSale SM Dasma and All the Bright Places from NBS SM Dasma 🙂

Hi! How is everyone?

Here is my mini bookhaul. 🙂 The Scarlet Pimpernel to be honest is a book I would not have picked up on my own, but my good friend Gie highly recommended this book and so I was really thrilled to find the book under the piles of unwanted books at BookSale. I got it for only Php85 or 2$, down side is it has the previous owner’s name – Arthur, well I think this kind of gave a new character to the book. And I love those kind of things – so it is not really a down side after all.

R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton you may be wondering why I bought this book, especially so when it is a battered copy – it is very unlikely of me. Rory Gilmore is the one to blame! Haha this book is included in the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, so when I saw it I immediately bought it, plus it is only Php15 or .30c? Super cheap, I could easily give it away. I take the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge very seriously, I am itching to strike out books after another in the said list. If you want to see the progress I have made (believe me there is not much progress, 6 books out of 339, this is why I am so hell bent on reading majority of the books listed there) click here.

The Broken String by Grace Schulman I bought it for Php35 or .90c and it is a poetry book, I mentioned on my Instagram that I will be buying more poetry books this year, so far I own 7 poetry books. 🙂 I can’t wait to see my collection grow.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Nevin I have heard amazing things about this book and so when my mom bought it for me, I was ecstatic! (Thanks Ma!) I heard this book is tear-inducing and heart wrenching, so I am not sure yet if I will pick this one up soon, or I have to mentally and emotionally prepare myself first. We’ll see. 🙂

These are the books I got today. How about you, did you get any books today? Show meee! 🙂

Candy Darling: Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar by Candy Darling, James Rasin (Book Review)

Synopsis: A look into what moved Andy Warhol’s greatest muse

Located at 33 Union Square West in the heart of New York City’s pulsing downtown scene, Andy Warhol’s Factory was an artistic anomaly. Not simply a painter’s studio, it was the center of Warhol’s assembly-line production of films, books, art, and the groundbreaking Interviewmagazine. Although Warhol’s first Factory on East 47th Street was known for its space-age silver interior, the Union Square Factory became the heart, brain, eyes, and soul of all things Warhol—and was, famously, the site of the assassination attempt that nearly took his life. It also produced a subculture of Factory denizens known as superstars, a collection of talented and ambitious misfits, the most glamorous and provocative of whom was the transgender pioneer Candy Darling.

Born James Slattery in Queens in 1944 and raised on Long Island, the author began developing a female identity as a young child. Carefully imitating the sirens of Hollywood’s golden age, young Jimmy had, by his early twenties, transformed into Candy, embodying the essence of silver-screen femininity, and in the process became her true self.

Warhol, who found the whole dizzying package irresistible, cast Candy in his films Flesh and Women in Revolt and turned her into the superstar she was born to be. In her writing, Darling provides an illuminating look at what it was like to be transgender at a time when the gay rights movement was coming into its own. Blessed with a candor, wit, and style that inspired not only Warhol, but Tennessee Williams, Lou Reed, and Robert Mapplethorpe, Darling made an indelible mark on American culture during one of its most revolutionary eras. These memoirs depict a talented and tragic heroine who was taken away from us far too soon

Publication date: February 17, 2015

Date Read: January 15, 2015

Source: Net Galley

Publisher: Open Road Media

No. of Pages: 230

Review:

Inspirational as it was tragic. 

I requested a copy from NetGalley and they were more than willing to approve said request. And I was more than happy to have read such an inspiring and moving book. I particularly loved that I could identify with the book in more ways than one, though there are close to none similarities between Candy Darling’s life then and my life now. I guess everything she said in her letters still hold true today. The fact that Candy Darling stayed true to who she was, despite the few setbacks and despite that her being a transgender was not as openly accepted as it is today – she was her own beacon of hope, her own light at the end of the tunnel. She truly believed in herself and her capabilities – she took the word respectable to whole new level. I loved how this memoir depicted her struggles to be accepted and respected, and to be loved – in which until today these are what people truly long for, just in a different circumstance. Her passion in everything she did will never go unnoticed. She was a dreamer and a pursuer, I loved how this book was able to send its message across – that life is what we make of it, and in the end it will always be our choice that would matter.

Her diary entries and letters shed a light on how she lived her life, how there were struggles and there were victories, how there was longing for acceptance and validation. It is very inspiring, her voice is so alive as if she was the one talking to you. It was tragic that her life ended too soon at the age of 29, she could have seen better days. Through her diary and letters her life lives on, she left a legacy, she left something truly amazing.

The cover is amazing, showed how colorful Candy Darling’s life was. I had issues with the format of the whole book, but I overlooked said fact, as I was after the contents of the memoir.

RATING: 

“You must always be yourself no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality. We should both try to live it. You’ve got to always keep your heart and mind open. You can disguise your emotions, you can even numb them, and finally you can paralyze them. And that is tragic. Our emotions are the only clues to our identity. The only true meaning in life is passion. The passion to learn, to paint, to love, etc. Don’t dare destroy your passion for the sake of others. When you do you’ve lost the beauty of life, and that’s what a sin is. By robbing yourself of your very reason to exist, you have cheated. You must laugh when you must laugh, you must weep when you must weep, and you must love when you must love.” 

Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher: Book Review

Synopsis: Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen. Complete strangers since this morning.
He’ll do anything to remember. She’ll do anything to forget

Date Published: January 8, 2015

Date Read: January 13, 2015

Publisher: Hoover Ink

REVIEW

The ending gave me the chills.

Being a big fan of Tarryn Fisher and Colleen Hoover, of course I could not pass this one up. I knew I had to read this book as if my life depends on it. I just knew it would be nothing short of amazing. I have to be honest, that when I learned that it will only be 140 pages long (or short for that matter), I was a tad bit disappointed, but I overlooked that fact and proceeded to read the book. The blurb was so vague, kind of reminded me of We Were Liars and that was what intrigued me the most. I played out too many different scenarios as to how the story will unfold and none of it matched what transpired in the book. The book was very odd – good odd. I loved that I was as clueless as Silas and Charlie and all throughout the book I had this default expression of “What.The.Fck.Is.Going.On.”. I had all these crackpot theories as to why something like that happened to them, alien invasion, or they were drugged the night before or their fathers did it to them, or they were cursed and the long ridiculous list goes on. Nearing the end I was hoping the book would shine some light on what was happening, but it ended into a freaking cliffhanger and we have to wait until May to find out what actually happened. It somehow gave me the Mara Dyer feel to it, I liked it and hated it at the same time. Why must Colleen and Tarryn do something so wicked??

It is the book that you should read not knowing anything about it and if anyone asks you what it is about, say something else. Let them suffer the way you did. 🙂

Rating: 

“How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you’ve never met.”

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

I loved watching Gilmore Girls! I can still remember how my sisters and I would sit in front of the tv for hours on end and finish the reruns of Gilmore Girls. We adored Rory and Lorelei!! And so I am embarking on a reading challenge. That is to read, most of the books, if not all, Rory had read. Throughout the whole series, Rory was seen reading a total of 300 books. Below is the list of all these books. They are, yes, overwhelming, but it would be so lovely to strike out one book at a time! I am excited!!

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath  Read in 2016
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown – read in 2012
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – read in 2015
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling – read in 2001
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris read March 2015
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – read in 2012
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby – read
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe read in 2015
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë– read in 2007
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Wish me luck

P.S. I have not read a lot of classics and I am not going to pretend that I have, when I was in highschool we were not required to read American classics, since it was not part of our curriculum I am not an American and English isn’t my first language, but despite that I think I turned out okay. You can go on judging me because of my evident lack of knowledge about classics, but at least I am remedying it one book at a time. I hope people should stop comparing what they have read to that of the others. As I always point out, read and let read. Maybe most of you would not understand where this statement is coming from, I just had a bad misunderstanding with someone, and she pretty much judged me because of the lack of my knowledge re: classics and my “shitty” and “horrific” writing – worst I don’t even know the person. I wish people would just keep their nose to where it should be – not in anyone’s business. And yes, there is always a nice way to point out a criticism – one that does not border on arrogance and rudeness. You are always free to click that ‘X’ on the upper right of your browser.

Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck: Book Review

Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

Date Published: January 11, 2011

Publisher: Splinter

No. of Pages: 403

Date Read: January 2015

Source: I bought it

 Addictive story with frustrating female protagonist. 

This will be the hardest review I will ever write. I had too much expectations regarding this series, oh the extent I went through just to buy the hardcovers (but that would be a different story), and so with a mix of eagerness and trepidation, with trepidation because I wouldn’t want to be perpetually disappointed if the story ended up the way I had not expected, I have come to love the books, physically (come on just look at the covers) – yes and because, as I have mentioned how I went out of my way to get the copies, i have admired them for far too long in my shelf, so I kind of put them into a pedestal and I had to believe that the story is amazing as what I give it credit for, yes I was that attached to a book I have not read, I know, it is crazy. And so I started the first book – here are my thoughts (I talked too much, didn’t I?).

Let me first say, that I really liked it but really liked doesn’t really equate to loving it (believe me I was shocked myself, one notch down to the ladder of this crazy pedestal) I knew it was wrong to expect too much. The whole plot was something unique to me, at least to my reading experience, as I have not read any book with someone being cursed into an animal or into another being, I wanted to see how the series will revolve around such curse and how the characters will take part in all of it. The plot was inviting, it will lure you into devouring the book, eager to see what will happen in the end. I was engrossed, I could admit that. I turned page after page after another, it was like eating a potato chip – you can’t just have one. It was a page-turner, story wise. The adventures that Ren and Kelsey had to go through, were also a huge plus for me, I loved that it was almost like Indiana Jones. Also I loved the setting – India, it is not so often that I read books set there, and you can really see how the culture of India was portrayed throughout the book.

Now let’s go to the characters. Dhiren or Ren the guy cursed into being a tiger, (how do I put this without giving out any spoiler, no actually I could not, well let me try at least) Let me put it this way, Ren – was too charming too a fault, (I am talking about Ren as a man) he was described as a runway model, hot, gorgeous man – to name a few, that is of course according to our narrator Kelsey. My 17 year old self must have swooned to no end because of that, it could have actually worked for me then, but I am a 26 year old woman now, who actually and surprisingly knows better and those descriptions used by Kelsey makes me want to take my eyes out and put it in a grinder, it didn’t work for me, sadly. But I know that was Kelsey’s perspective and I am just a mere reader, my opinion on the matter will not change what was already written, so I sucked it all up and continue with the story. True enough, Ren was a charming guy, he knows what he wants and he somehow gets it (and I did have this totally weird and in not in any way related to the story epiphany, Ren reminded me of Christian Grey, yes of the Fifty Shades of Grey, not because there was BDSM in this book – I am telling you now there isn’t any of that in the book neither because Ren was a sadist, because again he isn’t, maybe just the way he protects Kelsey, or his ways and all things combined, he just happened to remind me of Christian Grey, raise your hand if you felt that too.) Then there’s Kelsey aka the girl I wanted to strangle with Fanindra (the snake), I don’t know if it is just me, but I actually hate the girl. Well at first she was really likable, back when she was that simple girl who helped out in the circus, but when she moved half way across the earth to India, that’s when she started to be annoying to a fault. During the course of their quest, I already had issues with Kelsey, with her being immature for a 17 year old and not actually realizing how big of a deal the task bestowed upon her, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but as the story neared the end, I was so frustrated that I want to rip her hair off, she does this immature acts towards Ren and I swear it irked me to no end, plus the fact that she was fighting her feelings for Ren but was perpetually failing was miserable to read. Why does she do that? And I was saying the whole time “Oh Kelsey, you.cannot.be.serious!”. (Another notch down the crazy pedestal) Maybe all I could do was hope that her character would at least grow in book 2, please let her be mature, let her act her age and let her make up her damn mind. And now proceeding to Kishan, Ren’s brother – well of course he had to be extremely good looking too – as per Kelsey’s perspective, but his character is still a mystery to me, so I have to watch out for him in the next books. And I know I can sense that there will be a love triangle, to be honest I am not a fan of that, but I guess I would have to see what will happen next.

All in all, I enjoyed the book, I would not deny myself of that fact. The romance in the book was maybe a little too cheesy, but I was okay with that – since I am known to love cheesy things – for me the cheesier the better. Will I continue with the series? well, definitely. I am just crossing all my fingers, hoping the series will get better. I know book 1 is more of testing the waters, building the foundation and whatnot – but Tiger’s Curse for me lacked something I cannot quite put my finger into, or maybe I know what it is, and yes I will say it – it lacked seriousness, and I am really hoping I could find that damn seriousness I’ve been so craving for in the next books.

Here’s the part that gave me the chills – that last paragraph before the epilogue! I felt it, I really, honestly did!

Life often seems hopeless and too complicated to hammer out a happy result.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover: Book Review

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

At twenty-two years old, Sydney has a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori. But everything changes when she discovers Hunter’s cheating on her–and she is left trying to decide what to do next.

Sydney becomes captivated by Ridge, her mysterious neighbor. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…

Date Published: March 18, 2014

Publisher: Atria Books

Date Read:  January 2015

Number of Pages: 367

Source: I bought it, so glad I did!

Beautiful and Realistic. You can never go wrong with a Colleen Hoover book.

This is my second Colleen Hoover read, that first one being Hopeless, after reading Hopeless, I just knew I had to buy and read all of her works. So I followed Hopeless, with yet another stellar book – Maybe Someday. (I am actually staring at my screen for a good five minutes now concocting the perfect words fitting this beautiful book, hoping I could at least give it justice. I know saying I loved it a million times will not suffice, I hope whatever I put in this review can somehow influence another soul into reading this book.) Maybe Someday wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, I had this different story inside my head, thinking I have predicted everything after I have read the blurb, because, even if we admit it or not, most New Adults run through the same theme, that it becomes too predictable to a fault. I forgot that this is Colleen Hoover, and yes it may seem that this is yet another predictable book, but I am completely mistaken. I can say that it is somewhat unconventional, it presents a predicament that is, yes, we have seen too many times before, but there is something different presented by the author. Different flow to a once very familiar story, which to be honest, at first didn’t sit well with me, towards the middle of the book, I was kind of blinded where it was leading, I knew Sydney and Ridge will eventually end up together (well, this is not a spoiler, since hello this is their story) but the actual progress of the story or the events that transpired leading to the end was somewhat different. There was the element of newness to it, not the mediocre story we are all tired of hearing. This book actually presented believable characters, realistic events and even too spot-on predicaments, that the readers may relate to it one way or another. I found my heart breaking as I read the book, but as to who it was breaking for – it was that part that I was so confused about. It was insane. One moment I feel for Sydney, at another for Ridge and his pressing problem and then at one moment for Maggie, who had to go through all that. My emotions were all over the place, to say the least. And I love the fact that this book was able to draw out such unwarranted feelings from me. I keep pulling my hair out while blurting “why does it have to be this complicated” – then I am reminded, that all great love never comes without complication. And that is what makes it beautiful, the complexity of it all.

I also loved the fact that, Ridge is not portrayed as that one gorgeous hell of a guy, with perfect smile and to-die-for abs, that we are again too tired of seeing in New Adult books, he was imperfect, and that made the story even more appealing. The author find a way to bring a beautiful story despite the fact that there was this barrier, and she made it as if it is no barrier at all. It added that sense of uniqueness to it, it is what sets it apart from all the mediocre books. I also liked the fact that Sydney is not that whiny little brat, she was one hell of a woman, vulnerable yes, but stronger as opposed to what she lets on. I also commend the fact that the book is not one sided, it doesn’t demand a reader to pick a side. It presented the story as it is, no unnecessary drama, just what is required.

Few chapters left when I was so sure I will never get the ending I have hoped for, again I am mistaken, because I was beyond satisfied with that ending – ahhh it was just so beautiful. This book toyed with my emotions, it made me cry more than it made me laugh, but despite the emotional train-wreck I was having, I can say this is already a favorite book and I can see myself rereading it over and over and over.

And oh, I loved reading it whilst listening to the playlist. Griffin Peterson made the book alive, as if I was Sydney and I get to hear what Ridge and I had made, it was yet another amazing reading experience. I loved that this book, is not only just a book, it is a journey – an experience. All I can say now is, I wish I have read it sooner. I bought it a month after its release, and I can’t understand myself for waiting too long to finally get around to it.

So all I’m saying is please read this, include this book into you ever-growing to be read list, because, if you are a hopeless romantic like I am – you will never be disappointed with this one.Oh what a way to start my year! Colleen Hoover, never disappoints!

“How ever, I’ve learned that the heart can’t be told when and who and how it should love. The heart does whatever the hell it wants to do. The only thing we can control is whether we give our lives and our minds the chance to catch up to our hearts.”

 

I got nominated! Liebster Award

Thank you so much Kath for nominating me for Liebster Award! (So sorry  if it is only now I got around to doing this.)

So here are the few rules:

• Link back to (and thank) the blogger that nominated you.
• Answer the 11 questions they give you.
• Tag up to 11 other bloggers who have 200 or less followers.
• Ask your nominees 11 questions and let them know you nominated them

11 Questions from Kath:

1. What are you currently reading? How is it so far?

I am currently reading Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I am only 6 pages in, but I am pretty sure I am going to love this one! Well, it is Colleen Hoover after all.

2. Who is your favorite author? Why?

Wow, one of the hardest questions ever asked, hahah! Can I name three? Well first, Laini Taylor the author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, she has this way of putting together the perfect words, I have always been in love with her writing style, she narrates so vividly, each scene is alive in your head. The next favorite is Jessica Thompson the author of This Is A Love Story one of my favorite books, I also commend her writing style, the way she weaves words is just purely amazing! Last would be Chuck Palahniuk, his works are dark, twisted and disturbing and I like those kind of stuff, he is fearless!

3. What book to movie adaptation you hated the most?

I think Cloud Atlas, the movie was all over the place, didn’t give justice to the book.

4. Do you prefer reading Fiction or Non-Fiction?

I prefer reading fiction – it is an escape to reality. But recently I have enjoyed reading memoirs and other non-fiction.

5. How many physical books you own so far?

Less than 200, I gave out a few books already. Plus it is only now that I have again started collecting books.

6. Have you read the Harry Potter series? If yes, who is your favorite character. If not, why?

I only was able to read up to Prisoner of Azkaban 😦 I know, what have I been doing all my life right? I’ll remedy it soon so fret not, my favorite character is Hermione of course, though she is a muggle she has earned her spot at Hogwarts, plus she is bookish, what’s not to love?

7. What do you think are the reasons why there are some people hate the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer?

I have not read the Twilight series I was only able to watch the movies, so I am not really in the position to say why some people hated it, but this is a wild guess, maybe because of the writing style and too much cheesiness involved?

8. If given by chance to date one fictional charater, who would that be?

Oh my goodness, it will be Akiva of Daughter of Smoke and Bone in a heartbeat! I would love to be embraced by his majestic wings and be able to look straight into his mesmerizing eyes.

9. Do you have a book that you’ve read more than 3 times? If yes, what is that book?

Yes, This is A Love Story by Jessica Thompson, I just love that book so so much.

10. Do you play any instruments?

I used to play the guitar, but now I’m rusty.

11. Your favorite book cover?

I have always adored the cover of These Broken Stars by Amy Kauffman and Meagan Spooner.

I am nominating:

1. Ohbookish

2. TheBookishGirl

3. thebookheap

4. Shannon Thompson

5. Book & Cleverness

6. booknerdkim

7. booksterambler

8. abibliophopictendencies

9. deadlydarlings

10. readersvanity

11. life of a book enthusiast

Here are my questions for you guys:

1. What is your favorite book at the moment and why?

2. Do you read while you travel?

3. Name three of favorite author?

4. Your occupation?

5. Do you listen to music when you read?

6. Least favorite character in a book and why?

7. have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? If not, will you consider reading it?

8. Your favorite genre?

9. A book you wanted to be made into movie and who will play as the lead role?

10. How many books you own?

11. The first book that made you cry?

So there, hope everyone will take time to answer! May you have a beautiful day ahead! 🙂