Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Synopsis: First American Publication

This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time.  It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.  Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable.  As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student’s romantic coming-of-age,Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man’s first, hopeless, and heroic love.

Date Published: 1987

Publisher: Vintage Books

Date Read: April 2013

REVIEW:

I have so many feelings after reading this book, but most of it was sadness, like a hole was left inside me. I can’t quite put my finger into it. This book was just painstakingly beautiful and true. I found wisdom in this book, like it has summed up life itself. It is my first Haruki Murakami novel and I was not disappointed. This book was beautifully written and carefully laid out. It was not written to please the readers, it was written from what the author truly feels and I think that is amazing.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Patience is the most important thing. We have to go on unraveling the jumbled threads one at a time, without losing hope.

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Where Love Finds You by Marilyn Grey

Synopsis: Kick off The Unspoken Series with Where Love Finds You
A beautiful story of contentment, serendipity, and hopefulness…

BOOK 1 OF THE UNSPOKEN SERIES
Ella and Matthew have many differences, but they share a common goal: to find the one person they are meant to spend their lives with.

Years ago, Ella Rhodes looked across a crowded cafe and saw the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She left her number, but he never called. Wondering if he somehow missed the note on the back of the receipt, she spent her twenties waiting for this man to walk into her life again. After all this time, will Ella finally discover “the one” she’s been waiting for? Or, after being sent on various blind dates, will she give her heart to someone else?

Meanwhile, Matthew Ryan breaks up with his long-time girlfriend. Searching his heart he wonders if there is really a “one” for every person, or if there is simply a good, better, and best. Where does Lydia, the girl who would do anything for him, fit into the story of his life? Confused, Matthew sets out to explore his options and find the love he’s been looking for his entire life. Will he find love before it’s too late or will he lose everything?

After reading Where Love Finds You, follow the stories of these character’s from Gavin’s perspective in Down from the Clouds, The Life I Now Live, and more to come….

Date Published: May 19, 2013

Publisher: WInslet Press

Date Read: June 2013

Series: Book 1 of the Unspoken Series

REVIEW

It is not so often that I come across a book and really agree with all that is contained therein and it is also not so often that I would stop reading and ponder on the truthfulness of mixed up words turned into a captivating book, today I fortunately and happily did. This book just hits all the right spots, tugged all the heartstrings. It was a perfect book for love and life. It is as if love, life, fate and everything that comes with it are summed up by this book.

Once I started reading this, I wasted no time finishing it. I was hooked from the very first page until the last phrase. This book tells a story not quite like the other. And oh the twist! Never saw that one coming, I was so ready to accept how the book turned out, thought to myself I could never get the ending I wanted, I guess that’s how the author wanted to portray the book, something realistic. But I couldn’t be any happier with how the book ended, just perfect, not the way I imagined it to be but way more beautiful. I really commend the author’s way of writing, brilliant and flawless

Rating: 5/5 stars

“Sometimes when you take chances you lose chances. And sometimes when you lose chances, you gain something else. Don’t live for chances. Sometimes it’s better to lose chance and gain purpose. Live for today. You’ll find so much more joy.”

Days of Blood And Starlight by Laini Taylor

Synopsis: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. Forhope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Date Published: November 6, 2012

Publisher: Little Brown Books

Date Read: May 2013

Series: Book 2 of Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy

REVIEW:

Goosebumps and chaotic, unsettling, undiscovered emotions took over me after I slowly closed the book. I was just staring blankly at my wall not knowing what to do next or where to go. Dumb-founded, awestruck, tongue-tied do not even define the whirlwind of emotions I was having. I hated the fact that I allowed it to take over my emotions just like that, well who in their right minds wouldn’t have allowed that? Just like the Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I let Days of Blood and Starlight take me into its world without tad bit of hesitation. I couldn’t be any happier that I did. The book was perfectly plotted. All the scenarios were very detailed, very vivid and my imaginations were working like crazy.

This book is the other half of the bacon, also that good. The use of words were perfect. And oh the new characters made the trilogy even more exciting. There still so many things yet to unfold and it really sucks to wait for a year for the final installment. But being the nerd masochist that I am, I would willingly wait for it.

Only one criticism I had for this book, that is its phasing, I found it slow, but still it was all good. Eventually every chapter becomes a necessary part of what will unfold next. All it needs is patience. I thought of this maybe because the first book’s events happened so fast, too many secrets were revealed so when compared to book two I found the phasing slow. Yes, there were a lot of secrets were revealed too, but not as something that would instantly send you at the edge of your seat. As I said, it is still all good. The book is still nothing short of perfect and amazing to me.

This book without a doubt would become my favorite trilogy of all trilogies or of all series that is. (Some of you would have to respect that) Laini Taylor’s talent on stringing the perfect words will never go unnoticed. She’s one of the few authors who can do that and pull it off, and I highly commend her for it. The book will just let you feel that you are a part of its world, that you are physically there and that it what won me over and over.

Did I mention that I cried (rather sobbed hysterically) over Chapter 50? You have to read it to find out.

So did I like the book? Loved it! Will I recommend it? Just did!

I will give this book 5 Amazing Akiva Stars!

“Dead souls dream only of death. Small dreams for small men. It is life that expands to fill worlds. Life is your master, or death is”

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Synopsis: Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actuallygrows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Date Published: September 27, 2011; 418 pages

Publisher: Little Brown Books

Date Read: April 2013

REVIEW:

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.

Those string of words just engulfed me into its majestic and dark beauty and I went on without an iota of hesitation.

Angels and Devil falling in love, let me see how the author can pull it off. That is what I said when I saw the first part. My first thought was how in the hell can the author make the story interesting as compared to all the love story of all star crossed lovers? What would set it apart from the others? And boy, I was, let just put it this way, every chapter was a slap on my face telling me to shut up. And I did, I let the book take over me.

This book is just beautiful beyond words. This review will hardly give it justice but I will try my best to even reach half of the justice it deserves. The story is nothing short of extraordinary, at least for me that is. It’s bacon, that good. Plain and simple.

I had fallen in love with how the book was carefully crafted and beautifully written, like a flawless piece of art. I commend the way the author described each scenario, each place, each character, giving life to them vividly playing in my head. The use of words wasn’t pretentious, it was what the scene required. I was also pleased with the distinction of every character; that every character held the story together in complete cohesion and perfection, that every character had a share to the story and did not go unnoticed.

What really got me about this book was the fact that I have so many guess on Karou’s identity, that when it came to the revelation part none of my guesses matched what it truly was. That was the most amazing part of this book, as the book progresses, it had the art of not letting every chapter give away anything. Readers are always left guessing and predicting. Which made the book totally a page turner.
No I have to tell everyone than they should read it as if their lives depended on it.

Impeccable. Extraordinary. Unpredictable. BACON.

5/5 STARS!!!

Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.