I Don't Know What To Write About Anymore, I'm In a Funk

Um, hello. I bought two books today at Barnes and Noble. Wait no. My sister bought me two books at Barnes and Noble today. But hey, I paid for our earphones so we should have been even but I guess she doesn't value music and privacy as much as I do. Hmm.

So I now own a copy of number9dream by David Mitchell (same guy who wrote Cloud Atlas) and a copy of 1984 by George Orwell.

I have not yet to read 1984 but I read about 12 pages of number9dream and so far, I am loving it.

Synopsis: You've read Dickens or Salinger, and you think of adolescence in terms of a "coming-of-age story". So does Eiji Miyake. It would be nice to think he's right: His mom isn't much in the picture, his beloved sister had died in an accident, and picking fruit and living with Grandma on an outer island of Japan give Eiji a lot of time to fantasize about what might happened if he were to be united with the wealthy father he's never known. At twenty, Eiji comes to Tokyo to find him. But what should be a straightforward quest turns into something far more strange when Eiji stumbles upon the hidden powers centers of the Japanese underworld. Suddenly the riddle of his father's identity is the least of his worries. What do survival, the nature of dreams, and the number 9 have to do with one another? It's no small question for a provincial boy with a price on his head and only the cost of a John Lennon album to his name.

I absolutely love the writing style because as I read, I can see it happening in my head (and don't you just love it when your brain automatically adds in details not said in the text, you know, until the author adds something that completely changes everything and you have to rearrange the entire scene so it'll fit the scene). It's like I'm looking through a fisheye lens with an Instagram filter. 

As for 1984, I haven't read it yet but here's the text from the back. 

Text: Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while the year 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions. A legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

So I don't really know exactly what this book is about but that's just makes it even more exciting.

Well, I'm off to read! Good nightttt.

The Road: What Does My Love For Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic Novels Say About Me?

(A/N: Alternative Title: "The Road: What Does My Love For Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic Novels Say About Me?")

(A/N#2: So my teacher had already checked this post so I can finally change the title now. WHOOP!! Feels unnatural when my titles are short...and lacking in voice.)

I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy since I needed a book to blog about, seeing that I already finished all the other ones from the library. I really like it. It's a novel that focuses on a father who is trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world while taking care of his son.

From the father's and the boy's words, I'm assuming that the boy was born after the disaster. "He withdrew his hand slowly and sat looking at a Coca Cola. What is it, Papa? It's a treat. For you. What is it? Here. Sit down." (McCarthy 23). Here, the reader can tell the boy had never had a soft drink before. Of any kind. He doesn't even know what a coke is. He makes obvious remarks like it's bubbly, it's really good, and he knows that he won't probably taste it ever again.

We know the father is familiar with the drink because not only did he give it to the boy to have but he also knew what the vending machines were and what they held in them.

And when he's talking about going south, he tells the boy that they have to follow the state lines. "These are our roads, the black lines on the map. The state roads.

Why are they the state roads?

Because they used to belong to the states. What used to be called the states.

But there's not any more states?

No.

What happened to them?

I don't know exactly. That's a good question." (McCarthy 42-43). This also supports my theory because the boy isn't aware of what states are. He now knows there are states line, but the states themselves doesn't mean anything to him.

On another note, the boy's mother. I think she killed herself. "I am begging you. I'll do anything.

Such as what? I should have done it along time ago. When there were three bullets in the gun instead of two. I was stupid... I thought about not even telling you. That would probably have been the best. You have two bullets and then what? You can't protect us. You say you would die for us but what good is that? I'd take him with me if it weren't for you. You know I would. It's the right thing to do." (McCarthy 56).

She couldn't live in this world anymore. How can she? The reader knows that it's hard enough for the father and his boy to survive in the barren world, and that's just with two of them.

At first, when it was said that they have two bullets, I had thought that if it all goes bad, really bad, the father would have to kill his son, and then himself.

But how can he do that? But how can he?

The boy's mother loved him so much, she was willing to kill him.

The boy's father loves him so much, he keeps him living.

And if the boy were to die, he would die too. He would die so he can be with his son.

I was wrong though. No, instead of him killing the boy, he had taught the boy how to shoot the pistol. He taught the boy the theory behind it. So the boy would die first. He would die first so he wouldn't have to die alone. So he wouldn't have to go through the pain of his father leaving him.

This book hurts. A whole freaking lot.

The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight: No.

So I've been laying here for the past, I dunno, hour maybe, eating and finishing my bag of pork skins and not doing my homework.

Do not mistake me for a model student.

 

I started reading The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith around two hours ago and I, uh, finished it (before eating snacks for another hour.) (Yeah, I'm a speedy reader.)

And I didn't even stop to analyze the characters or anything which was really dumb of me because I wanted to finish this book so I'll have a post up. 

I am not a clever person. 

Anyways, Hadley Sullivan, our wonderful female protagonist, thought that it was one of the worst days of her life having missed her flight and being late to her father's wedding to a woman she never met before. 

Then she met a boy. His name was Oliver, he's British (gotta love those accents, eh? *nudge* *nudge*) and his seat was in her row. 

Even it's right there in the title, their encounter didn't feel like love at first sight. It didn't feel like it happened instantly like THAT (snaps). Of course the book was 236 pages long and it covered a span of 24 hours so obviously it would feel like forever to the reader.

Despite what I was thinking when I read the first couple of pages, this book was not that fluffy. But let's not go into that.

Now onto character development.

Imagine this: Your father flied overseas to teach at a school for a semester. You thought he's coming back. He said that he would come back. Except...He didn't. Instead, he found another woman. Fell in love with that other woman. Divorced your mother to be with that other woman. 

Hadley thought she hated this woman. "Despite the sugary e-mails the woman has been sending her ever since Dad proposed - filled with wedding plans and photos of their trip to Paris and pleas for Hadley to get involved, all signed with an overzealous "xxoo" (as if one x and one o weren't sufficient) - it's been exactly one year and ninety-six days since Hadley decided that she hated her, and it will take much more than an invitation to be a bridesmaid to cancel this out." (Smith 9). She blamed Charlotte (the other woman) for her father's betrayal. Taking her father away from her and her mom. 

But later in the wedding, she told Violet (a friend of Charlotte) that now after everything, she realized that she was mad at her father instead of Charlotte. "'With the stuff like that, it's just a matter of who's doing the asking, and because of her, I hated it." She paused, smiling. 'Then one day, I realized it wasn't her that I was really angry with. It was him.' Hadley looks off towards the church for a moment before answering. 'Then I guess,' she says finally, 'that I'm already a step ahead of you.'" (Smith 126).

She didn't want to be there at the wedding and she didn't want him to be at that wedding too. She wanted to go back. She thought he should be back in the kitchen of her home, wearing the ratty pajamas and drinking tea. And when she saw the light in his eyes, so full of joy, it wrung her heart.

Later on when she returned back, after reading the book her father gave her, that she had intended to give back, she realized that he was apologizing. "So when he'd given her the worn copy of Our Mutual Friend that day in Aspen, after everything that had happened, there was something too familiar in the gesture. She'd been rubbed raw by his departure, and the meaning behind the gift made it hurt all the more." (Smith 153).

She had a talk with her father. Both said some things they wanted to say, needed to say, but never did, before. She forgave him in the end, making him promise that she would be there for the baby in the future. She wanted to be a part of their lives even though before she would do anything to keep them away from hers. 

And everything was okay again.

Chris Crutcher: My New Favorite Author Even Though I've Only Read One Book of His

The whole dang post is a spoiler but you know what, read the book anyway. Because reading it and reading about it are two completely different experiences, okay?

Okay.

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher. A small collection of short stories (only three, there's only three stories) that deals with anger, forgiveness, bullying, human rights, regrets, finding closure, love and letting go and moving on.

The first story is Sarah's (there's a little bit of Angus but it's mostly Sarah's). She had many reasons to be in the group. She was abused by her father, abandoned by her mother and disfigured in a way that she can't hide. She has a huge burn on her face, from when her father burned her with the potbelly stove in the kitchen.

Her mother tricked her into going up to her room so she can make a clean getaway while Sarah watched from her bedroom window.

For Sarah's story, I believe that the theme is not all humans are bad people.

At first, Sarah kept to herself, not letting anybody past her walls due to a tragic past. "I have everything to lose, Angus Bethune. Everything. You want to know how I've stayed alive so far? By never wanting anything...When you don't have anything, you can't lose anything." (Crutcher 66) She didn't let anybody in because she was so scared that they'll eventually leave. This was proven when she told Angus that even though her other friend wasn't gone yet, she told herself he was. She was scared that he'd sink into time; that when people go their separate ways, they go their separate ways and they don't come back.

After meeting her mother for the second and possibly the last time, she and Angus had a talk. Sarah talked about how she felt replaced, how she felt that even though she wasn't special, wasn't "shiny", she still hoped for somebody to protect her like she was. Like how for every shiny thing that she had, she protected.

Angus was that somebody. He wanted to be that person who would protect her like she was shiny because he truly believed that she was shiny. And he did.

Once Sarah opened up to Angus, once she let him love her and once she let herself love him, she changed. "Sarah is a different person...It makes me wonder what she would be by now if she hadn't spent her life flying under her father's radar and dodging the slings and arrows of her peers. A monstrous weight has been lifted." (Crutcher 76) She and Angus now work as aides. They tutor kids who are disabled like this little girl Amanda who is blind. Before, Sarah would never do something like this. She would never go out and help people because nearly all her life, she was a victim. But now, she is in a better place that's full of love and friendship because she let somebody in. She let Angus in.

UPDATE: Frick. I don't want to talk about this book anymore. This is the only thing that you're getting.

I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO THIS YESTERDAY BUT I DIDN'T: a summary of my academic career

The original title of this post was "Two Posts in One Week? Yes." but since I DIDN'T post this yesterday, I had to change the title. Whoopsies.

So the last time I've updated this blog was on Tuesday with my thoughts on True (...sort of). Since then, I've read two books, Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan and Ashfall by Mike Mullin. They're both in a series, Ashfall in a trilogy and Unspoken in the Lynburn Legacy. I don't plan on continuing Ashfall because I think the ending was fine and I'm not emotionally invested in the characters so... I don't think the characters are boring, it's just that they're strangers to me even though it's written in first-person point of view.

As for Unspoken, I am definitely continuing it. The ending left me feeling cold. ([insert that person's name here] WHAT WHY WHY WHY WOULD YOU-WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING STAHP THAT) And I hope that the characters will get their stuff together because I am not okay. (Linly, you warned me. You warned me.)

Ashfall is about a super-volcano under Yellowstone National Park erupting, plunging Alex's hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash and violence. Alex then sets off on a journey to look for his family in Warren, Illinois, trying to survive and outlast a natural disaster.

You can read about Unspoken and its characters here.

Right now, I am reading The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith. It starts off with the protagonist, John ("They call me Jack.") Wynn Whitemore, describing himself as a monster. He then goes back and tells us how it all began, starting with his birth and jumping to when he got kidnapped. (I'm literally typing this post as I read.)(While looking for some songs to listen to.)

(JACK YOU DON'T ACCEPT RIDES FROM STRANGERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT !!! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE DRUNK !!! AND GOOD-LOOKING !!!!!!!!!) 

I am a bit disturbed right now. This is not what I was expecting. What did I even expected anyway?

This book reminds me of the Stoneheart Trilogy by Charlie Fletcher, one of my all-time favorite series ever. Both of them has this world, under our world, the "real" world. The universe have many lives and layers. First, it's our world. Then you take away one layer, and right under our world, there will be another.

In the Stoneheart Trilogy, George gets exposed to this strange "world" when he, in a small act of rebellion, breaks the head of a stone dragon and suddenly gets chased by this stone pterodactyl.

In The Marbury Lens, Jack gets exposed to this strange "world" by looking through a pair of glasses given to him by a total stranger who claims to know him for a very long time.

The books are both set in London.

The Marbury Lens so far is pretty interesting. And disturbing. There's no explanation. I'm just being pulled along as Jack goes through this...thing, I don't know how to describe it. But other than the world thing, this book is like completely different from Stoneheart. 

I've got so many questions for this book, many consists of "WHAT" and "WHY" and "?????????". What is Marbury? How did it come to existence? How did Henry Hewitt know Jack? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Sigh.

UPDATE: Ok so, I've got an idea.

SPOILERS

yet another book recommendations yeesh

So it's been awhile since I've posted on this blog. I kinda forgot about it (whoops). But honestly though, if I had did this last year, I would've published more than one post per day because BOOKS. Unfortunately, the summer had turned me into a lazy reader...Again. It happens all the time. Like for every. single. summer. I get this long-lasting reading block where I can't go past 10 pages in a book without quitting. Hopefully this will change soon because I'm still not out of this funk yet.

So now I'm starting True (... sort of) by Katherine Hannigan. I've actually never heard of it before today. My sister had just recommended to me just 2 minutes ago because I needed a book to read. Preferably a book that I've never read before and in a hard copy. I can't read new books when they're in epub format. It doesn't work for me.

(I am trying real hard to not start this paragraph with the word "so". This is the only way that works.)
The summary goes like this, "The day Ferris Boyd moves to town, Delly Pattison is sure a special surpresant (a present that is a surprise) is on its way. Instead, Delly ends up in even more trouble than usual.
The Boyds' arrival in River Bluffs means big changes for Brud Kinney, too. He can't believe who he's hanging around with. Ferris Boyd isn't like anyone Delly or Brud have ever known. Ferris is a mystery and a wonder.
Through friendship, though, Delly, Brud, and Ferris discover truths that will change their lives. And bring them the best surpresent of all."

Well...That sounds really cute. I have yet to read the first ten pages though. Let me get on that.

...

..

.

Delly Pattison is one of the cutest characters that I had ever met. That sentence was originally typed in all capital letters.

I mean, when she was ten she invented the Nocussictionary and it is actually what it sounds like. She made up alternative words like shikes, bawlgammit and chizzle and shared them with her classmates so they won't get in trouble when using them.

I am going to like this book.

Update: THIS BOOK IS MAKING ME UPSET DELLY NO BABY YOU'RE NOT BAD

9/10/2013 Update: I finished this book yesterday and I couldn't stop smiling.

The protagonist, Delly Pattison was a troublemaker who tried to change throughout the course of the book. She didn't mean to get into trouble. It was just hard for her to control herself and people calling her a bad kid didn't really help.

Ferris Boyd was a mute girl. She was a cautious girl and she didn't like to be touched. She would freak out.

The two girls later became friends along with Delly's younger brother, RB.

One day, when they are out playing, Delly discovered a horrible secret of Ferris' , so big that she couldn't keep quiet about it.

It's really obvious for mature readers because the clues are easy to decipher but since the "action" is off-screen, this book is pretty safe for children to read.

And to answer the question from the back of the book, "Can friendship save you?" Yes. Yes, it can.

Friendship certainly saved me. I like being alone. I like having time for myself. But I don't enjoy feeling lonely. There is a difference. So I saw a little bit of myself in Ferris Boyd.

We were both quiet girls. We were both suffocated by this huge heavy blanket of lonliness. And we both managed to find friendship in the strangest and kindest of people who brought alot of sunshine into our lives and we couldn't be more grateful.

This book is now one of my all-time favorties. I give it five stars and I recommend this book to any reader that needs a quick-read. It's a cute book and if you get emotionally-attached as easily as I do then this book will fill you up with warmth because FRIENDSHIP (screams from the peak of a mountain).