Contemporary · Fiction/Science Fiction

Little fires everywhere – Celeste Ng

34273236| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When the Richardsons’ friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family – and Mia’s.

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My thoughts: So…! First off, Ng is a phenomenal writer and I really liked her writing style. Under the storyline, she quite skillfully included a lot of symbolism and important themes, worth discussing. The writing was easy to read and had a soft and gentle, flowing feeling about it. Almost like waves on a beach. It was lulling in a way where you felt good while reading but didn’t get tired or fall asleep by it. It was quite an eerie feeling to receive but at the same time it just felt so right.

First book read by Celeste Ng and though I did enjoy it, I had some trouble to really connect with it. I was reading, following the plot, but never really invested in it if you understand what I mean. I liked the way we got to follow several characters, there life and thoughts, bounded together around one main event and several smaller ones. I liked how it took place in the 1990’s but unfortunately I wished that the ending would have been more satisfying. I liked several of the characters, understood some of the others and a few could just be left out in my opinion.

There is so much to discuss and talk about and I’m glad we opted for this one to be discussed in the book club I’m a member of. It is a perfect book for that kind of purpose.

Bullet Journal · Everyday things

Let’s talk about Bullet Journaling

One of my other hobby’s besides books is Bullet Journaling. For those who do not know what it is, it is kind of an flexible planning system. You have an notebook, any kind, a pen and then write what ever you need to remember and to do and so on in that notebook. Ryder Carroll, the man behind the system, explains it really well on their webpage. There is also a ton of videos about it on Youtube. Everyone uses the system different. Some are also really artsy and paint more than write. That’s the thing with the system. There is no wrong way to do it, you just do what works for you. And I use it to track a lot of stuff, write lists in it, diary, planing, drawing and much more.

Anyway, I have been Bullet Journaling for about a year now. I have used 2017 to try some different systems within the Bullet Journaling genre and think I have found what works for me. This is an huge community and there is a ton of different books, journals, pens, tapes, stickers and what not that you can use. I want to go as easy and simple as I can, without it being boring. So I draw a lot in my bujo (short for bullet journal). I also use it as an diary where i put in pictures and write about stuff that has happen. One of my goals for 2018 is to be better and put in more pictures and write more about happenings than I was this year.

I also use my bujo for my love of books. I record books I have read, want to read, buy, bought and much more and I though I should show you a couple of pages from one of my journals that I used this year. This is a spread that makes me really happy.

Picture to the left: Every square represent one read book. There is 133 squares on that page.
Picture to the right: I also wrote down which book it was that i had read. I also use Goodreads to track my books, but this is so much more fun and visual.

The reason I write about this today is because since this year is almost over, I have spent a lot of time with my new Bullet Journal for 2018. I have drawn all of my yearly spreads and collections so that my Bujo is ready for the new year. That means, I have not had the time to read as much as I would like to. There has been a lot at work and a lot at home with the incoming Christmas and such, so the time has not been enough for all that I want to do. But I only has 4 more days, then I take the rest of the year of work and hope that I will get some downtime to read then.

Do you want to know more about Bullet Journaling? Maybe see more spreads in how I use it to track book related stuff? Leave a comment and let me know. 🙂

Contemporary · Fiction/Science Fiction · Young, New adult/College

Wonder – R.J Palacio

11387515| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He’s about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

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My thoughts: What a heartwarming, sweet little book that I´m so happy I got to read (or actually listening on). The book is funny, sweet and makes you laugh and cry. Little to many cliches and the book is a little to fluffy sometimes but it is still a really great book.

We meet August. A boy born with a heavy facial deformity. He is starting a regular school for the first time and the book is about him, his first year, his friends, his enemy’s, his family and his family’s friends. We get to see and learn about August from all the people around him.

The book takes on the hard topic about being different and struggling in a world there everyone is suppose to be perfect. There is bullying, hard words, the struggle to fit in and the struggle to be a good person. The struggle to be brave and the happiness in being original and just your self.

Me myself got a huge flashback to my early school years trough this book. I was bullied a lot in school and had low self esteem. Hardly any friends. The desire to just fit in was big. The book brought it all out. I was August when growing up. I was his friends and his sister and the feelings I long ago forgotten started poring back. I think that is a huge reason to why I love this book, since I in some ways can relate with August even though I don’t have a disability. I can relate, understand and now as I´m an adult I can see that I have come really far from that small, scared little girl I once was. And it gives me the hope that everything is possible and if we all could look outside off our self, books like this wouldn’t be needed.

I love the book. And yeah i do agree with some of the reviews on goodreads that just being disable in any way do not make you great och deserves a medal. But I think some of them do not think that this is a more of a children book. It is suppose to have a happy ending. It is suppose to take up a hard topic in a way that i child can understand. It is supposed to show that great tings happens to great people and to be kind and open toward others.

In November the movie about August is having its premier. Me of course is gonna see the move and I’m totally gonna remember this one and read this for my future children.

Have you read the book and what did you think about it?

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

IT – Stephen King

36013075| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis:‘They float…and when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too.’

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It was the children who saw – and felt – what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one’s deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .

The adults, knowing better, knew nothing.

Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

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My thoughts:
It is a lot of talk about “IT” right now and it´s all because of the movie who had premier earlier this month. Me my self have not seen the new movie yet but I saw the old one when I was a kid. I thought that I should read the book this time since I don´t remember that much from the movie. So I did. I did not only read it. I also listened on the book so I could follow the story even when at work or doing boring house chores. Perfect solution. 🙂

It is a really good book. It is a good story, great characters and a exciting plot. Can not say that it is scary in any way though. But i´m not that kind of person who gets scared by books. I like that you feel like you are really there in the story. You can feel the heat of the summer sun in 1958. You can feel the panic and your own feet against the ground as they are being chased. You are just there. But you can also really clearly see that this is a Stephen King book. Because everything takes just to long. It is a little to much in the end and one thing just don’t make sense to me. And that’s to bad really.

I felt a few times through out the book that it was going to slow and I wanted them to “just get on with it”. Around page 500-600 it was dead calm. The calm before the storm, you could say, but it was a boring calm. If I didn’t have the pressure to get done with the book so I could see the movie, it would have been easy for me to lay down the book at that point. That’s the problem with me and Kings book. They are great, then they are like on hold, in a grey area that´s just pissing me off and makes the story stop. If I don’t get myself over those 100+ pages, I will probably never pick up the book again.

But I ended it and i´m happy for it. I would totally recommend this book to who ever likes to read big books. I don’t think you have to bee an horror fanatic och fantasy reader or anything like that to read this book. It is really for everyone, I believe. Just have an open mind.

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Everyday things

My next two weeks – IT here I come!

img_0875Now for a time forward, there will only be reviews on old books published here on the blog. That is because I will be reading IT by Stephen King and I´m estimating that it will take me about two weeks (if i get the time i hope i will get) to get trough it. It is a freakishly fat book with just under 1400 pages. I´m not 100% sure but I think this will be the thickest book I ever read. I think about a 1000 – 1100 is my record so far.

I´m not afraid of thick books, but i´m a little afraid of this one. Not because it is a horror book about clowns. No, because i´m a little afraid that i wont like it. I saw the movie when i was a kid (like five years old). img_0879Yeah i know. Don´t know what my mother thought, letting me do that. However it did not effect me on any serious levels (probably because I had seen worse in real life). Now that the new movie have had premier I thought, maybe I should read the book before I see this one. Don´t remember much from the first movie and the book has been quite hard to get a hold of, until the movie hysteria that is going on right now.

So yeah. Just a little warning that I will have my nose stuck in this book the first weeks to come. Wish me luck. 🙂

Have you read IT? Would you recommend it to others? Have you seen any of the two movies?