read a book a week

“Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.

Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand.

Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?

A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins’s Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves.“

The last page was just flipped – what a climaxing end. Tears rolled and the lump in my throat swelled achingly. It struck a chord in the young adult in me.

I love that this is a companion to ‘Impulse’, my favourite book of Ellen Hopkins’. It gives a much broader view of the characters’ lives and background stories.

As an ardent fan and reader of Ellen Hopkins’ YA verse novels, this compelling finale to the trilogy is another book to add to the ‘favourites’ list. Word has it that she will be publishing an adult verse novel sometime next year, which I will definitely be picking up the moment it hits the shelves.

My favourite verse in Fallout:

My Body

Healed quickly. But the wound
to my psyche was deep.
Wide. First aid, too little, too late,
left me hemorrhaging inside,
the blood unstaunched by psychological
bandage or love’s healing magic.

Eventually it scabbed over,
a thick, ugly welt of memory.
I work to conceal it, but no matter
how hard I try, once in a while
something makes me pick at it
until the scarring bleeds.

In my arms, Ashante cries,
innocence ripped apart
by circumstance. Bloodied by
inhuman will. Time will prove
a tourniquet. But she will always
be at risk of infection.

A delightfully wonderful read! Reminds me of the writing style of Roald Dahl – whimsical, magical, adventurous, humourous, highly imaginative and always with a lesson weaved into the backbone of stories.

The ending was melancholic but peculiarly uplifting at the same time. Such wisdom a young child can impart on us adults.

To start off getting back into the swing of things, I picked this book up from the ‘New Arrivals’ section at the library. I need to drum to that weekly rhythm again and maintain it. It has been a long drought season and I long to overflow the well of imagination with a monsoon of words.

Beautiful As Yesterday tells a tale of 3 women, a mother and her 2 daughters, who left China to live in the USA. It describes their new lives in a foreign country and how they each grow accustomed to it in their own ways as well as what they left behind in their home country.

It was eye openeing to read about the tragic events that took place during the Chinese revolution and was overall an easy read.

Though it took me a few extra days to finish this book, I am deeply moved by the wonderfully told story and am impressed with the literary feast it serves. Each sentance was skillfuly crafted and stringed into articulate paragraphs. A truly, breathtaking novel.

Delicious descriptions with a writing so poetic it flows like an eloquent stream. Truly the art of a master storyteller.

The book mentioned about somnambulism (sleep-walking), a word I meant to look up later in the dictionary but had slipped my mind. So it was a pleasant coincidence to have come across it while reading my old book on abnormal psychology.

The next read I’ve picked up is Middlesex, a rather lengthy book. With a total of about 500 pages, I’m setting myself a timeframe of 10 days to devour it, which boils down to 50 “bites” a day. A very doable pace, that should be!

An inspirational book for the young and old which delves into the inner thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl with terminal cancer.

On her bedroom wall, she scrawls a list of things to do and achieve before she dies, and views her only two options as to either “stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.”

One of the songs she chose to be played at her funeral was Blackbird, which ties in so perfectly with the solemn ceremony of soaring into the unknown.

The last months of 2009 was not one stimulated with many reads. I’d like to get back into the rhythm of things and shall be swinging by the library this weekend.

It was a delicious coincidence to have picked up The Time Traveller’s Wife right after devouring Alice’s Adventures, when it was still fresh on my tastebuds. There were quotations from the book, and also references made to Yellow Submarine, which had me chuckling.
_{(Clare Anne Abshire – a name to remember)}

These two books were wonderfully written and utterly amazing. I loved the poem about the Walrus and the Carpenter (in Wonderland) so much so that I had it memorised one sleepless night.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things…”

Though written in the 70’s, the story of the struggles and hardships this “ordinary family” face are as relevant as it is now.

My heart (and throat) ached for the characters. There was a constant stream of tears. I wanted to somehow reach through the pages of the book and comfort them, to mend their open wounds.

I suppose I should keep a reminder to always have a box or pack of tissues nearby, especially when reading or watching movies. Those always get to me.

“On the day the moon loses her daughter.. in a week when two Mondays come together.” – Puzzling at first, but oh how intoxicatingly it unravels.

It took me a number of days to get through the first third of the book, but once the prelude of the dozen or more characters (including all their names) concluded, the enchanting tale blended like a witch’s brew and I was gripped till the very last page.

Now, if I can find the movie..

_{‘How many miles to Babylon?
Three score miles and ten.
Can I get there by candlelight?
There, and back again.
Yes, if your feet are nimble and light,
You can get there by candlelight.’}