review: if i stay

Book Description:
In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeenyear- old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

My Opinion:

If I Stay by Gayle Forman is the kind of book that tugs at your heartstrings and stays with you long after you've read it. It's short, it's bittersweet, and it manages to convey a story that is both emotional and true.

After Mia's family take an ill-fated drive one snowy morning, her life changes irrevocably. Her family is killed in car crash while she remains in a coma. In the hours after the crash, Mia is cast into a sort of limbo, where it's almost like her soul has been displaced while her body is teetering between life and death. She's faced with one of the most difficult decisions imaginable: whether to stay and face having lost close to everything, or whether to leave and die.

I love the way the story unfolds: one minute we'll be reading about her in the hospital, and the next we're fully immersed in some of the most defining moments of Mia's life. Foreman's execution is flawless: my attention was the held the whole way through while we learn about her parents, her brother, her friends, her boyfriend, her life. We learn about her talents and her personality, and we see how much promise she has. Before the accident, Mia's life was near perfect: she was a talented cellist with hopes of attending Julliard, she had a loving family, and she had hopes for her future.

What really struck me about this book was the characters, their personalities, and most of all the relationship between them. The interaction between Mia and her boyfriend Adam is so sweet and beautiful. The father, the mother, the brother, and pretty much every character in this book rang true to me with their quirks and their actions. If I Stay has some of the most believable, likable characters I've ever encountered.

The music that defines Mia's life and the lives of those closest to her is another beautiful element of the book. It's one of the main subjects, and it's perhaps the one of the most compelling reasons for Mia to stay. Foreman expertly conveys the power of music and applies it to create an even more powerful story; the music made the novel all the more heart-wrenching and devastating.

I loved reading this book. It was definitely the emotion behind the story and the characters that did it for me. All in all, If I Stay is a wonderful, brilliantly crafted novel about one girl's choice to live or die in the face of tragedy. It's poignant, it's powerful, and most of all, it's unforgettable.

My Rating: I give it a 9/10. I'd recommend it to pretty much everybody.

Daily Dose [1]

Daily Dose is a meme hosted by Good Golly Miss Holly. It showcases inspirational and beautiful pictures.

And since one of my favorite tools of procrastination on the internet is browsing through pictures, I thought this meme would be perfect to participate in.

Guest blog at Amna Writes!

So, I did my first guest blog ever, and I was lucky enough to have it over at Amna Writes, one of my favorite blogs ever (definitely go check her blog out, it's amazing, and Amna is lovely). It's about my literature week, reading literature, etc.

If you're curious how I managed to survive, and what I thought of the whole process...

Read about it here!

In My Mailbox [9]

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren

Haven't done one of these for a while!

But, pretty exciting times this week, as I got my first ARC (courtesy of 1 ARC Tours). Also, I've gotten a lot richer after Christmas and went on a never-ending book buying spree that I'm pretty sure killed a whole forest. But felled trees aside, I've at least managed to stay true to one of my New Year Resolutions (read more contemporary).

Seven books in total this week.

My firstest, very shiny beautiful ARC:

Bought from Amazon/Book Depository:

Bought at Bookstore:

1. Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White: So happy I managed to get my hands on an ARC--this is the type of book I would be waiting for impatiently for months to come out otherwise. I really like the cover and the blurb makes it seem like such a fun, lovely read.

2. I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: OMG I LOVE MARKUS ZUSAK (he is amazing and if you haven't read The Book Thief you've been living a sad, unfulfilled life GO READ IT NOW). I LOVE I am the Messenger as well and read it a few times already, but I wanted a copy for myself so I could reread it whenever I wanted to. Lovely, lovely book. :)

3. Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr: National Book Award Finalist. I'm hoping to strike contemporary gold here, as I've heard this book is GREAT.

4. The Year of Secret Assignments by Jackyln Moriarty: Same here, with me trying to read some good contemporary. I've heard this one is wonderful as well!

5. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta: So I'm ashamed to admit I STILL haven't read Jellicoe Road (which everyone tells me is the MOST AMAZING book that ever existed). And thanks to all the Marchetta-love I've gone on a buying spree of her books. This just happened to be the first one that I received.

6. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong: So I had a copy somewhere and I never got around to reading it and I think I gave the copy away to a friend (and never got it back). But I've been wanting to read this for a while and it was pretty cheap at the bookstore.

7. If I Stay by Gayle Foreman: Aside from having the most GORGEOUS cover I've seen in a while, it's also, yay contemporary! And I've been seeing it on a lot of "Best of 2009" blogger lists. So it must be good, huh?

New Year Reflection and Resolutions

Whoah. It's going to be 2010 tomorrow?

What scares me is that a WHOLE decade has gone by. I mean, really.If I think about it, it's strange.

In 2000, I was five years old. I was living on the other side of the country. I was extremely loud and, yeah... illiterate. Basically, I was still a baby.

In 2009, I'm fifteen, living on this more westerly side of the country, pretty quiet by all accounts, and yay, literate. And hopefully less of a baby.

A lot has happened in those years. I feel old now. Teenaged and old. And I've done so much. I mean...

In 2000-2009, I've:

1)graduated from elementary school! Whooo! And middle school as well, yay.
2) learned how to read and write!
3) grown about two feet in height
4) learned to eat my vegetables (most of the time)
5) Uh...uh..I swear I've done something else this decade as well but I can't think of anything at the moment. [insert accomplishments here]

Okay, that was a fail.

So...New Year Resolutions (2010).
For thee blog:

1) Start interviewing authors. I've always been meaning to start interviewing authors, it's just...I'm scared since I think as authors as amazing people that I shouldn't bother. But I will definitely try to interview. Hopefully I'll start soon!
2) Include some discussion posts. On the publishing industry, the trends, bookish subjects, maybe less-bookish subjects, etc. etc.
3)Have more balance with reviews and other types of posts.
4) Have a survey for the blog on what you guys do and don't like about the blog, and make improvements from there.

For Reading:

1) Read LOTS more contemporary books. LOTS.
2) Read LOTS more literature. LOTS.

So as you can see I'm not so hot with reflecting or resolutions.

But.

I hope you guys had a wonderful decade, a wonderful 2009. And an even more wonderful 2010 and following decade!

I am trying to put together a blog survey (extra entries for the contest) so that should be up soon too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Literature Week roundup plus ask me questions!

So, it's officially over. Literature Week.

Hope you guys enjoyed it! I *sort of* did.

Here it is summarized:

***

1. The reasons I decided to hold a Literature Week.

2. Book reviews!

Day One: Animal Farm by George Orwell
My Opinion in Short (MOS): The allegory got quite ridiculous after a while, and Orwell really butchered Russian History. I mean, pigs, really?

Day Two: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
(MOS): One of the most powerful, emotional books I've ever read. You gotta love hating the characters. A true classic.

Day Three: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
(MOS): Not as good as The Great Gastby, but still a good read. It's disjointed genius, and I love Fitzgerald.

Day Four: Margaret Atwood Selected Poems
(MOS): This book changed my life. It taught me to love poetry, and it was just so beautiful.

Day Five: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
(MOS): Definitely my least favorite of the lot. I just found it very dull.

Day Six: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
(MOS): My favorite book of the whole week. Quite possibly the most beautifully written book I've ever read. YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS ONE.

Day Seven: Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.
Most confusing book I've ever read. I'm still confused and even thinking about it makes me confused.And confused is sort of a confusing word if you think about word if...*shakes head* o.o Yep, still confused.


***

Well, this was a whole another experience. Exhausting. Quite traumatizing. BUT AMAZING.

I've learned so much this week.

And I've decided that I'm going to read more literature from now on.

Also,I'm making literature reviews a permanent fixture on this blog. Expect one every once in a while--after this week, I'm reading LOTS more literature.

***

AND...Guest blog on my experiences this week coming up. Keep your eyes peeled for the link. :D


***
Also, ask me questions:

If you have any questions about my experience doing Literature Week, ask away. I shall respond.

Or just questions about ANYTHING you want. I shall answer if I can, I eez bored. lol, have fun with it :D

Waiting on Wendesday [9]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that spotlights eagerly awaited upcoming releases. It's hosted by Breaking the Spine.

This week's pick: Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis

***

I’d love a cup of coffee. I wish she knew how pretty she was. I wish I could drop this kid in the dryer sometimes. I just want her to be happy. I hope she didn’t find out what Ben said about her. I wish I knew how many calories were in a bite of muffin…

Joy is used to hearing Whispers. She’s used to walking down the street and instantly knowing people’s deepest, darkest desires. She uses this talent for good, to make people happy and give them what they want. But for her older sister, Jessica, the family gift is a curse, and she uses it to make people’s lives—especially Joy’s—miserable. Still, when Joy Hears Jessica whisper: I want to kill my Hearing dead, and kill me too if that’s what it takes, she knows she has to save her sister, even if it means deserting her friends, stealing a car and running away with a boy she barely knows—a boy who may have a dark secret of his own.

***

Wow. I can't tell you how much I want to read this book, just based of that short description. I love the premise--mind-reading is always fun, and this seems like a fresh take on that. And I also love that Joy is out to save her sister.

And the cover is sort of haunting, in a good way. In the seeing-it-in-the-bookstore-shelf-would-make-me-want-to-read-it way.

Really looking forward to this one!

Release Date: April 2010

Literature Week: Madeleine is Sleeping

Literature Week is an event occurring this week on my blog. Everyday, I will read a book considered to be a "great" classic and review it.

For my seventh (and FINAL!) book I read Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.

Book Description:

When a girl falls into a deep and impenetrable sleep, the borders between her provincial French village and the peculiar, beguiling realm of her dreams begin to disappear: A fat woman sprouts delicate wings and takes flight; a failed photographer stumbles into the role of pornographer; a beautiful young wife grows to resemble her husband's viol. And in their midst travels Madeleine, the dreamer, who is trying to make sense of her own metamorphosis as she leaves home, joins a gypsy circus, and falls into an unexpected triangle of desire and love.

An extraordinary debut, Madeleine Is Sleeping received jubilant critical acclaim and was honored with a National Book Award nomination. Part fairy tale, part coming-of-age story, this "dream of a book" (Michael Cunningham) is an adventure in the discovery of art, sexuality, community, and the self.

My Opinion:

Madeleine is Sleeping is perhaps the strangest, most bizarre book I've ever read. I'll be honest when I say it's going to be difficult for me to do this review because truthfully, I didn't understand 70% of it. This book is completely beyond me. I don't know if I need to perhaps reread it again before I can understand it properly or if I need to just give up now. It's the not fully comprehending part that makes it so difficult to sum up my thoughts--I'm not entirely sure what I did or didn't like, because I'm not sure of anything.

I am confused. This is the most confusing, mind-boggling book I've ever read.

Erm...

Hmm...

I'm speechless. I don't know if it's because this book is so great, or because it hinds behind a facade of confusion in order to come off as great. That's the thing--it's almost like it's deliberately hard to grasp so that the reader is under the illusion that Bynum has created something ground-breaking. Maybe it is brilliant, maybe it isn't. I usually don't have too much trouble understanding books, so I'm suspect the lack of clarity is intended to wow the reader into abject awe instead of a rational state of mind. But I do have to give Bynum praise for creating something entirely experimental, fresh. That's what literary writing is in a lot of cases. A unique, breathtaking style. A plot that meanders and is difficult to comprehend. A novel that must be reread to understand it, that on each re-reading reveals something new that you hadn't noticed in the previous reading. And Madeleine is Sleeping possesses all those characteristics.

I'm still not entirely sure what Madeleine is Sleeping is about, plotwise. On one level, I understand that it's the story of a slumbering girl and her dreams. On another level I have no idea what it's supposed to say about the actual story--I suppose it's a coming-of-age? I really don't know. To me, the plot didn't progress at all. Just one fragmented chapter after another. I kept waiting for some powerful revelation, but I never got it. I read this novel in a daze, and nothing shocked me out of the daze. There were certainly some very bizzarre happenings in the novel--a "flatulent" man kept turning up. Madeleine kept stirring every few pages. Mother tells Madeleine she loves her. People sprout wings. Umm...I've already forgot a lot of the happenings. Forgotten like a dream. I think one of my biggest problems is that I couldn't grasp the underlying story. I could only read the lines, but not get a sense of where the book was going.

But I can confidently assess at least one aspect: Bynum's ability to play with a reader's mind. After reading this, it literally feels like my brain has been scrambled, altered somehow. I don't know how to explain exactly but Bynum manipulates the reader's conscious with her writing style. In Madeleine is Sleeping Bynum does not just narrate dreams--she literally recreates a dream for the reader. Reading this novel is like reading a dream. Insubstantial. Fleeting. Hard to understand. So quickly shifting and unpredictable, but so sure of itself.


It's masterful if you view it from that vantage point. A literary accomplishment, to recreate the inconsistencies of dreaming, the exact experience of sleep. It's like Bynum personally wrote down her own dreams--the random impossibilities, the half-truths, the grotesque imaginings and combined it into one book. I think a large part of the effect is in the form it is written in; Madeleine is Sleeping is structured how a volume of poetry would be. Each chapter is about the length and breadth of a poem--two pages at most, one line on a page at least. Each mini-mini-mini chapter has a title on top like a poem would. But this novel is not written in verse. It's written in prose form.

In that respect, I'm not sure if the prose rang true to me. Other reviewers have declared it to be "lyrical" and "beautiful". Certainly, it's well written. But it doesn't exactly match the form of the book--the brief half page vignettes are fragmented and disjointed, but the writing style is not exactly that. The syntax is pretty complex so it doesn't reflect the structure exactly. To me, the prose fell short--there are bits of beauty, but I really can't think of one instance where it completely blew me away. The prose just didn't fit with makeup of the book--it didn't feel quite right to me. But the writing does succeed in capturing a dreamlike mood and that is what is most important.

So, I'm not exactly sure if I'd recommend this book to everyone. It's a surreal reading experience, certainly. It's different. If you like literary fiction to begin with, if you're interested in experimental novels, than this might be worth picking up. Otherwise, I'd probably pass on it. I can only voice vague feelings of discontent, since I'm not sure what to criticize. I can only decisively praise the exactness of the dreamlike rendering of a novel.

Teenage Ignoramus Comment:

I am utterly bamboozled. Really. So glad I haven't yet had to write an analysis paper on this in Lit class, I'd definitely fail. Lol.

My Rating on the Classics Scale: I give it...a 7/10? I don't know. I'm so confused.

Literature Week: The God of Small Things

Literature Week is an event occurring this week on my blog. Everyday, I will read a book considered to be a "great" classic and review it.

For my sixth book, I read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

Book Description:
In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.

My Opinion:

The God of Small Things is without a doubt a work of literary genius; books of such quality are one of a kind. I had the hardest time ever writing this review--I kept postponing it. I just plain can't give this book the justice it deserves.

It's because of the beauty. The beauty in every single line, in every single powerful word, is a microcosm of the overall beauty that is the very essence of this novel. It's enough to make me want to weep. This novel is powerful, moving, and richly emotional. And most definitely one of the best books I've ever read in my life. The God of Small Things is one of those novels that speaks to your soul and thus changes your life.

My newest soul book.

Within the first few pages, within the first few sentences, The God of Small Things demonstrates a sort of beauty that not many authors can create. Roy has this gift of completely disarming the reader with one gorgeous description after the next. Her style is utterly unique: sentence fragments, capitalized words, and stream-of-conscious musings abound. Because of this, it is a complete wonder to see the book unfold. Roy reveals each new layer with a subtlety, a bold beauty, an unflinching intent to create a world that rests entirely on her grasp of prose. This novel is so infinitely textured that each layer is rich with depth--a world of emotion in every word, every line of magnificently written prose, every wondrous paragraph.

The God of Small Things centers around one family--in particular the two "egg twins" Estha and Rahel, who were separated at the age of seven, and have finally been reunited at the age of thirty one. Their story is fraught with tragedy--in the first pages, they attend the funeral of their nine year-old-cousin who had drowned. As the novel progresses, it's soon revealed that their divorcee mother, Ammu, possesses a wild streak that will prove to be the downfall of them all. Their Uncle, Chacko, is an Oxford-educated Marxist who has returned from England after the failure of his marriage. And then there is Baby Kochammah, who had once attempted to become a nun because she'd fallen in love with an Irish priest. The God of Small Things is a story of all of these people, their small actions, the resounding effect it has on the people they love and are connected to.

Perhaps the reason it's difficult to summarize this book is because the plot is nonlinear--events that happened last are revealed first, events that happened in the middle are revealed last, and the scene breaks each signify the jump from one seemingly unrelated incidence to the other. Other readers might find this technique to be a source of confusion, but to me it was just another element of Roy's unique style. It created this almost dreamlike quality, and I suspect the reason some of Roy's words are so well crafted is that with this technique, she had the opportunity to focus on everything: every little detail, every sentence, every short but heart-wrenching scene. The end result is a book that is magnificent. Ingeniously held together by nothing but Roy's prose. Her words are mesmerizing. Magical. Brilliant. Wholly unchecked.Roy has such a way with words that she could write about paint drying and I'd be honored to read it. Her prose is like poetry, of the most finely written kind. It's got this amazing sort of rhythm, and each word is a gem.

I suspect I'm botching the explanation, so here are some examples of the prose that brought me close to tears.

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing"

"She saw a wisp of madness escape from its bottle and caper triumphantly around the bathroom."

"They ran along the bank calling out to her. But she was gone. Carried away on the muffled highway. Graygreen. With fish in it. With he sky and trees in it. And at night the broken yellow moon in it."

"It was raining when Rahel came back to Ayemenem. Slanting silver ropes slammed into loose earth, plowing it up like gunfire."

"By then Esthappen and Rahel had learned that the world had other ways of breaking men. They were already familiar with the smell. Sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze."

"As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these:
a) Anything can happen to anyone.
and
b) It is best to be prepared."

"She thought of what would happen if the rope snapped. She imagined him dropping like a dark star out of the sky that he had made. Lying broken on the hot church floor, dark blood spilling from his skull like a secret."

As evinced by the quotes above, Roy pens a work of such fragmented, breathtaking beauty that it's wondrous to behold. The God of Small Things is wondrous to behold. I feel like I've read a book that deserves all the praise it receives, and more. It's literary, it's got merit, and it's quite possibly the most beautifully written book I've ever read.

Teenage Ignoramus Comment:
I sort of worship Roy now. She is my hero.

My Rating on the Classics Scale: 10/10. No, I take that back, I give it an 11/10. Whoah, I've given a book an 11/10? Is that even possible? With this book, anything is possible. If you haven't read it, you must go out and get a copy and devour it. It's a classic, it's momentous, and it's beautiful.

Special thanks to lovely ink for recommending me this book <3

Literature Week: The Piano Lesson

Literature Week is an event occurring this week on my blog. Everyday, I will read a book considered to be a "great" classic and review it.

For my fifth book, I read The Piano Lesson by August Wilson.

Book Description:
Set in 1936, The Piano Lesson is a powerful new play from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. A sister and brother fight over a piano that has been in the family for three generations, creating a remarkable drama that embodies the painful past and expectant future of black Americans.

My Opinon:

The Piano Lesson is the winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. So apparently, somebody thinks it's a work of genius, an important contribution to literature. The back blurbs run the gamut of compliments from prestigious critics like the New York Times and The Washington Post, who have declared this play to be "lyrical," and "ebullient". What worries me is that these newspapers are supposedly harsh critics, and the Pulitzer Prize, I'm told, is pretty darn selective, but I can't say I'm very impressed by this play. I feel like I missed something--some secret, critical part of the book that was the "wow" factor that would've made me love it. Maybe I did. But as it stands right now, The Piano Lesson is dull. Very dull. Thin. Boring. All of the above. But thankfully, blissfully short.

What am I saying? I'm going against the Times and the Post and the sparkly, all-knowing Pulitzer? I should be writing a glowing review right now, shouldn't I?

Well, I just can't.

The Piano Lesson centers around piano of the Charles' family, which has engravings of scenes of their family and the faces of their relatives. For whatever reason, it lies neglected in Beatrice Charles house, and Boy Willie, Beatrice's never-do-well brother, formulates a scheme dependent on the piano. He plans to sell the piano off in order to help pay for the purchase of lands where their family had once toiled at as slaves, but Beatrice resists and the decision of whether to sell the piano creates much friction between the siblings. The lush history of their family is revealed, and the history behind both the piano, their ancestry, and their culture is also touched upon throughout the course of the play.

I'll be honest: the first ten pages were interesting, the last ten pages fraught with excitement and climax and action. But the middle was boring and rambly and held nothing to interest me. I nearly fell asleep reading it--and I know I was sleepy to begin with, but still. I have good attention span for reading most of the time; unfounded patience for the most egregious errors in writing and plot and character development--and I always finish a book no matter how much I hate it. But it was hard for me to finish The Piano Lesson. It was probably one of the quickest reads I've come across for literature, but it was hard for me to finish because my eyes were glazed over, my fingers cramped around it's thin spine, the lines blurred into a endless black hole of boredom. I'll summarize this play in one word: dullness.

I just didn't care about the characters, their conflict, or anything. I don't know if I'm right in my analysis, but The Piano Lesson did come across as a retelling of the Faustian Bargain to me--what with Boy Willie desperate to sell the piano for financial gain--in effect selling the soul of the family. But again, I could care less if the piano was sold, if anything happened to the characters. Perhaps it's because I didn't have enough of a time to get acquainted with them, but I just plain didn't care, at all. Such apathy with me towards a book is sort of shocking, so I guess this just proves that The Piano Lesson was lacking in many aspects.

Another thing is that I'm usually in love with any sort of history element in a book, but with The Piano Lesson, the history of the family and the piano bored me to tears. I have to wonder if it was just the day I read it or if I' d always be bored by reading it. I think a big part of the problem was the language Wilson chose--while realistic, I'll have to admit the short, ungrammatical sentences became tiring after a while. I had a hard time picturing the scenes, hearing the dialogue. The dialogue, the character's actions, pretty much everything just fell--flat.

All in all, I'd say that The Piano Lesson may be more enjoyable to others, more strident in it's literary merit. But I just couldn't get into it. I know it's bad when my favorite element in a book--in this case, the ghost that supposedly haunts the piano--only appears briefly once or twice in the whole work. I'm really struggling to find ways to praise this play. I'll just say that others may find the torment over the piano, the conflict between the siblings, the rich history of the family alluring, emotional and powerful. But I'd be lying if I said I did.

Teenage Ignoramus Comment:

Zzzzz. Boring, boring boring. Worse than my AP Bio class, and now that's something--really it is. Zzzz. Very good bedtime reading for insomniacs, if you're looking for something that will put you to sleep.

Rating on the Classics Scale: I'd give it a 4/10. There's nothing awful about this book, but I just don't understand why it's considered a work of genius. To me, it wasn't. I don't know why it's considered significant literature. It's just...okay, nothing magnificent or breakthtaking, like I'd expect a Pulitzer prize winner to be.