Archive for the ‘BookWorm’ Category

These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections — sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent — that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous lifeless body had been my life.

The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from heaven as her family and friends go on with their lives, while she herself comes to terms with her own death.

True to my word of trying to get back into reading, I finished the book The Lovely Bones about two weeks ago. I actually just grabbed it after debating to get another Sparks novel or try a Sophie Kinsella book (That’s how far behind on reading I am!) when I saw it, and the name had movie recall. I saw it was on the bestseller list and thought maybe I’d try it, after all, I was trying to reach out from my usual romance novels.

OMW. That’s Oh My WOW for you.

I could not, would not, put the book down in its first half. I was one with the family, trying to make sure the suspect gets caught and yet I feel for Susie too. The concept of heaven is not meant to be religious and I love how they perceived heaven to be everything you want it to be – which is exactly I believe heaven would be, anyways. It has a happy ending, not the typical ending happily ever after though – but the type when wounds heal and the family moves on. I also like how the world is not in black or white but lovely shades of grey – you get to understand why her mother strayed away but it didn’t justify what she did, you just understand her. You also understand how each of the family dealt with grief (how her father was a ghost of himself and almost needed disability insurance after an accident) and it portrays how serial killers really get away with murder. Ironic but true.

Book and time well-spent. I won’t regret recommending this to people.

"Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can’t believe that ours didn’t go on forever."
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

So I finished the book. It seems John is quite the character, the type you only read about in books, the total self-sacrificing reformed rake. Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the movie, which I was told had a better ending. Hey, life doesn’t always have happy endings, they should not have ended up together – because honestly, I think Savannah was really weak. But then what they really had was pure teenage love (and it comes quick like allergy relief and sadly disappears as quickly too).

I might be writing in Greek here, for those who haven’t read the book. It’s an easy light read, it gave my heart a little hurting thump, but that is the die-hard romantic in me.

"I finally understood what true love meant…love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be."
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

"It’s possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief . . . lessens. It may not go away completely, but after a while it’s not so overwhelming."
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

"And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever."
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

The husband has been buying me one book of Nicholas Sparks at a time. While you might immediately gush and say that is the sweetest thing, it has selfish reasons too. He is done reading David Baldacci books so he thought Nicholas Sparks might be interesting.

I got a complete list of his books here. He has around 16 books so this will be a lot to buy in one go. One book every two weeks would be fine with me. I do not really want to collect books now since I can read e-books (They are free!). But I have to agree – nothing beats reading and turning each page. Since we only buy paperbacks we do not need to splurge so much that we need to apply for payday loans online!

Here is the list of his books:

The Last Song
The Lucky One
Dear John
The Choice
At First Sight
True Believer
Three Weeks with my Brother
The Guardian
The Wedding
Nights in Rodanthe
A Bend in the Road
The Rescue
A Walk to Remember
Message in a Bottle
The Notebook

Part of my resolution this year is to read more and so far aside from the tile flooring I need to decide on, yesterday was spent asking for book recommendations in the forum I frequent in.

So far I have these:

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
The Book Thief by Marc Zusak
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Tenth Circle, The Pact, Plain Truth, and Handle with Care  by Jodi Piccoult
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Emma and Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Room With A View and Howards End – E.M. Forster
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
What the Dog Saw And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

Now, what would YOU recommend?

I am making a conscious effort to read more – my brain needs food, and this time I am trying to feed it dishes that it normally doesn’t eat

Got these from this site.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

What it’s about: Protagonist Robert Langdon is back in a compelling thriller that will have the Harvard-educated symbologist following a trail of mysterious clues involving a ciphered pictogram in an important talisman, the Hebrew Key of Solomon.

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman By Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette

What it’s about: For the first time, Neil Gaiman and the many worlds he has created are being revealed to readers in Prince of Stories. His stories and characters are featured in detail, allowing fans to discover hidden layers in favorite Gaiman works.

Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

What it’s about: In this true story, Albom shares his experiences with two men of faith: a dying 82-year-old rabbi who asks him to deliver his eulogy and a pastor who preaches to an impoverished congregation. As the two leaders struggle, Albom learns to rekindle his own faith and discovers the striking similarities between the two beliefs beneath their obvious differences.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

What it’s about: This haunting and moving novel centers around a pair of twin teenagers and another set of twins, their mother and aunt. Julia and Valentina Poole move into their aunt’s London flat when she dies, unaware that they have landed in the middle of a tangle of fraying lives, including the ghost of their aunt, who can’t seem to leave her flat.

What the Dog Saw And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

What it’s about: Malcolm Gladwell is one of the most sought-after journalists in America, and What the Dog Saw is a compilation of his best and most compelling pieces from The New Yorker. Tackling all subjects, from the crucial (homelessness) to the mundane (hair dye), Gladwell writes in a way that can show his readers new and extraordinary ways of looking at the world.

I stopped reading books other than what is required at school four years ago. The result is a backlog of must-read books that can fill up my whole house if ever I get lucky enough to own them. I am slowly getting back to reading and again, I am thankful for technology for letting me read books for free – courtesy of e-books. I just need to have the pdf reader installed on my phone and my PDA and I can read anywhere without worrying my pages would be torn because a bratty toddler demands attention.

You would need a pdf software to be able to open .PDF files. They are better than Word files in a way because they have settings that will allow users to print directly as if from a book. Do not worry if you have Word files as e-books – there is such a thing as pdf conversion that will allow you to convert them!

Any suggestions though as to what books I need to read?
Emphasize on the READ please