The Bibliophilism

[Book Review]: Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Book Title: Cracked Up to Be
Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Purchased
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Year: 2008
Page Count: 214
ISBN: 9780312383695
Find it at: Courtney Summers's Official Website
Add to your Goodreads shelf.
My Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0

Goodreads' Blurb:
When "Perfect" Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter's High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher's pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?

Parker doesn't want to talk about it. She'd just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her conselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there's a nice guy falling in love with her and he's making her feel things again when she'd really rather not be feeling anything at all.

Nobody would have guessed she'd turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.

Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

Two words: mind-blowing!

The first time you read the synopsis, it might make you think this would be 'one of those cheesy high school stories', but guess what? It's all wrong! Because Ms. Summers does a VERY GOOD job in delivering what teenagers go through in high school, and how they feel when nobody understands, and instead belittles, narks them of how they are not up for life challenge and how they can do much better than this one.

Parker Fadley is an unconventional character who is not supposed to be loved by the readers. It was not the author's intention at all. You can feel how the author is incredibly honest in developing Fadley's character. The first 80% of the book does not even tell you what really is going on in the story, it makes you keep wanting more and more.

I guess, this book is a really must-read for parents and high school teachers. I can only think that one message that concludes the book perfectly: Don't think that high school problems are that petty. Wear their shoes and walk a mile on it.

I'd like to deliver my greatest gratitude to Courtney Summers for writing such a book. Especially when I was in a reading-crisis, hopeless in finding great books. This book completely healed the syndrome. One thing for sure, I'm officially Ms. Summers's fan now. I'll always be hugely anticipating her works.

[Book Review]: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Book Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Speak - Penguin Group
Source: Purchased
Genre: Young Adult
Year: 2010
Page Count: 372
ISBN: 9780142419403
Find it at: Stephanie Perkins' Official Website
Add to your Goodreads' shelf.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Goodreads' Blurb:
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

This was a good book. I can't say anything more than that. It was a really light and enjoyable reading, but I was kinda expecting it more than that. I liked Anna's character, by whom the author delivered the young love story entangled with friendship and family which normally happens to teenager.

I loved how the author built Étienne's character too. It was believable that there was really a perfect pretty boy like him. I think I'd be head over heels to if I were Anna.

[Teaser Tuesdays]: October 7

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by Sea. It lets us share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book we are reading or thinking about reading soon.

I think I'm running out of lucks for good books. I didn't read a lot of them nowadays, instead there were more number of disappointments. Nevertheless, hope this one will remedy that.

First paragraph:

Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amélie and Moulin Rouge. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, although I have no idea what the function of either actually is. Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, and a lot of kings named Louis. I'm not sure what they did either, but I think it has something to do with the French Revolution, which has something to do with Bastille Day. The art museum is called the Louvre and it's shaped like a pyramid and the Mona Lisa lives there along with that statue of the woman missing her arms. And there are cafés or bistros or whatever they call them on every street corner. And mimes. The food is supposed to be good, and the people drink a lot of wine and smoke a lot of cigarettes.

Random teaser:

St. Clair follows my gaze to the massive dome. The violet gray sky, the same sky Paris has seen every day since the temperature dropped, has subdued it, stripped away its golden gleam, but I am no less intrigued.

~p. 167, "Anna and the French Kiss" by Stephanie Perkins.

I know, the teaser is not that catching, but it was rather hard to pick one from this book :| Has anyone read this book? Please tell me that this is a good one, so that I can believe that my luck was not that sapless.

[Wrap Up]: 1 September 2014 - 5 October 2014

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by the fabulous, Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I don't what to call this post. It's a monthly wrap up, since it's about a recap for more than a month.

Previously on the Blog

Meanwhile I'm currently in big dilemma. I'm not sure I have to continue reading The Clockwork Princess or not. I have reached the first two chapters of the book, but I'm kind of disappointed with the author for finding no character's and plot development in the book, as well as her writing style, which made me frustrated. Tell me if you feel the same with me, since I really need someone to discuss this book with :|

On 14 September 2014, Blog Buku Indonesia (book blogging community in my country) accepted my application to be one of its member. I'm so honoured to join in :D If you see to your right side bar, there's a cute small badge from them, which includes my membership number.

After books, other things that I can't live without is music. I can't describe how much I love it, even though I don't play any instruments. I only sing a little... in the bathroom lol. Everytime I'm accompanied by lots of great songs I found on Channel V. Below also are the list of the songs I've been being hooked up on:

You should see the lyrics for Shake It Off, Try, Believer and Cool Kids. They are not the usual ones representing romantic relationship, but something which motivate people. I love these kind of songs. By the way, Taylor Swift never cease to amaze me. She's not only that artists who try really hard to maintain her pretty girl reputation. You have to see the video clip, it made me laugh so hard! :))

Aaanndd the music video for Just One of the Guys: I had to knuckle my eyes to make sure I was not seeing it wrong: the models for the music video are Anne Hathaway and Kristen Stewart! It was kind of funny seeing them feigning to play guitars lol

[Book Review]: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Book Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Definitions
Source: Purchased
Genre: Historical Fiction
Year: 2005
Illustrator: Trudy White
Page Count: 584
ISBN: 9781862302914
Add to your Goodreads shelf.
My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Goodreads' Blurb:
It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist: books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids - as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

It's my second trial for historical fiction genre (after Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See) and guess what? I'm in love with this kind of genre! :) I might be a little too late reading this one, after finding out that everyone talked about this book and it was even adapted into movie.

So, there are lots of things I love about this book. Starting from its narration from Death (yes, it's Death. You are not reading it wrong), which I found really interesting and quite amusing. I have never known that Death's character could be that funny and amusingly sarcastic. I really liked the characterization the author gave to Liesel Meminger too. Her narrative was real for me, and made me smiles on some occasions for her naivety of a young child.

As a non-native English speaker, I found that the vocabularies were really simple and understandable, that it didn't require me a very long time to read this book. I willingly recommend this book for those who love historical fiction.

I might watch the movie in no time after this, to find out whether it is like what I have imagined in my head or not :P

Meanwhile I'm currently in big dilemma. I'm not sure I have to continue reading The Clockwork Princess or not. I have reached the first two chapters of the book, but I'm kind of disappointed with the author for finding no character's and plot development in the book, as well as her writing style, which made me frustrated. Tell me if you feel the same with me, since I really need someone to discuss this book with :|

[Book Review]: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Book Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Publisher: Speak - Penguin Group

Source: Purchased

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Year: 2013

Page Count: 369

ISBN: 9780142422953

Find it at: Gayle Forman's Official Website

Add to your Goodreads shelf.

My Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0

Goodreads' Blurb:
Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon! Released is also the novella, Just One Night.

Written in the first person point-of-view of Allyson's, the book consists of two parts: One Day and One Year. The first part recounts about how Allyson meets Willem and their adventure in Paris just in one day. The second part is about how Allyson deals with her broken heart after Willem disappears before her without a word. And how her world seems to turn upside down because of it, until finally she decides to look for him to Paris.

Gayle Forman has been one of my favorite authors since I read her works; If I Stay and Where She Went. After those two books, I felt the need to read other books she wrote and I decided to go on with Just One Day. My expectation was so high that I could not hold the anticipation to read this one.

I really liked the author's frequent insertions on analogy about life. I found them really inspiring. I liked how she offered the readers the description of Europe and the adventure of a bare traveler.

But there are some significant things that made myself disappointed in this book. Since the first chapters of it, I already felt annoyed with Allyson's early characterization, added by the writing style of the author's. And as I was reading it, I couldn't believe that this one was written Gayle Forman, the one who captivated me with her 'Where She Went'. All I could see was only an amateur writer who recklessly tried to do the first writing in first person point of view.

I don't know if the author deliberately designed Allyson's annoying character in the first chapters of the book, so that she could give a room for her to grow gradually in the whole book (which I think is a remedy so that I wouldn't give less than three stars for this book). But I was frustrated much by this book. I felt exhausted reading it. It was just like my early huge expectation was plummeted down to the ground with some small mistakes of the author's.

Nevertheless, I will still read the next installments for this series, only for the sake of me being curious about what happens next with Allyson and Willem's eventual encounter. I will say that this book is recommended for backpackers who have those wanderlust over Europe.

Also by Gayle Forman: If I Stay (click here to read my review for the book) and Where She Went (click here to read my review for the book).

[Teaser Tuesdays]: September 30

After being disappointed with the previous book I read, I hope that what I'm picking right now is the right choice. I really feel the need for some good book.

What I am reading now:

click the picture to visit the original source

First paragraph:

First the colours.
Then the humans.
That's usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.

Here is a small fact: You are going to die.

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the As. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

Random teaser:

The fire was nothing now but a funeral of smoke, dead and dying, simultaneously: On this particular morning, there were also voices.

~p. 239, "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak.

Wow, I really like the first paragraph. What makes this book look more interesting to me that it is narrated by Death :]
Please share with me your Teaser Tuesdays or First Chapter First Paragraph on the comment box so I can visit your blog too :)

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