Thoughts || "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell.

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and - in Eleanor's eyes - impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose.

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is funny, sad, shocking and true - an exquisite nostalgia trip for anyone who has never forgotten their first love.

(yes, I copied that from Goodreads. Don't judge me, it's a lot to type, okay!)

(oh, also, this talk is not spoiler free)

So I started this book on the 2nd August, and then finished it in the morning of the 3rd August. I was pretty close, actually, to finishing it in one sitting and it was only because I was getting tired that I didn't. Now, because of this, you might think this talk will be a mostly positive reflection on the book and, as much as I don't want to tell writers their work is crap, it won't be. I like to be as honest as possible on all my social media, my blog is no exception. 

I'm just going to start with Rainbow Rowell overall. I haven't done much (any) research on her, though, so it's just going to be on her writing style and that disclaimer-like chapter at the back. I find it incredibly gripping, even when what she was writing at times didn't interest me. For example, it began to get repetitive and predictable real fucking quickly. I went into this book hoping that it wouldn't be just like any other YA romance, and was thoroughly disappointed. But, more on that later. The fact that it was Rainbow Rowell writing it made me want to keep reading. Sure, the hype surrounding her as a writer probably has something to do with it - even though I've never caved into hype unless I am actually interested in reading the book - but I guess we'll find out if I really do like her writing in future books.

She was pretty sassy in that end chapter. And, you guessed it, that made me really like her too. Although the fact that she ended the book on something that makes me eager for more kiiinda makes me mad. I want to know those three words, dammit! Was it "I love you", or was it "I miss you?" Was it "Come to me?" or "I'm visiting you?". Because of the set-up in the entire book, where Park always said "I love you" and Eleanor wasn't into saying it back (I feel you on that, girl), I'm inclined to believe it was "I love you", however there was also a little tension surrounding "I miss you", too. I guess we just have to go with whatever our imaginations want us to go with. I'm getting off the point majorly here, yeah? Yeah. 

Let's just move on. 

Character development, to me, is pretty important in books. If you don't have characters that you can connect to,  is there really a point in making a plot around them? Is there really a point of telling their story if you don't know the person who's telling it, really know them? I felt this frequently when reading this book. Although, it wasn't bad development, I have read worse, much worse. Eleanor was fiery, just like her flaming red hair (yay, stereotype). She had sass, she remained with a somewhat upper-hand, she was eccentric, she was a "freak", and my favourite part was that she was never described upfront to be a pretty and curvy girl like every other female is in YA romances. They are meant to have a somewhat "flaw" by being bigger then other girls, but that flaw...isn't really a flaw, it's more like some sort of porn movie desire in the end. Some people found her to be pretty, some didn't, which to me is giving across an outdated message of "beauty is subjective", which I believe in but I've heard enough about it. Eleanor, maybe because I connected to her, wasn't where I was seeing development problems.

It was with Park. 

Firstly, and this is just personal preference, I don't know why you'd call your child Park. Secondly, he had vague differences to every other boy in the 80's - aside from the fact he was Asian and "womanly", that is (also another reason why I like Rowell, she kicked gender roles in the face). He sneakily looked into his dads' Playboy magazines, he dated girls because they were popular rather then actually liking them, etc. What Eleanor saw in him, I would never know. 

And, when it came to romance, they said the same sort of things to each other, as they do in every YA romance. Although, I do appreciate this book sounding more like teenagers. Teenagers are jerks to each other, and aren't always soppy and over the top and having sex whenever they get one free moment (although they were almost like that, lets be honest here). 

Which leads me onto my third point, their romance was not believable, they were really just meant to be close friends. I felt for them as friends, but their romance was almost forced, like they needed the affection but couldn't get it from anyone else. Despite this, I was cheering them on throughout the entire thing. I wanted them to work out. I was dying for them to work out. They warmed my heart, gave me butterflies in my tummy, and made my head dizzy - and I'm not even one for romantic shit, that usually just isn't my thing. 

And, lastly, the plot. It was okay. Overall, it was just a story of a blossoming romance. The domestic abuse was not really portrayed horribly enough for me to be mad about it or demand that she never do that again, but it did seem like a ploy to make their romance work out - or seem tragic. But, their was a lot of that in here. A lot of coincidences (like Park, after months, learning how to drive before Eleanor needed to escape out of the town due to her abusive stepdad who was probably going to rape her any day now if she hadn't have got out). It just wasn't an amazingly well developed plot, but I actually kind of liked that. It made a nice change to the very complicated, sometimes over-the-top plotlines I find myself reading now. 

After that hell of a discussion, what do you think about the book, did you like it or didn't like it? Who was your favourite character?

Loz x

Harry Potter Marathon Day #1

I'm currently on page 50 (might even be more shortly after this is published) of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, if you decided to join me, how are you getting along?

Anyway, this particular part cracked me up (same as it did the first time I read it):

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water. 

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared ask her a question. 

"Your new school uniform" she said 

Harry looked in the bowl again. 

"Oh" he said "I didn't realise it had to be so wet"

People who only know Movie-Harry will never know the sheer joy of Book-Harry (even if their actions in the book were somewhat even dumber). 

I also really love the cover, it's beautiful, I wish I could look at it all day and it's actually making me read slower. I'm reading this book alongside My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

Thank you for reading, I'd love to know how you're getting along.

- Loz x

COQ: Anne Frank: What Journalling Means To Us.

From the Puffin Books edition published in 2002. 

Page 1. 

"I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support"

Comment added by Anne on 28th September 1942: 

"So far you truly have been a great source of comfort to me, and so has Kitty, whom I now write to regularly. This way of keeping a diary is much nicer, and now I can hardly wait for those moments when I'm able to write in you."

A comment I added to the quote with a post-it note: 

 "I feel as though Anne here understands here at an age many would struggle to understand what a journal can be and is for a person. A friend, and is not just a diary, but a support system. What would we do without them?"

Aye, today's quote that I want to talk about is what Anne says about her journal in the first sentence! Of course, I am assuming you have read her diary and you know how far this diary really did support her. It was her rock. She didn't write in it quite as often as you'd expect her to, but this is realistic...writing everyday while staying on top of your daily activities can be quite difficult to achieve (yet is something I never stop trying to accomplish).  

I've had many diaries/journals over the years but the only one's I have kept are from when I was fourteen going on fifteen onwards. I'm almost nineteen now, so...it really isn't that long dated back. I urge everyone who keeps a journal to never throw it away, never think that it's rubbish! You may regret that in future. The ones that I can remember the most is a pretty, slim, glittery/purple journal that I got free in a magazine when I was very young. It had a key and a lock, with plain thin pages, and I dedicated this to my "travelling". If you didn't know, my parents are divorced and I spend a majority of time with my mother and my mothers' side of the family in Wales but once or twice a year I will go to England to see my father and his side of the family. It's only a four hour journey, but I liked to write a page or two on what we got up to the day - which would have actually been quite fun to read over. We spent a lot of time in the Trafford Centre and going to parks.

The second journal I can remember having was from a Disney store in the Trafford Centre, from when my parents were still married and we still lived in England. Me and my sister were allowed to pick out one thing. I picked out a pretty princess diary. It was pink and covered with fluffy fur. I can't remember which princess it was, it might have been The Little Mermaid (even though Belle from Beauty and the Beast will always be my favourite). This one is the diary I regret throwing away the most because the diary itself had so many memories behind it of that time in my life. I wrote lists in there, as well as general everyday journalling and drawings. It was also the time where I had left the younger parts of school and was going into Year Three and Four of primary. Which was the time where the bullying really started to unfold, and as since never stopped.

So, back to the original question, what does journalling mean for us? It's clear what journalling means to sweet Anne, but what does it mean to you? What does it mean to me?

For me, journalling was the friend I never had. Although, I still haven't become completely comfortable in releasing all my inner thoughts. Everything intellectual and philosophical is left inside, and my writing style/creativity is kept closed up in it's box and never develops or improves. It's something I am working on and hope will be fixed some time soon. I guess they're kept inside through fear that someone will read over them. What is left is stuff on boys, the occasional thoughts on depression, and what I did in the day. Yeah, I know, it's not something that'll leave you breathless.

After writing this post, though, I do feel like I should finally start my journalling series I was so keen to make as I quite enjoyed writing this. We should all aspire to write our true selves just like Anne Frank did.
If you've read this far, congratulations.
Thank you - Loz x

Harry Potter Read-A-Thon Starts Tomorrow!

(I already have these in original covers, but I bought the new British ones because you can't find first edition hardbacks anymore and don't want to ruin the ones I have!)

Okay! So, I recently found out that a Booktube-A-Thon is going on this month and pretty much everyone is taking part but me (apparently), however I think this counts, right? Right? I don't know, probably not, and I'm going to be reading them at a slower pace alongside other books I feel like reading - it'll be a bit different from a normal Read-A-Thon, maybe, I don't know. I've never actually taken part in any Read-A-Thons. Public ones, that is, I've had my own private ones (don't read that wrong, it didn't involve any Fifty Shades)

So, if you want to join me and Austin (I convinced him!), I'm starting the first book tomorrow at anytime I wake up and feel like reading. Feel free to join in our discussions.

Also, these versions of the books I got from Tesco and have really cool little Harry Potter maps at the front and illustrations at the start of each chapter, and the covers are beautiful!

I hope you can join us!

- Loz x

Monday Missions #9

I think this was originally created by "AThousandLivesofDaisies", by the way, in case you were interested. 

Sooo, my reading is actually picking up for once! I just finished reading "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell, a book talk post will be posted on that later this week - which I'm actually pretty exited to write, I gave this book three stars on Goodreads, however I am quite conflicted with positive and negative emotions on this book. Which, yes, is a good thing, it makes it interesting...I think! 

After reading that, I moved onto "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult which is, yes, indeed a re-read for the third time (and I have a review I wrote on that when I was sixteen, it's hilariously terrible). I didn't want to delve right into deep, long books just yet as I'm not entirely over the slump, we'll see how it goes. 

Next, I have some options. I quite enjoyed "Eleanor and Park" somewhat, so I think an upcoming book choice will be "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell, but I have also have a couple of classics I have had my eye on - "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, and "A Little Princess" by...uh...

If I get back out the reading slump this week, I have "Mind Games" by Terri Terry and "Alice in Zombieland" written by someone who's name starts with a G...terribly sorry for forgetting the authors, I'm a bit of a mess today!

Thank you for reading, I'll love to know with what you're going to be reading - or are currently reading - this week, see you next time!

- Loz x

My Very Short July Reading Wrap Up!

For some reason, July has been a slow reading month for a majority, and whether this is because of the sudden change in weather, the end of school/college, etc, I don't know. I only ended up reading four books last month, and one book that crossed over into August ( that I'm still barely passed halfway with!). Enough rambling, lets get into my July reads!

I'm very sorry for the lack of photos, by the way! I'll try my best for the upcoming posts to provide photos! 

"Misery" by Stephen King. 

After reading "Carrie" by him, I was still in a bit of a reading slump but something about King's writing had me hooked and no other book really appealed to me. I watched a review by InkyLeaves (Becky) on YouTube from years ago, and the way she talked about it appealed to me so much, I decided that who cares about my rule of not reading the same author back to back, I'm just going to jump right into it! The first half of the story was really, really slow, but somehow he manages to write about (mostly) two characters in a way that chilled you, and kept you entertained...at least for the second half. 

"Coraline" by Neil Gailman. 

By this point, I was in the mood for something creepy but I wanted to get out of this and move onto other things as I was saving my creepy reads for my October reading month and this one seemed perfect for the job, as it's been sitting on my shelves for a while. The cover is so stunningly beautiful that it was hard to turn away from it, and the story was just as magical. It was written very fast paced, and I'm not new to Gailman so this didn't push me off. It's exactly the kind of book I would have loved to had known about when I was young enough to read this. 

"A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness. 

Guys...this book, I am still raving about and it's been a while since I've read it. I picked it up when bored, after finishing watching a movie with Austin, the book just staring at me from the corner of the armchair. I began to read...and read...and read and read and read. By the time I had finished it, it was 3am, tears were streaming down my face and I had great difficulty sleeping after feeling like I had just been pulled through a bush made of thorns. Very beautifully written, and I would recommend to everyone. And I don't usually like popular, hyped up books. 

"A Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank. 

I was reading this alongside the other three books pretty much for most of July, and only finished it a couple of days ago. It was beautiful and heartbreaking, just like I remembered it to be. She is so wise for her age and I'm sad to know that we will never see her in her adult form. Her death was in such unfortunate circumstances, something that could have been avoided and something that, if she was in a "slightly better" concentration camp, she and her sister Margot might have even survived the end of the war. A devastating read, but a crucial one, especially to young girls. 

"Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" 

This book I really, really wanted to love. It's about a cat, called Alfie, who was abandoned as his owner died of old age. Heartbroken, but not wanting to go to a shelter, he spends a little time out on the streets before finding a road where he finds people who need him just as much as he needs them. Sounds interesting, huh? An interesting premise just not written well enough to keep me hooked and I ended up having to move on to another book that I have been wanting to read for a while. I am not going to DNF it just yet. I will plough on through, and hope that by the end of August, we are through with it.

Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you all tomorrow for my Monday Missions post, bye!

Harry Potter Read-a-Thon?! + New Banner!

I have been wanting to do this since I started my book reading Facebook page and since my boyfriend, Austin, started the series a few months ago and got stuck on "Order of the Phoenix" (but, in his defence, I also found that book tricky to read and was not so fond of it either). I have been watching the movies pretty much back-to-back since summer began when I'm not gaming or writing, so I think it's time I did something fun and productive! 

Yes, it is time for the Harry Potter Read-A-Thon.

If you want to join, feel free to, I will try and start some time this month in August (despite the Stephen King event, I won't be joining that even though his novels have really been standing out to be as of late). I will be posting updates on here on important chapters/scenes, and COQ (Comment On Quotes), stuff like that. It'll be fun. Even if I'm doing it all on my lonesome!

And, new banner! It's actually the first one that I've ever had on any of my blogs (which, by the way, I want to try and find so I can try and enjoy my embarrassing moments with someone). Austin made it for me last night as a tryout, which means it is not my permanent, final, logo banner (I don't even have a logo yet), but it's a design that might be a part of the one we finall