Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher: Review

Before I start typing the review in here, I want to tell you all that I'm really sorry. I've missed a lot of Friday Feels, and I'm sorry, I think I'm cancelling the feature. I posted nothing in more than a week, and all that without some notice.

There are some breaks in school, and in those breaks, I read books, but unfortunately, I find no time to post my reviews. It's either I'm busy, or our computer's busy. I just got a little lucky this weekend. Again, I am truly very sorry.

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Format/s I have: Paperback from Fully Booked
Summary:
You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret is to press play.
Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her. 
Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on the tapes- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town...
...and what he discovers changes his life forever.

Review/Reaction:

First of all, big thanks to three of my batchmates and my sister who contributed a lot in making me want to grab a copy.

Thirteen Reasons Why is an eye opener, and for some reason, it made me cry.

This book is just brilliant. Ellen Hopkins is right, this is a book that you can't get out of your mind.

Jay Asher delivers a great thought as the book goes on: We should be aware of how we treat others. How our actions affect them. Because of this book, I shall be more sensitive with what I do.

This book also deals with trust. Hannah just trusted that one person, and BAM, her life was ruined. And she just needed a break from it. But, the people around her just won't give her that.

But, some people might think that the book is unrealistic.

Yes, I agree that most of her reasons happen to many people, but there's this thing they call the snowball effect. I got the term itself from the book. Her reasons may seem light, but the combination isn't. Say, Hannah has been wounded by that reason, and before it heals, another stab comes, and then another, and another, you get the thought. As I see it, one of the biggest things that teens want, is acceptance. Some leave value for acceptance, but Hannah got neither. 

Her family either wasn't mentioned, or were too gone to be significant. I've read a review on Goodreads saying, where is her family to help her? Look, not all people open up fully to their family. I think it's in tape 12, Hannah requesting the people on the list to hide the reasons why to her parents. (Correct me if I misunderstood)

Each one of us is different, some people are strong enough not to make a big deal out of those, but Hannah is that type of person who's easily hurt, and we should be aware that there are people like her. People handle situations differently.

I see the book as a sad and beautiful one. But hey, I'm not saying that suicide is right. In fact, I think it is, in a way, selfish. As I see it, they want an escape to their problems, and just end life. Don't they see that their suicide adds problems to the people who care? Plus, yes, they ended their life. But, they won't even feel like their troubles are over. It's actually better to find a way to solve the problems than to just take it in until you explode.

This book, therefore, opens up a lot of talking. 

I started looking more at the positive side when I started trying to give reactions with what I read, and what I can say is:
I see this book as a help for my stronger self, and a reminder for me to have some more filtering with what I do. I don't see it as Jay Asher telling us it's okay to commit suicide!!!. Because this book was meant to reduce the number of suicidal people.

My Rating: 5 potatoes c:

Birthmonth June: Only Everything- Kieran Scott: Review

Title: Only Everything

Author: Kieran Scott

Publisher: Simon BYFR

Format/s I Have: Paperback from Fully Booked

Summary:

Sometimes the gods can be so unreasonable.

Like Zeus, the king, who thinks the proper reaction to finding me kissing a mortal is to threaten my boyfriend Orion's life, banish me to Earth, and force me to inspire true love between three couples without my powers. I know! Elders! I'm Eros, a.k.a. Cupid. The Goddess of Love. Until this morning, anyway.

Now I'm stuck on Earth with no clue how to function as a human, and I can't even conjure up my magical bow and arrows to help me do my job. I've already met this amazing guy—Charlie, a new kid in school like me—but matching him up isn't as easy as I thought. Turns out opposites don't attract, nearly identicals don't attract, and giving a guy what he seems to want is just one big disaster. My sweet new friend Katrina might work, but she's got more complications than Medusa's hair, and a live-in boyfriend with a serious mean streak. Probably not the best idea to go there.

If I don't make a match, I may never see Orion again. I have so much to lose, and only everything to gain. 

Review/Reaction: 

Mythology meets modern world. Very original.

Let's start with the cover: Perfect.

Next, the summary. I find the summary too personal because it looks like Eros wrote on a diary and then BAM, a summary. Plus, the summary was really a summary. To be honest, it gave out too much information. It was too obvious that Charlie and Katrina would get matched up. But still, I bought it because I really wanted to get a copy so bad since Stay Bookish posted about it.

Then, the most important part, the body. Things happened really slowly at the first half of the book, then for the second half... BAM. BAM. BAM. This happened. That happened. Many things happened. What I mean is, most of the thrill were found at the second half. But, lucky for me, I got to feel the thrill. Some bloggers/reviewers won't finish the book since they found the earlier parts boring. But, I'm not that type. :) (YAY)

I found some things confusing.
Note that the stuff after the questions are not answers, they are stuff that explain the question. Here are some of the stuff that I don't understand about the book:

• How did Orion live? When Artemis accidentally killed him, she hung him in the sky. 
• Why did Aphrodite suddenly start being not-so-lazy when Hephaestus came? She used to be a drunk lady in her bed, not even doing anything. But, when Hephaestus suddenly appeared, she started doing stuff. 
• Related to that, was Hephaestus an upper god? If not, did he have some sort of matter with Aphrodite? Like did Aphrodite owe Hephaestus something? Or are they very close friends? Etc.
• Does Artemis know about the Eros-Orion relationship? 

The last parts were amazing. As I've told you before, the thrill was mostly in the second half. And I want to read the second book for that. 

My rating: 3 potatoes

By the way, I'm sorry for missing last week's Friday Feels. School started last last week, and I'm getting really busy. Sorry! :'(

Featuring My Thoughts: Why I Prefer Fictional Books

Featuring My Thoughts isn't some sort of a weekly thing like Friday Feels. It's an occasional blog feature in which I talk about my book-related opinions.

For the first Featuring My Thoughts post, I'm talking about why I prefer fictional books.

When I say books, I mean novels- most of the time.

I escape reality. 
Of course- it's fiction. In fictional books, the author can make anything happen. The author can make the characters fly, kiss, hug, write, read, talk-- anything. It's fictional. Anything is possible.

You cannot find most fictional men in real life. 
I'm not referring to like, the actual Agustus Waters or Maxon Schreave, but their character. What they do, how they react. Well you might find an Agustus or Maxon, but they're very rare. I'm not saying that true love is rare, in fact it isn't. True love isn't only in fictional characters, because true love is not fiction. (Okay, I'm getting dramatic.) The Fault in Our Stars in real life is rare, really. I'm not saying that two teens should have the EXACT same cancer as Hazel and Agustus to have that story, but having cancer and falling in love and then one dies and they have this author connection. Just something like that. But that's gonna be a big miracle.

I like- I mean, love dystopian books.
Of course- dystopian is automatically fiction. And dystopian romance books are like about "how the lovebirds would survive or escape their ugly and/or unfair world" or "how two people would survive or escape their ugly and/or unfair world together and eventually fall in love". It's just that more things could happen. It's like contemporary plus. I also love fantasy. Same reason. It's not that I'm lazy to copy-paste the whole thing and change all the dystopian's to fantasy, but it would be really, really, redundant.

And this might be cheesy, you find new lives in fictional books. Because nonfiction books are like- past already, so nothing's new.

I MIGHT read nonfiction sometime, that's the reason why I prefer fictional books. (extra emphasis to prefer, please! ) There are always exceptions, whatever happens.

Friday Feels #2: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

For the second Friday Feels, I am featuring The Fault in Our Stars.
(Umm... Yeah, two TFiOS posts in a row)

Friday Feels- A weekly blog feature that spotlights a book that has a lot of feels in it. A book must be really recommended for me to give the spotlight to that book. So, if you haven't read the "spotlight book" yet, grab a copy immediately! You deserve all the feels I got from that book.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

"Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy . . . well."

-Hazel Grace, 3.09% of The Fault in Our Stars

That part was a combination of, like, everything. That part made me laugh, and have some of those romantic feels, and the "I relate!" feel. It's actually true. John Green really makes me wonder: how did he know how girls felt inside? (Or at least, what I felt inside) He must be really, really good.

With feels,

Erin

Birthmonth June: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Review

Yesterday, I kind of decided that I would read and review books written by John Green, since it's June, like June Green.

I just decided a while ago that it would piss some fans off if I put June Green at the title of every post. It might be annoying, right?

So, I finally decided that I would use this month's template: Birthmonth June, even though it's some kind of corny and uncool, but since the June Green concept might annoy some fans... Okay, okay.

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

Synopsis: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Don't get mad at me or anything for saying this, but I watched the movie before I read the book. I actually thought that the book was boring at first, but because of my sister, I got to watch the movie, and I cried a lot.

Because I cried a lot, and enjoyed it too, I decided that I would read the book. And I thought of the June Green project of mine. So, I read it.

There was so much sarcasm in what Hazel says, and I enjoyed it. It was the right amount of sarcasm, more than enough for you not to get bored, and it wasn't annoying at all. I laughed a lot. Agustus was like a Jollibee to me, like making everyone happy. And Hazel was some sort of a bored teenager to me, which is natural, who would want cancer, anyway?

While I was reading, a thought came to my mind. John Green must have been really good. The story isn't that deep, but it had something in it, that got most of the teenagers' hearts. 

I like it how Hazel didn't deny everything. I mean, she felt what teenage minds would feel. Or at least what I would feel, or what people with minds like me would feel. There's this part in this book that goes like when unattractive people look at you endlessly, you would feel incredibly awkward, but when hot boys do-- oh well. It's true. Like how on Earth did John Green know what girls with minds like me felt like? Agustus' metaphors put some laughs on my face, like the cigarette one. (To be honest, I don't actually remember other metaphors haha) 

I cried and cried at the eulogy part, it's actually where most of the quotes are, remembering their memories.

***SPOILER*** In the movie, I cried at that part too, but it was the last of the Gus days, I cried while reading that part. I'm with some sort of a cold right now for crying. But in the book, It wasn't exactly the last, but the remaining days were some sort of boring. Like, the book would be alive without those boring days. ***SPOILER*** 

Anyway, the book is full of quotes, so I'll be designing bookmarks with those quotes! *yay*

I might be including it in my birthday giveaway if I finish it on time! :)

But, I'll be designing the blog header and blog button first. 

I don't have much to say. If this was a simpler matter, I would just say Hey, this book is awesome, read it. But I simply can't just put that in a review right? Reviews aren't describe a book in one word. So yeah.

4.5/5

Friday Feels #1: The Selection

IT'S FRIDAY!

Note: I don't want my blog to be all about The Selection (in fact it isn't) but Kiera Cass really got me. *wink wink*

"If you don't want me to be in love with you, you're going to have to stop looking so lovely. First thing tomorrow I'm having your maids sew some potato sacks together for you." 

I hit his arm. "Shut up, Maxon. 

"I'm not kidding. You're too beautiful for your own good. Once you leave, we'll have to send some of the guards with you. You'll never survive on your own, poor thing." He said all this with mock pity. 

"I can't help it." I sighed. "One can never help being born into perfection." I fanned my face as if being so pretty was exhausting. 

"No, I don't suppose you can help it." 

I giggled. I didn't notice for a moment that Maxon didn't seem to think it was funny.
I stared out at the garden and saw out the corner of my eye that Maxon was looking at me. His face was incredibly close to mine.

Oh.My.God.........................!!!

When I turned to ask just what he was looking at, I was surprised to see that he was close enough to kiss me.

*more feels*

I was even more surprised when he did.

I pulled away quickly, taking a step. Maxon stepped back as well. 

"Sorry," he mumbled, blushing. 

"What are you doing?" I asked in a shocked whisper.

"Sorry." He was slightly turned away, obviously embarassed.

"Why did you do that?" I put my hand to my mouth.

Me: Obviously with feels. Americaaa... Why did you do that?

"It's just... with what you said earlier, and seeking me out yesterday... just the way you acted... I thought maybe your feelings had changed. And I like you, I thought you could tell." He turned to face me. "And.. Oh, was it terrible? You don't seem happy at all."

I tried to wipe whatever expression I had off my face. Maxon looked mortified.

"I'm so sorry. I've never kissed anyone before. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just... I'm sorry, America." He breathed heavy sigh and ran his hand through his hair a few times, leaning against the railing.

I didn't expect it, but a warmth filled me.

He'd wanted his first kiss to be with me. 

It wasn't in bold form in the book, but I just had to. ***feels***

Big Announcement

This is quite hard for me.

I changed this blog's URL and name, so I have to change the design along with it.

I'm gonna be so busy with this blog today.

Today's the first Friday Feels, so I think I should work on that already, too.


About the potato thing, it started last year, back when I was addicted to Instagram. I suddenly started calling myself a kawaii potato, and I sorta became popular with that, like when there's a pic with a kawaii potato in there, my online friends be like "Hey, look Erin! That's you..." and I'm happy with it. Even my classmates and teachers know I'm a potato. I'm serious. I sorta made a name with it.

Kawaii potatoes by EmysDiary

And... I found out that My Bookish Self is on Pinterest already, which that Pinterest account isn't mine, so that gave me the urge to move. Also, My Bookish Self is kind of a typical name. So, I just felt like it. I had to move.

Moving on... 

Bookish Potato goes international.

I checked the stats of my blog, and I saw a new country in the Audience. Ukraine. It shocked me, I didn't expect a Ukranian visiting. *Thank you, whoever you are*

Thanks to the US peeps who visit my blog regularly. *throws bread with nutella*
And I also didn't expect some viewers from Germany and UK. Thank youuu <3

Erin