jimmyelmo
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Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Fault in our Stars by John Green


Nope! This is not a book review... Shedding a few tears which is a sure sign that I loved a book - which I did after reading this one - is enough to let you know that this book is another good one by John Green...

I'm just going to list down some quotes that I bookmarked in my Kindle.  These lines/quotes might be a little SPOILERISH so consider yourself warned! haha



"I fear oblivion," he said without a moment's pause. 
 "I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark." 

*****

"Sometimes people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said
Isaac shot me a look.  "Right of course.  But you keep the promise anyway.  
That's what love is.  Love is keeping the promise anyway."

*****

"That's the thing about pain," Augustus said... 
"It demands to be felt."

*****

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves" 
Easy enough to say when you're a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!) 
but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars.

*****

"The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory.  
The living, thank heaven, retain the ability to surprise and to disappoint"

*****

"You realize that trying to keep your distance from me 
will not lessen my affection for you."

*****
"Do you know, what Dom Perignon said after inventing champagne?...
He called out to his fellow monks, 
'Come quickly: I am tasting the stars'"

"Of course," said our waiter.  
"We have bottled all the stars this evening, my young friends."

*****

"People always get used to beauty, though."
"I haven't gotten used to you just yet."
(BOOM! hahaha -not part of the quote!)

*****

"Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace.  
It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."

*****

"You are a side effect," Van Houten continued, 
"of an evolutionary process that cares little for individual lives.  
You are a failed experiment in mutation."

*****

"You know what I believe?  I remember in college I was taking this math class, 
this really great math class taught by this tiny old woman.  
She was talking about fast Fourier transforms 
and she stopped midsentence and said, 
'Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed'"

*****

"How are the eyes?"

"Oh, excellent...  
I mean, they're not in my head is the only problem."

"Awesome, yeah...Not to one-up you or anything 
but my body is made out of cancer."

*****

"Ma'am, your daughter's car has just been deservedly egged by a blind man.  
Please close the door and go back inside or we'll be forced to call the police."

*****

"What's that?"
"That laundry basket?"
"No.  Next to it."
"I don't see anything next to it."
"It's my last shred of dignity.  It's very small."

*****

"some infinities are bigger than other infinities...
There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set.
I want more numbers than I'm likely to get..."

*****

"The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, 
because there was no longer anyone to remember with. 
It felt like losing your co-rememberer meant losing the memory itself..."

*****

"You are going to live a good and long life filled 
with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet!"

*****

"There's a great quote in Gus' house, 
one that both he and I found very comforting: 
Without pain, we couldn't know joy"

*****

"But it was sure a privilege to love him, huh?
Gives you an idea how I feel about you."

*****

"The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; 
the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention."

*****

"You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, 
but you do have some say in who hurts you."


(Gosh! I got teary-eyed a bit rereading a few of those favorite lines again!)



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Week 23 - Heaven is For Real

I'm grateful that my friend recommended this book to me...Though a short read (I can't put it down!) it's enlightening, inspiring, poignant and a tearjerker (at least for me it was).


Heaven is For Real
by Todd Burpo



Monday, September 12, 2011

4 Books

I've seen this post in tumblr where users come up with their 4 top favorite books/reads...So here's mine...

I'd like to finally put down my 4 books... so I won't forget and come up with another 4 books! haha...


From order of which I read/purchased first to my latest read


The Notebook
by Nicholas Sparks

I remember having to buy 2 copies of this because I lost or lent?
my first book to a friend
(which was never returned)
and gave this book as a gift to 2 of my friends...
That's proof how much I love this book!
I read and knew about this even before
I watched and liked the movie version...


Tuesdays with Morrie
by Mitch Albom


This book of his made me a fan!
I have all of his books but this is surely my favorite!



The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger


For the life of me I can not recall what led me to buy/read this book...
I think it's because of the author's unusual name! haha...
I also read her 2nd novel...
but I still love this one more...


And finally... my latest read...


One Day
by David Nicholls


Now this I particularly remember being recommended by my friends
whom I was book shopping with at the time...
Another one of those classic books adapted into film -
good thing I read the book first
before watching and liking the movie version!


Incidentally all 4 books have movie versions of their own
fortunately for me I read the books before watching the films :)


So what's your 4 books?

Week 22 - The Catcher in the Rye

It seems like I post my new read whenever I'm done with it... But for this book in particular, I am ALMOST done... just a few more pages... and I know my "suffering" will be over! GAH!
(I started with this last September 1)

I seriously do not get this book! This seems so pointless or plotless or "what's the point of all the ramblings?!" kind of novel. It really seems to me now that this classic novel has been overrated! I'm just reading it for the sake of finishing it! (reminds me of this same book "On The Road" which is also pointless for me and I haven't finished reading yet till now!)

I just want this classic novel to be marked "as read" in my reading collection... but you won't hear me "recommending it"... I liked "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" more than this one and some other young adult novels I've read...



The Catcher in the Rye
by JD Salinger

Photobucket


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Week 21 B - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Since I finished my book for this week - The Perks of Being a Wallflower - earlier than expected, I started with a new book midweek and already finished reading it by the time I post this :)


The Short Second Lilfe of Bree Tanner
by
Stephenie Meyer


I give this 3 stars

Monday, June 27, 2011

Week 20 - Twenties Girl

I finished reading my last book in roughly a week... It was not that engaging as I expected though and hmmmm I found the book, Cosmopolis kinda weird honestly...well I hope the movie version would be better...


*****
Twenties Girl
by Sophie Kinsella



Hey! How apt that on my 20th week I chose one with similar name! I didn't realize that haha...
For my next read, I decided to pick up a light fun read... In fact it was so light that by the time I posted about it I'M ALREADY DONE READING IT! LOL Yup! I finished it in 2 nights.
I don't expect anything less from Sophie... she really writes funny, upbeat and light novels - based on the novels of hers I've read so far.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Week 15 - On The Road

Finished reading The Lovely Bones - which was the thicker book - faster than Eleven Minutes, which I thought would be a light read. Read my feedback about these books here and here

*****

On the Road
by
Jack Kerouac


it seems like this will be a loooong journey... I mean... a long read for me haha

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Week 14 - Eleven Minutes & The Lovely Bones

Since I overlapped and finished 2 books the last time - I was still reading Life of Pi when I started on the The Curious Incident... - and it's been almost a week since I started on a new book so now I'm overcompensating and reading 2 books at the same time! One is an ebook and the other is a paperback I borrowed.

*****

Eleven Minutes
by
Paulo Coelho


AND


The Lovely Bones
by
Alice Sebold



I started reading both books last night and it seems like they have certain things in common - both protagonists are female and they seemed to have been disillusioned in one way or another...Maria's motivation behind her "profession" is because of her bitterness against love and I particularly am drawn more to the character of Lindsey the sister of Susie (The Lovely Bones) because I seem to relate with her especially when it comes to expressing feelings or the lack of an appropriate outlet for them... well it's quite difficult to explain unless you really know me

It seems that I will enjoy reading both books... I just hope they won't end tragically since they both had a bad start already haha...

Monday, February 21, 2011

Week 13 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I really wanted to get on with my challenge and I don't care that I haven't finished reading Life of Pi yet - shucks! I'm on my 2nd week on it! Goodness! - I want to read a new book! I'll challenge myself more by reading these 2 books simultaneously...

It's a good thing that this next book I chose seems like a very fun read! I'm liking Christopher and his prime numbers already! haha

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

Monday, February 7, 2011

Week 12 - Life of Pi

Done reading The Graveyard Book over the weekend! Now that is a quick read and a light one and an easy read too! haha Unfortunately for me I read an ebook version so I didn't get to see the illustrations unlike my Coraline book... I might just buy the book when I find it on sale haha

*****

Let's try and differentiate...easy read from light read from quick read...My friend told me that there was a difference... light doesn't necessary mean quick read or a thin book...some thick books might be easy reads because they are page turners and you're done within a day...do you catch my drift? But honestly for me they're all the same anyway...when I say easy read or a light read or a quick read...they may pertain to and the same kind of books...
But maybe after I re-start reading Life of Pi... I may finally be able to learn that this is no easy read for me - it took me this long before I decided to start reading it all over again (this has been a "current read" in my goodreads.com account for months haha)!


Life of Pi
by
Yann Martel



Friday, February 4, 2011

Week 11 - The Graveyard Book

I knew Paulo Coelho's By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept will be such a light read - i finished it in roughly 5 days and I know if I had more time I can do it in a day haha! It was the typical Coelho book with all the thought provoking inspirations and backhanded advices that you didn't see coming... Since I'm back to reading light fare...my next book is another children's book

*****

I randomly chose this book among my stash of ebooks in my iPod while I was waiting for my friend to arrive before we headed out to watching a late night movie yesterday...After checking online I didn't realize it was a children's fantasy novel...maybe sort of his Coraline...let's see how this would turn out...or how fast I would finish this one...

The Graveyard Book
by
Neil Gaiman


Monday, January 31, 2011

Week 10 - By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept

Since my last book, All The Pretty Horses, made me break my challenge - I finished reading that just last Sunday because I was either too busy and wasn't too engrossed in it - I thought of choosing a "lighter" book to read (that makes me rethink including the Millenium trilogy in my book challenge now that is a long read for sure!)

*****

I'm choosing a lighter read for my next book and I do hope I stick to this...
and don't be too surprised but I really haven't read this one
by Paulo Coelho

By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept

Monday, January 17, 2011

Week 9 - All The Pretty Horses

I finished the Percy Jackson series way before my deadline - the series is OK if you're the type who wants to discover and memorize lots of character names and in this case Greek names and Greek stories like you're reliving your high school days and taking a quiz after reading it - I just stuck to my timetable and am now starting a new book this week...

*****

Remember the pile of books I borrowed from a cousin in the province, which were apparently old books shipped by my dad to them?... Well my next book is one of those books...and after googling it...I of course did not know that there already was a movie made based on it - starring Matt Damon and Penelope' Cruz (I might just find that movie some time). Let's see now how much I would like reading a "western" story...


All The Pretty Horses
by
Cormac McCarthy

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Weeks 5, 6, 7 & 8 - Percy Jackson

I finished reading Speak yesterday and it made me thankful that my high school was quite normal, uneventful and boring but still had its moments... Thank goodness the book had its resolution because I thought the villain won't get his comeuppance!

*****

Since it's the Christmas season, school's out so that means I have a short 2 week vacation of sorts till next year and to kill some time - in between checking journals of my students - I thought of reading children's books for my book challenge - well maybe a little bit "young adult" to be more precise...

I'll continue reading the
Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

Week 5


Week 6


Week 7


Week 8


Well I have a month to finish the series, so I'd get back next year!


Monday, December 13, 2010

Week 4 - Speak

I finished reading The Reader way ahead of my limit of 7 days! I think this is the 1st time I liked the movie better than the book... Well that's me...

*****
A few weeks back we visited our relatives in San Pablo, Laguna and I noticed in my cousin's room that there were books littering her cabinet... I investigated and asked who owns them and can I borrow a few... Of course I was thinking of options for my book challenge what else?!
And when I saw this book... This really struck me as familiar... right then and there I went online and checked whether this book SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson is the same movie of Kristen Stewart a few years back.. What I had on hand was this one and not the movie-tie-in book cover then I would have immediately have my answer yeah?



So even if it took me some time to decide what my next book would be - I've been toying with the idea of finally reading Dante's Inferno! I've been borrowing it from our school library and still haven't continued reading it! So I'll forfeit that! haha if I change my mind I have it on ebook anyway and can read it thru Stanza in my iTouch - and I thought why not read this story about a high school student who chose to be mum for her own reasons and defense mechanism...

Let's see how this book will change my impression of American high school students...

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Week 3 - The Reader


Just so you know... I was done reading Her Fearful Symmetry last Wednesday (oops, 1 day more than my limit) and it was quite a weird interesting story... that's all I can say... for sure I liked her debut novel way better than this one.


I was planning on reading a classic novel and started with a few pages... though I'm not sure whether I'll continue on with that or just return it to our school library...
I was also caught up uploading and syncing files in my new toy which I really plan to use mainly as an ebook reader...

and so....

I decided to start reading

THE READER
by Bernhard Schlink

on the iBook in my iTouch...
GAH! GOOD LUCK with that!
I hope my eyes can survive this! haha



Oh and you may find that I started late with my new week in my book challenge...
as I said I was sort of preoccupied with stuff...so I'll just limit myself to reading a new book within a week!
So still it's a 52 week book challenge! haha
Excuses excuses huh...





Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Week 2 - Her Fearful Symmetry

Week 2 of My 52 Week Book Challenge
Yes! I'm done with my 1st book -
Fallen by Lauren Kate
(and since I don't have the sequel to that book I have to skip it first
It's interesting...that's all I can say haha)


So now I choose to start reading this one...
by Audrey Niffenegger - Her Fearful Symmetry.
I wonder if it is as beautifully written as her 1st novel -
The Time Traveler's Wife (one of my fave novels)

We'll get to see within a week now won't we?


Thursday, November 18, 2010

My 52 Week Book Challenge - Week1

Ok let's have the backstory first... I was reading one of these fanfic online and read the author's notations at the bottom of the post and saw her mention that she has this 52 Week Book Challenge wherein she reads 1 book a week... I thought...why the heck not?! I have lots of books at home...I am what you may call a bookworm though my book collection is not that diverse - my books are usually romance fiction, romantic fantasy suspense, lately young adult and whatever friends would recommend - but at least I know stuff about...stuff!

I also already have a LOT of ebooks which is piling up and I would have to get to it...
what better way than to FORCE myself to read each week! haha
So last Tuesday night I started with this one which I have been hearing of lately...


FALLEN
by
Lauren Kate

Incidentally the author will visit Manila at the end of the month
And I'm at that page where the PHILIPPINES
was mentioned on print again!
HAHA
no wonder the author is visiting!
just an errant thought!

I know I'm halfway done... and my friend is on to Torment already (the sequel)! She just told me that this is a start of another series! Here we go again! (Remember Twilight?!)
Well since I started now with this fallen angels type of story...I might just read HUSH HUSH next (which I would borrow from the same friend) or a young adult novel like the next Percy Jackson or maybe I can start with the Millenium Trilogy - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! Gosh! I wonder if I can read that one in 1 week! Goodness!

Let's see how I can live up to my challenge....
I now have 4 more days to finish FALLEN and just so you know, I'm quite enjoying it!



Monday, September 6, 2010

One Day, Anne had a haircut for a movie

It was all triggered by this recent headline I saw while browsing the internet gossip sites - if I'm not mistaken it was thru Twitter:


The 27-year-old actor has always been a hair trendsetter, having gone from long layers to the Lob (aka the "long bob") in recent years. But this time, she followed the lead of freshly pixied starlets like Emma Watson, who stunned the world earlier this month when she announced via Twitter that she'd gotten a new gamine haircut.

The star hid her tresses under a wig for her new film role.
(this picture is a great version coz now I see what the "sign" says)


Film role??? After checking other websites and links, I read that the film is a movie adaptation of ONE DAY by David Nicholls... Where did I hear that before? Wait! I do believe mJ mentioned something like that...and yup...after wracking my brain, I recalled this was one of the books she recommended and was planning to buy the last time we - mJ, ej and moi - were on a book excursion of sorts! haha...



Initially I too was enticed by the simple byline... Twenty Years, Two People...they meet up one day each year all those twenty years - gah! that is one long relationship huh... Wonder what kind? What would happen to them... dundundundun! haha

So there that triggered it! I blame it all on ANNE! haha

and also I have this penchant for reading the books first before watching the movie adaptation - esp if I hear good reviews about the movie - so that I won't get that disappointed when I watch the movie coz I know I enjoyed the book first - twisted logic? well it works for me... (that reminds me I haven't finished Eat Pray Love yet haha)

I downloaded the ebook - oops sorry! - it was in pub file so had to search for a different type of mobile reader for it! nyahaha...

After sharing it with my "book excursion clubmates" haha, after receiving "rave reviews" from mJ who quickly finished reading it... voila! done reading it too last weekend!

Annnnddddd.....
NO SPOILERS HERE!!!

I loved it too!
You know what... my gauge for me to know that I really loved reading a book is when I
get so affected by the characters in the book I'm reading...
GAH! I can surely relate with most of the scenes! Goodness gracious!
I don't know whether to be frustrated or to be dumbfounded because of the scenarios!
The book has a wicked sense of humor and from the most unlikely characters too!
And see... I still can't get over it... and had to blog about it too!

So yeah I do believe I'll buy my book copy of this one...
before a new "movie book cover" comes out...

Now that raises the expectation for the movie adaptation - but hey! Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess? I bet it would be good...

So I give this: 4 STARS and a Polaroid shot!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Mockingjay, the end of the series - Real or not real?


It's been a while since I made a book review - but don't doubt that I have stopped reading books during my spare time...I just haven't read a book in a long while that I am eager to post and rave about!

Finally MOCKINGJAY! The last of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins has really riveted me since the first book - The Hunger Games (Thanks to Stephenie Meyer's recommendation on her website) and its cliffhanger of a sequel - Catching Fire - made me, like the rest of the series' fans, eager to read up on the series finale - which was released recently!

Now let me just let it all out - it was AMAZING!

NO SPOILERS here!

But expect to read her superb writing style - her depictions of the war and its climax and surprising ending - still lots of twists till the very end, the characters' evolution from victor to villain to victim and back again, and a surprise epilogue for me - but it seems rather appropriate and surreal!

Loved it! Kudos to Suzanne Collins and to Katniss!

I can't believe the series has finally ended!
Real or not real?

I give this wonderful ending to the series - 5 stars!


*****

The book that started it all: The Hunger Games

I give this 5 stars!


The cliffhanger of a sequel - Catching Fire

I give this 4 stars!
It made mo so anxious for the final book!