Pronto!: Let's Cook Italian in 20 Minutes
Book
With recipes organised by ingredients, so you can easily find a dish using what you have in the...
Raving
Book
"'I sometimes wonder how on earth people as pathetic as you and me are allowed to start a family....
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Looking for Alaska in Books
Jan 25, 2018
I have a confession to make before I go any further: I am a Nerdfighter. I was introduced to John and Hank Green about two years ago by one of my best friends, by way of Crash Course. Since then I've (almost!) caught up on their Vlogbrother videos, watched most of the Crash Course videos (sorry Hank, I'm just not into chemistry) and started watching Sci Show. John and Hank are both extremely educated, well spoken, and yet extremely entertaining and fun to watch. Watching the vlogbrothers episodes where John talks about writing the books (as he's writing them!) is what finally made me go pick up his books to read. And he's GOOD.
In Looking for Alaska, Miles Halter goes away to boarding school at Culver Creek, his father's alma mater. He's in search of his "great perhaps," his meaning for life. (The phrase comes from Francois Rabelais' last words "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Miles doesn't want to wait until he dies to go in search of his.) Culver Creek really marks a turning point in Miles' life - from a friendless outcast in his old school to one of the closest friends of Alaska Young. Alaska is a bit of a bad girl (sneaking cigarettes and alcohol into school constantly and pulling ingenious pranks) but also an enigma. The entire school body loves her, but even to her closest friends she doesn't reveal much about herself.
The book is divided into "before" and "after" and it wasn't until within a few pages till the end of the "before" section that I realized what the event was. "After" deals with the characters of the book coming to terms with their life-altering event.
In The Fault In Our Stars, John Green dealt with the lead up to a life-altering event that the characters knew was coming - a long, drawn-out sort of grief. Looking For Alaska deals with the fallout of an event no one knew was coming, and while the emotions are just as deep, they feel sharper somehow for being so unexpected.
I definitely recommend this book, and all of John Green's books. He's a very talented writer, and isn't afraid to put "adult" themes into his "young adult" books. As if sex and alcohol and death and deep meaning-of-life questions aren't things every teenager deals with? I like that he doesn't pull his emotional punches. His books may be "young adult" but they're not fluffy or "easy to read." Easy in terms of grammar and flow perhaps, but not in content. I teared up reading parts of Looking For Alaska, and outright sobbed for a good portion of The Fault In Our Stars. (Which is now a movie!)
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com (review originally written 4 years ago.)
OneStarReads (141 KP) rated The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events #5) in Books
Aug 13, 2018
Well, this one is better than book 4 at least... But is that really a compliment? Honestly, if you read books 1-3, this one should slip by you just fine. As a matter of fact, the ending of this book left me with a lot of hope for the series. It seemed like the author had noticed that things were getting a bit boring- that the story needed more than just the Baudelaires hopping from place to place. So he gave us something to really motivate the story, and to really leave it on a high note, making us anticipate the next book with excitement. There'd be something new in the next one, something exciting!
Ha.
How Not To Be a Boy
10.0
Rate It
Book
RULES FOR BEING A MAN Don't Cry; Love Sport; Play Rough; Drink Beer; Don't Talk About Feelings But...
Illustrated Navigation - Traditional, Electronic & Celestial Navigation
Book
Today, yachts are often equipped with radar, GPS, chart plotters, AIS, etc. This equipment has also...
Jelly Roll Quilts in a Weekend: 15 Quick and Easy Quilt Patterns
Book
Do you long to make beautiful quilts but have such a busy life you can never find the time? Imagine...
Dead Letters
10.0
Rate It
Book
Ava doesn't believe it when the email arrives to say that her twin sister is dead. It's not grief or...
b.Young (97 KP) rated The Moon Dwellers (The Dwellers #1) in Books
May 6, 2018
David Estes has created a unique post-apocalyptic world under the surface of the Earth in which the remaining people live. There are 3 underground realms: Sun, Moon, and Star that fittingly describe the amount of light that each level recieves and thus dictates the class of people that reside on each level.
The story is of 17-year-old Adele who is sentenced to life in the Pen for her parent's treasonous acts, since the abduction of her parents and sister by the Enforcers.
After learning that her family is, in fact, alive, she plots to escape her prison and rescue her family, but not before making a couple of friends in the Pen and developing some very weird feelings for the President of the Sun Realm's son (who apparently has developed the same feelings for her) whom she has never met!
An rollercoaster ride of emotions are what awaits you whilst reading this exciting tale! And I can't wait to read the second installment of The Dwellers Series!
The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football
Book
WINNER of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2015 In the last two decades football in...
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) Jan 28, 2018
Kaz4ray (17 KP) Jan 28, 2018