Off The Shelf

"I believe we have a choice in this world...about how to tell sad stories. On the one hand, you can sugarcoat it. Where nothing is too messed up that it can't be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song. I like that version as much as the next girl does. It just isn't the truth. This is the truth."   After months of waiting, I saw The Fault in Our Stars movie on opening night with some friends. The theater was so crowded that they had to turn many people in line behind us away! Hazel Grace Lancaster was played by Shailene Woodley ( Divergent ), Augustus Waters was played by Ansel Elgort, their friend Isaac by Nat Woolf, and Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster by Sam Trammell and Laura Dern respectively. Above are the opening lines to the movie, and right away Hazel tells the viewer that this is not your traditional love story. My friends agreed that this was one of the best parts of the movie because it makes the story more real, and less Nicholas Sparks-esque where everything is...

     {An odd mix of classic literature and blockbuster contemporary}   Currently Reading I am currently reading The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty. I went to the bookstore (in fact,  I drove to the bookstore :)) a few weeks ago hoping to buy something in particular, but ended up coming out with something entirely different. I bought The Chaperone  because of it's beautiful cover and of course because of the ever-deciding factor: the blurb on the back, which in a brief summary states:   Cora Carlisle, a traditional woman from Kansas, has volunteered to chaperone the beautiful, yet arrogant 15 year old, Louise Brooks to New York City. Louise is on her way to becoming the silent-film star of a generation, with her famous black bob with blunt bangs and lack of respect for convention. Cora has her own reasons for making the trip, but the five weeks the two spend together promise to change their lives forever. Set in the 1920s an...

Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 273 pages Wave is the story of Sonali Deraniyagala, who was vacationing with her family in Sri Lanka during Christmas week of 2004. On December 26th, a devastating tsunami and earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean and her hotel in Yala was consumed by waves. Deraniyagala lost her parents, husband, and sons to the tsunami, and Wave is her incomprehensible story of recovery. For independent reading in English, we had to choose a memoir to read on our own. I came across several titles that took my interest - Half Broken Horses, Eat Pray Love, and A House in the Sky. Honestly, I choose Wave because it was the only one available at my local bookstore. Looking back now, I guess you could say it was some sort of sign, that this was the only book in-stock, as if the store was shouting: "This is the book you MUST choose." Wave is relatively short by normal memoir standards, but a lot is packed into so few pages. Deraniyagala covers the...

"'Mummy, have you seen my jumper?' 'Yes dear it was on the cat.'" -Ginny and Mrs. Weasley, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Although Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter books is undoubtedly the Best Book Mom Ever, I think my mom might be #1 on the real-life list. Mrs. Weasley has always been one of my favorite characters from the Harry Potter books. I loved the way she would sit in the kitchen and watch Mr. Weasley's clock hand move from "At work" to "Traveling" to "Home", the way she knitted family jumpers for all of her children plus Harry, and how she made her family home the coziest place. Some of my favorite moments from the books take place in the Weasley's home, The Burrow. Harry even agreed, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when he says "This is the best house I've ever been in." Many of my favorite memories also take place in my own home. My mom has always made it a welcom...

I first saw spine poetry a few days ago, when the Strand Bookstore posted a picture of a creation on  their Instagram in celebration of National Poetry Month. Since April 1st, they have been posting a new spine poem everyday. I have since discovered that "spine poetry", a poem made up completely of book titles, is quite a popular thing. They are all over many book blogs, Tumblr, and Pinterest - so I decided to dive into my bookshelf, and try some of my own!     Here Today , If I Stay , Between Shades of Gray Forget Me Not When Broken Glass Floats.   It ended up being harder than I thought, as after throwing a bunch of books that I thought made sense together into a stack, I realized the poem they created made no sense whatsoever! I found myself wanting to cheat a couple of times, thinking if only this book had a "the" in the title, or this one needs a different verb tense. But part of the challenge was making what you ha...

"Fear does something strange to people, but not you. Fear doesn't shut you down, it wakes you up."   On Friday, I saw  Divergent in the theater with a few friends. I read the three-book series by Veronica Roth this past fall. (I reviewed the first and third book a few months ago)   Divergent is the story of Tris Prior, who lives in what is supposed to be a very Utopian-like Chicago. The people of Chicago are divided into five factions: Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), Abnegation (the selfless), Candor (the honest) and Dauntless (the brave).  Upon turning 16, Tris and others must decide which faction they belong to. For Tris, she must decide between her family, and the chance to discover who she really is.   Tris Prior is played by Shailene Woodley, her brother Caleb by Ansel Elgort, Four by Theo James, and Christina by Zoe Kravitz.   Before seeing the movie, I had read an  interview with Shailene Woodley in Teen ...

{Books and Homework} I've decided to start a new series of posts entitled On My Nightstand , and hopefully I can get around to posting them once a month. The posts will focus on what I am currently reading, working on, and interested in. Currently Reading I had to pick a memoir or autobiography for English class, to read for this semester's independent reading project. I did a lot of research before making a selection, reading excerpts from, and reviews about, a number of memoirs including: A House in the Sky , Eat Pray Love,  and Half Broken Horses . And although each of the aforementioned titles have received high critical acclaim, I choose  Wave for the emotional power I presumed it would express. Wave is the story of Sonali Deraniyagala, who was vacationing with her family in Sri Lanka during Christmas week of 2004. On December 26th, a devastating tsunami and earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean and her hotel in Yala was consumed by waves. Deraniyagala los...