Though I don’t live in India right now, we keep tabs on what is happening there. While I am happy that the #MeToo campaign has been gaining momentum and lots of people, men and women, are speaking about it, it has definitely taken a toll on me mentally. Many people in the society, whom we have grown up listening to and admiring have been named and it is quite shocking.
While I am not surprised at the sheer number of women who have been harassed somehow, and I feel the number would be exponential if and when every person who has gone through something like that comes out and they have not yet, it is the reactions that the public has been giving to these allegations that is revolting.
‘Smear campaign’, ‘religious dispute’, ‘race for publicity’ and ‘commercial tactics’ are just few of them. It just gets me worked up just to hear them, especially when they come from people whom we think we know well.
It is a sad, sad world out there. I think I should never go out and just curl up with some books.
To be honest, I have been doing just that for the last two days.
And I am currently reading Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu and they are going towards my A-Z reading challenge for the year 2018. I have just started Moxie, and it talks about gender bias and rape culture. It is surely the kinda book that I have to be reading now.
What I watched this week:
In the spirit of Halloween or not, we have been watching lots of horror movies lately. And I somehow ended up watching a Tamil movie called ‘13 aam number veedu’ (House number 13) that was released in 1990s on Youtube.
Guys, if at all you want to watch a badly made, ridiculous and hysterical horror movie, THIS IS IT. Sure I was not scared, but it made me wonder about the quality of all those 90’s movies. What were we even watching?!!
I also completed Brooklyn 99 and I will be watching it again soon.
On the blog
A quick recap of the week’s post on my blog, in case you had missed any of them.
What have you been up to, this week? Do you find yourself upset by this #MeToo movement? Leave me a link of your weekly wrap up and I will take a look. Let us talk.
As many other bookworms I know I started obsessing about books right from my childhood. I can not remember how and when I started reading books in English, and as it is not my mother tongue the books that were available at home were very limited. This meant I had to make do with books that my much much older cousins had on their shelves.
But this also meant I never got to read books that were meant to be as a middle grader or a teen. I know it is not a big deal and I may have not lost much. That is what I thought until I read a few of those middle grader books that everyone loved but me.
Five Books I Wish I Had Read As A Middle Grader
Let us talk about some of those books, shall we?
5. A Wrinkle in time by Madeleine L’Engle
I didn’t read this book until I turned 27, and that might be the reason that I didn’t enjoy it at all. I kinda tried to ignore the strong religious undertone and even then the plot was kinda over simplified, character super unrelatable and dialogue repetitive.
4. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
When I started this book I never knew it was a middle grader book. Soon I was sucked into the period trouble and bigger bust goal of the twelve year old Margaret. I liked her relationship with God, but I was sad that I was not able to connect with the characters, again may be due to the age difference.
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
I am yet to find a reader saying they don’t like this one. I had to read this before I could watch the Netflix version starred by Neil Harris Patrick. In fact I didn’t even know about the book before I saw the ad for the show. Of course, I liked it but it was obvious that I was not among the target audience. I loved the show though.
2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
I was probably 25 and I enjoyed it enough to continue reading the series. I didn’t dislike it, rather it seemed to be again repetitive and sorta preachy. And that seems to be the theme for all the books of that age, I guess. Again I might have loved it if and when I was 8 – 10 years.
(Does anyone else think the Netflix version is too sad and less endearing?)
1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Oh I love Little Women and I am not gonna complain about it. Except for the fact that if I had met the March sisters especially Jo and Laurie when I were a pre teen, they would have been my heroes. Well that didn’t happen and I hate that I missed it.
I am kinda sure I would have loved these book if I read them when I was supposed to have read them. While I didn’t hate them, I could not fall in love with them and that maybe attributed to my ‘older’ age. Sigh. Well, I tried right?
Do you have any such regrets related to your reading choices? When did you start reading? Tell me some books that you missed reading when you were younger and did you regret reading them now? Let us chat.
If you had been following my blog for a while you might have realized that I don’t give up easily. Sure I come back here on my blog and bitch about how hard the book was to read, but I don’t usually give up on the book or as we book nerds call it DNF aka Did Not Finish.
I do wonder if that is a wrong thing to do sometimes a lot of times. I mean there are literally millions of other books in the world and why am I not reading something else that I would actually enjoy more. Well my dear fellow nerds, I am gonna tell you why.
10. I want to give it a chance or two.
I know many people who believe in giving up on books if they are not enjoying it in the first 50 pages! Oh but not me. I totally believe in second or er.. even fourth chances. I just don’t want to wonder how the book was after I quit on it. See I am just being fair.
9. I have spent way too much time on it.
I generally read fairly fast. It is only when I struggle to like a book I take longer to complete it. But I don’t want to give it up since I have already spent too much time on it. You see the conundrum- to give up or not!
I have a weird rule when it comes to book adaptation. Books before screen. Yes, when I hear about the new movie / series that is being adapted from a book, I would want to read the book before the visual details could spoil my imagination. I want to see my own movie inside my head before I could watch the larger one. I am sure most of y’all understand what I mean!
6. But I love this author.
As any bookworm would do, I have some serious author obsessions. It goes without saying if I read a book by an author and I love it, I am gonna pick their next one too, irrespective of the reviews and rumors. And even if I don’t like it right away, I somehow believe that I will grow on to to like it. Of course I have been let down by this assumption far too many times for my own good.
5. I promised them I would review.
Of all the reasons I have stated above, only this one could be considered legitimate.
As you all know I am currently open for accepting books for review and manuscripts for beta reading. And when I do accept such books/MS, I feel obliged to read it completely before I review them. Even if I hated it all the way.
4. ‘What is wrong with me?’
Most of the books I pick up for reading or add to my never ending TBR list are from other bloggers’ recommendations. While I don’t necessarily read the blurb or review before I read a book, when I struggle through a book and I am this close to giving up, the glowing recommendations it had had received pop up in my brain. That takes me down on a spiral that ultimately leads to ‘what is wrong with me?’
Solution: Read it and read it fully you might like it.
3. I work towards a goal, people
On a similar note, I have a personal rule that I would rate, review and / or count the book towards my reading challenge only when I finish a book. It means when I DNF a book, I don’t get to rant about it or even to add it up on my yearly challenge. With the yearly reading slump I am getting onto, I can’t afford to do that, can I?
You all know it. Reading Lolita or the Tale of two cities is always gonna be a bumpy ride. I can’t think of reading a classic without giving it up a few times, for a short while. I somehow get back to them and finish reading them even if it is a long term project. I mean what is life without a few challenges, right? RIGHT?
1. I have given up on my life.
Let us face it. Being a book worm and freelancer writer I do not have a life outside books and my laptop. So what am I losing in reading few more hundreds of pages before I can truly say ‘I hated this book’? I have given up on my life and books have taken over it.
Do you DNF comfortably? Or do you find reasons, like me, to keep pushing yourself? Are there any other reasons that you don’t give up? Let me know the most recent book that you DNF-ed.
Do you believe in the Murphy’s Law that says ‘there is no perfect plan‘? I do. And I do it with such vigor that I dread making plans. And reading about Type A personalities that have all their plans fail does no good to me at all. Yet the things we do for the love of reading. Read about one such summer plan in The Unexpected Everything and find how it turns out.
Andie is the type A daughter of the Congressman, Alexander Walker. She has been told what to talk, when to smile and how to live. She has a close knit group of friends who are supposed to be together forever. Her love life is designed to last for three weeks and without much heart break. This summer everything changes.
Her father takes a leave from his office due to some political scandal and her pre- pre -med internship falls through and all the good spots are taken. Her on-off relationship with Topher is getting dangerous and even he has an internship at his father’s office. And to make matters worse her friends are fighting over a boy.
But there are a few good things as well. First she meets a very cute and nerdy guy, Clark. Then she get to be a dig walker (Trust me it is good). And her relationship with her father improves or they at least try to. You need to read the book to know more.
Book review of The Unexpected Everything
I had seen The Unexpected Everything being raved by so many of my favorite bloggers for a while now, so I was excited to read it for my A-Z 2018 reading challenge. So I knew I was not going to disappointed by this one. And I wasn’t.
On the positive side, it has all the ingredients of a perfect read – a group of smart girls who are best friends, a lot of dogs, and a super nerdy male lead, who is an author. Sounds perfect right? Sadly, it took me a lot longer than I thought it would take and I don’t think it is a good thing.
Things that worked for me
I loved Morgan Matson’s writing. The dialogues are witty yet very realistic.
The chemistry between Clark and Tom was just perfect. They are “cool guy friends” and it didn’t feel forced. Usually I hate how forced the friendship is between the boyfriends of besties.
I also liked that Andie and Clark were not all consumed with love. I mean I liked the romance but it is just part of the whole story.
The scavenger hunt theme was awesome. Why are my friends not having one?
Things that didn’t work for me
The book is sooooo long. It is a YA contemporary, it need not be over 400 pages. At times I just wanted to give up.
There were places where the pace of the story fell and I just couldn’t keep myself awake. And then all of a sudden it ends. Sigh.
The story line is super predictable and there is nothing that you have not read elsewhere.
I never got how the father – daughter dynamic improved. I mean they did have years of strained relationship, and a couple of dinners made it all good? Hmm. maybe I am over thinking this.
Bottom – line
Despite its flaws, The Unexpected Everything is definitely a cool YA contemporary that glorifies friendship and is perfect for a summer beach read or a snuggled up read on a rainy afternoon. I will definitely read Morgan Matson’s other books, if they were a tad shorter than this one.
Last week turned out super fun. My cousin had to my city on official grounds and we got to hang out a bit in the evenings and on Friday (being a weekly holiday).
On Friday, we went to the Museum of Illusions. It had lots of puzzles to be solved and its main attraction was the optical illusion tricks. We ended up clicking many pictures.
She is cooking my head!
No clue what we are doing!
And we are upside down.
On the other news, I finally got back to running, thanks to the pleasant climates that gets me going. But I am not going to talk more about it, lest I will jinx myself. Right?
What I read this week:
I didn’t read at all this week. I am surprised, shocked and guilty about it. Until now I hadn’t even realized that I hadn’t picked up a book.
Sigh.
I will rectify the situation this week.
What I watched this week:
In the spirit of Halloween, I watched (or re-watched) three horror movies and ended up freaking myself.
Annabelle Creation
Annabelle and
Lights out
Out of the three I think Annabelle Creations has lots of jump scares and they definitely spooked me out. What are your favorite horror movies?
On the blog
I didn’t do bad this week, though I wrote only three posts instead of the target four. But I am cutting myself some slack.
Thanks Marta for her wonderful post on how to grow a blog which I am sure would be super helpful to all of us.
If you have ever been into the organization Vlogs, Marie Kondo shouldn’t be a new name to you. And here is a Holly from Nut free Nerd’s review of Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up.
