The Fault in Our Stars

I'm trying something new this week.  I'm going to review The Fault in Our Stars by John Green without adding any spoilers.  I repeat: there will be no spoiler section!  There will be no spoiler section.  I will try this out see how I like it, how it works out, and move on from there.

This year TFiOS was the assigned summer reading book for my high school, and I'm so glad it was.  Recently summer reading became optional at my school which is unfortunate because now less people have the exposure to new books.  Each grade reads the same book but does different projects.  This summer reading assignment was the push I needed to finally pick up this book; and boy am I glad I did.

I put off this review for so long. The Fault in our Stars by John Green is an amazing novel filled with sarcasm, romance, and tragedy. TFiOS follows a teenage girl with cancer named Hazel. At her Support Group Hazel meets the charismatic Augustus Waters. This is such a well-known book and is considered highly by most of those who read it. If you haven't read this book I highly recommend you do. John Green has a wonderful writing style with witty comments that never failed to make me laugh, touching and heartfelt lines that made me cry, and amazing characters.

Hazel was everything you would expect from a sixteen-year-old with cancer and more. She was snarky, depressed, intelligent, thoughtful, and “teenager-y”. Hazel constantly worries how her death will affect her parents, her old classmates, and Augustus.  She doesn’t want her passing to ruin their lives. I think it’s extraordinary that Hazel is concerned about her family and friends despite the fact she’s the one dying. Hazel still has those moments when she admits that she wishes she would just die already; which is to be expected. Hazel has an amazing support system and eventually she finds the strength to push past these moments from either her parents or Augustus.

Reading some of the reviews on GoodReads, some people felt that Hazel and Augustus were pretentious or had profound thoughts that sick teenagers would never have. Personally I really enjoyed this, because I try to think of the bigger picture, the broader idea, and the more insightful way to think of things (and I guess I just like pretentious books). If this deeply bothers you in a book you might not enjoy TFiOS, but if you can get past this I hope you do. This book is truly amazing and will pull your heartstrings every direction imaginable, and bring out emotions you never knew you could feel for fictional characters.

I will be back on Wednesday with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but for now I leave you with a quote from The Fault in Our Stars: “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once”.
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Daily Distractions - Internet

One of the biggest distractions from reading, as I'm sure you all agree, is the internet.  I get sucked into Netflix, Facebook, GoodReads, or YouTube.  As I'm sure you know the internet has many wonderful things to distract from things you don't enjoy and even things you do enjoy.  It's usually not a problem while I'm have the book in my hand and I'm reading it, but when I want to read but say "let me just check Facebook first."  That's when the trouble arises.  I end up flipping through photos or watching YouTube videos for hours and never quite get to reading.  That's all right though, because there's always the next day.  Today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite internet distractions, I hope I'm not the only one that gets sucked in.

1.YouTube- YouTube is a wonderful thing.  So many amazing people make hilarious or insightful videos.  From crash course, an education based channel, to nerimon, where there are videos of all types of things.  Some of my all time favorite YouTube videos include the following:
















2. Pardon my french,  F*** my Life

3. Tumblr/Facebook, do I need to explain?

4. Netflix. Top TV Shows include...

 

and many many more.

5. GoodReads- obvious reasons but I'll explain anyway.  I.  LOVE.  BOOKS.  Okay? Okay. (see what I did there?)

Ok I will have my review of The Fault in Our Stars on Sunday; I promise.  "When you have eliminated all which is possible, then whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth".

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Book Blogger Hop: September 20th - 27th

Hey, I'm doing the Book Blogger Hop again this week, which is found on Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer's blog.  The hop is used by bloggers to discover new blogs and bloggers and establish new connections.  This week's question is:

What is your favorite genre? List two of your favorite books in that genre.

And ze answer is.....

My favorite genre is fantasy, because I love being taken into a world so different from the one we are in.  Two of my favorite books in this genre include:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore     and

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (I know not very original, but I love it)

That's all for now so until Tuesday, DFTBA.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I recently read the 5th Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I can't really give you a summary without giving away things from the previous books, so go read it and come back!

SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK!

Harry was such a teenager in this book!  He got pissed at every little thing and while sometimes he had the right to be angry other times I was just mad.  In the beginning he is throwing a fit that Ron and Hermione won't tell him anything, but they CAN'T send it by owl since it could be intercepted.

And then he is glad that Hedwig scratches Ron and Hermione.  Dude, these are your friends.  Then when they get to school and he keeps getting angry at them, yelling at them, and being rude in general I was like THESE ARE YOUR ONLY FRIENDS DON'T LOSE THEM!  It was beyond frustrating that no one believed him about Lord Voldemort.  After everything Harry's been through the entire school ALWAYS hates him at some point.  Book 1: when Harry looses all the points for Gryffindor.  Book 2: Everyone thinks he opened the Chamber.  Book 3: not so much, just that no one lets him do anything.  Book 4: Everyone thinks he put himself in the Goblet of Fire to show off.  Book 5: Everyone thinks he is a crazy liar.  I wonder what's next.

The most frustrating part of this book: Cornelius Fudge and Percy Weasly.  What? What? Why? What?  The letter Percy sent Ron: What? I'm sorry, are you stupid Percy?  And that Fudge REFUSED to believe that Voldemort is back.  I have no words for the frustration.  When Fudge has Draco's dad at the Ministry to make a deal or something all I could think was: "ARE YOU STUPID?"  When Dumbledore is defending Harry about the D.A. and he says "'the decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after Harry's Hogsmeade meeting, so he was not braking any rules'... ...Percy looked as though he had been struck in the face."  That's what you get for being a jerk!

Second most frustrating part of this book: Dumbledore.  Like what the heck, man?! After Harry's hearing he just leaves doesn't even look at Harry. What? What? Like this kid's life doesn't suck enough, and you just go and ignore him.  

And then that happens twenty more times.  What were you thinking Dumbledore?  Then at the end Dumbledore says he made a mistake and finally tells Harry why he has scar and not some random person.  During Dumbledore's spiel Harry keeps yelling that he hates Dumbledore and that it's all his fault that Black died.  Moving on to Black dying... 

Like Dumbledore said, he was Harry's parental figure!  The chapter before Black dies, I thought to myself, "Oh no! Black is gonna die and Harry's gonna be all depressed for the rest of the books!"  My greatest worry is that Harry is going to be even more whiny, angst-y  and annoying in the next book.  Now I have that to look forward to... haha not.

This Harry Potter book was not my favorite, it was very long and it took forever before you really knew what was going on.  The good thing is once the action picked up it kept going for a while.  Hopefully in the next two books we won't be kept in the dark for over three-quarters of the book.  All in all really excited to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, because I don't remember that movie at all!

I'll be back next Tuesday with The Fault in Our Stars by the illustrious John Green!  I can't belive you guys are reading a blog written by "Lil' ol' me."
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Book Blogger Hop: September 13th-19th

Hey, so today I am doing the book blogger hop for this week, found on Rambings of a Coffee Addicted Writer's blog.  The goal of the hop is for bloggers to find new blogs, books, meet different bloggers, and receive new followers.  The question this week was:

Are you in a book club? How does your book club choose books? How far in advance do you choose?

And the answer is...

Yes, I am in a book club at my school so it's not too exciting.  To choose books we pull a name from a hat and that person gets to pick the book.  Once we choose the book we set a date the next month to meet and discuss.  It's pretty straightforward, but it introduced me to John Green and many other wonderful authors.

That's all I got for today, so "Gus, don't be a rabid porcupine".
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