Conversation #2: Too Young for Fifty Shades of Grey?

16:11 Cilla 12 Comments



Conversations is a new meme created by Geraldine and Joan  to encourage more discussions in the book blogging community. Every fortnight, they post a question to respond to. I thought it would be fun and I'm looking forward to read everyone's response!

This week's question: Is Fifteen Years Old Too Young To Read Fifty Shades of Grey?

12 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

18:37 Cilla 6 Comments

Title: Go Set a Watchman
Author: Harper Lee
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Borrowed
Synopsis: Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience.

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Review: 


Here's the reason I love To Kill a Mockingbird: it's a world away from mine, and yet it felt universal. I might have to read a sentence twice every now and again to understand that Southern grammar I'd only ever heard in movies, but I understood and related to the story and the characters. Go Set a Watchman never struck that chord with me, and I spent a good amount of the reading experience lost and confused.


6 comments:

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Paved With Books Turns One!

17:05 Cilla 43 Comments




I'm so excited to be celebrating one year of blogging! I didn't have much of a clue what I was getting into when I started (even though I had read a number of 'how to start a blog' articles before), but I've loved the journey. I've gotten to discuss books I love and had my horizons widened by pretty much all of those discussions. My TBR has grown more than it's been cut down thanks to all of the reviews and recommendations I read and receive. I still have a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do, and I hope I'll have another year to do just that!

None of the above would be possible without you. It amazes me that I have readers - let alone followers - and every comment lights up my day. So, thank you! Thank you for reading, for taking the time to say hi. One of the best parts of blogging is finding my place in the book blogging community, and I look forward to connecting with you guys! :)

These are a few of my favourite things

Here are some of the highlights of my first year of blogging:

  • Discussion posts always take me a long time to write, but I've loved being a part of Nicole and Shannon's Discussion Challenge! It challenges me to be articulate about my thoughts, as well as introduces me to bloggers who write great discussions. Check out my discussion posts here.
  • Collaborating with my friend Cam! The Princess Diaries Book Club shall keep rolling, and we're also working on the next installment for Plucked: From Page to Screen. 
  • Taking part in events like Blogger Positivity Campaign and Love-a-Thon that spread some love around the blogging community. 

All in all, it's been a pretty fun year!

Giveaway

To celebrate my first blogoversary, I'm holding my first ever giveaway! The giveaway is international, and the winner will get to choose one book up to $15 in value from The Book Depository. (Please make sure TBD ships to your country; otherwise you cannot enter this giveaway.) All you have to do is enter through the Rafflecopter form below!


43 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

Buddy Review: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

18:00 Cilla 10 Comments

Title: The Queen of the Tearling
Author: Erika Johansen
Publisher: Bantam Press
Source: Bought

Synopsis: Her throne awaits . . . if she can live long enough to take it.

It was on her nineteenth birthday that the soldiers came for Kelsea Glynn. They’d come to escort her back to the place of her birth – and to ensure she survives long enough to be able to take possession of what is rightfully hers.

But like many nineteen-year-olds, Kelsea is unruly, has high principles and believes she knows better than her elders. Unlike many nineteen-year-olds, she is about to inherit a kingdom that is on its knees – corrupt, debauched and dangerous.


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Review:
"Tear Queen, you'll either be dead within a week or you'll be the most fearsome ruler this kingdom has ever known. I see no middle ground.”

 The Queen of the Tearling first came to my attention when Emma Watson was first linked to the movie adaptation. Any book that she endorses must be pretty good, right? It's a big book to tackle though, and I was lucky to have Emily @ Midwestern Book Nerd to read it with me. There was certainly a lot to discuss! This review is best read together with her post, so check that out too!


10 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

Conversation #1: Diverse Books I'm Drawn To

15:59 Cilla 12 Comments

Conversations is a new meme created by Geraldine and Joan  to encourage more discussions in the book blogging community. Every fortnight, they post a question to respond to. I thought it would be fun and I'm looking forward to read everyone's response!

This week, the topic is: Are there any particular diverse books you read more and why?

12 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Annabeth Neverending by Leyla Kader Dahm

18:52 Cilla 2 Comments

Follow the tour here!
Title: Annabeth Neverending
Author: Leyla Kader Dahm
Publication Date: 15 December 2015
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Synopsis: At first, teenager Annabeth Prescott thinks she’s found quite a deal when she talks down the price of an ankh pendant she discovers at a flea market. She soon wonders if the bauble is more than she’s bargained for when she faints and glimpses images from a past life in ancient Egypt.

The discovery coincides with another new find: Gabriel, a handsome young man who takes an interest in her. When she meets his twin brother C. J. at a Halloween party, she realizes they look exactly like two boys who figure prominently into her memories.

Does C. J. share the heroic qualities held by his past incarnation Sethe, her bodyguard when she was Princess Ana? Does Gabriel possess the same evil powers he wielded as Kha, the black sorcerer who sought her affection?

Love meets the supernatural in this gripping young adult paranormal romance. Readers with an interest in reincarnation, as well as ancient Egypt, will be drawn to its mystical mixture of history and hesitation as Annabeth sways between the two brothers.

Will her reincarnated soulmate win out? Or will Kha finally find the way to her heart?

2 comments:

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March 2016 Rewind

18:30 Cilla 13 Comments


Much like February, March has been a month of adaptation. I'm still adjusting to being a student again. It's an odd kind of studentship too; there's still the writing-essays-doing-readings component to it, but the focus has shifted to practical, you're-considered-young-professionals-now type of things. It's a challenging course, but honestly it's also really exciting. While I often feel like I'm flailing about in a sea of information, the teaching staff is so good about looking out for us. I'm slowly learning how to swim, to keep going with that metaphor.

I'm also slowly figuring out my time management. I still find myself having little energy or time to be involved in the blogging community, and I fall short of my reading and writing goals in general. I've accepted that something's got to give while I settle in though, but I'm hoping I'll only get more organised from here!


13 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

Buddy Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

10:24 Cilla 0 Comments

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Penerbit Qanita (Indonesian translation)
Source: Bought
Synopsis: Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.


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Review: 

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime." 

I was excited to do my first ever buddy read with Alyssa, and it was fun being able to discuss the book with her as we went. Don't forget to check out her page for her thoughts and the other half of the discussion!

Discussion

What were your expectations going into the book?
Allysa: I expected it to a really great book but I also expected it to make me uncomfortable at times.

Cilla: The Kite Runner is one of those books that comes highly recommended from my mother. When I finally asked her if I could borrow her copy, she gave it to me with a warning: "You won't be able to put it down." So I had huge expectations going in! I think I was ignorant of the more brutal side of the plot, otherwise I would have had more trepidation.

Amir believes his betrayal of Hasan shaped the person he's become. Do you think he's right?
Allysa: Yes
Cilla: It definitely haunts him, and I think the events he goes through as an adult shows that he tries to learn from that experience. It's actually hard to discuss this without a spoiler. xD

Thoughts

Set against an Afghanistan that is being torn apart by political, religious, and ethnic battles, The Kite Runner is about horrific people doing horrific things, flawed people making terrible choices, good people struggling in the face of deep poverty and war. It's the kind of things I catch a glimpse of on the news and stare in horror and helplessness. Horror was one of my main reactions to the events unfolding in this book; it felt like one tragedy after another. At one stage, I had to stop reading for a few days because I knew something bad was going to happen, and I wasn't emotionally ready for that.

And yet, I kept reading.

The main character, Amir, is the kind of person that would give me pause - the way his friendship with Hasan is still coloured with power imbalance and racism was difficult to swallow - but I could see where his attitudes as a boy came from. The bad guys are terrifying but not caricature-ish; I was always fully aware that these kinds of people are real (which made them even more terrifying).

I can't find another way to put it except that there's something very human about this story. It kept breaking my heart, but I'm going to take after my mother and recommend this book to everyone. Be aware that it might be emotionally draining, but you need to read this.



Let's talk!

Have you read The Kite Runner? What did you think? 
If you haven't, would you like to read it? Have you read other work of fictions about Afghanistan?



Reading this book contributes to the following challenges:
  • Goodreads Challenge
  • Around the World 2016
  • #DiverseReads2016 Challenge
  • The Backlist Books Reading Challenge
  • #RockMyTBR Challenge

0 comments:

Thanks for reading! It makes my day to hear your thoughts and I will respond asap. :)

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