Raven: The Book Thief

A novel by Markus Zusak

Publication date: September 1st, 2005
Publisher: Knopf

Pages: 550

Targeted Audience: Young Adult

Summary: It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

I finished it.

And I was just looking at the news where this Nepali survived after 80 hours of being trapped and another guy who survived even after the tower collapsed and everyone else died. (Referring to the terrible earthquake in Nepal)

And I can't help but imagine Death going around and collecting their souls and leaving some behind, whispering that it's not their time. Not yet.

And I just can't handle this!

The last few chapters were so good, I had to go to the washroom and read it, cause I was sobbing so hard and I didn't want anyone to see me crying like a little baby over something that I could never explain to them. I can never make anyone feel the things I felt by summarizing it. It would feel like an insult to the emotions that this book evokes.

I had to stop reading multiple times because I couldn't see anything through my tears. There were times where I stopped, kept my glasses on the book and just sobbed like a baby. I was crying so hard like I had lost someone who was so dear to me and I truly had.

I was a big mess.

I was laughing at how absurd the idea is of crying over mere words but I was also crying at how devastating these words can be.

Anybody who just read this review needs to know that I am NOT going to talk about the plot here at all cause I can't and don't want to bring back the memories. It will only make me cry more and like I said, summarizing is just not going to cut it.

But I swear to you, this book is worth it. It is worth all the tears and laughter and joy and sadness and anger and hate and just about every other emotion you can possibly feel.

I have never read a book with words that are so powerful. 

People... Just read it, you won't regret a thing. I promise.

A fabulous Unicorn for a fabulous book

Lots of love and pasta,

Raven 

Raven:The Transfer

A novel by Veronica Roth

Publication date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 55

Targeted Audience: Young Adult (And adults) 

Summary: Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be captivated by "Four: The Transfer," the first of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias's perspective.

In "The Transfer," readers witness Tobias's aptitude test, Choosing Day, and the moment he is given the infamous nickname "Four." 

In this book Veronica Roth has thrown us into Tobias’ past. It starts with his aptitude test, where he chooses each option purposely so that it would land him only in Abnegation and not in more than one faction. We see how much Marcus has really terrified Tobias. The injuries he inflicted on him, his cunning chameleon nature, and his extremism of applying abnegation rules over Tobias by torturing him. Finally we see what made him choose Dauntless and how he molded right into the faction.

It was a beautiful book that made me respect his character and the choices that he made throughout the series.

I wished I had read this book earlier, at least before The Allegiant. I really felt the fear Tobias felt in the presence of his father. His terrible past was more real to me after reading it in ‘The Transfer’.

In the entire Divergent series all I read was, Tobias/Four was abused by Marcus – his dad. It was never really described so I never felt much for him, hence (Spoiler ahead if you haven’t read Insurgent) when he beat his dad I was pissed at him cause I thought no matter how much he says he was abused, Marcus was still his father! (Or maybe I was just thinking that way because I have been raised in a culture where respecting elders had been instilled in my bones)

However, by the end of this book I was almost screaming in my mind, telling Tobias to leave his terrible father, to leave Abnegation and to live his bloody life! 

(Spoiler ahead for those who haven’t read Allegiant) 

Now I feel absolutely terrible about not having loved Tobias before. I mean he had a terrible father, his mother had abandoned him and then got back years later and at the end of ‘The Allegiant’ he even lost Tris. I have never before fallen in love with a character after finishing the book series. I wish I could just get into the book and hug Tobias at the end of Allegiant. He’s been through so much. 

I highly recommend people to read this book after ‘The Divergent’. Because in the first book you will be introduced into the world of factions and you will learn a little about Four’s past, so when you read ‘The Transfer’ you will realize what he really went through and get a better understanding of the character in the rest of the books. Plus this book is really short; you’ll finish it in less than thirty minutes I believe if you are a fast reader.

I give it four out of five stars and hope your pasta is always cheesy.

Lots of love,

Raven.

Beez: Landline 

Rainbow Rowell

beautiful alternate cover by http://laurenbaldoart.tumblr.com/

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.

Maybe that was always besides the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leaving the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

 Neal.

Neal, Neal, Neal.

Have you ever experienced something so in comprehensive that the only words you can muster up go something like, "There are simply no words to describe that."? 

Or have you ever tried to name or define an object or a concept and discovered that nothing in the dictionary you carry around in your skull matches?

Well, there's a book for that: Landline.

This book.

This.

This book found me wrapped in voiceless bewilderment , unable to find the words to properly express this inexpressible something. Its as if the dimensional plane i was standing on suddenly shifted, just a bit, leaving me disoriented and the world around me changed forever. 

Or maybe its simply because Rowell's sentences climbed into my heart and sank their claws in.

I may not be married or have kids or even working but this book touched me and affected me on a MOLECULAR level. 
This book felt to me so beautifully breathtaking and the entire time i was reading it, 
i was holding my breath, reading every word so carefully and being so emotionally choked up in emotions. 
I felt my heart would shatter into a million pieces if more feelings dare attacked me with this book. I was treasuring every word of this book, because every word did something to me.

I can't -i physically cannot- write a review for this book.
I beg you to understand but this is not a book that can be able to be contained by the mere words of a review; this book is a bundle of feelings that you have to live.

Landline is about Georgie and her life while being a mother, a wife, a tv show writer, a sister, a daughter, a best friend and in general a person. It's about falling in love and falling in love again while still being in love.

 “You don’t know when you are twenty-three. You don’t know what it really means to crawl into someone else’s life and stay there. You can’t see all the ways you’re going to get tangled, how you’re going to bond skin to skin. How the idea of separating will feel in five years, in ten — in fifteen. When Georgie thought about divorce now, she imagined lying side by side with Neal on two operating tables while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems”
This is one of the thing that fascinates me about this book, is that its in the future of their story. There's a lot of books about falling in love and blah blah, but it usually ends there. After some many years, is the magic still there?

I am unfortunately unable to tell you anything about the plot or characters or otherwise, because doing so would give something away and there is no way in hell I'd do that(see in my head you're going to read it but if you're not then i dont give the slightlest fuck about you).

A bit of advice: from the first word, read this book with extreme dedication because those words are precious and there is nothing as the joy of reading them the first time with no idea of the wonders yet to come. Take your time and absorb the life and death of this book and its perfect sentences.

Landline is my example of perfection. 

And, ultimately, so deeply, satisfyingly happy. 

 This book is about love, all kinds of it.
And how it makes us who we are.
It tells us this beautiful thing that love is something we place our bets on. When we don't know what the future holds we hold on to it, its what builds us and makes us.
Its what makes us brave and courageous and above all human when we blindly believe in that love.

Also, Neal.
Oh Neal.
Neal made me feel in love. 
Neal made my breath catch in my throat.
Neal made my heart feel fluttery and paper thin, he got me floating in the skies..
Neal made me want to trap him in a bottle and look at him all day, because he is SO beautiful, and bearthtakingly so.
I love Neal because Neal... is Neal.
“I love you,” he said. “I love you more than I hate everything else.”

"Because he didn't laugh when he thought something was funny--he laughed when he was happy.” 
“Georgie. You cannot be jealous of Dawn--that's like the sun being jealous of a lightbulb.”
Yes, i sobbed while reading this book. It was hardly possible not to because whenever i got through a line, i got thrown off my axis and my breath caught in my throat and i was choked with feels...
This book might not be sad, but it is a FUCKING ball of emotions.

And its about second, third, or even hundreds of chances.

"She didn’t want to hear him tell her how much better off she was without Neal. Georgie wasn’t better off. Even if Neal was right—even if they’d never make it work together, even if they were fundamentally wrong for each other—she still wasn’t better off without him. (Even if your heart is broken and attacking you, you’re still not better off without it.)"

“I’m not asking you to promise me that everything will be perfect,” Neal said. “Just promise me that you’ll try. "

“Do you love me, Georgie?” 
“More than anything,” she said. Because she was still telling the truth, damn the torpedoes. “More than everything.” 

So in conclusion, Rowell is a fucking goddess and everyone should just worship her.
Her writing is astoundingly wonderful and soulful and so real and heartfelt that i am certain she has the power to make the world cry with their ears with her words.
Nobody could have written this book better than her and i'm (so fucking) glad she did because now i can die peacefully.

This book was a wonderful depiction of how bittersweet love can be, and how important it is to never take that love for granted.

The ending in this book will take you places.

And oh, the refrences!
The wonderful nerdy refrences of the best things ever sprinkled in those paragrapghs!
Just when you thought this book couldn't get any better.. 
And theres a magic fucking phone. Brilliant!

Just a summary of the above lines:
LANDLINE IS THE BEST FUCKING BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF BEST FUCKING BOOKS.

6/5; this book deserves it

Lots of love and a motherfucking cheese burger,

Beez.