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We are-two crazy teenagers-Raven and Beez and on this blog we hope to enlighten you with our hilarious comments on the countless books we have read ;)

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

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.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Beez: Addition 

Toni Jordan


Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts.
The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local cafĂ© (920); the number of poppy seeds on her slice of orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she’ll take to finish it. Grace counts everything, because numbers hold the world together. And she needs to keep an eye on how they’re doing.
Seamus Joseph O’Reilly (also a 19, with the sexiest hands Grace has ever seen) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her kitchen cupboards without conducting an inventory, or make a sandwich containing an unknown number of sprouts.
Grace’s problem is that Seamus doesn’t count.
Her other problem is… He does.
Addition is a fabulous debut novel. Grace is witty, flirtatious and headstrong. She’s not a bit sentimental but even so, she may be about to lose track of the number of ways she can fall in love.

In the past 24 hours that I have spent reading this book, Grace Lisa Vandenburg (19) has taken over my mind. Grace with her ocd, her craziness and obsessions and quirks.
 Addition is about Grace, who has a serious case of ocd of numbers and how she falls in love and lives.
 In my mind I see Grace with her head busy spinning with all the numbers and those million thoughts of hers, along with Nikola and Seamus with his long and sexy fingers and adorable Larry....
Grace is such an amazing character who is crazy in all dimensions.
What Grace does is counts. She counts everything so her whole world is encompased in those numbers and those numbers give her the sense of safety and security. She counts because she cannot stand not knowing the numbers. 
If Grace were here she would know the number of things on my to do list, the mirrors on my pouch, the number of the line I'm currently writing, the number of things currently on my table, the number of books stacked in the pile to my left, the number of leaves on my glass holder, the number of paper planes flying on my skyline sticker etc.....
The reason (I think) Grace counts so much is because she likes to be in control in her own way. In the same way that some people cannot stand having a thing out of order or stand even the thought of the germs on their hands (ocd), Grace can't stand not knowing the numbers.

Her whole life is structured on numbers. A lot of people have this but only a fraction of what Grace has. 
I for one cannot stand if the volume of anything is not a multiple of ten. Loads of people have this. I eat nuts in tens and if i add one more I have to eat nine more. If I want to start doing something I wait till the time is a multiple of 5 and if I'm even a little late, I have to wait for another 5 minutes. Sometimes I count the number of steps I take. The other day I was counting the number of people I saw with plaits (I lost count after 30). 

Just like me everyone has these tendencies. But suppose I'm late for something and the time isn't a multiple of 5 it doesn't mean I won't start. I'll shut the part of my brain so bothered by it and do my work!
Every time our teacher rubs the board and leaves a spot unclean my head bursts and I try to erase it with my telekinetic powers but I don't have a panic attack or burst into tears!
But not Grace.
If Grace remembers that she doesn't know the number of bristles on her tooth brush she's going to drop everything and count them till she gets it right.
 That's just Grace.

In this book, Grace counts so much and does everything in numbers or knows every number that it is exhausting!

This book, sucked me in and I haven't been able to stop reading it since. I'm probably going to reread it. 
This one was definitely a book of a kind and a really special one. Not everybody's cup of tea but an amazing whirl wind. Why, i think you should pick it up right now and give it a go!

yes i did like it that much
Lots of love and 5 sour punk,
Beez.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Raven:Stay where you are and then leave

A novel by John Boyne

Publication date: September 26, 2013
Publisher: Doubleday Childrens
Pages: 247
Targeted Audience: Young Adult (And adults) 

Summary: The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight - but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn't know where his father might be, other than that he's away on a special, secret mission.
Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name - on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. Bewildered and confused, Alfie realises his father is in a hospital close by - a hospital treating soldiers with an unusual condition. Alfie is determined to rescue his father from this strange, unnerving place . . .
If you X-rayed me right now, you would see shards of my heart all over my chest. So before beginning this review, WARNING!: YOU WILL BE EMOTIONALLY TRAUMATIZED BY THE HANDS OF A PAPERBACK!

Moving on.

I love history. It's something that surprises people for some reason. I might not know everything about history but I love knowing more about it. There is the appeal of the unknown. So I guess that is one of the reasons why I picked up this book from the library shelves. 

I loved this book the moment I read the first line. The story is told through the POV of a 9 year old boy and I believe that it's really difficult to write it cause after you grow up, you mostly don't remember what you knew and what you didn't know when YOU were younger. So it was really cute how he used to interpret certain things and the author has done a great job at it *claps*. 

1914- The year the first world war broke out. Alfie Summerfield made his dad promise not to go to the war, but he broke that promise later that day. Georgie Summerfield would go to war and not even his weeping wife could stop him.
Joe Patience- Georgie's best friend, who refuses to go fight a war just because the government wants him to. He is a man who sees no peace through war. And as expected, he is insulted, tortured and left to fend for himself.
Alfie Summerfield- Who goes to school only on days when they teach his favorite subjects and the other days he earns money by polishing shoes in Kings Cross Station. 
Four years have passed and talks of the war finally ending have begun, yet Alfie's mother refuses to tell him why his father hasn't returned. She says he is working on a secret mission. But Alfie knows this to not be true. And one day as he was polishing shoes in the station he saw his fathers name on his customers file. 
Apparently his father wasn't on a secret mission. He was in a hospital. 
Then why had his mother lied to him? Whatever the reason, now Alfie has only one thing on his mind. And that is to rescue his father.

If you actually think about it, it's pretty obvious what kind of a hospital his father is in. But I was so indulged in the happenings of the book that I didn't realize it until the author told me (as in, until I read it).

As I said, this book is written from a child's point of view so the emotions that older people feel isn't something that a kid completely understands. So when Alfie talks about a particular thing or a situation and if you are really paying attention, those things will make you laugh or break your heart. Because it's been said the way he sees it. There is no sarcasm, no running around the bush. The happy or sad facts are just thrown on your face and it hurts guys, it hurts worse than an author describing the characters distress. The author has used such simple yet solid words that dig a hole in your heart forever. And I loved it.

Every page made me cry or laugh. I mean, it was terrible! No book has ever affected me like this. I am not lying when I say that the left side of the book made me laugh and the immediate right side made me cry. I AM NOT LYING! Or exaggerating. It literally happened. I don't like people seeing me cry. So when I cry over characters I just keep my eyes closed or look up for a second or two and I'm done. But it wasn't like that. In this case, before I could turn away the tears were already rolling down. And usually I read on my way to school, on the bus! You can just imagine the number of people looking at me cry.

Now time for a little rant. 

I knew I would fall in love with Joe Patience. I just knew it. The way he was described as, since the beginning, just caught my attention and I knew I would fall for that heartbreaking bastard! He rebelled the government and his views were so similar to mine. I just... GODDAMMIT! Does everyone love a good rebel or is it just me?? 
This guy here, plays a clarinet (though I think the saxophone is sexier, I still like the clarinet), is a reader (his house is stacked with books, why wouldn't I want to marry him??), And he is just bloody awesome. 
I cried for him. I mean I cried just for him, the character only. Not the plot or what was happening. Just for him. After the end of chapter 10, I just closed the book, lay my head down and cried *insert loads of tissue usage* 
To be honest, I don't know what it really was that made me love him so much. But whatever it was, I just wanted to get inside the book, knock on his door, hug him as soon as he opened his door and then give him a red rose saying that he was the bravest man ever and that he shouldn't let himself down just because certain stupid women think that only men who do go to war deserve them. He is a hero to me.

You guys probably want me to shut up so I'm going to talk about the rest of the things that I want to mention. 

I really love how Alfie believes that it's absolutely normal for a girl to be president even though his own mother laughs at him. I'm kind of a feminist (to say I'm truly feminist would be wrong). 

The description of the hospital and all the troubles of those patients will make any grown person cry. I also marveled at how Alfie was able to get in and out of the hospital so easily. He is one smart boy.

Most people talk about how honorable they felt when they fought for their country, but this book shows you the invisible scars that war leaves on people. And I think that is what people need to understand. Just because a person's face isn't readable does not mean he/she doesn't feel any emotion or in this case, just because you don't visibly see the harm of the war does not mean it's not there.

I have noted down certain quotes from the book. I haven't been able to find this book on any bookstores but I'm planning on ordering it online because I really need to have it with me. It may not be the same as it was the first time but I still feel those emotions in me when I see it.

"It's a big wide world, isn't it? said Georgie. "Do you think they all hate each other on other planets too?" (I had to stifle a cry at this part)

"Of course I was afraid. What kind of fool wouldn't be afraid, going over to some foreign country to dig out trenches and to kill as many strangers as you could before some stranger could kill you? Only a lunatic wouldn't be afraid. But it wasn't fear that kept me from going, Alfie. It wasn't because I knew I'd be injured or killed. It was the opposite of that. It was the fact that I didn't want to kill anyone." (OH MY JOOOOOE! *cries Niagara falls and incinerates into the sun with pain*)

He'd done it for the best reason in the world. For love. *Ambulance needed*

The ending of this book left me scarred with happiness... if that makes any sense. I would recommend this to everyone and anyone. Maybe you all won't feel the same emotions that I felt. But still do read it, it's worth it.

I'm very stingy when it comes to rating books. But this one gets a five without a moments hesitance.

Don't you love these Raven feathers? (thanks to Beez for helping me pick them... not literally. I meant choosing)