#4

Since writing my last book i read 19 katherines. It was perfect and magic and everything you want a book to be. read it. john green. awesome. However, i am going to blog about the book im getting ready to finish at the moment. One of my favorite books ive ever read is "If i stay" by Gayle Forman. Yes, they made it into a movie that followed the book perfectly and yes, it made me cry like a baby. The first book left you with a massive cliffhanger that can drive you insane for days. The book is about a girl who is a massive classical music prodigy with the cello and her new boyfriend who is becoming quickly becoming a celebrity in the indie punk world, and opening for bands like the Shins. In the beginning of the book the girl is in a terrible car accident and throughout the book it goes back to back chapter of real time in the ER to their amazing musically binded history together. In the end of the book her entire family dies and then you never really find out if the girl, Mia, ever wakes up. Book number Two is set three years later after the accident and you realize that Mia had in fact woken up and that she had left him, Adam, to go to Julliard and become and apprentice to Yoyo Ma. The book is written from Adams point of view in dealing with her loss and how he got famous in the last three years. While my summary gives the book no justice, it isn't anything like a goofy teen romance novel. The entire book is about how music brings love together and even though this particular book, book two, ("Where she went" by Gayle Forman") doesn't have any particular twists, you cant put it down because she puts SO much emotion into the book im literally left depressed when i put the book down. In the last three years Adam had become a celebrity for his recent album "Collateral Damage" all about Mia and Mia had been published in ever classical music website, magazine, book, bible etc... and been named Yoyo Mas apprentice and next to the throne. Adam was one night away from is 64 week tour around the world  starting in london (he had hit rolling stone level fame) and Mia was on her way to a four month tour to Japan when he runs into one of her sold our concerts in Carnegie hall and they catch up the last three years ll in one night. basically the whole books takes place in a day and a half. The book is almost impossible to put down and the author has a fantastic taste in music, including music from Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens and The Ramones. If you love Indie Artists, and have a passion for live music then these books are awesome. Worth the read 100%.

#3

Okay guys, i finished Her Fearful Symmetry because i am not a giver-upper. I was not impressed. I always judge a book on two things. The first thing i look at is if it has any page-turner qualities. It definitely doesn't. it tries to be with allot of weird twists that just end up very confusing and ridiculous. compared her Niffenegger's last book, The Time Travelers Wife, this is a disappointment. The next thing i judge a book on is the feeling it gives you. For example, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fault In Our Stars, And Catcher In the Rye all leave you with a magical, lust for more story. Its why they became so famous, and if you ask me, im still lost as to why Catcher in the Rye isn't a movie yet. Either way, this book did not have that. It did have a few interesting characters, but none that had a particularly interesting point of view or personality that you could connect to. So, to summarize the book, Elspeth and Eddie switches places before she married Robert so he was actually married to Eddie the entire time. this is ridiculous and impossible and super unrealistic. then she gets stuck in her apartment as a ghost and ultimately steals one of the girls bodies to live as her when they come to move into her apartment. her husband Robert into okay with it but has no choice. basically what im saying is, that this book is no where near what the time travelers wife was. the OCD man and his wife never got back together and Robert continued to work at the cemetery. Turns out however, i was right about the foreshadowing. The title, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is titled that way because the twin girls were actually symmetrical. One girl had her heart on the wrong side of her body, opposite her sisters. This is interesting and all, but has nothing to do with the story other than the title. another thing i didn't like about the book, (not to totally burn it into the ground) was the flat dialogue. there wasn't allot of conversation or interesting character development, other than the man with OCD. The action didn't move quickly either. when you type it out it sounds worse than it actually is, because lets face it, it got published. however, i cant think of anything i actually liked about it and ultimately forced myself to read it.

#2

From my last blog post i think its safe to say, i hated the book. and for awhile i gave up and began reading "19 Katherine's"  by john green. rad book. check it out. But after a long wait in a dentist waiting room with nothing to do or read but "her fearful symmetry" and had no choice. I must say, it got really really cool. we are introduced to a very interesting couple upon arriving at Elspeth's funeral. this couple lives in what was Elspeth's three flat building on the third floor. Their names are Martin and Marijke, (good luck figuring out how to pronounce it). Robert, Elspeth's now widowed husband, lives on the first floor of the building and for some unexplained reason Elspeth lived on the second. the next 50 pages of the book are dedicated to Martin and Marijke's story. Marjike is extremely artsy and open minded with short fusia hair and a love of funky clothes while Martin is bland and over cleaned due to an insane level of OCD. Marjike left a letter hanging from the ceiling outside of Martins bathroom door so that it wouldn't touch any germs. then she leaves. the next few pages go into detail and Martins OCD. This is everything from shaving his entire body to brush his teeth 36 times because he couldn't remember if it had been an even number of strokes on the right side. I absolutely loved this clip of the book because it was so surprising and in depth. Martin says that he doesn't remember Marjike's face or their sons, (who is in college). All he can recall are blobs of emotion. after having to walk sideways through his bedroom door and and do it in exactly 12 steps, then having to talk himself into touching his shoes, he finally sees the letter and takes it down. in the letter Marijke explains that martin hasn't left the house in 20 years due to this condition and that she plans to move to New York (from London) and says that they can be together if shes important enough for him to leave the house and live in a white apartment. Actually pretty sad. The rest of what i read focuses on Robert coping with the death of his wife. this part of the book is even more depressing. "Robert fell asleep waiting for his wife to come to bed." it just kind of shows how sudden things can change. this section also goes into detail on why Elspeth died. Robert thinks a]back about watching her lose her hair and get thinner before she died of leukemia. so far the book as really picked up and while the Victorian-esque grammar still throws me off, i like where the book is headed.

#1

For my book blog i chose to read 'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger. I chose to read this because she was also the author of 'The Time Travelers Wife'. I find Niffenegger's writing style very interesting because while her stories are set in modern times, her Victorian-like writing structure makes you forget until she talks about her "Apple computer". This story looks at a situation from the point of view of everyone involved. Each point of view can change with a new paragraph but it is in no way confusing. One thing i don't understand is why everyone in the book has a very old fashioned name that in no way belongs to the time period. On the back of the book, the summary says that two sisters "Julia and Valentina Poole" are sisters living in Chicago who will receive a large apartment in London from their dead aunt who has just died of cancer. The book opens up with Elspeth Poole's death (the aunt) and her husband Robert's reaction in the hospital. "She felt intense pressure, and then she was floating; the pain was gone and she was looking down from the ceiling at her small wrecked body...Elspeth watched from the ceiling." since this description of Elspeth in a ghost-like state, the Author has not gone back to talking about Elspeth's point of view. The book is also titled "Her Fearful Symmetry" and the first page of the book is a picture of a cemetery so I think there's some mad foreshadowing going on here. Further into the book another woman, Eddie (Edwina) Poole is constantly receiving strange letters that she reads and then burns. her husband sent a private investigator to find out who the letters come from so that he doesn't have to confront his wife. his wife is aware of the private investigator, and her husband is aware that she is aware, but nobody talks about it and the chase continues. Then Niffenegger finally reveals one of the letters, the last letter for good (you can see where this is going). The letters have been form Elspeth the entire time and it was sent by a nurse. It was a goodbye letter saying that no matter what happened, she still loves Eddie. This also informs Eddie that her two daughters, Julia and Valentina Poole, will receive the London estate. I'm going to be completely honest, this book is really slow and not that interesting. its starting to make me wish i picked an actual "sexy beach read" for this assignment. However, im going to try to stick with it. In the future of the book, i would like to know what it was that prompted Elspeth to say "no matter what has happened, i still love you." I also hope this old style London language stops once we get into the point of view of the two Chicago sisters. I cant comment on the characters because they all seem sort of generic so far. Pray for this book.