the fault in our stars by john green!

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 

by John Green

published in 2012 by Dutton Books

I have to firstly start off this post by saying that I almost decided not to write my thoughts on The Fault in Our Stars. The book is just so affecting, and one of the most not only intense - but important - books I have read in a long, long time. I almost chose not to write about it because there are a million things I could say and they still would not cover an inch of its worth. 

So just be wary, whilst reading this post, of my lack of eloquence in describing the vastness of this book's true quality, importance and worth.

All any appreciator of The Fault In Our Stars can do is simply thank John Green for creating it, and thank God for creating John Green.

new on my bookshelf

For this post I was simply too lazy to take photos and do the whole shebang with the writing up and everything, and I thought a video would let you see the books better than in pictures so here we go! 

Sorry for my talking and just terrible explaining skills, I think I might have made it seem like I don't know how to count. 

I suppose some writing will be necessary in this post anyway, so you don't get confused. 

The first three I showed you were given to me by the amazing Jess from The Tales Compendium.

1) Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

2) Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

3) The Tale of Despereaux by Kate diCamillo

And the last one I bought online. I failed to tell you that.

4) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I'm most excited about Uglies! I've heard countless people rave on and on about it.

the invention of hugo cabret by brian selznick!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret 

by Brian Selznick

published by Scholastic Press, 2007

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a touching story filled to the brim with history, passion, magic, and most importantly - dreams.

There's also a lot of clockwork and thievery too. The story comes to life through the words and pictures, but let me tell you - there is so much more to it than that.

Nowadays, everywhere we look we see books turning into movies, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a film in the form of a book. You get the whole experience. Kind of.

I don't mean this in the sense that it was a film to begin with then someone turned it into a book (because that isn't the case), I'm saying that the story is sort of presented as a film but in the format of a book. It's really hard to explain but if you've read this book you probably know what I'm talking about.
e.g. the curtain opens and closes, and in between part 1 and part 2 it feels like an intermission.

Here's a video of me briefly flicking through the pages of Hugo. 

Normally I think of film as the ultimate medium of storytelling and communication, but after reading this book, it is obvious that words are just as powerful and capable - or even more so - than film.

I loved this book a lot - Selznick's simplistic writing style, the goregous, stunning images - I will never sell or give this book away because I'll be wanting to read this to my future children at bedtime one day.

a midsummer tights dream by louise rennison!

a midsummer tights dream

by louise rennison

published 2012 by HarperCollins

(sequel to withering tights)

wowzies this was such a fun read! i think a midsummer tights dream was even better than withering tights! 

llulah is back at dother hall with her knobbly knees, her crazy tree sisters and her spectacular spontaneous irish dancing. much larks for tallulah casey in this hilariously written sequel of her misadventures.

in this book llulah's having a bit of trouble in the love department of life - she's been snogged and rejected by a really good-looking, good-snogging guy; her dream boy Alex the Good is away at theatre college or something; and a dark brooding crow named Cain Hinchcliff has just beaten her in a staring competition by licking a hailstone off her face. 

anyway, i loved this book, i love Louise Rennison, i love tallulah and her pals, the woolfe boys and especially cain. Cain is the modern-day Byronic hero of a midsummer tights dream. he seems to always lurk in the shadows and pops out whenever llulah thinks she's alone and acts silly, e.g. happy irish dancing alone in a barn or hanging upside down on a tree branch.

if you fancy a light read that will make you laugh out loud, look no further.

it really left me nothing to be desired especially with the glorious references to the bronte sisters, jane eyre and wuthering heights. i am certainly looking forward to february next year when the third book comes out!

cain is dreamyyyyyyyyyyyy.

books on my bedside table!

I thought it might be interesting to let you know what's been sitting on my bedside table these past weeks! 

Calm down, I can see the strange look on your face. Don't worry, I do not read four books at once.

I have four there because sometimes I feel like I'm in a certain mood to read a certain kind of book, I start it, then I just leave it there and don't really get to reading the rest of it. 

Then they just accumulate.

That's mainly the case for A Midsummer Tights Dream & Mockingjay.

I'm actually a good way in to A Game of Thrones, and Hugo Cabret is quite an easy read so I'm sure I'll finish that soon. 

And I will get to Mockingjay soon enough (I well know it's been a long time coming).

But I thought I'd just give you a little insight into my sporadic reading habits of late.

It's not really too commendable, but there you go. Those are the books on my bedside table!

What books are currently resting by your bed?

Errr, hello.

If you read the title of this post, imagine me saying it in a very hesitant, timid voice - a tone that breeds the notion of guilt and maybe some remorse.

It's been a while since I posted last. I apologise.

The only reason I can think of is that I've been oddly inspired to focus more of my time and energy on my other blogs (Bloggy Balog + Pen&PepperDreams), and uninspired to post on this one.

I said I'd have a reviewy type post for The Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'engle. 

It's not coming, I'm afraid. 

I didn't end up feeling like writing a reviewy type post for it, and so I didn't.

If you'd like to keep track of my whereabouts and such, Bloggy Balog - or even better, Twitter - is where I'll be updating stuff. All. The. Time. 

I keep my Goodreads up to date too. But I actually haven't been reading leisurely all that much. 

It's a sad condition I'm in on that front.

Not sure when I'll see you next, hopefully sooner, not later! 

Love,

Arielle

My Wuthering Heights Journey #3

Arielle's Wuthering Heights Journey, Part 3 of 3.

Look! It's Cathy and Heathcliff!

I finished Wuthering Heights last night! Hurrah!
I quite liked the ending.
It turns out, a good majority of the novel is about the younger Cathy - Catherine Earnshaw's daughter, whose name is also Catherine.
The book is definitely Gothic - loads of dreams, talk of ghosts, and a fair bit of violence too.
I made the mistake of watching the 2011 film adaptation by Andrea Arnold. It's not in theatres in Australia yet (it'll be released in October I think). They had younger versions and older versions of Cathy and Heathcliff, which I thought was unnecessary. Highly unnecessary. They were the only two characters who had different actors play a three year older version of themselves. And they didn't even look remotely similar.
Oh, and the film had loads of animal cruelty. It was quite disturbing.
And it didn't have enough dialogue. Which was definitely to its detriment. You can't convey the authenticity of Bronte's characters with the amount of dialogue Arnold's adaptation had. It was a poorly written film. Albeit, I didn't watch the last 20 mins. I assume a lot more happens in those last 20 mins, because the first three quarters of the film were drawn out way too long and tediously.
The cinematography was wonderful though.

Anyway back to the book. Like I was telling you last time, I was basically just waiting for the rest of the characters to die. Hindley Earnshaw, then Edgar Linton, then Linton Heathcliff, and lastly Heathcliff himself died. I feel like all the women die from the ordeal of childbirth  and all the male characters die from a cold/flu (I don't know what the different between a cold and a flu is). Oh, except Isabella, who died of some boring sickness like all the men.
I didn't really tell you much about the new Cathy. She was the only character that I remotely liked. She loved her papa (Edgar Linton) very dearly, and fell in love her with cousin Linton (Heathcliff's son by Isabella), who turned out to be a jerk and a coward, and then he died and Cathy fell in love with her other cousin Hareton Earnshaw (her mother's brother's son, whom Heathcliff sort of raised as his son and he regarded Heathcliff as his father - weird).
I totally shipped Cathy and Hareton, they're cute together.

Heathcliff kind of got his revenge; he wasn't completely satisfied because Cathy and Hareton started enjoying their lives after becoming friends (Heathcliff's whole aim was to torture the lives of Hindley Earnshaw and Edgar Linton until they and their children died - I think). Then Heathcliff thought, 'What is the point of destroying these two kids?' and must have figured it wouldn't give him joy to kill them; his life had no more purpose and he committed suicide by starving himself and letting his body grow cold and sick. Oh well!
Cathy and Hareton live happily ever after at Wuthering Heights, with Nelly as their housekeeper.

Nelly didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought.

new on my bookshelf: madeleine l'engle!

I don't quite remember exactly what it was that made me want to buy the rest of the Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle. I think it was a blog post by another book blogger.
Anyway, I read the first book of this series - A Wrinkle in Time, last year I think it was, and loved it, but didn't really have any inclination to go out and get the rest.
But I have them now!

A Wind in the Door came in the mail a couple days before the rest, and I immediately jumped straight into it.  Poor Charles Wallace is ill!

After my current Wuthering Heights Journey series is over (which will be soon), the next post will probably be a "my thoughts on.." for A Wind in the Door.

You can find my (gushing) review of A Wrinkle in Time (The Time Quintet, #1) here.