Lizzie Goes Wild

I've had this book for a really long time. I forgot whether a friend bought me this (if she did, thank you) or I bought this (if I did, thank you self). Long story short, I was bored and read it for the heck of it!

-------------------------------

Lizzie Goes Wild contains two short stories. The first one is about Lizzie going wild and the other one is about Gordo being a rat pack cool dude!

---------------------------------

I don't even know why i'm jotting this here. It may seem inconsequential but it counts for me. I miss Lizzie McGuire!

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

This. Book. Is. The. Book.

-----------------------------------

Lucy has long been searching for her dream guy Shadow, a talented graffiti artist that captivated Lucy through his street-art.

Ed, a high school dropout, is Shadow.

Will Lucy find Shadow? Will the street-art reveal Shadow? Will her expectations be met? Will this relationship work despite Lucy and Ed's compromising past?

Read Graffiti Moon and be captivated like I was!

------------------------------------------

Another amazing Australian YA! Fresh story-line and inspiring characters. I am just in love.

The Boy Book by E. Lockhart

Yeah yeah, I said I didn't like it but what can I do? I have the books already!

---------------------------------------

And the Ruby Oliver saga continues as conflicts with her ex-best-friends and ex-boyfriend continues! Also the search for potential boyfriend is on like donkey kong!

----------------------------

This is possibly the lamest review for the Ruby Oliver series.

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

Alas! After a long long time, i'm finally updating my blog. You might be wondering where I went. Well, that's not important. I'M BACK!

---------------------------------------

The Boyfriend List is Ruby Oliver's enumeration of all the boys who are somewhat/completely/almost/could-have-been involved in her topsy-turvy life!

-----------------------------------

A one-sentence book review! There's a first for everything.

This book reminds me a lot of An Abundance of Katherines, which is also an enumeration type of story (and has fun-facts/footnotes too). I didn't really enjoy the book like I thought I would. Maybe i'm growing out of the genre (not YA per se, just the chick-lit-YA type). Though, I will admit I would have adored it four years ago.

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

Believe it or not, it was last year when I bought this book. I picked it even though there were many other books the all-too-knowing saleslady recommended. All good things in due time, or not. I was saving Chopsticks for a rainy day.

--------------------------------

This is a novel about Glory Fleming (piano prodigy) and Francisco Mendoza's (a new foreign neighbor of Glory's) abstract love affair.

Narrated in pictures, this visually engaging album will bewitch readers to go back and forth through the pages until they've finally satisfied themselves with a conclusion.

-----------------------------------

I am not going to rob the other readers of the 'full Chopsticks experience' so i'm restraining myself into fully recounting the events that lies ahead. 

However, I am also here to tell 'my experience' and my personal opinion.

(if you haven't read it yet, do not go further than this parenthesis)

1. There is no Willard Dunn School for Boys. Willard Dunn is the Chief Administrator of Golden Hands Rest Facility. I discovered it because I recognized the 'golden hands' logo in a pamphlet on the last few pages before the book ends. Also, if you look at the very first newspaper clipping of this book, a picture of Golden Hands' building is attached (you won't really know or care at the beginning, a phase where you're still clueless).
2. All the paintings, books, trinkets and whatnot are Glory's. None of it were Frank's (as we all know now what Frank is). She was the one who drew them all as well. The F. Mendoza signature is void! Please refer to the last few pages, look carefully.
3. Yes, it was Glory who had sewn the lettering of the boxer's name at the back of the boxer's robe. The robe which we are talking about is actually a gift from her father and not Frank! (admit it, we've all assumed it was him who gave it)
4. The Julio Iglesias records are Golden Hands' property.
5. Glory is an insomniac.
6. Watch out for phrases like "This place is a hellhole", "PIENSA EN MI" and yours truly's personal favorite... "Tu hermano no tiene testiculos." (for an imaginary person, this one's got feisty attitude)

Questions and conclusions

• Did Jo Ann Castle really gave Glory that autograph dating 12/5 (the year is another question, but this was the day she went missing) with a dedication saying "NO GUTS, NO GLORY"? If so, she might be the one who pushed Glory to elope (with herself!)
• If Frank was really a figment of the imagination, how can the book explain their pictures together? Especially the ones when they went to Coney Island (the book's cover is nothing but a Coney Island fantasy?!)
• If Frank is 'not real' then who did Glory lost her virginity to?!
• Conclusion, the book is more or less letting the readers decide as stated on the mini-excerpt at the back. But they should also know that what they provide is what we get and what they've provided is this... when Frank's face showed up in the sticker of a Francisco de Mendoza wine bottle and in Glory's handwriting were "♥F" at the very last page, it was clear as day that none of it was ever true except maybe what Glory thought to be true (since, in my guess, this book is her personal 'mental patient' memoir)

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

This book was suggested by a blog for those who are looking for novels that are similar to John Green's.

---------------------------------

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a story about a girl who is coping with the death of her downtrodden alcoholic best friend.

Living her teenage life with a parsimonious father who pushed her to work at Pagoda Pizza instead of Zimmerman's Pet Store (where her heart really was), growing up the way she wants to becomes the hardest task of all.

What did really happen between Vera and her best-friend-in-the-whole-world Charlie Kahn? What were the events before his death? And is it possibly connected to the burning down of Zimmerman's Pet Store?

Don't ignore Vera Dietz and read Please Ignore Vera Dietz!

---------------------------------------

KUDOS to this book for being interactively charming.  The narration is witty and the experience is superb. 

I felt the push and pull between the friendship of Vera and Charlie. It was very realistic and full of human emotions. It was sad how the two of them needed saving. They could have saved each other. I have made up several versions in my head. Of course, the outcome's always happy. But it wasn't how the book really ended and I keep coming back and every time I do, it's just regret and something else I feel.

I'm not so contented with the ending. I want people to get their pay. I am vengeful. I accept that about me. I am full of human emotions too. I want a short continuation. Or an alternative.

Maybe I've grown way too attached with this book. Maybe i'm such a hopeless romantic. Maybe that's why I keep going back. Maybe it's not regret and something else I feel but obsessive-compulsive-for-happy-endings. Maybe I want redemption for love lost. Maybe that was my 'something else'. For broken people to find self-redemption in finding love.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Remarkable. My time wasn't wasted. In fact, it was time well-spent.

------------------------------

From the timeline of World War 2, an account of two teenage girls' battle with the aftermath of their unfortunate fate is laid in narration.

Best friends Kittyhawk (Margaret "Maddie" Brodatt, a pilot) and Verity (Lady Julia Lindsay MacKenzie Wallace Beaufort-Stuart a.k.a Eva Seiler, a spy) is a sensational team of two brave young ladies.

When Maddie dropped Julia in Ormaie (fictional place in France where she is sent as an undercover), neither of them thought how hapless both of them would soon become.

Julia was caught and held captive at Chateau de Bordeaux (an old hotel turned into a prison cell). She is tortured by Engel, Thibaut and their boss, von Linden to extract confidential information. She does it by writing endlessly the tale of how she and Maddie met, their heartwarming adventures leading to the present state.

--------------------------------------

I have to admit, the first half of the book is quite boring. All those tiny little details about airplanes, places in England and abbreviations rammed up in your brain is quite disconcerting at times. Though it's the kind of disconcerting your brain needs. As it may be helpful facts in the future, you never know.

But the other half of the book, it's just totally captivating. Like the calm before the storm. Like the slow and deliberate brewing of a good coffee. It's just something I didn't expect it would be. This is a thoroughly researched novel. I wonder how long Elizabeth Wein took to finish this incredible masterpiece.

(The following may be a giveaway but I can't help myself for they are my favorite lines from the book.)

And this, even more wonderful and mysterious, is also true: when I read it, when I read what Julie's written, she is instantly alive again, whole and undamaged. With her words in my mind while I'm reading, she is as real as I am. Gloriously daft, drop-dead charming, full of bookish nonsense and foul language, brave and generous. She's right here. Afraid and exhausted, alone, but fighting. Flying in silver moonlight in a plane that can't be landed, stuck in the climb - alive, alive, ALIVE.