booksandnerds:

(By: Rebecca H)

fuckyeahgaby:

I love my book shelf ❤ (Taken with instagram)

literarycoffee:

33/365 (by - Wanderlust)

(via noseinabook)

5/5

I’ve always wondered when the appropriate age to stop reading young adult books was. I mean, I don’t want to be 30 and still creeping on the teen section of Barnes and Nobles, pretending to be buying a book for my niece or something. But at the same time, I’m hesitant to dabble into the world of adult literature. So what to do when you’re getting to be too old to identify with books about people in high school but you’re too young for Danielle Steel or Norah Roberts? You read books like Raw Blue, that make a nice little bridge for people 17+ (I guess younger but be warned, there’s some rated R parts). 

Raw Blue tells the tale of Carly, a loner girl who had something unspeakably terrible happen to her, so bad that she dropped out of school and moved right on the beach so she could do the one thing in her life that matters every day, surf. She works as a cook and has no friends except for her dutch roommate who loves salsa dancing, and a few sketchy coworkers. She lives her life keeping everyone at arm’s length, and when she meets Ryan (another surfer) she has to decide if she’s going to continue living in shame and regret or move on. 

Okay. The surfing. I’ve always had a thing for girls surfing. Do you know how many times I’ve seen Blue Crush? I love the ocean, I mean I live in Miami right? And surfing is just so beautiful. The descriptions in this book make me want to go hop on a board and paddle out! Here’s a quote so you can see what I’m talking about: “It’s a glitter skin day.The ocean is a vivid emerald color and the wind ruffles the waves faces so that they shatter the sunligt like glass.” Like, ugh! The imagery! The whole book is like this, simply gorgeous writing. These australian writers, it’s insane how good they all are. 

And the characters are also amazing. All of them. From Ryan, who is perfect but only because of his imperfections. He’s not the typical cliche male lead, he’s made mistakes and doesn’t make the best choices but deep down he’s a good guy. Then Danny, who is a 15 year old surfer boy Carly befriends who has synesthesia and a knack for being so straight forward in can be awkward, to  Hannah, a middle aged Dutch lady who moved to Australia to get away from her ex husband and shares a duplex with Carly. Last but not least, Carly. Beautiful, relatable, stubborn, broken Carly. I love Carly, and at times I wanted to punch Carly in the face because she doesn’t deal with things and self destructs. Carly is like a ticking time bomb of emotions, she’s raw and fragile and all I wanted the whole book was to see her pull through.  

This book deals with tough things. It doesn’t sugar coat anything. It’s not light hearted, it’s not a feel good book. But it’s real and honest. Be prepared to feel sick to your stomach at parts. But it is so worth it! Read it, you won’t be disappointed. 

msk21cclass:

We Give Books

Ms. Lee just directed me to the great project, from Pearson publishers.
They provide books to read online. Every time you read a book, a book is donated to a worthy cause.

Click on the picture, and start reading!

(via prettybooks)

5/5

A few months ago, I found out about a YA australian author by the name of Melina Marchetta on goodreads. I read possibly her most famous book, Saving Francesca, first, and read the rest of her bibliography in the next two weeks. Yes, her books are that good. 

Even knowing that her writing is amazing, even knowing that I was going to love Jellicoe road, I almost gave up in the beginning. The first 4 or so chapters are confusing, and leave you thrown out of the loop. This story just jumps in, with few introductions, and you’re supposed to put things together as you go along. The whole book goes back and forth between two stories, present day narrated by Taylor Markham, and an italicized manuscript that tells stories about a group of friends. Of course, this isn’t explained, so in the beginning you have no idea what’s going on. 

My advice is to please, please push through the beginning. It gets way better. 

Jellicoe Road is a story about Taylor Markham, who’s mother abandoned her at a gas station when she was 11 years old. A woman named Hannah picks her up and takes her to the Jellicoe boarding school, where every year they have the Territory Wars against the Townies and the Cadets. This year, Taylor is chosen as the leader for the school, Hannah has gone missing, and the leader of the Cadets is Jonah Griggs, a boy who Taylor had run away with in a search for both their mothers a few years ago and who betrayed her. 

Complicated? You don’t know half of it. 

Sure, there’s a lot of issues going on, and at some points you think “Really?” because it’s all so much, but it’s never bad. In the hands of any other lesser writer, this book would read like a really bad soap opera. In the hands of Marchetta, it’s a masterpiece. But the plot isn’t what makes this book amazing. It’s the characters. All of them. Even characters who are only in the book for a couple of pages feel real and three dimensional. I don’t know how she does it, but this book has some of the most lovable and fleshed out characters I have ever read.

From Taylor, with her strong voice and the way she makes you feel everything she’s feeling every step of the way. The way that when she has an asthma attack, you feel your chest tighten with her. To Jonah Griggs, who is up there with Mr. Darcy for my best fictional men of all time list, who makes you want to reach in the book and pull him close. Jonah Griggs is, to me, one of the best parts of this book. Every page he’s on makes the book that much better. He manages to be strong and fierce and vulnerable all at the same time. Even the secondary  characters, like Santangelo and Raffie and the mullet brothers. By the end of the book, you know all these people. They are all your friends. 

The language in this book is also very beautiful. Melina Marchetta has this habit to make long, conjoined sentences that end up making a paragraph, but with her it makes the writing more powerful. During the whole book you get the feeling of being underwater and fighting to break the surface. Even when some really terrible things are spoken of, like one of the characters killing his father or child molestation or drug addiction or serial killers, it’s all done so tastefully that it doesn’t seem like she’s trying too hard.

So give this book a chance and I promise you it will be one of your favorites. It’s one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading, and if you do read it and feel like giving up within the first 50 pages, just get to the end. It’s worth it.