Book Quote Of The Day

“He’s a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.” 

― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Book Review: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

I have just read “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – by Stephen Chbosky

I have meant to read it for ages and only just got around to it because i happened to see the trailer for the film adaptation and thought it sounded interesting.

The blurb reads:

“Charlie is a freshman. And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.”

The style of writing takes a little while to get used to, and especially as it is composed of many letters written in a diary entry format, but it is engrossing and full of detail. It keeps you hooked all the way through.

Charlie is the youngest in his family and maybe feels more pressure with an older brother and sister, but he doesn’t seem to realise just how intelligent he is, even when his English teacher keeps getting him to read extra books and setting him essays to write about what he’s read. Not many people would happily and unquestioningly do extra essays! However, the weird thing is that he asks about a million questions about everything else!

Charlie has spent a lot of his life watching others and trying to work out how best to do things, but he never really does anything. He sees things, he listens, he thinks a lot about things, and somehow he manages to get things wrong and make mistakes. He is a very emotional boy, crying quite often about all sorts of things. This seems odd when it is a 15/16 year old teenager. He talks a lot about his family, especially his deceased aunt Helen, who seems to be at the centre of his problems. He gets very sad on his birthday which is the same day his aunt died and seems to blame himself for her death even though it wasn’t his fault. His sudden mood dips show that he suffers from depression, which is often common in shy people and especially more so in those who think too much about things.

When he meets Sam and Patrick, he find two great people who understand him a bit more than most people and help him to figure out himself and others more easily. They become his best friends, even though they are a bit older than him, and they are a mixture of being a good influence and a bad influence on him. He starts smoking, kisses boys and girls, has sexual experiences, fights and defends people, but also he learns to relax a bit more and live his life, even while keeping his grades at a high level. Sam and Patrick introduce him to a whole different world, which has it’s ups and downs, but even his family starts to change as they all get older and he starts to understand how they feel as well.

I loved this book and so i’m giving it 10/10 because it felt familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and i remembered feeling and thinking the same things as Charlie at points in my life. The depression and confusion underneath everything is just part of being shy and trying to work out who you are and why you are different, and really shows the reader how difficult it is growing up and having so many issues to work through. I felt quite emotional reading it as well! Worth a read if you haven’t tried it, i wish i had read it sooner!

Book Review: One Summer In France

I have just finished reading “One Summer In France” by Bev Spicer, a memoir. This is the prequel to “Bunny On A Bike”, and follows Bev and her friend Carol as they embark on three months in France during their summer holiday from university.

“One Summer In France” by Bev Spicer

Bev and Carol are a force to be reckoned with, with maybe a quite romantic notion of what their summer will be like. They have all sorts of adventures, such as crossing the border to Spain and coming home with massive bottles of port, food poisoning from eating food from dodgy vans, and reading a wide range of books.

The summer romances and almost-romances are great to read about, especially as there are misunderstandings about men who are actually married, and then trying to decide whether men are being genuinely friendly or just pervy because they are confronted with two bikini-clad girls!

I love how Bev and Carol have some genuinely deep and loving moments, and then start mouthing off at each other, which really keeps the story going and brings about some truly amusing moments!

I give it 8/10 because it’s just such a fun, summery read, and it made me giggle! It also made me want to go travelling and have my own adventures. Worth reading, especially if you’ve already read “Bunny On A Bike”!

Book Quote of the Day

“Now is the zwoddery time when you wish that you had invested in thicker curtains, for the sun is insistent, and you are one of those lucifugous creatures that avoids sunlight like a vampire, or a badger. Lucifugous (or light-fleeing) is a word that is usually applied to sins and demons, but it can just as well refer to somebody making a tactical retreat beneath the duvet because they cannot endure the gaze of heaven.”

- The Horologicon: A day’s jaunt through the lost words of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth

Book Quote of the Day

“You could be addled, stupefied and generally speaking philogrobolized, a word that should be said at about an octave beneath your normal speaking voice and reserved for the morning after the carnage before. As responses to ‘How are you this morning?’ go, ‘philogrobolized’ is almost unbeatable. Nobody will ever have to ask you what you mean as it’s all somehow contained in the syllable grob, which is where the stress should always be laid. It conveys a hangover, without ever having to admit that you’ve been drinking.”

The Horologicon: A day’s jaunt through the lost words of the English Language, by Mark Forsyth

Book Review: The Reader

I have just finished reading “The Reader” by Bernhard Schlink.

The Reader – by Bernhard Schlink (via Amazon)

I have known about this book for a while because it is fairly prominent book, and has been turned into a film, which i’ve never seen either. However, i have never read it, until now. This is because i’m starting to attend a translated fiction-themed book club, and the first book is  ”The Reader”.

The blurb reads:

“For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems.

Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does – Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret.”

I was intrigued by the relationship between Michael and Hanna, because it seems to just suddenly happen out of blue. Michael is maybe a bit naïve but being with Hanna teaches him many things. Hanna is a bit of mystery and we don’t learn much about her until later on in the novel, but she seems secure in herself. Her behaviour and her reactions to some things Michael says seem a little odd and lead to them fighting. The sad thing is that Michael always seems to be the one apologizing, even if he isn’t in the wrong, and this surely does some damage to him. Michael reads books to Hanna and it seems very intimate but it’s strange that a grown woman needs a child to read to her. In a way it feels like a mother-son relationship has been flipped on it’s head, with him looking after her at various points through the novel.

When Hanna disappears, Michael slowly gets on with his life and goes to study law. He attends a trial where Hanna is a defendant and turns out to be responsible for several deaths during the war, and this throws out so many questions for Michael and he is determined to find out what happened. He wonders how a normal person can commit such a terrible crime, and how a normal person can love someone who committed such crimes. All the things he has done makes it hard for him to live a normal life: his marriage fails, other relationships fail, he feels numb with the things he knows, he doesn’t want to be a lawyer or judge, but becomes a researcher/writer/lecturer type person who doesn’t socialise much. When he sees Hanna again, he is given the chance to find out her secret, and it turns out that she is illiterate and many things fall into place and suddenly make sense after all these years. He feels guilty at not sharing this knowledge and knowing it could have made her life easier, but he understands her shame of not being able to read and keeps it to himself.

I give “The Reader” a big 9/10 because i loved this novel, it was easy to read and i was fascinated by their relationship and the effect it had on Michael’s life, feelings and beliefs. The themes of sex, guilt, and shame make it a great read, even though the war crimes are horrible to think about, and it’s amazing how one little secret can ruin so many lives. I also love the variety of books which Michael reads to Hanna and love that books are part of their special connection. I wish i’d read it sooner because it is truly a great novel and even better because it is translated from the original German!

Bookish Image Post #2

Ok, so there are several different alphabets also used around the world, and many extinct ones as well, and many numbers and symbols which are used as well, but you get the general idea!

Note: I don’t know whose this image belongs to, but i just randomly found it on Facebook on a fanpage for Dr Who! https://www.facebook.com/The.Doctor.Who.Tardis

Book Review: Moranthology

I have just finished reading “Moranthology” by Caitlin Moran.

Moranthology – Caitlin Moran (via Amazon)

This is a book composed of Caitlin Moran’s columns from newspapers over her career with added notes on each article. It covers a range of subjects, from celebrities, television, and feminism, as well as amusing late-night conversations in bed with her husband.

I particularly like how she describes David Cameron as being a robot made of ham, and how she got her trademark hair! As well as the funny bits, there are a few serious bits which make it a well-rounded book.

If you are an avid follower of Caitlin, then you’ve probably already read all these columns, but as i have only really discovered her in the last year or so, i really liked having all these columns in one book! She tells stories really well, and is really funny!

I preferred her first book “How to be a Woman” as that was more of a proper book, but this book is good because you can dip in and out of it, so a good book when you just have a few minutes here and there to read.

I give it 7/10 because it is full of interesting stories and opinions, and i enjoyed it!