[Ramblings] Fifty Shades of Grey (#1) by E.L. James

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 25/01/2015

Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 356

Source: Kindle
Genre: Adult - Erotica (18+)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Ariana Grande - Love Me Harder ♪

My Rating: 

Meh.

My thoughts

OKAY. I'M DONE! NO MORE, I CANNOT DEAL... No more My Fifty Shades, no more "Oh My!", no more "inner goddess" and "my subconscious" and Mrs Robinson and Jose and...

The reason I am not giving this book 1 star is simply because I finished it, therefore it is, to some degree, "readable". I will not be reviewing this book properly because I will not really be able to analyse it objectively... so here's just a jumbled mess of my thoughts towards this book.

[Review] Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 31/07/2014

Publisher: Orion
Pages: 320

Source: Publisher for review
Genre: Adult // Magical Realism

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Lily Allen - Littlest Things ♪

My Rating: 

Delightful read

My thoughts

This was my first venture into Rainbow Rowell's writing so any of my expectations were established by the enormous amount of buzz, hype and love that surrounds this author. Of course, much of that buzz, hype and love is directed towards her young adult titles, Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, but her adult books have also received much praise. 'Landline' was a delight to read, and it invites the reader to question what they would do in that situation: if you had a magic phone that could somehow contact someone from the past, would you try to fix things?

[Reading the Classics] The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

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Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Publication Year: 1925

Pages: 177

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

My thoughts

The first (and second) time I read The Great Gatsby was for grade 11 English class (2009). It was one of the only books required for class that I actually read ahead of the deadline, and it was also one of the only ones that truly grabbed me and convinced me to love it. It was all so profound and felt somehow relevant to our times and just who I was as a person. I couldn't get enough of the story, the characters, the setting, the themes and ideas portrayed and explored by Fitzgerald, an author I've been itching to read more of since.

But in 2013, I dared to revisit this highly-revered modern classic: partly so that I'd be refreshed and ready to view the upcoming film adaptation (which I still have not watched!), but also because I was curious. Curious to see how I would react after a relatively significant amount of time had passed since my first reading it. It was like going to a reunion, a warm one, where everyone is the same as they were the last time you saw them, save for a few details here and there (that you may or may not notice).

Bottom line: I fell in love all over again.

[Review] The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

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Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 01/01/2012

Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 296

Source: Bought
Genre: Adult contemporary

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ A Great Big World - Say Something ♪

My Rating: 

Bittersweet

My thoughts

I was drawn to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry because I'd read The One-Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (review), which also involved an elderly man walking... somewhere. I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading this book.

It wasn't long before I was hooked on the story, the characters and the meaning behind it. This is a very simple story. It's about an elderly man who pledges to walk from one end of England to the other because he believes that as long as he keeps walking the woman he let down 20 years ago will continue to live. She has cancer. All he knows is that he must get to her; he will not let her down again.

Review Bites (#2): Beastly, The Night Circus and more

Image credit: ♥

I don't write reviews for every single book I read, at least not here on the blog, but that's just because I don't have enough to say for some of them. Review Bites is here to remedy that.

The books which I will be reviewing are mostly books I haven't received for review but have been sitting in my to-review pile. I still feel like I have to talk about them. So while these reviews are much, much shorter than my regular ones, I feel satisfied in knowing that my own words have been said about them.

Reviewed in this post:
- Beastly by Alex Flinn [swap]
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern [gifted]
- Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham [Netgalley]
- Emerald by Karen Wallace [for review]

[Reading the Classics] Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

[Arranged from Vintage Classics ©Random House, 2004]

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Author: Virginia Woolf

Publication Year: 1925

Pages: 208

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity
  

Verdict: A poetic stream-of-consciousness narrative that follows the mundane day in a life of a middle-aged woman, Mrs Dalloway, as she prepares for her party. This party far from ordinary--a certain old flame from her past will be in attendance. Woolf portrays middle-class society in a sobering fashion; and yet, oddly, there is an uplifting quality that gives tribute to the preciousness of life.

My thoughts

[Source: Gilmore Girls + Tumblr]

Mrs Dalloway is kind of a British The Great Gatsby in the perspective of a middle-aged Daisy who meets up with Gatsby again, for the first time since war-time. With even more language than The Great Gatsby, more angled perception (by varied points of view) and the perspective of post-war depression to boot. The general feeling I was left with by the end mirrored that of Gatsby--this is a very serious novel, a dense piece of literature that speaks volumes, that unsettled me to my core.

[Reading the Classics] Of Mice and Men // John Steinbeck

[Source: Deconstructed from 9780241952481; ©Penguin 2012]

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Author: John Steinbeck

Publication Year: 1937

Pages: 107

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Verdict: Simply unforgettable. Short but packed with atmosphere and emotion. A story about two men who fall prey to the promise of The American Dream (and many other characters). The importance of companionship is pronounced time and time again, the consequences of loneliness too high a price for instant gratification. One of Steinbeck's most famous novels, and for good reason.

My thoughts

OF MICE AND MEN is one of the few books I was required to read in high school that I actually loved and intended to revisit in the future. I will admit I had a few doubts. I worried that it wouldn't be as good as I'd remembered. I worried that I'd built it up too much in my head and that I'd just end up disappointing myself. Luckily, or maybe by my sheer force of will, I had nothing to worry about because it felt like I had just come back to something uniquely special.

[Review] The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 26/09/2012

Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Pages: 400

Source: For review

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

My Rating:

Unforgettable!

My thoughts

I was initially drawn to this book because of the interesting title. I mean, how badass does it sound? There may not be wizards, dragons, vampires or any noticable magic in The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (for convenience I will call 100YOM for the entirety of this review) BUT this book is so quirky and fun and so completely compelling that it's hard not to read on well into the night.