by John Green
I think John Green is my new favorite author. And this book, while being categorized as Young Adult, is really for anyone looking for answers and direction about love, life and loss, but just so happens to be set in a high school boarding school context.
Sometimes there are those decisions we make without thinking, truly thinking, whose consequences taint the rest of our lives. And after the chips fall, how do we forgive ourselves? How do we forgive the people who put us in the position of having to make those decisions? And then, how to we live with the forgiveness that we bestow or withhold?
This book has made me reflect on some of those random, spontaneous decisions that I have made in my past, that haunt me. Some days their memories roll off my shoulder without a second of thought, but most often, my body shudders as my mind brings me back to that moment in time. Some will never really be in the past or gone.
“We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestions. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.”
by John van de Ruit
The story/diary continues on with Spud entering 2nd year at boarding school. Basically more of the same.
I’d like to see where this goes/ends. I really enjoy the adventures of Spud and so I wonder if the books will just keep piling up. I like this kind of writing because it feels more like real life, there isn’t anyone in this book stating, the beginning, middle and end. It’s just a continuous flow through Spud’s life. Feels a lot more like life, you never really know what’s important until maybe a little bit further down the road. The best we can do, when living life, is just record it as it goes by and look back and highlight the good and bad times.
by Maureen Johnson
About a girl who goes on a wild adventure led by her dead aunt’s 13 envelopes. With each completed challenge, she gets a bit braver and a bit closer to her aunt and finally accepting her aunt’s death.
I liked the adventures and following Ginny through Europe. Sometimes we don’t get second chances in life, it passes us by out of fear or thinking we have more of it. But sometimes we get second chances through the people who remember us best.
by John Green
Pretty hilarious story about a prodigy trying to become a genius, thinking it’ll increase how much he matters to not only the world, but the 19 Katherines who have dumped him.
What I liked so much about it were all the footnotes of seemingly irrelevant facts and how they were all connected in Colin’s subconsciousness. It just makes me think about how and why I remember what I do at a certain time and how and why I remember whatever it is that I remember. Makes me want to follow my own train of thoughts and learn a bit more.
by John van de Ruit
Sometimes I just like grabbing a visually appealing book off the shelf and reading it. The Main Street Library has become my hot spot destination this summer and I check my library account more than my email. So I usually am all business. Go in, get my holds and check out. But I love what good cover design can do for a book that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Especially when you compare it to the other Spud book design, which if you go check it out, wouldn’t make it appealing to anyone, except perhaps major pervs. Scary what some designers are doing to great stories. Killing their potential.
Spud is about a 14-year-old South African boarding school student who hasn’t been hit by puberty yet, hence his nickname. His journal records his family adventures and the stories of the Crazy Eight. It’s hilarious and I also enjoyed learning a bit about South Africa, especially the changes that occurred not necessarily to the country, but rather in the minds of its average citizens as apartheid dissolved. If you end up loving it, there’s a sequel that I’m currently laughing my head off through.
I love Sarah Dessen’s books, but I felt that this was a very weak adaptation. But it’s also adapted from my least favorite of her books. It lacked the overall character development and attachment I usually get to the characters and the relationships that evolve. Pretty flat. But I did really enjoy the little documentary on Young Adult Literature.
