Looking For Alaska by John Green is an amazing book about a young girl who is struggling with the death of her mother and the guilt that she could have saved her. The story is narrated by Pudge who is in fact called Miles. It is broken down into two sections - Before and After. (THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILER’S AHEAD!!).
Miles is the new student at this elite private boarding school. He is immediately considered an outsider by his room mate ‘The Colonel’ who unlike Pudge is a scholarship student(Pudge’s parents paid for the privilege). The pair get off to a rocky start but once The Colonel realises that there are more similarities than differences he let’s them into his gang of friends. This is when Pudge first sees Alaska and falls in love with her. Alaska on the other hand is the opposite of everyone in the group. She is unpredictable and on the edge, living each day as if it’s her last. The three mentioned above as well as two other kids are the school trouble makers and boy do they stir up some mischief. Until one day someone gets killed and turns everyone’s life upside down.
I could probably go on and on about this book but this is not you’re typical teen story. It deals with religion in particular Buddhism and the notions that are attached to it as well as a possible suicide. Also the people that are left behind are wondering if they could have done something different to save her life. There is a ‘did she didn’t she’ cliffhanger at the end of the book. Overall I loved this story probably more than I would admit it.
I highly recommend reading this if you have the time. It took me a day and a half (yes it was that good!).
I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t actually know where book 1 finished and when book 2 and 3 began. The reason why is because I read it in e-book form which given the bulky-ness of the material I hope you’ll forgive me for doing.
I really enjoyed reading the last two books. They carry on from where they left off and are just as addictive as the first. What we find out is the extent of the incestuous relationship between Fuki-Eri and her father, the fates that were bringing Tengo and Aomame so close without actually meeting and the appearance if a grotesque looking new character. Tengo and Aomame are so inter-connected that something very freaky happens when Aomame conducts her last assassin kill and she walks away with a very small surprise.
The only problem I had was the introduction of a third chapter/person that the story focused on(the unpleasantly looking man I described above). However towards the end it made sense. The relationship between the dowager and Aomame was really beautifully written and also the relationship between Aomame and her best friend who came to a very unusual end. However I did think the book was a tad bit too sexual for me. But that’s just me.
The ending I thought was a bit predictable and there were several questions that were left unanswered like who was the NHK officer. I presuming it’s Tengo’s dad although this is not confirmed. We do know how and what an AC is but it just felt like the story was unfinished. I don’t know if you felt the same when you read it yourself.
I highly recommend 1Q84. I felt like I was in another world like Tengo’s cat town and Aomame’s 1Q84. It was definitely a surreal experience reading this book. If you get the chance to read this then please do because I loved it, and let’s face it we’re all interested in the occult in some way. It’s unexplained and un-chartered territory and very exciting to read.
Hearing the title of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner book ‘Freakonomics’, I automatically went to the filthy part of my brain and assumed that it had something to do with sex. Thankfully I read an explanation and a review on the book and this cleared up any confusion that I had.
So what is Freakonomics about anyway you may ask? It’s basically a book with a collection of stories about how people’s behaviour can be the catalyst for some very unexpected results. Some examples are: parents being late to pick up their children from day care and the nursery workers being fed up with this, start charging for late pickup. The outcome is quite the opposite of what some people may think. Instead of parents rushing to pick their children up, they come even later because they feel as though because they are late and actually paying for it that they are off the hook from feeling any emotional guilt over not being on time. Sometimes some incentives that are set up for positive outcomes are in fact negative because people seem to try and exploit the system. Another example is how teachers use incentives to cheat but they are always caught out because the difference between one child’s test results the previous year to the one taken recently had changed so much so that it didn’t even seem like the same person( and of course it wasn’t the same person - someone else had cheated for them on their behalf.)
This book is the relationship between people’s behaviours and events that happen in the future. The most interesting part I found was when talking about the reduction of crime and the broken window theory. Now if you’ve read Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell then you’ll already know this term but for those of you who haven’t - the broken window theory is when you see a broken window(for example) and you fix it before the situation escalates and the whole street is eventually full of windows which are broken. In the 90’s crime especially petty crime was at an all time high. There were stories of commuters on trains shooting other’s out of fear and desperation(this happened in the 80’s though). Then the new mayor came all, fixed the graffiti and ticket jumping on the trains and miraculously the crime statistics went down. However after reading Freakonomics it has now become clear that crime was already on it’s way down when the new mayor was appointed. Fixing the windows may have helped but the fact of the matter is that times were changing anyway.
Also did you know that gangs in Chicago operate like a business. If you looked at their books then you would find little discrepancy between them and lets say McDonald’s. Well maybe the little fact that the gangs deal drugs and McDonald’s with fast food. It may not be an amazing attribute of the gangs to have but it does show how everything in this world relies on hierarchy and organisation. From the lowest members of the food chain right up to the to fat cats.
Another topics are to do with abortion (one woman’s fight to end a foetus’s life changed history), Ku Klux Klan(there were millions at one point which is a scary thought to even think about - even today they are around in some form in the south of North America) and sumo wrestlers.
Overall I loved this book and thought of it as very educational and informative. It took me a while to finish it but it was well worth it in the end.
I’ve recently started reading the lengthy book that is 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. The book has been divided into three volumes.
I haven’t before read any of his books so I didn’t know what to expect. However I really am pleasantly surprised at how much I am enjoying the 1Q84. The authors writing style is easy to read and oddly relaxing.
I just finished volume one and I can say I’m officially hooked.
A little summary: The story starts off with Aomame in a car having an outer body experience. Rattled by it she goes about her daily plans which one could say is a little bit unusual. The book alternates between Aomame and Tengo, who is a school maths teacher also moonlights as a ghost writer for a new book that needs a re-write. He reluctantly takes on this new job mainly because of the problems that may occur if anyone finds out that he rewrote a 17 year old girls(Fuka-Eri)book. During this time Tengo becomes close to Fuka-Eri who is a beautiful but strange girl with a dark past(she was brought up in a religious commune - Sakigake). The story that Fuka-Eri originally writes is about a goat and spirits from another world. However this story almost seems real especially the way Fuka-Eri talks about it - Fuka-Eri is a girl of few words.
Aomame on the other hand is a defender of abused women and takes justice into her own hands against the husbands by taking them to the ‘next world’. Aomame is working with the Dowager and is introduced to a young girl(10 years old) who has escaped from the Sakigake commune with apparent signs of sexual abuse. She bizarrely has the same story as Fuka-Eri although she does not know it. Aomame is on a mission to find out who is abuser is and take him down with the help of another female friend. However things become distorted when she starts seeing two moons. Also Aomame has a strong desire to let fate unite her with Tengo again. In the meantime though her sexual preferences in men are questionable.
Going back to Tengo, Fuka-Eri into hiding by request of the Little People(we don’t know who or what they are except they come out of a persons mouth.)
Book One of 1Q84 is amazing and addictive. It’s about two parallel worlds between Tengo and Aomame(who coincidentally knew each other from their childhood - be it only briefly). I’m presuming in Book Two the two lives will get together and meet in the middle somehow.
A warning to the reader, Book One is extremely sexual and very graphic. Also the book is a translation so at times the language does come across as awkward which is completely understandable.
I’m about to start Book Two of 1Q84 and I’m looking forward to the continuation of the book.
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory is about Lady Margaret Beaufort and her ruthless scheme for her son Henry VII(the father of the infamous King Henry VIII) to become the King of England. She believes that she is entitled to be considered royalty because she is descended from King Edward III.
The book starts off from the beginning of her life where Beaufort desires to be Joan of Arc or a nun but is granted neither of these wishes because she marries at the age of 12(basically raped) and then gives birth at the age of 13 to difficult circumstances(to induce labour she was thrown up in the air in a sheet which may have made her infertile). Her first husband is killed and she is quickly married off and separated from her son. The second marriage is childless and she considers her new husband a coward. Again he dies. Her third marriage is strategic with the main purpose that her son will one day become King of England. She is cocky about being the mother of the future King by even signing her letters before she has achieved her wish. By the end of the book we find out that she is well on her way to becoming one of the most powerful family in royal history.
The Red Queen wasn’t as enjoyable as The White Queen but it’s amazing to see what extent people will go to, to get what they want. Especially if you look at the royal family today and them being basically a title and the face of England with absolutely no power or control any more.
I haven’t read the third book ‘The Lady Of The Rivers’ which is a prequel to The White Queen but I look forward to it. A warning to the reader, the books aren’t in order of history in terms of them published. The third book I think is the first book chronologically. It’s a really good series to read!
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory is a story set in the 1400s about Elizabeth Woodville, a commoner and widower, who goes on to be the Queen of England. There are rumours that she is a witch and used her powers and magic to enchant King Edward IV. With her beautiful looks and pleasant personality she is loved and considered the people’s Queen. Everyone seems to fall under her spell. She is amazingly fertile with 2 sons before she remarried and many other children afterwards.
The story’s underlying theme and mystery is whether her two sons, the princes, who disappeared from the Tower of London were murdered by King Richard III.
By the end of the book, her husband is killed and we’re left to wonder if she can restore her position on the throne and survive on her own. This book is so addictive. You will not be able to put it down. And it’s even more interesting considering that it’s loosely based on fact.
The book is followed by The Red Queen.
