Darla!

Category: books

  • Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell


    When I was in my teenage year, I only read several novels that I could actually count them with my fingers. I was more of a manga girl back then. I could swallow up to 10 manga in one afternoon. I didn’t start worshipping novels until my early college years, when one of my lecturers assigned us to read one novel and then review it in front of the class. That was the beginning of a new era.

    I guess, perhaps that is one of the reasons why I got so stuck up on young adult genre despite the fact that I am already in my early adulthood (the other one being John Green). I consumed John Green’s books one by one, and then The Hunger Games trilogy, and now that I have read both all of John Green’s and all of the The Hunger Games trilogy, I found myself craving for more young adult novels. That was when I stumbled across two nice looking novels (bad, bad Dara still judges a book by its cover): one was The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, the other one was Eleanor & Park.

    Eleanor & Park is a story about two teenagers who don’t look fit together: a half Korean boy who likes wearing all black and sitting by himself at the back seat of the school bus, and a girl with big, curly red hair who likes wearing men’s clothes. It’s Eleanor’s first day at her new school and she has to take the school bus. There is no seat available except for the one at the back, Park’s usual seat. They end up sitting together every day and they grow closer and closer each day. The main conflict of the story is Eleanor’s family situation. A few pages through, I already felt really sorry for her. Park is the only thing that can take her mind off her troubles at home. The ending is not too surprising, but it still leaves me crying in bed at 11pm. I must admit that I brought this book home was because of John Green’s review on its front cover, saying “Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it’s like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book.” It’s true. Eleanor & Park reminded me about those years when I freaked out about absolutely everything; afraid of doing something wrong, afraid of letting somebody down because of what I’d done. But since I’ve all grown up now, I realise that those years had defined me who I am today. All those mistakes, those memories; they taught me a lot of things. Eleanor & Park had made me go back to that memory lane.

    Now, speaking of being a grown up… I think I may try reading more adult genre. I heard that Rainbow Rowell also writes adult contemporary novels, namely Attachments. I have had my eyes on this book on a shelf in a local Books & Beyond, so I may grab one as soon as I get my paycheck. I know splurging is bad, but hey! At least I’m spending it on books. Isn’t it a good excuse?

  • The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

    I’m still quite unsure of what to say about this book. It’s that kind of books which will make a good movie script and will make a nice small budget Valentine’s Day film. I have this thing about past faced stories, like those of Dan Brown’s. However, Dan Brown’s books almost always leave me with a severe headache, whilst The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight (what a long title!) leaves me with smiles and sighs. I love it. Perhaps the only thing I hate about this book is the fact that it was poorly edited. There are some grammatical errors and wrong words placements (I’m currently building up a career as a proofreader, so yeah…) but other than that, I’d put this book on a special shelf in my future house.

    Oh and this is my favourite passage:

  • Catching Fire + An Abundance of Katherines

    The thing about getting to watch a movie on its first showing day is that you also get the pleasure of saying (or shouting, if you prefer) “What do you mean you haven’t seen Catching Fire? That movie is rad!” So, I have been pulling my hardest try to see every good movie on its premiere. It’s been that way since, like, two years ago or so.

    And of course I did that too for Catching Fire. Not only it was predicted to be a succesful movie, being the sequel to The Hunger Games that it is, but the whole series is also a special series for me. The Hunger Games was the first movie I watched together with A (we weren’t technically on a date back then, since we saw the movie together with other friends and we hadn’t confessed our feelings for each other, so-). It was actually me who dragged him into watching it and later into liking the trilogy. It’s super special.

    Catching Fire premiered in my country one day before the actual worldwide premiere schedule. People on Twitter were questioning it but I just grabbed a newspaper and there it was: Catching Fire was on. Luckily, I got two tickets for the afternoon show. A showed up a little late, but I didn’t miss any part of it.
    Boy was the movie almost exactly like what I had imagined it would be! It’s the perk of watching the first movie before reading the whole trilogy. I read the trilogy with the movie in mind; Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta. That way, when I read Catching Fire, I could get a clear image on how the movie would be and then it all came true. Just like magic.
    And speaking of magic… (If you’re friends with me on Goodreads, you might have seen that I have stated this there) John Green is hands down the Albus Dumbledore in young adult fiction writing. That man is like wizard with his way of writing. I just finished An Abundance of Katherines and it left me with yet another John Green-gasm. Well, it’s still not as good as Looking for Alaska, but it is… significant.

    I think it’s the thing about John Green’s books; they’re significant. I’ve read a critic about them somewhere, saying that John Green has this boring plot in each of his book: a wallflower-kind-of boy and a girl with a there’s-no-other-girl-like-her personality whom said boy falls in love with. I agree with that, but we can’t put aside the fact that each of them is so significant that everytime you finish one book, you crave for another. Or so I feel.

    And now that I’ve read five out of six John Green’s books, I should probably hunt the last one. Also since Mockingjay willl not be released until next year, I think I’ll just sit here excitedly waiting for The Hobbit (13 Dec) and series 3 of Sherlock (which will air on the New Year’s Day! Finally!)

  • Typical September

    I hate to say this, but I’ve always had this little hatred for September for years now. Majorly because it is the start of the new school year, but also because last year’s September was, like, the lowest point of my life. I am a pessimist, so when August came to its end, I already knew that I shouldn’t have put too much expectation on September. That, however, doesn’t help with the disappointments I experience right now.

    First, one of my final paper supervisors is busy for the whole first three weeks of September, so I have to postpone any progress of this paper to the last week of September. What?

    And to add to that, my laptop charger is broken so I can’t use the laptop at all. All my files are there, and even though I’m using Dropbox to backup some of them, most of the references I’ve downloaded from the internet are in the folder which is not automaticaly backed up to Dropbox.

    I’m using my family’s PC to post this and the old keyboard is… well, old. We rarely use it now that each of us owns a laptop, so this keyboard is covered with dust, much like the tomb of Pharaoh.

    So, yeah… I really need to fix my charger.

    On the brighter side: my boyfriend bought me John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines(!!!)

    I love John Green. As I said on Anjali’s blog, John Green is like the Albus Dumbledore of young adult fictions. I’ve read all of his books, except An Abundance of Katherines and Let It Snow. The last one I read was Will Grayson, Wil Grayson and I finished it in just three days. What a waste of a good book, no? So for this one, I’m taking my time. It’s been four days and I’ve only read 20 pages. Hahaha

    PS. My dad just called from Way Kambas and he said he’d buy me elephant tshirt and stuffed toy. Woot!

  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson

    “You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”

    I already cracked up right on the very first sentence of this book. I’m 99% sure that John Green is a wizard. He creates magic in all his books (or at least in the ones I’ve read). This book was written collaboratively with David Levithan, who also co-wrote Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which is one of my favourtite young adult novels. So, magic + magic = mindblown me. This book is a double strike.

    The major theme of this book is homosexuality in teenagers. Unlike other books I’ve read which have similar theme, Will Grayson, Will Grayson explains it in a lighter way. Also, I love how it depicts the friendship between two boys. Being a girl, I’m always kind of curious about boys’ friendship. This book lets me know that boys’ friendship can also be cute. Hahahaha 😉

    Have you read Will Grayson, Will Grayson? What do you think about it?