Reading is Inevitable

Title:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Author:  Benjamin Alire Sáenz Genre: Realistic Fiction, YA Fiction Rating:  5 out of 5 stars ★★★★★ Reviewer:  Julia Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself.  But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other — and the power of their friendship — can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on th...

I realized that, over a year ago, I wrote a post called "Quotes: Audacity" , and that this post did really well (it's actually Reading is Inevitable's most read post!), and yet I never wrote another post of quotes from a book. I liked writing that post, too. I like sharing quotes I like from books. That's why I started doing it on our bookstagram page . So why did I never write another one of these "quote blog posts"? I don't know. But I intend to write at least another one. And that's why I'm here today. Well, there's that, and then there's also the amazing book that is The Nightingale.  If you've read some of my recent blog posts or have poked around a bit, you would know that exactly a month ago I published my book review on The Nightingale , in which I explained my love for it and why you should read it yourself. And while I actually have another post in the works on that book because it definitely deserves more than on...

Back in early July, I published a post titled  "Summer 2017 Challenge - Reading Popular YA Books" , in which I explained that, this summer, I wanted to challenge myself to read some books I don't typically read. Actually, these books are what a lot of bookstagrammers read — the more popular young adult fiction books that tend to be of the fantasy genre. These books include well-known series such as Harry Potter , The Hunger Games , and The Mortal Instruments series, as well as stand-alone titles such as Thirteen Reasons Why  (a controversial one, however, due to the Netflix series adaptation) and Anna and the French Kiss . And it's not that I hate all young adult books. I just tend to not read ones more centered around fantasy and romance. But I wanted to read some of these books and give them another shot. Because every book is different, right? And I know that everyone has their own preferences, and that's perfectly okay! Like I said in my last post, ...

I love books. I mean, you have to know that, right? After all, I have a whole blog dedicated to books. There's also a good chance you came from the bookstagram account I co-run with my sister, so you would also know how much I talk about books over there. (It is a book stagram.) And there definitely isn't anything wrong with liking books. My mom actually said recently that she's glad I'd rather buy books than some other stuff kids my age want, whatever that may be. Except there's a problem with liking books too much: You end up buying a lot of them. Sure, I don't have as many books as others do. I've seen people dedicate three or four shelves just for their TBR books. But I still have over 20, a number that makes Em, someone who practically finishes a book days after buying it, shudder and shake her head. And now I've begun to shake my head, too. Yes, having a lot of books gives me options when it's time to pick a new one to read. Even...

Title:  We Are Okay Author:  Nina LaCour Genre:  Realistic Fiction Rating:  5 out of 5 ★★★★★ Reviewer:  Julia A quick yet powerful read, Nina LaCour's We Are Okay  was just what I needed when I was drowning in a reading slump and aching for... something. Was the writing extremely detailed? No, no it wasn't. Was there much action? No, not really. But was it real? Was it raw? Was it beautiful ? Yes, yes, a million times yes. There was a beautiful stillness to it that I loved; pauses in between conversation that I could feel ; a certain realness and attention to human nature that made it so amazing. So: what is this beautiful book about, you ask? We Are Okay 's main character, Marin, has shut herself away, quite literally as well as metaphorically, having chosen to stay alone in a college dormitory during winter break. She's cut out everyone from her old life in a failing attempt to escape what happened. No one even knows what happened those last...

The Glass Castle  movie came out a little over a week ago, and, since I had read and enjoyed the book, I went to see the movie with some of my family on Tuesday. Now, while there was nothing wrong with the book itself, I was a little worried about seeing the movie. Why? Well, it didn't exactly get the best comments and reviews from others, people claiming that it didn't do the memoir justice. But, now it's been almost a week since I've watched it. What do I think of the movie? Well... (Oh, and, uh...spoilers ahead. I think that goes without saying.) Watching the Movie The Beginning I don't know what it was, but something was just telling me that, oh no, this movie is going to be bad . I think it was just the way that they tried to include parts of the book in the movie. When it's in the book, spread out and flowing naturally with the good writing...? It makes sense, it seems real. But just something about the way that they were stringing together di...

Title:  The Nightingale Author:  Kristin Hannah Genre:  Historical Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 ★★★★★ Reviewer:  Julia If you know anything about books, I'm sure that you've heard of this one, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale . It was popular on bookstagram around the time of its release and is actually the author's favorite book that she has written. It's so good that there's even going to be a movie adaptation that will be released a few days shy of the book's four-year anniversary. (So it's coming out in 2019. A bit of a wait; drats.) BUT, that does not mean that you should hold off reading this amazing book. Because you shouldn't. You should read it right now. Do you need some more reasons? The Nightingale  tells the story of two sisters in Nazi-occupied France. After a difficult childhood and years of healing and trying to forget, Vianne has to watch as her happy life is uprooted. Her husband leaves to fight in the war. The Nazis invad...

Title: Jackaby Author: William Ritter Genre: Mystery; Fantasy Rating: 3 out of 5 Reviewer: Julia Jackaby . By the name of the book, you might think that the main character would be the man named Jackaby. And, since I had not actually read the back cover enough to remember it (I got this book in a date with a blind book, mind you), I was pleasantly surprised to find, in the last sentence of the fourth paragraph, that my narrator was a young woman named Abigail Rook. A feminist, to add, even though she’s living in 19th Century America. The story follows her as she, a lost girl on the unfamiliar territory of New Fiddleham, searches for a place to stay and a job that’ll pay for her expenses. As it turns out, she meets the town’s controversial “detective” R. F. Jackaby and gets a job as his assistant. But Jackaby is no ordinary man, and sees supernatural things that others don’t see. As outrageous as it might seem to Abigail, she’ll have to get herself accustomed quickly, as...

About one and a half weeks ago, I published the first part of this little two-part post, in which I listed 12 books that I own but have not read. Now it's time for me to list the other half of books that I have not read, and let me tell you this: the list is even longer than I thought. In my last post, I said that I had around 23 or 24 books in total, and it turns out that I have 24 books in my collection that I have not read. 13. The Melted Coins by Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys series) This is another book that I got from Em as a gift. It's a part of her tradition to give me a book on holidays or birthdays. So far, they're mostly old Nancy Drew  or Hardy Boy  books, but I did get one other book as I mentioned in part 1 . 14. Crossed by Ally Condie Crossed  is the second book of the Matched  trilogy that you may not have seen a bit around bookstagram. Or maybe you even read it or don't know about it at all. It's another one of your futuristic soc...

As of Wednesday, June 21st, summer is officially here. Ah: summer. That season when the sun comes out and kids get off from school. And, yes, while this does sound nice, this also means that it's going to be really hot and you're going to have so much time on your hands that you won't know what to do with it. Lucky for me, however, I also happen to own a whole bunch of books that I haven't yet read. That's reasonable, though, right? Us bookworms find it a little hard to buy just one book when going to the bookstore, and since you kinda have a reputation for loving books, there's a good chance that you'll receive two or three books around holidays and birthdays. And you don't even want to get me started about book sales. Therefore, the books just start to pile up a bit. And while you'd love to read them, school and/or work and just life in general gets in the way. However, the school year ended quite a bit ago. Summer vacation has begun. I fi...

Now that we're more or less halfway through 2017, I decided that it's about time to do a little update on how well Em and I are doing with the reading goals we made for ourselves at the beginning of 2017. We didn't make our goals extremely specific. All we did was choose a number based on how much we wanted to read and what seemed reasonable based on how much we knew we had read in 2016. And now it's time to reflect on those goals... oh boy. I honestly don't think things are going well for Em. When I asked her if she remembered her original goal, she had no clue. (It was 50 books!) But, after a few months with only one book finished at the end of each one, she had lessened her goal to a more reasonable 30. (She couldn't remember this number, either!) Drawing knowledge from my experience with my monthly goals for Reading is Inevitable, I don't think that you can do all too well if you don't remember your goals. And it looks like this is true for E...

This summer I am challenging myself to read some popular young adult books. Why would I do this? And why would this even be a challenge? Well, if you know me or have paid attention to the types of books I read through the blog or bookstagram, you would know that I typically don't like the popular young adult or teen books. The books that are popular these days tend to lean towards the fantasy or dystopian genre. Series such as Harry Potter or Divergent or The Mortal Instruments are examples of these fantasy/dystopian popular books. And, personally, I'm not as interested in these genres. Other popular books include those with romance in them, and I've never been too fond of these books as well. For instance, The Fault in Our Stars ? Eh, not much of a fan. And, sure: Having different preferences in books is perfectly okay. I just thought that it might be a good idea to read some of these books because I am completely lost when going on bookstagram. What's a shadow...

Hello everyone! How fitting it is that this year's anniversary of same-sex marriage being legalized in the U.S. falls on Monday, one of my posting days! (And if you didn't know that it was the two-year anniversary, well I guess you know now!) Last year I made a list of some good books with LGBTQ representation, and I will include a list at the end of this post, but to shake things up a bit I thought I'd quickly discuss why representation is important in the media, specifically in books. After all, this is a mainly bookish blog. (If you would like to view last year's post, click here .) First of all, what is  representation? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's the inclusion of people with sexualities and/or genders outside of heterosexuality and the gender binary. It's having a gay character or a trans* character and showing readers that, "hey, LGBTQ people do exist" and "hey, not being cisgender or 'straight' is okay...

On the fourth of February, Em and I made another trip to Barnes & Noble, and I thought I would share what we got! Together, we got a total of three books and two little blind boxes! Looking around the store, it was a bit difficult to pick exactly what it was I wanted. I mean, there’s such a large selection! Sure, I’ve seen most of the books before, but there’s always ones that I’m thinking about reading later. And then there’s the question of if I want to buy the book, or give it a try first with my library’s copy of it. (If they even have it!) There were some sections I knew I could skip over. That’s the first step towards progress. For me, that was skipping the usual fantasy-action-“I must save the world” type of teen book. (Sorry. They’re just not my thing.) I also could pass by this table of popular teen books, which mostly had those type of books. On my book-searching journey, there was also books that I have read, such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. W...

Series: Wake Trilogy  Author: Lisa McMann  Genre: YA fiction, romance, crime, mystery, suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Reviewer: Em Wake. Fade. Gone. I. Don’t. Know. What. To. Say. This trilogy was somehow amazing and disappointing all in one? I have very mixed feelings about this trilogy. First off, I finished it in two days over my spring break, and it was a great read. Took me about 4-5 hours to finish each book, which is not too bad. It kept me interested and made me go into a rut of reading after not reading for the longest time! First, I will share my individual feelings on each the book and then my evaluation on the whole series, in which I have huge opinions and conflicting thoughts. ,0[This is going to be long, so stay with me. There’s going to be quite a rant at the end. NO MAJOR SPOILERS (only what it says in the book description) Wake Wake was a great book! I thought it introduced the topic very well. It started off my explaining...