Jennifer Niven: ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES

I picked this one up from my sister's library. It was actually my gift to her for her birthday. My sister read it before me and unfortunately I saw her reading it. I'm saying unfortunately because this was some kind of spoiler for me. I saw her with red eyes and nose which meant she was crying. And all the time while reading I kept thinking when will the sad part start. At the end I wasn't crying so hard as my sister, but I can say that this is that kind of book that leaves you thinking about life.

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the 'natural wonders' of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself - a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. How far will Violet go to save the boy she has come to love? 

“The thing I realize is, that it's not what you take, it's what you leave.” 

“The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody.” 

(pinterest.com)

“I learned that there is good in this world, if you look hard enough for it. I learned that not everyone is disappointing, including me, and that a 1,257-foot bump in the ground can feel higher than a bell tower if you’re standing next to the right person.” 

“When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don’t seem to matter very much, do they?” 

(pinterest.com)

“Listen, I’m the freak. I’m the weirdo. I’m the troublemaker. I start fights. I let people down. Don’t make Finch mad, whatever you do. Oh, there he goes again, in one of his moods. Moody Finch. Angry Finch. Unpredictable Finch. Crazy Finch. But I’m not a compilation of symptoms. Not a casualty of shitty parents and an even shittier chemical makeup. Not a problem. Not a diagnosis. Not an illness. Not something to be rescued. I’m a person.” 

“For what it's worth, you showed me something, Ultraviolet - there is such a thing as a perfect day.” 

“I mean, I know but I don't. I've always been different, but to me different is normal.” 

Have you raed it? What are your thoughts on it?

Have a great day :)

Patrick Ness: SEDEM MINUT ČEZ POLNOČ ( A Monster Calls)

Some books are a true art, and not just because of the story which is so magnificently told, but also because of how the book looks. The whole package is something to admire and I think this is the case with the book Sedem minut čez polnoč (A Monster Calls is the original title). 

An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor. At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor.

The author is Patrick Ness, but the story was inspired by Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Illustrator of the book was Jim Kay. The book won several awards, Ness and Kay won the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals for writing and illustration, recognising the year's best work published in the UK. The double win alone is unprecedented in more than fifty years since the illustration award was established.

I would recommend this book to everyone, really. It's such a powerful, strong novel. And the last paragraph is so heartbreaking jet so beautiful. 

Quotes from the book:

“You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.” 


“There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between.” 


“Stories don't always have happy endings."
This stopped him. Because they didn't, did they? That's one thing the monster had definitely taught him. Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn't expect.” 


“And if one day,' she said, really crying now, 'you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn't even speak to me, then you have to know, Conor, you have to that is was okay. It was okay. That I knew. I know, okay? I know everything you need to tell me without you having to say it out loud.” 

And now I'm crying again.

Have a great day!

Fredrik Backman: MOŽ Z IMENOM OVE (A Man Called Ove)

A roller coaster of emotions this one. It was a long wait and when I finally got it I finished it in one day. As it is very hard to get new and popular books in the library I decided to make a reservation. It was the end of July and I got it in January, so I was waiting six months for it (I was eight in the waiting line, so I knew it would take a while to get it, but I was patient :) ).

I don't know if I was more emotional than usual when I read this book, but as I said, it was a roller coaster of emotions this reading. First I was laughing, than I was crying, then laughing and again crying and so on. And when I read it I begun to annoy my relatives with the book, telling them they should read it, that it is so funny and we can have it at home just a month, because of the waiting line behind me, so they better start read it. 

Original title is En man som hetter Ove and if you want to know why I liked it so much you will have to read it, but in the meantime here is a short describtion. Meet Ove. He s a curmudgeon the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell. But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul.

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.” 

“All people want to live dignified live; dignity just means something different to different people.” 

“Maybe to her destiny was "something"; that was none of his business. But to him, destiny was "someone.” 

“Loving someone is like moving into a house,” Sonja used to say. “At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.” 

“And time is a curious thing. Most of us only live for the time that lies right ahead of us. A few days, weeks, years. One of the most painful moments in a person's life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead. And when time no longer lies ahead of one, other things have to be lived for. Memories, perhaps.” 

I will say it again, in case you didn't cach it already :) I really like this book. It is a love story, a story of friendship and a story about life. 

Have a great day! ;)

Patrick Ness: More Than This

My first book of Patrick Ness, and certainly not the last. What to say, I liked it. I didn't know what to expect and I was really pleasantly surprised. The book classifies as a young adult novel and this could put off some of the readers. I, on the other hand, read quite a lot YA novels, also because I have a younger sister, who buys books like crazy, mostly from the YA sector. When I started working in the bookshop, this one had a sign NEW, so I picked it up and read the description. And so it went on my reading list. Here is the description.

A boy called Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he is here? And where is this place?

Sometimes can be the YA novels more profound, meaningful, touching than books for adult readers and I don't want to miss some good books just because of their label. Would I reccomend this book to someone? I already did :)

"What I do know is that you give a human being a chance to be stupid and violent, then they're going to take it, every time. No matter where they are."

'"I don't belive in guardian angels," Regine says seriously. "Just people who are there for you and people who aren't." "Yes," Tomasz says. "Yes, I agree with this." "Just people," Seth says, finding he agrees, too.'

'No, life didn't always go how you tought it might. Sometimes it didn't make any sense at all. You 've just got to find a way to live there anyway, Seth thinks.'

(bookdepository.com)