Mister Death's Blue-eyed Girls / Mary Downing Hahn

In 1955, two girls are shot to death.
*That's all I dare say because it's so good to read it without knowing much, haha*

In 2014, I thought I didn't like historical fiction, or was sure I wouldn't enjoy this genre. Did I really say that??? I remember reading a lot of this back in 2012, but I didn't know what it was called. Simply called them "books set in 1950s/1960s".

I've seen this book in many of the libraries I've been in, but never picked it up because I was always just looking for books that Booktube/Bookstagram have mentioned before. What a mistake. The 5th time or so I saw this title, I decided to just take it.

Books are really best enjoyed not knowing anything about. Jumped into this and immediately loved the setting of 1955. The writing was clear and I could easily imagine the clothes, the places, the characters and how they talked and acted. I loved every bit of it. The changing point of views apart from our main girl Nora really added to the story.

If you're looking for an actual murder mystery though, this isn't the one for you. It doesn't revolve around that, but it's more of a coming-of-age story about letting go, how small a town is and how everyone can know everyone and at the same time not... how being accused of something you didn't do could leave such a huge impact.

This was based on an actual murder in 1955, and reading the author's Afterword just made me wanna cry my heart out. Reading the book halfway I looked at her picture on the back cover flap and was like... Wow, she's old. But there is a reason for that *cries*

I Googled about this real life case, and reading about how every single detail in it matched the details in this book is just........ *cries again*

Underrated books recommendations 20/3

I've read so many books in 2016 so far! I thought I'd share some here. These are the last 4 books I've read, and I've realised they're all pretty underrated and not overhyped on Booktube =)

Read Between The Lines / Jo Knowles

The first chapter begins with a constantly-bullied guy who fractures his finger during gym class; his middle finger, no less. The accident's left his middle finger up always, making him constantly flipping off the entire world.

What makes this book unique is how it doesn't have just one or two points of view, but ten. Ten different perspectives, ten different characters, ten different lives, all that intertwine within a day. One chapter could mention how bitchy a character is; and then when you get to the perspective of that bitchy character, you see a different side of her.

This book makes you think twice before judging someone by putting you into the shoes of different types of teenagers and know what they're thinking. I really loved this one, despite picking it out randomly at the library.

Daughters Unto Devils / Amy Lukavics

Amanda's family decides to move from their small mountain cabin to the prairie, where she decides is a place and time for a fresh start, after being shunned by a boy she thought loved her. Well, you already know by the cover that creepy shit happens.

It's best going into this book without knowing anything about it, like all great books. But just know, the writing gave me goosebumps and some of the paragraphs were really on point. I was scared to read this by myself, no joke, and yet I couldn't stop reading it til after midnight. (with my mom beside me)

I loved the setting of this book, somewhere in the 1900's I think, not too sure? But it did add to the story. It just felt like that typical horror movie where everything else is really quiet and nothing much happens, and then you get near the ending and SHIT HITS THE FAN.

They All Fall Down / Roxanne St. Claire

Every year, 10 junior girls are selected as Vienna High's hottest girls. Our main character has never been popular or even noticed, and yet she makes it 5th on this list. Great for her, isn't it? Well other than the fact that she thinks this list thing is retarded, the girls on it start dying one by one, in the order of that list...

It really was a great premise, and the writing makes you stick with it, dying to find out more, but personally for me, the revelation wasn't very top-notch and didn't seem well-planned, and the ending wasn't so satisfying. But that's just my personal thought, you should read it for yourself to know =)

52 Reasons To Hate My Father / Jessica Brody

Lexington Larrabee is the heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Larrabee Media empire, and her father, the CEO of said company, gives a trust fund of 25 million dollars to each of his children, aka Lexi and her 4 older brothers, when they turn 18.

Lexi has been counting down the days to her eighteenth birthday, but then she crashes her car into a convenience store, drunk, a few days before. What's a spoilt brat got to do when her father decides to hold that 25m dollars from her??? She's got to work 52 low-wage jobs, every week for a year, that's what.

It was a lot of fun to read, and honestly even though she's a spoilt brat I thought Lexi was kinda adorable. The misery she went through, her doses of bad luck, were all too hilarious to read about. I thought she went through such a huge character development, from a brat to a strong and smart woman.

I liked this kind of books in secondary school, and that's why I enjoyed this one so much =)

All these books are underrated and are hardly noticed, so do give them a try =) They were all such unique and fun reads which stick to you for a long time, be it positively or not xD

(spoilers) Burn For Burn trilogy / Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

I've been wanting to read these since 2014, but I didn't like not having matching books on my shelves, so I didn't buy them. I borrowed them from the library only because I was lucky enough to have found them in one single library.

This had a great premise, really: three girls who have been wronged by a bully, an ex-friend, a boy... And instead of waiting for karma to hit them back, they decide to take things into their own hands.

This is gonna be full of rants.

Alright, so I loved the first book, Burn For Burn. I enjoyed the girls' plotting and the way the executed it, despite how messy or flawed they were. After all, they're just high school girls. I loved Mary, really, she's so sweet and cute, while Kat is such a strong person and adorable in her own spiteful way. And I loved hating Rennie, however weird that sounds.

Well, I didn't like Lillia from the start. The Asian model's face on the covers really irks me and gets on my nerves, and it affected my view of Lillia, especially the fact that she was always described as pretty, hot, popular, blah blah blah.

By the time we got to book 2, Fire With Fire, I hated Lillia so much. I hated her as a character, and then the plot fell downhill as well, and by downhill, I meant leaning towards Lillia and just Lillia alone.

Trust Jenny Han to make the Asian character the sweet, innocent one who is popular and wanted by all the boys for no apparent reason. It's really annoying, mind you, even though I'm Asian too. She was really pushing it too much with this character. Everything just revolved around Lillia.

And then we got to book 3: Ashes To Ashes. Oh my god, I wanted to throw this book across my room. Mary was doing worse damage to Kat than Lillia, to the extent of destroying Kat's precious boat, while merely scaring Lillia off using her stupid horse. OH MY GOD. LILLIA WAS THE ONE WHO "FELL IN LOVE" WITH REEVE, WHO BETRAYED MARY. OH. MY. GOD.

And of course, Lillia is the one who gets everything. She is the one whose life is most unaffected. She is the one whose perfect family is all safe, who still gets what she wants, who didn't lose anyone, who still has 2 boys fighting for her even though she PLAYED WITH THEM LIKE HELL COUNTLESS TIMES. Kat lost her dog, didn't get into Oberlin, her relationship with Alex wasn't touched up on. EVERYTHING WAS LILLIA THIS LILLA THAT.

AND: am I the only one who sees a shadow of a To All The Boys I've Loved Before/PS I Still Love You character in everyone of Lillia's clique???

The Asian that is excessively described as "sweet and innocent": Lara Jean / Lillia
The sweet kind nice guy who is close friends with the family: Josh / Alex
The douchebag/player who is suddenly so in love with the Asian for no reason???: Peter / Reeve
The popular pretty girl who grew up with, and have a love triangle with the Asian and douchebag: Genevieve / Rennie

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Done ranting, goodbye.

25 bookish facts about me

Yes yes, I'd seen a Booktuber or two doing this, yes yes, it looked interesting yes yes let's cut to the chase =D

1. I love to jump into a book without knowing anything about it. It's always a pleasant surprise!

2. My most-read genre is Contemporary, and it's just like my safe zone when it comes to reading... I know, I should get out of it.

3. On the other hand, all kinds of Fantasy bore me. The kind with swords, the kind with monsters; but I recently read the first 2 books of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and enjoyed them. It just takes luck to find a Fantasy book that I like.

4. I don't like to read in bed. Mainly because the most comfortable spot to read is too dim and my eyes are already as bad as they can get.

5. I find it easy to read through any noise. Be it in the bus, with all the people talking and the engines,  or at work, with my colleagues talking and laughing so damn loud xD

6. When it comes to music while reading, I let my playlist go on shuffle and my focus will only waver if a song that I'm currently loving comes.

7. Whenever I'm reading, I like to put the side of the page on the right between my thumb and forefinger and stroke the paper. It's so nice X_X

8. I hate not having all the books of the series before starting to read it.

9. What makes me a lucky person? The fact that I'm always finding entire trilogies in just one library by luck! In February, I've found the Delirium trilogy, the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, and the Burn for Burn trilogy, all in just one single library each xD

10. When I buy a series, I have to buy them in matching heights, covers, and spines. That's why I prefer buying them all at one shot =D

11. I am the only one in my family who reads. I find it weird to think that there are whole families (in books and real life) who like to read together??? It feels so awkward.

12. I've never bought books online before. Maybe because I don't know how to xD But mostly I just like to go to bookstores, you know?

13. I don't play favourites with authors because I always just read something because I want to, not because of the author =) I do have auto-buy authors though, but I don't call them "favourite authors".

14. I get annoyed when people who don't read at all post pictures of a book that is popular at that period. Aka I hate the local girls when they post pictures on their Instagram of If I Stay or The Fault In Our Stars just to make their feed more "Tumblr".

15. I can spend a long time in a bookstore if I am alone. I'll walk here, walk there, pick up a book, pick up another, put down a book, put down another.......

16. I've never read Harry Potter and used to have the mindset that I will NEVER read them.

17. My childhood wasn't Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or Lemony Snicket. Instead it was all Enid Blyton and this series called the Boxcar Children.

18. I love to match books with songs. If you look carefully there's always that one song that seemed to have been made for that particular book.

19. I have membership for 3 of the major bookstores in Singapore, which are Popular, Times, and Kinokuniya. Of course, I don't need that membership for Popular anymore when I became a staff there, because staff discount =D

20. I still like physical books the best. Not ever gonna try e-books or audiobooks again, they're just not my thing.

21. The very first book that I reread a few times was Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and I don't even know why. In fact I bought it just because there was a cat on the cover.

22. I don't read books in my own language aka Malay. I'm not actually very good at it, speaking it only with my grandma and a few customers, and even then I still struggle /: English books it is.

23. I need to read a minimum of 100 pages a day if not I'll feel so unaccomplished =)

24. I try to avoid local authors, not that there are too many of them. I recently gave up on my dreams of becoming a writer and seeing accomplished ones in my own country makes me want to pick it up again, which I'm trying not to.

25. I have no idea who I'd be without this love for books.

Love for libraries

One of the book blogs I'm following recently talked about libraries in one of her posts. It made me reminisce a little, about the days when I just knew what a library even was; I remember my mom telling me we could bring books home, and I was so shocked to know that we didn't have to pay for it.

The Popular bookstore at Whitesands was a huge part of my childhood, but then again, so was the library. It used to be an arcade, and I remember this because my elder brother and our boy cousin would always go there and drag me along.

That one day, when we saw it had opened into a library, they were devastated; I on the other hand, did not know what it was until my mother told me about how we could borrow books from there. It slowly became my favourite place.

My mom would read her Malay entertainment magazines while I read the fairytales. I remember the fairytale section, where exactly it was, and it was always the first spot I'd go to when we arrived, while the first place I'd always go to in a Popular was the Enid Blyton section xD

When I was in Primary 5, I became a librarian at my school library. It was a big one considering it's a primary school library, but not many kids came to read. Instead, they used the computers and I remember it was also when YouTube just started being a thing. That left all the books to me.

There was this series called The Boxcar Children that became my favourite during my librarian days, mine and my then best friend, who was the one who recommended me to the teacher librarian. Those days, while all the kids were happy to go home, I was so happy to get to this nerdy ass CCA after school.

I did have an up-down relationship with libraries. Sometimes, I'd go there once a week or more, while sometimes up to just once a year. Most of the time it's only because I haven't paid my fines and didn't have the money to. ...Well, I was just a kid in school ya know.

2012 was the year I read most library books. I didn't buy many books, only doing so when I received a whole bunch of Popular vouchers once. The year after that, believe it or not I didn't read much. I can remember just a handful of books I've read in 2013.

I believe 2014 was the year I became more invested in reading. I read more, heck I bought more. This was the year I started collecting books, and reading any chance I got. And then of course we all know where I am today.

This year so far is starting to become another library year. Of all the 19 books I've read so far, only 3 were my owned ones! Holy shit I just counted that on the spot and holy damn shit. But this new obsession with libraries is a good thing for my wallet and my goal of saving 10k this year, so how about that =D

Anyway, libraries are just the best. They are unappreciated, youths always going there just to lepak and waste their time, making noise for the ones who do want to read. It's a waste, but what to do. Let's just count on the rest of us readers to make sure libraries and bookstores never burn out.

How do I read so much???

So how do I read so much??? Honestly, I don't know.

I used to dislike reading on public transport, not because I'd get motion sick, but because I love looking out the window and watching the scenery go by instead. No matter how many times I take the same bus and go the same routes, I still get so amazed by the roads and the views that I see.

Okay, so recently yes I have resorted to reading on my bus trips to and from work, especially if I don't get a window seat, which happens when it's just a short bus ride and I'm too lazy to climb to the upper deck or if it's crowded.

My second point is the fact that my other half lives in Johore while I, in Pasir Ris. I hate being late, so I'm always leaving home early because I have a long journey from the East side to the North.

Because he's coming from Johore and has to go through the checkpoints, and there's almost always a jam in between, I'm always having to wait a while before I meet him. Sometimes hours. I've taken advantage of that, managing to read while waiting =)

Let's go on to the topic of work. I've been working full-time since July last year, in my most favourite place since childhood, Popular bookstore. There's no morning/afternoon shifts or anything like that, and I'm always working 3 days in a row before I have a free day.

Because we work long hours, we are given two breaks, one in the early afternoon for lunch and one in the evening for dinner. I'm always getting the third break slot, and because my dinner break ends an hour before closing, I take advantage of that to read and then only eating when I go home =) It really does cover a lot of reading!

On to my off days. I am an early bird, waking up naturally at 8 every the morning. I think that's considered really early for a 20-year-old person who is working full shifts nearly everyday. And instead of spending my time in bed using my phone, I lay out some pillows and find a comfortable position to read.

I think it's possible for one to read despite such a hectic schedule. Okay, maybe other kids have their assignments and stuff, but hey, you can always read during the times you can't do anything about homework. Like on public transport, right?

There's also this thing that a Booktuber does, reading sprints where for the next 30 minutes, you do nothing but read, read, read, and don't stop for anything. It's like a break, but for reading =)

My reading goal for this year was 70, and I've already read 18 books at this point. I have no idea how I did it, but I'm so satisfied with that =D

Station Eleven / Emily St John Mandel

The night a famous Hollywood actor by the name of Arthur Leander died, a flu pandemic kick-started its own life and that was how civilization as we knew it came to an end within a few weeks.

That marks the start of time being labelled Day One; up til Year Twenty, with Kirsten Raymonde, the 8-year-old girl who witnessed Arthur's death on stage, joining a group of travelers called the Traveling Symphony, who have dedicated what remained of their lives to maintaining the arts.

So this book. I went into it without expecting much, in fact I thought it was gonna turned out meh. But we all know books that we always thought was gonna be meh always turned out amazing...

That flu pandemic is crazy. People were catching it just by talking to the infected, who got sick just a few minutes ago by talking to another infected person.

We follow a few "main" characters, and we watch how they survived in the after-civilization, not just from the flu but from their own insanity. The chapters weren't chronological, but I loved how the stories from then and now intertwined.

The characters were real, and their stories of making the roads home, of making an airport a museum; it was all so interesting to read and think about. It did scare me; a world where the kids had never seen a lit up computer screen before; a world where it was impossible to think that such huge machines called airplanes could once fly into the sky.

I gave this a solid 5 stars, I love it so so so much. A little bit thanks to my low expectations of it initially, a little bit thanks to the way it scared me; whatever it is, this was amazing.