September 2015 Wrap-up

I was right, I'm tired after a long day at work. But sometimes, tired doesn't mean sleepy. While you long to go home and snuggle under your blankets and rest your body, you don't necessarily want to close your eyes and drift off to dreamland. That's how I feel right now.

So these are the books I read in September. Mostly contemporaries, mostly books bought just last month. A total of 7 within 17 days, because I fell into a reading slump from 18th til today. And no, I completed neither of my Weekend Reads. Big fat sigh.

1. Far From You / Tess Sharpe ⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis: Four months ago, Sophie witnessed her best friend Mina's death, and she is sent to rehab for an addiction she's already beaten, nine months, two weeks, six days ago. Nobody believes her to be drug-free, nobody believes her side of the story to that fateful night. The moment she gets out of rehab, she goes on a fierce hunt for her best friend's killer... because Sophie knows it wasn't a 'drug deal gone wrong' like what everyone thinks; she knows it was a murder.

Why I gave it 3 stars: I honestly wasn't that interested in finding out what happened to Mina. I wasn't fully invested in the characters, I could somehow predict what was gonna happen because it's quite cliche, but it was a fast read and wasn't too draggy so at least I got through it.

2. When You Reach Me / Rebecca Stead ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis: Miranda and her best friend Sal, by sixth grade, already know the safe places in their New York City neighbourhood, aka the local grocery store, and the people to avoid, aka the crazy guy with his head constantly beneath the mailbox. After Sal gets punched for no reason, Miranda keeps receiving letters that seem to know her really well, including things that hadn't happened yet. She gets closer to believing there is a death only she can prevent, at least if she isn't too late already.

Why I gave it 4 stars: I cared for the characters, and I loved how Miranda portrayed them in her head. It was easy to picture the setting and the characters acting out the scenes, because of the smooth writing. And also: mind-blown.

Why you should read it: This book was great for a middle-grade. Which reminds me, another reason why I gave it 4 stars: no random romance or sex scenes.

3. This Song Will Save Your Life / Leila Sales ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis: Elise has been a social outcast her whole life, from as far back as middle school. Whether or not she tries to fit in, she never gets accepted. She has this habit of taking walks around her neighbourhood at 1 in the morning, headphones plugged in... That's when she discovers a nightclub called Start, people who accept her, and a love for DJ-ing.

Why I gave it 5 stars/Why you should read it: YOU WILL COMPLETELY RELATE TO ELISE DEMBOWSKI. Trust me. I don't mean it in the way that she loves DJ-ing, but in her social failure, family problems, love for music and in her passion for something that takes her away from the side of the world she's grown to hate. READ THIS BOOK.

4. PS I Still Love You / Jenny Han ⋆⋆

Synopsis: This is the sequel to To All the Boys I've Loved Before, so to avoid spoilers, you just have to know that Book 1 is about Lara Jean Song and her tendency to write love letters to the crushes she's had. When she writes, she does so with her everything, and that is why she's too embarrassed to send them, so she keeps them in a box. One day her letters get anonymously sent out, and her love life becomes from non-existent to chaotic as heck.

Why I gave it 2 stars: I hated the ending because I hated the guy she chose. I was so frustrated with the way he acted the whole book, UGH. *needs to stop ramblings here because at risk of giving spoilers*

Why you should read it: Well, it's cute. No dark twist or messed up characters. Also, diversity, because Lara Jean and her sisters are half Korean. Of course, read the first book first, To All The Boys I've Loved Before, alright?

5. The Duff / Kody Keplinger ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis: Every high school has their labels. The jock, the nerd, the sl*t, and Bianca has been leading a peaceful life with her two gorgeous best friends (despite being a potato herself) with no labels on her. Until the campus man-whore comes over and calls her a Duff: the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. 

Why I gave it 4 stars: I freaking loved Casey, and I would have given this 5 stars if I wasn't so frustrated at how Bianca kept pushing her away. She was the best best friend character ever. Also, anything set in high school is enough reason for me to enjoy a book.

Why you should read it: Because if you watched the movie, the book was different. A little more messed up, but also a lot deeper.

6. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants / Ann Brashares ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis: When Carmen spots a pair of washed up pants in the thrift store, she keeps it at the back of her closet after buying it as a joke. She and her 3 sworn best friends are spending their first summer apart, and after realising the pants somehow fits into all 4 of them, even plump Carmen, they decide to share it in hopes of having a summer as magical as the pants.

Why I gave it 4 stars/Why you should read it: A book about friendship. Freaking classic. The characters are real, not very cookie-cutter and each having their own persona, goals and problems. Also, no random romance and no sex scenes :)

7. Please Ignore Vera Dietz ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Synopsis:Vera has spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie, and over the years she's kept all his secrets even after he betrayed her and ruined everything... But then Charlie dies under mysterious circumstances. Vera knows a lot more than anyone, be it the kids at school, his family, or the police, but there she is unable to make a decision on whether or not she wants to bother clearing his name.

Why I gave it 4 stars/Why you should read it: I loved Vera and her flaws. The way she handled everything so calmly, and she was a smart character too. Overall a dark book, but there were bits of humour, so it was a good balance of everything.

I'm sorry if this post seems rushed, I'm really tired from work. Gomenasai!

Books with memories

I just got back from my regular optician, and the degree in my right eye has increased dramatically! I guess that's what you get for reading while lying down, in dim lighting, without any breaks. What have I done to myself.

No matter, I've gotten a new pair of glasses for myself now. Took a while to pick out the perfect pair, and a while more for my eye check-up, but now all I have to do is collect them when they're ready, which may be some time next week. Can't wait! I don't mind laying it down low with the contact lens for now :)

So there's the Time and Place Book Tag all over Booktube now, which I've seen Ariel from ArielBissett do. I guess this one is somewhat similar, just that I renamed it to books with memories? Sort of?

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been tagged to do any of these. I'm invisible to this society for now (I hope) so it's okay, I'll just flow along :)

For this tag, I'm going to pick out 5 books with strong memories attached to them. Unfortunately for me my stories won't go further than 2013, because I only started collecting books from then. Most of the books I read during secondary school days were from the library, and it's not like they had memorable attachments to them either, so... nevermind, let's get right into it.

1. The Language Of Flowers / Vanessa Diffenbaugh
If you know me now, you'd probably be aware that I am completely in love with MRTs. I love anything to do with trains, and I love staring at them whenever they pass by. I never get sick of it, and you'd think I was from a rural country, never having seen a train before.

Believe it or not, I wasn't very fond of taking MRTs back in the day. I didn't even know how to go Orchard, just because it was on the North South Line and I was from Pasir Ris, the East West Line. Anything beyond Paya Lebar was strange to me back then.

I got this book on my first ever solitary trip to the city in 2012. One of Popular's more high-class siblings still existed, {prologue} at Ion Orchard. It was also the time I didn't really read Young Adult, only reading Adult Fiction, so that was where I mostly browsed at.

This was also the book that got me obsessed with the Victorian Flower Language once. I read this in early 2013, which was the courting days with the love of my life, and I remember how I was always naming him flowers and their meanings randomly.

I also used to think the girl on the cover looked like me, because I had my hair covering one eye back then too. Oh the memories.

The leaf post-it says I read this book from 03/02/13 to 20/02/13. What I'd do to relive those days again.

2. We Were Liars / E. Lockhart

When I first saw this book, I wasn't really interested enough to buy it on the spot. There was water on the cover which turned me off because I have a strange fear of the blues. 

But when I saw it swirling around Booktube, I thought I'd give it a try. It was the Booksplosion Book of the Month for May or June last year, can't recall, so I decided to join in. I'm not sure where I heard it was a fantasy, but that was indeed what I thought it was... Only when I heard the Booktubers talking about it did I know it was a contemporary. 

We all have that habit of buying lots of books and never really starting on any of them until some time later, because we have so many others at home we need to read first. 

We Were Liars wasn't the case, because I started reading it the instant I got it. I read it down the escalators of Junction 8, at Bishan MRT station, even while walking towards Nanyang Poly. While people used their phones to avoid awkward moments while walking, I read my book. 

I read the first half at Nanyang Poly, (don't ask me why I was there... it's embarrassing) and finished it at Ngee Ann, my own school, during my 3-hours lunch break. I remember the emotional breakdown I went through that day... Yes, it's embarrassing. But it was also what made We Were Liars my favourite book of 2014.

3. The Evolution of Mara Dyer / Michelle Hodkin

This was the book that I'd brought along when I was admitted to hospital this June. I thought it could kill my boredom, but I didn't expect that there was no time to be bored at all. Nurses were checking my blood pressure and forcing me to eat every 15 minutes or so, and I was in more pain than I was bored.

So there the book sat, in my bag, gone unread my whole 3 days there. And it was quite ironic, considering how Mara Dyer herself went through a lot of shit at the hospitals like I did, up to the point where she developed a fear of needles. 

4. Grasshopper Jungle / Andrew Smith

This book is about a boy who is confused about his sexuality. While I didn't exactly love the plot and all, I thought the main character and his best friend reminded me of my two most favourite boys in the world: the love of my life, and his best friend.

Even though he's more of a bitch than any other girl out there, he's one of my very good friends too, and it was really entertaining to picture Austin and Robby as my boyfriend and best friend. I remember how I actually chuckled to myself while reading this, just because I had them in my mind the whole time. 

The love of my life on the right, his best friend on the left. They are okay separate, but morons together.

5. Fangirl / Rainbow Rowell

Another hospital story attached to this one. I remember waking up to my dad telling me my mom had a fall at work and was going to the hospital. When I saw her, she said so forlornly, "I had a great fall..." and I couldn't help but think of Humpty Dumpty, which is what my dad secretly refers to my mom as. Needless to say I giggled during that serious situation.

I'd brought this book with me to kill my boredom, and it did wonders. Not many YA books focus on a college life, which was what Fangirl did. I read this while eating, while feeding the fish at the pond by the kopitiam, all under the roof of Changi General Hospital. 

My personal blog post on that day: A day at the hospital :)

I guess that's it for now. I am going to try posting every night, though I may or may not be tired after a long day at work. I've been lucky for my first 4 posts because I had 2 days off and 2 days on MC, but we shall see ^_^

Weekend Reads: 26/9

Not exactly an amazing picture, but well I tried.

September started off great. I read 7 books in 17 days, but then I started on Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne last Friday, and that was when I fell into a slump. I have not finished a book for a week now. Gasp.

While the other books I've read that I got at the SG50 Warehouse Sale were all so good, this one just didn't draw me in like I thought it would. The first 'before' chapter was good, but then I just lost focus. I wasn't really interested to know where Scarlet was, who indeed got raped, what was going on between Adamma and Dominic, blah blah blah... Who cares?

So I started to read Fire and Flood, by Victoria Scott. I've read this last year, and it wasn't exactly a mind-blowing book but I enjoyed it fair enough. I decided to reread it because according to one of my Goodreads status from last year, I "Was on the verge of giving it 3 stars when I was finishing it. but the revelation at the end just.... 4.5 stars".

And for the love of God, I can't remember what was this oh-so-amazing revelation was. So what's the harm in re-reading it before I start on its sequel, Salt and Stone, anyway?

Though I have to say: the main character of Fire and Flood isn't really a likeable person in general. I can't say for sure if I dislike Tella or the author for making her that way. She's too shallow to be a heroine, I'm sorry to say. But the dislikeable characters and cheesy writing doesn't change the fact that it's fairly enjoyable and fast-paced, none too draggy.

I am hoping to finish these 2 books by the end of this weekend. I was supposed to be working today, but I've gotten an MC for the entire weekend because of my eye infection. The haze here has been really bad, and I wasn't spared from it either.

But speaking of weather, my two current reads are in colours of the fall! We don't have seasons here in Singapore, but orange and black is actually a really nice colour combo, so I guess that shall be my contribution to all these Autumn-coloured books on Bookstagram :)

the Book Courtship tag

Now that the introductory post is out of the way, it's time to get onto the very first tag of this new blog of mine!

I saw this tag on Raeleen's channel, though majority who did it said they got it from Jesse's. Don't know if you know this, but padfootandprongs07 is my favourite Booktuber only because she reads more contemporaries than the rest, which is my most-read genre :)

Phase 1 – Initial Attraction: A book that you bought because of the cover.

So I was walking into Kinokuniya Jem, barely reaching the Young Adults section when I spot this book. It stood out so well and it was the first book, maybe the only book, I noticed.

I have this thing with butterflies, and this book was the only one on the shelves that had its cover out, the rest being just spines. It didn't just drew me in, it completely sucked me. Its title can only be seen when you hold it at a certain angle: Drop, by Katie Everson. "An honest account of a teenager's experiences with drugs", according to this blurb on the back.

Phase 2 – First Impressions: A book that you got because of the summary.

Here's a book I took for its summary, among the books which I took for their covers. 

Stumbled upon this book during the SG50 Warehouse Sale early last month. It was a lucky find, hiding among the $4 books, but going for just 2 bucks; Just Like Fate, by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young. 

This summary reminded me of Kasie West's Pivot Point, which concept I found interesting. I may not have enjoyed it that much but it blew my mind to think about alternate universes and such. Also, any book that has a grandmother is sure to tear my heart apart, which is a great reason to bring a book home ;)

Phase 3 – Sweet Talk: A book with great writing. 

Not only is that cover gorgeous, but so is the writing of Leslye Walton's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. The way it was written didn't just captivate me but it also made me picture breathtaking scenes, as if I was really there, in that era and place.

This doesn't happen very often, being able to picture a clear setting of a book. But for this, it was easy simply because of the writing.

Phase 4 – First Date: A first book of a series which made you want to pick up the rest of the series. 

I picked up Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel the middle of last year, not expecting to like it. Books with werewolves, vampires, the such, weren't really my thing. [they still aren't.] But I fell for the first Infernal Devices book, hook line and sinker!

While everyone around Booktube and Bookstagram are obsessing over Will Herondale, there I was head over heels in love with Theresa Gray. I just love her strong humble demeanour, her love for books, and her grey eyes. Gosh. She's probably my first fictional girlfriend ever.

Phase 5 – Late Night Phone Calls: A book that kept you up all night. 

Honestly, I seldom read books late at night, because I cannot stay up alone anytime after 11 without music. And with music playing, I tend to lose focus on what I'm reading.

I've shamelessly joined in the trend of adult colouring books, and my current favourite late night activity is filling in Johanna Basford's Enchanted Forest with Taylor Swift's Red and 1989 albums playing in the background. [those 2 will always be my most favourite Swift eras!]

Phase 6 – Always on my mind: A book you couldn’t stop thinking about.

I finished this book at the airport, a few minutes shy of midnight. I could not stop sobbing, and it didn't help that the first song that shuffled on my playlist was Rihanna's Stay. It suited so perfectly with My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga. You'll know why if you read the book.

And even a few weeks after, I could not stop thinking about Aysel and Roman. )':

 Phase 7 – Getting Physical: A book which you love the way it feels.

I have this habit of fingering the corner of the page on the right side, like what you'd do before turning a page. I do this very often no matter what book, even after I just turned from the previous page, because I just love running my thumb along the paper. It feels really nice! Try it.

 Phase 8 – Meeting the parents: A book you would recommend to your family and friends. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman was not a book I was expecting to like. I have this mindset of If people who don't usually read likes it, I won't. But I was wrong with this book. The movie made it a million times worse; I've watched it so many times and I still cry each time. Any book or movie that focuses on the relationship with parents and a little brother will always break my heart.

I know my family don't read, but I'd definitely want them to watch the movie adaptation.

Phase 9 – Thinking about the future: A book or series you know you will re-read many times in the future? 

I wasn't one of the fangirls who was anticipating Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games before the movies came out. In fact, I only read the books after I watched Catching Fire; and even then I hadn't even watched the first one yet.

I bought the boxset because I didn't know what was going on and needed the books to enlighten me, but I didn't expect to get hooked. Completely devoured the first 2 books, taking just a day each, along with two days for Mockingjay. They were easy reads, and in a way mirror the society we live in now. Would definitely reread this modern classic series in the future :)

 Phase 10 – Share the love: Who do you tag?

Anyone who wants to do this of course! But there's nobody reading this blog yet, so nevermind.

So there's the first tag post for my new blog. Pictures credits to me :)

An introductory post :)

Yes, this is a blog for all things bookish.

I've had this idea for a really long time, with no action. I thought I could squeeze in all these book stuff into my personal blog, but I figured my own stories have no place with the ones I read in my books. Maybe because I think more highly of one than the other, but nobody will know which one I treasure more.

I'm done writing my own, but I'm not done reading stories.

A little introduction, though I have no idea who would be reading this... Why do Bookstagrammers make it seem so easy to meet all these new bookworm friends? Where do they get them???

My name is E'in Nadh, a little shorter than the complication that is my real name. I just turned 20 a few days ago and I reside in the sunny island of Singapore.

I've stopped studying since early this year, and am now working in the most well-known bookshop in the country, Popular :) It was my most favourite place in the world during my childhood days, and now it is where I work full-time. One of the reasons in life why I consider myself lucky.

I've loved reading since... well, I don't recall. For as long as I remember, I've always been reading, always been gifted books for my birthdays instead of dolls, always burying my nose in a book even while walking beside my mother.

No matter what, I am very grateful for that exact moment in time when I decided I had a love for books :)

I am using this blog for all things related to books. Maybe I don't do reviews that well, but I do have a lot to say if a book hits me too personally, be it a good or bad way. I shall use this to rant or gush about any book that I recently read.

Also, my previous personal blog didn't have pictures, maybe because I was insecure. But for this one, there're gonna be plenty book/bookcase shots. They're too pretty not to be shown off, and I don't mind being overshadowed by them ^_^

So there you have it, a little introductory post to this new blog of mine... It's been 8 years since I made a new blog. I'm nostalgic.

If you're wondering, my blog name 1 Friend 120 Books is inspired by the description below my name in my Goodreads account. I felt like it depicts my life perfectly!

Ending this post with a picture of me and my single bookcase; I am currently re-reading Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott before starting on Salt and Stone :)