Author Archives: thatreaderbee

1. Turtles All The Way Down

Blurb (as on goodreads)

It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity. 

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I can’t even count how many times I’ve said this but I LOVE this book. This was one of my first young adult books that I have read and it made me explore more of Young Adult genre and John Green’s books. I cried reading this book so much. The relationships, friendships have been displayed BEAUTIFULLY. The representation of mental illness made me love this book even more.The protagonist Aza Holmes suffered from OCD. She had her thought spiral she couldn’t escape from.

We always say that we are beneath the stars. We aren’t, of course- there is no up or down, and anyway the stars surround us.But we say we are beneath them, which is nice. So often English glorifies the human– we are whos, other animals are that– but English puts us beneath stars, at least.

John Green, Turtles All The Way Down

It is way better that “Turtles All The Way Down” honestly. The book disappointed me because of all the hype it received. The characters could have been built way better than they were. The book could have been more humorous, the dialogues seemed too logical. It felt like characters could be named John Green 1 and John Green 2.

2. Five Feet Apart

Blurb (as on goodreads)

In this moving story two teens fall in love with just one minor complication—they can’t get within five feet of each other without risking their lives.

Can you love someone you can never touch?

Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too? 

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Another sick lit. I recently read this book a while ago and instead of it being a sick lit, I loved it. It describes the feelings of protagonist SO BEAUTIFULLY. The severity of the disease was displayed well.

He’s sick, but alive. We both are.

Rachel Lippincott, Five Feet Apart

The language was easy and kept me glued to the ending. I LOVED the ending. It was beautiful. I will write the full review of this book soon!

3. From Twinkle, With Love

Blurb (as on goodreaads)

An aspiring teen filmmaker finds her voice and falls in love in this delightful romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi.

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy-a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

When mystery man N begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.

Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?

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Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you. 

This book is a fluffy, contemporary , high school romance. An easy read. It has friendships, relationships, crushes and discovered every aspect of being a high school kid. It’s so wholesome! A cute little read to get out of reading slump.

Here’s the full review: https://avniijain.wordpress.com/2019/06/07/from-twinkle-with-love-by-sandhya-menon-book-review/

“Our best friends, the ones we love the most, are the ones who can hurt us the most. Because look.” She pointed down to the powders. “We have had so many interactions with them, deep, meaningful interactions, that we cannot separate their pieces from ours. And if we try, we would only be getting rid of some of the best parts of ourselves.”

Sandhya Menon, From Twinkle With Love

4. Thirteen Reasons Why

Blurb (as on goodreads)

You can’t stop the future,

You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever

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This book had be in the list. The book is heart wrenching and un-put-downable. It’s storyline keeps the reader intrigued till the end. But I wished they talked about mental health and depression more. It talked about hardships, suicide, rape but didn’t talk about depression which disappointed me a little. I don’t really agree with the way protagonist blames others for her death or how this triggers people but the storyline was interesting and made it a great read but I won’t recommend this book to people who are going through depression or are having suicidal thoughts.

5. 19 Till I Die

Blurb (as on goodreads)

For Zaid from Durban, it was heartbreak. For Fiona, who loves New Delhi, it had always been a dream. Rachna needs this chance to step out of Australia and her comfort zone. Tia from Mumbai sees it as a ticket away from her over-protective parents. The four find themselves at the University of Guelph in Canada. Adventure awaits, and a chance at love lingers amidst the crowds – in the halls, at the bars, on the dancefloor. Some of them will find it. But, as with such powerful life-altering things as love, it’s not going to be easy. It’s too late to turn back to the drab, safe and predictable lives they left behind. Might as well buckle up and hold on tight as they brace themselves for the ride of their lives

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This is such a fun read. How the lives of four totally different characters intervined. The perfect light read to get out of a reading slump. Also, THE COVER IS SO QUIRKY. And the story does justice to the cover! It’s just as quirky as the cover is. The characters have been built well. Overall, an amazing read.

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This post is part of #Birthdaybloghop by Vidhya Thakkar and Neelam Sharma should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. Hosts are not responsible for any infringement caused.

Title: Winter Poems

Author: Sabarna Roy

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 60

The poems contained in this collection, Winter Poems, by Sabarna Roy were inspired by the relatively mild season that prevails in Kolkata following the season of festivities, the Durga and Kali Puja, and portray myriad shades of human life. Some of them deal with the imaginations of death and home while still others the idea of loss and coming to terms with gradual wasting of life. Many aspects of human life and commonplace human impulses are examined and brought to life through a range of imaginations and varied metaphorical associations. The poems are sure to delight the readers and generate a whole range of emotions among them.

Winter Poems is a collection of intense poems on diverse topics.It has been divided into two parts “Winter Poems 2010’ and “Winter Poems 2012”.The book contains modern poetry. The second part rather seemed like micro-tales. I am not a huge fan if modern poetry but the wordplay and the way sentences were formed are strong enough for the reader to think about each poem deeply. Though it’s a short read, it isn’t a quick read, the reader needs to understand every poem.

The book can be improved with editing. Though themes were interesting, they weren’t common. Poems of different topics followed another. I was expecting poetry but it rather felt like prose and micro-tales.

This boy monk visited me yester-night and asked me

“When do you plan to die?”

I said:

The day I’m sure my children no longer require me by their sides

The day my queen finds me boring

The day I’ve seen blood on my hands- blood from the vessels of a few of my enemies

The day I’ve unlocked angelic faces of my evil

The day I’m no more affected by the sighting of a beautiful woman.

3/5

Dear Parents Raising Boys,

You can be the change makers. Lightened candles, signed petitions have always had our back but now we need you to be the catalyst. We have come a long way and yet there’s a long path that awaits us.

We recently saw bois locker room conversations, groups on instagram by teenagers of South Delhi sharing pictures of underage girls and talking about their bodies. At the same time few conversations of girls’ locker room. You can read this article by Prishita Singh for more information-

https://lawcorner.in/bois-locker-room-are-we-all-really-startled

As soon as the conversations leaked, rage and anger grew in people all over social media. It blew up twitter. Hashtags like #girlslockerroom, #boislockerroom and #notallmen were trending for quite a few days.

All of it felt as if a fight between men and women each proving their innocence. People were using one wrong to justify another wrong. All of us failed to understand that it is not a fight of men against women but instead a fight between the ideologies: the ideology of feminism and the ideology of patriarchy.

Patriarchy began ages back. Since then, we have been trying to fight patriarchy. But at the end of the day, women are taught to “be careful”, to “cover themselves”, etc. We can’t blame our parents. They have always meant well for us.

We have often heard,” We trust you, We don’t trust the world.” They can’t end patriarchy or sexual assault while the parents raising boys, you can make this world worth trusting. Teach your son he is not ought to protect us rather he is to ought to respect us. Teach your son about modesty, personal space, feminism and healthy masculinity.

Fathers your son will learn how to treat women from you. Teach him well to make the world worth trusting for daughters.

Title: The Rape Trial

Author: Bidisha Ghosal

Pages: 548

The cover is beautiful and thought provoking. It attracts the reader.

This book is set in the city, Badrid Bay. The home of the protagonists. As the title suggests, this book follows the story of Avni Rambha who was raped by Rahul Styabhangi. But Rahul Satyabhagi got away with it because of his father’s clout in the city. He further became men’s rights activists. Nearly after a decade, a sting operation has proved he had been lying. Now, Rhea, Haitaishi and Amruta are to take an action against it. The book further unfolds the plot.

As soon as I read the title, I picked the book up and it didn’t disappoint me. The book has a lot more than its title; it does contain the rape trial but it also explores the thoughts of the victim, friendship, power, crime, politics and revenge. This book has been pleasantly suprising.

I LOVED the writing style. The dialogues and conversations had depth, bringing us closer to the story slowly. It’s a huge book and has a complex plot but the writing style makes it easier to read. I don’t like big books. I rarely read them but the author kept me gripped till the ending. The story starts with suspense and the it is there till the last. The characters and the backstories have been built carefully.

The book makes the reader question themselves of how many times they have turned blind eye to the harsh reality. It changes perspectives and is an eye opener. This book should be read by everyone, it speaks on the topic which needs much attention.

“Imagine a world where you can walk out and no one ogles you,” Hitaishi said. “You can go wherever you want no matter what time of day, wear what you want, let any part of your body jiggle and bounce and not think about that bloody bra strap.”

“The law is not justice. Laws are punishments, and they come too late and at immense cost to the victim. Justice lies beyond the law. You line those boys up and shoot them between the eyes. That’s justice.”

“We’re all taught to hide these things, treat them like a small thing. Especially when it comes to who the boy is. It’s this bizarre split in society where the boy doing it is nothing wrong, but you’re wrong because he did it to you.”

“Rape isn’t just that one time of sexual violence; women have to live with it long after it’s done. Once you’re dead, it’s over. Murder, at least in my opinion, is not the best, not the most accurate response to rape.”

5/5

Dear You,

Find your zen moment. Zen is a Japanese word literally meaning finding peace in meditation rather than in ritual worships or study of scriptures. Currently, it is commonly used as feeling peaceful or relaxed.

Find your zen moment. Find the things that make you happy, people that make you happy. Surround yourself with them. Surrounding yourself with things and people that make you happy is nothing else than creating magic in yourself. Be happy with yourself. Love the person you are and the person you are yet to become. Your inner peace is your first zen moment. You are worthy. You are loved. You deserve the universe. Never forget that.

With everything, try to be someone’s zen too. Try to be there for someone. Try to listen. Try to understand. They too deserve the love and happiness. Make them believe that.

Thank You,

With Love,

A.