Reading Is All There Is

"The Girl on the Train" is the first thriller I have ever read in English. I don't usually read books of this genre, however, the novel was gifted to me by my dear family and I thought I had to read it. I have also heard great things about it and therefore wanted to give it a try. And so I did. Here comes my personal review: Rachel Watson is an alcoholic. Her ex-husband, Tom, left her for another woman, Anna, whom he had an affair with while the two were still married. It is safe to say that Rachel is now troubled. As she takes the same train every day, she comes across the exact same house in which a man and woman live. Rachel observes this presumably perfect couple and has done it for quite some time. She has even made up names for them and imagines what they do for a living. However, one day something mysterious occurs and Rachel has a chance of getting involved. Although she only ends up in trouble and is shocked by the devastating truth. *** This nov...

"Holding Up the Universe" was such a fantastic read. I enjoyed it the very moment I began reading it and that does not happen very often! I am the type of reader that easily gets exhausted when reading a book, but with this one I just kept reading on and on. That is how great is it!  This novel is about Jack and Libby who both struggle with things of their own. Jack has face-blindness which means that he can't recognize anyone - not even the people he loves. He keeps this a secret, although it is a heavy burden to bear alone. Libby is overweight and has been ever since her mother passed away. She has not been in school for years, but she is finally ready after having lost some weight. Although the problem is that people have a hard time seeing past her size. Jack, however, is the first one to see Libby for who she really is. The two are connected and help each other out as life comes at them in full force.  Libby has been through a lot of grief in her life and ...

My thoughts on the novel  I've got to admit that it took me longer than I expected to finish this novel. I've just kept on putting it off for so long. Today I finally took the last step and finished it. I now understand why I was so reluctant to finish it. The ending is just heartbreaking. I guess I knew that pretty early on and that's why I kept avoiding it. At least till now. The Book Thief  is a masterpiece. A new favorite of mine. Although that was not my initial thought when I started reading the novel. It took me a couple hundred pages to really start enjoying it. And I did end up loving it! Sometimes it just takes time, but this one is definitely worth it.  A short recap "The Book Thief" takes place during World War 2. The young German girl, Liesel Meminger, is sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, on Himmel Street in Molching. Although they live under poor conditions they try their hardest to get by. Liesel is grieving as sh...

Lenny Walker has lost the very person that meant the world to her - her older sister Bailey. Now she must battle with the grief and sorrow that comes with a great loss. She must find herself, but in the midst of all this, she falls in love with the new boy, Joe Fontaine. At the same time, she finds that only Bailey's boyfriend, Toby, understands what she is going through and they start to develop a strange relationship. Lenny is lost, confused and frustrated. This is a story about a girl who must learn to stand on her own for the first time in her life. To truly show who she is without her sister and to show that she can actually live on without her. This is my second time reading The Sky is Everywhere. The first time I read it was back in 2012 when I was 14 years old. I still remember how much I loved the novel. Reading it again, I have come to appreciate Lenny's poems and the amazing and poetic way this novel is written. To this day, The Sky is Everywhere  is still one...

Starting off, I must say that I wholeheartedly enjoyed reading this novel. It was filled with so much humour, love and sarcasm. Such an amazing and fast-paced read! And oh how cute it was! I honestly felt the love that was expressed in this novel deep within my own heart. "The Hating Game" is Sally Thorne's first novel, and I am overwhelmed with love and praise for it.  Lucy Hutton works as an assistant to one of the CEO's of the publishing house Garmin and Bexley. She happens to share an office with her enemy, Josh Templeman. The two of them have fought since day one. The intensity of their hate for each other is only reinforced when a new and greater job position is offered. Both Lucy and Josh want the job which would mean that one of them would become the other one's boss. And so the Hating Game continues with greater force than ever. My summary makes it seem like there's nothing but hate between Lucy and Josh. In reality, there's so much m...

Violet Markey is the popular girl in school. Although she has just lost her older sister, Eleanor, in a car accident. They were both in the car when it ran over a bridge, but Violet's the only one who survived. She feels both sad and guilty - as anyone would.  Theodore Finch is called the freak of the school. He has two close friends, Charlie and Brenda. Finch, as he is called, is humorous and jokes around a lot. But he is still very serious and he reads a lot about suicide. Once in a while, Finch goes through some really dark times where he isn't able to do much.  One day, Violet and Finch meet at their school's bell tower. One of them wants to jump off, but the other stops the person from doing it. Rumors start spreading around school about a hero. Soon a  new friendship starts. This book was great. It was even amazing. I loved Finch's character although he was depressing and it made me sad to read the parts about him. The thing with Finch is.. that he is s...

Set in the late 90's and the beginning of the new Millennium, computers and the internet is not something everyone's quite familiar with. 28-year-old Lincoln is hired as the new IT guy at a newspaper called  The Courier . Lincoln's job is to read the employees' mail and warn anyone who ends up in the so-called WebFence folder for using any inappropriate words and such. The job makes Lincoln feel bad. What he's doing is wrong, but there's one thing holding him back from quitting his job. Since Lincoln started working at the newspaper, he has been enjoying reading the email-exchange between the friends Beth and Jennifer. Lincoln continues his work, although it's boring, and nothing much happens in his life. The emails between Beth and Jennifer are just about the only exciting part of his life, but he soon grows too attached to one of the women, but is it possible to fall in love with someone you've never even met? Everyone in Lincoln's social ...