BR - Rites Of Spring By Jessica Dunchen




Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks; New Ed edition (27 July 2006) 
Genre: Young Adult Source: Library

Rating: 
    


My Thoughts-When I took this book home I was taking a chance really. I knew. Either I would like it or I wouldn't.

As soon as I started it it just seemed to flow so smoothly which I knew was a great sign! I've read books like Shiver and Jessica's guide to dating on the dark side. Books I have been waiting for so long yet I have felt so let down by. I had the same fear with this one, but was proved otherwise!

Sasha and Adam have everything they could ever want. The perfect home, the perfect job, perfect family.

It all starts the day Adams mother dies. Adam needs support, he needs Sasha to be there for him, but there's only one thing on her mind. How she’s not been getting enough sex recently. When I heard her moan and mutter around the house I was thinking you insensitive bitch! Seriously, when her father died Adam was there for her. He kept her together, kept her whole, but when it's his turn and he needs her so bad - just to be there all she can think about is herself. I found her pretty ridiculous and couldn't stand the sight of her.

Thirteen year old Liffy wants nothing more but to be a Ballet Dancer like her mother used to be. She knows her mother stopped dancing because of her - because of her being born. Maybe that's why she won't look at her, maybe that's why she doesn't love her. It' during this vulnerable time that she meets "The earth prince" who keeps telling her all these things that she has to do.

From a young age Liffy has had to do everything on her own and be independent since no one has ever really paid much attention to her. She's the responsible one, and has one big imagination. Twins Alex and Matt are not as mature or responsible and are the one's who are always being difficult meaning they always need attention.

This book is a big eye opener. It makes you take a step back and take more notice of those around you. With saying that I couldn't help but feel furious at her parents for being so oblivious, for failing to notice what she was going through.

Rites of Spring teaches us how easy it is to overlook things and the profound affect it can have in doing so. How, just because a family seems happy from afar doesn't necessarily mean that their life is perfect or any better than yours or anyone else's.



Posted by Blueicegal ♥ at 20:22 Comments
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BR - The Reader by Bernhard Schlink





"...I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. I tried to tell myself that I had known nothing of what she had done when I chose her. I tried to talk myself into the state of innocence in which children love their parents. But love of our parents is the only love for which we are not responsible. ...And perhaps we are responsible even for the love we feel for our parents” 

Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (1 Jun 1998) Genre: contemporary literature Source: Library

Rating;
  





My Thoughts - I actually just finished this book about half an hour ago. It took me over all just over two hours to finish. To back that up I must admit that it's a rather short book consisting of merely two hundred and sixteen pages.

Everything changes the day fifteen year old Michael meets a older women. A deep love affair follows. Once I came to terms with this whole awkward situation I sensed that something wasn't quite right with Hannah. Firstly what possessed her to be with a fifteen year old boy? Questions that now come to mind are; were her feeling genuine. Did she see him as a child because I sure as hell hope not!  

As their relationship progressed and in her own way she started to open up more, you realised that deep inside she's vulnerable. She needs him just as much as he needs her. What Michael had for Hannah is hard to describe. Should we say infatuation, lust or actual love? Others might argue that he was young and naive and she should have known better, some might even say she ruined his life. Overtime we see Michael change and become very closed of and different than the boy he once was. Is that what love is capable of?

I kept thinking fine he’s fifteen and she thirty seven at the time. So when he’s in his thirty's and she’s in her fifty's will he seriously still want to be with her? There is such a age gap that you can't help but think could this really work despite how much he says he loves her? 

I wanted to know Hannah more. She's so closed of to us readers, so mysterious. Was she having an affair when she was with Michael, did she have a family? It was almost as though none of that mattered, and maybe it didn't. Michael accepted those things though, he had to. One thing she was not going to talk about was herself. I suppose she was pretty dominant in the relationship. 

The ending I did not expect, I actually said out loud "WHAT"! When I found out a little something I wanted the perfect reunion, but that's what I loved about this book though, it was different. There are so many unexplained things I would love to know the answers of. I'm kind of frustrated right now, because I can only assume the only person who truly knows the answers is the author himself. If I have anything to say about this book it is that this is was a great read which I devoured in what seemed like no time at all.

By the end I grew to care for both Michael and Hannah. Ultimately I felt a little heavy-hearted after turning the last page. The book does not have the perfect ending. The ending is still really bothering me, I am still trying to figure out why the author ended it the way that he did. Definitely a must read!

Posted by Blueicegal ♥ at 21:35 Comments
What This Involves:

Tupac Shakur - My letter






You've been gone for such a long time yet I feel like I'm only starting to get to know the real you. I often contemplate how I would have felt if I had met you before your death, if I had the to privilege to be around when you walked the rough streets through your struggle. 

You constantly mention your pain and sometimes I wish so hard that I could have warned you of what was to come, off how things were to end. Was there ever a chance that somehow you wouldn't have met your death and still awed us with your presence? 

Never will there be another Pac: no other rapper will ever compare.

You weren't perfect, far from it, but who is? I wish sometimes for a miracle -- a miracle in a dream that takes me back in time to warn you -- to maybe embrace you and tell you that you will one day be a legend and that you are never alone. 

Growing up I only knew you were this legend who was often; reckless, angry and out of control. That people loved to talk about you, to assume too much. I was too young to know the real you or what you really represented. Well then things moved on as we all do -- the past few years I might have heard a song here and there and often thought of a future with you in it. Over time though I found that although I loved your music I knew next to nothing about you. I then knew that that had to change.

So, I started researching about you, peeling away those layers day by day and finding things beyond my imagination. The experience was WONDERFUL -- the most lovely thing I discovered was that you were a poet. Something that made me admire you even more and made listen to your songs with a new caution and pay attention to your lyrics which all seemed to contain a story, a lesson. Sure, not all, but many. 

Now when I listened I saw the lost child -- the boy wanting to be loved and the poet who was witty and intelligent despite others perceptions. Your songs seem to touch me in a way no other artist ever has, just your lyrics are enough to make me sad and angry and tearful.

I think we perceived him as a thug, but inside? He was a young man trying to find a place in the world, trying to find a true friend and his issues with paranoia and lack of trust became overwhelming for him. Throughout his life he had people who betrayed his trust -- the ones most close to him. This would have a huge impact on how he mentioned he had no friends later in life. He talked about black people being treated unequally and how he felt that one day the day would come where he hoped for a black president, for him to walk alongside another and not be looked down on. I think inside he knew he wouldn't be alive to see that day.

He was changing the hip hop industry and this created enemies and kept him alert and angry at all times. His life was in danger and he knew it, but he wasn't the kind of man to hide, so he spoke through his music. People say he would often speak of death, to be rid of all the pain and suffering because sometimes it was much to bear. However, no amount and money can get rid of the past. Tupac mentions in his songs the suffering and hardship he dealt with growing up and it seems he was never really able to rid himself off the bad memories that stayed with him until his death. The sad thing is that it's mentioned just before he died that people said he was changing. He was, it seemed, becoming calmer and trying to move forward from his awful past. His last song "I ain't mad acha" shows us this is true. It gives a positive but sad message -- he talks about how a lot of his friends have drifted away, how people he knows are changing -- it shows a vulnerable side to him, the side that doesn't want to be alone -- the side that isn't talked about and was never in the headlines.

He was doing movies and was working on a charity's before his death, he was, and still is, such an inspiration to young people out there who are living rough and going through hardships. He is the epitome of a person who can came from a bleak life and become someone -- made a change and even became a legend. I listen to his songs everyday to keep his memory alive but also because like a lot of other Tupac fans I feel connected with him through his music. He was a poet and a genius who will always be in our hearts :)

Posted by Blueicegal ♥ at 13:33
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