Birthday Book Haul

  

    

      I love my birthday. I really do. I’m one of those people who look forward to it all year and starts planning their special deal months in advance, and in the week running up to that faithful date I hardly shut up about it! I love the creamy, candle-lit birthday cake, the room filled with balloons and I won’t lie, as an aspiring actress, I love all the attention too – Most people find a room full of people serenading you with ‘Happy Birthday to You’ very awkward and embarrassing, but not me, I bask in it! But of course, like most teenagers in Britain, one of my favourite things about my birthday is the presents… More specifically, the book-shaped presents.

      

      Most people my age want laptops and iPods and BMX bicycles for their birthday, not me - I always use and abuse my birthday to top up my to-be-read pile and this year was no exception. I asked for books and books only from almost everyone who posed the question, ‘and what do you want for your birthday?’ in fact, my parents even asked me to compose a list, which let me tell you, was definitely not an unenjoyable task. So, when my lucky day finally rolled around I was able to come downstairs to a birthday-table absolutely teeming with gorgeous crisp new novels from almost every author I asked for.

  

          By the end of the day I had transformed from innocent birthday sweetheart into present-drunk spoilt brat. It was wonderful. My lovely dad, who lives quite far away, had taken it upon himself to order me almost every book on my list to celebrate my change of age. This combined with the generosity of a few other friends and relatives brought my book count to an astonishing 22 books - Happy birthday to me, right?! Today, I want to share my excitement with you guys and go into detail about a few of favourite new novels.  

    1.The One With the Prettiest Cover

I am absolutely in love with the cover of ‘Firecracker’ by David Iserson. So much so, in fact, that I had to read it first just to find out what wonderful story could possibly lay beneath a design that delightful. The gorgeous cover was actually the main reason it made its way into my library, something that pretty had to be good, right?  I was not disappointed. The story follows the awesomely named, incredibly-rich and totally heartless, Astrid Kreiger (What a great name right? I’m going to have to name a kid that when I’m older) as she is forced out of prestigious private school, Bristol Academy, and into local public school, Cadorette Township High School, much to her dismay. Astrid is a sneaky and sparky and absolutely horrible, she lives for herself and 
herself only. It was a really awesome read and a 
one to kick off this reading bonanza that I’ve just entered. 
Good show, Iserson!

    2.The One I Just Couldn’t Get My Hands On

As a teenager with a purse full of tumbleweeds, I have been searching for a cheap copy of ‘Love, Rosie’ by Cecilia Ahern for weeks. The movie recently came out here in the UK. It features dead-gorgeous Sam Claflin and the trailer looks so fun and cute and hilarious that I’ve been dying to see it. But, of course, I must be faithful to my books and I will not let myself watch the movie until I have read the novel. I figured I would be able to find a cheap and battered copy of it under its previous name, ‘Where Rainbows End’  in a local charity shop, but luck has not been on my side and I refuse to cough up £8 for it, so as of yet, I still haven’t seen that movie. But, I will. I have it now and there’s nothing to stop me! 
Sam Claflin, here I come.

    3. The Series Everyone’s Talking About

I have heard only good things about Keira Cass’ ‘Selection’ series. It’s a trilogy that seems to be on everyone’s tongue and quite frankly, I feel majorly left out of this discussion. A friend laid down the plotline of the first book, ‘The Selection’ to me and from what I’ve heard it seems to be a series after my own heart, combining dystopian fiction with dating programmes and a hefty dose of romance too. I have all three books in the series line up and ready to read and though I mustn’t let the hype spoil my experience, my expectations are quite high. I am dying to get in on this fandom and now, thanks to my good ol’ Dad, I can. I’m expecting to love this series so get ready for some top-speed book chatter for this one!

     4.The Long Awaited Sequel

‘If I Stay’ by Gayle Forman is a book that left both me, and a large portion of the rest of the world, in a state of tears and turmoil. The book, though short, was an emotional roller-coaster from start to finish. It was the kind of book that was so gripping and intense that I had to read it all in one day, in one sitting. This was a book that was not going to wait. But though I did not have to wait with ‘If I Stay’, I have waited months for the sequel, ‘Where She Went’. I am so ready to find out the rest of Mia’s story. So much was left unsaid and I simply cannot live the rest of my life not knowing what happened next. I cannot. I will not let Gayle Forman trample all over my heart and crush it into a thousand pieces without her at least telling me if I’ll ever get to put it back together again. I need 
this sequel. I really do.

     5. The Most Important One

Though I love each of my books very much and I will read them all with an equal amount of care and attention, there was one book I wanted more than all of the others put together. Finally. Finally! I own a gorgeous copy of ‘My True Love Gave to Me’. Edited by literary goddess, Stephanie Perkins, the book is a compilation of twelve different Christmas stories, each written by a famous YA author.  As soon as I knew about it I needed it!  This was a book that contained words from Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, and David Levithan (to name a few) all in one place. It was like someone had taken my exact reading tastes and try to make a book tailored entirely to my preferences. It has almost all my favourite authors, It’s got romance, It has a beautiful cover and to top it all off, 
It’s a Christmas book! This book is going to be 

magnificent I have no doubts! The only question now is 

whether I can actually wait until Christmas time or not!

            I could talk about my birthday books forever but this is a blog post, not a novel. This was just a few of the highlights of my book haul, there is still so much to be said. All my friends and family have been so generous and lovely this year and you have no idea how grateful I am. I want to give special thankyou’s to my fantastic Dad who sent me the majority of what’s currently in my new to-be-read pile. I am so excited to read all of this new stuff.  Though I am sad it’s over, the day was perfect. Thank you, everyone. It really has been a magnificent birthday!

Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Purple - Will Grayson, Will Grayson

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Where I review a different one of my favourite books each week! Sixth on our list we have a purple book with a purple cover:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

            As I lifted ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ from the shelves of my local Waterstones, a strange sadness washed over me. Having just finished ‘An Abundance of Katherines’ (My favourite of his works) I had rushed to the shops to complete my Green collection – Now, I wished I had waited just a little bit longer. This was the last one of John Green’s books that I hadn’t read. This book would be the last time for a while that I would get the excited rush of reading something of his for the first time.          

For those of you who don’t know, ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson ‘ is shared by two authors; with John Green writing the odd numbered chapters and David Levithan the even. It follows the story of two teenage boys; both named Will Grayson, living in different parts of Illinois. The issues that the two boys are faced with in their day-to-day lives cause their stories to intertwine one faithful night in Chicago outside a dirty looking sex shop.

    

        I slipped into the story of ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ in the same way one would slip into a hot bath. I sighed with a mixture of bliss and relief as I sailed through the first chapter. I had gone to the bookshop in search of some sweet John Green familiarity and I was not disappointed.

Though in ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ Green’s characters are somewhat different to what we have seen before (The book features the exuberant, extravagant and fantastically gay character of Tiny Cooper) the writing style is still easy, warm, satisfying and distinctly John Green.  It was exactly what  I came for, I was not disappointed. However, when I bought the book there was one rather large aspect of it that I had forgotten – co-writer, David Levithan.

After John Green’s smooth opening chapter, the switch in writers was a bit of a shock. Not only because Levithan has refused to any capital letters in his chapters whatsoever (something which took quite a bit of getting used to), but also because the two writer’s main characters have a strong and obvious contrast. While Green’s Will Grayson seems your typical awkward, ordinary teenage boy, hopelessly trying to fly under the radar of high school life, Levithan’s Will Grayson is an angry, angsty teenager with a severe case of depression, desperately clinging to his online relationship with another boy.

Levithan’s Will Grayson definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from a book with John Green’s name on it. But as I worked my way through the book I found myself savouring Levithan’s chapters a little more than Green’s. As much as I enjoyed Green’s Grayson’s side of the story, Levithan’s came as a refreshing change of pace, giving the book whole new dimensions.

The character development in ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ is simply beautiful. Though initially I found both Will Graysons annoying and horrifically self-involved, as the book progressed I began to understand them and relate to them in ways I don’t usually with other books.

One of the reasons ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ made such an impact on me was because the characters were imperfect - and that was okay. Often, teen fiction can undermine the emotions of young characters as instances of teenage angst rather than issues that should actually be recognised and dealt with. In ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ the problems of the two main characters were indulged by the writers in a most satisfying way. The reader is taught that the dilemmas you are faced with as a teenager are equally as important as the ones you will face in your adulthood and can in fact affect you for the rest of your life.

          

   I loved ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ because it is a book written by adults that finally manages to acknowledge that being a teenager is difficult, without seeming condescending in any way. And that it why I believe it deserves the purple spot on this list. 

You can find out more about John Green here!

You can find out more about David Levithan here!

You can read the other reviews in the Rainbow List of Must-Reads here: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue